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Thursday 7 November 2013

Artificial heart to pump human waste into future robots

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics

A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.

Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.

The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.

A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw

Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.

"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."

At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.

The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.

When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.

A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.

"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.

The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.

###

From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012

Notes to Editors

Contact

1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032

E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org

IOP Publishing Journalist Area

2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.

Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.

To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.

Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump

3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics

4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.

IOP Publishing

5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.

We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.

IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.

Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.

The Institute of Physics

6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Artificial heart to pump human waste into future robots

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics

A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.

Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.

The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.

In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.

A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw

Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.

"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."

At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.

The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.

When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.

A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.

"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.

The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.

###

From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012

Notes to Editors

Contact

1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032

E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org

IOP Publishing Journalist Area

2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.

Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.

To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.

Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump

3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.

Bioinspiration and Biomimetics

4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.

IOP Publishing

5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.

We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.

IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.

Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.

The Institute of Physics

6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/iop-aht110513.php
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Biography Of Director Bob Fosse Razzles, Dazzles And Delights

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

On September 23rd, 1987, opening night of a Sweet Charity revival in Washington D.C., Bob Fosse and his ex-wife and collaborator Gwen Verdon gave the cast a final pep-talk, then left the National Theater to get a bite to eat. They turned right, and about a block away, unknown to the gathering audience, or the cast, Fosse collapsed on the sidewalk. Newspapers the next morning said he died at 7:23 PM.

I was inside that theater. I later calculated what was happening at 7:23. It was a quintessential Fosse moment: a stage-wide bar rising from the floor, a line of dance hall hostesses draping themselves over it, bait for big spenders. Here you can listen to him stage the movie version a few years later.

I had seen a lot of Fosse shows by that time — Damn Yankees, Pippin, Dancin', Chicago — and I had read enough about him to know what was autobiographical in his movie, All That Jazz.

So I cracked open Sam Wasson's 700-page biography figuring I knew the score. Hell, knew the score and the steps: those artfully slumped shoulders, knocked knees, and pigeon-toes. The bowler hats and black vests worn without shirts, like the one Liza Minnelli sported in the number that introduced her in Cabaret on screen, leading a chorus that kneeled and stomped and sprawled, and used hard-backed chairs for everything but sitting.

But I didn't know the details Sam Wasson gets at about how Fosse taught choreography that often made dancers seem all elbows and knees. First to Gwen Verdon, who was his muse before she was his wife, and then, with her help, to the dancers in all his shows.

In one dance the chorus girls all had to extend a foot while leaning back and shooting their arms down at their sides. Fosse gave them an image to help them see exactly how he wanted it: "Ladies," he said, "it's like a man is holding out a fur coat for you and you have to drop your arms in."

"Other directors" writes Wasson, "might give their dancers images for every scene. Bob... had one for just about every step. These were the lines the dancers' bodies had to speak."

That, I submit, is lovely writing, as is his description of Cabaret as a film "about the bejeweling of horror [that] coruscated with Fosse's private sequins." You can lift samples just like those from virtually every page of this book.

You'll also learn how the director's dark stage imagery mirrored his own life — the wife and girlfriends he cheated on, the down-and-dirty burlesque houses he grew up in, the amphetamines that kept him going, and the barbiturates that calmed him when he lost confidence in his own "razzle-dazzle."

Wasson pictures him as harder on himself than he was on his dancers. In one year, he won a directing triple crown for which no one else had ever even been nominated — An Emmy for Liza With A Z, An Oscar for Cabaret, and a Tony for Pippin. And his reaction was utter depression. But out of that depression came Chicago...a musical vaudeville that looked great at the Tony Awards in 1976.

The revival is about to enter its 14th year on Broadway.

Sam Wasson's book, Fosse, is filled with the kind of inside detail that comes of substantial research, and vivid descriptions that turn the research into a sort of movie in your head. All the way from little Bobby Fosse's elementary school disappointment when the spotlight faded on him, right through to the moment when Gwen Verdon, the love of his life, cradled Fosse's head on her lap on a DC sidewalk just blocks from an audience he was at that very moment, razzle-dazzling to beat the band.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/11/07/243726400/biography-of-director-bob-fosse-razzles-dazzles-and-delights?ft=1&f=1032
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After Virginia and New Jersey, voters offer GOP advice for 2014

Tuesday told a tale of two campaigns — and perhaps provided two lessons for 2014.

