Category: Science & Technology News

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Robots, Science & Technology News

‘Wearable Robot’ Exoskeletons Could Reduce Factory Injuries

SuitX’s Iron Man-like exoskeleton prevents injuries in a variety of jobs that involve heavy lifting.

By  Chris Young

Much has been said about the rising need for warehouse robots to meet the recent surge in demand for e-commerce products. 

One company, SuitX has a different plan altogether. By using mechanical exoskeletons, the company, founded by the University of California, Berkeley’s Human Engineering Lab, is improving the efficiency of warehouse workers as well as preventing injuries.

Continue reading… “‘Wearable Robot’ Exoskeletons Could Reduce Factory Injuries”
3D Printer, Science & Technology News

This ceramic ink can 3D-print bones directly into a patient’s body. Here’s how

A newly discovered 3D-printing method could be revolutionary for bone cancer treatment.

By Douglas Broom

  • How can patients recover from surgery that removes parts of their bones?
  • Up to now the answer has been to build a ceramic replica in a laboratory.
  • But now scientists have invented a way to 3D-print bone tissue inside the body.
  • Ceramic material that mimics bone structure is mixed with living cells.
  • Its inventors say it will reduce suffering and speed up recovery.

A new 3D printing process which can be used inside the human body is offering hope to trauma and cancer patients who need bone replacements, reducing pain and speeding up recovery time.

The treatment of bone cancers can lead to sections of bone being removed and accident victims may require extensive bone repairs. Up to now, 3D bone printing has involved producing material outside the patient’s body.

But now a new technique developed at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, offers the prospect of doctors being able to create new bone tissue exactly where it is needed during a surgical operation.

Continue reading… “This ceramic ink can 3D-print bones directly into a patient’s body. Here’s how”
Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

How To Electrify Entire US Federal Vehicle Fleet

By U.S. Department of Energy

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Federal Fleet Project Leader Cabell Hodge has a lot to think about these days. With the Biden administration announcing a push to electrify the entire federal fleet, NREL’s work supporting energy-savvy fleet management is more critical and timely than ever. The president’s ambitious new goal requires a considered plan: Which fleets and vehicles should go electric first — and when, and how — among the more-than-614,000-vehicle domestic fleet of federal cars, vans, and trucks, including 225,000 Postal Service vehicles, across the United States?

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Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

The Good People Of Phoenix Are Egging The Self-Driving Google Cars

One of Waymo’s Chrysler Pacificas in the Phoenix area.

By Raphael Orlove

As the day when our robot overlords take control of Earth away from humans approaches, it remains unwise to taunt, provoke, or anger the robots of today. It is with this in mind that I salute the brave residents of Phoenix, AZ, for egging the self-driving Google-backed Waymo minivans testing on their roads.

Self-driving cars seem like an evolutionary step up from regular cars. Cruise control becomes adaptive cruise control becomes Super Cruise becomes driverless cars. Once you make the transition to full autonomy, though, self-driving cars become something more like giant robots that can pick your kids up from school, or help you get from your distant exurb to your downtown cube farm, or whatever other distopia awaits us.

Do we choose to bow prematurely to these robots, our future overlords? The people of Phoenix do not, as the Phoenix New Times reports. The Google-backed startup Waymo has been using the sunny streets of Phoenix to test its self-driving tech, in part because the government of Arizona is significantly less strict than neighboring California and because driving in Phoenix has got to be easy for a robot. There’s no rain to get on your sensors. There are no confusing off-the-grid old town streets. There’s just endless urban/suburban thoroughfares designed with cars in mind.

The people of Phoenix have been egging these Google cars:

Continue reading… “The Good People Of Phoenix Are Egging The Self-Driving Google Cars”
Augmented Reality, Science & Technology News

The Metaverse Is Coming And It’s A Very Big Deal

By Cathy Hackl

Imagine walking down the street. Suddenly, you think of a product you need. Immediately next to you, a vending machine appears, filled with the product and variations you were thinking of. You stop, pick an item from the vending machine, it’s shipped to your house, and then continue on your way. 

Next, imagine a husband and wife. The husband offers to go to the store but the wife can’t remember the name and type of product she needs. Her brain-computer interface device recognizes it for her and transmits a link to her husband’s device, along with what stores and aisles it’s located in. 

Welcome to the metaverse, alternate digital realities where people work, play, and socialize. You can call it the metaverse, the mirror world, the AR Cloud, the Magicverse, the Spatial internet, or Live Maps, but one thing is for certain, it’s coming and it’s a big deal. 

Continue reading… “The Metaverse Is Coming And It’s A Very Big Deal”
Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

French Rail Company Orders 12 Hydrogen Trains

Alstom France head Jean-Baptiste Eymeoud said the trains are designed to run up to 600 kilometres (375 miles) on each hydrogen charge, and should begin service in 2025.  

French national railway SNCF said Thursday it has ordered 12 hydrogen-powered trains to begin tests in four regions in 2023 as it eyes a zero-emissions future with the nascent technology.

The trains are to be built by the French industrial group Alstom and operate on either hydrogen or electricity when overhead catenary wires are available, a joint statement said.

They are designed to run up to 600 kilometres (375 miles) on each hydrogen charge, and “should begin service in 2025,” Alstom France head Jean-Baptiste Eymeoud was quoted as saying.

The contract is worth 190 million euros ($225 million) for the 12 first trains, which are to seat 218 passengers and be divided evenly among the four regions in eastern and southern France.

