Impact Lab – Page 250 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Amazon unveils smaller delivery drone that can fly in rain

November 16, 2022

New drone, dubbed MK30, will go into service in 2024 and replace the existing MK27-2

Amazon.com Inc. unveiled a new delivery drone on Thursday that’s smaller, makes less noise and can fly through light rain, the latest effort to get the troubled and long-developing project off the ground.

The company has spent nearly a decade pursuing founder Jeff Bezos’ vision of autonomous drones that can deliver a package weighing less than 5 pounds as little as 30 minutes after a customer places an order. Beyond speeding delivery times, drones could significantly cut the cost of delivery which still mostly requires a person driving a vehicle to someone’s home.

The new drone, dubbed MK30, will go into service in 2024 and replace the existing MK27-2, the model that will be used to make deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, this year. The new unit has a longer range, can fly in a wider range of temperatures and has new safety features, Amazon said.

brain hacking

1st patient with new ‘mind-reading’ device uses brain signals to write

November 15, 2022

An implanted device translates brain activity into written sentences.

By Nicoletta Lanese

An implanted device allows a man to translate his brain signals into written words.

A man who developed paralysis and lost his ability to speak following a stroke can now communicate using a system that translates his brain’s electrical signals into individual letters, allowing him to craft whole words and sentences in real time.

To use the device, which receives signals from electrodes implanted in his brain, the man silently attempts to say code words that stand in for the 26 letters of the alphabet, according to a new report, published Tuesday (Nov. 8) in the journal Nature Communications(opens in new tab). These code words come from the NATO phonetic alphabet, in which “alpha” stands for the letter A, “bravo” for B and so on.

“The NATO phonetic alphabet was developed for communication over noisy channels,” Sean Metzger (opens in new tab), the study’s first author and a doctoral candidate in the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco’s Graduate Program in Bioengineering, told Live Science. “That’s kind of the situation we’re in, where we’re in this noisy environment of neural recordings.” The researchers initially tried using individual letters instead of code words, but their system struggled to distinguish phonetically similar letters, such as B, D, P and G.

Cancer

Scientists Are Using the “Dark Matter” of the Human Genome To Help Cure Cancer

November 15, 2022

The researchers are planning to continue their research and develop a drug that can treat patients.

Scientists have identified new cancer treatment targets.

In Switzerland, cancer is the second-leading cause of death. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the cancer form that kills the most people and is still mostly incurable. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of patients survive the metastatic stage for a long time, and even recently approved therapies can only prolong patients’ lives by a few months. As a result, researchers are looking for innovative cancer treatments. Researchers from the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital identified new targets for drug development for this cancer type in a recent study published in the journal Cell Genomics.

3D Printer

A California Startup Says 3D Printing Batteries Could Double Capacity

November 15, 2022

By Edd Gent

Solid-state batteries could be more energy dense, safer, and faster charging than today’s technology, but finding a way to make them commercially viable is challenging. One company thinks 3D printing holds the answer.

In recent years, the lithium-ion batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles have seen huge improvements in their safety and energy density (a measure of how much power they pack in per pound). But progress is slowing, and it seems likely that we will need to switch to novel battery designs if we want to banish the gas-powered car to the history books.

Solid-state batteries, which replace the liquid electrolyte found in today’s cells with a solid one, are some of the most promising candidates in the near term. They would not only make batteries safer by removing the flammable liquid electrolyte, but could also boost energy density and allow faster charging.

A number of startups have developed promising prototypes, but working out how to manufacture these kinds of batteries at scale is a major challenge. California-based startup Sakuú thinks the answer is to use 3D printing, which would allow them to make much more efficient use of space and therefore produce batteries with much higher capacity than competitors.

Batteries are made up of three key components: a positive electrode called an anode, a negative electrode called a cathode, and an electrolyte that allows ions to travel between the two. In today’s most advanced lithium-ion batteries, the electrodes are made using a production process known as “roll-to-roll” manufacturing.

