Science & Technology News – Page 113

NREL looks at barriers to lithium-ion battery recycling and sees opportunities

March 16, 2021

The analysts assessed the current state of reuse and recycling of large-format lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and battery energy storage and found there is plenty of room for improvement.

By DAVID WAGMAN

Recycling lithium-ion batteries could create a new market for U.S. companies, an NREL report said.

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released a report detailing the technological, market, and regulatory hurdles to creating a circular economy for lithium-ion batteries.

The battery technology is increasingly in demand for energy storage and use in electric vehicles (EVs). But its current lifecycle is almost entirely one-way, from manufacture to consumption to disposal, with little thought given to reuse or recycling. Only one U.S. lithium-ion battery recycling facility exists today, the analysts said.

To start to rethink the one-way lifecycle, the NREL team assessed the current state of reuse and recycling of large-format lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and battery energy storage. They found that reusing and recycling the batteries could create U.S. market opportunities, stabilize the supply chain, reduce environmental impacts, and ease resource constraints.

And they found that a circular economy would derive more value from battery energy storage systems. Materials would be reused, recycled, or refurbished for multiple lifetimes rather than one-and-done, which uses up finite resources and creates waste.

Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

6 electric utilities are teaming up to build a huge EV charging network

March 16, 2021

EV charging could be about to get much simpler in America if the Electric Highway Coalition has anything to say about it.

By Kyle Hyatt

Right now, there are a few major brand-agnostic electric vehicle charging networks available to use in the US. They’re all broadly similar, and for the most part, their coverage is pretty good. The problem is that they’re run privately and not a part of an energy company. That means they’re subject to the same kinds of issues with the power grid as anyone else.

Housing, Science & Technology News

Sleeping Pods Installed in a German City to Protect Homeless People From Freezing Winter

March 16, 2021

BY LOUISE BEVAN

The German city of Ulm is piloting individual windproof and waterproof sleeping pods to provide shelter for homeless people during the freezing winter months. The pods, dubbed “Ulmer Nests,” will prove life-saving for people in need.

The Ulmer Nests were launched on Jan. 8 and were placed in parks and other places where homeless people usually sleep in the city of Ulm, 75 miles (120 km) away from Munich according to a city spokesman, reported The Independent.

Beer, Science & Technology News

Sip on beer while you take a bath in beer at this new Denver spa

March 15, 2021

Marcos Buizuela grabs a glass of beer at the taproom on the way to beer therapy at The Beer Spa on Feb. 25. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

By Josie Sexton

The Beer spa is a week-old Denver business focused on self-care, but with a twist.

Next time you’re traveling around Eastern Europe, you could stop for a soak in the “beer baths” found throughout Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Or, next time you’re in Denver’s Whittier neighborhood, you could have a dip and a pint at The Beer Spa, which opened at the end of February — and is a first for Colorado.

Owners Jessica French and Damien Zouaoui were inspired by spa culture from Germany to Japan on their world travels. They wanted to bring a similar experience — adjusted for Americans — to a city that already loves its craft beer, but could use just a little more pampering.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

The World’s First Space Hotel to Open in 2027

March 15, 2021

The team working on Voyager Station hopes to partner with SpaceX in its aim to send passengers to the first-ever space hotel.

By Nick Mafi

The Voyager Station, which would accommodate 280 guests, aims to be the first commercial space hotel upon completion

Those of us making grand postpandemic travel plans might want to consider the final frontier as a destination. That’s because Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company run by former pilot John Blincow, is planning to open a luxury space hotel by 2027. Voyager Station, as it’s being called, would accommodate 280 guests and 112 crew members while aiming to be the first commercial space hotel, upon completion.

“We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It’s coming. It’s coming fast,” Blincow told CNN in an interview. Golden age indeed, as space tourism has piqued the interest of such visionaries as Richard Branson and Elon Musk. And it’s the latter Blincow and his team hope to partner with in the near future. “We cannot call [Musk’s] SpaceX our partner, but in the future we look forward to working with them,” Blincow said at a recent live, asking the viewers to “hang tight.”

Futurist, Science & Technology News

Thinking Like A Futurist is the #1 Skill For Leaders: Here’s How to Master It

March 15, 2021

By Jacob Morgan

What’s the top skill leaders need to succeed over the next decade and beyond? According to my interviews with more than 140 top CEOs, far and away the most needed skill is being able to think like a futurist.

Contrary to what some people believe, futurists don’t predict the future. Instead, they help make sure individuals and organizations aren’t surprised by what the future might bring. Thinking like a futurist involves looking at different possibilities and scenarios as opposed to picking one path and sticking to it.

Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

What is Dunbar’s number?

March 14, 2021

By Robin Dunbar

Our social networks can have dramatic effects on our lives. Your chances of becoming obese, giving up smoking, being happy or depressed, or getting divorced are all influenced by how many of your close friends do these things. A good social network could even help you live longer since laughing with friends triggers the release of endorphins, which seem to “tune” the immune system, making you more resilient to disease. So what factors influence the form and function that our social networks take?

From as far back as hunter-gatherer societies, everyone in the community is related to everyone else, either as biological relatives or in-laws. In post-industrial societies this is no longer true – we live among strangers, some of whom become friends. As a result, our social circles really consist of two separate networks – family and friends – with roughly half drawn from each group.

Because the pull of kinship is so strong, we give priority to family, choosing to include them in our networks above unrelated individuals. Indeed, people who come from large extended families actually have fewer friends. One reason we favour kin is that they are much more likely to come to our aid when we need help than unrelated individuals, even if these are very good friends.

