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Companies are coworking in the metaverse to stave off Zoom burnout and spark new types of collaboration

September 25, 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have adopted virtual communication tools to make up for in-person collaboration, but those channels have come with limitations: the nonverbal cues that make in-person meetings useful are difficult to discern on Zoom, and there’s no virtual replacement for water cooler conversations.

As the pandemic drags on, some firms are addressing these shortcomings by coworking in the metaverse.

It doesn’t help that Zoom burnout is real. Struggling to pick up on nonverbal communication, constantly having to look at oneself and conversing in immobile digital environments are all contributing factors to a national rise in “Zoom fatigue” over the past year, according to a February study by Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. “We can’t just open up new lines of communication organically in Zoom,” said Daniel Liebeskind, CEO of metaverse platform Topia. “It’s just not possible.”

DNA

Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction

September 25, 2021

The remains of a well-preserved baby mammoth, named Lyuba, displayed in Hong Kong in 2012.

By Ian Sample

Scientists set initial sights on creating elephant-mammoth hybrid, with first calves expected in six years.

Ten thousand years after woolly mammoths vanished from the face of the Earth, scientists are embarking on an ambitious project to bring the beasts back to the Arctic tundra.

The prospect of recreating mammoths and returning them to the wild has been discussed – seriously at times – for more than a decade, but on Monday researchers announced fresh funding they believe could make their dream a reality.

The boost comes in the form of $15m (£11m) raised by the bioscience and genetics company Colossal, co-founded by Ben Lamm, a tech and software entrepreneur, and George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who has pioneered new approaches to gene editing.

Tourism

World’s Largest Diving Pool With an Entire Sunken City Opens in Dubai

September 24, 2021

By Jessica Stewart

Dubai is known for its over-the-top attractions and now, with the opening of Deep Dive Dubai, it can add a world record to its list of achievements. As the world’s deepest swimming pool for diving, Deep Dive Dubai features a “sunken city” among 3.6 million gallons (14 million liters) of water.

The amount of water in the pool is the equivalent of six Olympic swimming pools and, with a depth of 196 feet (60 meters), it is four times larger than its nearest competitor. It contains an apocalyptic sunken city for divers to explore, which evolves as divers sink further into its depths. The concept is that nature has slowly taken over this forgotten city, with storefronts, homes, cars, and arcade games slowly deteriorating.

Along the way, there are two diving habitats that allow divers to rest and chat. This unique feature of Deep Dive Dubai is a dry air space where divers can even remove their equipment and get completely out of the water. Developed as a world-class destination for divers, there are options for everyone. Beginners and expert divers can both enjoy the experience, and there is also a comprehensive development program for those looking to up their skills.

The facility’s director, Jarrod Jablonski, is a world-record-holding cave diver and is proud of Deep Dive Dubai’s commitment to safety and best practices.

“By design, Deep Dive Dubai offers something truly unique for everyone and our team is committed to ensuring a memorable experience, with outstanding service, for everyone, every time,” says Jablonski. “For those seeking a unique experience, Deep Dive Dubai provides an exceptional, safe, and controlled environment to learn all about diving. For experienced members of the freedive and scuba dive communities, it’s a facility and experience like no other.”

Space Flight

This Luxury Space Balloon Lets You Glide 100,000 Feet Above the Earth With a Cocktail in Hand

September 23, 2021

By Michael Verdon

“If you’re looking for the fury and vibration of a rocket, you’ve come to the wrong place,” says Jane Poynter, cofounder of Space Perspective. “Our Spaceship Neptune offers a gentle ride into space that lets clients absorb the astronaut experience.”

The football-field-sized space balloon carrying the bulbous cabin into the sky at 12 mph (picture the pace of a leisurely bike ride) is in market contrast to the thunderous Flash Gordon blastoffs of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Spaceship Neptune’s swanky, pressurized lounge is a panopticon of windows and includes a bar and bathroom. There’s even Wi-Fi. Instead of g forces gluing fliers to their seats, eight passengers and one pilot will sit in recliners, chatting and sipping cocktails as they gradually zoom out on Kennedy Space Center—Spaceship Neptune’s home port—until it becomes the Florida peninsula, then the East Coast and, eventually, a grand view of Earth itself.

