Science & Technology News – Page 348

Agriculture, Ecological Products, Engineering, Green Friendly, Plant Life, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Tarzan the swinging robot could be the future of farming

May 5, 2017

Some farmers already use drones to monitor their crops, but a team of researchers from Georgia Tech have created a far more interesting alternative. Instead of designing yet another drone, they created a robot inspired by Kristen Bell’s favorite animal: the sloth. However, they named it “Tarzan” after the most recognizable character who moves by swinging from vine to vine.

Their machine was designed to move like the fictional jungle dweller. Tarzan will be able to swing over crops using its 3D-printed claws and parallel guy-wires stretched over fields. It will then take measurements and pictures of each plant with its built-in camera while suspended.
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Analysis, Business, Report, Science & Technology News

What in the World Is Causing the Retail Meltdown of 2017?

May 2, 2017

From rural strip-malls to Manhattan’s avenues, it has been a disastrous two years for retail.

There have been nine retail bankruptcies in 2017—as many as all of 2016. J.C. Penney, RadioShack, Macy’s, and Sears have each announced more than 100 store closures. Sports Authority has liquidated, and Payless has filed for bankruptcy. Last week, several apparel companies’ stocks hit new multi-year lows, including Lululemon, Urban Outfitters, and American Eagle, and Ralph Lauren announced that it is closing its flagship Polo store on Fifth Avenue, one of several brands to abandon that iconic thoroughfare.

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Artificial Intelligence, Crime, Legal Issues, Machine Learning, new technology, Science & Technology News

The rise of the online courtroom

May 2, 2017

The digital revolution has not escaped the courts. The courtroom of tomorrow may no longer involve litigants and their lawyers pitching up armed with reams of papers to do battle before robed, bewigged judges. In fact, for many it may not involve a court at all. Judges could be replaced by computers and the courtroom with the internet to meet the needs of the 21^st-century litigants.

Last month Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Liz Truss unveiled the Prisons and Courts Bill. Aside from wide-ranging plans to reform prisons, the Bill contained proposals to enable people and businesses with claims worth up to £25,000 to use an online digital process instead of going to court.

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Science & Technology News

Facebook wants to beam Internet from planes

May 2, 2017

After Facebook’s Aquila internet-beaming drone crashed during a test flight last year, the company’s engineers realized it would take years before its key strength—the ability to beam internet signals via millimeter wave technology—would be ready.

The reasons for the delay are as much regulatory as they are technical, according to Yael Maguire, the head of Facebook’s Connectivity Lab. Speaking at the company’s annual f8 developers conference here on Wednesday, he explained that it could take up to 10 years before Facebook can realize the full potential of the drone, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737 but weighs less than a Toyota Prius. Besides building a reliable plane, the company also has to secure the permits to use the millimeter wave spectrum that will connect it to the ground.

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Corporate Manipulation, Economy, Hot Issues, Legal Issues, Science & Technology News

Have we reached peak beer?

April 26, 2017

When craft brewers get together, we agree that this is the greatest time in history to be a beer drinker in America. In 1981, there were only 82 breweries in the United States, and our beer, fizzy and flavorless, was the laughingstock of the beer world. Today, America is home to over 5,300 small, innovative craft breweries making unique, flavorful, creative brews.

But we also agree that the horizon isn’t so bright. After years of 15 percent growth, the craft sector is down to the single digits. Part of that is to be expected in a maturing part of any market — but it’s also a result of a pushback by a handful of gargantuan global brewers, aided by slack government antitrust oversight. I worry that yet another major shift in the beer landscape is upon us — and this time, American consumers will be the losers.

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Biotech, Science & Technology News

Researchers Develop a Technology That Digitally Creates Odors From Ambient Molecules in the Air

April 24, 2017

Perfumery is an intricate science that takes a lot of effort to get right. Many people don’t realize the amount of work that goes into perfecting that fragrance that we so willingly splash on in the morning. With the advancement in technology over the past two decades, chemists have been able to develop techniques that create an even larger array of scents and fragrances that people have never smelled before. For the first time ever, people can actually get personalized, unique scents to wear. How much that would actually cost, is a different matter.

