Manta rays are elegantly shaped. They swim by flapping their fins like enormous wings, and their gills filter for plankton with the utmost precision. These creatures have now inspired human innovations that take soft robots and water filters to the next level.

With fins that borrow their shape and motion from mantas, a soft robot created by a team of researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Virginia improves on a previous model by reaching speeds of 6.8 body lengths per second, nearly double what its predecessor was capable of. This makes it the fastest soft robot so far. It is also more energy-efficient than its previous iteration and can swim not just on the surface, but upward and downward, just like an actual manta ray.

Another research team at MIT used the gills of these creatures, which filter for plankton, to improve commercial water filtration systems. Their gill openings are also the perfect size to help them breathe while they feed, absorbing oxygen from water on its way out. The rays’ balance of feeding and breathing helped the researchers figure out a filter structure that more precisely controls inflow and outflow.

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Manta rays are elegantly shaped. They swim by flapping their fins like enormous wings, and their gills filter for plankton with the utmost precision. These creatures have now inspired human innovations that take soft robots and water filters to the next level.

With fins that borrow their shape and motion from mantas, a soft robot created by a team of researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Virginia improves on a previous model by reaching speeds of 6.8 body lengths per second, nearly double what its predecessor was capable of. This makes it the fastest soft robot so far. It is also more energy-efficient than its previous iteration and can swim not just on the surface, but upward and downward, just like an actual manta ray.

Another research team at MIT used the gills of these creatures, which filter for plankton, to improve commercial water filtration systems. Their gill openings are also the perfect size to help them breathe while they feed, absorbing oxygen from water on its way out. The rays’ balance of feeding and breathing helped the researchers figure out a filter structure that more precisely controls inflow and outflow.

Read full article

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Manta rays are elegantly shaped. They swim by flapping their fins like enormous wings, and their gills filter for plankton with the utmost precision. These creatures have now inspired human innovations that take soft robots and water filters to the next level.

With fins that borrow their shape and motion from mantas, a soft robot created by a team of researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Virginia improves on a previous model by reaching speeds of 6.8 body lengths per second, nearly double what its predecessor was capable of. This makes it the fastest soft robot so far. It is also more energy-efficient than its previous iteration and can swim not just on the surface, but upward and downward, just like an actual manta ray.

Another research team at MIT used the gills of these creatures, which filter for plankton, to improve commercial water filtration systems. Their gill openings are also the perfect size to help them breathe while they feed, absorbing oxygen from water on its way out. The rays’ balance of feeding and breathing helped the researchers figure out a filter structure that more precisely controls inflow and outflow.

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Ahead of a major crackdown on illegal cryptocurrency mines in Russia next year, a power provider in Siberia has been fined for illegally leasing state land that's supposed to be used only for public utilities to an illegal mining operation.

In a social media post translated by Ars, the Irkutsk Region Prosecutor-General’s Office explained that the power provider was fined more than 330,000 rubles (about $3,000) for the improper land use. Local prosecutors will also pursue an administrative case against the power provider, the office said.

Crypto mining is popular in Siberia because of low operating costs, Crypto News noted , due to the cool temperatures and cheap power supply. But many in Siberia have blamed crypto miners for power outages and grid instability that can cause significant harms during winter months.

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Ahead of a major crackdown on illegal cryptocurrency mines in Russia next year, a power provider in Siberia has been fined for illegally leasing state land that's supposed to be used only for public utilities to an illegal mining operation.

In a social media post translated by Ars, the Irkutsk Region Prosecutor-General’s Office explained that the power provider was fined more than 330,000 rubles (about $3,000) for the improper land use. Local prosecutors will also pursue an administrative case against the power provider, the office said.

Crypto mining is popular in Siberia because of low operating costs, Crypto News noted , due to the cool temperatures and cheap power supply. But many in Siberia have blamed crypto miners for power outages and grid instability that can cause significant harms during winter months.

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Ahead of a major crackdown on illegal cryptocurrency mines in Russia next year, a power provider in Siberia has been fined for illegally leasing state land that's supposed to be used only for public utilities to an illegal mining operation.

