1. One thing that helps
Everybody is talking about microplastics and the potential health issues caused by them. We ingest around 4,000 microplastic particles each year just by drinking water, and these increase the risk of cancer, heart-attack, strokes and a host of other serious issues. Fortunately, a team of researchers from China has come up with a sponge that can absorb microplastics and reduce the amount we are exposed to.
The researchers from the University of Wuhan (nothing bad ever came out of there right?) created a sponge made from cotton and squid bones that absorbs microplastic particles. This sponge was tested in ditches, lakes and ponds where it absorbed 99.9% of microplastics. Because the sponge can be re-used and the materials used to create it are easily obtained, hopes are high that this will be a solution that can scale to treat microplastics globally.
2. One to be wary of
Captchas (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) have been around since we realised that bots can wreak havoc on the internet. Captchas can be retyping distorted text, identifying objects in an image and the fun "I’m a human" box. Unsuprisingly, given the amazing things AI is capable of, it looks like the bots may be able to get around our cunning tests.
AI systems can now read distorted text and identify objects on images much faster than us. New approaches like biometrics and captcha V3 (which tracks how you interact with a website) are raising privacy issues. Also, when we want our AI agents (programs that can autonomously perform tasks) to help us they will need to log into our accounts too. So the challenge is no longer just sifting humans from bots, it’s allowing access to the “good” bots while keeping bad bots away. And if we do perfect that balance between privacy and security, we all need to remember that they will always catch up.
In the meantime, I promise this newsletter is not written by a robot. Good enough?
3. One to amaze
Some weeks it's hard to find something truly amazing to report on in this newsletter. Not this week. It's a frickin INVISIBILITY CLOAK people! Harry Potter level stuff.
Chu Junhao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed off his invisibility shield that uses lenticular grating. This technique uses tiny cylindrical lenses that refracts light in a way that shrinks and thins objects parallel to it. That is why the shield needs to be at the proper orientation and proper distance from the user in order for the invisibility to take effect. The important thing is to make the refractive index of the object and the air the same. That way, you can achieve invisibility. Incorporating metamaterials that react to light and electromagnetic waves can further make someone invisible even to radar and infrared.
I'm sure they will soon transform this tech into fabric so that my son can keep gaming all night under a cloak of invisibility.