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​Episode 60 Show Notes

​Google's speedier internet standard is now an actual standard | Engadget (01:29)

• ​Internet Engineering Task Force has published Google's QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections) as an official internet standard.
  • Could be a signal that this faster data transmission technology is ready to be used on a broad level.
• QUIC is a protocol for transmitting data between computers, improving speed and security on the internet.
  • Replacing a standard that dates back to 1974, TCP.
  • Been in development for nearly eight years when it was an experimental addition to its Chrome browser.
• QUIC uses the faster UDP (User Datagram Protocol) while also boasting faster recovery of dropped data packets.
• It also provides faster encrypted connections and better handling of network switches.
  • In short that just means less time waiting for things to load!
• According to a Google Research paper published in 2017 on QUIC:
  • Cut the wait for search results by 8% on PCs and 4% on phones.
  • YouTube buffering was cut by 18% for PC users and 15% for mobile users.
• To show how slow this approval process was, they submitted QUIC to the IETF for standard consideration back in 2016.
• Widespread rushed adoption remains unlikely.
• Could spread gradually among companies and services that could benefit from the added speed.

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​New tool activates deep brain neurons by combining ultrasound, genetics | ScienceDaily (07:31)

• Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy have had some treatment success with deep brain stimulation.
  • Normally requires a surgical device implantation.
• A team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new brain stimulation technique using focused ultrasound that is able to turn specific types of neurons in the brain on and off.
  • Noninvasive!
  • Activation of neurons in the brain by combining ultrasound-induced heating effect and genetics, which they have named sonothermogenetics.
• Hong Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering & team lead provides optimism for this new field of sonothermogenetics:

• How does this process work?
  • Utilizing Mice, the team injects it with a specific ion channel, TRPV1, which binds to genetically selected neurons.
  • Through a wearable device, heat is provided through low-intensity focused ultrasound to the select neurons.
  • The heat, a few degrees warmer than body temperature, activates the ion channel basically acting as a switch to turn the neurons on or off.
• According Yaoheng Yang, first author of the paper, this method because it is noninvasive has the potential to be “scaled up to large animals and potentially humans in the future."
• Sonothermogenetics has the promise to target any location in the mouse brain with millimeter-scale resolution without causing any damage to the brain

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​A Self-Driving Truck Got a Shipment Cross-Country 10 Hours Faster Than a Human Driver | SingularityHub (16:07)

• Last month a transportation company, TuSimple, focused on self-driving technology for heavy-duty trucks, shipped a truckload of watermelons from Arizona to Oklahoma using the truck’s autonomous system for over 80 percent of the journey.
• Starting point was Nogales, at Arizona’s southern end right on the border with Mexico.
• A human driver drove the first 60 miles, from Nogales to Tucson.
• From Tucson auto-pilot was engaged. Driving itself from Tucson to Dallas, TX.
  • 950 miles!!!
  • A human safety driver on board the whole time.
• The truck drove the route in 14 hours and 6 minutes.
• According to TuSimple's press release, “A human driver can complete the entire trip in 24 hours and 6 minutes, while TuSimple demonstrated its autonomous system can make this trip in 14 hours and 6 minutes, which is 42% faster.”
  • 24 hours, could be conservative estimate not taking into account the amount of stops a driver can take.
• Additionally why this autonomous driving makes better time than the human drivers is that we as humans need breaks.
  • According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, drivers are only allowed to drive their truck for up to 11 total hours.
• The watermelons ended up in “better shape”.
  • Makes sense if they arrived a day earlier they would be in better shape.
• Jim Mullen, the company’s chief administrative officer thinks this angle will boost TuSimple’s business:

• TuSimple already operates seven autonomous routes between Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, and Dallas, and are in the process of adding routes to Houston and San Antonio.
• Humans will still be a big part of the equation for many years to come, acting as safety drivers and last-mile drivers.
  • Making their job a lot easier
• TuSimple is aiming for its trucks to operate without safety drivers on board by the end of 2024.

​Ordinary Microscope Sees in Super-Resolution With Specially Engineered Light-Shrinking Material | SciTechDaily (26:15)

• Electrical engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a technology that improves the resolution of an ordinary light microscope so that it can be used to directly observe finer structures and details in living cells.
  • Super-resolution microscope
  • Work published in Nature Communications.
• Utilize a material that shortens the wavelength of the light allowing for higher resolution imaging to take place.
• Zhaowei Liu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego talks about the simplicity of this technology:

• Conventional light microscopes have a resolution limit of 200 nanometers.
  • Any objects closer than 200 nanometers will not be observed as separate objects.
  • Issue when trying to image a living cell, which cannot be imaged in a higher resolution electron microscope because samples need to be placed inside a vacuum chamber.
• Now with the new technology the team developed, a conventional light microscope can be used to image live sub-cellular structures with a resolution of up to 40 nanometers.
• Essentially the researchers are taking a light-shrinking material to pass the light through, which that light shortens and scatters into multiple patterns.
• Those patterns illuminate whatever is being imaged creating multiple low-resolution images.
• Those low-resolution images are captured and then pieced together by a reconstruction algorithm to produce a high-resolution image.
• According to the researchers, The super-resolution technology has great potential for high-speed operation.
• Their future goal is to incorporate high speed, super-resolution, and low phototoxicity in one system for live-cell imaging.
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​Venus is so very nice, NASA is going there twice | Arstechnica (31:10)

• NASA announced Wednesday (June 2nd) that it will send two spacecraft to Venus this decade as part of its efforts to ramp up exploration of the closest planet to Earth.
• NASA has not sent a robotic spacecraft to Venus since the launch of the Magellan orbiter in 1989.
• Venus researcher Ellen Stofan, the Smithsonian Under Secretary for Science and Research, in an interview relays the excitement in the Venus community:

• The missions, named DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, have a cost cap of $500 million apiece and were selected as part of NASA's "Discovery" program.
• The two missions were announced by NASA administrator Bill Nelson:

• DAVINCI+ will study how the atmosphere formed and evolved as well as determine whether the planet ever had an ocean.
  • Will carry what is called a descent sphere, which will plunge through the planet’s thick atmosphere, making precise measurements to understand why Venus' atmosphere is a runaway hothouse planet.
• The data collected by DAVINCI+ will help scientists interpret observations of Earth-sized exoplanets with atmospheres, giving researchers a way to tell exo-Earths from exo-Venuses.
• VERITAS will map Venus' surface topography to determine the planet's geologic history utilizing a synthetic aperture radar.
  • Will also map infrared emissions from Venus' surface to map its rock types.
  • These observations could provide data for a future mission to land on Venus.
• Both missions are slated to launch during the 2028 to 2030 timeframe, NASA said.
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​Elon Musk: SpaceX Ocean Spaceport Deimos Under Construction for Starship Launch Next Year | TechTimes (38:21)

• In the recent tweet by the CEO of SpaceX (@elonmusk), he has confirmed the spaceport's existence and its possible first look from a fan render posted on social media.
• The twitter image depicts an offshore platform in the middle of the ocean, where a standing Starship was erected, and the facility getting ready for its launch.
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