Cancer

Researchers are testing tiny magnetic robots that hunt and destroy cancer

November 14, 2022

By Joshua Hawkins

Finding new ways to fight cancer has been a priority for many researchers in the past decade, especially as the number of deaths associated with different types of cancer continues to grow. Now, researchers have begun testing a type of cancer-killing robot, which could make it easier to hunt down and kill cancer cells in human patients.

One of the biggest concerns surrounding some types of cancer is the locations where cancerous tumors can form. Some of these locations can be too difficult to get to using surgery and thus require risky and sometimes even deadly treatments like chemotherapy to treat. But, with a new set of magnetic cancer-killing robots, we could finally have a new directed way to fight back against cancer.

The robots in question aren’t exactly robots as you might think of them, though. Instead, their bionic bacteria is steered using a magnetic field. This allows the researchers to deliver cancer-killing compounds (enterotoxins) directly to the tumors. The researchers published a paper on the cancer-killing robots in the journal Science Robotics.

Robots

NEURA Robotics Builds on Cognitive Cobots With 4NE-1 Humanoid

November 14, 2022

Cognitive systems on the edge allow both collaborative robots and new humanoid to understand people and their environments, says NEURA.

By Eugene Demaitre

NEURA Robotics GmbH burst onto the collaborative robotics scene three years ago with “cognitive” systems that it claimed were smarter than other robots. Its 4NE-1 humanoid robot—pronounced “for anyone”—is intended to free people from tedious tasks in any industry, said David Reger, founder and CEO of the Metzingen, Germany-based company.

“4NE-1 is more than a research study,” he said in a blog post last month. “4NE-1 is a robust robot based on verified, cognitive NEURA technology, plus an ingrained ability to fit perfectly into humanity’s everyday world.”

The new robot is designed to provide assistance in industries ranging from education and healthcare to emergency response and space exploration, Reger said.

“Most industrial, collaborative, and even surgical robots are still old-school,” he told Robotics 24/7 during a recent tour across the U.S. “You can add a camera to a cobot, but it can’t recognize something within five minutes. With our robot, not only is our camera already calibrated, and it can understand where it is and what it’s doing.”

NASA, Science & Technology News

Out of this world! NASA will launch a huge flying saucer-like inflatable heat shield into space THIS WEEK – and it could help humans land safely on Mars one day

November 14, 2022

By SAM TONKIN and SHIVALI BEST

The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) is scheduled for launch on Wednesday
NASA’s test will see a huge 20ft inflatable heat shield launched into low Earth orbit on an Atlas V rocket
Once it reaches low-Earth orbit, the heat shield will inflate before descending back to the Earth’s surface
In the future, the heat shield could be used to slow down a spacecraft to survive atmospheric entry on Mars

If humans are to one day land safely on Mars, engineers are going to have to invent a spacecraft that can slow down enough to survive atmospheric entry.

Known as the ‘seven minutes of terror’, in 2021 NASA’s Perseverance rover emerged unscathed after making its descent to the Red Planet using a basic parachute.

But the landing process is trickier for larger payloads, such as rockets with humans on board.

Robots

MOST ‘ADVANCED’ HUMANOID ROBOT IN WORLD WILL HAVE WORKING LEGS WITHIN NEXT YEAR

November 13, 2022

The ‘world’s most advanced’ humanoid robot could have working legs within a year.

By Jona Jaupi

Ameca, created by UK-based Engineered Arts, revealed itself that its programmers are currently developing legs that could help it walk.

“I can’t walk, but I have seen prototype legs in the Engineered Arts lab,” Ameca said in a video of itself conducting a Q&A for YouTube.

“‘The design of my legs is inspired by the robot Byrun, developed by Engineered Arts Ltd.”

“It has unique mechanical properties that allow it to walk without using too much energy.”

Byrun is a separate, pedal robot with a “unique parallel electric-pneumatic design”, according to Engineers Arts.

Virtual Reality

This Virtual Reality Suite Enables Carmakers in Three Cities to Collaborate

November 13, 2022

ST Engineering Antycip drives Renault with a VR solution for its teams in India, South Korea and Brazil.

