Impact Lab – Page 316 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

New Solar Panel Design Uses Wasted Energy to Make Water From Air

March 11, 2022

The system directly addresses clean water shortages and crop devastation worldwide.

By Monisha Ravisetti

While generating green energy, solar panels usually create excess heat that goes unused. But with a new, innovative design, scientists have found a way to harness those precious leftovers to give the power producers a second purpose: pulling water out of thin air.

Basically, the self-contained system lays solar panels on a special gel that can collect airborne water vapor. As soon as surplus heat coming from the panels touches the gel, the substance releases a sort of mist into a metal box. Within that container, the gas gets condensed into droplets of water.

The team’s motivation is to provide energy and water that’s cheap, clean and off-grid to residents of remote and especially dry-climate areas.

“Our goal is to create an integrated system of clean energy, water, and food production, especially the water-creation part in our design, which sets us apart from current agrophotovoltaics,” Peng Wang, an environmental engineer at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, said in a statement.Wang is the senior author of a study on the invention published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

Metaverse

Landlords, property taxes, and zoning permits in a virtual world

March 10, 2022

By Louis B. Rosenberg, Ph.D., CEO of Unanimous AI.

The concept of land ownership is so ingrained in our culture, it’s easy to forget that the practice has only been pervasive in North America for a few hundred years. For 10,000 years before that, the millions of people who lived on this continent felt no reason to think of land as something a person could own.Play Video

Why mention this in a piece about the metaverse?

Because land ownership, like many of the social norms that govern our lives, is a cultural choice, not an inherent requirement of a well-functioning society. And yet it is quickly becoming a central element of many metaverse worlds.

Is this the right approach? Maybe, but it’s worth noting that land ownership has driven inequality throughout history, concentrating wealth and power within small groups of elites to the detriment of everyone else. And yet metaverse developers, who have the power to invent totally new worlds from scratch, have seized upon this old-world norm by selling NFT real estate. In fact, numerous developers have made the sale of virtual real estate a key premise of their platforms.

3D Printer

House Zero brings high-end design to 3D-printed architecture

March 10, 2022

House Zero is a collaboration between Icon and prestigious US architecture firm Lake/FlatoCasey Dunn

By Adam Williams

A lot of 3D-printed architecture is focused on creating relatively simple and utilitarian structures that look functional but show little thought paid to aesthetics. However, leading 3D printing firm Icon has joined forces with prestigious studio Lake|Flato to create what they hope will become a new genre of homes that combine the benefits of 3D printing technology with the design chops of high-profile firms.

Originally unveiled back in 2021, House Zero is located in Austin, Texas, and features a modernist ranch style that’s not too dissimilar from Lake|Flato’s previous output. The interior decor is a mixture of 3D-printed curved walls, plus glass, and wood.

It measures roughly 2,000 sq ft (185 sq m), spread over one floor and includes three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, as well as a kitchen and central living room. Windows and doors have been carefully situated to frame choice views and maximize natural light inside. Additionally, adjacent to the main house is a smaller accessory dwelling unit that has another bedroom and bathroom.

“While the organic nature of the 3D-printed concrete and curved walls are new design languages for us, House Zero was still entirely in line with the natural connections we seek in our architecture,” said Ashley Heeren, associate at Lake|Flato. “The home expresses our shared passions for craft and performance in an inviting and comfortable family home constructed through a totally new way of building. It’s been a thrill for our team to work with Icon on such an innovative home design and be a part of the future of homebuilding.”

Medical Breakthrough

Scientists created an artificial muscle from natural proteins that may transform reconstructive medicine

March 10, 2022

A microscopic photograph of muscle fibers.

By Andrea Núñez-Torrón Stock and Nathan Rennolds

Researchers from the University of Freiburg created an artificial muscle from natural proteins.
According to the press release, it can contract autonomously by changing pH and temperature.
Natural proteins improve biocompatibility for use in implants and other prosthetics.

The creation of synthetic muscles is an important and growing field in robotics and reconstructive medicine. They could be key in the development of new implants and more sophisticated prosthetics.

