Science & Technology News – Page 289

3D Printer, Architecture, Engineering, Housing, Science & Technology News

ETH Zurich makes lightweight concrete ceiling using 3D sand-printing

April 19, 2019

A lightweight concrete ceiling with formwork 3D-printed from sand is among the innovations to feature in an experimental robot-made house built by university ETH Zurich.

The DFAB House, currently under construction in Dübendorf, Switzerland, showcases five digital building methods that have never before been seen in architecture, and the concrete Smart Slab is the latest addition.

The structure has been computationally designed to use only the minimal amount of material necessary to make it load-bearing, and is less than half the weight of usual concrete slabs.

Continue reading… “ETH Zurich makes lightweight concrete ceiling using 3D sand-printing”

Brain, China, DNA, Science & Technology News

Chinese scientists have put human brain genes in monkeys—and yes, they may be smarter

April 19, 2019

A quest to understand how human intelligence evolved raises some ethical questions.

Human intelligence is one of evolution’s most consequential inventions. It is the result of a sprint that started millions of years ago, leading to ever bigger brains and new abilities. Eventually, humans stood upright, took up the plow, and created civilization, while our primate cousins stayed in the trees.

Now scientists in southern China report that they’ve tried to narrow the evolutionary gap, creating several transgenic macaque monkeys with extra copies of a human gene suspected of playing a role in shaping human intelligence.

“This was the first attempt to understand the evolution of human cognition using a transgenic monkey model,” says Bing Su, the geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology who led the effort.

Continue reading… “Chinese scientists have put human brain genes in monkeys—and yes, they may be smarter”

App, Latest Trend, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

As cashless stores grow, so does the backlash

April 18, 2019

Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco.

So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or smartphone.

Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.

Continue reading… “As cashless stores grow, so does the backlash”

Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Ford Motor Company, Science & Technology News

Billion-dollar bets on electric vehicles await payoff

April 18, 2019

If carmakers have any hope of making money on electric vehicles, they’ll need to re-think how they design and sell them, a new McKinsey study suggests.

Why it matters: Automakers will pour $255 billion into EVs by 2023 but are resigned to losing money on them for the foreseeable future — an expected outcome of a market dictated by regulators and lawmakers, rather than consumers. But because they’re key to future self-driving cars, they’ll keep investing in them.

The big picture: Right now, electric vehicles are an expensive black hole for carmakers.

Continue reading… “Billion-dollar bets on electric vehicles await payoff”

Analysis, Latest Trend, Legalized marijuana, Science & Technology News

CBD goes mainstream

April 18, 2019

A mother uses CBD to treat her son’s seizures. A veteran hopes it will help her wean off opioids. A dietitian says it helps her sleep through the night. Even a pet owner uses it to calm his anxious Saint Bernard. These are just some of the estimated 64 million Americans who have tried CBD, or cannabidiol, in the past 24 months, according to a January 2019 nationally representative Consumer Reports survey of more than 4,000 Americans.

The survey found that more than a quarter of people in the U.S. say they’ve tried CBD—a compound in marijuana and hemp that doesn’t get you “high”—for a slew of mental and physical reasons. One out of 7 of those people said they use it every day.

Continue reading… “CBD goes mainstream”

Crime Prevention, Inventions, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

German inventors develop bracelet to test drinks for date-rape drugs

April 17, 2019

Inventors in Germany have developed a bracelet aimed at combatting a fear of many clubbers — drink spiking.

Kim Eisenmann and Sven Häuser’s “Xantus” bracelet only needs a drop of liquid to be applied to tell if it contains traces of “date rape drugs” — substances put in a person’s drink to incapacitate them.

The band, which is already available at German healthcare shop dm-drogerie markt, is white and resembles the ribbon used to enter many clubs.

It has two green circles that turn blue if the wearer applies some of their drink and the result is positive for the drugs.

Continue reading… “German inventors develop bracelet to test drinks for date-rape drugs”

Analysis, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News, Startup

A massive new study says these 5 fears separate people who take risks and follow their dreams from those who never try

April 17, 2019

It’s a funny thing, fear.

Nearly one in five full-time employees in this country has a dream–and that dream is to no longer be a full-time employee.

But there’s something holding back the vast majority of them.