“Some people would love to go pre-dawn,” says Poynter, “so you can really experience the extraordinary sky and see the iconic blue line that separates the Earth below and space. There’s almost a crazy rainbow effect.”

Amazon.com

Amazon’s cashierless ‘Just Walk Out’ tech is coming to Whole Foods stores

September 23, 2021

Grab your kombucha or coconut chips and just… walk out.

By Steve Dent

After launching it in Go stores and then bringing it to larger Fresh supermarkets, Amazon’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” tech will soon arrive in two Whole Foods locations. The service, which lets you pick up goods from shelves and (yep) just walk out, is coming to new stores in Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California next year, the company announced.

“By collaborating with Amazon to introduce Just Walk Out shopping at these two Whole Foods Market stores, our customers will be able to… save time by skipping the checkout line,” said Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey.

Aviation, Science & Technology News

Bell’s Plan To Finally Realize A Rotorcraft That Flies Like A Jet But Hovers Like A Helicopter

September 23, 2021

After 50 years of sporadic development, Bell thinks it can build a survivable, long-range, high-speed, VTOL aircraft adapted to tomorrow’s wars.

Bell has provided The War Zone with exclusive details about its recently revealed concepts for future High-Speed Vertical Take-Off and Landing, or HSVTOL, aircraft, which we looked at initially in this previous article. While being able to takeoff and land vertically using rotors and fly at jet speeds in forward flight sounds far-fetched, it turns out that there is decades of elaborate risk reduction work and general research already done on this exact concept. As such, actually realizing such a capability set may be far less of a technological revolution than one would think at first glance.

The War Zone sat down, virtually at least, with Jeff Nissen, Senior Manager Advanced Technology at Bell Flight, to talk about how the company has got to this point in its HSVTOL endeavors, as well as looking at some of the details of its latest concepts and how they could find a place in the U.S. military’s inventory.

AI

RUSSIA IS ON ITS WAY TO RULE SPACE WITH ITS NEW AI POWERED SPACE STATION

September 22, 2021

THE AI-POWERED SPACE STATION IS ON THE WAY.

by Satavisa Pati

At present, AI is being used in almost every industry on earth and now it’s time for it to go to space. Russia’s new space station will operate autonomously to a large extent, using artificial intelligence as well as include extravehicular robots. The system aims to demonstrate the intelligence of the highest level. The Roscosmos (a state corporation of the Russian federation) chief has added that robotics should be used aboard Russia’s new orbital station. The new orbital outpost in conjunction with the Zeus nuclear-powered space tug can serve as a prototype for future systems of lengthy inter-planetary flights, he said.

The agency aims to develop the new space station with a higher efficiency factor than that of the current International Space Station (ISS). In April, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov announced that the condition of the ISS left much to be desired and Russia might focus on creating its own orbital outpost. The country wants to make a station whose efficiency factor will be several orders of magnitude higher than that of the ISS.

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s can be ‘stalled or reversed’ using oxygen

September 22, 2021

Hyperbaric chambers have been posited as a means of solving one of medicine’s great challenges.

By Tim Kiek

Therapy mimics state of ‘hypoxia’ and is similar to that employed by deep-sea divers.

Alzheimer’s disease can be effectively treated by giving oxygen to patients in pressurised chambers, a study from Tel Aviv University suggests.

Over the course of three months, for 90 minutes a day, five days a week, six elderly patients exhibiting the early signs of dementia were administered oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber.

Researchers said the results showed blood flow increased to the triallists’ brains from 16 per cent to 23 per cent and all demonstrated significantly improved brain function.

Memory test scores increased by 16.5 per cent, attention by six per cent, and information processing speeds by 10.3 per cent.

The chamber works by mimicking the state of oxygen shortage or ‘hypoxia’, effectively changing the structure of vessels in the brain. This means that when those in the chamber are fed oxygen, their tissue absorbs it at a faster rate and in a greater volume.

