Impact Lab – Page 328 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

AI

Latest Stanford Research Breaks World Record In DNA Sequencing Technique Using AI That Can Help Clinicians Rapidly Diagnose Critical Care Patients

January 22, 2022

Using NVIDIA Clara, Google DeepVariant, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing, the Stanford University School of Medicine has been able to identify genetic diseases in as little as 7.5 hours. In just hours, a team of researchers from Stanford University was able to find a pathogenic variant and diagnose the rare seizure-causing genetic disorder.

This ultra-rapid sequencing research was published in New England Journal of Medicine. The proposed method set a new world record for fastest DNA sequencing technique.

The research team accelerated both base calling and variant calling using NVIDIA GPUs on Google Cloud. They also sped up variant calling by turning it into an application with Clara Parabricks, a computational genomics application framework.

The team was able to optimize every step in the pipeline, including speeding up sample preparation and using nanopore sequencing on Oxford Nanopore’s PromethION Flow Cell. This allowed them generate more than 100 gigabytes worth of data per hour!

Aviation, Science & Technology News

World’s First Commuter Electric Plane Is Preparing for Maiden Flight

January 22, 2022

The prototype e-plane, named Alice, can accommodate nine passengers and two crew members.

By Sissi Cao

The world’s first all-electric “commuter” plane, Alice, made by Israeli company Eviation, is preparing for its first test flight at an airport near Seattle.

A prototype of Alice was spotted on Monday at Arlington Municipal Airport north of Seattle, Washington, where it performed engine tests in preparation for a high-speed taxi test.

Alice made its first public appearance at the Paris Air Show in 2019. Eviation claimed the electric aircraft could reduce maintenance and operating costs by up to 70 percent compared with commercial jets. The latest iteration of Alice features a fly-by-wire system made by Honeywell and boasts a range of 440 nautical miles and a maximum cruise speed of 250 knots.

Alice’s “commuter” configuration can accommodate nine passengers and a crew of two. The plane can also be transformed into an “executive” configuration, designed for fewer people in business class-like seating, and a “cargo” configuration that offers a 450-cubic-foot, temperature-controlled cargo bay.

Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay told FLYING magazine on Monday that Alice was only “five to six [nice weather] testing days away from starting the flight campaign.”

Eviation took Alice for a low-speed taxi test on December 17, the same date 118 years ago when the Wright Brothers test flew their first airplane. Bar-Yohay posted a video of the test on Twitter the next day and wrote, “December 17th, 1903 was a historic day as the Wright Brothers changed the world forever with the first powered flight. We just taxied Alice yesterday…no big deal.”

Space Flight

World’s most powerful rocket that will launch humans to the Moon to be rolled out in February

January 22, 2022

With the Artemis mission, Nasa will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon and establish a a long-term presence.

NASA¹s Space Launch System rocket will launch with Orion atop it from Launch Complex 39B at NASA¹s modernized spaceport at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Photo: Nasa)

Amid reports of the Artemis mission to the Moon being delayed, Nasa is preparing the mega Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for its debut flight. The maiden flight will carry Artemis-1, an uncrewed mission, setting the stage for crewed flights with Artemis missions II, III, IV and

Pegged to be the most powerful rocket in the world and the only machine capable of sending the Orion spacecraft towards the Moon, the two solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines produce more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust beyond Earth’s orbit and into the Moon’s.

“The Space Launch System team is not just building one rocket but manufacturing several rockets for exploration missions and future SLS flights beyond the initial Artemis launch. The Artemis I mission is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will extend our presence on the Moon. The SLS rocket’s unprecedented power and capabilities will send missions farther and faster throughout the solar system,” John Honeycutt, SLS program manager said.

Nasa had in 2020 said that it is targeting February 2022 for the Artemis 1 launch with the vehicle in the final phase of launch preparations. The rocket features some of the largest, most advanced, and most reliable hardware elements ever built for space exploration.A

The massive rocket will be rolled out in February with teams looking at the final date for the event. The SLS and Orion will journey to Launch Pad 39B atop the transporter-2crawler.

