Latest news with #DefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency
Time of India
a day ago
- Health
- Time of India
Human urine can turn into this useful material. See what is it and how do scientists make this science wonder happen
Human urine can now be transformed into hydroxyapatite , a mineral found in bones and teeth as scientists have come up with a method. Funded by DARPA, this research uses genetically modified yeast to carry out the conversion. The process is efficient, environmentally useful, and could offer cost-effective materials for medical and industrial use. Human Urine Transforms into Bone-Like Material Researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have turned human urine into hydroxyapatite. This mineral is a key component of bones and teeth. The work was published in Nature Communications on May 6. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Hydroxyapatite is useful in medical implants because it is naturally found in the body. It is not usually rejected by the immune system. However, producing it in the lab is often costly and may involve toxic chemicals. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Llegan a RD cursos gratuitos para aprender a invertir en la bolsa de valores Clases de Economía Undo Also Read: Is Starbucks open or closed today on 4th of July? Check timings of stores on US Independence Day What Makes Human Urine Transformation Happen? Scientists used a yeast species called Saccharomyces boulardii. This yeast is usually found on the skin of tropical fruits and is used as a probiotic. Live Events The team genetically altered the yeast to break down urea from urine. Urea is a waste product formed when the body breaks down protein. The yeast, now called "osteoyeast," can turn the urea into hydroxyapatite. One liter of urine can produce about one gram of the mineral. This conversion happens in less than one day. Environmental and Commercial Benefits According to co-author David Kisailus from the University of California, Irvine, the process solves two problems. It removes urine from wastewater, helping the environment. It also creates a useful material. Hydroxyapatite made this way can be used in bone and dental implants. It may also serve other industries. These include archaeological restoration, biodegradable plastic alternatives, and construction materials. Also Read: NYT Mini Crossword Hints Today, July 4 2025: Answers, clues and tips to help save your winning streak Scalable and Low-Cost Production The process is simple and does not need advanced infrastructure. The yeast grows at low temperatures in large vats, similar to beer fermentation. This makes the method cheap and scalable. It can be used even in developing countries. The researchers are working on ways to expand the method. They want to use it to 3D print hydroxyapatite materials. These could be applied in implants, buildings, and other areas. Future Plans and Applications With the method now tested, scientists plan to scale it up. They aim to apply it in multiple industries. The team is looking into making energy-efficient, cost-effective materials that are also biodegradable. This discovery could help both the environment and industries that rely on strong, natural materials. It could also open new paths for medical and manufacturing advances. FAQs How does yeast convert urine into bone mineral? Yeast breaks down urea from urine and releases hydroxyapatite, the same mineral found in human bones and teeth. What are the uses of hydroxyapatite made from urine? It can be used for implants, biodegradable plastics, archaeological restoration, and eco-friendly construction materials.
Business Insider
27-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
AeroVironment's Wildcat reaches key milestones in EVADE demonstration
The company states: 'AeroVironment (AVAV) announced that its Wildcat uncrewed aircraft system has achieved a series of development milestones in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's, DARPA, Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration. Wildcat has successfully completed VTOL-to-forward-flight transitions, validated its core flight and propulsion systems, and begun integrating critical mission payloads-demonstrating rapid progress toward an operationally relevant capability. Wildcat is a Group 3, tail-sitting vertical take-off and landing aircraft designed for launch and recovery from ship decks in denied and distributed maritime environments. Its compact footprint, autonomous launch and recovery, and robust flight performance across high sea states make it a flexible and scalable solution for contested littoral operations.' Confident Investing Starts Here:
The Star
24-06-2025
- Science
- The Star
Can AI quicken the pace of math discovery?