In New Jersey, GOP Gov. Chris Christie sailed to victory by 21 percentage points in the Democrat-dominated state.

In Virginia, meanwhile, Republican Ken Cuccinelli couldn’t eke out a win over Terry McAuliffe, a candidate who occasionally received voter approval ratings south of 30 percent and who was dubbed either “cancer” or “a heart attack” by "The Daily Show." How does Cuccinelli lose to a candidate voters dislike so widely?

For sure, he and Christie are different. Cuccinelli’s low approval ratings in Virginia mirrored McAuliffe’s. The New Jerseyan, on the other hand, boasts bipartisan appeal — note his high-profile post-Sandy bromance with President Barack Obama — and is perhaps that rare blue-chip candidate whom Republicans can’t realistically place on every ballot.

Do these two high-profile gubernatorial elections furnish the GOP a strategy going forward? Who better to ask for a plan than the voters? Yahoo News invited Republicans and conservatives in each state to perform a postmortem on Tuesday’s results and also to look forward to future campaigns: What did their party learn that it can apply across the nation in 2014, 2016 and beyond?

Here’s advice voters offered the morning after. Click their names to read their full thoughts.

Abandon social conservatism

Annie Tobey, 53, votes for Republicans in most Virginia elections. But on Tuesday, she backed Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis, who received 6.6 percent of the votes. She writes:

Increasingly, the Republican Party is influenced by the tea party, which is controlled by religious fundamentalists. Cuccinelli is a sterling example of this religious domination, especially controlling a woman's body and depriving gays and lesbians of equal rights.

Increasingly, as in the 2013 governor's race, I find myself called upon to choose between financial slavery and personal slavery: The Democrats want to hijack my purse, while the Republicans want to control my personal life. I'd rather give up my money.

Until the Republican Party can promote both social and economic liberty, I will not be able to give them my support, in 2014 or beyond.

Hammer away at Democrats’ support of the Affordable Care Act

Jeff Dunsavage, 51, is a lifelong New Jerseyan and lives in Dunellen. He has voted Republican in nearly every election since he first registered. He writes:

The next Democratic presidential candidate will reap the grief or glory of Obamacare. If President Obama and the Democratic leadership can bring this beast to heel, the party will have something to crow about. If not, the ACA may well be the vehicle that carries a Republican into the White House.

Right now, Christie seems the most likely beneficiary. But a lot can change in a few years.

Robert Peterson is a 36-year-old conservative voter in Sterling, Va. He writes:

McAuliffe's biggest weakness in my opinion was his full-sell mentality regarding the ACA, and it wasn't until late in the election that the Republicans advertisements focused on the effect that ACA would have on the Virginia budget and Virginian businesses that are shouldering new requirements of the health care law. If ACA fails, it should be the Republicans’ prominent lead in 2014 and 2016.

Stop being such a politician

Arrivanna Brooks, 28, lives in Clifton, N.J., and has voted Republican in elections since she was 18. She writes:

Christie's campaign teaches us that politicians need to be, well, non-politicians. In other words: Be more honest, reach across the aisle, commend the other side, don’t always say no just to say no. That resonates. Christie does not mince words, but he stands up for what he believes in. Republicans often say one thing and then distance themselves if they field a lot of blowback. Say what you mean. Stick by it. Voters want that loyalty.

Make campaigns more about issues and less about the party

Ashley Raybourn has been a registered voter and Republican in Virginia for 10 years, but cast a Democratic ballot for the first time. She is 28 and votes in Hampton.

The race for governor in New Jersey turned out quite differently; Christie won by a landslide. As colorful a character as he is, I think the Republican Party could stand to learn a lot from him. He wasn't afraid to point fingers at his own party when federal disaster relief was held up by House Republicans and he worked with a Democratic president in Sandy's aftermath. Some Republicans, such as myself, are fed up with members in our own party and he showed that it's OK to call them out and even reach across the aisle in the best interest of his constituents.

