Impact Lab – Page 357 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Robots

Intelligent sensing and tele-presence robotic technology, enabling health practitioners to remotely assess a person’s physical and cognitive health from anywhere in the world, is being pioneered in research co-led at the University of Strathclyde.

The technology could aid cost-effective diagnosis, more regular monitoring and health assessments alongside assistance, especially for people living with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments.

The system was demonstrated for the first time to the UK Government Minister, Iain Stewart during a visit to the construction site of the National Robotarium, hosted at Heriot-Watt University, which is co-leading the research with Strathclyde.

Dr. Mario Parra Rodriguez, a senior lecturer in Strathclyde’s School of Psychological Sciences & Health, said: “The experience of inhabiting a distant robot through which I can remotely guide, assess, and support vulnerable adults affected by devastating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, grants me confidence that challenges we are currently experiencing to mitigate the impact of such diseases will soon be overcome through revolutionary technologies.”

Agriculture

Shanghai’s unmanned farm pilot starts harvest

October 5, 2021

Xinhua

A variety of unmanned vehicles, instead of farmers, are busy harvesting rice ears in a field in the outskirts of Shanghai.

This 300 mu (20 hectares) rice field in Waigang Township, Jiading District, is Shanghai’s first unmanned farm pilot.

Agricultural vehicles equipped with China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) shuttle between a warehouse and the field, automatically avoiding obstacles in their way to carry out harvesting.

Shanghai piloted the farm in 2020 using unmanned agricultural machinery for plowing, sowing, field management and harvesting.

Space Flight

Humans Could Reach Mars In One Month In This 200,000 Kmph Nuclear Rocket

October 5, 2021

Ad Astra Rocket Company

By Bharat Sharma

Every journey in space is extremely dangerous. Longer journeys have higher scope of mechanical failures and encountering other space hazardsThe pilot step towards minimising risks to human lives is by minimising the travel time and that’s exactly what this company is trying to doCalled “Ad Astra Rocket Company”, this Costra Rica-based rocket maker completed a record 88-hour long test of its Vasimr VX-200SS plasma rocket. Conducted at a facility near Houston in Texas, the test set a world record in terms of high-power endurance in

Planning to move to Mars when it’s feasible? Worry not, a rocket company is currently testing nuclear rockets that will cut down travel time to Mars to just one month. Current rockets take about seven months to reach Mars after covering 480 million kilometres (300 million

miles).

Cancer

Cancer Treatment: New Software Uses Artificial Intelligence to Grow, Treat Virtual Tumors

October 5, 2021

Image from scanning electron microscope, which shows selenium nanoparticles, ejected during femtosecond laser ablation of bulk selenium target in distilled water. This image captured the melted “tails” of nanoparticles, which emerge during their ejection from the bulk target.

EVONANO, a multidisciplinary project, brings together experts in artificial intelligence, computer science, microfluidics, modeling, and medicine to offer a novel method for cancer treatment research. The new software enables scientists to grow virtual tumors and use artificial intelligence (AI) to design nanoparticles to treat them.

According to Phys.org, growing and treating virtual tumors has become an essential step in developing new therapies for cancer as it allows scientists to optimize the design of nanoparticle-based drugs before testing them in the laboratory and on the patients.

Nanotechnology

Scientists Developing Versatile ‘Nano Couriers’ for Future Medicine

October 5, 2021

Scientists from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (NRNU MEPhI), as part of an international team, have created a nanoprobe for pinpoint drug delivery to affected body tissues.

According to the researchers, this development aims to create a universal means of targeted drug delivery for the effective treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and several other pathologies. The research paper was published in the journal Nanomaterials. Targeted drug delivery to specific tissues and cells is one of the most pressing areas in the treatment of focal diseases, including heart and vascular pathologies, cancer, tuberculosis, both types of diabetes, and other maladies, said the MEPhI scientists.

This approach can be implemented through the use of nanoprobes, special structures capable of carrying a drug and special molecules to “target” the pathology centre. Each probe has to be compact, around tens of nanometres in size, with strictly defined physicochemical properties and as little toxicity as possible.

Space Flight

Futuristic Solar Electric Thrusters Makes NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Go

October 3, 2021

Futuristic electric thrusters emitting a cool blue glow will guide the Psyche spacecraft through deep space to a metal-rich asteroid.

By JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory work to integrate Hall thrusters into the agency’s Psyche spacecraft in July 2021. One of the thrusters is visible on the side of the spacecraft underneath a red protective cover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When it comes time for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft to power itself through deep space, it’ll be more brain than brawn that does the work. Once the stuff of science fiction, the efficient and quiet power of electric propulsion will provide the force that propels the Psyche spacecraft all the way to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The orbiter’s target: a metal-rich asteroid also called Psyche.

The spacecraft will launch in August 2022 and travel about 1.5 billion miles (2.4 billion kilometers) over three and a half years to get to the asteroid, which scientists believe may be part of the core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early rocky planet. Once in orbit, the mission team will use the payload of science instruments to investigate what this unique target can reveal about the formation of rocky planets like Earth.

Space Flight

NASA will pay $400m to private companies planning to build their own space stations as they prepare to retire the aging ISS by the end of the decade

October 3, 2021

By CHRIS CIACCIA

NASA is looking to private companies for a replacement to the International Space Station and hopes to award $400 million in contracts
Phil McAlister, NASA’s commercial-spaceflight director, said the agency has received ‘roughly a dozen proposals’ to replace the ISS
Axiom Space is already constructing ‘the world’s first private space station’

As NASA gets set to retire the International Space Station by the end of the decade, the U.S. space agency is looking to private companies for a replacement and hopes to award $400 million in contracts to do so.

