Year: 2018

Impact Lab > 2018
Automation, Business, Food, Inventions, Robotics, Science & Technology News

Taste test: Burger robot startup creator opens first restaurant

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Creator’s transparent burger robot doesn’t grind your brisket and chuck steak into a gourmet patty until you order it. That’s just one way this startup, formerly known as Momentum Machines, wants to serve the world’s freshest cheeseburger for just $6. On June 27th, after eight years in development, Creator unveils its first robot restaurant before opening to the public in September. We got a sneak peek…err…taste.

When I ask how a startup launching one eatery at a time could become a $10 billion company, Creator co-founder and CEO Alex Vardakostas looks me dead in the eye and says, “the market is much bigger than that.”

Continue reading… “Taste test: Burger robot startup creator opens first restaurant”

Automation, Business, Employment, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Don’t worry, robots aren’t going to steal your job — yet

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One author says we have plenty of time before robots take over humans’ jobs.

As technology has advanced, Thomas Malone has watched his old family farm change drastically. The farm he grew up on once employed 15 people full-time and another 30 or 40 seasonally. Now, five people and many more machines farm about three times as many acres in land to produce significantly more goods.

Continue reading… “Don’t worry, robots aren’t going to steal your job — yet”

Breakthrough Thinking, Children, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

Inside the controversial new surgery to transplant human wombs

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Pioneering surgeons have made it possible to transplant a human uterus that can bear children, offering hope to millions of women who never thought they could give birth.

On September 4, 2014, in Gothenburg, Sweden, his 36-year-old expectant mother lay on an operating table, suffering from preeclampsia—a pregnancy complication associated with high blood pressure. The baby’s heartbeat showed signs of stress. Normally the woman’s doctors might have taken a wait-and-see approach, treating her with medication and hoping to give the nearly 32-week-old fetus time to grow to full term of about 40 weeks.

But this was no normal gestation. This was the world’s first human nurtured inside a transplanted uterus. He was the product of more than a decade of research. For years, no one had been sure he could exist in that womb—let alone be born. This was not a wait-and-see situation.

Continue reading… “Inside the controversial new surgery to transplant human wombs”

Great New Product, Home Technology, Wearables

Bose’s new $250 Sleepbuds play soothing sounds instead of music

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Is quality sleep worth that much cash?

After a couple years of development and early prototype testing through an Indiegogo campaign, Bose is commercially releasing its noise-masking Sleepbuds. They go on sale tomorrow, June 21st, for $250 from Amazon, Best Buy, Bose, and other retailers. The Sleepbuds are truly wireless earbuds designed to stay in your ears overnight. As you go to sleep, they play audio tracks that drown out typical evening disturbances like street noise, loud neighbors, or a snoring partner.

They don’t play music or any other audio from external devices. Period. So forget about streaming Spotify, audiobooks, or podcasts. Nor do the Sleepbuds utilize Bose’s incredible noise-cancelation tech that’s the magic ingredient in products like the popular QuietComfort headphones.

Continue reading… “Bose’s new $250 Sleepbuds play soothing sounds instead of music”

Bitcoin, Blockchain, Latest Trend, Money Talk

‘You can hear the panic in the bankers’ voices’ says Tim Draper

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Most advice around ICOs tends to center on researching the team or project themselves, but Draper favors a different approach.

The never-ending debate is if Bitcoin is a universal currency. I attend the final session of the Blockchain Economic Forum in San Francisco, where venture capitalist Tim Draper was interviewed by former Obama administration CFTC chairman and current MIT lecturer Gary Gensler.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the pair covered many of the key elements causing so much excitement in the crypto space, and confidence in the future was the running theme.

Continue reading… “‘You can hear the panic in the bankers’ voices’ says Tim Draper”

Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Money Talk

Basic income could work—if you do it Canada-style

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A Canadian province is giving people money with no strings attached—revealing both the appeal and the limitations of the idea.

Dana Bowman, 56, expresses gratitude for fresh produce at least 10 times in the hour and a half we’re having coffee on a frigid spring day in Lindsay, Ontario. Over the many years she scraped by on government disability payments, she tended to stick to frozen vegetables. She’d also save by visiting a food bank or buying marked-down items near or past their sell-by date.

