touch | Common News Update

Apr12021 by adminNo Comments

Whisker simulation shows how follicles send sensory touch signals to mammal brains

Science

April 1 (UPI) -- For many animals, whiskers offer what fingers provide humans -- invaluable sensory information. Though aware of their importance, scientists have struggled to understand exactly how whiskers work. Part of the problem is that the most important part of the whisker, as a source of sensory signals, is hidden beneath the skin inside the follicle. Advertisement To better understand the mechanics of mammalian whiskers, researchers combined new anatomical observations with sophisticated digital simulations. The analysis, detailed Thursday in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, suggests the base of the whisker forms an S-shaped bend inside the follicle when it brushes against an object, pulling on some sensory cells and pushing on others. "Although researchers have examined ...

Feb212021 by adminNo Comments

Mars landing: Photo shows Perseverance about to touch down

Science

The American space agency has released an astonishing image sent back from Mars by its Perseverance rover.It shows the robot heading down to the ground on Thursday to make its landing. It was acquired by the rocket cradle that placed the vehicle on the surface.Perseverance has a large amount of data in its memory banks which it is gradually offloading to Earth.Among other pictures is a view from a satellite that captures the rover in the parachute phase of its descent.This also represents an immense technical achievement because the satellite - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - was approximately 700km from Perseverance at the time and traveling at about 3km/s.Nasa is promising more in the next few days.This offering will include short movies shot during the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL)...

Jan152021 by adminNo Comments

Martin Luther King: ‘They thought his affairs would destroy him… but the press wouldn’t touch it’

Entertainment

Director Sam Pollard grew up in a house with three pictures on the wall - Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy and Jesus.Two of those childhood role models made it into his latest documentary, MLK/FBI. Early influences aside, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker says what's extraordinary about the film is that it's centred on information, which by rights, shouldn't exist.It draws on recently declassified files, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and unsealed by the National Archives, to show how King was targeted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) throughout the 1950s and 1960s, right up to the day of his death. Image: King speaking in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1960 Despite King's fiercely non-violent appr...

Dec182020 by adminNo Comments

Mutual fund assets to touch Rs 50 lakh crore by 2025: Crisil

Finance

Ratings agency Crisil on Thursday said the mutual fund industry will post double-digit growth for the next few years and its assets under management will cross Rs 50 lakh crore by 2025. Crisil's research wing said the increase in inflows is bound to be fuelled by investments into equities as against other asset classes. Investor interest in the mutual funds segment has been changing lately because of market volatility, and the average assets under management stood at around Rs 30 lakh crore as of November 2020. "Over the five years through 2025, we expect the industry's assets under management (AUM) to continue its double-digit growth and cross the Rs 50 lakh crore mark," Crisil's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashu Suyash said. She said equities, whose share stands at 42...

Mar182020 by adminNo Comments

Coronavirus: How to stay in virtual touch with older relatives

Technology

As the government encourages "social distancing" in the fight against coronavirus, older people are facing the prospect of being told to stay at home for weeks.But what if a parent or older person in your life, doesn't already have access to video calling tech?"You might want to consider getting a specialised device to make video calls to your loved ones," says Kate Bevan, editor of computing at Which?, the consumer magazine."Once they're set up, they're very simple to use but you do have to dig through settings in their apps to connect them and that's not always as straightforward as it might be," she says."Give yourself plenty of time to familiarise yourself with doing that so that you can help your relative through the process...