Alternative Transportation

Forget Sidewalk Robots or Drones. In the Future, Food Could Travel to Your Home in Underground Pipes

By Michael Wolf

Why use a drone or sidewalk delivery robot to deliver packages when you can have them sent directly to your kitchen via a series of tubes?

No, I’m not referring to Ted Stevens’ imagining of the Internet or a plotline from a Steampunk novel, but one startup’s vision of an underground delivery network that would send packages hurling towards their end destination at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. 

That startup is Pipedream Labs, which has a plan to build an underground pipe network for near-instant delivery of physical goods. The idea, which is one of those that is so crazy you can’t figure out if it’s brilliant or stupid, works like this:

The Pipedream delivery system would be a citywide underground delivery network that utilizes pipes and electric-powered delivery pods to shuttle things around at high speeds. It’s essentially a Hyperloop for delivery, only instead of transporting people, it will bring you the latest Amazon package or hamburger from your favorite restaurant.

While the initial plan is to create a “middle mile” network for long-haul delivery across cities, the company’s CTO says they have a vision for eventually delivering products directly into consumers’ homes. He envisions a new kind of home appliance called the Home Portal which would enable “cheap, fast, and environmentally friendly delivery of groceries, food, and packages.”

The delivery infrastructure will be PVC piping, the same kind used by city utilities for plumbing or electrical systems. In fact, the company says they plan on making all infrastructure usable by utilities “if needed” or “in the event that PipeDream migrates to an alternative delivery method (Star Trek Transporter?) or ceases operations”. 

Continue reading… “Forget Sidewalk Robots or Drones. In the Future, Food Could Travel to Your Home in Underground Pipes”
brain hacking

SCIENTISTS FINALLY BUILD ARTIFICIAL BRAIN CELLS

BRAIN-INSPIRED CIRCUITRY JUST TOOK A HUGE LEAP FORWARD.

BY DAN ROBITZSKI

Scientists have finally decoded the bizarre behaviors of brain cells — and recreated them in tiny computer chips.

The tiny neurons could change the way we build medical devices because they replicate healthy biological activity but require only a billionth of the energy needed by microprocessors, according to a University of Bath.

Neurons behave similar to electrical circuits within the body, but their behavior is less predictable — especially when it comes to parsing the relationship between their input and output electrical impulses. But these new artificial brain cells successfully mimic the behavior of rat neurons from two specific regions of the brain, according to researchpublished Tuesday in Nature Communications.

“Until now neurons have been like black boxes, but we have managed to open the black box and peer inside,” University of Bath physicist Alain Nogaret said in the release. “Our work is paradigm changing because it provides a robust method to reproduce the electrical properties of real neurons in minute detail.”

Continue reading… “SCIENTISTS FINALLY BUILD ARTIFICIAL BRAIN CELLS”
Aviation

American Airlines has ordered 250 electric flying taxis to ferry passengers around cities at speeds of up to 200 mph. Take a look at the VX4.

The VX4 is being developed by the UK firm Vertical Aerospace. 

By Stephen Jones and Taylor Rains

  • American Airlines pre-ordered 250 VX4 flying taxis from UK aerospace firm Vertical Aerospace. 
  • Insider recently saw a prototype of the VX4 unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow 2022. 
  • It can carry four passengers up to 100 miles and reach speeds of more than 150 miles per hour. 
Continue reading… “American Airlines has ordered 250 electric flying taxis to ferry passengers around cities at speeds of up to 200 mph. Take a look at the VX4.”
Space

SpaceChain completes EVM blockchain testing in Space

SpaceChain has announced the completion of the testing of the space node it created for Velas Network AG, which is hosted on an LEO satellite and independent of terrestrial networks. The space node is now capable of delivering the full functionalities designed for Velas, including transaction signatures, smart contract deployment, decentralized finance (Defi) activities and non-fungible token (NFT) minting with the seamless transaction of the Velas Token (VLX).


SpaceChain has assisted numerous blockchain customers to deploy space nodes and realize their space-based business operations through its commitment to utilizing space technology to help blockchain applications gain more application scenarios. SpaceChain will continue to invest in research and development to help reduce the time required for space node testing, expand application scenarios, and enable more blockchain companies to harness space as a platform for business innovation.

The space node was installed onto a satellite designed and manufactured by Spire Global, which managed the launch mission on January 13, 2022.