Phil McAlister, NASA’s commercial-spaceflight director, told CNBC that the agency has received ‘roughly a dozen proposals’ to replace the ISS, which launched into orbit in November 1998.

‘We got an incredibly strong response from industry to our announcement for proposals for commercial, free fliers that go directly to orbit,’ McAlister told the news outlet.Dailymail.co.uk: News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities from Daily MailPauseNext video0:33 / 2:10SettingsFull-screenRead More

‘I can’t remember the last time we got that many proposals [in response] to a [human spaceflight] contract announcement.’

AI

New Artificial Intelligence Tool Accelerates Discovery of Truly New Materials

October 3, 2021

The new artificial intelligence tool has already led to the discovery of four new materials.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have created a collaborative artificial intelligence tool that reduces the time and effort required to discover truly new materials.

Reported in the journal Nature Communications, the new tool has already led to the discovery of four new materials including a new family of solid state materials that conduct lithium. Such solid electrolytes will be key to the development of solid state batteries offering longer range and increased safety for electric vehicles. Further promising materials are in development.

The tool brings together artificial intelligence with human knowledge to prioritize those parts of unexplored chemical space where new functional materials are most likely to be found.

Discovering new functional materials is a high-risk, complex, and often long journey as there is an infinite space of possible materials accessible by combining all of the elements in the periodic table, and it is not known where new materials exist.

The new AI tool was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Chemistry and Materials Innovation Factory, led by Professor Matt Rosseinsky, to address this challenge.

Healthcare

Americans Spending on Top 20 Drugs Nearly Doubles the Rest of the World Combined

October 2, 2021

A Pharmacy tech fills prescriptions at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on May 20, 2020.

By Naveen Athrappully

The United States outspent every other country in the world combined when it came to the top-selling 20 pharmaceutical drugs, according to a recent analysis of company financial filings by Public Citizen.

Americans spent a total of $101.1 billion, while the rest of the world spent $56.8 billion, on the top 20 drugs. The key findings of the analysis report (pdf) indicate that U.S. consumers overpay for drugs, and do not necessarily intake more than people from other countries.

The best-selling 20 drugs brought $157.8 billion in total global revenue for pharma companies with the U.S. accounting for 64 percent of the revenue pie. The sizable disparity makes the U.S. market essentially a cash cow for Big Pharma, which is fighting efforts to decrease the spending.

“Deceptive TV ads paid for by Big Pharma try to frighten and mislead Americans about new legislative efforts that would empower Medicare to negotiate drug prices,” said the report.

Shopping

PayPal launches its ‘super app’ combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more

October 2, 2021

By Sarah Perez

Image Credits: PayPal

PayPal has been talking about its “super app” plans for some time, having recently told investors its upcoming digital wallet and payments app had been given a go for launch. Today, the first version of that app is officially being introduced, offering a combination of financial tools including direct deposit, bill pay, a digital wallet, peer-to-peer payments, shopping tools, crypto capabilities and more. The company is also announcing its partnership with Synchrony Bank for its new high-yield savings account, PayPal Savings.

These changes shift PayPal from being largely a payments utility that’s tacked on other offerings here and there, to being a more fully fleshed out finance app. Though PayPal itself doesn’t aim to be a “bank,” the new app offers a range of competitive features for those considering shifting their finances to neobanks, like Chime or Varo, as it will now also include support for paycheck Direct Deposits through PayPal’s bank partners with two-day early access, bill pay and more.

These features could make PayPal more competitive, as getting paid earlier has been one of the bigger draws among those considering digital banking apps instead of using traditional banks.

In addition to shifting their paychecks to Payal, customers’ PayPal funds can then be used for things that are a part of daily life, like paying their bills, saving or shopping, for example.

Aviation

Airbus Jumps Into Electric Air Taxi Race

October 2, 2021

By Madhu Unnikrishnan

The electric aircraft market has gone from zero to 60 in just a matter of months, now that one of the world’s largest airframers has entered the race. Airbus said its Helicopters division is developing an electric take off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi that could take its first flight in 2023.

This is in stark contrast to Airbus archrival Boeing, which just last week committed only to consider alternative propulsion technologies in the near- to medium-term.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Gol is committing to order up to 250 Vertical Aerospace eVTOLs through lessor Avolon and in partnership with Grupo Comparte to create an urban air taxi platform for country’s most congested cities. Gol’s proposed equity partner American Airlines also has a commitment for Vertical Aerospace’s VA-X4 aircraft.

Tesla

Elon Musk promises to add a Full Self-Driving button to Tesla cars – ET Auto

October 2, 2021

Elon Musk has been promising the FSD package to Tesla buyers for at least six months.

Tesla is poised to introduce the Full Self-Driving package, also called FSD package, to its cars this week. The beta version of the software has already been pushed out to selected users. Tesla owners who have already paid for the controversial software can request for FSD Beta software and will be granted access based on their driving behaviour.

“Beta button will request permission to assess driving behavior using the Tesla insurance calculator. If driving behavior is good for 7 days, beta access will be granted.” Elon Musk replied to a Twitter user.

Although Tesla has characterised even the newest version of FSD Beta features as a Level 2 drivers assistance system, videos posted by testers show cars driving on streets without any human intervention.

Elon Musk has been promising the FSD package to Tesla buyers for at least six months. “Build 8.3 of FSD should be done QA testing by end of next week, so that’s roughly when download button should show up [SIC],” said Musk in March.