Space

South Africa to launch three nanosatellites as part of R27 million space project

January 21, 2022

Higher Education, Science and Innovation minister Dr Blade Nzimande has announced the launch of three locally-produced nanosatellites from the US on Thursday (13 January), as part of South Africa’s new Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation.

The MDASat will be an operational constellation of nine cube satellites that will detect, identify and monitor vessels in near real-time, in support of South African maritime domain awareness.

The launch of the first three satellites (MDASat-1) follows three years after the launch of the most advanced South African nanosatellite to date, ZACube-2, which was developed as a technology demonstrator for the MDASat constellation.

“Since its launch in 2018, ZACube-2 has been providing cutting-edge very high frequency (VHF) data exchange communication systems to the country’s maritime industry, as a contribution to Operation Phakisa,” Nzimande said.

The minister said his department had invested R27 million over three years in the development of the MDASat constellation.

DNA

Scientists Develop World’s Smallest ‘easy-to-use’ Antenna Using Human DNA

January 21, 2022

Calling it an ‘easy-to-use device’, the scientists said that this nanoantenna will help scientists identify new drugs and better understand nanotechnologies.

By Harsh Vardhan

A team of chemists from the University of Montreal has designed the world’s smallest antenna using human DNA, which is the building block of genetic material and measures 20,000 times smaller than a human hair. Calling it an ‘easy-to-use device’, the scientists said that this nanoantenna will help scientists identify new drugs and better understand natural and human-designed nanotechnologies. Fitted with fluorescent molecules at the end, this nanoantenna has basically been designed to monitor the motions of proteins. Professor Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, who is also the study’s senior author said as per the University’s official release.

Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Nuro’s newest autonomous delivery bot is designed for the masses

January 21, 2022

There’s even an airbag on the exterior

By Kirsten Korosec

Nuro showed off Wednesday one of the final pieces of its commercial autonomous delivery strategy.

The startup, which has raised more than $2.13 billion since former Google engineers Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu founded the company in June 2016, unveiled a third-generation electric autonomous delivery vehicle designed for commercial operations and manufactured in partnership with BYD North America.

Nuro has dropped the alpha-numeric nomenclature (R1 and then R2) for this delivery bot that is designed to haul packages, not people. Instead, the vehicle is called “Nuro” — a self-titled album of sorts meant to introduce the robot to the masses and a name that illustrates where this flagship model sits within the company. If it’s not clear, the “Nuro” is at the top.

The Nuro bot is not a sidewalk delivery bot. This new generation, and all of Nuro’s previous iterations, are meant for the road.

Metaverse

unity-and-hyundai-partner-to-build-virtual-twin-of-automotive-manufacturing-facility

January 20, 2022

BY MAI TAO

Unity, a platform for developing games and other 3D content, and Hyundai Motor Company have agreed a partnership to jointly design and build what they describe as “a new metaverse roadmap and platform for a meta-factory”.

The partnership will realize Hyundai’s vision of becoming the first mobility innovator to build a meta-factory, a digital-twin of the company’s physical plant, supported by a metaverse platform.

The introduction of Meta-factory, will allow Hyundai to test numerous scenarios virtually, in order to assess, calculate and create optimal operation conditions, without employees needing to be onsite.

The collaboration culminates in a real-time 3D virtual platform, which will reach a broad group of Hyundai Motor Company customers, offering them a more comprehensive range of services across sales, marketing and customer experience.

Meaning, consumers will now be able to trial, test and engage various auto related solutions digitally, long before choosing which to transfer to physical vehicles.

Aviation

How This Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft Could Kickstart Zero-Carbon F1 Racing

January 20, 2022

Maca’s Carcopter S11, shown at CES, will be the only air racer powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The company says it’ll be race-ready in 2023.

By J. GEORGE GORANT

Racers, start your fuel cells!

The hydrogen-powered Carcopter S 11 may be slow out of the gate compared to some of its competitors, but it has definitely joined the sprint to become the first alternative-powered VTOL racer. Competitor Alauda not only has a working full-scale prototype of its Airspeeder, it has already staged a short drag contest between two remotely controlled models, establishing itself as the early frontrunner to create a zero-carbon F1 type circuit.

But French company Maca announced its plans for the Carcopter a year ago, and showed off a one-third scale model last week at CES.

