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Humanoid Robots Stride into the Future with World's First Half-marathon

A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Humanoid Robots Stride into the Future with World's First Half-marathon

A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)

Step by mechanical step, dozens of humanoid robots took to the streets of Beijing early Saturday, joining thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in a world-first half marathon showcasing China's drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology.

The 21-kilometer (13-mile) event held in the Chinese capital's E-Town -- a state-backed hub for high-tech manufacturing -- is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions, AFP said.

At the crack of the starter's gun, and as a Chinese pop song "I Believe" blared out from loudspeakers on repeat, the robots queued up one by one and took their first tentative steps.
Curious human runners lined up on their side of the road and waited patiently with mobile phones at the ready to shoot each machine as they prepared to depart.

One smaller-sized android, which fell over and lay on the ground for several minutes, got up by itself to loud cheers.

Another, powered by propellers and designed to look like a Transformer, veered across the starting line before crashing into a barrier and knocking over an engineer.

"Getting onto the race track might seem like a small step for humans, but it's a giant leap for humanoid robots," Liang Liang, Beijing E-Town's management committee deputy director, told AFP before the event. Nearby, engineers jogged alongside their machines.

"The marathon helps push humanoid robots one step closer toward industrialization."

- Tech race -

Around 20 teams from across China are taking part in the competition -- with robots ranging from 75 to 180 centimeters (2.46 to 5.9 feet) tall and weighing up to 88 kilograms (194 pounds).

Some are running autonomously, while others are guided remotely by engineers, with machines and humans running on separate tracks.

Engineers told AFP the goal was to test the performance and reliability of the androids -- emphasizing that finishing the race, not winning it, was the main objective.
"I think it's a big boost for the entire robotics industry," Cui Wenhao, a 28-year-old engineer at Noetix Robotics, said of the half-marathon.

"Honestly, there are very few opportunities for the whole industry to run at full speed over such a long distance or duration. It's a serious test for the battery, the motors, the structure -- even the algorithms."

Cui said as part of its training, a humanoid robot had been running a half-marathon every day, at a pace of about seven-minutes per kilometer, and he expected it to complete the race with no issues.

"But just in case, we've also prepared a backup robot," he added.

Another young engineer, 25-year-old Kong Yichang from DroidUp, said the race would help to "lay a foundation for a whole series of future activities involving humanoid robots".
"The significance (of the race) lies in the fact that humanoid robots can truly integrate into human society and begin doing things that humans do."

China, the world's second-largest economy, has sought to assert its dominance in the fields of AI and robotics, positioning itself as a direct challenger to the United States.

In January, Chinese start-up DeepSeek drew attention with a chatbot it claimed was developed more cost-effectively than its American counterparts.

Dancing humanoid robots also captivated audiences during a televised Chinese New Year gala.

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Saudi Arabia: NCW Marks World Wildlife Day with Strategic Plan for Biodiversity Protection

The NCW says it is focused on enhancing wildlife management efficiency. SPA
The NCW says it is focused on enhancing wildlife management efficiency. SPA
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Saudi Arabia: NCW Marks World Wildlife Day with Strategic Plan for Biodiversity Protection

The NCW says it is focused on enhancing wildlife management efficiency. SPA
The NCW says it is focused on enhancing wildlife management efficiency. SPA

The National Center for Wildlife (NCW) reaffirmed its commitment to protecting wildlife and preserving natural habitats, recognizing this responsibility as essential to nature conservation and ecosystem sustainability in Saudi Arabia. This observance aligns with World Wildlife Day, marked annually on March 3.

The center emphasized its efforts in wildlife development, which include breeding endangered species and reintroducing them into their natural habitats, developing and managing protected areas, and implementing environmental monitoring programs and scientific research.

This approach builds on a phased institutional effort, expanding breeding and reintroduction programs for wildlife species from seven to 21, with a strategic plan to reach 50 programs by 2030.

The NCW is also focused on enhancing wildlife management efficiency and advancing operational tools, thereby strengthening a national approach grounded in science and long-term planning.

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Student Solves Mystery of Icy ‘Snowmen’ in Solar System’s Outer Reaches

Contact binaries are made up of two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman (Shutterstock)
Contact binaries are made up of two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman (Shutterstock)
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Student Solves Mystery of Icy ‘Snowmen’ in Solar System’s Outer Reaches

Contact binaries are made up of two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman (Shutterstock)
Contact binaries are made up of two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman (Shutterstock)

A student has unraveled a long-standing cosmic enigma concerning some of our solar system’s most peculiar objects: icy “snowmen” that populate its outer reaches, according to The Independent.

Astronomers have long debated the origins of these 'contact binaries' – objects comprising two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman.

Now, researchers at Michigan State University claim to have evidence.

