Lifeboat Foundation

Toyota claims that both concepts offer “superior handling stability and ride comfort.”

Toyota has been stepping up its efforts to create and manufacture BEVs in recent times to compete with EV-focused efforts from brands like Tesla and General Motors. In July, Toyota unveiled its electric roadmap, including a lineup of EVs with a cruising range exceeding 621 miles (1,000 kilometers).

To that extent, the Japanese automaker has now taken the wraps off the Toyota Land Cruiser Se, EPU Pickup EVs. Both are in their concept forms, with the former being a three-row electrified version of its iconic Land Cruiser. These are part of its lineup at the upcoming Japan Mobility Show 2023 that begins on October 25.

Four teams using Rivian EVs were featured in the top 20 list, with 55 teams participating.

EVs are believed to be relatively less practical when compared to ICE vehicles. Limitations in range, charging time, and placement of a high-voltage system under the car often prevent users from pushing it to its limits.

Now, an EV has gone ahead and won the 2023 Rebelle Rally, the longest off-road rally conducted in the United States. The vehicle that achieved this feat was the Rivian R1T pickup truck, which made it the first all-electric to have won the 4X4 category of the rally since its inception in 2015.

The company which describes itself as the data infrastructure company for AI, bagged a $249 million contract in 2022 to provide a range of AI tech to the US Department of Defence.

Traditionally, the United States has been viewed as the top dog in global military applications, but over the last three decades, it’s been facing competition from a strong opponent in the Indo-Pacific area. China has been bullishly making its space by modernizing its weapons and forces and denting the US’ dominance in developing advanced technologies.

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Continue reading “Could ScaleAI secure US supremacy over China in the AI arms race?” »

For the first time ever, researchers at the Surgical Robotics Laboratory of the University of Twente successfully made two microrobots work together to pick up, move and assemble passive objects in 3D environments. This achievement opens new horizons for promising biomedical applications.

Imagine you need surgery somewhere inside your body. However, the part that needs surgery is very difficult for a surgeon to reach. In the future, a couple of robots smaller than a grain of salt might go into your body and perform the surgery. These microrobots could work together to perform all kinds of complex tasks. “It’s almost like magic,” says Franco Piñan Basualdo, corresponding author of the publication.

Researchers from the University of Twente successfully exploited two of these 1-millimeter-sized magnetic microrobots to perform several operations. Like clockwork, the microrobots were able to pick up, move and assemble cubes. Unique to this achievement is the 3D environment in which the robots performed their tasks.

NASA has revealed that it has already processed 70.3 grams of rocks and dust collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from asteroid Bennu. That means the mission has way exceeded its goal of bringing 60 grams of asteroid samples back to Earth — especially since NASA scientists have yet to open the primary sample container that made its way back to our planet in September. Apparently, they’re struggling to open the mission’s Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) and could not remove two of its 35 fasteners using the tools currently available to them.

The scientists are processing the samples inside a specialized glovebox (pictured above) with a flow of nitrogen in order to keep them from being exposed to our atmosphere and any contaminants. They can’t just use any implement to break the container’s fasteners open either: The tool must fit inside the glovebox, and it also must not compromise the samples’ integrity. NASA has sealed the primary container sample for now, while it’s developing the procedure to be able to open it over the next few weeks.

If you’re wondering where the 70.3 grams of rocks and dust came from, well, NASA collected part of it from the external sample receptacle but outside TAGSAM itself. It also includes a small portion of the samples inside TAGSAM, taken by holding down its mylar flap and reaching inside with tweezers or a scoop. NASA’s initial analysis of the material published earlier this month said it showed evidence of high carbon content and water, and further studies could help us understand how life on Earth began. The agency plans to continue analyzing and “characterizing” the rocks and dust it has already taken from the sample container, so we may hear more details about the samples even while TAGSAM remains sealed.

Found in a Spanish landfill, the fossils of the extinct species Pierolapithecus catalaunicus may reveal important clues about our origins.

After birth, the human heart loses its regenerative capacity almost completely. Damage to the heart muscle—for example, due to a heart attack—therefore usually leads to a permanent loss of function in adults. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research have now shown for the first time in mice that a change in the energy metabolism of heart muscle cells enables heart regeneration.

In the animals, heart function could thus be restored to a large extent after a heart attack. The study, published in the journal Nature, is groundbreaking and could enable completely new therapeutic approaches.

The loss of regenerative capacity in adults hearts is due, among other things, to the loss of the ability of heart muscle cells to divide after birth. This is accompanied by a fundamental change in the energy metabolism of the heart cells: Instead of obtaining energy from sugars, which is known as glycolysis, the heart muscle cells now obtain their energy largely from fats. This form of energy production is known as fatty acid oxidation.

ChatGPT’s deceptive messages work almost as well as ones written by people, IBM found. And it’s much faster.

Isotopes tell the epic tale of one ancient mammal’s odyssey across Alaska.