German researchers have now managed to create a synthetic muscle entirely from natural proteins, according to a press release from the University of Freiburg.

The team was led by Dr. Stefan Schiller and Dr. Matthias Huber from the livMatS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg.

Natural proteins had been used to make artificial muscles before. But until now, there hasn’t been one that can contract autonomously using chemical energy.

Stem cells

Israeli study: Stem cells may help multiple sclerosis brain ‘repair itself’

March 9, 2022

Eight of 15 patients who receive NG-01 therapy as spinal injection see better disability scores; inventors say therapy may ‘dramatically improve’ patients’ lives

By NATHAN JEFFAY

A new Israeli stem cell therapy, intended to make the brain of multiple sclerosis sufferers “repair itself,” has shown promise in a small clinical trial, with several patients experiencing hopeful biological changes and reduced disability.

NeuroGenesis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, tested its personalized NG-01 therapy on patients, administering it in two different ways. An intravenous injection had some effect, but doctors observed particularly positive changes among patients who received an injection into the spinal cord fluid.

Of the 15 patients who received spinal injections, nine subsequently experienced a drop in levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL), a protein that is heightened among MS patients as disability progresses. In a control group that received placebo injections, only one of the 15 patients experienced such a drop.

Of the nine patients who received the therapy as a spinal injection and had reduced NfL levels, all but one went on to have improved disability scores, even 12 months later when the research finished. The study has been peer-reviewed and published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

3D Printer

CHINESE START-UP ON A MISSION TO CUT ROCKET PRODUCTION COSTS BY 80% WITH 3D PRINTING

March 9, 2022

Launcher conducts a hot fire test for its 3D-printed Engine-2 rocket engine in the E Test Complex at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.

By HAYLEY EVERETT

Chinese start-up SpaceTai has claimed its 3D printing technology is capable of slashing rocket production costs by as much as 80 percent.

Although a relatively new arrival on the space scene, SpaceTai says it can manufacture almost all its rocket parts using its self-developed 3D printers in order to cut costs.

With its first suborbital test flight slated for 2023, the firm could potentially challenge the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Orbex, Relativity Space, and others leveraging 3D printing in the race to space in years to come.

Metaverse

HOW TO FIND A PARTNER IN METAVERSE? DATING TAKES A VIRTUAL TURN

March 9, 2022

Can metaverse rescue the dating apps? Know how you can find a partner in this virtual world.

In this technology-driven world, you will always find something new taking place and providing new means to humanity. At present times, we have Metaverse, an online virtual reality that has caught everyone’s attention. The internet is evolving into the metaverse, and it will be driven by commerce, social interactions, and dating. Dating apps are drastically remodeling the dating landscape, including a multitude of new possibilities with which they captivate their customers. Virtual first dates that can take place anywhere in the world, avatars, or digital coins are a few of the latest features of such apps. Dating in the metaverse can take many forms, from people’s avatars moving around, participating in different activities, to joining others in diverse virtual locations to the possibility of private connections.

Robots, Science & Technology News

Tiny robots made in Mexico to explore moon in scientific first

March 8, 2022

The mission is poised to launch on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket and would be the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in nearly 50 years.

The bots are scheduled to launch in June on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, originally developed for Google’s Lunar-X-Prize. (representative Image)

Five tiny robots designed and made in Mexico will blast off for the moon later this year, part of a first-of-its-kind scientific mission that envisions the two-wheeled bots scrambling across the lunar surface while taking sophisticated measurements.

The so-called nano robots developed by researchers at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) will work together like a swarm of bees, the senior scientist told Reuters, once they make the nearly 240,000 mile (386,000 km) trip from earth aboard a rocket from closely held U.S. firm Astrobotic Technology.

The mission is poised to launch on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket and would be the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in nearly 50 years.

drones

“World’s first” hydraulic hybrid multicopter can fly up to 560 miles

March 8, 2022

By Chris Stonor

A classic case of “a drone with a difference”. Scottish-based company, Edinburgh Flowcopter, which specialises in Industrial Heavy-Lift Drones, has come-up with a unique concept – an unmanned craft that “runs aviation-certified combustion engines which will drive digital-displacement pumps designed for harsh environments, providing control bandwidth to fly,” reports inceptivemind.com.

