Science & Technology News – Page 265

Agriculture, Blockchain, Farming, Food, Science & Technology News

Blockchains’s impact on food and farming, explained

July 24, 2019

1. Is it possible to track where food comes from?

Several companies have launched services allowing shoppers to see a product’s journey from farm to fork, but they often depend on retailers agreeing to be transparent.

When you pop into a store to buy fresh fruit, vegetables or meat, it’s common for the packaging to reveal which country it is from. Some upmarket brands go further by offering stories about the farm and the conditions where the food was cultivated.

Tracking an item step-by-step through the manufacturing process can be hard — and, sometimes, even manufacturers and retailers themselves aren’t sure about a product’s journey.

Continue reading… “Blockchains’s impact on food and farming, explained”

Analysis, Big Problems, Children, Science & Technology News

World’s population will continue to grow and will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050

July 23, 2019

There has been tremendous growth in the size of the world’s population in the last half century. Global population was around 3 billion in 1960. By 1987, in less than three decades, it had surpassed 5 billion and there were around 7.6 billion people in the world in 2018.

This growth varies greatly across regions. Since 1960, the largest relative growth has taken place in Sub-Saharan Africa where the population expanded from 227 million in 1960 to more than 1 billion in 2018—a nearly fivefold increase. The second largest growth over the period can be seen in Middle East and North Africa, where the population increased more than 4 times, from 105 million to 449 million.

Continue reading… “World’s population will continue to grow and will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050”

Automation, Employment, Report, Science & Technology News

The next big inequality crisis

July 24, 2019

Think polarization and inequality are bad now? Buckle up: big cities are poised to get bigger, richer and more powerful — at the expense of the rest of America, a new report by McKinsey Global Institute shows.

Why it matters: McKinsey’s analysis of 315 cities and more than 3,000 counties shows only the healthiest local economies will be able to successfully adapt to disruptions caused by the next wave of automation. Wide swaths of the country, especially already-distressed rural regions, are in danger of shedding more jobs.

Continue reading… “The next big inequality crisis”

Employment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

This is why you probably have a work wife or work husband

July 23, 2019

Nothing forms a bond like working closely with someone. But why are certain work friendships especially significant?

The modern workday takes up a lot of your time. A typical workday runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the average commute hovers at about an hour a day total. That means that the majority of your time awake each day is spent at work—or getting there.

So it’s no surprise that you often form close relationships with colleagues, even to the point where you consider someone your “office spouse” or “work spouse.” According to a survey by Simply Hired, more than 50% of female employees and 44% of male employees said that they had a work spouse at some point in their careers. The topics they discussed with these coworkers ranged from other colleagues and work projects to problems at home, or sometimes even their sex lives.

Continue reading… “This is why you probably have a work wife or work husband”

NASA, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight, SpaceX

Everyone’s going back to the moon. But why?

July 22, 2019

The Deep Space Gateway, seen here in an artist’s rendering, would be a spaceport in lunar orbit. Boeing

As the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo landing approaches, a host of countries are undertaking lunar missions. What’s behind the new space race?

At 2.51am on Monday 15 July, engineers at India’s national spaceport at Sriharikota will blast their Chandrayaan-2 probe into orbit around the Earth. It will be the most ambitious space mission the nation has attempted. For several days, the four-tonne spacecraft will be manoeuvred above our planet before a final injection burn of its engines will send it hurtling towards its destination: the moon.

Exactly 50 years after the astronauts of Apollo 11 made their historic voyage to the Sea of Tranquillity, Chandrayaan-2 will repeat that journey – though on a slightly different trajectory. After the robot craft enters lunar orbit, it will gently drop a lander, named Vikram, on to the moon’s surface near its south pole. A robot rover, Pragyan, will then be dispatched and, for the next two weeks, trundle across the local terrain, analysing the chemical composition of soil and rocks.

Continue reading… “Everyone’s going back to the moon. But why?”

Engineering, Environment, Green Friendly, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Hydrogel uses sunlight to harvest fresh water from the sea

July 22, 2019

The research team (led by Tan Swee Ching, at right) with samples of the hydrogel

In many arid coastal regions, a great quantity of valuable fresh water is lost into the atmosphere every day, as it evaporates from the surface of the ocean. This situation prompted scientists to create a new hydrogel that’s highly effective at capturing moisture from the sea air, and then releasing it as fresh water.

Developed by a team at the National University of Singapore, the zinc-based material is claimed to be over eight times more absorbent than existing drying agents such as silica gel and calcium chloride – it can absorb more than four times its dry weight in water. Additionally, unlike the case with traditional drying agents, no electricity is required to get that water back out of it, plus the gel can be reused over 1,000 times.

Continue reading… “Hydrogel uses sunlight to harvest fresh water from the sea”

Great New Product, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed

July 22, 2019

The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed

It’s easy to imagine these wearable circuits on the shelves of CVS.

