#bed Year 2006

July 5, 2006 Given that we spend roughly a third of our life asleep, the humble bed has had remarkably little innovation pointed in its direction over the ages. So a new floating bed which hovers 40 cm above the floor represents a significant development in the design of sleeping apparatus. Debuting at the recent Millionaire Fair in Kortrijk, Belgium, the floating bed is the result of six years of development by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars working with Bakker Magnetics. Using the power of permanent opposing industrial-strength magnets to enable it to float, the full scale bed can hold 900 kilograms of weight, while a smaller one fifth scale platform can safely hold 80 kilogams. Already people are beginning to see many applications for the simple yet visually arresting platforms ranging from the basis for a sofa, Coffee table, Japanese dining table and particularly in the display areas where museums and high-end visual merchandisers are beginning to conceptualise numerous creative uses.

Four thin cables assure its motionless position and form the only contact with the ground and the only other aspect which concerned us about what is essentially a stunningly simple device was the issue of sleeping in such close proximity to magnetic fields.

Janjaap assures us that should you feel inclined to slip your bankcard into your pyjamas, the magnetic field atop the unit is not enough to degauss the magnetic strip. The field below the unit is a different matter however, and given that the magnetic field is strong enough to suspend 900 kilograms, it’s not recommended that people with pacemakers go under the bed – so if you’re wearing a pacemaker and drop the strawberry lube while using the floating bed, it’d be advisable to ask your partner to retrieve it.

Spacecraft powered by electric propulsion could soon be better protected against their own exhaust, thanks to new supercomputer simulations.

Electric propulsion is a more efficient alternative to traditional chemical rockets, and it’s being increasingly used on space missions, starting off with prototypes on NASA’s Deep Space 1 and the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 in 1998 and 2003, respectively, and subsequently finding use on flagship science missions such as NASA’s Dawn and Psyche missions to the asteroid belt. There are even plans to use electric propulsion on NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station.

face_with_colon_three Year 2012

Elevated land-based islands could protect people living in low-lying areas from tsunamis – and archipelagos of them could form entire towns.

By Robert Gilhooly

Donut Lab has made a motor that can power cars, bikes and more.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will likely release an AI model that acts as a “midlevel engineer” this year.

UNSW engineers have demonstrated a well-known quantum thought experiment in the real world. Their findings deliver a new and more robust way to perform quantum computations—and they have important implications for error correction, one of the biggest obstacles standing between them and a working quantum computer.

Quantum mechanics has puzzled scientists and philosophers for more than a century. One of the most famous quantum thought experiments is that of the “Schrödinger’s cat”—a cat whose life or death depends on the decay of a radioactive atom.

According to quantum mechanics, unless the atom is directly observed, it must be considered to be in a superposition—that is, being in multiple states at the same time—of decayed and not decayed. This leads to the troubling conclusion that the cat is in a superposition of dead and alive.

A man was arrested on suspicion of purposely starting a brush fire in Azusa, police announced.

First responders were called to Pioneer Park shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the Azusa Police Department. There, a witness told officers the man who ignited the blaze was still at the scene.

Google’s new AI-powered tool does deep analysis on complex topics.

Year 2021 face_with_colon_three

Plasma + magnets = magic.

Back in 2021, a test of cephalopod smarts reinforced how important it is for us humans to not underestimate animal intelligence.

Cuttlefish were given a new version of the marshmallow test, and the results may demonstrate that there’s more going on in their strange little brains than we knew.

Their ability to learn and adapt, the researchers said, could have evolved to give cuttlefish an edge in the cutthroat eat-or-be-eaten marine world they live in.