Artificial intelligence can write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman, provide dating advice and suggest the best way to cook an artichoke. But when it comes to mathematics, large language models like OpenAI's immensely popular ChatGPT have sometimes stumbled over basic problems. Some see this as an inherent limitation of the technology, especially when it comes to complex reasoning. A new initiative from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to account for that shortfall by enlisting researchers in finding ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an AI 'co-author.' The goal of the new grant-making program, Exponentiating Mathematics, is to speed up the pace of progress in pure (as opposed to applied) math – and, in doing so, to turn AI into a superlative mathematician. 'Mathematics is this great test bed for what is right now the key pain point for AI systems,' said Patrick Shafto, a Rutgers University mathematician and computer scientist who now serves as a program manager in DARPA's information innovation office, known as I20. 'So if we overcome that, potentially, it would unleash much more powerful AI.' He added, 'There's huge potential benefit to the community of mathematicians and to society at large.' Shafto spoke from his office at DARPA's headquarters, an anonymous building in northern Virginia whose facade of bluish glass gives little indication that it houses one of the most unusual agencies in the federal government. Inside the building's airy lobby, visitors surrender their cellphones. Near a bank of chairs, a glass display shows a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer's brain signals. 'By improving mathematics, we're also understanding how AI works better,' said Alondra Nelson, who served as a top science adviser in President Joe Biden's administration and is a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. 'So I think it's kind of a virtuous cycle of understanding.' She suggested that, down the road, math-adept AI could enhance cryptography and aid in space exploration. Started after World War II to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race, DARPA is most famous for fostering the research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet we use today. At the agency's small gift store, which is not accessible to the public, one can buy replicas of a cocktail napkin on which someone sketched out the rudimentary state of computer networks in 1969. DARPA later funded the research that gave rise to drones and Apple's digital assistant, Siri. But it is also responsible for the development of Agent Orange, the potent defoliant used to devastating effect during the Vietnam War. 'I'm sure this isn't 100% innocent,' Andrew Granville, a mathematician at the University of Montreal, said of DARPA's math initiative, although he emphasised that he was only speculating about eventual outcomes. DARPA is, after all, part of the Pentagon, even if it has traditionally operated with enviable independence. The US military is rapidly incorporating AI into its operations, with the aim of not losing out to China and its People's Liberation Army or to Russia, which has been testing out new technologies on the battlefield in Ukraine. At the same time, Granville praised the endeavour, which comes as the Trump administration is cutting funding for scientific research. 'We are in disastrous times for US science,' Granville said. 'I'm very pleased that DARPA is able to funnel money to academia.' A surfer and skateboarder in his free time, Shafto, 49, sat in a sparse conference room one recent afternoon, imagining a future when AI would be as good at solving multistep problems as it is at trying to glean meaning from huge troves of texts, which it does through the use of probability theory. Despite the unseasonably raw weather, Shafto seemed dressed for the beach in a blue-and-white Hawaiian-style shirt, white flannel trousers and sandals, with a trilby hat on the table before him. His vibe was, on the whole, decidedly closer to that of Santa Cruz than of Capitol Hill, largely in keeping with DARPA's traditional disregard for the capital's slow, bureaucratic pace. (The agency sets priorities and funds outside scientists but does not do research on its own; academics like Shafto spend an average of four years as program managers.) 'There are great mathematicians who work on age-old problems,' Shafto said. 'That's not the kind of thing that I'm particularly interested in.' Instead, he wanted the discipline to move more quickly by using AI to save time. 'Problems in mathematics take decades or centuries, sometimes, to solve,' he said in a recent presentation at DARPA's headquarters on the Exponentiating Mathematics project, which is accepting applications through mid-July. He then shared a slide showing that, in terms of the number of papers published, math had stagnated during the last century while life and technical sciences had exploded. In case the point wasn't clear, the slide's heading drove it home: 'Math is sloooowwww. …' The kind of pure math Shafto wants to accelerate tends to be 'sloooowwww' because it is not seeking numerical solutions to concrete problems, the way applied mathematics does. Instead, pure math is the heady domain of visionary theoreticians who make audacious observations about how the world works, which are promptly scrutinised (and sometimes torn apart) by their peers. 'Proof is king,' Granville said. Math proofs consist of multiple building blocks called lemmas, minor theorems employed to prove bigger ones. Whether each Jenga tower of lemmas can maintain integrity in the face of intense scrutiny is precisely what makes pure math such a 'long and laborious process,' acknowledged Bryna R. Kra, a mathematician at Northwestern University. 