Lifeboat Foundation

Power suits, robotaxis, Leonardo da Vinci mania—just a few of the things to look out for in 2019. But what else will make our top ten stories for the year ahead?

Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy

Continue reading “What will be the biggest stories of 2019? | Part One | The Economist” »

A team from Cornell is out to prove that water is all you need to send an aircraft flying in space. They will attempt to send a CubeSat, a tiny satellite no bigger than a cereal box, to orbit the moon.

Automation is on the right track.

The bot is helping automate mining operations Down Under.

The evidence that self-driving vehicle manufacturers aren’t always upfront with the public hasn’t helped either. An excoriating October New Yorker investigation into the early years of the Google self-driving research project that eventually became Waymo found that the company had performed reckless road tests early in its work — and hadn’t always reported accidents.

Road Ahead

Musk’s promise to accelerate fully autonomous research, along with a call for more internal Tesla testers for the program, run precisely counter to that narrative. That’s not surprising: the eccentric Musk is known for imagining futures that are still years away — and using his wealth and influence to attempt to steer history toward or away from them.

The team at Jetpack Aviation (JPA) has just completed test flights in which two pilots flew close enough together to playfully boop each other on the nose. Next step: the world’s first jetpack race series, starting in 2019, and yes, the jetboards and jet suits of the world are invited to participate!

New rules will require investing in solar, biofuels and maybe even nuclear power.

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast.

A chain of around 130 earth tremors have rocked the volcano since around 0800 GMT on Monday, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said, with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0.

There were no reports of any injuries.

Continue reading “Authorities close airport as Italy’s Mount Etna erupts” »

From groundbreaking moon missions to growth in the legal-cannabis market, 2019 will be year of new highs. Here’s what to watch out for in the year ahead.

Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy

Continue reading “2019: the year of moon missions, marijuana and mega-hub airports | The Economist” »

Muscle cars. Film cameras. Bell-bottoms. 8-tracks. It’s 1968. Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders get a call to cancel their holiday plans. By December, the three were suddenly farther away than any human had ever been from our home planet. Start your flashback here: https://go.nasa.gov/2Ey19dY