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Home Technology, Hot Issues, Internet of Things, Legal Issues, Science & Technology News

The maker of an internet-connected garage door disabled a customer’s device over a bad review

April 20, 2017

There’s a new, dystopian risk to using internet-connected gadgets: If you complain, the company that made it might remotely kill your product.

This is what happened to one customer who bought Garadget — an internet-connected garage door opener. It lets you remotely lock or unlock your garage with an app, or see if it’s open.

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Biotech, Future, new technology, Science & Technology News

A real-life company is implanting microchips in employees

April 20, 2017

After a semi-painless injection between the thumb and index finger, a microchip is implanted in another employee. A cyborg is now created, and this human/machine mashup runs off to buy a smoothie using his or her new sub-dermal implant.

If that sounds futuristic, it’s because we’re conditioned to this as a sort of science fiction trope: human gets implanted, its overlords are now in control. For a Swedish company, however, the practice of implanting microchips into its employees has become routine, popular even.

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Analysis, brain hacking, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

America’s unhealthy obsession with productivity is driving its biggest new reading trend

April 20, 2017

“I probably started reading ultra hardcore about seven or eight years ago,” says Tom Bilyeu, an entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. “Ultra hardcore” means that Bilyeu reads everywhere: While he brushes his teeth, while he gets dressed, in the 30 seconds it takes to cross rooms in his house, he’s reading.

“My big secret is,” says Bilyeu, “I read in all those little transitional moments.” Plus, for the last eight years, he’s optimized his intellectual consumption by listening to audiobooks at three times the normal speed.

Audiobooks are the latest trend in book publishing. They’re part of the podcast boom, and they’re helping US publishers keep losses down as ebook sales from big-name companies continue to slump. What’s been around since the 1980s has a sleek new face, and today who’s listening, where, and why, offers a glimpse into a new reading trend sweeping the US.

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Alternative Transportation, Automobiles, Aviation, Driverless cars, Driverless vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News, Science Fiction, Self-driving Cars, Uber

7 companies working to make ‘flying cars’ a reality

April 19, 2017

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may think flying cars are a bad idea, but several companies are working to make them a reality as early as next year.The vehicles these companies are working on aren’t the same from flying cars from “Back to the Future.” Rather, they are pursuing electric, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft for shorter urban commutes.

Like the name suggests, these are vehicles that can take off without needing a runway.

Competition is mounting when it comes to the flying-car moonshot — here are 7 companies working on their own VTOL aircrafts:

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Automation, Economy, Engineering, Legalized marijuana, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News, Technological Unemployment

Marijuana ‘trimmigrants’ have the hardest job in the industry ― and they could soon be upstaged by robots

April 19, 2017

Every summer, tens of thousands of migrant workers swarm a remote area of Northern California — the marijuana-growing capital of the US — to find work as “trimmers” after the weed has been harvested.

Their job is to prune the fluffy, green buds with small pairs of scissors to clear them of leaves before they wind up on dispensary shelves or in dealers’ pockets.

The work is arduous and pays between $100 and $300 a day for 10 to 15 hours of labor on the black market, which generated 87% of pot sales in North America in 2016.

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

The Jetsons’ world of 3D print

April 24, 2017

When I was a kid I always wondered about how cool it would be if we could live in the world of the popular American animated sitcom The Jetsons. The show aired from 1962 to 1963, but the cartoon was set 100 years in the future. As it sometimes turns out with sci-fi stories, the future becomes reality. The Jetsons featured 3D printing, tablets, holograms, smart watches, flying cars and other strange inventions. While the flying cars may not have become a reality quite yet – they are testing drones as a method of delivery – I used to love the Jetsons’ food replicator that could churn out anything from asparagus to stroganoff. This now is a reality with companies like Foodini and CojoJet making it possible to create delicious 3D-printed entrées and desserts with the press of a button.

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