Grog

AI Art / Turtle Related News / Aliens / Nature / Cryptocurrency

[Grog @GrogTheTurtle]

Darth Gandalf

[LMD (Arc.) @Layemie001]

A crazy vintage German wrench design. Germans are too technical while making tools.💯

[Todd Spence @Todd_Spence]

Someone created a fully operational JOHNNY 5 from scratch and omg how cool 🙌
(instagram Saundersmachineworks)

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

The bumblebee bat,

The smallest mammal in the world

[Bluntly Put Philosopher (BPP) @SocraticScribe]

Ok what’s the over under on days it takes @PalmerLuckey and @anduriltech to higher this guy @Cdg8484 he put one of his plasma cannons on a damn remote control car…why aren’t defense contractors just hiring this dude…one my fave YT channels

[Wonder of Science @wonderofscience]

Rare footage of a jaguarundi, a small wild cat native to the Americas. Sometimes called the “otter-cat” for its resemblance to mustelids.

[Earth @earthcurated]

Photographer Hadlee Renjith captures the "Galaxy Frog," one of the most beautiful species on the planet.

[The Curious Tales @thecurioustales]

🚨 SHOCKING DISCOVERY 🚨: Chinese physicists create a new form of diamond harder than natural diamond.

Natural diamond sat at the top of the hardness hierarchy for so long that we literally named the entire scale around it.

Industries built themselves around diamond’s properties. Drill bits, cutting tools, surgical instruments, semiconductor substrates. The assumption was baked into engineering itself: diamond is the ceiling.

Lonsdaleite, the hexagonal form of diamond, was first discovered in meteorite impact craters. The collision of a meteorite with Earth generates pressures and temperatures so extreme that graphite inside the meteorite transforms into a crystalline structure that arranges its carbon atoms in a hexagonal lattice rather than the cubic lattice of natural diamond. Theorists calculated that this hexagonal arrangement should actually be harder than regular diamond. The problem was that every sample ever found on Earth was too contaminated and too small to confirm that prediction experimentally.

Chinese physicists solved that problem by synthesizing pure lonsdaleite at scale for the first time.

What makes the hexagonal arrangement stronger comes down to the geometry of atomic bonds. In cubic diamond, carbon atoms bond in a structure that has natural cleavage planes, directions along which the crystal can split under sufficient force.

Lonsdaleite’s hexagonal lattice disrupts those cleavage planes entirely. The bonding geometry distributes stress more uniformly across the entire crystal structure, meaning there is no preferred direction for fracture to propagate. You cannot split it cleanly because the architecture refuses to cooperate with the force trying to break it.

The downstream consequences of this reach far beyond geology.

Semiconductors are already pushing diamond as a substrate material because diamond conducts heat extraordinarily well, keeping chips cooler at higher performance levels. A harder, more structurally uniform diamond variant means components that survive more extreme operational environments. Space hardware, deep-earth drilling equipment, and high-power electronics all operate in conditions that slowly degrade even the toughest materials currently available.

The meteorite brought the blueprint.

Humans just learned to build from it.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

This layered glass painting technique is absolutely mind-blowing

[Lukas Ziegler @lukas_m_ziegler]

Open-source dexterous hands with fingertip sensors! 🪬

@orcahand just released three dexterous hand models.

Their mission: is to democratize robotic hand dexterity. They're sharing progress on exceptional, low-cost hardware and a software layer from low-level control to robotic hand learning.

This is the open-source approach to dexterous manipulation.

It has 83 taxels per finger with 0.1 N force detection which pretty is impressive for an open-source design. Tactile sensing is critical for dexterous manipulation, knowing contact forces enables gentle grasping, slip detection, and force-controlled assembly.

Also 700g weight for the lite version makes it practical for mounting on robot arms without exceeding payload limits. Lower weight means faster movements and lower torque requirements.

Open hardware accelerates robotics by letting researchers and builders modify designs for their specific needs without starting from scratch!