The mission marked SpaceChain’s successful integration of Velas, the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain and open-source platform for decentralized applications, with its payload. The space node now supports and enables Velas to advance the development and deployment of its blockchain platform, which aims to be one of the most secure and fastest platforms in the industry.

Continue reading… “SpaceChain completes EVM blockchain testing in Space”
Science & Technology News, Stem cells

Scientists are growing billions of stem cells on the ISS to help humans travel to other planets

Scientists are shooting stem cells into space, hoping to make discoveries that help people on Earth

Scientists have put stem cells on the International Space Station to explore whether they will grow better in zero gravity.

These cells would potentially be able to generate nearly any other kind of cell, possibly unlocking the potential to make treatments for diseases while off-planet.

The experiment is the latest research project that involves shooting stem cells into space. Some, like this one, aim to overcome the terrestrial difficulty of mass producing the cells. Others explore how space travel impacts the cells in the body. And some help better understand diseases such as cancer.

“By pushing the boundaries like this, it’s knowledge and it’s science and it’s learning,” said Clive Svendsen, executive director of Cedars-Sinai’s Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Six earlier projects from the US, China and Italy sent up various types of stem cells — including his team’s study of the effects of microgravity on cell-level heart function, said Dr Joseph Wu of Stanford University, who directs the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Dr Wu helped coordinate a series of programs on space-based stem cell research last year.

Continue reading… “Scientists are growing billions of stem cells on the ISS to help humans travel to other planets”
Space Flight

Isro developing capability to launch humans on quick space tourism flights

The Gaganyaan crew module will be the first indigenous spacecraft to take Indian astronauts into space. (Photo: Isro)

Isro is working on developing indigenous capabilities towards space tourism through the demonstration of human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is working on developing space tourism capability in a bid to score a chunk of the pie, which is set to become a multi-million-dollar market in the coming years.

Science & Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said that the space agency is in the process of developing indigenous capabilities towards space tourism through the demonstration of human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). He added that Isro is currently working with 61 countries of the world in different fields of space activity.

The space tourism market has catapulted in the last couple of years with private aerospace companies dominating the field as government space agencies playing catch up. Elon Musk founded SpaceX is leading the space tourism market with its Dragon spacecraft taking people on tourism flights in zero gravity.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos-led Blue Origin is another big player with its New Shepard spacecraft launching from West Texas with passengers in brief joyrides to space. The flights last nearly 10 minutes, giving the passengers a view of the Earth from outside it. Isro is currently working on several other missions as it looks to conduct its first human spaceflight launch with the Gaganyaan mission, with an uncrewed launch delayed to next year.

Continue reading… “Isro developing capability to launch humans on quick space tourism flights”
Space

Goodyear joins Lockheed in developing airless tire concepts for future moon vehicles

Akron, OH – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company supplied essential products for NASA’s Apollo program, including the Apollo 11 mission which landed on the Moon 53 years ago today. The company will continue that tradition—focusing on lunar vehicle tires—by joining Lockheed Martin in its development of a lunar mobility vehicle.

Since Apollo, Goodyear continued innovating alongside NASA to advance designs for a lunar vehicle tire. The team of companies intends to be the first to establish extended-use commercial vehicle operations on the Moon. Goodyear brings its vast expertise in a mission-critical component to traverse the lunar surface, tires.

“NASA’s Artemis program to live and work on the Moon has a clear need for lunar surface transportation that we intend to meet with vehicles driven by astronauts or operated autonomously without crew,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president of Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin. “We’re developing this new generation of lunar mobility vehicle to be available to NASA and for commercial companies and even other space agencies to support science and human exploration. This approach exemplifies NASA’s desire for industry to take the lead with commercial efforts that enable the agency to be one of many customers.”

Continue reading… “Goodyear joins Lockheed in developing airless tire concepts for future moon vehicles”
Tesla

Tesla Cybertruck on track to launch summer 2023, Elon Musk says

By Jaclyn Trop

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed Wednesday that the automaker aims to launch its long-awaited Cybertruck mid-2023.

“We are still expecting to be in production with the Cybertruck in middle of next year,” Musk said during Tesla’s second-quarter financial report. “We’re very excited about that product. It might actually be our best product ever.”

Although prototypes have been spotted on public roads since 2019, details on the hotly anticipated Cybertruck have been scant and production has been repeatedly delayed.

