Lifeboat Foundation

The upcoming entry-level Mercedes-Benz EV dubbed the “one-liter car” for its long-range capabilities, was finally caught out in the wild. In a new video, the electric Mercedes CLA was spotted testing near the Arctic Circle. The new EV is Mercedes-Benz’s answer to the Tesla Model 3.

Mercedes unveiled the electric CLA Concept in September, the first model in a new series of entry-level EVs.

Continue reading “Mercedes-Benz’s sleek new entry-level CLA EV spotted as a Tesla Model 3 rival [Video]” »

Apple is exploring various “personal robotics” projects in an effort to create its “next big thing,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Amazon’s Astro robot

One of these projects is described as a “mobile robot” that would “follow users around their homes,” while another is said to be an “advanced table-top home device that uses robotics to move a display around”:

Welcome to The Moss Report Welcome to The Moss Report Featuring articles, videos, podcasts and more from science writer Ralph W. Moss, PhD. Since 1974, The Moss Report has been the world’s #1 source.

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As electric vehicle sales slow, Colorado wants the new faster-charging stations to serve as an answer to consumer “range anxiety.”

A team of Korean researchers has developed a new memory device that can be used to replace existing memory or be used in implementing neuromorphic computing for next-generation artificial intelligence hardware for its low processing costs and its ultra-low–power consumption.

Not as big a success as his The End of History (1989), nevertheless along with Marlyn Manson this book by Fukuyama helped propel the posthuman movement (1988) more into the mainstream discussion.

Review of Francis Fukuyama’s 2002 bestseller.

Not as big a success as his The End of History (1989), nevertheless along with Marilyn Manson this book by Fukuyama helped propel the posthuman movement (1988) more into the mainstream discussion. Nothing much dates as quickly as futurism, and looking at this volume today it is thin on the ground on A1, and a little bit preoccupied with ‘designer children’ pros and cons which maybe was a hot topic 22 years ago, but doesn’t get much current press. My pre-release copy (see photos) is titled “The Posthuman Future”, but overwise doesn’t much differ from first and subsequent editions. Other academics followed Fukuyama onto the bandwagon after this publication, all of them quite far from the 1988 posthumans and the transhuman/ radical futurist movement more generally. Anxieties about the future take over from optimism and inventiveness in this book, in which Fukuyama extensively references early eugenics and various dystopian future scenarios.

Harvard researchers say they have developed a programmable metafluid they are calling an ‘intelligent liquid’ that contains tunable springiness, adjustable optical properties, variable viscosity, and even the seemingly magical ability to shift between a Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid.

The team’s exact formula is still a secret as they explore potential commercial applications. However, the researchers believe their intelligent liquid could be used in anything from programmable robots to intelligent shock absorbers or even optical devices that can shift between transparent and opaque states.

“We are just scratching the surface of what is possible with this new class of fluid,” said Adel Djellouli, a Research Associate in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the first author of the paper. “With this one platform, you could do so many different things in so many different fields.”

A gantlet of tests prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean.

In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on a 1.6-billion-mile (2.6-billion-kilometer) voyage to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa. From the wild vibrations of the rocket ride to the intense heat and cold of space to the punishing radiation of Jupiter, it will be a journey of extremes. The spacecraft was recently put through a series of hard-core tests at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to ensure it’s up to the challenge.

Continue reading “Jupiter’s Moon Europa Beckons As NASA’s Clipper Prepares for the Unknown” »