And take heart: It’s not all moonlight and roses for Democrats, either

Lyn Brooks, 45, lives in rural southwest Virginia near Roanoke. She writes:

Results show McAuliffe beat Cuccinelli by fewer than 55,000 votes statewide. That number is hardly a "clear mandate" that shows approval of Obama, Obamacare, or even a clear repudiation of the recent government shut down, threat of default, or the tea party.

Would a more socially moderate Republican have defeated McAuliffe? The narrow victory margin certainly suggests this.

The fact that McAuliffe beat Cuccinelli by such a small number should concern Democrats as the 2014 midterm elections draw near. To me, this narrow victory implies that Democrats face strong headwinds, and there is still time for Republicans to repair the fallout from this year's government shut down. If issues continue to plague the roll out of Obamacare, and if millions of Americans continue to receive cancellation notices in the mail from their insurers due to Obamacare, Democrats will pay the price in 2014 for Obama's lie: "If you like your plan, you can keep it," just as President George H.W. Bush paid the price for his infamous falsehood, "Read my lips: no new taxes."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-new-jersey-election-republican-lessons-200258255.html
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A fish that pushes in the wrong direction solves a mystery of animal locomotion

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Tanya Klein
973-596-3433
New Jersey Institute of Technology

For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.

But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.

"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."

When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.

"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."

And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."

To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.

"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."

A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.

One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.

Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.

"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."

###

NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

A fish that pushes in the wrong direction solves a mystery of animal locomotion

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Tanya Klein
973-596-3433
New Jersey Institute of Technology

For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth. The fin oscillates at both ends, allowing the fish to move forward or backward. Biologists have long wondered why an animal would produce seemingly wasteful forces that directly oppose each other while not aiding its movement.

But in the Nov. 4-8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Fortune and a multi-disciplinary team of researchers report that these opposing forces are anything but wasteful. Rather, they allow animals to increase both stability and maneuverability, a feat that is often described as impossible in engineering textbooks.

"I read a Navy flight training manual that had a full page dedicated to the inherent tradeoff between stability and maneuverability, says Fortune, an associate professor of biology at NJIT. "Apparently the knifefish didn't read that manual, since the opposing forces surprisingly make the fish simultaneously more stable and more maneuverable."

When an animal or vehicle is stable, it resists changes in direction. On the other hand, if it is maneuverable, it has the ability to quickly change course. Generally, engineers assume that a system can rely on one property or the otherbut not both. Yet some animals prove an exception to the rule.

"Animals are a lot more clever with their mechanics than we often realize," said Noah Cowan, a professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and the senior author of the multi-disciplinary research team. "By using just a little extra energy to control the opposing forces, animals seem to increase both stability and maneuverability when they swim, run or fly."

And Fortune suspects that the study will inspire young engineers to approach mechanical design in novel ways. "Despite the fact that the knifefish break a traditional rule of engineering," says Fortune, "they nevertheless achieve better locomotor performance than current robotic systems."

To conduct its study, the team used a combination of careful observations of the fish, mathematical modeling and an analysis of a swimming robot. Working in his NJIT lab with students and in collaboration with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Fortune used slow-motion video to film the fish to study its fin movements: What the videos revealed was startlingly counterintuitive.

"It is immediately obvious in the slow-motion videos is that the fish constantly move their fins to produce opposing forces," says Fortune. "One region of their fin pushes water forward, while the other region pushes the water backward. This arrangement is rather counter-intuitive, like two propellers fighting against each other."

A mathematical model designed by Shahin Sefati, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of the research project, showed that this odd arrangement generates stabilizing forces. But the model also suggested that the opposing forces simultaneously improved the ability of the animal to change its velocity, thereby making the animal more maneuverable. The team then tested this model using a robot in the laboratory of Malcolm MacIver at Northwestern University; the robot mimicked the fish's fin movements.

One exciting implication of study is its possible application to robotics systems, including the design of sophisticated robots and aircraft. Designers and engineers might make simple changes to propulsion systems, such as tilting engines or motors so that some of the thrusts oppose each other. Such an arrangement might waste some energy, but this cost may be more than offset by making a robot or aircraft simpler to operate and thus safer.

Fortune joined the NJIT faculty last year as part of a university initiative to increase interdisciplinary research.

