Chris Campbell:

AI Data Centers Face Increasing Complaints About Inaudible but ‘Felt’ Infrasound

Data center projects have faced resistance from residents and communities over their impact on power prices, but another complaint is being raised more frequently – noise pollution. One form of sound pollution is called infrasound, which is inaudible to humans but can be felt, and some claim it causes headaches, insomnia, nausea, and anxiety.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a non-profit organization, said that high- and low-frequency sounds emitted by data centers can be heard and felt for hundreds of feet in surrounding areas, with noise levels reaching as high as 96dB for 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Residents allege that the noise pollution is causing them dizziness, nausea, vertigo, and sleep disruption.

Communities living near off-grid data centers that generate their own power have it the worst. These sites generate their own power, typically using natural-gas-powered turbines – essentially jet engines bolted to the floor and used to turn generators that produce electricity. Cooling, which accounts for nearly 40% of data center power use, is another major source of noise pollution due to the sheer number of running fans.

As the negative effects of building these sites too close to population centers are slowly being revealed, opposition against these projects is expected to keep increasing.

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Enrique Abeyta:

What Is Hantavirus? The Deadly Disease Raising Alarm Worldwide

A cruise ship stranded off the coast of South Africa because of a deadly hantavirus outbreak has drawn global attention to the rare but serious disease. Are we looking at the next coronavirus-level pandemic? Or are the fears overblown?

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses that usually spread from rodents to humans. Only one type, called the Andes virus, has been linked to possible person-to-person transmission, and even then, experts say it is uncommon and generally requires close contact.

People mainly become infected by breathing in airborne particles from rodent urine or droppings. Experts stress that hantavirus does not spread as easily as influenza. Furthermore, rodent bites are considered an uncommon source of infection.

Early signs of hantavirus infection include fever, muscle pain, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Because these symptoms resemble many common illnesses, diagnosis can be difficult. New World hantavirus infections can quickly progress to heart or lung failure within days.

Regarding treatment options, doctors must carefully manage fluids because low blood pressure can cause fluid buildup in the lungs. Researchers are still developing antiviral drugs for hantavirus, but none have been approved in the United States. 

Click the link below for more details on the illness.

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Ray Blanco:

Japan: World-First Fully Automated Medicine Lab With Humanoids, Robots and No Humans

Japan's Institute of Science Tokyo has launched a robotics laboratory designed to automate medical research tasks traditionally handled by scientists. The facility at the Yushima campus of the institute, known as the Robotics Innovation Center, currently operates with 10 robots and no human staff on site.

Among the robots is the humanoid Maholo LabDroid, which uses two robotic arms to perform delicate laboratory procedures such as transferring precise amounts of reagents and handling temperature-controlled equipment.

The robots are also capable of automatically carrying out programmed cell cultivation tasks, reducing the need for manual intervention in repetitive experimental work. The university aims to expand the number of robots at the facility to around 2,000 by 2040 as part of a long-term effort to automate nearly the entire research process, from hypothesis generation to experimental verification.

The initiative comes as research institutions face growing labor shortages and increasing pressure to minimize human error in laboratory operations. Maholo has already been deployed at an ophthalmology-focused hospital in Kobe, where it supports clinical research involving induced pluripotent stem cells and automated cell culture work.

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