2019 – Page 19 – Impact Lab

Food, Science & Technology News, Shopping, Uber

Uber moves into on-demand grocery delivery with acquisition of Cornershop

October 19, 2019

Uber is making moves into the highly competitive world of online grocery deliveries with the acquisition of a startup called Cornershop. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will bolster the company’s efforts to expand into businesses outside its core ride-hailing service.

Cornershop, founded in 2015, is currently active in Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Canada, and it’s headquartered in Santiago. In a statement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company would seek to “scale their vision, and look forward to working with them to bring grocery delivery to millions of consumers on the Uber platform.” That will mean eventually launching the service in the US, though the deal is still subject to regulatory approval.

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Analysis, Big Data, privacy, Report, Science & Technology News

Can the data poor survive?

October 19, 2019

Will work for data

We’ve been running a data science experiment over the past few months. Our first goal was to compare and contrast the amount of data we could actively gather using a link to an online survey (please click here to take it) vs. the amount of data we could passively gather using our cookies and pixel-monitoring tools. Our second goal was to compare and contrast the value of self-reported data vs. observed behavioral data. Our final goal was to turn both data sets into actionable insights and analyze the results. We were shocked, but not surprised, by what we learned.

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brain hacking, brain-computer interfaces, facebook, Science & Technology News

Mark Zuckerberg says brain-reading wearables are coming, but certain functions may require implanted devices

October 19, 2019

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes his keynote speech during Facebook Inc’s annual F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, U.S., April 30, 2019.

Zuckerberg said on Thursday said that he’s thinking more about brain-controlling wearable and implantable technology.

“The goal is to eventually make it so that you can think something and control something in virtual or augmented reality,” he said.

Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that he wants to work on brain-controlling wearable and implantable technology, and Facebook’s recent acquisition of CTRL-labs was a step in that direction.

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Aviation, cutting edge, Science & Technology News, Space Flight, Transportation

The next big leap in space travel will use hypersonic planes

October 18, 2019

Scramjets capable of flying at Mach 15 will make it easier and cheaper to send spacecraft and people into orbit, says hypersonics expert Michael Smart.

Sending satellites, spacecraft and humans into space is an expensive business. If humanity wants to venture further across the Solar System, we need ways of reducing the cost. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to make the vehicles we use to launch missions into space reusable.

Michael Smart, chair of hypersonic propulsion at the University of Queensland, believes hypersonic planes are the solution. He spent 10 years designing hypersonic engines called scramjets for Nasa before establishing his own research group, which now works with the Australian Department of Defence, Science and Technology and the US Air Force.

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Aviation, Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

The CEO of KLM predicts that the first commercial electric airplane will arrive in 15 to 20 years

October 18, 2019

KLM

“I think a realistic projection for an electric plane is somewhere between 15 and 20 years.” Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Today, the sight of an electric vehicle is pretty unremarkable, which shows how much the sector has progressed.

CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Pieter Elbers thinks we should see electric airplanes on commercial flights within the next 15 to 20 years.

When the first electric cars came on the scene, people scoffed. Today, no one would bat an eyelid at the sight of an electric vehicle.

Continue reading… “The CEO of KLM predicts that the first commercial electric airplane will arrive in 15 to 20 years”

3D Printer, Food, Science & Technology News, Space Flight

International Space Station crew 3D-prints meat in space for the first time!

October 18, 2019

For the first time in the history of space, meat was ‘created’ on the International Space Station (ISS) and no animals were harmed in the making of this 3D bio-printed ‘space beef.’ On October 7, Aleph Farms, an Israeli food company, announced that its experiment aboard the space lab resulted in the first lab-grown meat in space.

Albeit climate change was the main motivation for the company to produce slaughter-free meat, it seems like a breakthrough for space as an entire piece of real, edible meat was grown out of just a couple of cells in a lab- Bovine cell spheroids to be precise.

The experiment was carried out by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka in the space lab’s Russian segment using a 3D printer developed in Moscow. It involved growing meat by mimicking a cow’s natural muscle-tissue regeneration process. Aleph Farms collaborated with the Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions and two U.S.-based food companies to test this method in space.

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Business, Energy, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Falling demand for electricity has utilities burning the midnight oil

October 18, 2019

Public and investor-owned utilities alike are facing a dilemma: Americans are using less energy. Increasing efficiency and the shift to a service-oriented economy have combined to reduce electricity consumption on a per capita basis for several years running.

It’s a trend that’s weighing on utility companies, and their bottom lines.