"This study is a good example of how engineers can look to nature with the tools of biology to inspire new approaches to solving fundamental design challenges in engineering," says Fortune. "In the other direction, biologists benefit from the application of the analytic tools and quantitative approaches that are routine in engineering. NJIT, with its focus on interdisciplinary research, is just the ecosystem we need to translate these ideas into new technologies."

###

NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls approximately 10,000 students pursuing bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report's 2012 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Division of Continuing Professional Education.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/njio-aft110713.php
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When is a comet not a comet?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Nicky Guttridge
nguttrid@partner.eso.org
44-751-231-8322
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Hubble astronomers observe bizarre 6-tailed asteroid

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a unique and baffling object in the asteroid belt that looks like a rotating lawn sprinkler or badminton shuttlecock. While this object is on an asteroid-like orbit, it looks like a comet, and is sending out tails of dust into space.

Normal asteroids appear as tiny points of light. But this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like the spokes on a wheel. It was first spotted in August of this year as an unusually fuzzy-looking object by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii [1].

Because nothing like this has ever been seen before, astronomers are scratching their heads to find an adequate explanation for its mysterious appearance.

The multiple tails were discovered in Hubble images taken on 10 September 2013. When Hubble returned to the asteroid on 23 September, its appearance had totally changed. It looked as if the entire structure had swung around.

"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, USA. "Even more amazingly, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."

One explanation for the odd appearance is that the asteroid's rotation rate increased to the point where its surface started flying apart, ejecting dust in episodic eruptions that started last spring. The team rules out an asteroid impact because a lot of dust would have been blasted into space all at once, whereas P5 has ejected dust intermittently over a period of at least five months [2].

Careful modelling by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany, showed that the tails could have been formed by a series of impulsive dust-ejection events [3]. Radiation pressure from the Sun smears out the dust into streamers. "Given our observations and modelling, we infer that P/2013 P5 might be losing dust as it rotates at high speed," says Agarwal. "The Sun then drags this dust into the distinct tails we're seeing."

The asteroid could possibly have been spun up to a high speed as pressure from the Sun's light exerted a torque on the body. If the asteroid's spin rate became fast enough, Jewitt said, the asteroid's weak gravity would no longer be able to hold it together. Dust might avalanche down towards the equator, and maybe shatter and fall off, eventually drifting into space to make a tail. So far, only a small fraction of the main mass, perhaps 100 to 1000 tonnes of dust, has been lost. The asteroid is thousands of times more massive, with a radius of up to 240 metres.

Follow-up observations may show whether the dust leaves the asteroid in the equatorial plane, which would be quite strong evidence for a rotational breakup. Astronomers will also try to measure the asteroid's true spin rate.

Jewitt's interpretation implies that rotational breakup may be a common phenomenon in the asteroid belt; it may even be the main way in which small asteroids "die" [4]. "In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."

The paper from Jewitt's team appears online in the 7 November issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

Notes

[1] The comet was discovered by Micheli et al. on 27 August 2013. It was spotted in observations from 18 August 2013. The discovery was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular.

[2] Agarwal calculated that the first ejection event occurred on 15 April, and the last one on 4 September 2013. Other eruptions occurred on 18 July, 24 July, 8 August, and 26 August 2013.

[3] A less likely option is that this emission is a result of water ice sublimating. Water ice can survive within the asteroid belt, although only at the outskirts or if buried deep enough within a large enough asteroid to be shielded. However, P5 is likely made of metamorphic rocks, making it incapable of holding ice in the same way that comets do. This, coupled with P5's orbit and its very small size, makes it very unlikely that its mass loss would be due to ice sublimation.

[4] This is not the first time that Hubble has observed a strange asteroid. In 2010, Hubble spotted a strange X-shaped asteroid (heic1016 - http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1016/). However, unlike P/2013 P5, this was thought to have been formed by a collision. Later that year astronomers observed asteroid (596) Scheila, an object with a tail that was surrounded by a C-shaped cloud of dust (opo1113a -
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1113a/). Again, this asteroid was thought to be the result of a collision between Scheila and a much smaller body -- only the second time that such an event has been spotted.