During the earnings call with analysts, Musk said that the battery-electric truck will benefit from Tesla’s learnings on boosting efficiency throughout the manufacturing process.

“We’ll bring another level of simplicity and manufacturing improvements with Cybertruck and future products that we’re not quite ready to talk about now,” Musk said, “but that I think will be very exciting to unveil in the future.”

Continue reading… “Tesla Cybertruck on track to launch summer 2023, Elon Musk says”
quantum computing

Physicists Create City-Sized Ultrasecure Quantum Network

By Sierra Mitchell

Quantum cryptography promises a future in which computers communicate with one another over ultrasecure links using the razzle-dazzle of quantum physics. But scaling up the breakthroughs in research labs to networks with a large number of nodes has proved difficult. Now an international team of researchers has built a scalable city-wide quantum network to share keys for encrypting messages.

The network can grow in size without incurring an unreasonable escalation in the costs of expensive quantum hardware. Also, this system does not require any node to be trustworthy, thus removing any security-sapping weak links.

“We have tested it both in the laboratory and in deployed fibers across the city of Bristol” in England, says Siddarth Koduru Joshi of the University of Bristol. He and his colleagues demonstrated their ideas using a quantum network with eight nodes in which the most distant nodes were 17 kilometers apart, as measured by the length of the optical fiber connecting them. The team’s findings appeared in Science Advances on September 2.

Continue reading… “Physicists Create City-Sized Ultrasecure Quantum Network”
Driverless cars

Baidu Unveils Next-Gen Autonomous Vehicle With Detachable Steering Wheel

China’s Baidu, Inc. has unveiled its next-generation fully autonomous vehicle (AV) Apollo RT6, an all-electric, production-ready model with a detachable steering wheel. Designed for complex urban environments, Apollo RT6 will be put into operation in China in 2023 on Apollo Go, Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service.

The steering wheel-free design frees up more space to allow the installation of extra seating, vending machines, desktops, or gaming consoles.

Apollo RT6 integrates Baidu’s most advanced L4 autonomous driving system, powered by automotive-grade dual computing units with a computing power of up to 1200 TOPS.

The vehicle utilises 38 sensors, including 8 LiDARs and 12 cameras, to obtain highly accurate, long-range detection on all sides.

Apollo RT6 is the first vehicle model built on Xinghe, Baidu’s self-developed automotive E/E architecture specially for fully autonomous driving.

Continue reading… “Baidu Unveils Next-Gen Autonomous Vehicle With Detachable Steering Wheel”
Aviation

Scientists Develop Futuristic Jet Fuel By Using Water, Sunlight and CO2

The solar fuel-production plant at IMDEA Energy Institute in Madrid. Scientists are developing a futuristic jet fuel by using water, CO2 and sunlight.

BY SIMONA KITANOVSKA

A carbon-neutral aviation fuel has been developed by scientists. The futuristic fuel uses water, carbon dioxide and sunlight to power jet engines.

Researchers in Switzerland are the first to produce the fuel in a power generator rather than a lab.

The amount of synthetic jet fuel it emits when it combusts in a plane’s engine equals the amount consumed during its production in a solar plant, thus making it carbon neutral.

The fuel will be even greener if the team can capture carbon dioxide from the air in the not-too-distant future and use it in the fuel.

The solar-made kerosene, or jet fuel, is fully compatible with the existing way fuel is stored, distributed, and used in a plane’s engine.

No clean and effective way of flying planes exists today.

Continue reading… “Scientists Develop Futuristic Jet Fuel By Using Water, Sunlight and CO2”
AI

FUSEPROJECT’S BIONIC LEG WEARABLE IMPROVES LIVES OF THOSE LIVING WITH MOBILITY DIFFICULTIES USING AI

Technology has changed the lives of a lot of people, not just in terms of having access to information or having readily available communication tools. There are a lot of companies out there that are using all these advances to create devices and tools that can help people living with disabilities have a more independent life. Those with mobility difficulties from such conditions like multiple sclerosis, stroke, cerebral palsy, etc can now use this new piece of bionic clothing that is not just functional but also easy to use and a bit fashionable.

Continue reading… “FUSEPROJECT’S BIONIC LEG WEARABLE IMPROVES LIVES OF THOSE LIVING WITH MOBILITY DIFFICULTIES USING AI”