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Jul 6, 2016

GM working on ‘robo-glove’ for factories

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

General Motors is working with NASA and medical technologies company Bioservo to develop a battery-assisted robotic glove that can be used in assembly plants.

The technology was initially developed from a partnership between GM and NASA that resulted in RoboGlove, a force-multiplying tool that looks like a large electrified work glove.

The RoboGlove uses sensors and actuators comparable to the nerves, muscles and tendons in a human hand.

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Jul 6, 2016

Super-strong and airy 3D-printed supermaterials inch closer to reality

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, materials

Researchers at the Masdar Institute are creating 3D printed high performance materials with custom-designed mechanical, thermal and electrical properties by manipulating the materials’ internal structures.

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Jul 6, 2016

Paralyzed chimp walks, courtesy touch screen tech

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

In a first, Japanese scientists have used a computer programme and a touch screen device to encourage a paralysed chimpanzee to walk again, showing that euthanasia need not be the only option for animals injured in captivity.

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Jul 6, 2016

A Section of Route 66 Will Become America’s First Public Solar Road

Posted by in category: solar power

I’ve seen people try and shoot this down, but it’s on its way.


Missouri will line a swath of the iconic highway with special energy-generating photovoltaic pavers.

Continue reading “A Section of Route 66 Will Become America’s First Public Solar Road” »

Jul 6, 2016

The World’s Largest Vertical Farm Is Being Built in New Jersey

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

A huge vertical farm—where crops are planted, grown, and harvested all with neither sun nor soil—is being built in New Jersey. When it’s finished, it will be the largest one in the world.

You can see one of the (smaller) existing factories from AeroFarm, on which the new one will be modeled, above in this video from Seeker Stories. Nothing they are doing or planning is really new—people have been growing vegetables indoors under LED lights, minus the soil, for a very long time now. Even the factory spin is nothing new. Japan’s Mirai factory has been doing something similar on a slightly smaller scale for years now. What is interesting here, though, is just how big this place is.

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Jul 5, 2016

FDA approves first dissolving stent for US patients

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Glad it has been approved. This would have been great for BMI technology as well; however, FDA limits it to only treat clogged arteries.


WASHINGTON (AP) — A medical implant that slowly dissolves into the body could be the answer to long-standing safety concerns with devices used to treat clogged arteries.

But not so fast, say experts.

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Jul 5, 2016

DARPA’s Hacking Contest Will Pit Machines Against Each Other

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Battle of the Machines.


DARPA is hosting a competition, the Cyber Grand Challenge, to find ways to solve cybersecurity vulnerabilities automatically.

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Jul 5, 2016

Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, 4D printing, robotics/AI

I told folks just the other day; US Manufacturing in the next 3 to 5 years will primarily be robots, 3-/4-D printers, other AI systems, and a couple of line managers to spot check quality of the operation. Just surprised Amazon wasn’t already fully robotic.


Amazon’s progress toward an army of helpful robots is one step closer: a prize for the best warehouse-working “picker” machine has gone to a robot designed by a team from TU Delft Robotics Institute and Delft Robotics, both based in the Netherlands.

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Jul 5, 2016

A little impurity makes nanolasers shine

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, particle physics

Nice.


Researcher Tim Burgess added atoms of zinc to lasers one hundredth the diameter of a human hair and made of gallium arsenide — a material used extensively in smartphones and other electronic devices.

The impurities led to a 100 times improvement in the amount of light from the lasers.

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Jul 5, 2016

Engineers Design Programmable RNA Vaccines That Protext Against Ebola and H1N1 Influenza

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

A newly published study details how engineers developed programmable RNA vaccines that work against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and a common parasites in mice.

MIT engineers have developed a new type of easily customizable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks. So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 percent effective in tests in mice.

The vaccine consists of strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA, which can be designed to code for any viral, bacterial, or parasitic protein. These molecules are then packaged into a molecule that delivers the RNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that provoke an immune response from the host.

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