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The University of Tokyo just covered a robot finger with real skin. The jokes write themselves…
Skin is also just the first step in combining organic matter with machines, and opens the door for incorporating nerves and sensory organs such as olfactory receptors which can detect scents. https://soranews24.com/2022/06/16/robot-finger-covered-in-living-skin-developed-by-university-of-tokyo/ The original report was published online by the U of Tokyo before it was covered last week by several online sources, including WebMD, […]
Amino acids found in material brought back by Hayabusa-2
More than 20 types of amino acids have been detected in samples Japan’s Hayabusa2 space probe brought to Earth from an asteroid in late 2020, a government official said Monday, showing for the first time the organic compounds exist on asteroids in space. https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/06/9a7dbced6c3a-amino-acids-found-in-asteroid-samples-collected-by-hayabusa2-probe.html This lends support to the hypothesis that life on Earth was […]
Madam, I’m ADAM
<It has become more and more difficult to share images and quotes from websites that apparently refuse to allow WordPress to share content, so I am borderline “ef it” at this point.”> This used to be a gif, but apparently I’m not allowed to download it as such, and even as a “webp” (whatever the […]
Top Posts & Pages
- “Japan should rethink gender roles”? Yeah, no kidding
- Ten Years of Taking Leave
- First Year Wall (Part 2) - The (not-so voluntary) parent-teacher conference
- The First Year Wall (Part 1) - Gakudo and the Kid
- End of an Era: Goodbye, Nursery School
- Death of a Cherry Tree
- How Do You Talk to Your Kids About Dying?
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Category Archives: Japanese
The First Year Wall (Part 1) – Gakudo and the Kid
Three weeks ago, our youngest daughter went to nursery school for the last time. The following Monday, she started gakudo (学童, short for 学童教育 gakudokyouiku, which is usually translated as “after school program”). Since both my wife and I work … Continue reading
End of an Era: Goodbye, Nursery School
And so it begins. The end of the start of the rest of my children’s childhood. By which I mean our youngest daughter graduated from nursery school / kindergarten. Thinking back, we’ve been coming to our local nursery school every … Continue reading
Farewell, Nursery. Hello, Kindergarten
After turning five in January, our youngest daughter finally made to the end of nursery school (“nen-cho,” 年長). Or so we thought. We had heard rumors in previous years that the system might change. It turns out that in this … Continue reading