Science & Technology News – Page 107

Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

Autonomous Polaris GEM neighborhood electric vehicle launching in 2023

April 11, 2021

Polaris and Optimus Ride are jointly-developing a production autonomous shuttle.

Will work as a campus shuttle

Polaris is getting into the autonomous car business … slowly.

The company is jointly developing a self-drivingshuttle with Optimus Ride, which currently operates pilot loops in Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and several other locations using prototypes built on the Polaris Gem e6 platform.

The vehicles operate on fixed, geofenced loops among pedestrians and traffic at speeds up to 25 mph using an array of cameras and lidar to monitor their surroundings.

They currently have safety backup drivers onboard in case anything goes wrong, but Optimus Ride CEO Sean Harrington said they expect them to be fully autonomous and overseen by a central monitoring system with remote control capability by the time the production vehicles enter service in 2023.

Apple, Science & Technology News

Apple Watch able to monitor frailty in cardiovascular disease patients

April 11, 2021

by Bob Yirka

A team of researchers at Stanford University has found that the Apple Watch in association with an iPhone can be used to monitor frailty in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. The project group, which was funded by Apple, has posted a paper describing experiments they conducted with the Apple Watc on the open-access site PLOS ONE.

People with CVD often lose physical abilitiesbecause the heart is unable to keep up with increased demands. Thus, many such patients develop frailty, which is defined in this case as an inability to walk distances greater than 300 meters in six minutes. The test has been named the six-minute walk test (6MWT) and is used as a standard means of assessing the health of CVD patients—it is generally conducted in a clinical setting. In this new effort, the team at Stanford has assessed the capabilities of an Apple Watch app they developed called VascTrac that has been designed to conduct the 6MWT on CVD patients.

The team tested the app and device by enlisting the assistance of 111 CVD patients. Each was given an iPhone and Apple Watch running the VascTrac. The volunteers were then asked to test the app by attempting to walk for six minutes—both at home and in a clinical setting.

The researchers found the system could assess the frailty of the volunteers in the clinical setting with a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 85%. At home, the numbers were 83% and 60%. The researchers say that their 6MWT system was able to provide clinically useful information for patients regarding their health in a home environment. They also note that their system could be particularly useful during emergency situations, such as a pandemic, when many CVD patients are afraid to visit a doctor’s office. They also note that their experiments were conducted over many months in 2018 and 2019. Apple has since added the VascTrac abilities to the WatchOS, which means users of new Apple Watches can take advantage of the capabilities without having to download an app.

Alternative Transportation, Science & Technology News

Flying taxi startup Lilium goes public via SPAC, unveils its new electric aircraft

April 10, 2021

It’s the latest eVTOL company to go public via a reverse merger

By Andrew J. Hawkins

Germany’s Lilium will be the latest electric aviation startup to go public via a reverse merger with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. Lilium will merge with Qell Acquisition, a SPAC founded by former General Motors executive Barry Engle. The newly formed company will list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “LILM.”

As part of the announcement, Lilium unveiled a new, seven-seat electric aircraft that it says will launch as part of an inter-city flying taxi service in 2025. Previously, the company’s prototype was said to have only five seats — so we can assume that Lilium’s ambitions to ferry more passengers are growing along with its financial expectations.

It’s the latest deal involving an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) startup after the SPAC deals of Archer and Joby Aviation. A SPAC is a blank-check corporation, formed as an alternative to an IPO, because it raises funds for an operation that doesn’t have revenue of its own. There have been a rash of SPAC deals involving companies in the transportation space, including electric cars, autonomous vehicles, and micromobility.

Elon Musk, Science & Technology News

Elon Musk, Miami mayor plot high-speed tunnel plans for city

April 10, 2021

Musk’s Boring Company built high-speed tunnel in Las Vegas, Miami wants the same

By Lucas Manfredi

A high-speed tunnel developed by Elon Musk’s Boring Company may one day make its way to Miami.

Earlier this month, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez met with Musk in Las Vegas to tour the tunneling company’s $52 million system in Sin City and to discuss potentially implementing the technology back home.

Las Vegas has promoted its innovation around the Musk project.

Suarez responded with a “couldn’t agree more” and invited Musk to Miami to discuss possibilities and “potential solutions for the benefit of our future.”

Musk replied back, writing “cars & trucks stuck in traffic generate megatons of toxic gases & particulate, but @boringcompany road tunnels under Miami would solve traffic & be an example to the world.”

Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Volvo and Aurora team up on fully autonomous trucks for North America

April 10, 2021

Another day, another partnership

By Andrew J. Hawkins

Volvo is partnering with self-driving startup Aurora on a new lineup of fully autonomous semi trucks, the companies announced. The trucks will be deployed in North America on highly frequented hub-to-hub routes.

The deal between Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Aurora — which was founded by former executives from Google, Tesla, and Uber — is a “long-term partnership spanning several years,” the companies said.

It’s also the latest partnership between a major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and an autonomous technology startup, as the industry continues to slowly inch toward a future with more fully driverless passenger vehicles and trucks on the road.

Aurora has been testing its “Aurora Driver” hardware and software stack in its test fleet of minivans and Class 8 trucks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since last year. Unlike its rivals, which are largely focused on robotaxi applications, the company has said that its first commercial service will be in trucking “where the market is largest today, the unit economics are best, and the level of service requirements is most accommodating.”

drones, Science & Technology News

Drones vs. hungry moths: Dutch use hi-tech to protect crops

April 9, 2021

Technology eliminates the need to use chemicals to kill pests

By MIKE CORDER | The Associated Press

A moth-killing drone hovers over crops in a green house in Monster, Netherlands, on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. A Dutch startup is using drones to kill moths in midair as a way of protecting valuable crops in greenhouses that are damaged by caterpillars.

