Engineers have created a "conscious" robot.

He understands himself. The robot is like a baby who is studying his body, trying to understand the environment and himself in it. The robot creates a “mental” model of its body from scratch, without human help. The scientists placed a robotic arm around five video cameras. The robot looked at itself through the cameras, as if in a mirror. He began to wriggle and deform in order to understand exactly how his body moves in response to motor commands. Three hours later, the robot stopped. Its internal neural network has finished learning the connection between the robot's motor actions and the volume it occupies in the environment. The ability of robots to model themselves is an important skill. This not only saves labor, but also allows the robot to monitor its own wear and even detect and compensate for damage.

The microchip shortage is over.

It turned out that companies had accumulated too many chips in warehouses and the shortage turned into an oversupply. That's because during the pandemic, manufacturers stocked up on computer chips "just in case." Prior to this, just-in-time production was the norm for companies that ordered parts as close to production as possible to avoid excess inventory, reduce storage capacity and reduce costs. However, due to the fact that many chip manufacturers have reduced or completely stopped work, unrest began in the market - companies feared that there simply would not be enough chips for everyone. As a result, they bought chips in volumes that exceeded their real needs. So there was an artificial shortage.

In Chile, they caught a five-meter oar king - a harbinger of disasters.

Fishermen from the Chilean city of Arica pulled a 4.8-meter oarfish out of the water. This fish is called a harbinger of disasters: earthquakes and tsunamis. It is also believed that whoever catches it will be cursed. Herring kings can reach a length of 11 meters. They live at a depth of about a kilometer and appear on the surface due to storms and currents or weakness and disease.

Interesting facts about crocodiles.

Thanks to their powerful tail, crocodiles not only reach speeds in water up to 40 km / h, but also successfully jump out of the water to a height of up to 2.5 meters. To help their stomach cope with large pieces of food, crocodiles swallow stones. In addition, these boulders play the role of ballast when diving to depth.

Hiking boots with hydraulic pistons will keep hikers' feet from dislocating.

German startup Terrein is gearing up to launch the first Ascent hiking shoe with ankle protection. The boots have a pair of hydraulic pistons on both sides of the foot, which are in the deactivated position in the standard, safe position. They take the form of elastic straps and do not squeeze the foot. However, as soon as the foot begins to bend beyond the allowable limits, the piston works and firmly fixes the ankle, preventing it from moving in the wrong direction. Betterguards says their system has a reaction rate three times faster than a human's, so the shoes will protect you from injury before you even feel anything.

Migraine drug helped mice cope with obesity.

An international team of researchers found that a drug used to treat migraine reduces appetite and promotes weight loss in mice with alimentary obesity. As it turned out, this effect is associated with an effect on serotonin 5-HT1B receptors in the arcuate (arcuate) nucleus of the hypothalamus.

The world is 132 years from gender equality.

In Europe, the level of social parity between men and women is 76.6%. In North America - 76.9%. In these regions, people of different sexes will be equal in about 60 years. For the 12th time, Iceland has topped the equality rankings with a score of 90%. Then come Finland and Norway. From non-European countries, the top 10 included New Zealand, Rwanda, Nicaragua and Namibia. In total, there are 146 states on the list. The last five are Chad, Iran, Congo, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The South Korean National Police Agency plans to create the police of the future.

The project is called "Police Future Vision 2050" and by 2050 it is planned to equip the police forces with the latest technologies: autonomous robots, unmanned vehicles, exoskeletons and introduce AI into the work. And also to expand the powers of law enforcement to the metaverses.

The coldest city in the world is Oymyakon.

It is also the Pole of Cold, as well as the coldest place on Earth, where there is a permanent population.

Interesting facts about clouds.

Clouds permanently cover about 60% of the Earth. The average cloud weighs about 500 tons, the same weight as 80 elephants.

Toyota, Volkswagen and Mercedes are among the top 10 global companies with the largest debts.

The list, which includes 900 global companies in the world, lists only the largest, and under the debt means only net debt. In other words, these are those that will remain if you “minus” the available cash and liquid assets that can be quickly sold. Toyota topped the list with debts of $186 billion, Volkswagen AG almost caught up with colleagues ($185 billion), Mercedes-Benz AG - $109 billion. At the same time, at the beginning of the year, Toyota was named the most expensive auto brand in the world and ranked 12th in the top 500 most valuable companies.

Video game fans make decisions faster and more accurately than others.

The sensorimotor decision-making skills of gamers are higher than those who play little or no games. These conclusions were made by scientists from the University of Georgia during a study involving 47 students, 28 of them are gamers, 19 are not. The study showed that computer games in the future can be used for cognitive decision-making training.

Extinct blue macaws have returned to the forests of Brazil.

A month ago, ornithologists released eight blue macaws into the forests of Brazil, all of them survived. These parrots were considered extinct in the wild for more than 20 years, only a few dozen individuals remained in private collections. Now the population will recover - the birds will be able to start breeding in their natural environment next spring.

US greenhouse emissions from 1990 to 2014 caused the rest of the world $2 trillion in damage.

This is a global income lost due to heatwaves, crop failures and other effects of pollution. Developing countries were mostly affected. In terms of damage caused, the United States has overtaken China, Russia, India and Brazil. Together, the top five polluting countries caused $6 trillion in harm - 11% of world GDP in a year. The developed countries in the northern latitudes have made the greatest contribution to the development of the climate crisis. At the same time, their economies have suffered less from global warming than in the poor countries of the south.

The airport's smart scoreboard displays information for a specific passenger.

At the airport in Detroit, a scoreboard appeared that displays flight information for 100 passengers at a time. They can all look at the same screen and see different information. The scoreboard screen, called Parallel Reality, is made up of pixels that project millions of light rays in different directions. The facial recognition system "directs" these rays to a specific person and displays information about his flight. The creators of the device say they wanted to make waiting for a flight more convenient - so that people do not feel lost and can instantly find their way without a smartphone.

American rodents for the sake of a well-fed life learned to cultivate crops.

Rodents from the gopher family have learned to cultivate the roots of plants. They do it purposefully, so that later they can enjoy the harvest. This behavior is unique to humans, ants, beetles, and termites. That is, gophers are the second mammals to have demonstrated farming skills.

In the heat, men gain weight.

Men are more likely to gain weight in the summer because heat and sunlight cause the "hunger hormone" ghrelin to be released from the skin. Estrogen interferes with its release, so women's appetite does not change. These conclusions were reached by Israeli scientists during a two-year study involving three thousand people and experiments on mice.

A team of illusionists Augmented Magic has converted a miniature drone into an umbrella called Dronebrella.

The self-guided flying umbrella is controlled by your smartphone and has an automatic "follow master" mode that will follow you around while protecting you from the rain.

BMW started selling subscriptions for heated seats.

The company has begun selling options for its vehicles by subscription, a method already implemented in South Korea, the UK, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa. Many items are offered, including heated seats, steering wheel, Apple CarPlay, high beam assistant and more. You pay - and within a certain period the opportunity to use the selected function opens. A month costs $18. You can take a discount for a year for $180.

In the USA they released whiskey on crab broth.

In New Hampshire, the Tamworth Distilling distillery has released a new brand of whiskey - Crab Trapper ("Crab Catcher"). It is made with a bourbon base, distilled shellfish broth flavored with mustard seeds, coriander and cinnamon. So the alcohol industry is fighting the overpopulation of the invasive green crab. Crab Trapper is a whiskey to be sipped slowly, exploring your senses with your sense of smell. One bottle takes about 450 grams of peeled and cooked green crabs.