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The challenge: The building and construction sector is responsible for a big chunk of global carbon emissions. A lot of those emissions come from the production of cement, which is the second most consumed material on the planet behind water.

Cement produces emissions in two main ways. One is through the chemical reactions that occur while sintering limestone and other materials to make “clinker,” a key component of cement. The other comes from using fossil fuels to heat up kilns to very high temperatures.

Continue reading “Engineers create world’s first carbon-neutral cement out of algae” »

A widely discussed application of social robots that has so far been rarely tested in real-world settings is their use as bartenders in cafés, cocktail bars and restaurants. While many roboticists have been trying to develop systems that can effectively prepare drinks and serve them, so far very few have focused on artificially reproducing the social aspect of bartending.

Researchers at University of Naples Federico II in Italy have recently developed a new interactive robotic system called BRILLO, which is specifically designed for bartending. In a recent paper published in UMAP ‘22 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization, they introduced a new approach that could allow their robot to have personalized interactions with regular customers.

“The bartending scenario is an extremely challenging one to tackle using robots, yet it is also very interesting from a research point of view,” Prof. Silvia Rossi, one of the researchers who carried out the study and the scientific coordinator of the project, told TechXplore. “In fact, this scenario combines the complexity of efficiently manipulating objects to make drinks with the need to interact with the users. Interestingly, however, all current applications of robotics for bartending scenarios ignore the interaction part entirely.”

Do more pores in a sieve allow more liquid to flow through it? As material scientists have uncovered, this seemingly simple question may have an unexpected answer at the nanoscale—and it could have important implications in the development of water filtration, energy storage and hydrogen production.

Researchers from UNSW Sydney, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), GANIL (France) and Toyota Technological Institute (Japan) experimenting with Graphene Oxide (GO) membranes have discovered the opposite can occur at the nanoscopic level. The research, published in Nano Letters, shows the chemical environment of the sieve and the surface tension of the liquid play a surprisingly important role in permeability.

The researchers observed that a density of pores doesn’t necessarily lead to higher water permeability—in other words, having more tiny holes doesn’t always allow water to flow through at the nanoscale. The study, supported by the European Union and Humboldt Research Foundation funding, shines new light on the mechanisms that govern water flow through GO membranes.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature titled “A time-resolved, multi-symbol molecular recorder via sequential genome editing,” a group of researchers from the University of…

DNA oligomers wrap around a single-walled carbon nanotube to create ordered sites for the photoaddition of guanine.

Deceptively simple, outrageously powerful for longer, healthier, and happier living.

How can we make being healthy easy and accessible? By following these 3 simple rules!

Continue reading “How to be HEALTHIER (3 Simple Rules)” »

A new experimental drug for cancer was discovered to foster nerve regeneration after spinal trauma.

𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙞𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙢 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣-𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙖𝙣…

The fear of losing jobs to computers is a common one among millions of people, and one that many have seen happen in their lifetime. But A.I. has the potential to allow many jobs to evolve, to become safer, more efficient and better for society as a whole.

The Age of A.I. is a 8 part documentary series hosted by Robert Downey Jr. covering the ways Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Neural Networks will change the world.

Continue reading “Will a robot take my job? | The Age of A.I.” »