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MIT researchers have developed a new method to 3D print mechanisms that detect how force is being applied to an object. The structures are made from a single piece of material, so they can be rapidly prototyped. A designer could use this method to 3D print "interactive input devices," like a joystick, switch, or handheld controller, in one go. To accomplish this, the researchers integrated electrodes into structures made from metamaterials, which are materials divided into a grid of repeating cells. They also created editing software that helps users build these interactive devices. "Metamaterials can support different mechanical functionalities. But if we create a metamaterial door handle, can we also know that the door handle is being rotated, and if so, by how many degrees? If you have special sensing requirements, our work enables you to customize a mechanism to meet your needs," says co-lead author Jun Gong, a former visiting Ph.D. student at MIT who is now a research scientist at Apple. Gong wrote the paper alongside fellow lead authors Olivia Seow, a graduate student in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Cedric Honnet, a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab. Other co-authors are MIT graduate student Jack Forman and senior author Stefanie Mueller, who is an associate professor in EECS and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). The research will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology next month. "What I find most exciting about the project is the capability to integrate sensing directly into the material structure of objects. This will enable new intelligent environments in which our objects can sense each interaction with them," Mueller says. "For instance, a chair or couch made from our smart material could detect the user's body when the user sits on it and either use it to query particular functions (such as turning on the light or TV) or to collect data for later analysis (such as detecting and correcting body posture)." Embedded electrodes Because metamaterials are made from a grid of cells, when the user applies force to a metamaterial object, some of the flexible, interior cells stretch or compress. The researchers took advantage of this by creating "conductive shear cells," flexible cells that have two opposing walls made from conductive filament and two walls made from nonconductive filament. The conductive walls function as electrodes. When a user applies force to the metamaterial mechanism—moving a joystick handle or pressing the buttons on a controller—the conductive shear cells stretch or compress, and the distance and overlapping area between the opposing electrodes changes. Using capacitive sensing, those changes can be measured and used to calculate the magnitude and direction of the applied forces, as well as rotation and acceleration. To demonstrate this, the researchers created a metamaterial joystick with four conductive shear cells embedded around the base of the handle in each direction (up, down, left, and right). As the user moves the joystick handle, the distance and area between the opposing conductive walls changes, so the direction and magnitude of each applied force can be sensed. In this case, those values were converted to inputs for a "PAC-MAN" game. By understanding how joystick users apply forces, a designer could prototype unique handle shapes and sizes for people with limited grip strength in certain directions. The researchers also created a music controller designed to conform to a user's hand. When the user presses one of the flexible buttons, conductive shear cells within the structure are compressed and the sensed input is sent to a digital synthesizer. This method could enable a designer to quickly create and tweak unique, flexible input devices for a computer, like a squeezable volume controller or bendable stylus. A software solution MetaSense, the 3D editor the researchers developed, enables this rapid prototyping. Users can manually integrate sensing into a metamaterial design or let the software automatically place the conductive shear cells in optimal locations. "The tool will simulate how the object will be deformed when different forces are applied, and then use this simulated deformation to calculate which cells have the maximum distance change. The cells that change the most are the optimal candidates to be conductive shear cells," Gong says. The researchers endeavored to make MetaSense straightforward, but there are challenges to printing such complex structures. "In a multimaterial 3D printer, one nozzle would be used for nonconductive filament and one nozzle would be used for conductive filament. But it is quite tricky because the two materials may have very different properties. It requires a lot of parameter-tuning to settle on the ideal speed, temperature, etc. But we believe that, as 3D printing technology continues to get better, this will be much easier for users in the future," he says. In the future, the researchers would like to improve the algorithms behind MetaSense to enable more sophisticated simulations. They also hope to create mechanisms with many more conductive shear cells. Embedding hundreds or thousands of conductive shear cells within a very large mechanism could enable high-resolution, real-time visualizations of how a user is interacting with an object, Gong says.

