Impact Lab – Page 544 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Brain, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News, Stem cells

Cambridge scientists reverse ageing process in rat brain stem cells

September 9, 2019

Aged rat brain stem cells grown on a soft surface (right) show more healthy, vigorous growth than similar aged brain stem cells grown on a stiff surface (left)

New research reveals how increasing brain stiffness as we age causes brain stem cell dysfunction, and demonstrates new ways to reverse older stem cells to a younger, healthier state.

…when the old brain cells were grown on the soft material, they began to function like young cells – in other words, they were rejuvenated

The results, published today in Nature, have far-reaching implications for how we understand the ageing process, and how we might develop much-needed treatments for age-related brain diseases.

Continue reading… “Cambridge scientists reverse ageing process in rat brain stem cells”

Augmented Reality, Science & Technology News, Virtual Reality

Double’s new telepresence robot now drives you around like you’re a Sim

September 9, 2019

Click to drive

When my colleague James Vincent tried out Double Robotics’ first telepresence robot in 2015, slowly wheeling around our New York office from his London home base, he described the experience as like playing Doom, but in an office. The company’s latest version of the robot, the Double 3, adds mixed reality video to let users click on the spots they want to drive to instead of having to use a control pad, making the experience closer to controlling a Sim.

The Double 3 now has an array of 3D sensors to allow for self-driving, letting the robot move around while avoiding obstacles. The new “Click-to-drive” interface shows dots on the floor for areas the robot is able to move to, and there are two 13-megapixel cameras that let users pan and zoom around the screen. The cameras can physically tilt up and down, which comes in handy for zooming in to read papers on a desk, for example. The whole interface can be controlled from a web browser or mobile app.

Continue reading… “Double’s new telepresence robot now drives you around like you’re a Sim”

Automobiles, China, Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

China’s autonomous vehicles to reach 1.5 million units by 2025

September 9, 2019

China’s autonomous car market is expected to reach 1.5 million units by 2025, growing on a compound annual growth rate of 28.4%.

According to the latest study by ResearchandMarkets.com, the automotive industry is China is likely to shift into a higher intelligence level by 2025. At present, the L1 and L2 autonomous vehicles are available in the market, with total sales of 300,000 units in 2018. In the passenger car segment, 96.5% of autonomous vehicles are L1 and L2 private cars.

However, the study predicts that in the years ahead autonomous vehicle technology will see more adoption in passenger cars business segments such as public taxis and mobility service vehicles. Public taxis and other mobility service vehicles will account for a little more than a quarter or 25.6% of the passenger car market share in 2025.

Continue reading… “China’s autonomous vehicles to reach 1.5 million units by 2025”

Automation, Driverless vehicles, Employment, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Truckers want to ban self-driving trucks in Missouri

September 7, 2019

Truck drivers worried about losing their jobs to robots staged a protest outside the Capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri on Tuesday.

Their goal was to convince the government to pass a bill that would prohibit any self-driving trucks from driving on Missouri roads, KRCG reports. While there are no autonomous trucks handling shipping jobs in the state yet, the truckers see the emerging technology as a grave threat to their job security and livelihoods — unrest that signals what can happen when jobs are automated without giving thought to the displaced workers.

Continue reading… “Truckers want to ban self-driving trucks in Missouri”

Automation, Automobiles, Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

Waymo cars refuse to drive in unsafe conditions

September 7, 2019

Heavy rain and blizzards aren’t the only forms of severe weather Waymo’s self-driving vehicles encounter on the regular. In a blog post published this morning, the Alphabet subsidiary laid out the ways its cars in over 25 cities tackle fog, dust, smoke, and other dangerous conditions that trip up even human drivers.

“Challenging [environmental] conditions, which affect human driver and vehicle performance, are one of the leading contributors to crashes on our roads … Poor perception creates significant risk for other road users including pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicle occupants,” wrote Waymo chief safety officer Debbie Hersman. “Waymo is working hard to master a variety of weather scenarios as part of our mission to improve road safety.”

Continue reading… “Waymo cars refuse to drive in unsafe conditions”

Alternative Transportation, Automobiles, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Lyft’s main taxi business is already profitable in some areas, but self-driving cars and bike-sharing are eating into that revenue

September 7, 2019

A man rides a Lyft scooter near the White House in Washington DC Reuters

JPMorgan says Lyft’s core ride-hailing business is already profitable in certain markets.

It’s other bets on things like bikes, scooters, and self-driving cars that are dragging down the company’s balance sheet.

Other Wall Street analysts have also raised their estimates and targets for Lyft following second-quarter earnings that topped expectations.