'All of math builds on previous math, so you can't really prove new things if you don't understand how to prove the old things,' she said. 'To be a research mathematician, the current practice is that you go through every step, you prove every single detail.' Lean, a software-based proof assistant, can speed up the process, but Granville said it was 'annoying, because it has its own protocols and language,' requiring programming expertise. 'We need to have a much better way of communication,' he added. Could artificial intelligence save the day? That's the hope, according to Shafto. An AI model that could reliably check proofs would save enormous amounts of time, freeing mathematicians to be more creative. 'The constancy of math coincides with the fact that we practice math more or less the same: still people standing at a chalkboard,' Shafto said. 'It's hard not to draw the correlation and say, 'Well, you know, maybe if we had better tools, that would change progress.'' AI would benefit, too, Shafto and others believe. Large language models like ChatGPT can scour the digitised storehouses of human knowledge to produce a half-convincing college essay on the Russian Revolution. But thinking through the many intricate steps of a mathematical problem remains elusive. 'I think we'll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various AI protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that's of interest,' said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. 'We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.' One of the more disconcerting truths about artificial intelligence is that we do not entirely understand how it works. 'This lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology,' Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, wrote in a recent essay. Ellenberg somewhat downplayed that assertion, pointing out that electricity was widely used before its properties were fully understood. Then again, with some AI experts worrying that artificial intelligence could destroy the world, any clarity into its operations tends to be welcome. Nelson, the former White House adviser, acknowledged 'legitimate' concerns about the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence is being integrated into seemingly every sector of society. All the more reason, she argued, to have DARPA on the case. 'There's a much higher benchmark that needs to be reached than whether or not your chatbot is hallucinating if you ask it a question about Shakespeare,' she said. 'The stakes are much higher.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Indian Express
22-06-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
Can AI quicken the pace of math discovery?
Artificial intelligence can write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman, provide dating advice and suggest the best way to cook an artichoke. But when it comes to mathematics, large language models like OpenAI's immensely popular ChatGPT have sometimes stumbled over basic problems. Some see this as an inherent limitation of the technology, especially when it comes to complex reasoning. A new initiative from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to account for that shortfall by enlisting researchers in finding ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an AI 'co-author.' The goal of the new grant-making program, Exponentiating Mathematics, is to speed up the pace of progress in pure (as opposed to applied) math — and, in doing so, to turn AI into a superlative mathematician. 'Mathematics is this great test bed for what is right now the key pain point for AI systems,' said Patrick Shafto, a Rutgers University mathematician and computer scientist who now serves as a program manager in DARPA's information innovation office, known as I20. 'So if we overcome that, potentially, it would unleash much more powerful AI.' He added, 'There's huge potential benefit to the community of mathematicians and to society at large.' Shafto spoke from his office at DARPA's headquarters, an anonymous building in northern Virginia whose facade of bluish glass gives little indication that it houses one of the most unusual agencies in the federal government. Inside the building's airy lobby, visitors surrender their cellphones. Near a bank of chairs, a glass display shows a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer's brain signals. 'By improving mathematics, we're also understanding how AI works better,' said Alondra Nelson, who served as a top science adviser in President Joe Biden's administration and is a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. 'So I think it's kind of a virtuous cycle of understanding.' She suggested that, down the road, math-adept AI could enhance cryptography and aid in space exploration. Started after World War II to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race, DARPA is most famous for fostering the research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet we use today. At the agency's small gift store, which is not accessible to the public, one can buy replicas of a cocktail napkin on which someone sketched out the rudimentary state of computer networks in 1969. DARPA later funded the research that gave rise to drones and Apple's digital assistant, Siri. But it is also responsible for the development of Agent Orange, the potent defoliant used to devastating effect during the Vietnam War. 