A new survey by cloud-based accounting software firm Freshbooks concludes that 24 million U.S. workers truly want to become their own bosses–but only about two million of them actually managed to quit their jobs last year to launch their own companies.

Continue reading… “A massive new study says these 5 fears separate people who take risks and follow their dreams from those who never try”

Automobiles, Driverless cars, Ford Motor Company, Science & Technology News

Ford CEO says the company ‘overestimated’ self-driving cars

April 17, 2019

Ford thinks there will be limits on what first self-driving cars can do.

Ford CEO Jim Hackett scaled back hopes about the company’s plans for self-driving cars this week, admitting that the first vehicles will have limits. “We overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles,” said Hackett, who once headed the company’s autonomous vehicle division, at a Detroit Economic Club event on Tuesday. While Ford still plans on launching its self-driving car fleet in 2021, Hackett added that “its applications will be narrow, what we call geo-fenced, because the problem is so complex.”

Continue reading… “Ford CEO says the company ‘overestimated’ self-driving cars”

Artificial Intelligence, Military, military drones, Robots, Science & Technology News

The campaign to ban killer robots before they become a reality

April 16, 2019

Killer robots are closer to becoming a reality than you might think. Mary Wareham is part of the fight to stop them before it’s too late.

Via Newsy

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Science & Technology News

Human error, not artificial intelligence, poses the greatest threat

April 16, 2019

A robot and a dancer perform during the opening ceremony of an industry fair in Hanover, Germany on 31 March 2019.

The risk that humanity faces comes not from malevolent machines but from incompetent programmers, writes Martyn Thomas.

The long read (28 March) on the threat from artificial intelligence misses the point. In a paper written in 1951, Alan Turing demolished all the arguments against AI one day surpassing human intelligence, but there is no sign that that “singularity” is on the horizon. The imminent threat is that we’ve built a digital society on software foundations that are too vulnerable to failures and cyber-attacks, as a recent report from the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre oversight board powerfully illustrated. The risk that humanity faces comes not from malevolent machines but from incompetent programmers who leave their customers vulnerable to cyber-attacks and other failures.

If we survive long enough to see truly intelligent machines, then there is no known barrier to them developing consciousness. But how could we tell?

Martyn Thomas

Emeritus professor of IT, Gresham College, London

Via The Guardian

brains, Business, Employment, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

The importance of foresight : Why intuition and imagination will be critical in the future of work

April 17, 2019

In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman refers to the parts of our brain, where he suggests there are two competing intelligence at play.

He specifies one area affiliated to “system 1” which is known to be an area relying on speed in decision making and on emotion in information perceiving. System 1 is based largely on our instinct and intuition unconsciously stored by past experiences that are often rapidly available to memory. The second area is affiliated to “system 2” which is known to be an area for slow and deliberate decision making and more rational in information perceiving. This area takes in information based on our conscious appraisal of current events, and our stored episodic long-term memories, which are slowly available to memory. Why do we care?

Continue reading… “The importance of foresight : Why intuition and imagination will be critical in the future of work”

Analysis, Employment, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Immigrants in the U.S. sent over $148 billion to their home countries in 2017

April 16, 2019

Remittances sent by immigrants living in the U.S. to their home countries in 2017.

A significant share of immigrants all over the world send part of their paycheck back to help their families in their home countries. When all of those payments are added together, the amount of money on the move every year is enormous and it competes with international aid as one of the biggest financial inflows to developing countries. According to recently published Pew Research Center data based on figures from the World Bank, it is estimated that the collective sum of remittance payments in 2017 came to $625 billion, a 7% increase from 2016 when the total was estimated at $586 billion.

In the United States alone, it is estimated that more than $148 billion was sent to individuals in other countries in 2017. Back in 2004, a study found that over 60% of the 16.5 million Latin American-born adults living in the country at that time sent money home on a regular basis. Pew’s analysis of the latest World Bank figures found that Mexico was the top destination country for U.S. remittance payments by far with over $30 billion sent home. China was a very distant second with $16.14 billion while India had the third-highest volume at $11.7 billion. The cashflow wasn’t just limited to developing countries, however, with South Korea and Germany coming in at number 11 and 12 on the list with $2.83 and $2.80 billion respectively in 2017.

Via Forbes