Eight U.S. utilities had debt in excess of $2 billion, according to recent financial statements, led by The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) $20.3 billion. So far this year, the credit ratings of four utilities with significant debt were downgraded to a negative outlook by the major rating agencies.

As a result, publicly owned and publicly traded utilities alike are looking for new sources of revenue.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Future, government, Science & Technology News

AI to ‘fundamentally shift’ global balance of power

October 17, 2019

The focus of Australia’s cyber diplomacy is expanding to include “grand strategy in technology”, as well as engagement with technology firms and governments.

Rapidly maturing technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing will “shift fundamentally the global balance of power”, according to Dr Tobias Feakin, Australia’s Ambassador for Cyber Affairs.

“Those [nations] that really are at the forefront of AI and the way that it works will genuinely be at the forefront of the emerging 21st century economy,” he told the Australian Cybersecurity Conference, or CyberCon, in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Some nations are already positioning themselves to take advantage of these technologies.

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Fashion, Science & Technology News, Shopping, women

De Beers Lightbox lab-grown diamonds will be sold at Bloomingdale’s and Reeds Jewelers

October 17, 2019

For just over a year, the only way to purchase Lightbox fashion jewelry made with lab-grown diamonds was through its website or through an occasional pop-up promotion. Now the brand owned by De Beers will begin testing the brick-and-mortar retail marketplace.

Beginning this month Lightbox jewels will be available at Bloomingdale’s department stores and Reeds Jewelers in a trial run to determine whether there is demand for lab-grown diamonds at $800 per carat in traditional retail environments. The initial rollout will include Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship in New York City and its San Francisco location. Independently owned and family run Reeds Jewelers will sell Lightbox diamond jewelry in 30 of its stores, primarily located in shopping malls throughout the Southeast.

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China, government, Internet, Science & Technology News

Chinese citizens will soon need to scan their face before they can access internet services or get a new phone number

October 17, 2019

: A display shows a facial recognition system during the 1st Digital China Summit at Strait International Conference and Exhibition Center on April 22, 2018 in Fuzhou, China. The summit is held from April 22 to 24, with the theme of ‘Let Informatization Drive Modernization, Speed Up the Construction of Digital China’. Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images

China’s 854 million internet users will soon need to use facial identification in order to apply for new internet or mobile services.

The Chinese government announced last month that telecommunications companies will need to scan users’ faces in order to verify their identities before they can access new services.

The new rule will apply from December 1.

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Bitcoin, government, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

What can we learn from Sweden, the ultimate cashless society?

October 16, 2019

Demand for notes and coins in Sweden is so limp that cash is literally disappearing: the amount in circulation has fallen 27.5pc in the last four year

The collapse of cash in Britain has been dramatic. There were 11.5 billion fewer cash transactions in 2018 than in 2008 – a decline of 51pc. It’s a pace of change that has surprised everyone, even industry insiders.

“The rise of the debit card and the decline of cash is the phenomenon of the last decade,” says Adrian Buckle, head of research for UK Finance, the banking sector trade body.

But Britain, while on the podium, is not the world champion in cashless. That title goes to Sweden, where demand for notes and coins is so limp that cash is literally disappearing: the amount in circulation has fallen from 80bn kronor (£6.6bn) to Skr58bn (£4.8bn) in the last four years, a reduction of 27.5pc. The same period has seen ATM withdrawals fall by more than half.

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China, government, Science & Technology News, Travel

How selling citizenship is now big business

October 16, 2019

Buying and selling citizenship is now a global industry worth an estimated $25bn a year

You can be born into it, you can earn it, and you can lose it. Increasingly, you can also invest your way into it.

The “it” is citizenship of a particular country, and it is a more fluid concept than ever before. Go back 50 years, and it was uncommon for countries to allow dual citizenship, but it is now almost universal.

More than half of the world’s nations now have citizenship-through-investment programmes. According to one expert, Swiss lawyer Christian Kalin, it is now a global industry worth $25bn (£20bn) a year.

Mr Kalin, who has been dubbed “Mr Passport”, is the chairman of Henley & Partners, one of the world’s biggest players in this rapidly growing market. His global business helps wealthy individuals and their families acquire residency or citizenship in other countries.

He says that our traditional notions of citizenship are “outdated”. “This is one of the few things left in the world that is tied to blood lines, or where you are born,” he says. He argues that a rethink is very much due.

Continue reading… “How selling citizenship is now big business”