'I'm sure this isn't 100% innocent,' Andrew Granville, a mathematician at the University of Montreal, said of DARPA's math initiative, although he emphasized that he was only speculating about eventual outcomes. DARPA is, after all, part of the Pentagon, even if it has traditionally operated with enviable independence. The U.S. military is rapidly incorporating AI into its operations, with the aim of not losing out to China and its People's Liberation Army or to Russia, which has been testing out new technologies on the battlefield in Ukraine. At the same time, Granville praised the endeavor, which comes as the Trump administration is cutting funding for scientific research. 'We are in disastrous times for U.S. science,' Granville said. 'I'm very pleased that DARPA is able to funnel money to academia.' A surfer and skateboarder in his free time, Shafto, 49, sat in a sparse conference room one recent afternoon, imagining a future when AI would be as good at solving multistep problems as it is at trying to glean meaning from huge troves of texts, which it does through the use of probability theory. Despite the unseasonably raw weather, Shafto seemed dressed for the beach in a blue-and-white Hawaiian-style shirt, white flannel trousers and sandals, with a trilby hat on the table before him. His vibe was, on the whole, decidedly closer to that of Santa Cruz than of Capitol Hill, largely in keeping with DARPA's traditional disregard for the capital's slow, bureaucratic pace. (The agency sets priorities and funds outside scientists but does not do research on its own; academics like Shafto spend an average of four years as program managers.) 'There are great mathematicians who work on age-old problems,' Shafto said. 'That's not the kind of thing that I'm particularly interested in.' Instead, he wanted the discipline to move more quickly by using AI to save time. 'Problems in mathematics take decades or centuries, sometimes, to solve,' he said in a recent presentation at DARPA's headquarters on the Exponentiating Mathematics project, which is accepting applications through mid-July. He then shared a slide showing that, in terms of the number of papers published, math had stagnated during the last century while life and technical sciences had exploded. In case the point wasn't clear, the slide's heading drove it home: 'Math is sloooowwww. …' The kind of pure math Shafto wants to accelerate tends to be 'sloooowwww' because it is not seeking numerical solutions to concrete problems, the way applied mathematics does. Instead, pure math is the heady domain of visionary theoreticians who make audacious observations about how the world works, which are promptly scrutinized (and sometimes torn apart) by their peers. 'Proof is king,' Granville said. Math proofs consist of multiple building blocks called lemmas, minor theorems employed to prove bigger ones. Whether each Jenga tower of lemmas can maintain integrity in the face of intense scrutiny is precisely what makes pure math such a 'long and laborious process,' acknowledged Bryna R. Kra, a mathematician at Northwestern University. 'All of math builds on previous math, so you can't really prove new things if you don't understand how to prove the old things,' she said. 'To be a research mathematician, the current practice is that you go through every step, you prove every single detail.' Lean, a software-based proof assistant, can speed up the process, but Granville said it was 'annoying, because it has its own protocols and language,' requiring programming expertise. 'We need to have a much better way of communication,' he added. Could artificial intelligence save the day? That's the hope, according to Shafto. An AI model that could reliably check proofs would save enormous amounts of time, freeing mathematicians to be more creative. 'The constancy of math coincides with the fact that we practice math more or less the same: still people standing at a chalkboard,' Shafto said. 'It's hard not to draw the correlation and say, 'Well, you know, maybe if we had better tools, that would change progress.'' AI would benefit, too, Shafto and others believe. Large language models like ChatGPT can scour the digitized storehouses of human knowledge to produce a half-convincing college essay on the Russian Revolution. But thinking through the many intricate steps of a mathematical problem remains elusive. 'I think we'll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various AI protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that's of interest,' said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. 'We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.' One of the more disconcerting truths about artificial intelligence is that we do not entirely understand how it works. 'This lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology,' Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, wrote in a recent essay. Ellenberg somewhat downplayed that assertion, pointing out that electricity was widely used before its properties were fully understood. Then again, with some AI experts worrying that artificial intelligence could destroy the world, any clarity into its operations tends to be welcome. Nelson, the former White House adviser, acknowledged 'legitimate' concerns about the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence is being integrated into seemingly every sector of society. All the more reason, she argued, to have DARPA on the case. 'There's a much higher benchmark that needs to be reached than whether or not your chatbot is hallucinating if you ask it a question about Shakespeare,' she said. 'The stakes are much higher.'
