Month: October 2019

Enlarge / A Python coding error may have bitten as many as 150 different published chemistry research studies. (credit: Hillary Kladke / Getty Images)

In a paper published October 8, researchers at the University of Hawaii found that a programming error in a set of Python scripts commonly used for computational analysis of chemistry data returned varying results based on which operating system they were run on—throwing doubt on the results of more than 150 published chemistry studies. While trying to analyze results from an experiment involving cyanobacteria, the researchers—Jayanti Bhandari Neupane, Ram Neupane, Yuheng Luo, Wesley Yoshida, Rui Sun, and Philip Williams—discovered significant variations in results run against the same nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) data.

The scripts, called the "Willoughby-Hoye" scripts after their authors—Patrick Willoughby and Thomas Hoye of the University of Minnesota—were found to return correct results on macOS Mavericks and Windows 10. But on macOS Mojave and Ubuntu, the results were off by nearly a full percent.

The reason for the variation was the scripts' use of Python's glob module, which searches for files matching a specific name pattern—the scripts generated a list of input files to read based on the glob results. But the module depends on the operating system for the order in which the files are returned. And the results of the scripts' calculations are affected by the order in which the files are processed. Rui Sun and Phillip Williams wrote corrected sorting code that fixes the problem, ensuring consistent results.

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  The Beats Solo Pro are on-ear noise-cancelling headphones. [credit: Jeff Dunn ]

Beats on Tuesday announced the Solo Pro, its latest wireless headphones with active noise cancellation.

The on-ear pair will retail for $300 and be available on October 30, with pre-orders starting today. They’ll join the over-ear Studio 3 Wireless, which cost $350, in the Apple subsidiary’s noise-cancelling headphone lineup.

Like the Studio 3 Wireless, the Solo Pro headphones use a form of adaptive noise cancellation Beats calls “Pure ANC.” This has the headphones' microphones constantly monitor the noise of your surroundings, the music currently playing, and your fit, then adjust the intensity of its active noise cancellation accordingly. You still can’t manually change the strength of the ANC, but Beats says it has fine-tuned the algorithm that drive the Pure ANC tech to better suit the Solo Pro’s on-ear design.

Enlarge / Will Russia really send a centaur-like robot to the Moon? (credit: Roscosmos)

Back in mid-August, the Russian space corporation Roscosmos launched a humanoid robot to the International Space Station to determine the suitability of its Soyuz 2.1a rocket to handle a crew version of the Soyuz spacecraft. The robot, officially referred to as "Skybot F-850" but nicknamed "Fedor," spent about two weeks on the station.

During that time, Fedor performed several tests, including an assessment of the potential for conducting repairs outside the space station. The robot also demonstrated its capability to use a drill, a towel, and electrical equipment. After nearly 16 days, Fedor and its Soyuz spacecraft landed safely in the dusty steppes of Kazakhstan.

Russian scientists and engineers apparently felt the mission was enough of a success to expand their ambitions for Fedor-like robots. According to state news service RIA Novosti, the country plans to send a vehicle to the Moon in three or four years that has a humanoid torso and the body of a rover.