NASA’s Curiosity Rover measures intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars

This image shows the Highfield drill hole made by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover as it was collecting a sample on “Vera Rubin Ridge” in Gale Crater.
 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The type of carbon is associated with biological processes on Earth. Curiosity scientists offer several explanations for the unusual carbon signals. After analyzing powdered rock samples collected from the surface of Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have announced that several of the samples are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes.

While the finding is intriguing, it doesn’t necessarily point to ancient life on Mars, as scientists have not yet found conclusive supporting evidence of ancient or current biology there, such as sedimentary rock formations ...

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Machine Learning Model uses Blood Tests to predict COVID-19 survival

Proteomics core facility at Charité University hospital Berlin. Credit: Johannes Hartl, Charité

A single blood sample from a critically ill COVID-19 patient can be analyzed by a machine learning model which uses blood plasma proteins to predict survival, weeks before the outcome, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health by Florian Kurth and Markus Ralser of the Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and colleagues.

Healthcare systems around the world are struggling to accommodate high numbers of severely ill COVID-19 patients who need special medical attention, especially if they are identified as being at high risk...

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Edge Processing Research takes discovery closer to use in Artificial Intelligence Networks

Using the multimodal transistor (MMT) in artificial neural networks, which mimic the human brain, is an important step towards using thin-film transistors as artificial intelligence hardware.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have successfully demonstrated proof-of-concept of using their multimodal transistor (MMT) in artificial neural networks, which mimic the human brain.

This is an important step towards using thin-film transistors as artificial intelligence hardware and moves edge computing forward, with the prospect of reducing power needs and improving efficiency, rather than relying solely on computer chips.

The MMT, first reported by Surrey researchers in 2020, overcomes long-standing challenges associated with transistors and can perform the same operations as more...

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Look up and watch Asteroid 1994 PC1 fly Past Earth this week

The orbit of asteroid 1994 PC1. Credit: NASA/JPL.

In a slow moving universe, asteroids give us a rare chance to see things moving in real time. On the evening of Tuesday, January 18, 1.1-kilometer asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 passed 1.23 million miles (1.98 million kilometers) from the Earth. This is about five times the distance from the Earth to the moon, and just a shade over the distance to the anti-sunward Earth-sun Lagrange 2 point, soon to be the home of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Fortunately, both the Earth and said space telescope are safe from the asteroid on this pass, and will remain so for centuries in to the foreseeable future. The asteroid was discovered on the night of August 9, 1994 by astronomer Robert McNaught observing from the Siding Spring Observatory...

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