The Apple Watch is an enticing product, but it hasn’t revolutionized personal health the way its cheerleaders have promised. It can track steps, but it can’t see how your body is moving. It can measure your heart rate, but it can’t see how you are healing. The Apple Watch really only scratches the surface of what we imagine for intimate, wearable electronics.

But a new research project out of Carnegie Mellon is nearly as easy to put on as an Apple Watch and a whole lot more capable and customizable. Dubbed ElectroDermis, it’s a spandex bandage topped with stretchable, electric wiring and the sorts of circuits and sensors you find in any mobile electronic. “We were inspired by traditional medical bandages, as they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, soft and conformal, and can be placed anywhere on the body” for more accurate readings, says the paper’s co-lead Eric Markvicka.

Continue reading… “The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed”

Children, Education, Music, Science & Technology News

Want your kids to do well in math and science? This is the 1 totally unexpected subject they should study (says science)

July 22, 2019

A new study offers extraordinary findings.

You want the best for your kids. Even if they don’t deserve it. The world has become an ever more traumatized place, so you feel you should do ever more to give them a helping hand.

Though it surely stops before you pay a fixer $500,000 for them to go to USC. I want to help you for free, oh traumatized parent.

So I’ve just found a fascinating piece of research that might be a good guide, should you want your children to be good at the basics.

Continue reading… “Want your kids to do well in math and science? This is the 1 totally unexpected subject they should study (says science)”

Entertainment, Great New Product, Music, Science & Technology News

Bose Frames review: smart audio sunglasses are a blast

July 21, 2019

Music without earbuds looks and sounds surprisingly good, making these smart glasses the antithesis of Google Glass

The Bose Frames are the answer to the question: what if your sunglasses were also a set of smart, hidden headphones with no earbuds or no bone-conduction system, just a set of personal speakers?

As a wearer of true wireless earbuds, that’s not a question I ever thought I would ask. But the Bose Frames are delightful and leaving your ears free of buds or headphones has a clear and obvious case.

The term “smart glasses”’ might conjure up visions of Google’s ill-fated Glass, but the Bose Frames are not in the same league. There’s no screen, camera or any visible signs of “smart” from the front. Instead they have built-in sensors and a pair of hidden speakers, which pipe music to your ears.

Continue reading… “Bose Frames review: smart audio sunglasses are a blast”

Automation, Healthcare, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

A hospital introduced a robot to help nurses. They didn’t expect it to be so popular

July 21, 2019

A hospital introduced a robot to help nurses. They didn’t expect it to be so popular

Moxi is a robot designed to make nurses’ lives easier. But the friendly bot is turning out to be a welcome presence for some patients, too.

Nurses are in high demand: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of jobs for nurses will grow 15% from 2016 to 2026, which is much faster than other jobs. The current shortage has left hospitals in a crunch—and a few hospitals in Texas recently turned to an unusual solution: a robot named Moxi.

Continue reading… “A hospital introduced a robot to help nurses. They didn’t expect it to be so popular”

Architecture, Great New Product, Home Technology, Science & Technology News

This self-sustaining plant ecosystem helps you light up your home

July 21, 2019

You love plants, plants love light, you love light, you’ll both love the Mygdal plantlight! It’s a revolutionary lighting solution not just because the luminaire is a completely self-sustaining ecosystem where the plants can grow-undisturbed, but also because of its one-of-a-kind electrically conductive glass coating. It actually streams the electricity invisibly along the surface, so there’s no need for a cable connection between the power source and the LED. Bring even windowless spaces to life with a plantlight!

Continue reading… “This self-sustaining plant ecosystem helps you light up your home”

Driverless cars, Elon Musk, Science & Technology News, Tesla

Elon Musk: Tesla will stop selling cars to consumers once autonomous driving is perfected

July 20, 2019

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking a lot about Tesla Network lately, part of Tesla’s “Master Plan, Part Deux” which will enable Tesla cars with full self-driving hardware to operate as autonomous robotaxis to generate revenue for owners and for Tesla itself.

This is all still a ways off, but that hasn’t stopped Musk and others from theorizing about what might happen when the technological problems behind self-driving are solved. Recently, Musk stated that any Tesla bought today is an “appreciating asset” due to its potential to be used to generate revenue in the future. But an asset wouldn’t really appreciate unless a new, similar asset couldn’t be bought at the same price. So now, Musk has committed to making that happen, stating that once robotaxis become possible, Tesla will likely stop selling cars to consumers, at least at anywhere near the same price.

The exchange came, as it often does, as part of a nighttime tweetstorm from Musk. Among various other questions about the timeline for upgrading HW2+ hardware to Tesla’s new FSD computer and a comment about Tesla’s potential to have a million-robotaxi-fleet by the end of next year, Musk was asked whether prospective buyers would be able to keep buying Teslas well into the future, or if their potential as a revenue generating asset would make that price unattainable for a typical consumer:

Continue reading… “Elon Musk: Tesla will stop selling cars to consumers once autonomous driving is perfected”