Family and friend relationships differ in other important ways, too. One is that friendships are very prone to decay if untended. Failure to see a friend for six months or so leaves us feeling less emotionally attached to them, causing them to drop down through the layers of our network hierarchy.

Family relationships, by contrast, are incredibly resilient to neglect. As a result, the family half of our network remains constant throughout most of our lives whereas the friendship component undergoes considerable change over time, with up to 20 per cent turnover every few years.

Although the average social network contains around 150 friends, there is considerable individual variation in the number of relationships; some people have fewer than 100, a few may have 250 or more. There are three main reasons for this: gender, social skills and personality.

Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

Honda’s Now Selling the World’s First Production Car with Level 3 Self-Driving Tech

March 14, 2021

IN A MOVE FEW SAW COMING, HONDA IS THE NEW LEADER IN ADVANCED DRIVER-ASSISTANCE TECH.

BY JAMES GILBOY

Carmakers have strived for the SAE’s third tier of vehicular autonomy for years, but none had achieved it yet. Not Tesla, not Cadillac and not Audi, which pledged its new A8 flagship would be Level 3-capable before eventually backing down on its promise. Yet out of the blue came Honda with an enhanced version of its Honda Sensing advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) called Honda Sensing Elite, which will become the first commercially available SAE Level 3 system in Honda’s domestic-market Legend sedan.

SAE Level 3 crucially differs from Level 2 in that it’s a graduation from partial automation—like in Tesla’s Autopilot—to conditional automation, which means a car can read its environment and make decisions based on what it sees. This allows a car equipped with a Level 3 system like Honda Sensing Elite to act on its own accord (no pun intended) based on the situation at hand—sometimes with the driver’s hands off the wheel, and in a few cases, with their eyes off the road.

Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Europe’s first full-sized self-driving urban electric bus has arrived

March 14, 2021

The bus has a maximum carrying capacity of 60 passengers.

By Sean Fleming

Málaga is the first place in Europe to trial full-size autonomous buses.
China has recently changed the law to allow trials of its own.
In Norway, where electric cars are already popular, two trials have been underway.

The electric, self-driving bus is coming to cities. In some parts of the world, it has already arrived. One of the latest cities to run a live-trial of autonomous buses is Málaga, in southern Spain.

Málaga is the sixth largest city in Spain and is a thriving tourist destination – in pre-pandemic times, at least. Now, a 12-metre self-driving bus will make an eight kilometre round-trip from the city centre to the port, six times daily.

The bus has a maximum carrying capacity of 60 passengers and is kitted out with sensors that allow it to respond to the environment around it. “The bus knows at all times where it is and what is around it,” Rafael Durban Carmona, from the Spanish transport company Avanza, told The Guardian newspaper.

Alzheimer's Disease, Science & Technology News

Artificial intelligence reveals current drugs that may help combat Alzheimer’s disease

March 13, 2021

PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer’s disease.

New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are desperately needed, but numerous clinical trials of investigational drugs have failed to generate promising options. Now a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has developed an artificial intelligence-based method to screen currently available medications as possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The method could represent a rapid and inexpensive way to repurpose existing therapies into new treatments for this progressive, debilitating neurodegenerative condition. Importantly, it could also help reveal new, unexplored targets for therapy by pointing to mechanisms of drug action.

“Repurposing FDA-approved drugs for Alzheimer’s disease is an attractive idea that can help accelerate the arrival of effective treatment—but unfortunately, even for previously approved drugs, clinical trials require substantial resources, making it impossible to evaluate every drug in patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” explains Artem Sokolov, Ph.D., director of Informatics and Modeling at the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology at HMS. “We therefore built a framework for prioritizing drugs, helping clinical studies to focus on the most promising ones.”

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Space Race: China to Launch New Space Station; Trains Astronauts for Crewed Flights

March 13, 2021

The central module for China’s proposed orbital space station has passed a flight approval examination. It will launch in the coming months, kicking off a whirlwind of major missions for the region.

IN SPACE – MAY 23: In this handout image provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour orbit Earth during Endeavour’s final sortie on May 23, 2011 in Space. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli captured the first-ever images of an orbiter docked to the International Space Station from the viewpoint of a departing vessel as he returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule.

China Manned Space, the world’s human spaceflight agency, announced on January 14 as the country prepares to begin work on its own three-module space station.

The Tianhe central module, which means “harmony of the heavens,” will be the primary living quarters for three-person crews visiting for up to six months.

Following the completion of the space station and the establishment of a national space laboratory, a number of subsequent flight missions will be carried out as planned.

drones, Science & Technology News

Ghana is using drones to deliver coronavirus vaccines to rural communities

March 13, 2021

One of Zipline’s drones.

By Grace Dean

Zipline has started delivering coronavirus vaccines with drone in Ghana.
This tackles one of the biggest problems with the rollout – distributing doses in poorer countries.
Zipline has delivered medical supplies by drone since 2016, and works with Walmart and Novant Health.

Ghana has become the first country to launch a nationwide program to deliver coronavirus vaccines with drones.

Zipline started delivering the shots on Tuesday as part of the WHO’s first shipment of vaccines through COVAX, its program that aims to provide poorer countries with enough doses to cover 20% of their population.

Zipline, a San Francisco startup, has been delivering medical supplies including blood, personal protective equipment, and vaccines since 2016 using patented, autonomous drones.

Doctors can use Zipline’s app to place orders and track shipments.