All posts tagged: revolutionizing

How podcasts are revolutionizing health education and behavior

How podcasts are revolutionizing health education and behavior

Published by skeptic

Podcasts have firmly embedded themselves into daily life, offering an expansive platform that entertains, informs, and educates. Globally, 465 million people tuned into podcasts in 2023, and this number is projected to grow to 505 million by 2024. The average listener dedicates around nine hours weekly to this audio medium, underscoring its appeal. Among the diverse content available, health-related podcasts stand out for their potential to influence well-being and encourage healthier behaviors. These podcasts simplify complex medical topics, making them relatable and easy to access. With topics ranging from nutrition to mental health, they offer listeners the flexibility to consume content during daily activities. This convenience has made podcasts invaluable tools for spreading health information, although research on their effectiveness remains limited. Transforming Education Through Podcasts Podcasts are increasingly recognized as impactful educational tools. In medical training, they enhance the learning experience by blending convenience with engaging content. Podcasts are highly valued for their authenticity and reliability, as well as their impactful, experience-focussed, and narrative-driven content. (CREDIT: “Fitness Male” by Direct Media is marked with …

The algorithmic ocean: How AI is revolutionizing marine conservation

The algorithmic ocean: How AI is revolutionizing marine conservation

Published by skeptic

This article was originally featured on MIT Press Reader. Dyhia Belhabib’s journey to becoming a marine scientist began with war funerals on TV. Her hometown, on the pine-forested slopes of the Atlas Mountains in northern Algeria, lies only 60 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. But a trip to the beach was dangerous. A bitter civil war raged across the mountains as she was growing up in the 1990s; the conflict was particularly brutal for Belhabib’s people, the Berbers, one of the Indigenous peoples of North Africa. As she puts it: “We didn’t go to the ocean much, because you could get killed on the way there.” The ocean surfaced in her life in another way, on state-run television. When an important person was assassinated or a massacre occurred, broadcasters would interrupt regular programming to show a sober documentary. They frequently chose a Jacques Cousteau film, judged sufficiently dignified and neutral to commemorate the deaths. Whenever she saw the ocean on television, Belhabib would wonder who had died. “My generation thinks of tragedies when we see …

These cutting-edge glass windows can generate free electricity: Revolutionizing clean energy

These cutting-edge glass windows can generate free electricity: Revolutionizing clean energy

Published by skeptic

[Jan. 20, 2024: JJ Shavit, The Brighter Side of News] 22.8% reduction in cooling load, resulting in 7.5% overall energy savings including energy generation from ClearVue IGUs. (CREDIT: ClearVue) In the ongoing global march toward sustainability, one company is shattering traditional views of renewable energy integration in architectural design. ClearVue PV, a trailblazer in smart solar solutions, has introduced a revolutionary solar glass, promising to transform building surfaces into energy-efficient power generators. This groundbreaking innovation dovetails with the urgent global mandate to embrace cleaner, more sustainable energy alternatives, fundamentally changing how we perceive the structural and environmental role of glass in construction projects. Specializing in advanced glass technology, ClearVue PV has leveraged cutting-edge nanoparticle and microparticle methodologies. The company’s proprietary technology ingeniously diffuses, redistributes, and reflects sunlight to the glass panel’s edges. Here, the captured light energy is efficiently converted into electricity by strategically integrated photovoltaic (PV) modules, the company explains in detail on its website. This novel approach to energy harnessing is not just a theoretical advancement; it’s a customizable solution adaptable to the …

Popcorn is popping its way into science classrooms and revolutionizing education

Popcorn is popping its way into science classrooms and revolutionizing education

Published by skeptic

[Jan. 20, 2024: JD Shavit, The Brighter Side of News] In the not-so-distant future, classrooms across Illinois and the United States may be filled with the irresistible aroma of freshly popped popcorn. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) In the not-so-distant future, classrooms across Illinois and the United States may be filled with the irresistible aroma of freshly popped popcorn, but it won’t just be a tasty snack. Thanks to a groundbreaking USDA grant, a team of educators led by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign crop scientist, Tony Studer, is spearheading an innovative curriculum centered around popcorn. This popcorn-based curriculum is poised to revolutionize science education, particularly in the fields of agricultural science, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, computer science, genomics, and research methods, targeting both 4-H and high school students. Tony Studer, an associate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences, has been championing the potential of popcorn to captivate and educate young minds for nearly a decade. Related Stories He emphasizes the familiar allure of popcorn, stating, “Everybody knows popcorn, but students don’t typically think about where it …

AI revolutionizing MRI scans — A Munich startup banked M to scan eggs, and says humans are next

AI revolutionizing MRI scans — A Munich startup banked $32M to scan eggs, and says humans are next

Published by skeptic

Germany, France, and Italy are among the countries which last year enacted laws to stop the practice of culling male day-old chicks, because, as they do not lay eggs, are considered surplus to requirements. This was not just because of the waste created but also out of animal welfare and ethical considerations. The laws were literally designed to encourage tech companies to come up with ways to determine the gender of chicks before they hatch. Hyperspectral imaging, which accurately detects the gender of chicks based on plumage color on day 13 of incubation, is one such technology now being employed. A fully automated system called “CHEGGY” is one such system used in commercial hatcheries. The systems can detect different aspects of eggs, like freshness, broken yolks, and cracks in the shell, up to about 97% accuracy in some instances. But here’s the problem: It’s slow. So Munich-based startup Orbem, borne ofr PhD research into MRI tech, set out to fix the problem and speed up the process. An industrial MRI scanner is combined with an …