One Drop Robot, Malaria Forecast, Naked Mole Rat Fertility

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today you’ll learn about a robot with the ability to pick up a single drop of water, how scientists have created a computer algorithm that can predict Malaria hotspots, and what naked mole rats have to teach us about human fertility.

One Drop Robot

“New robot can pick up a single drop of liquid” by Stephen Ornes
- https://www.snexplores.org/article/innovation-2023-robot-can-pick-up-drop-of-liquid
“On-demand, remote and lossless manipulation of biofluid droplets” by Wei Wang et al. (PAYWALL)
- https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/mh/d2mh00695b
“Novel soft robotic droplet manipulator for hazardous liquid cleanup” by ASHWINI SAKHARKAR
- https://www.inceptivemind.com/novel-soft-robotic-droplet-manipulator-hazardous-liquid-cleanup/28367/
“Soft Robotics” by Techopedia
- https://www.techopedia.com/definition/32895/soft-robotics

Malaria Forecast

“WHO Coronavirus Dashboard”
- https://covid19.who.int/
“New analysis could help forecast malaria outbreaks” by Rob Jordan
- https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-analysis-malaria-outbreaks.html
“Climatic, land-use and socio-economic factors can predict malaria dynamics at fine spatial scales relevant to local health actors: Evidence from rural Madagascar” by Julie D. Pourtois et al.
- https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001607
“Estimating the local spatio‐temporal distribution of malaria from routine health information systems in areas of low health care access and reporting” by Elizabeth Hyde et al.
- https://ij-healthgeographics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12942-021-00262-4

Naked Mole Rat Fertility

“Naked mole rats reveal biological secrets of lifelong fertility” by Christa Lesté-Lasserre
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/2360377-naked-mole-rats-reveal-biological-secrets-of-lifelong-fertility/
“Postnatal oogenesis leads to an exceptionally large ovarian reserve in naked mole-rats” by Miguel Angel Brieño-Enríquez et al.
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36284-8
“Germ cell nests in adult ovaries and an unusually large ovarian reserve in the naked mole-rat” by Ned J. Place et al.
- https://rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/rep/161/1/REP-20-0304.xml

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you learn in super cool stuff.
0:11.0	I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping it for the first time
0:13.9	welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind.
0:17.7	If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about a robot with
0:21.7	the ability to pick up a single drop of water.
0:25.0	How scientists have created a computer algorithm that can predict malaria hotspots
0:29.7	and what naked mole rats have to teach us about human fertility.
0:34.0	Without further ado, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:37.0	All right, there's a bunch of cool robots out there.
0:39.0	There have been advancements made recently.
0:41.0	But I think I might have a new favorite, and it's a robot that can pick up a
0:45.1	single drop of liquid.
0:47.1	Okay, we have got robots that can like crush cars and, you know, go go into space like you know curiosity and
0:56.1	you're talking about one that can pick up a single drop of water.
1:00.5	Yeah well not just water Cal, any liquid.
1:04.0	So think about it like this.
1:05.8	If a robot can pick up any biological fluid, it can pick up blood or saliva.
1:10.7	And if it can pick up blood or saliva, that would completely revolutionize
1:13.8	laboratory work where we need to analyze samples of everything from the flu to
1:18.1	COVID-19 and all other contagious diseases in between. So this could be an extra protective
	...

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