Science and Technology links (September 30th, 2018)

  1. Oculus is launching a new standalone virtual-reality headset next year, the Oculus Quest. It is the price of a console like the Nintendo Switch, and might have comparable computational power. It does not need to be tethered to a PC (it is wireless). It should have top-notch virtual reality with six degrees of freedom, meaning that you can walk around. Thanks to inside-out tracking, you don’t need to install sensors in the room.

    At a glance, the produce looks comparable to the HTC Vive Focus which is already available (in China).

    I think that these standalone headsets are interesting and could make virtual reality mainstream… something that tethered headset could never hope to do.

    These small headsets cannot hope to present rich and photorealistic environments. But my experience with virtual reality so far is that simpler is often better.

  2. A single dose of a drug called Trodusquemine completely reverses arthrosclerosis (the buildup of fat in our arteries)… in mice.
  3. Questionable research practices are common in ecology and evolution research: 64 percent of researchers admitted to at least one instance of selective reporting. The fact that these researchers almost never share their data does not help.
  4. You can treat inflammated appendixes with antibiotics instead of using surgery.

Published by

Daniel Lemire

A computer science professor at the University of Quebec (TELUQ).

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