These peculiar celestial “snowmen” are found in the Kuiper Belt, a vast expanse beyond Neptune, which is filled with icy remnants dating back to the solar system's formation. The region lies beyond the turbulent asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

These ancient building blocks, known as planetesimals, have largely persisted untouched for billions of years. Roughly one in 10 of these objects are classified as ‘contact binaries.’

The enduring mystery has been how such delicate structures could have formed without being violently smashed together.

Jackson Barnes, a graduate student at the university, has developed the first computer simulation to show how such two-lobed shapes can arise naturally through gravitational collapse.

This is the process by which matter contracts under its own gravity, overpowering forces that would otherwise pull it apart.

The research has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Earlier computer models treated colliding objects as fluid-like blobs that quickly merged into single spheres, making it impossible to recreate contact binaries.

Using high-performance computing facilities, Barnes’ simulations instead allow objects to retain their strength and settle gently against one another.

Other theories have suggested that rare events or exotic conditions might be required to produce these shapes, but researchers say such explanations are unlikely to account for their apparent abundance.

“If we think 10% of planetesimal objects are contact binaries, the process that forms them can’t be rare,” said Earth and Environmental Science assistant professor Seth Jacobson, the study’s senior author.

“Gravitational collapse fits nicely with what we’ve observed.”

Contact binaries were first seen in close detail in January 2019, when Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past a Kuiper Belt object later nicknamed Ultima Thule.

The images prompted scientists to re-examine other distant bodies, revealing that about 10% of planetesimals share the same distinctive shape.

In the sparsely populated Kuiper Belt, these objects drift largely undisturbed and are rarely hit by other debris.

In the early history of the Milky Way, the galaxy consisted of a disc of gas and dust. Remnants of that era persist in the Kuiper Belt today, including dwarf planets such as Pluto, along with comets and planetesimals.

Planetesimals are among the first solid bodies to form as dust and pebble-sized material clumps together under gravity. Much like snowflakes compressed into a snowball, they are loose aggregates pulled from clouds of tiny particles.

Barnes’ simulation shows that as one of these clouds rotates, it can collapse inward and split into two separate bodies that begin orbiting each other.

Such binary planetesimals are commonly observed in the Kuiper Belt. Over time, their orbits spiral closer until the pair gently touch and fuse, preserving their rounded shapes.

The reason these fragile-looking structures survive for billions of years, Barnes explained, is simple chance. In such a remote region, collisions are rare. Without a major impact, there is little to pull the two bodies apart, and many contact binaries show few, if any, impact craters.

Scientists have long suspected gravitational collapse was responsible, but until now they lacked models capable of testing the idea properly.

“We’re able to test this hypothesis for the first time in a legitimate way,” Barnes said. “That’s what’s so exciting about this paper.”

He believes the model could also help researchers understand more complex systems involving three or more bodies. The team is already working on simulations that better capture the details of the collapse process.

As future space missions venture deeper into the outer solar system, the researchers said the familiar snowman shape may turn out to be far more common than once thought.

Varieties

80% of China’s Lanterns Are Made in One Little Town

80% of the country's lanterns are still made by hand (Getty images)
80% of the country's lanterns are still made by hand (Getty images)
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80% of China’s Lanterns Are Made in One Little Town

80% of the country's lanterns are still made by hand (Getty images)
80% of the country's lanterns are still made by hand (Getty images)

In China, red lanterns could guide a traveler to safety in cold winter alleyways, be symbols of power outside an imperial hall, or act as a call to religious devotion when hung in a temple.

They are also absolutely synonymous with lunar new year celebrations right across the vast country and link today's Chinese people with the culture of their ancestors, according to BBC.

To imagine how many lanterns would be hung here, at any given time, is like trying to count how many trees would be in the Amazon.

And yet it is claimed that a remarkable 80% of the country's lanterns are still made – by hand – in one small town in Hebei Province.

Walking around the dusty streets of Tuntou you see evidence of lantern making everywhere you go.

A view through an open door into a courtyard might reveal a small group of villagers sitting on stools and making lanterns while they chat, while down the main street, red lanterns are piled up one on top of the other.

Nobody seems to know just how many hundreds of years ago the craft started in this part of northern China but, if you're born in Tunou, you are immersed in lantern making from a very young age.

“When you see others in your family doing it every day, you get the hang of it quickly,” one woman told the BBC, adding that “kids here can pick it up at from around 10-years-old.”

It seems remarkable that, in an era of high-tech production lines, this town has been able to maintain a stranglehold on the lantern market, using production techniques from another era.

When asked about this, one elderly lantern maker said it was because they could easily fill diverse orders, no matter how small in scale, and do it more cheaply than factories could.

In the future, modern production may find a way to match what this village can do by hand, offering the same diversity of options at a competitive price, but it has not happened yet.

But a challenge for Tuntou is that many young people these days are not satisfied with a life of lantern making, instead opting for the lure of the city and the possibilities that urban existence can bring. This could mean a shortage of labor in the years to come.

However, for now, this is China's lantern town, and its residents are proud that it is known this way.