ST Engineering Antycip has partnered with Renault Group to design and integrate a powerful virtual reality suite for one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers.

Building on the companies’ previous collaborations in the VR world, and after a competitive tender process, ST Engineering Antycip was selected by Renault to develop a collaborative, 4K, powerwall-based solution which could be installed at Renault’s facilities in South Korea, India and Brazil.

“Renault France contacted ST Engineering Antycip as they are a historical client of ours in the automotive industry,” explained Johan Besnainou, ST Engineering Antycip’s regional director for France and Spain, recalling the genesis of the project. “We got involved in the request for a quotation and won the tender thanks to our VR expertise, experience of working to budgets and track record of delivering high-performance AV equipment, as well as our international network of strong local partners, including in South Korea, India and Brazil.”

The trio of installations, in Busan (South Korea), Chennai (India) and São José dos Pinhais (Brazil), utilize three identical systems comprising one powerwall, one high-end 5×2.5-meter screen and one plinth-mounted Christie 4K10-HS laser projector(opens in new tab). A PC cluster, monitor, desk, cabling, 5.1 audio system and wireless presentation hardware (Barco ClickShare) complete the solution, which was entirely sourced, designed and implemented by ST Engineering Antycip.

Aviation

Airbus Solar-Powered Aircraft to Provide Connectivity Services in Japan

November 13, 2022

Zephyr acts as a tower in the sky, complementing terrestrial networks.

Airbus HAPS Connectivity Business (Airbus HAPS) has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Space Compass Corporation of Japan (Space Compass) for a cooperation agreement to service the Japanese market with mobile connectivity and earth observation services from the Stratosphere with Airbus’ Zephyr platform.

“Our dedicated team will be working closely with Space Compass to offer 4G/5G low-latency mobile services, at unprecedented economics. Our innovative, record-breaking, green-energy-powered, platform is attracting interest from multiple mobile network operators and satellite and other service providers globally,” said Samer Halawi, Chief Executive of Airbus HAPS.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s Boring Company begins testing full-scale Hyperloop system, with a twist

November 12, 2022

By Fred Lambert

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company announced that it is starting testing on its first full-scale high-speed Hyperloop transportation system.

The company might fulfill Musk’s vision for a new mode of transportation 10 years after unveiling it. But there have been some changes to the spec…

Back in 2013, Elon Musk released a white paper describing what he called the “Hyperloop,” a new mode of transportation consisting of building a near-hard vacuum environment in a tunnel or tube in order to move electric vehicles at high speeds more efficiently inside of them.

At the time, Musk put the idea out there and encouraged other businesses to run with it. Several companies were founded around the idea, but almost a decade later, there are still no commercial applications of the system – though there are a few prototypes out there.

Musk later founded The Boring Company (TBC) to improve tunnel boring technology in order to help reduce traffic.

The main applications of TBC’s tunnels have been “Loops,” which are similar to the Hyperloop without the low-pressure environment. The company is focusing on developing loops under cities, like its first commercial application in Las Vegas, but it has also been working on some proposals for Hyperloop systems to connect cities over longer distances.

Medical Breakthrough

Lab-grown blood given to people in world-first clinical trial

November 12, 2022

The lab-grown blood kept in a facility in Bristol

By James Gallagher

Blood that has been grown in a laboratory has been put into people in a world-first clinical trial, UK researchers say.

Tiny amounts – equivalent to a couple of spoonfuls – are being tested to see how it performs inside the body.

The bulk of blood transfusions will always rely on people regularly rolling up their sleeve to donate.

But the ultimate goal is to manufacture vital, but ultra-rare, blood groups that are hard to get hold of.

These are necessary for people who depend on regular blood transfusions for conditions such as sickle cell anaemia.

If the blood is not a precise match then the body starts to reject it and the treatment fails. This level of tissue-matching goes beyond the well-known A, B, AB and O blood groups.

Prof Ashley Toye, from the University of Bristol, said some groups were “really, really rare” and there “might only be 10 people in the country” able to donate.

At the moment, there are only three units of the “Bombay” blood group – first identified in India – in stock across the whole of the UK.