The most powerful gaming GPU you can get in a laptop today, Nvidia’s RTX 3080, offers boost clocks up to 1,710 MHz (depending on TGP), up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory and 6,144 CUDA cores. However, as with buying RTX 3080 graphics cards for your desktop or gaming desktops with RTX 3080 inside, it’s not always easy to find systems in stock with the mobile version. That’s why we’re rounding up all the major-brand RTX 3080 laptops you can buy (in the U.S. anyway) below, along with links to where you can buy them. We have not tested all of these laptops so we can’t vouch for their overall performance, their screen quality, build quality or other features. However, with the massive stock shortages we’re seeing, sometimes your best choice is the one you can find in stock. For a complete list of the top models we have tested and recommend, regardless of their current stock situation (and including GPUs from AMD), see our best gaming laptops page. Note that stocks, prices and ship times change rapidly so we can't guarantee that something we've listed here will be in stock by the time you read this or that it will be exactly the price we saw it at. However, we will be updating this article on a regular basis. There are options with both Intel's Core processors and AMD's Ryzen chips, so no matter which processor you prefer, there are options that are currently available. If you're partial to AMD and want its top-end graphics chip, the Radeon RX 6800M, you should check out the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. Alienware RTX 3080 Laptops Dell / Alienware offers RTX 3080 GPUs as an option on four different systems: the Alienware m15 R4 and the Alienware m17 R4, along with the Alienware X15 and Alienware X17. At press time, the m17 R4 was not available on Dell.com with the RTX 3080 option though it has offered it in the past, which is a shame because that model has a speedy 150-watt TGP (total graphics power) for its 3080. All models on Dell.com appear to be in stock with ship dates of about a

As someone who's only played one game of Warhammer 40,000 in my life, but watched several dozen more from the sidelines, a bit of gorgeously modeled and painted terrain is just as compelling as a horde of tyranid or ork figures. One huge Warhammer fan has taken his love of the original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War real-time strategy game to the next level, taking terrain models from the game and 3D printing them for his own tabletop battles. Jay from Eons of Battle shared details of how he built his Dawn of War terrain on YouTube. He started out by taking his two favorite building types from the videogame, the tall plasma generator and the wide stronghold, and making cardboard mockups to help establish scale. As an amateur voxel artist, I sympathize with how much trouble scale calculations are, to say nothing of having to adhere to Warhammer rules. Jay was forced to pretty much throw out most of his calculations since the videogame works on a different scale than the tabletop version, where height, width, and length can make or break plenty of terrain-focused strategies. Using 3D modelings software like Vectorworks and Blender, and later a 3D printer, Jay was able to not just model the Dawn of War terrain, but also add plenty of artificial damage to each surface, further selling his idea that his fictional battlefield had seen generations of warfare between the Imperium of Man and the orks. As you'd expect of professional Warhammer 40,000 painters, Jay committed roughly 25 hours towards painting and further detailing each piece of terrain. Dawn of War's plasma generators each got a healthy blue glow thanks to some interior spray paint, and even the exterior lights on the stronghold got a dash of putrid green spray to look like they're illuminated.

Big-eyed spiders were likely guarding their egg sacs and possibly caring for already hatched spiderlings when they were trapped in sticky tree resin some 99 million years ago. That resin hardened, locking up those arachnid mamas in four chunks of amber recently mined in Myanmar, and now considered the oldest evidence of maternal care in spiders, researchers say. Although the finding isn't unexpected, given that many spider mothers care for their offspring nowadays, "it's lovely to have actual physical evidence through these little snapshots in the fossil record," study co-researcher Paul Selden, a distinguished professor emeritus of the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas, told Live Science. Of the four amber chunks, the most extraordinary is a piece holding a large female spider with part of an egg sac under her, Selden said. This spider's facial appendages, spineless legs and trichobothria, or "sensing hairs," indicate that she is a member of the Lagonomegopidae family, a now-extinct group of spiders that lived in the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The mother's protective stance over her egg sac is suggestive of maternal care, Selden said. "The female holding onto an egg sac with little tiny spiderlings inside — that's exactly the position that you would find female spiders guarding their eggs," which may have also helped to keep the eggs warm, Selden told Live Science. "So, it really is a typical female spider behavior caught in an instant by this fossilization process." The amber even preserved the silk thread that wrapped the spider's eggs together. Some scientists think that spiders originally used silk to bundle their eggs together, and then later used it for other purposes, such as webs, Selden noted. The other three specimens hold spiderlings — one with 24, another with 26 and a third with 34 hatchlings — as well as a few silk spider threads, some arthropod legs and a wasp. It's likely that each piece contains a unique group of spiderling siblings, as the hatchlings in each specimen are about the same size. They also have Lagonomegopidae features, including two large eyes at the front of the head, much like jumping spiders today, the researchers said. These large eyes indicate the lagonomegopid spiders were likely free hunters rather than web builders, as web-building spiders typically have poor vision. One of the amber specimens with hatchlings contains spider silk entwining pieces of detritus, which may have been part of a nest that the mother built to guard her egg sac. This suggests that the hatchlings stayed with their mom in the nest after hatching, rather than immediately dispersing, the researchers said However, these spiders met a sticky end when they became trapped in tree resin, which eventually hardened into amber. The hatchlings likely died soon after they emerged from their eggs, and some of the arthropod appendages preserved next to them might be their mothers' legs, the researchers said.

