While electric truck enthusiasts are anticipating the unveiling of Tesla’s all-electric truck next month, diesel engine manufacturer Cummins beat the electric car manufacturer to the punch by unveiling its own electric truck effort today.
Mosquito wars – introducing one million non-biting sterile male mosquitoes weekly into the wild
Last October, we announced the Debug Project, an initiative at Verily to reduce the devastating global health impact that disease-carrying mosquitoes inflict on people around the world. Today, I’m happy to announce the launch of Debug Fresno, our first field study in the U.S. to test a potential mosquito control method using sterile insect technique in collaboration with MosquitoMate and Fresno County’s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD).
The factories of the future could float in space
This past summer, a plane went into a stomach-churning ascent and plunge 30,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico. The goal was not thrill-seeking, but something more genuinely daring: for about 25 seconds at a time, the parabolic flight lifted the occupants into a state of simulated weightlessness, allowing a high-tech printer to spit out cardiac stem cells into a two-chambered, simplified structure of an infant’s heart.
Continue reading… “The factories of the future could float in space”
Vinod Khosla predicts AI will replace human oncologists
While much of the conversation around AI and jobs is focused on widespread job losses in sectors like trucking, venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla thinks that there’s a high-paying job on the chopping block: oncology.
Continue reading… “Vinod Khosla predicts AI will replace human oncologists”
Tesla’s new solar roof will cost less and keep your house off the Grid all day
We all know that nature is a powerful force. I was reminded just how powerful after last week’s wind storm, when the next day I found shingles from my roof littered on the lawn. I’ve been driving around the last week, and observing all the damage that storm caused, getting quotes from roofers, dealing with insurance, and realizing that I was not alone. One contractor said that they received 300 hundred calls in one day. All that damage caused by one storm. My roof looks like it needs to be replaced, and by the look of the other roofs in my neighborhood, I am not alone. Which of course left me day-dreaming about upgrading to include the new Solar Panels being produced by Tesla and Panasonic in Buffalo.
Continue reading… “Tesla’s new solar roof will cost less and keep your house off the Grid all day”
Scientists tweak seat cushion material to clean oil spills
Federal researchers have created a new tool to clean up oil spills by tinkering with the kind of foam found in seat cushions.
The modified foam can soak up oil floating on water and lurking below the surface, and then can be repeatedly wrung out and reused, the researchers say.
It “just bounces back like a kitchen sponge,” said co-inventor Seth Darling, a scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.
Continue reading… “Scientists tweak seat cushion material to clean oil spills”
IBM releases the annual five innovations that will change our lives within five years
Imagine that you could have superhero vision, seeing in not only what we know as the visible spectrum, but using wavelengths that allow you to see through fog, and detect black ice. Or imagine a Star Trek-like medical tricorder that could take a tiny bit of body fluid and determine what was ailing you.
Solar-Powered pipe can desalinate over 1.5 Billion gallons of seawater
Is it a power station or a public art installation? Well, this shimmering piece of architectural wonder, called “The Pipe,” might just blur the lines between the two.
Continue reading… “Solar-Powered pipe can desalinate over 1.5 Billion gallons of seawater”
Researchers invent the ‘perfect’ soap molecule
A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has invented a new soap molecule made from renewable sources that could dramatically reduce the number of chemicals in cleaning products and their impact on the environment. The soap molecules also worked better than some conventional soaps in challenging conditions such as cold water and hard water.
Continue reading… “Researchers invent the ‘perfect’ soap molecule”
No more pointless idling with Pittsburgh’s new artificially intelligent stoplights
Traffic lights are finally getting smarter in Pittsburgh.
Thanks to a new pilot program from the tech startup Rapid Flow Technologies, Steel City now boasts 50 intersections whose stoplights are running artificial intelligence software known as Surtrac that reduces wait times on empty or lightly-traveled roads.
Electric car market is growing 10x faster than its dirty gasoline equivalent
There will be two million electric cars on the road by the end of 2016.
Despite low oil prices, plug-in electric vehicles (EV) are charging forward worldwide, with more than 2 million expected to be on the roads by the end of 2016, according torecent market figures.
Around 312,000 plug-in electric cars were sold during the first half of 2016, according to analysts at EV Volumes — a nearly 50 percent increase over the first half of 2015.
Continue reading… “Electric car market is growing 10x faster than its dirty gasoline equivalent”
Beer Company Invents Six-Pack Rings That Feed, Rather Than Kill, Marine Life
A craft beer company and an ad agency brewed up a brilliant idea to save marine life if six-pack rings end up in the ocean. Are you aware that 80% of the plastic humans throw away ends up in the oceans? The sad reality is made worse when one learns that, as a result, billions of pounds of plastic are now swirling in convergences in the seas. In fact, 40% of earth’s total ocean mass is now covered by plastic.
Continue reading… “Beer Company Invents Six-Pack Rings That Feed, Rather Than Kill, Marine Life”