Continue reading… “Basic income could work—if you do it Canada-style”

Entertainment, Healthcare, Insects

The fascinating reason why there are no mosquitoes at Disney World

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There are no mosquitoes in The Most Magical Place on Earth. That’s right, Disney World is so dedicated to making sure you have the time of your life that they’ve made the bugs practically disappear. How do they pull that off? No, the answer isn’t magic. Vlogger Rob Plays delved into the answer in a video spotted by Neatorama.

It would be a feat to get rid of pesky mosquitoes anywhere, but Disney World is in Florida, a.k.a. swamp territory, where insects are more abundant than other places. Bugs are annoying, but they’re also dangerous if they’re carrying diseases like Zika, and Disney has a responsibility to protect its guests. In short, Disney gets rid of the pests by employing a comprehensive program that includes spraying insecticides and maintaining natural predators, and they do all of this with a level of vigilance that’s fearsome to behold.

Continue reading… “The fascinating reason why there are no mosquitoes at Disney World”

Analysis, Entertainment, Games, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior

WHO classifies ‘gaming disorder’ as mental health condition

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(CNN) — Watching as a video game ensnares their child, many a parent has grumbled about “digital heroin,” likening the flashing images to one of the world’s most addictive substances.

Now, they may have backup: The World Health Organization announced “gaming disorder” as a new mental health condition included in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, released Monday.

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Agriculture, NASA, Space, Space Flight

NASA is learning the best way to grow food in space

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Can gardens help astronauts go farther?

“Our plants aren’t looking too good,” astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted from the International Space Station on December 27, 2015. He was right: The attached picture showed four baby zinnias bathed in magenta light. Three of the four leafy stalks were discolored and curling in on themselves. The station’s garden was struggling to recover from a mold problem. It’s an issue familiar to terrestrial gardeners. And while on Earth, the problem means a trip to the local nursery for replacements, in space you can’t do that.

Continue reading… “NASA is learning the best way to grow food in space”

Cancer, China, Medical Breakthrough

A cancer blockbuster gets approved in China. Will the floodgates now open?

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Bristol-Myers Squibb announced today that its pioneering cancer immunotherapy drug Opdivo has been approved for sale in China.

Opdivo targets a protein called PD-1, which is effectively a braking signal in the immune system. Cancer cells are incredibly wily when it comes to evading the body’s own natural defenses, and one of the ways they manage this feat is by tricking the immune system into restraining its own attack dogs. So-called “checkpoint inhibitors” like Opdivo—which is often called by its biological name, nivolumab—essentially remove the biological leash, allowing immune cells to freely attack the cancer predator.

Continue reading… “A cancer blockbuster gets approved in China. Will the floodgates now open?”

Elon Musk, Engineering, Space Flight, SpaceX

Space X: Elon Musk shares staggering video that shows true size of rockets

Elon Musk has shared a video that helps visualize the sheer scale of SpaceX’s rockets, and the results are awe-inspiring. The CEO retweeted a video on Wednesday from YouTube channel Corridor Crew, which uses visual effects to show the size of the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and BFR rockets in real-life situations.

The video, which uses 3D models produced by Reese Wilson, shows the sheer scale of the company’s rockets that it’s using to fulfil its space exploration ambitions. While the Falcon 9 has been sending satellites into space and the Falcon Heavy completed a test flight with the Tesla Roadster, it’s the upcoming BFR that will transport humans to Mars as soon as 2024. Musk described the video as “cool,” while astronomy writer Phil Plait wrote that it was “amazing. The SF/X are really really good. I’ve been to the SpaceX factory twice, and have seen the landing leg on the main floor and the booster outside. They’re WAY bigger than you’d think.”

Continue reading… “Space X: Elon Musk shares staggering video that shows true size of rockets”

Engineering, Internet, Latest Trend, mobile technology, Science & Technology News

The shift from 4G to 5G will change just about everything

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Including speed, bandwidth and low latency.

Low latency with 5G means web pages would load in a millisecond.

Telecom experts are going so far as to herald the arrival of 5G as the advent of the fourth industrial revolution. There are an ever-expanding number of high-tech devices out there trying to connect to the internet every day, many of which require extensive bandwidth, and companies across the board will leverage 5G capabilities to better reach consumers.

Continue reading… “The shift from 4G to 5G will change just about everything”

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