Impact Lab – Page 621 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Engineering, Inventions, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

‘Human brain’ supercomputer with 1 million processors switched on for first time

November 9, 2018

The world’s largest neuromorphic supercomputer designed and built to work in the same way a human brain does has been fitted with its landmark one-millionth processor core and is being switched on for the first time.

The newly formed million-processor-core Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) machine is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million moving parts.

To reach this point, it has taken £15million in funding, 20 years in conception and over 10 years in construction, with the initial build starting way back in 2006. The project was initially funded by the EPSRC and is now supported by the European Human Brain Project. It is being switched on for the first time on Friday, 2 November.

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Automation, Drone, drones

Micro-drones with winches can open doors and lift 40 times their own weight

November 9, 2018

Micro-drones are nifty little things: small, fast, and agile. But they’re not the strongest machines around, and are barely capable of exerting more force than a small mouse head-butting your ankle. Until now. Scientists from Stanford University and EPFL in Switzerland have created a micro-drone with a built-in winch that’s capable of lifting up to 40 times its own weight and performing simple mechanical tasks like opening a door.

The key to the design is the use of interchangeable adhesives on the drone’s base: microspines for digging into rough materials like stucco, carpet, or rubble, and ridged silicone (inspired by the morphology of gecko feet) for grabbing onto glass. Both microspines and silicone ridges only cling to surfaces in one direction, meaning they can be easily detached. With these in place, the micro-drones can pull well above their 100-gram weight, exerting 40 newtons of force or enough to lift four kilograms (about eight pounds).

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Alternative Transportation, Business, Ecological Products, Electric Vehicles, Transportation

GM is getting into the electric bike business

November 8, 2018

General Motors said it plans to bring two new electric bikes to market next year — one folding and one compact — as the automaker makes a broader push into electrification and other ideas that try to move beyond its traditional business model of producing and selling gas-power vehicles.

The automaker didn’t have a lot of information to share about the e-bikes or its ultimate plans. For instance, Hannah Parish, director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions, wouldn’t say if GM plans to launch a bike-sharing service as a result of these two new products. “I can’t say anything is on or off the table at this point,” she added.

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Energy, Home Technology, Housing, Solar Energy, Solar Power

The future of construction may be concrete that generates its own electricity

November 8, 2018

We need buildings in which to live, but crafting those buildings is making it harder to live on this planet. As much as 10% of global carbon emissions come from the production of concrete. One ton of CO2 is generated by making one ton of cement, which is made from limestone and a few other things heated to an extremely high temperature.

But what if concrete could generate its own energy? The era of photovoltaic concrete may be getting closer. Photovoltaics, which work by converting light to energy via semiconducting, are starting to migrate from solar panels into the building materials themselves.

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Engineering, Inventions, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Scientists create a rare fifth form of matter in space for the first time ever

November 8, 2018

For a few minutes on Jan. 23, 2017, the coldest spot in the known universe was a tiny microchip hovering 150 miles over Kiruna, Sweden.

The chip was small — about the size of a postage stamp — and loaded with thousands of tightly-packed rubidium-87 atoms. Scientists launched that chip into space aboard an unpiloted, 40-foot-long (12 meters) rocket, then bombarded it with lasers until the atoms inside it cooled to minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius) — a fraction of a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature in nature.

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Analysis, Genetics, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

What researchers with the world’s longest running study of human aging know for sure

November 7, 2018

What is aging? That’s the question the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sought to answer in 1958 when it launched the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA)—now the world’s longest-running study of human aging.

Some 3,200 men and women have played a critical role in advancing our understanding of what it means to get older. And these particular volunteers made a lifelong commitment to participate in the research. In over six decades of work, BLSA researchers say they are certain of just two things: Aging is not synonymous with disease. And we all age differently.

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Alzheimer's Disease, Medicine, Science & Technology News

Eye scan may detect Alzheimer’s disease in seconds

November 7, 2018

Two new studies now suggest that a noninvasive eye scan could soon be used to catch Alzheimer’s disease early.

A simple eye scan may soon detect Alzheimer’s in a matter of seconds.

The world’s population is aging rapidly and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise.

For this reason, the need for efficient dementia screening methods that can be applied to millions of people is dire.

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Cancer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

The end of chemotherapy? Scientists discover all cancerous cells have a KILL CODE that can be triggered without the gruelling treatment

November 7, 2018

Researchers at Northwestern University found that our cells can kill themselves

Currently, this is triggered by disease itself or the artificial use of chemotherapy

Now, experts believe the ‘kill codes’ could be synthetically duplicated for use

Every cell in the human body contains a ‘kill code’ which can be triggered to cause its own self-destruction.

That’s the discovery made by researchers at Northwestern University, Illinois, who believe it could be utilised for the future fight against cancer.

Continue reading… “The end of chemotherapy? Scientists discover all cancerous cells have a KILL CODE that can be triggered without the gruelling treatment”

Business, Engineering, Robotics, Science & Technology News

Why are robotics companies dying?

November 6, 2018

Rethink Robotics shuttered its doors and closed for good on October 4, 2018. For many casual observers the collapse of a much-celebrated company, founded by preeminent artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and minor celebrity Rodney Brooks was a surprise. To others it’s just the latest indication of the trouble in robotics land. According to the company, Rethink Robotics was forced to shut its doors when it couldn’t find additional funding, and in a final attempt to sell the company and/or its assets it couldn’t find a buyer.

Rethink Robotics wasn’t the only robotics company forced to close its doors in the past year. Mayfield Robotics, developers of the social robot Kuri, closed down a few months before Rethink in August 2018, despite just making its debut one year earlier at CES 2017. Prior to that, Jibo, makers of a personal robotics device also shut down even after having raised over $70 Million. These companies shut down despite collectively raising several hundred million dollars in funding and developing their products over many years.

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Aviation, Engineering, new technology, Space, Transportation

Reaction Pre-cooled Engines could deliver reusable hypersonic planes by 2025

November 6, 2018

Reaction Engines of the UK could be part of a winning group of bidders for open-ended hypersonic weapons development.

They have proven an innovative pre-cooling system which does not require the development of new materials to handle the heat of hypersonic flight speeds.

The US Air Force Research Labs are already working with them. They would need to partner with US companies like Lockheed or Boeing to get the big military contract.

The pre-coolers are made from thousands of thin-walled tubes to provide high surface area to low weight. Each tube is joined to an inlet and outlet manifold, which allows coolant to be injected and removed for the cooling process. We’re the only people in the world with the heat exchanger manufacturing experience to bond thousands of joints in a single operation, and achieve zero leakage. The joints in our pre-cooler modules are hermetically sealed, meaning that the gas which escapes can be measured by the molecule.

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Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

What is Volkswagen’s MEB platform?

November 6, 2018

The electric car offensive from Volkswagen will soon begin. After years of laggin behind other carmakers because of the research it needed to do, the German auto giant promises that thanks to its new modular platform, there will be ten million electric Volkswagen group cars on the roads in the coming years.

This new platform, the one which allows for this electric revolution is referred to by Volkswagen as the MEB. That’s kind of short for Modular Electrification Toolkit.

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China, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robots will build robots in $150 million Chinese factory

November 5, 2018

Swiss firm ABB is investing big money to conquer the Chinese robotics market.

Swiss robotics company ABB has revealed that it’s spending $150 million to build an advanced robotics factory in Shanghai — one that will use robots to build robots. The company will rely on its YuMi single-arm robots, which it once used to conduct an orchestra, for small parts assembly. It also plans to make extensive use”of its SafeMove2 software in the facility, which it says will allow its YuMi models and other automated machines to safely work in close proximity with human employees.

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