In a social media post translated by Ars, the Irkutsk Region Prosecutor-General’s Office explained that the power provider was fined more than 330,000 rubles (about $3,000) for the improper land use. Local prosecutors will also pursue an administrative case against the power provider, the office said.

Crypto mining is popular in Siberia because of low operating costs, Crypto News noted , due to the cool temperatures and cheap power supply. But many in Siberia have blamed crypto miners for power outages and grid instability that can cause significant harms during winter months.

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Over the holiday weekend, all but one member of the editorial board of Elsevier's Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) resigned "with heartfelt sadness and great regret," according to Retraction Watch , which helpfully provided an online PDF of the editors' full statement. It's the 20th mass resignation from a science journal since 2023 over various points of contention, per Retraction Watch, many in response to controversial changes in the business models used by the scientific publishing industry.

"This has been an exceptionally painful decision for each of us," the board members wrote in their statement. "The editors who have stewarded the journal over the past 38 years have invested immense time and energy in making JHE the leading journal in paleoanthropological research and have remained loyal and committed to the journal and our authors long after their terms ended. The [associate editors] have been equally loyal and committed. We all care deeply about the journal, our discipline, and our academic community; however, we find we can no longer work with Elsevier in good conscience."

The editorial board cited several changes made over the last ten years that it believes are counter to the journal's longstanding editorial principles. These included eliminating support for a copy editor and a special issues editor, leaving it to the editorial board to handle those duties. When the board expressed the need for a copy editor, Elsevier's response, they said, was "to maintain that the editors should not be paying attention to language, grammar, readability, consistency, or accuracy of proper nomenclature or formatting."

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Over the holiday weekend, all but one member of the editorial board of Elsevier's Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) resigned "with heartfelt sadness and great regret," according to Retraction Watch , which helpfully provided an online PDF of the editors' full statement. It's the 20th mass resignation from a science journal since 2023 over various points of contention, per Retraction Watch, many in response to controversial changes in the business models used by the scientific publishing industry.

"This has been an exceptionally painful decision for each of us," the board members wrote in their statement. "The editors who have stewarded the journal over the past 38 years have invested immense time and energy in making JHE the leading journal in paleoanthropological research and have remained loyal and committed to the journal and our authors long after their terms ended. The [associate editors] have been equally loyal and committed. We all care deeply about the journal, our discipline, and our academic community; however, we find we can no longer work with Elsevier in good conscience."

The editorial board cited several changes made over the last ten years that it believes are counter to the journal's longstanding editorial principles. These included eliminating support for a copy editor and a special issues editor, leaving it to the editorial board to handle those duties. When the board expressed the need for a copy editor, Elsevier's response, they said, was "to maintain that the editors should not be paying attention to language, grammar, readability, consistency, or accuracy of proper nomenclature or formatting."

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Over the holiday weekend, all but one member of the editorial board of Elsevier's Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) resigned "with heartfelt sadness and great regret," according to Retraction Watch , which helpfully provided an online PDF of the editors' full statement. It's the 20th mass resignation from a science journal since 2023 over various points of contention, per Retraction Watch, many in response to controversial changes in the business models used by the scientific publishing industry.

"This has been an exceptionally painful decision for each of us," the board members wrote in their statement. "The editors who have stewarded the journal over the past 38 years have invested immense time and energy in making JHE the leading journal in paleoanthropological research and have remained loyal and committed to the journal and our authors long after their terms ended. The [associate editors] have been equally loyal and committed. We all care deeply about the journal, our discipline, and our academic community; however, we find we can no longer work with Elsevier in good conscience."

The editorial board cited several changes made over the last ten years that it believes are counter to the journal's longstanding editorial principles. These included eliminating support for a copy editor and a special issues editor, leaving it to the editorial board to handle those duties. When the board expressed the need for a copy editor, Elsevier's response, they said, was "to maintain that the editors should not be paying attention to language, grammar, readability, consistency, or accuracy of proper nomenclature or formatting."

Read full article

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