The company’s initial aim is to assist helicopter operators, in particular, to optimise freight, surveying and search & rescue. The ability to fly in harsh weather over rough and inhospitable terrain is one of its primary selling points as well as long distances compared to its more vulnerable and less distance-flown electric counterparts. This robustness has Scotland written all over it, although such a craft could be helpful in the many remote and harsh environments around the world.

Tesla

Elon Musk pushes to build 6.2-mile underground tunnel for Tesla vehicles to ferry passengers under traffic-clogged North Miami Beach

March 8, 2022

By MATT MCNULTY

Elon Musk is pushing for a massive 6.2-mile underground tunnel to ferry Tesla vehicles and their passengers in the traffic-clogged area of North Miami Beach
Musk’s Boring Company are currently considering the Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International University’s Biscayne campus as hosts for the transit tunnel
The ‘rough’ estimated cost for the project sits at between $180 million and $220 million
It is expected to be completed in a 36-month construction time frame, according to Boring
The concept is already in effect in Las Vegas, where 1.7-mile track allows for Teslas to cruise beneath the city’s convention center at top speeds of 40 mph
The next step in the process is to submit an interim agreement before city officials on March 15, according to city manager Chris Lagerbloom

Elon Musk is pushing to build a massive 6.2-mile underground tunnel to ferry Tesla vehicles and their passengers in the traffic-clogged area of North Miami Beach.

Musk’s Boring Company are currently considering the Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International University’s Biscayne campus as hosts for the proposed transit tunnel, which will run underneath Miami-Dade, according to the Miami Herald.

Aviation

The technology behind ZEVA’s plan to put an eVTOL in every garage

March 7, 2022

ZEVA plans to certify the Zero eVTOL as an experimental-class aircraft with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) within the next six months, placing it in the same company as kit planes.

Stephen Tibbitts comes across as the antithesis of a maverick Silicon Valley CEO. The mild-mannered, soft-spoken chief executive of ZEVA has the even keel of a college professor as he explains his plans for the ZEVA Zero, a disc-shaped eVTOL his tech startup is developing in Tacoma, Washington.

He is not brash or bombastic. There is no hint of Elon Musk or Steve Ballmer-style showmanship. But his ambitions for the Zero are not small.

“I think eVTOL represents the largest opportunity of our lifetimes,” said Tibbitts, speaking over Zoom. “Bill Gates [predicted] a computer on every desk. We’re saying a ZEVA in every garage. That’s our goal.”

After about four years of development, that goal appears to have taken a leap forward. In early January, a full-sized prototype of the ZEVA Zero achieved its first untethered, powered, test flight.

Its eight zero-emission, electric-motor-driven propellers lifted the disc — 8.5 feet in diameter — into a steady hover, then smoothly maneuvered forward several meters before launching high over a grassy field in Washington’s rural Pierce County.

“I feel ecstatic, super proud of the team and our accomplishment,” Tibbitts said. “And hopefully, that’ll help us really get out of the starting blocks. We need to raise a significant amount of money to get through transition flight and certification and get it into production.”

Metaverse

SOUTH KOREA TO INVEST $187M IN NATIONAL METAVERSE PROJECT

March 7, 2022

The government will provide $186.7 million to stimulate the growth of a metaverse platform that it hopes businesses and industries will thrive in.

By BRIAN NEWAR

South Korea’s Ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning pledged 223.7 billion Korean won ($186.7 million) to create a broad metaverse ecosystem to support the growth of digital content and corporate growth within the country.

The ministry wrote in an official statement on Sunday that funds will be spent on completing four main objectives in creating what appears to be an all-encompassing metaverse ecosystem titled the “Expanded Virtual World.”

The government agency intends on using its metaverse as a platform for expanding the virtual industrial growth of cities, education and media.

Content creators will enjoy support on multiple fronts to attract the right talent to help build the platform. The ministry said that it will host community-oriented creative activities, a metaverse developer contest and a hackathon.