SpaceX

SpaceX Muscle Launch Explores Secrets of Aging

January 20, 2022

SpaceX has been ferrying cargo to the International Space Station since 2012, sending various items — from robot parts and a vegetable garden to genetically engineered mice — aboard its rockets. And while they may sound random, each item serves its own purpose in the critical research being performed at the ISS — including this next one.

SpaceX has launched human muscle cells into space in an attempt to explore something that will have applications in space and on earth as well: the effects of aging.

A team of scientists at the University of Liverpool has undertaken a research initiative they’re calling the MicroAge study, the main objective of which is to learn why people’s muscles get weaker with age.

This phenomenon parallels one that’s been occurring with astronauts: in zero gravity muscles tend to grow weaker as well.

AI

Checkers To Roll Out AI-Powered Voice Tech to 267 Restaurant Drive-Thrus By End of 2022

January 19, 2022

by Michael Wolf

This week restaurant chain Checkers & Rally’s announced a deal with Presto, a maker of restaurant technology, in which the drive-thru focused chain will roll out Presto’s AI-powered voice assistant technology chain-wide by the end of the year.

The announcement comes after early trials showed a 98% order accuracy for the voice assistant technology. And now, according to Checkers President and CEO Frances Allen, the chain plans to roll out Presto’s voice technology to all 267 store-owned and operated locations by the end of 2022. She also indicated that many franchise locations are expressing interest in the technology.

“We had a vision two years ago that we wanted what I would call ‘Alexa at the drive-thru,’” said Allen.

And now, with Presto, they have it. According to Allen, about 80% of the chain’s total business comes through a drive-thru, so the company’s management felt transitioning to a high-accuracy automated drive-thru could significantly impact the business. “Anything we can do to improve operations,streamline for our guests and our employees, we wanted to do.”

quantum computing

Quantum computing companies to see real-world use cases in 2022

January 19, 2022

According to a survey report, 69% of of global enterprises have already adopted, or plan to adopt, quantum computing in the near term.

By Aaron Raj

69% of global enterprises have already adopted or plan to adopt quantum computing
Germany is the most bullish on achieving a competitive advantage with quantum computing
Machine learning and data analytics problems are the top use cases for early and more advanced adopters of quantum computing

Quantum computing is finally making its presence felt among companies around the world. Over the last few years, companies have shown interest in quantum computing but often couldn’t make definitive decisions on using the technology, as there was not enough research on its practical applications beyond the theoretical.

Nevertheless, 2021 has been a remarkable year for the quantum computing industry. Not only has there been more research on the potential use cases for the technology, but investments in quantum computing have shot up globally to boot.

While the US and China continue to compete with each other for supremacy in this evolving branch of computing, other countries and organizations around the world have slowly been playing catch up as well. And now, 2022 is expected to be the year whereby companies can start seeing quantum computing breakthroughs that could result in practical uses.

According to the first annual Enterprise Quantum Computing Adoption Reportby Zapata Computing, 69% of global enterprises have already adopted, or plan to adopt quantum computing solutions in the near term. The report, which involved over 300 leaders at large multinational enterprises, also showed that 74% of them agreed that those who fail to adopt quantum computing will fall behind.

3D Printer

RESEARCHERS TURN SMARTPHONE INTO ON-DEMAND PERSONALIZED DRUG 3D PRINTER

January 19, 2022

By PAUL HANAPHY

Researchers at University College London (UCL), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) and biopharma firm FabRx, have managed to convert an everyday smartphone into an on-demand personalized drug 3D printer.

Using the visible light created by a mobile phone screen, the modified M3DIMAKER LUX system has already proven capable of 3D printing blood-thinning tablets in specific shapes, sizes and dosages. Operable via a user-friendly app, it’s hoped that with further R&D, the team’s machine could be deployed in future by those living in isolated areas, under the remote supervision of GPs to ensure patient safety.

“This novel system would help people who need precise dosages that differ from how a medication is typically sold, as well as people whose required dosage may change regularly,” said the study’s lead author Xiaoyan Xu. “The tablet’s shape and size are also customizable, which enables flexibility in the rate at which the medication gets released into the bloodstream.”