Robots

These Are the Robots Taking Up Dallas’ Open Restaurant Jobs

September 21, 2021

Plano’s American Robotech provides area businesses, mostly restaurants, with robots like these. Courtesy of American Robotech

BY ALEX MACON

Restaurants are increasingly turning to automated solutions to their staffing shortages. Is the future of labor a delivery robot on wheels?

If you want a picture of the future of work, maybe it’s this: a cat-like cartoon displayed on an iPad-like screen perched on a vertical aluminum or plastic frame on wheels, rolling right up to your table, forever. The robot also sings “Happy Birthday” at you. And, look there, it has your beer.

You can see it for yourself at several Dallas businesses, including the McKinney Avenue restaurant La Duni, whose owner told the Dallas Morning News that robots have saved him thousands of dollars a month in labor costs as well as the trouble of finding enough human servers to staff his restaurant in a tight market for low-wage workers.

The machines are built in China by Pudu Robotics. But they are programmed and delivered here by the Plano company American Robotech, which has either sold or rented about 30 of its robots to area businesses, mostly restaurants so far. They lease for about $500 a month and sell for anywhere between $10,000 to $17,000 a pop.

Solar Power

World’s First Solar Powered Mobile Home to Go on 1,800 Mile Journey

September 21, 2021

by Sebastian Toma

Solar Team Eindhoven, a Dutch student team known for its solar-powered vehicles, has unveiled the world’s first solar-powered mobile home. Its makers have called it Stella Vita, and they say it can generate enough solar electricity to drive 730 kilometers (454 miles) in a day, along with also being a house on wheels. 6 photos

The Dutch students behind the project will undertake a month-long journey through Europe starting September 19, 2021. Stella Vita will be driven on solar energy alone from Eindhoven in The Netherlands, all the way to the southernmost tip of Spain.

This solar house on wheels features a shower, a kitchen, a sleeping space, and a cockpit. Its roof has several solar panels, which can be expanded when the vehicle Is parked, revealing a 17.5-square-meter (188 sq ft.) area. The latter is double when compared to the surface of the roof in the driving mode.

Employment

In the Middle of the Great Resignation, Employers Are Rejecting Millions of Qualified Workers, New Harvard Research Finds

September 21, 2021

Problematic hiring software and bad job descriptions deserve a big chunk of the blame.

BY JESSICA STILLMAN

A scroll through business media or even a stroll through your local downtown is enough to reveal just how desperate companies are to hire right now. “Help Wanted” signs adorn nearly every shop window, and the press is full of stories of companies offering extraordinary perks to attract talent.

Given the incredible difficulty of hiring during “the Great Resignation,” you’d therefore probably be pretty shocked to hear that many of America’s most respected businesses are turning away millions of qualified applicants for no good reason at all. But that’s just what recent research from Harvard and Accenture found.

Robots

Xpeng Unveils Prancing, Rideable Robot Unicorn, Smarter Than Autonomous Vehicles

September 21, 2021

by Otilia Drăgan

Forget autonomous vehicles, there’s something even cooler around the corner – a robotic pony that not only can be ridden just like a real one, but is even able to interact in a clever way. Xiaomi-backed Chinese carmaker Xpeng is the one who’s introducing it on the market, and it’s probably safe to say it will be a big hit. 6 photos

Robotic representations of animals aren’t new, with the most famous one probably being Spot, the yellow dog created by Boston Dynamics. Launched last year, the friendly-looking dog delighted fans around the world with his abilities, such as dancing or picking up stuff off the floor – that is, when it wasn’t busy detecting radiation or taking part in military exercises.

But this new pony takes things further, by blurring the lines between a robot and an autonomous vehicle for kids. A creation of Xpeng Robotics, a new subsidiary of the Xpeng car manufacturing company, this adorable four-legged creature (with a barely-noticeable unicorn) is actually rideable. And, from what we can see in the launch video, its walk is remarkably similar to a pony gait.