July 2018 – Page 7

3D Printer, Big Problems, Engineering, Green Friendly, Home Technology

Can 3D printed homes solve the urban housing crisis?

July 4, 2018

Building houses is massively wasteful. During the construction process, building projects accumulate giant piles of garbage from off-cuts of lumber and drywall to pallets that carry materials and the packaging they come in. And once operating, homes consume huge amounts of energy.

“It turns out if you triage the world and you ask where are all these ecological health issues coming from, you get a surprising answer,” Jason Ballard, co-founder and president of ICON, says. “It’s not the gas guzzling SUVs and private jets; it’s buildings, especially homes. They are the number one consumer of energy by sector and the number two user of water.”

Continue reading… “Can 3D printed homes solve the urban housing crisis?”

Batteries, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, China, Energy

Where 3 million electric batteries will go when they retire

July 3, 2018

GM, Toyota and BYD are part of a potential $550 billion industry.

The first batches of batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting retirement age, yet they aren’t bound for landfills. Instead, they’ll spend their golden years chilling beer at 7-Elevens in Japan, powering car-charging stations in California and storing energy for homes and grids in Europe.

Lithium-ion car and bus batteries can collect and discharge electricity for another seven to 10 years after being taken off the roads and stripped from chassis—a shelf life with significant ramifications for global carmakers, electricity providers and raw-materials suppliers.

Continue reading… “Where 3 million electric batteries will go when they retire”

Great New Product, Inventions, mobile technology

A German student has invented an airbag for your phone: a case that detects when it’s falling and deploys springs to prevent breaks

July 3, 2018

The active dampening (AD) phone case, patented by German student Philip Frenzel, is a slim alternative to bulky phone cases, but comes with a nifty trick.

So far it’s only a prototype — but the AD case can detect when the phone is falling and protract springs to make the phone bounce when it hits the ground, which should prevent any scratches or cracks on flat surfaces.

Once you pick the phone back up, you just fold the springs back in.

Continue reading… “A German student has invented an airbag for your phone: a case that detects when it’s falling and deploys springs to prevent breaks”

Analysis, Big Problems, Human Behavior

Only 23% of Americans get enough exercise, a new report says

July 2, 2018

Less than a quarter of Americans are meeting all national physical activity guidelines, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Federal physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, in addition to muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. But according to the new NCHS report, which drew on five years of data from the National Health Interview Survey, only about 23% of adults ages 18 to 64 are hitting both of those marks. Another 32% met one but not both, and almost 45% did not hit either benchmark.

Continue reading… “Only 23% of Americans get enough exercise, a new report says”

Latest Trend, Memory, mobile technology

SD cards could soon hold 128TB of storage

July 2, 2018

The SD Association has announced a new card specification that should increase maximum storage on SD cards to 128 terabytes and provide much faster data transfer speeds of 985 megabytes per second.

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Analysis, Health & Fitness

How long can we live? The limit hasn’t been reached, study finds

July 2, 2018

The mortality rate flattens among the oldest of the old, a study of elderly Italians concludes, suggesting that the oldest humans have not yet reached the limits of life span.

In Acciaroli, a hamlet in southern Italy, about one-in-60 residents are over the age of 90. A survey of about 4,000 Italians found that mortality rates in old age plateau around 105, suggesting that the ceiling for human lifespan has not yet been reached.CreditGianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Since 1900, average life expectancy around the globe has more than doubled, thanks to better public health, sanitation and food supplies. But a new study of long-lived Italians indicates that we have yet to reach the upper bound of human longevity.

“If there’s a fixed biological limit, we are not close to it,” said Elisabetta Barbi, a demographer at the University of Rome. Dr. Barbi and her colleagues published their research Thursday in the journal Science.

Continue reading… “How long can we live? The limit hasn’t been reached, study finds”

Engineering, Military, mobile technology, Wearables

Power-multiplying exoskeletons are slimming down for use on the battlefield

June 30, 2018

The technology has been long-anticipated by military commanders.

With exoskeletons, soldiers don’t have to consume as much oxygen to perform a given task. Taking that edge off has associated benefits, including cutting the risk of bone and muscle injuries.

Continue reading… “Power-multiplying exoskeletons are slimming down for use on the battlefield”

Automation, Big Problems, Housing, Robotics, Science & Technology News

With construction workers scarce, homebuilders turn to robots, software

June 30, 2018

BALTIMORE – The construction of an American house embodies the spirit of the nation’s workers and the dreams of its citizens.

It’s also perhaps the least-efficient endeavor in the U.S. economy.

Dozens of workers turn a plot of land into a small factory, sawing wood, nailing it together, cutting holes for windows, running wires and pipes and installing drywall and other finishes. Four months or so later, voila: A home for generations of families.

Continue reading… “With construction workers scarce, homebuilders turn to robots, software”