Sustainability Times
15-06-2025
- Science
- Sustainability Times
'Laser-Powered Weapons Are Here': U.S. Military Abandons Cables in Radical Shift That Could Revolutionize Battlefield Tech Forever
IN A NUTSHELL 🔋 DARPA successfully transmitted over 800 watts of power using a laser beam across 5.3 miles . successfully transmitted over of power using a laser beam across . ✈️ The technology enables drones to fly indefinitely, powered continuously by ground-based laser stations . . ⚡ Current efficiency is 20% over short distances, but improvements aim to double or triple this rate. over short distances, but improvements aim to double or triple this rate. 🌍 Potential applications extend beyond the military, offering sustainable energy solutions for remote and civilian areas. In a groundbreaking advancement in military technology, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has achieved a remarkable feat: powering equipment remotely using laser beams. This innovation promises to revolutionize the battlefield by eliminating the need for cumbersome cables and constant refueling. Imagine drones flying indefinitely, powered continuously by ground-based laser stations. This reality is no longer a distant dream, but a tangible prospect thanks to DARPA's successful tests in New Mexico. The Revolutionary Technology Behind Laser Power DARPA has demonstrated the capability to transmit over 800 watts of power across a distance of 5.3 miles using a laser beam. This amount of power is sufficient to run a small refrigerator or the entire electronic setup of an RV. The energy was transmitted through the air for a duration of 30 seconds without any physical medium. This technological breakthrough significantly surpasses previous records, which managed only 230 watts over just 1 mile. The tested system, named PRAD, employs a compact receiver developed by Teravec Technologies. The laser beam is directed at a specially designed aperture, reflects off a parabolic mirror inside, and strikes dozens of photovoltaic cells. These cells efficiently convert the light into electricity, with minimal energy loss during transmission. This innovation opens up a realm of possibilities for military logistics by removing the dependency on fuel convoys and noisy generators, which are susceptible to enemy detection. 'Hydrogen Just Got 20% Cheaper': Groundbreaking Ultra-Thin Membrane Ignites Clean Energy Race With Massive Global Implications Implications for Military Applications The potential applications of this technology in military operations are profound. By eliminating the need for fuel and cumbersome power cables, military equipment can operate with greater flexibility and stealth. This innovation could lead to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that remain airborne indefinitely, receiving continuous power supply from laser stations on the ground. It reduces the logistical burden of transporting fuel to remote locations, thereby minimizing the risk of exposure to adversaries. Furthermore, the deployment of laser-powered systems could significantly enhance operational efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of military activities. The ability to power equipment remotely and wirelessly transforms how military forces can be deployed and maintained in the field. This technology represents a strategic advantage by ensuring sustained operations without the interruption of refueling or recharging cycles. 'I Built a Laser from Hell': YouTuber Unleashes World's Strongest Handheld Beam That Instantly Melts Metal and Ignites Anything Challenges and Future Developments Despite the promising advancements, there are challenges to address before widespread implementation. Currently, only 20% of the laser energy is converted into usable electricity over short distances, with even lower efficiency over 5.3 miles. However, DARPA is optimistic about improving these figures. The agency plans to develop specialized photovoltaic cells that could potentially double or triple the conversion efficiency. The next phase of the program aims to test vertical transmissions and relay systems to establish a comprehensive wireless energy distribution network. This would entail creating a network of laser stations capable of providing uninterrupted power to military operations, regardless of geographical constraints. DARPA's ongoing research and development efforts are focused on overcoming the technical limitations and optimizing the system for real-world applications. 'We Are Redefining Electric Power': Chinese EV Stuns With 830-Mile Range and Ultra-Fast 12-Minute Charging Revolution Broader Implications and Future Possibilities The implications of this technology extend beyond military applications. The ability to transmit power wirelessly over long distances could revolutionize energy distribution in civilian sectors. This could lead to innovations in powering remote areas, reducing the reliance on traditional power grids, and enhancing disaster response capabilities. Moreover, this technology aligns with global efforts to transition towards more sustainable energy solutions. By reducing dependency on fossil fuels and enabling efficient energy transmission, laser power technology could contribute significantly to environmental conservation efforts. As DARPA continues to refine and expand this technology, it invites the question: How will society adapt to and integrate these advancements into everyday life? As DARPA pushes the boundaries of what's possible with laser power technology, the world watches with keen interest. With the potential to transform not only military operations but also civilian energy distribution, this innovation could have far-reaching impacts. As we consider the possible applications and implications, we are left to ponder: What other areas of life could this technology revolutionize in the coming years? Our author used artificial intelligence to enhance this article. Did you like it? 4.4/5 (21)