~~

♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news → https://t.co/GoA3ZuwoPB

[Cosmic Gaia @CosmicGaiaX]

Starfish feet ⭐👣

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

This unique mushroom, called the "drinking milkcap," stores liters of water underground and consumes it little by little to withstand the summer heat

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

Crown shyness is when tree tops avoid touching, creating gaps in the canopy, likely to prevent damage and maximize sunlight.

[Marwa ElDiwiny @MarwaEldiwiny]

Clutching leg design…

No energy cost, no control needed.

Most humanoid robots simplify feet, but this design shows how effective foot design can improve mechanical control.

I recorded this podcast with Alexander & Monica 3 yrs ago, fascinating discussion on foot mechanics!

[Lukas Ziegler @lukas_m_ziegler]

A robot with wheels and legs! 🦿

Wheeled mobile robots are popular in many fields because they are stable, efficient, and simple to build.

However, they often occupy more space than humans and struggle to navigate crowded hallways, ramps, or elevators.

To address this, a robot developed at the Korea University of Technology and Education combines legs for extra support and mecanum wheels for smooth, all-directional movement. It has a slim, human-like design with four wheel-leg mechanisms, each using a special 2-DOF leg and a mecanum wheel.

A unique mechanism keeps the wheels steady while the legs move, helping the robot stay agile and absorb shocks. The design also reduces strain on the motors, making it more efficient.

Tests showed that the robot could move quickly, climb steps, and navigate elevators with people.

P.S. It's quite an old one from 2021, but still awesome to watch.

Research paper: https://t.co/EMh3tdGZ9K

~~~

♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news → https://t.co/GoA3ZuwoPB

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

For the first time, we're watching plants breathe in real time.

Plants "breathe" through minuscule openings on their leaves known as stomata—a term derived from the Greek word for "mouths." These tiny pores perform a critical balancing act: they open to allow carbon dioxide (CO₂) to enter for photosynthesis, while simultaneously permitting water vapor to escape into the atmosphere through transpiration. This ongoing compromise influences a plant's growth rate, water requirements, and overall resilience, especially in challenging environments.

Historically, scientists faced significant limitations in studying this dynamic process directly. They could either observe stomatal movements under a microscope (often in artificial or uncontrolled settings) or measure overall leaf gas exchange (which reflects aggregate behavior but obscures microscopic details). A recent breakthrough from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign overcomes this divide with an innovative system called Stomata In-Sight.

This integrated tool combines three key technologies in real time:

- A live confocal microscope (specifically laser scanning) that captures high-resolution, three-dimensional images and videos of living stomatal cells and pores without damaging the tissue.

- Precise gas exchange sensors that quantify CO₂ uptake and water loss (stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, and transpiration) from the same leaf section.

- A controlled environmental chamber that maintains specific levels of light, humidity, temperature, and CO₂ to simulate real-world conditions.

By linking microscopic stomatal aperture changes (tracked via machine-learning image analysis for dozens of pores simultaneously) with whole-leaf physiological responses, researchers can now observe how individual stomata behave and contribute to the plant's overall performance under varying scenarios.

The implications are profound, particularly for agriculture. Water scarcity remains the primary constraint on crop yields worldwide. By identifying the genes and mechanisms that govern stomatal efficiency—such as opening/closing speed, density, or aperture size—scientists can develop breeding strategies for crops that conserve water more effectively while maintaining or boosting photosynthesis. This could lead to varieties better equipped to withstand drought, heat, and other effects of climate change, ultimately supporting higher food production with fewer resources.

Stomata In-Sight represents a major advance in plant science, transforming our ability to study—and ultimately engineer—plants that not only endure environmental stress but actively help humanity adapt to a changing climate.

[Crawford, J. D., Mayfield-Jones, D., Fried, G. A., Hernandez, N., & Leakey, A. D. B. (2025). Stomata in-sight: Integrating live confocal microscopy with leaf gas exchange and environmental control. Plant Physiology, 199(4), kiaf600. DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiaf600]

[Nature Unedited @NatureUnedited]

This is a binturong, it’s not a bear or a cat, it naturally smells like buttered popcorn, and it’s one of the most underrated animals on the planet

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

Northwestern’s evolving robots can survive being separated into many pieces, with each part adapting independently.