MONSTER, NETHERLANDS — Dutch cress grower Rob Baan has enlisted high-tech helpers to tackle a pest in his greenhouses: palm-sized drones seek and destroy moths that produce caterpillars that can chew up his crops.

“I have unique products where you don’t get certification to spray chemicals and I don’t want it,” Baan said in an interview in a greenhouse bathed in the pink glow of LED lights that help his seedlings grow. His company, Koppert Cress, exports aromatic seedlings, plants and flowers to top-end restaurants around the world.

Robotics, Science & Technology News

This is Boston Dynamics’ next commercial robot

April 9, 2021

Handle’s descendant Stretch finds the company making a big play for logistics

Brian Heater

Boston Dynamics’ transitionfrom a decades-long research robotics firm to a company that productizes and sells hardware has been a fascinating one to watch. There have been some tough lessons along the way, including the very real lesson that at the end of the day, most robots in the world will be deployed for mundane tasks.

Sure, the company will continue to court the public with fun viral videos of its technology dancing to the oldies, but when it comes to actually selling robotics, the targets continue to be the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs we humans just don’t want to do. Or, as I’ve been putting it for a while now, robotics are — more often than not — cool technology performing decidedly uncool tasks.

Spot has found most of its success as an inspection robot. The quadruped has been deployed to oil rigs, nuclear plants and other places where most people would rather limit their time, given a choice. That takes care of the dangerous part of the three Ds, and you could make a reasonable argument that the company’s second commercially available robot is going after the dull bit.

Bitcoin, Science & Technology News

Visa moves to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency

April 9, 2021

KEY POINTS

Visa said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network.
It was the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.

Visa said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.

new technology, Science & Technology News

Industry clouds could be the next big thing

April 8, 2021

By Shaikh, Virtana

Despite predictions of a cloud shift accelerated by the pandemic and Gartner projecting a $651 billion public cloud market in 2024, organizations have barely scratched the surface of public cloud adoption. So it might seem odd at this stage to ask, “What’s the next big thing in public clouds?”

The war between traditional on-premises data center infrastructure providers such as Dell, HPE, and Cisco and the public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud is far from over. However, one opportunity worth examining is industry clouds.

Industry clouds are collections of cloud services, tools, and applications optimized for the most important use cases in a specific industry. APIs, common data models and workflows, and other components are available to customize capabilities. Industry cloud solutions from major public cloud providers also typically offer a variety of software and services, including industry-specific applications, from partners. For example, Microsoft and SAP partner to deliver SAP supply chain solutions through Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.

brains, Science & Technology News

If You Transplant a Human Head, Does Its Consciousness Follow?

April 8, 2021

MAX G. LEVY SCIE

In her new book, Brandy Schillace recalls the unbelievable legacy of a Cold War era neurosurgeon’s mission to preserve the soul.

BRANDY SCHILLACE SOMETIMES writes fiction, but her new book is not that. Schillace, a medical historian, promises that her Cold War-era tale of a surgeon, neuroscientist, and father of 10 obsessed with transplanting heads is true from start to finish.

Schillace came across the story behind her book, Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher, somewhat serendipitously: One day, her friend, Cleveland neurologist Michael DeGeorgia, called her to his office. He quietly slid a battered shoebox toward her, inviting her to open it. Schillace obliged, half-worried it might contain a brain. She pulled out a notebook—perhaps from the ‘50s or ‘60s, she says—and started to leaf through it.

“There’s all these strange little notes and stuff about mice and brains and brain slices, and these little flecks,” Schillace says. “I was like, ‘What … what are all these marks?’”

quantum computing, Science & Technology News

Quantum computing: How basic broadband fiber could pave the way to the next breakthrough

April 8, 2021

By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet |

New research from NIST could hold the key to accelerating the development of large-scale quantum computers packing one million qubits – using simple telecommunications cables.

Google’s Sycamore quantum processor. Image: Google

The usefulness of most quantum computers is still significantly limited by the low number of qubits that hardware can support. But simple fiber optic cables – just like the ones used for broadband connections – could be the answer.

A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that, with just a few tweaks, optical fiber can be used to communicate with the qubits sitting inside superconducting quantum computers, with the same level of accuracy as existing methods.

Cancer, Science & Technology News

Engineered Immune Cells Deliver Anticancer Signal, Prevent Cancer From Spreading

April 7, 2021

By U.S. National Institutes of Health

Scientists have genetically engineered immune cells, called myeloid cells, to precisely deliver an anticancer signal to organs where cancer may spread. In a study of mice, treatment with the engineered cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. The study, led by scientists at the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Cancer Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, was published March 24, 2021, in Cell.

“This is a novel approach to immunotherapy that appears to have promise as a potential treatment for metastatic cancer,” said the study’s leader, Rosandra Kaplan, M.D., of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research.

Metastatic cancer — cancer that has spread from its original location to other parts of the body — is notoriously difficult to treat. Dr. Kaplan’s team has been exploring another approach: Preventing cancer from spreading in the first place.

Before cancer spreads, it sends out signals that get distant sites ready for the cancer’s arrival — like calling ahead to have the pillows fluffed in your hotel room prior to arrival. These “primed and ready” sites, discovered by Dr. Kaplan in 2005, are called premetastatic niches.

In the new study, the NCI team explored the behavior of immune cells in the premetastatic niche. Because Dr. Kaplan is a pediatric oncologist, the team mainly studied mice implanted with rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer that develops in the muscles of children and often spreads to their lungs.