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Oct 2, 2022

The next phase of mobile technology will be dominated

Posted by in category: mobile phones

Smart glasses from the likes of Amazon, Meta, and Snap will complement and then replace smartphones.

Oct 2, 2022

Living Plant Controls a Machete Through an Industrial Robot Arm

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

David bowen’s creates ‘plant machete’ that enables a live plant to move a machete with a control system and a machine arm.

Oct 1, 2022

Tesla To Employ Thousands Of Its “Humanoid Robots” In Its Factories

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The big surprise at the initial Tesla AI Day in 2021 was Tesla’s plan for an actual human-like, or “humanoid,” robot. (Though, our own Chanan Bos did predict that type of product.) Some basic details were presented, and a human in a robot costume danced around a bit.

While Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) has been slow to reach a convincing level of autonomy, I think the potential for Tesla to capitalize on the AI it is developing in the form of a humanoid robot is tremendous.

Oct 1, 2022

Before Brains, Mechanics May Have Ruled Animal Behavior

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Biomechanical interactions, rather than neurons, control the movements of one of the simplest animals. The discovery offers a glimpse into how animal behavior worked before neurons evolved.

Oct 1, 2022

Tesla unveils new Dojo supercomputer so powerful it tripped the power grid

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, supercomputing, transportation

Tesla has unveiled its latest version of its Dojo supercomputer and it’s apparently so powerful that it tripped the power grid in Palo Alto.

Dojo is Tesla’s own custom supercomputer platform built from the ground up for AI machine learning and more specifically for video training using the video data coming from its fleet of vehicles.

The automaker already has a large NVIDIA GPU-based supercomputer that is one of the most powerful in the world, but the new Dojo custom-built computer is using chips and an entire infrastructure designed by Tesla.

Oct 1, 2022

Breakthrough: Physicists Take Particle Self-Assembly to New Level

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

Breakthrough opens up new possibilities for the creation of next-generation materials.

A new way to self-assemble particles has been created by a team of physicists. This advance offers new promise for building complex and innovative materials at the microscopic level.

Self-assembly, introduced in the early 2000s, gives scientists a means to “pre-program” particles, which allows for the construction of materials without further human intervention. This is basically the microscopic equivalent of Ikea furniture that can assemble itself.

Oct 1, 2022

New aerogel could produce 70 times more hydrogen than other methods

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Hydrogen generation using abundant solar energy together with semiconductor photocatalysts holds significant potential to produce clean and sustainable energy carriers.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a new photocatalyst made from an aerogel that could enable more efficient hydrogen production. The aerogel increases the efficiency of converting light into hydrogen energy, producing up to 70 times more hydrogen than rival methods.

Aerogels are extraordinary materials that have set Guinness World Records more than a dozen times, including the honorary position of becoming one of the world’s lightest solids. Professor Markus Niederberger from the Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials at ETH Zurich has been working with these special materials for some time.

Oct 1, 2022

Scientists make massive breakthrough in nuclear fusion as ‘ignition’ is finally achieved

Posted by in categories: chemistry, nuclear energy, particle physics

Scientists managed to start the same chemical process that powers the Sun on August 8, 2021, by putting more electricity into a tiny gold capsule than the entire US electric system could handle.

It is extremely astonishing how the power of 192 laser beams sparked the same thermonuclear fire that fuels the Sun for a nanosecond.

The Sun produces energy by hurling hydrogen atoms together, generating helium in the process. We are now closer than ever to being able to harness chemical reactions with enough force to power the Sun. This is possible because fusion power technology has advanced.

Oct 1, 2022

Uganda struggles to contain Ebola variant with no approved vaccine

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

More than 50 cases have been identified so far in an outbreak linked to the Sudan variant of Ebola virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.

Oct 1, 2022

Russia’s annexation puts world ‘two or three steps away’ from nuclear war

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military

Putin has previously threatened to resort to nuclear weapons if Russia’s goals in Ukraine continue to be thwarted. The annexation brings the use of a nuclear weapon a step closer by giving Putin a potential justification on the grounds that “the territorial integrity of our country is threatened,” as he put it in his speech last week.

He renewed the threat on Friday with an ominous comment that the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a “precedent” for the use of nuclear weapons, echoing references he has made in the past to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as setting a precedent for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.