Robo rodent

Researchers at England’s University of Sheffield, Germany’s Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin – along with others – are using the animal kingdom to help develop sophisticated touch technology for use in intelligent machines, such as robots.

The new 7.3 million euro ‘BIOTACT’ project brings together nine research groups from seven countries – including Israel and the US – to develop innovative artificial touch technologies, including a “whiskered” robotic rat.

This new technology could have a number of possible applications in modern-day society from search and rescue robots that could pick their way through rubble and debris to mine-clearing machines to planetary rovers in space.

The technology could also be used closer to home in domestic products; for example vacuum cleaners that could sense textures for optimal cleaning.

While vision supplies information about distant objects, touch is invaluable in sensing the nearby environment. However, in designing intelligent, life-like machines, the use of touch has been largely overlooked, until now.

Led by Professor Tony Prescott of Sheffield’s Department of Psychology, the international team will develop new technologies inspired by the use of touch in the animal kingdom.

In nocturnal creatures, or those that inhabit poorly-lit places, this physical sense is widely preferred to vision as a primary means of discovering the world.

The Norwegian rat and the Etruscan shrew, for example, use their whiskers to make sense of their environment. The mammals sweep their whiskers back and forth at high speeds in a controlled manner, allowing them to use touch signals alone to recognise familiar items, determine the shape and surface of objects, and track and capture prey.

The research team at the BCCN – led by Professor Michael Brecht of the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin – will focus on the Etruscan shrew, the smallest mammal.

This animal hunts prey of almost the same size as itself. Guided by vibrissal touch, this animal places breath-takingly fast and precise attacks on its insect prey.

“The sensory-motor performance of this animal is astonishing. Using novel microscopy techniques will offer unique insights about the mammalian brain function,” Brecht says.

Using their understanding of the animal kingdom, the team will develop two machines endowed with similar sensing capabilities, including a whiskered robot that can seek-out, identify and track fast-moving target objects.

“Overall, our project will bring about a step-change in the understanding of active touch sensing and in the use of whisker-like sensors in intelligent machines,” Prescott said.

“Today’s life-like machines, such as robots, don’t make effective use of touch. By learning from nature and developing technologies that do use this physical sense, our researchers will be able to enhance the capabilities of the machines of the future.”

Scientists discover new flying dinosaurs - the size of sparrows

As pterodactyls go, it was dinky, toothless and had unexpectedly curved toes.But scientists are welcoming their new sparrow-sized find as another piece in the puzzle of ancient evolution."We have this really amazing creature, sparrow-sized, which lived essentially in the trees, showing us a very new, very interesting side of the evolutionary history of those animals," said Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Pterodactyls are best known from giant examples of the ancient flying reptiles, and most specimens have been uncovered in coastal areas.

Dubbed Nemicolopterus crypticus, or "hidden flying forest dweller," the new fossil was uncovered in the western part of China's Liaoning province, a region that was forested when the flying animal lived there about 120 million years ago."We just had one side of the story of pterosaur evolution," Mr Kellner said."This is now providing us with information about pterosaurs that were living deep inside the continent.

Speaking at a news conference in Rio on Monday, he said the find "opens a brand new chapter in the history of the evolution of these flying vertebrates."The curved toes, he said, indicate that the pterosaurs lived most of the time in trees."Because they were flying animals, their fossils are extremely rare. So, discoveries such as this are fundamental to understand the evolution of these winged vertebrates," he said.

It was the smallest of its group of flying pterosaurs, he said, and when first uncovered the researchers thought it was a baby.The skull was not fully fused, meaning it was not yet an adult, but the ends of the bones were developed, so it was not a hatchling either."How much could it grow? We have no idea," he said. "But even if it would double its size it would still be the smallest of its particular group."

The researchers said the legs and feet of Nemicolopterus had attachments for muscles indicating that it could grasp limbs, and unlike most pterodactyls, it lacked teeth. They speculated it might have eaten insects.Matthew Carrano, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said some smaller specimens have been found but those were clearly younger than this animal.

"It is interesting to see some clear arboreal adaptations in this species," said Mr Carrano, who was not on the research team."It confirms a suspicion we had, that pterosaurs were more diverse in their habitats than we knew from the record.""Once again, the Liaoning region is bringing out all sorts of new things," Carrano said.

Flying saucer spotted over Portsmouth (or is it a trick of the light)

A photographer who stopped on a whim to take some pictures at night might have chanced upon a real UFO.Cynics will dismiss the orange-tinged image showing what appears to be a flying saucer as some kind of technical wizardry to trick of the light.But experts are already saying it could really show a UFO in flight above the UK.

