The TX-SCARA (short for “Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm”) is an autonomous restock bot capable of moving items from storage to fridge shelves, and was reportedly designed to help address the country’s ongoing labor shortage issues. “The decline in Japan’s labor population is one of the key management issues for FamilyMart to continue stable store operations,” said Tomohiro Kano, FamilyMart’s general manager, “The newly created time can be reallocated to customer service and shop floor enhancement....

When the 100 millionth observation finally arrived, Fee says, everyone thought it would be a big-time birder or well-known scientist making the numerically-noteworthy contribution. “It ended up [being] a 12-year-old boy,” she says. Liron Gertsman of Vancouver, Canada had identified 24 species on a hike that day. His photo of an American Robin made eBird app history. “It was a great day to be in K-12 education,” says Fee, who works with teachers around the country to introduce assignments that focuses on outdoor observations and bring citizen science into the classroom....

DNA analysis matched the skeleton to two of Richard III’s modern descendants, according to the researchers. One is a Canadian-born furniture maker named Michael Ibsen and the other person wants to remain anonymous. Based on this and incredibly strong circumstantial evidence, the researchers at Leicester said they concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that the remains were in fact Richard III’s. “Rarely have the conclusions of academic research been so eagerly awaited,” said Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the project....

Housed on the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley, the university will open in June 2009 and offer a nine-week graduate level program along with several executive level programs aimed at helping current leaders adapt their businesses to up-and-coming technologies. SU’s founders include Pete Worden, the director of NASA Ames, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, distinguished author and futurist and Dr. Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. Besides its cool name, (which scientifically refers to the ultra-compressed center of a black hole, but in this case, a period of rapid technological progress) what makes SU different from other top institutions?...

The Hummer is returning as an electric vehicle Over the past year or so, car manufacturers have made some truly weird choices when it comes to their electric vehicles. Tesla introduced its wedge-shaped Cyber Truck, Ford made an electric Mustang that looks nothing like any Mustang that came before it, and now GM is bringing back the Hummer as an EV that promises 1,000 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of around 3 seconds....

Strickling whispers softly into one of the microphones, explaining the experiment before dropping a chunk of calcium carbide into a tiny beaker filled with water. The reaction, which produces acetylene gas, creates a satisfying sizzle. The soothing scientist then lights the reaction on fire, and the microphone picks up the soft pops of the burning gas. An acronym for the not-quite-scientific term “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,” ASMR first appeared on YouTube with a “whispering” channel in 2009....

But with the right operating system tweaks and customizations, plus some good habits, you can go longer than ever without being shackled to a wall outlet. After all, you don’t want to spend all day worrying about when you’ll be able to charge your laptop. Adjust your screen settings One of the biggest draws on your laptop’s battery is its bright, high-resolution display. Anything you do to ease that strain will have a beneficial effect on the length of your battery’s life....

These vital statistics are paramount to informing maternal healthcare policy, but the data on death rates is far more complicated than one might expect. Three different systems track maternal mortality, all with varying constraints on how information is analyzed. And as the country enters an era with increasingly strict restrictions on abortion and maternal care, properly measuring and understanding these numbers is crucial for creating support systems and saving lives....

With access to his company’s machine shop, the now-73-year-old recalls thinking, “‘I should be able to make something,’ and lamps seemed like something that almost anyone could do.” So, he asked one of the machinists to teach him how to use the workshop’s machinery (lathes, saws, and grinding and welding equipment)—everything he thought he’d need to create the lamps he’d imagined. Each day, after driving his routes, and after the machine work room had closed for the day, Blaisdell would settle into the small industrial shop and experiment with the materials he’d brought back from his sales visits....

According to UC Berkeley designers and a subsequent writeup earlier this week via ArsTechnica, SpeedFolding utilizes a neural network called BiManual Manipulation Network, a pair of industrial robot arms, and an overhead camera system to analyze each wrinkly, unfolded garment. From there, it can subsequently arrange the fabric into shape on average in under two minutes, with a 93 percent success rate. SpeedFolding learned how to properly and quickly fold through studying 4,300 human and machine-assisted examples....

Indigenous protesters and other Line 3 opponents have pointed out that the pipeline’s construction on new routes went through ecologically sensitive areas of the state of Minnesota. Some of the country’s treaty rights with Native American rights in the surrounding area have been violated already. Activists and allies have been calling for President Joe Biden to shut down Line 3 and hundreds protested at the White House earlier this month....

Fido’s paw pads are one of the few patches of naked skin on his body, and even though they’re designed to withstand rough terrain, constant contact with hot surfaces during the summer can dry the pads and even lead them to crack. Sometimes, dry paw pads are just uncomfortable and rough to the touch. Other times, they can be painful and even bleed. Taking care of your pooch’s hands and feet is as easy as rubbing on some hydrating paw balm that you can easily make at home....

But the fiercest criticisms came on Monday by none other than NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, during a meeting with NASA employees for an open Q&A session. Bridenstine called the test and the orbital debris field it left in its wake “unacceptable,” and said “NASA needs to be very clear about what its impact to us is…It’s is not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris fields that put at risk our people…These activities are not sustainable or compatible with human spaceflight....

Before any future missions can set up ice mines, we’ll have to know where the stuff is. To that end, NASA is planning to send a prospecting rover to the moon. If all goes well, the golf-cart sized Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will spend the holiday season of 2022 trundling across the lunar south pole, drilling and sniffing the soil for signs of ice. The map it produces will be essential to both scientists trying to better understand where the moon’s water came from, and thirsty future astronauts....

Nike is debuting the new Zoom Vaporfly Elite Flyprint sneaker on the feet of marathon record holder, Eliud Kipchoge. who was the key athlete in last year’s attempt to run a full marathon in less than two hours. He clocked in at 2:00:25, down from his previous best of 2:03:05. The sneaker Kipchoge wore for that attempt was the Zoom Vaporfly Elite 4% and its new sole, which had reduced weight and a carbon fiber plate in the midsole to increase the amount of spring he’d get with each step....

The other day I went into Costco to buy some toilet paper. It came as a small shock when I couldn’t find a single roll. The new coronavirus is inspiring panic buying of a variety of household products such as toilet paper in cities across the US and world. While it makes sense to me that masks and hand sanitizer would be in short supply because of the outbreak, I wondered why people would be hoarding toilet paper—a product that is widely produced and doesn’t help protect from a respiratory virus like COVID-19....

NOAA deployed a second Wave Glider named Mercury in the Atlantic earlier this week about 100 miles east of Tom’s River, N.J., just off the soon-to-be devastated Jersey Shore. Mercury met Hurricane Sandy head on, streaming back realtime data on the storm as it came charging inland on Monday. Most notably, Mercury recorded winds as high as 70 knots (80 miles per hour) and a plunge in barometric pressure of over 54....

So what are the NuraTrue earbuds? Nura has released Bluetooth earbuds previously—the NuraLoop wire-connected earbuds in summer 2020—but the NuraTrue ‘buds are the company’s first true wireless earbuds. And while you’ll no longer encounter a cable connecting the earbuds, they work like the NuraLoop using sensors and a self-learning engine to adapt their sound to your individual hearing. The Nura app and earbuds play faint tones into your ear and respond to the feedback your ear generates—also called otoacoustic emissions....