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Jun 7, 2017

Hyundai’s new electric bus has 180 miles of range and fully charges in an hour

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, transportation

After a lot of speculation, Korean automaker Hyundai finally pulled the wraps off of its first mass-produced electric bus this week. It’s called the Elec City. It has a range of 180 miles, thanks to a 256kWh battery pack, according to Hyundai. A report from the Yonhap news agency says the bus can also be fully charged in just over an hour. The company plans to launch the bus in 2018.

While that’s more than double what had been rumored for Hyundai, it’s still a far cry from the massive 660kWh capacity of the Catalyst E2, the newest bus from American manufacturer Proterra. The Catalyst E2 supposedly gets 350 miles of street driving on a single charge, and maybe more with some highway driving mixed in. Plus, Proterra’s new bus will hit the road in 2017.

It’s not clear if Hyundai would ever bring its bus to North America, but if it did, Proterra wouldn’t be the only competition. Chinese manufacturer BYD has sold buses in California. Canadian company GreenPower has a small foothold as well. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even flirted with the idea, though it appears that the project could be on hold while he works on tunneling under Los Angeles. Adoption rates could go up as electric buses get better and cheaper, too. Despite the fact that they’re about twice as expensive as their diesel counterparts in the early going, a recent study from Columbia University estimates that they could save cities money over the long haul.

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Jun 7, 2017

Google’s huge new London HQ is a ‘landscraper’ with a rooftop garden

Posted by in category: futurism

And a swimming pool, and massage rooms, and a running track, and more.

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Jun 7, 2017

Microsoft Demonstrates Holograms with Phase-Only Displays

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, computing, holograms

Microsoft Research has published a technical paper reviewing their work with near-eye displays for virtual and augmented reality to project phase-only holograms.

The team built a holographic projector that displayed a series of sub-holograms, which allowed the hologram to display variable depths of focused light. The projector was then combined with a series of eyepieces to achieve the displays.

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Jun 7, 2017

Transporting Massive Wind Turbine Blades

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

These guys better get hazard pay! 😳.

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Jun 7, 2017

Your DNA Changes With the Seasons, Just Like the Weather

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry

Ah, my sweet summer child. What do you know of inflammation? Inflammation is for the winter, when genes uncoil in your blood and messengers send codes containing the blueprints for proteins to protect you from the harsh diseases of the cold. Inflammation is for those long nights, when the sun hides its face, or rain clouds block the sky, and trillions of little T-cells are born to fight the diseases of cold and flu season.

At least, that’s the news from a new study showing that DNA reacts to the seasons, changing your body’s chemistry depending on the time of year.

The findings, published today in Nature Communications ^1^, show that as many as one-fifth of all genes in blood cells undergo seasonal changes in expression. Genes often are seen as immutable, but a lot of our body’s workings depend upon which genes are translated when. In the winter, the study found, your blood contains a denser blend of immune responders, while summer veins swim with fat-burning, body-building, water-retaining hormones. These seasonal changes could provide insight into inflammatory diseases like hypertension, and autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes.

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Jun 7, 2017

Breathe underwater without SCUBA gear

Posted by in category: futurism

No SCUBA certification? No problem: http://kck.st/2rBLJi1

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Jun 7, 2017

IOS 11 lets you send and receive money via iMessage with Apple Pay

Posted by in categories: economics, finance

Apple just announced onstage at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference that Apple Pay is getting person-to-person payments. The feature will come in iOS 11, which was announced onstage, and will be available later this year.

It’s an obvious swipe at the part of the payments market that apps like Venmo, PayPal, and Square Cash have cornered. But there’s a catch — P2P payments with Apple Pay will live inside iMessage, and it’s unclear if Apple will let users perform them outside of its messaging app. Also, the money will be transferred to something called an “Apple Pay Cash Card,” which can then be sent to your bank account. That means Apple is not only coming for the Venmos of the world, but maybe the banks themselves.

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Jun 7, 2017

The Hypersuit’s Creators Say It Can Train Military Pilots

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, military, virtual reality

Base jump safely in virtual reality!

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Jun 7, 2017

Creative People Literally See the World Differently, Mind-Blowing Research Shows

Posted by in category: futurism

Exceptionally creative people and your average Joe see different things when they look around.

By Jessica Stillman

Continue reading “Creative People Literally See the World Differently, Mind-Blowing Research Shows” »

Jun 7, 2017

Apple Just Unveiled A Breakthrough Artificial Intelligence System

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

Apple live streamed their Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this afternoon. During the talk, they unveiled a new kind of AI system, HopePod.

Today, Apple is holding its Worldwide Developers Conference. So far, they have announced a host of updates. For example, during the presentation, the company noted that their watchOS 4 is going to include advanced AI and be far more personalized.

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