Here are the top stories for the month of March 2021 (in mostly chronological order):
1. China has Become the EU’s Top Trading Partner to the Detriment of the U.S.
Global Research
According to the research data analyzed and published by Comprar Acciones, imports from China to the EA increased by 5.6% while exports surged by 2.2% during the year. The same period saw a drop of 13.2% in EA imports from the US as well as an 8.2% decline in exports.
2. Bill Gates: Nuclear power will ‘absolutely’ be politically acceptable again — it’s safer than oil, coal, natural gas
CNBC
Nuclear power has to overcome a baneful reputation garnered by association with the atomic bomb and radioactive disasters, but it’s a necessary, worthy and surmountable challenge to correct the naysayers, according to Gates.
3. PARALYZED MAN WALKS MORE THAN 100 MILES IN POWERED EXOSKELETON
Futurism
Over the month of February, a man named Simon Kindleysides walked a total of 112 miles despite being utterly paralyzed from the waist down.
4. Cisco Webex adds real-time translation for more than 100 languages
Engadget
We've all been in conversations where a language barrier can make it hard to communicate. Cisco wants to make that problem a thing of the past, at least when it comes to video meetings. The company is introducing a new real-time translation feature to its Webex conferencing software.
5. ‘Promising’ Alzheimer’s pill could stop disease in its tracks, human trials to start soon
Study Finds
Although there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s disease yet, a new drug that could come in pill form is giving hope to millions of dementia patients around the world. Researchers say the potential Alzheimer’s drug prevents the disease in mice, rats, and monkeys during lab experiments.
6. Graphene ‘Nano-Origami’ Could Take Us Past the End of Moore’s Law
Singularity Hub
Wonder material graphene is often touted as a potential way around the death of Moore’s Law, but harnessing its promising properties has proven tricky. Now, researchers have shown they can build graphene chips 100 times smaller than normal ones using a process they’ve dubbed “nano-origami.”
7. Multimodal Neurons in Artificial Neural Networks
OpenAI
Fifteen years ago, Quiroga et al. discovered that the human brain possesses multimodal neurons. These neurons respond to clusters of abstract concepts centered around a common high-level theme, rather than any specific visual feature. The most famous of these was the “Halle Berry” neuron, a neuron featured in both Scientific American and The New York Times, that responds to photographs, sketches, and the text “Halle Berry” (but not other names).
8. An NFT Painting Just Sold For $69 Million
Futurism
A work by digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as “Beeple,” has sold for an astonishing $69 million at world-renowned auction house Christie’s. The work, titled “The First 5000 Days” was, according to Christie’s, the “first purely digital work of art ever offered by a major auction house.”
9. New result from the LHCb experiment challenges leading theory in physics
Phys.org
The LHCb Collaboration at CERN has found particles not behaving in the way they should according to the guiding theory of particle physics—the Standard Model. The Standard Model of particle physics predicts that particles called beauty quarks, which are measured in the LHCb experiment, should decay into either muons or electrons in equal measure.
10. New Spherical Robot Could Explore Lunar Caves
ExtremeTech
We’ve all been laser-focused on Mars as a site for future human outposts, but let’s not forget about the Moon. It’s only marginally less habitable than Mars right now, and it’s a lot closer. Thanks to radiation and temperature variation, however, the safest place for a long-term human presence on the Moon might be underground.
11. Boston Dynamics introduces 'Stretch', new warehouse worker robot
Reuters
U.S. robotics company Boston Dynamics on Monday unveiled a new robot called Stretch, designed to perform one very specific warehouse job: moving boxes.