Hab Rahman, a keen photographer, was stunned to see the image in the background when he looked again at some pictures he had taken at night.The 28-year-old, from Portsmouth, Hants, was driving home from work through thick fog when he decided to stop and get some snaps of the eerie setting.He pulled up and went to take the shots from a car park near Commercial Road, Portsmouth, just after midnight.It was not until he got home and transferred the shots onto his computer that he spotted the mysterious glowing object.Mr Rahman said: "I didn't spot anything when I took the picture but then later on when I looked a bit closer and zoomed in, there it was.
"I've never really believed in UFOs but this is a bit weird and quite freaky.
"I'm not really sure what to make of it but I can't think what else it could be."

Hilary Porter, from the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (BEAMS), believes this sighting could be the real thing.She said: "It would be very difficult to fake that photo and the UFO is at a tilt, which is the way they normally fly."You don't normally see that sort of UFO over this country, we generally get orange orbs, so the photographer who got this photo has got quite a coup."

The Ministry of Defence would not comment on individual sightings and said they could not check if there were any aircrafts in the vicinity at the time.An MoD spokesperson said: "The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity."Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported."

Berman YouTuber Shares Some Insight

Sunday afternoon is devoted to Busted Coverage, apparently. The BC showed the initiative to reach out to the mysterious "Ampex 2000", author of the last four Berman videos that emerged online. Turns out the poster "was" in broadcasting for a few years.

Have you been holding the Berman vids since 2000? If so, why?

I saw the one that someone released that was a huge hit. I thought I was given the only copy years ago. At that point I said what the heck let's see how many hits can we get with the other ones. After all few see what some of these announcers are like and this is a perfect representation of what Chris is really like!

But, still, if the guy "was" in broadcasting, why no true identity? I'm still curious as to why these videos suddenly started surfacing recently.

Giant sea turtle's search for food is a perilous 13,000-mile odyssey, scientists reveal

A leatherback turtle has been tracked searching for food over an incredible 13,000 miles, raising the alarm over the plight of the endangered species.The turtle swam from Indonesia to the U.S. in its hazardous migratory odyssey.The species, which at up to 9ft long is the largest sea reptile and has been around for 100 million years, is the most endangered turtle in the oceans.Researchers now fear that unless action is taken the turtles face extinction because over-fishing is making their habitat too dangerous for them.

"Migrations of this magnitude expose animals to a multitude of risks from fisheries on the high seas," said marine scientists Scott Benson and Peter Dutton in a report.
Speaking today, Mr Benson estimated that fewer than 5,000 adult females now live in the Pacific region, though males cannot be easily counted because they do not come ashore.Conservationists estimate the breed could become extinct within 30 years, he said.

Turtles "face a myriad of risks from things like ingesting debris like plastic, to travelling through areas that are used by multinational fisheries - fisheries that would catch them in the course of trying to catch fish," Mr Benson said.

He and Mr Dutton, who work for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in California, went to Indonesia in 2001 to track turtles using satellite transmitters.
Their research showed the animals ranged from the South China Sea to the Sea of Japan to the North Pacific.

One adult female began her journey in 2003 on a nesting beach in Jamursbamedi in Indonesia's Papua province, Mr Benson said.The scientists tracked her during her hunt for food for 647 days until the transmitter's battery ran out just off Hawaii. During her travels she swam as far north as the U.S. west coast state of Oregon.

The voyage was so long because food scarcity forced the turtle to move on from one feeding area to another."It's the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket," Mr Benson said. "If a foraging ground was bad one year, maybe another foraging ground would be good. Some portion of the population would always be able to find food."

In their report - in journal Chelonian Conservation and Biology - they said: "Effective conservation requires a better understanding of migratory routes and destinations to understand and mitigate the risks at sea."Today Mr Benson called for action to protect leatherback turtles as they roam the seas.

"It will be the responsibility of many countries to ensure the species survives in the Pacific Ocean for future generations," he said. "It's an animal that doesn't recognize international boundaries. You can protect the nesting beaches but if you can't protect the animal in the water, you haven't done anything."

Peter C. H. Pritchard, a turtle expert and director of the Chelonian Research Institute in Florida, said he wasn't surprised to learn how far the turtle travelled."It's possible and only limited by the geography of the world," he said today."This is a powerful fishing machine and remarkable diving machine."