Alstom first tested prototypes in Germany three years ago and has now begun a commercial phase with 41 orders for the 72-metre-long (yards) trains.

Continue reading… “French Rail Company Orders 12 Hydrogen Trains”
Science & Technology News, Space

STARTUP SAYS ITS SUPER POWERFUL LASER CAN BLAST SPACE JUNK FROM DOWN ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE

TOP SNIPER

by DAN ROBITZSKIAPR

IT’S LIKE PLAYING A HIGH-STAKES GAME OF MISSILE COMMAND.

The Australian startup EOS Space Systems says it has finally finished building a powerful laser capable of blasting dangerous space junk out of orbit ‰ all the way from the surface of the Earth.

After seven years of development, the company says it can accurately track and snipe debris orbiting the planet from Australia’s Mt. Stromio Observatory, 9News reports. That’s an impressive feat, given the junk can travel at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. But if it works, the laser could make space safer for satellites and especially human astronauts without needing to launch risky cleanup missions.

Continue reading… “STARTUP SAYS ITS SUPER POWERFUL LASER CAN BLAST SPACE JUNK FROM DOWN ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE”
Elon Musk, Science & Technology News

Watch a monkey equipped with Elon Musk’s Neuralink device play Pong with its brain

By Darrell Etherington

Elon Musk’s Neuralink, one of his many companies and the only one currently focused on mind control (that we’re aware of), has released a new blog post and video detailing some of its recent updates — including using its hardware to make it possible for a monkey to play Pong with only its brain.

In the video above, Neuralink demonstrates how it used its sensor hardware and brain implant to record a baseline of activity from this macaque (named “Pager”) as it played a game on-screen where it had to move a token to different squares using a joystick with its hand. Using that baseline data, Neuralink was able to use machine learning to anticipate where Pager was going to be moving the physical controller, and was eventually able to predict it accurately before the move was actually made. Researchers then removed the paddle entirely, and eventually did the same thing with Pong, ultimately ending up at a place where Pager no longer was even moving its hand on the air on the nonexistent paddle, and was instead controlling the in-game action entirely with its mind via the Link hardware and embedded neural threads.

Continue reading… “Watch a monkey equipped with Elon Musk’s Neuralink device play Pong with its brain”
Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

THE WORLD’S FIRST HYDROGEN-POWERED CARGO VESSEL IS ABOUT TO SET SAIL

“THE DEMAND FOR MORE SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES IN INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORT IS ON THE RISE.”

by VICTOR TANGERMANN

A French company is developing the world’s first hydrogen-powered cargo transport vessel, which is scheduled to make its debut some time later this year, Renewable Energy Magazine reports.

The boat, built by Compagnie Fluvial de Transport (CFT), is set to be deployed on the river Seine in Paris and will use compressed hydrogen produced from electrolysis as its sole power source. The vessel is designed for inland water routes only and is not designed to sail the oceans.

“The demand for more sustainable technologies in inland waterway transport is on the rise,” Matthieu Blanc, director of CFT, told the magazine. “As part of the Flagships project, we are happy to be leading the way on reducing emissions from transport and demonstrating the superior features of hydrogen fuel cells in waterborne applications.”

Continue reading… “THE WORLD’S FIRST HYDROGEN-POWERED CARGO VESSEL IS ABOUT TO SET SAIL”
Energy, Science & Technology News

Two’s a crowd: Nuclear and renewables don’t mix

If countries want to lower emissions as substantially, rapidly and cost-effectively as possible, they should prioritize support for renewables, rather than nuclear power, the findings of a major new energy study concludes. Credit: University of Sussex

If countries want to lower emissions as substantially, rapidly and cost-effectively as possible, they should prioritize support for renewables, rather than nuclear power.

That’s the finding of new analysis of 123 countries over 25 years by the University of Sussex Business School and the ISM International School of Management which reveals that nuclear energy programs around the world tend not to deliver sufficient carbon emission reductions and so should not be considered an effective low carbon energy source.

Researchers found that unlike renewables, countries around the world with larger scale national nuclear attachments do not tend to show significantly lower carbon emissions—and in poorer countries nuclear programs actually tend to associate with relatively higher emissions.

Published today in Nature Energy, the study reveals that nuclear and renewable energy programs do not tend to co-exist well together in national low-carbon energy systems but instead crowd each other out and limit effectiveness.

Continue reading… “Two’s a crowd: Nuclear and renewables don’t mix”
Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Next-generation sutures can deliver drugs, prevent infections and monitor wounds

Scanning electron microscope image of the cross-section of TGS suture. Credit: Zhenwei Ma, McGill University

by McGill University

Sutures are used to close wounds and speed up the natural healing process, but they can also complicate matters by causing damage to soft tissues with their stiff fibers. To remedy the problem, researchers from Montreal have developed innovative tough gel sheathed (TGS) sutures inspired by the human tendon.

These next-generation sutures contain a slippery, yet tough gel envelop, imitating the structure of soft connective tissues. In putting the TGS sutures to the test, the researchers found that the nearly frictionless gel surface mitigated the damage typically caused by traditional sutures.

Conventional sutures have been around for centuries and are used to hold wounds together until the healing process is complete. But they are far from ideal for tissue repair. The rough fibers can slice and damage already fragile tissues, leading to discomfort and post-surgery complications.

Part of the problem lies in the mismatch between our soft tissues and the rigid sutures that rub against contacting tissue, say the researchers from McGill University and the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre.

Continue reading… “Next-generation sutures can deliver drugs, prevent infections and monitor wounds”