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Feb 4, 2020

Robot bartender serves up drinks in Japanese pub

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

TOKYO – Japan’s first robot bartender has begun serving up drinks in a Tokyo pub in a test that could usher in a wave of automation in restaurants and shops struggling to hire staff in an aging society.

The repurposed industrial robot serves drinks in is own corner of a Japanese pub operated by restaurant chain Yoronotaki. An attached tablet computer face smiles as it chats about the weather while preparing orders.

The robot, made by the company QBIT Robotics, can pour a beer in 40 seconds and mix a cocktail in a minute. It uses four cameras to monitors customers to analyze their expressions with artificial intelligence (AI) software.

Feb 4, 2020

Lasers etch a ‘perfect’ solar energy absorber

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, physics, solar power, sustainability

The University of Rochester research lab that recently used lasers to create unsinkable metallic structures has now demonstrated how the same technology could be used to create highly efficient solar power generators.

In a paper in Light: Science & Applications, the lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics also affiliated with Physics and the Material Sciences Program, describes using powerful femto-second pulses to etch with nanoscale structures that selectively absorb light only at the solar wavelengths, but not elsewhere.

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Feb 4, 2020

Ocean-Studying Satellite to Launch from Vandenberg AFB Gets Familiar Name

Posted by in category: satellites

Spacecraft’s new moniker honors NASA’s retired Earth Science Division leader Michael Freilich.

An artist’s concept depicts the Sentinel-6A satellite, which NASA and several partners have renamed in honor of noted earth scientist Michael Freilich, who retired from the space agency but oversaw many missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is set to launch this fall from the Central Coast. (NASA illustration)

Feb 4, 2020

Greener fuels to propel rocket launches into space

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space travel

3D printed catalysts and new propellant types are making rockets more environmentally-friendly.

Feb 4, 2020

In this video, I’m going to talk about the incredible benefits of cryotherapy

Posted by in category: futurism

Read more

Feb 4, 2020

Oddball sexaquark particles could be immortal, if they exist at all

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

These supremely stable particles could explain dark matter.

Feb 4, 2020

Handheld Device “Prints” New Skin Directly Onto Wounds

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

It could be a welcome alternative to skin grafts for burn victims.

Feb 4, 2020

Drugmaker Regeneron working with U.S. HHS to develop coronavirus treatment

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

(Reuters) — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc ( REGN.O ) is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a treatment for the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 400 people in China, the HHS said on Tuesday.

The company will use the same technology that was used to develop an experimental drug to treat Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said.

Feb 4, 2020

Indian oil giant, Israeli start-up to develop metal-air batteries

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

India’s largest commercial oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., will partner with Lod-based energy start-up Phinergy to develop and produce innovative metal-air batteries, often regarded as the solution for long-distance electric-vehicle travel.

Indian Oil said it had bought a minority stake in Phinergy on Tuesday, which specializes in aluminum-air (Al-air) and zinc-air technologies. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that carry oxygen within a heavy electrode, metal-air systems produce energy by combining aluminum, water and oxygen from the air.


The future incorporation of the long-pursued battery solution into electric vehicles, Phinergy said, will enable long-range driving, five-minute energy recharges and lowering the cost of electric vehicles.

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Feb 4, 2020

This 7,000-year-old well is the oldest wooden structure ever discovered, archaeologists say

Posted by in category: futurism

Its design shines a light on technical skills that researchers didn’t think Neolithic people possessed.


Archaeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old Neolithic well in eastern Europe, which they believe is the oldest wooden structure in the world.

The square well was built with oak by farmers around 5256 B.C., according to researchers who pinpointed its origin after analyzing the tree rings in the wood, which is the scientific method known as dendrochronology. The well’s age makes it the oldest dendrochronologically dated archaeological wooden construction worldwide, according to the researchers in the Czech Republic.

Continue reading “This 7,000-year-old well is the oldest wooden structure ever discovered, archaeologists say” »