https://www.bbc.com/news A major row broke out between leaders of the Taliban just days after they set up a new government in Afghanistan, senior Taliban officials told the BBC. Supporters of two rival factions reportedly brawled at the presidential palace in the capital Kabul. The argument appeared to centre on who did the most to secure victory over the US, and how power was divided up in the new cabinet. The Taliban have officially denied the reports. The group seized control of Afghanistan last month, and have since declared the country an "Islamic Emirate". Their new interim cabinet is entirely male and made up of senior Taliban figures, some of whom are notorious for attacks on US forces over the past two decades. The dispute came to light after a Taliban co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, disappeared from view for several days. One Taliban source told BBC Pashto that Mr Baradar and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani - the minister for refugees and a prominent figure within the militant Haqqani network - had exchanged strong words, as their followers brawled with each other nearby. A senior Taliban member based in Qatar and a person connected to those involved also confirmed that an argument had taken place late last week. The sources said the argument had broken out because Mr Baradar, the new deputy prime minister, was unhappy about the structure of their interim government. The row also reportedly stemmed from divisions over who in the Taliban should take credit for their victory in Afghanistan. Mr Baradar reportedly believes that the emphasis should be placed on diplomacy carried out by people like him, while members of the Haqqani group - which is run by one of the most senior Taliban figures - and their backers say it was achieved through fighting. Mr Baradar was the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president, having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump in 2020. Before that, he signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban. PROFILES: Who's who in the Taliban leadership INVESTIGATION: Taliban kill civilians in resistance stronghold VOICES: Uncertain times ahead for Afghan women Meanwhile, the powerful Haqqani network is associated with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years. The group is designated by the US as a terrorist organisation. Its leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the interior minister in the new government. Rumours about a fallout have been spreading since late last week, when Mr Baradar - one of the best-known faces of the Taliban - disappeared from public view. There was speculation on social media that he might have died. The Taliban sources told the BBC that Mr Baradar had left Kabul and travelled to the city of Kandahar following the row. In an audio recording purportedly of Mr Baradar released on Monday, the Taliban co-founder said he had been "away on trips". "Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine," he said. The BBC was not able to verify the recording, which was posted on a number of official Taliban websites. The Taliban have maintained that there was no argument and that Mr Baradar is safe but have released conflicting statements on what he is currently doing. A spokesman said Mr Baradar had gone to Kandahar to meet the Taliban's supreme leader, but later told BBC Pashto that he was "tired and wanted some rest". Many Afghans will feel they have good reason to doubt the Taliban's word. In 2015, the group admitted covering up their founding leader Mullah Omar's death for more than two years, during which time they continued to issue statements in his name. Sources told the BBC that Mr Baradar was expected to return to Kabul and might appear on camera to deny that any argument had happened. Speculation remains over the Taliban's supreme commander, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never been seen in public. He is in charge of the Taliban's political, military and religious affairs. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's acting foreign minister on Tuesday called for international donors to restart aid, saying the international community should not politicise their assistance. More than $1bn (£720m) in aid was pledged for the country on Monday, following warnings from the United Nations of a "looming catastrophe".

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