​A robot that liquefies and returns to a solid state has just become a reality ● A 16-meter papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead has been found in Egypt ● Check out the island! This is not an island!

A robot that liquefies and solidifies has just become a reality

Some Chinese engineers at the University of Hong Kong seem to have learned nothing from Terminator 2 and its sequels, which feature all manner of robots with the aforementioned ability to turn into a liquid and reshape itself when needed.

That’s because those guys in Hong Kong just created something similar and published it in Matter magazine. It’s true that theirs is a bit more sophisticated. Much thinner. About the size of a Lego, but still a huge step forward. To create a robot with such properties, the Chinese chose gallium, a metal with a melting point of 29.76 degrees Celsius.

They incorporated several magnetic particles into the gallium model and created what they called a “magnetoactive solid-liquid phase transition machine.” Doesn’t sound like a name to wear on a t-shirt or cap, that’s for sure. The idea is that magnetic particles controlled by the device can cool or heat the material so that it changes state. They can also generate the robot’s ability to move in any of the states mentioned.

Now that we have it, what do we do with it? We could send him into the future to fight mini-terminators the size of Legos, but we don’t have the technology. Until then, say Chinese experts, we can use it, for example, in medicine. They created an artificial human stomach, and the robot was successfully used to remove or insert an object from there without surgery. This would require a new alloy to raise the melting point of gallium, but that is still being worked on.

Robots can still repair circuits. They can flow through sockets, perform the function of a screw, fasten things, and so on. Be healthy, because the Chinese have something to give them work.

A 16-meter-long papyrus with texts from the Book of the Dead was discovered in Egypt

According to Egyptian archaeologists, the discovery of this agent is the first in more than 100 years. More precisely, it is the first complete papyrus discovered during this period in Saqqara. Additionally, it is approximately 2332-2712 years old and was discovered in a sarcophagus excavated near the oldest Egyptian pyramid of Djoser.

Not to worry about its condition, experts in Egypt say that they have already completed the conservation work, the papyrus is in excellent condition, you can do whatever you want with it, but being serious people, they settled for an Arabic translation. This is what I am doing now.

The discovery is exceptional, that’s for sure, but it’s not unique. And this is not even the largest papyrus ever found. There were others, even bigger. For example, some over 30 meters long, also with fragments from the Book of the Dead. By the way, the “Book of the Dead” was a collection of texts that helped the deceased navigate the afterlife. It seems that during the period of the New Kingdom, 1550 BC. – 1070 BC, the use of these texts was widespread, although the practice was much older.

Just last year, another papyrus was discovered in a tomb near the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti (2323 – 2291 BC), this time fragmented, of which only about four meters remained. Goodbye, too, because that way we get a clearer picture of what came before.

Look at the island! This is not an island!

In 2015, after a volcanic eruption, a completely new island appeared in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai was the name of the island, in case you want to make a note somewhere. It’s nothing the world map hasn’t seen before, ie a volcanic island forming overnight, but here we’re talking about something that’s truly a first.

In particular, it was the first time that experts analyzed the mostly microscopic life forms that existed there. In the past, they tended to focus on the flora and fauna that appeared on such islands, and less on microbes, bacteria, etc.

Thus, they discovered that the bacteria found there were somewhat unusual. They hoped to find cyanobacteria and other similar organisms that would appear as the first colonists in such new territories. This was not the case here, as the bacteria found were those that metabolized sulfur and all kinds of toxic gases.

In fact, these are bacteria that live in the area of ​​underwater hot springs and underwater volcanoes. The fact that they resisted the volcanic eruption that brought them to the surface and that they continued to exist on the island is a unique fact.

In any case, they did not have experts to analyze them for a long time, because the vegetation appeared quickly, thanks to the birds that brought the seeds there. Then, just seven years later, the island completely disappeared, just as it appeared, as a result of a volcanic eruption. But remember, it’s good to know that you never know when you’ll need that kind of data, nor when another volcanic island will form good enough to bring new information!

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