Continue reading… “Lyft’s main taxi business is already profitable in some areas, but self-driving cars and bike-sharing are eating into that revenue”

Aviation, Engineering, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Weapons

This video of a rocket sled doing 6,599mph at Hollman AFB is absolute insanity

September 7, 2019

The sound alone of something ripping by at hypersonic speed just feet above the desert floor is worth the click!

The internet is full of many wondrous things, most of which you have likely already seen. But something you probably have never seen before is an object rocketing along a set of tracks at 6,599 miles per hour, or right around Mach 8.6. No, I did not screw those metrics up, the video below shows a test being conducted on an object that is moving far beyond the threshold of hypersonic speed (Mach 5) just a few feet over the desert floor near Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Continue reading… “This video of a rocket sled doing 6,599mph at Hollman AFB is absolute insanity”

Automation, Automobiles, Driverless vehicles, Ford Motor Company, Science & Technology News

Self-driving cars will only last four years, Ford says

September 7, 2019

Self-driving cars will only last four years because they will be used so much, a Ford executive has predicted.

John Rich, operations chief of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, dismissed concerns that demand for cars would wane in the future.

“The thing that worries me least in this world is decreasing demand for cars. We will exhaust and crush a car every four years in this business,” he told The Telegraph.

The Detroit-headquartered car maker plans to establish an autonomous fleet which will be used as a service by other companies, to be used as delivery vehicles or to transport employees.

Continue reading… “Self-driving cars will only last four years, Ford says”

Aviation, Crazy Stuff, Science & Technology News

Watch two ‘Jetmen’ fly alongside an A380 superjumbo

September 7, 2019

We’ve seen Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy (aka Jetman) fly his carbon fiber jet wing over Rio, and above Dubai with his protege Jetman Vince Reffet. The latest video from the fearless aviators sees Rossy and Reffet share the skies with something a little bigger — an Emirates A380 airliner. Once again, the flight takes place over the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai skylines. We can only imagine the duo gives the A380 pilot constant heart palpitations as they deftly maneuver around the plane (y’know, with its jet intakes and all that).

Continue reading… “Watch two ‘Jetmen’ fly alongside an A380 superjumbo”

Engineering, Nanotechnology, new technology, Science & Technology News

The world’s most advanced nanotube computer may keep Moore’s Law alive

September 6, 2019

Up close photograph of nanotube

MIT researchers have found new ways to cure headaches in manufacturing carbon nanotube processors, which are faster and less power hungry than silicon chips.

A team of academics at MIT has unveiled the world’s most advanced chip yet that’s made from carbon nanotubes—cylinders with walls the width of a single carbon atom. The new microprocessor, which is capable of running a conventional software program, could be an important milestone on the road to finding silicon alternatives.

The electronics industry is struggling with a slowdown in Moore’s Law, which holds that the number of transistors that can be packed on a silicon processor doubles roughly every couple of years. This trend is facing its physical limits: as the sizes of the devices shrink to a few atoms, electrical current is starting to leak from the metallic channels that shuttle it through transistors. The heat that’s released saps semiconductors’ energy efficiency—and may even cause them to fail.

Continue reading… “The world’s most advanced nanotube computer may keep Moore’s Law alive”

Biotech, DNA, Farming, Science & Technology News

Gene-edited cattle have a major screwup in their DNA

September 6, 2019

Bid for barnyard revolution is set back after regulators find celebrity “hornless” bovines contaminated by bacterial genes.

They were the poster animals for the gene-editing revolution, appearing in story after story. By adding just a few letters of DNA to the genomes of dairy cattle, a US startup company had devised a way to make sure the animals never grew troublesome horns.

To Recombinetics—the St. Paul, Minnesota gene-editing company that made the hornless cattle—the animals were messengers of a new era of better, faster, molecular farming. “This same outcome could be achieved by breeding in the farmyard,” declared the company’s then-CEO Tammy Lee Stanoch in 2017. “This is precision breeding.”

Except it wasn’t.

Food and Drug Administration scientists who had a closer look at the genome sequence of one of the edited animals, a bull named Buri, have discovered its genome contains a stretch of bacterial DNA including a gene conferring antibiotic resistance.

Continue reading… “Gene-edited cattle have a major screwup in their DNA”

Batteries, Electric Vehicles, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Cambridge startup claims breakthrough electric car battery that can charge in 6 minutes

September 6, 2019

A startup that spun out of Cambridge University claims a battery breakthrough that can charge an electric car in just six minutes.

It’s something we heard before, but the difference here is that they claim that they can commercialize the new battery as soon as next year.

The startup, Echion Technologies, was founded by Dr. Jean De La Verpilliere while he was studying for his PhD in nanoscience at the University of Cambridge.

Continue reading… “Cambridge startup claims breakthrough electric car battery that can charge in 6 minutes”