Hasta La Gadget!

The continuing die-off of the world’s coral reefs is a depressing reminder of the reality of climate change, but it’s also something we can actively push back on. Conservationists have a new tool to do so with LarvalBot, an underwater robot platform that may greatly accelerate efforts to re-seed old corals with healthy new polyps.

The robot has a history going back to 2015, when a prototype known as COTSbot was introduced, capable of autonomously finding and destroying the destructive crown of thorns starfish (hence the name). It has since been upgraded and revised by the team at the Queensland University of Technology, and in its hunter-killer form is known as the RangerBot.

But the same systems that let it safely navigate and monitor corals for invasive fauna also make it capable of helping these vanishing ecosystems more directly.

Great Barrier Reef coral spawn yearly in a mass event that sees the waters off north Queensland filled with eggs and sperm. Researchers at Southern Cross University have been studying how to reap this harvest and sow a new generation of corals. They collect the eggs and sperm and sequester them in floating enclosures, where they are given a week or so to develop into viable coral babies (not my term, but I like it). These coral babies are then transplanted carefully to endangered reefs.

LarvalBot comes into play in that last step.

“We aim to have two or three robots ready for the November spawn. One will carry about 200,000 larvae and the other about 1.2 million,” explained QUT’s Matthew Dunbabin in a news release. “During operation, the robots will follow preselected paths at constant altitude across the reef and a person monitoring will trigger the release of the larvae to maximise the efficiency of the dispersal.”

It’s something a diver would normally have to do, so the robot acts as a force multiplier — one that doesn’t require food or oxygen, as well. A few of these could do the work of dozens of rangers or volunteers.

“The surviving corals will start to grow and bud and form new colonies which will grow large enough after about three years to become sexually reproductive and complete the life cycle,” said Southern Cross’s Peter Harrison, who has been developing the larval restoration technique.

It’s not a quick fix by any means, but this artificial spreading of corals could vastly improve the chances of a given reef or area surviving the next few years and eventually becoming self-sufficient again.

NASA just released the first ever 8K video shot in space. With help from the European Space Agency (ESA), astronauts collected a bunch of clips inside the space station—and a few looking out—using the Helium 8K camera by RED. You can download the original file on NASA’s website. (It’s over 3 gigabytes LOL.) However,…

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Kids are not great at eating. They make messes and miss their mouths, and knock full cups and plates off the table. It’s sometimes funny, but it’s less funny when the food is hot and burns a kid bad enough to send them to the emergency room. And that happens a lot—nearly half of serious burns to children every year…

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For many of us, we do stare at the monitor for hours on end each day, be it at the office or at home. Apart from purchasing a work chair that is able to provide an adequate amount of support for your back, it is also of utmost importance to ensure that your eyes are well taken care of with the right kind of monitor. AOC, long having churned out monitors of great quality, have come up with the V2 series of frameless monitors that sport a gorgeous slim design and advanced IPS panel.

The V2 Series will comprise of includes a trio of monitors: a 22-inch (22V2H), 24-inch (24V2H) and 27-inch (27V2H) model. Regardless of which particular model that you eventually decide to settle for, the whole range will boast of a Full HD IPS panel that has a frameless design alongside AMD FreeSync technology. This is the kind of true zero-edge design that makes them perfect for multi-monitor setups, whether you are looking at a large enough spreadsheet, need some wider screen experience in movies, or simply to maximize your gaming enjoyment.

Despite delivering just Full HD resolution, the V2 Series does not skimp when it comes to image quality. The gorgeous ultra slim design helps make everything around it look good, where the advanced IPS panel used will be able to produce brilliant colors and offer wide viewing angles. The monitor itself is perfect for home entertainment or professional tasks. Other hardware specifications include a 75Hz refresh rate, with viewing angles of 178 degrees, so that you can enjoy consistent color uniformity and accuracy no matter which angle you are viewing it from.

In addition, the V2 line also sports a 20M:1 dynamic contrast with a 5ms response time, while input options are numerous, including one VGA and one HDMI. Not only that, AMD FreeSync technology is part of the deal, delivering a seamless synchronization of GPU and monitor refresh rates without having to sacrifice on performance. The V2 Series will retail for $99.99, $129.99 and $169.99 for the 22V2H, the 24V2H and the 27V2H, respectively.

Press Release
[ AOC launches V2 series of frameless monitors copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

A week before the midterm elections, this is likely the best endorsement we’ve seen yet.