Impact Lab – Page 312 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Why This Start-Up Thinks Storing Containers In Space Is The Future

March 17, 2022

BY TUSHAR MEHTA

The future of humankind’s space endeavors is promising, with various private agencies taking humans into outer space or planning to take humans into space soon. But besides taking humans for a glorified taxi ride in a craft that flies extra high, many space-tech companies have also been attracting investors, garnering roughly $7.7 billion in investments from venture capitalists in 2021 according to PitchBook — a number that has gone up 50% over the previous year.

Among the ventures that have intrigued investors is Inversion Space, a Torrance, California-based company that aims to utilize the Earth’s orbit to store containers that can stay up for a period of up to five years. The company also envisions using the space surrounding the Earth for hyper-fast deliveries by propelling items into the space and then making them fall back into the atmosphere with the help of a parachute, The New York Times reports.

Inversion Space’s founders, Austin Briggs and Justin Fiaschetti, are betting on the possibility of space travel becoming more economical. As it becomes cheaper and easier to reach space — and humans identify ways to facilitate lodging in space, more companies might want to send to as well as bring objects back from the Earth’s orbit.

Batteries

GM WANTS FUTURE EVS TO BE HOME POWER BANKS—AND IT STARTS WITH A CALIFORNIA PILOT PROGRAM

March 17, 2022

By BENGT HALVORSON

Electric vehicles have the potential to be more than just transportation—by using their battery packs for supplemental home energy and grid stabilization.

That’s what a collaboration between GM and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), announced Tuesday morning, aims to explore—with the eventual hope of making every GM vehicle bidirectional-charging compatible in the future.

Up to 85% of U.S. EV owners charge primarily at home, according to GM, and electric vehicles have large battery packs that are potentially available 24/7 but only typically used for a small portion of their capacity.

The partners note that the average California home uses about 20 kwh per day. That’s less than a tenth of the GMC Hummer EV’s battery capacity.

Within the pilot program, the companies will develop a software interface for the functionality, and decide on a core hardware set—to include a smart inverter and transfer switch. GM says that, depending on the required load, the solution it’s considering might be able to use both AC or DC.

Metaverse

The Real-World Metaverse belongs in the automotive cockpit

March 17, 2022

Maybe this is what the Metaverse would look like.

Chen-Ping Yu explores potential use cases of the ‘Real-world Metaverse’ in the vehicle cockpit as well as the tech that’s still missing to make it a reality.

“Metaverse” is one of the hottest topics these days, spearheaded by Meta Platforms Inc. (then Facebook) riding on the successes of its Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset. While the Metaverse is intimately related to VR, there is also the real-world version of Metaverse that has been generating quite a bit of excitement recently. Here we’ll explore the importance of the Real-World Metaverse, a critical technology that it needs but has been largely overlooked, and how automotive is an optimal platform to deploy the Real-World Metaverse.

AI

Farmers May Soon Be Able to Talk to Pigs Using A Breakthrough AI That Interprets Their Grunts and Oinks to Improve Animal Wellbeing

March 16, 2022

Farmers May Soon Be Able to Talk to Pigs Using A Breakthrough AI to Help Improve Animal Wellbeing

By Margaret Davis

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen, the ETH Zurich, and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) in France said they finally found a way of decoding the emotions of pigs using acoustic recordings of pig grunts from when they were born until they died in a recent study.

According to MailOnline, the novel algorithm could be used to understand the emotions of pigs and other mammals to monitor their wellbeing and improve their mental health. Study co-author Associate Professor Elodie Briefer from the Department of Biology of the University of Copenhagen said their study demonstrates how animal sounds mirror their emotions.

Space

A New System Has Been Designed That Can Destroy Dangerous Asteroids Approaching Earth Within Hours

March 16, 2022

By Daniel Kucher

A new system has been designed that can protect our planet from asteroids. With the new system, it was claimed that asteroids could be destroyed in just days or even hours depending on their size.

Asteroids have the potential to wipe out all life on Earth and even destroy the planet, just like the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Fortunately, however, technology and science have advanced a lot since the dinosaurs were wiped out millions of years ago.

We now have technologies that scan the sky to detect potentially dangerous asteroids for Earth. Of course, it’s not just about detecting asteroids: As those of you who watched the movie Don’t Look Up will remember, if we were to detect an asteroid on a collision course with our planet, we probably wouldn’t have enough time to respond to it. That’s why NASA is conducting research for a defense system that can destroy an asteroid that could destroy the Earth days or weeks before.