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The international team of astronomers in the Hubble study consists of D. Jewitt (UCLA, USA), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany), H. Weaver (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA), M. Mutchler (STScI, USA), and S. Larson (University of Arizona, USA). The paper, entitled "The Extraordinary Multi-Tailed Main-Belt Comet P/2013 P5", is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

More information

Image credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles), J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research), H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), M. Mutchler (STScI), and S. Larson (University of Arizona)

Links

Contacts

David Jewitt

University of California at Los Angeles

Los Angeles, USA

Tel: +1-310-825-2521

Email: jewitt@ucla.edu

Nicky Guttridge

ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer

Garching bei Mnchen, Germany

Tel: +49-89-3200-6855

Cell: +44 7512 318322

Email: nguttrid@partner.eso.org

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

When is a comet not a comet?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013

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Contact: Nicky Guttridge
nguttrid@partner.eso.org
44-751-231-8322
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Hubble astronomers observe bizarre 6-tailed asteroid

Because nothing like this has ever been seen before, astronomers are scratching their heads to find an adequate explanation for its mysterious appearance.

The paper from Jewitt's team appears online in the 7 November issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

Notes

[1] The comet was discovered by Micheli et al. on 27 August 2013. It was spotted in observations from 18 August 2013. The discovery was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular.

[2] Agarwal calculated that the first ejection event occurred on 15 April, and the last one on 4 September 2013. Other eruptions occurred on 18 July, 24 July, 8 August, and 26 August 2013.

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

More information

Links

Contacts

David Jewitt

University of California at Los Angeles

Los Angeles, USA

Tel: +1-310-825-2521

Email: jewitt@ucla.edu

Nicky Guttridge

ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer

Garching bei Mnchen, Germany

Tel: +49-89-3200-6855

Cell: +44 7512 318322

Email: nguttrid@partner.eso.org

[

| E-mail

Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/eic-wia110713.php
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Upstagram flies an adorable little house over Paris, streams the view to Instagram

Replete with an appropriately Up-inspired house made of paper and foam, the Hackerloop tinkerers tethered it (and its Raspberry Pi contents) to roughly 90 balloons and sent it into the Paris skies. After reverse-engineering the Instagram posting process to work sans smartphone, the team managed to capture 400 stills and have reposted the highlights to their own, separate Instagram account. (Judging from our own experiences with life-logging photography, they've done us a huge favor.) Naturally, such reverse-engineering isn't looked upon fondly by the image-sharing social network, and the team reckons that the other account could get shut down soon, so you'd best visit the highlights at the source link -- and there's also a making of video after the break.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/07/upstagram-raspberrypi-instagram/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Lyoto Machida ready for title shot, but willing to wait for 'right moment'

Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Lyoto Machida made a huge impact in the middleweight division with his first-round knockout over Mark Munoz at UFC Fight Night 30 in London. "The Dragon" returns to the Octagon on Feb. 8 in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil, against Gegard Mousasi, and he needs a win to keep chasing the middleweight title.

"Mousasi is a tough fighter, I’ve seen his fights before and he won titles in other promotions, but I will only focus on his game in my last four or five weeks of camp," Machida said during a Q&A with the fans in Goiania, Brazil on Wednesday.

"He is right below me in the UFC rankings and a win over him would make me achieve even more in this division. But if I lose this fight, it would be complicated. I would fall from fifth place to hell [laughs]," Machida said.

Machida believes he could earn a shot at the middleweight title with a win over Mousasi, a former DREAM and Strikeforce champion who returns to the middleweight division after going 7-1-1 as a light-heavyweight.

"I'm ready (to fight for the title) already, but I have to follow the rankings," he said. "I don’t like to rush things. The right moment will come. I want to keep fighting because it's important for me to keep this rhythm. I want to feel well in this division, this is my place."

Anderson Silva, Machida’s teammate, fights Chris Weidman on Dec. 28 for the middleweight belt at UFC 168, and "The Dragon" doesn’t plan to fight another friend inside the Octagon.

"He said he would never fight me, that we are like brothers," Machida said. "Anderson told me he has other goals, that he was the champion for a long time and he's focused on other goals now, like superfights. He said he would even leave the title to not fight me.

"But we’ll see what happens. I still have to fight Gegard Mousasi in Jaragua do Sul, in February, and I want to think on this fight first. One step at a time."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/11/7/5076966/lyoto-machida-gegard-mousasi-ufc-fight-night-30
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