3D Printer

Next Gen 3D Printed Catalysts To Propel Hypersonic Flight – Speeds Over 3,800 Mph

March 16, 2022

Artist’s impression of a hypersonic plane.

Ultra-efficient 3D printed catalysts could help solve the challenge of overheating in hypersonic aircraft and offer a revolutionary solution to thermal management across countless industries.

Developed by researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, the highly versatile catalysts are cost-effective to make and simple to scale.

The team’s lab demonstrations show the 3D printed catalysts could potentially be used to power hypersonic flight while simultaneously cooling the system.

The research is published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Chemical Communications.

Lead researcher Dr. Selvakannan Periasamy said their work tackled one of the biggest challenges in the development of hypersonic aircraft: controlling the incredible heat that builds up when planes fly at more than five times the speed of sound.

“Our lab tests show the 3D printed catalysts we’ve developed have great promise for fuelling the future of hypersonic flight,” Periasamy said.

“Powerful and efficient, they offer an exciting potential solution for thermal management in aviation — and beyond.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Futurati Podcast with Samo Burja

March 15, 2022

Watch our interview with Samo Burja on Youtube.

Samo Burja is a sociologist and the founder of Bismarck Analysis, a firm that analyzes institutions, from governments to companies. His research work focuses on the causes of societal decay and flourishing and he writes on history, epistemology and strategy.

AI

Algae grown by an AI could produce ‘clean’ fuel for jets

March 15, 2022

Could algae provide ‘clean’ fuel for jets?

By Rob Waugh

Algae grown with the help of artificial intelligence could provide a new clean fuel for jet aircraft, scientists have said.

Researchers at Texas A&M believe that algal biofuels could reduce carbon emissions, mitigate climate change, alleviate petroleum dependency and transform the bio-economy.

Professor Joshua Yuan said: “The commercialisation of algal biofuel has been hindered by the relatively low yield and high harvesting cost.

“The limited light penetration and poor cultivation dynamics both contributed to the low yield.”

Yuans project uses an artificial intelligence advanced learning model to predict algae light penetration, growth and optimal density.

Metaverse

How the Metaverse is Transforming Real Estate

March 15, 2022

Investors have spent millions of dollars buying land in the Metaverse over the last few months

The term ‘Metaverse’ first appeared in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 book Snow Crash. For several years, it was primarily limited to science fiction and, to a degree, gaming platforms that tried to recreate an immersive replica of the real world on digital platforms.

Recently, the Metaverse has gained momentum due to the launch of several blockchain-driven apps that decentralized virtual worlds – with major implications for the real estate industry.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Futurati Poccast with Trent Fowler

March 14, 2022

Watch Trent’s talk on Youtube or listen on the Futurati Podcast website.

Trent Fowler is a machine learning engineer, author, and co-host of the Futurati Podcast. As someone who’s worked at several crypto startups, he has years of experience dealing with blockchain data and thinking about the blockchain’s mechanics. This episode is adapted from a talk he recently gave explaining at a high level how this remarkable technology works and what it might mean for the future.

Related

Stem cells

Researchers produce fully functional pancreatic beta cells from stem cells for the first time

March 14, 2022

Beta cells (green) produce the hormone insulin.

by University of Helsinki

Insulin is a vital hormone produced by pancreatic beta cells. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of these cells, which results in patients having to replace the lost insulin with multiple daily injections.

Insulin secretion can be restored in diabetic patients by transplanting beta cells isolated from the pancreas of a brain dead organ donor. However, this treatment has not been widely introduced, since cells from at least two donors are needed to cure one diabetic.

For a long time, attempts have been made to produce functional beta cells from stem cells, which could make this treatment increasingly common. However, the beta cells produced from stem cells have so far been immature, with poorly regulated insulin secretion. This may be a partial explanation for why no breakthroughs have been achieved in the clinical trials based on immature cells ongoing in the United States.

NASA, Science & Technology News

NASA funds experimental radiation shield and Mars climbing robot

March 14, 2022

Several futuristic projects have just been awarded money through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts programme – here are New Scientist‘s top five choices

By Will Gater

NASA has just announced the projects that will be getting money from its NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme, which aims to support ideas for game-changing mission designs and never-before-seen space exploration tech. Here we look at five of the concepts and how they will be used.