It’s rather ironic that a boring company is becoming one of the most fascinating new companies in the world.
Elon Musk’s Boring company published new images of concept vehicles that could one day be used in its underground tunnels.
World’s first 3D-printed ovaries allow infertile mice to give birth
Infertile mice have given birth to healthy pups after having their fertility restored with ovary implants made with a 3D printer.
Researchers created the synthetic ovaries by printing porous scaffolds from a gelatin ink and filling them with follicles, the tiny, fluid-holding sacs that contain immature egg cells.
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The world’s first autonomous zero-emissions ship
The vessel “YARA Birkeland” will be the world’s first fully electric and autonomous container ship, with zero emissions. Operation is planned to start in the latter half of 2018, shipping products from YARA’s Porsgrunn production plant to Brevik and Larvik in Norway.
Autonomous and 100% electric, “YARA Birkeland” will be the world’s most advanced container feeder ship.
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Was the telecommuting craze a failed experiment?
Remember the time Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting at Yahoo and started a media firestorm? Some thought she’d flipped her lid. Others said she’d made a grave mistake that would kill morale. Well, she hadn’t and it didn’t. That was one of the few things she did right in her ill-fated attempt to turn around the hapless internet portal.
While the former Googler didn’t intend to start a trend, she did. HP followed suit a few months later. Then came Best Buy, Bank of America, Aetna and others.
Last week, IBM gave thousands of virtual workers an ultimatum: either show up in the office, or go work somewhere else. Considering that Big Blue pioneered the “anytime, anywhere workforce” decades ago, that sort of closes the books on what has turned out to be yet another overhyped management fad.
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Does your employee benefits package include cryogenic freezing?
Generous employee perks are as much a part of the tech industry as long work hours, office Nerf gun battles, and people overusing the word “disruption.” But while most firms only go so far as free meals, on-site yoga classes, and maybe the occasional indoor climbing wall, an artificial intelligence-driven hedge fund is taking things to the next level.
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Enhanced robo-humans have arrived
Much of the talk surrounding robotics in the workplace centers on the job losses caused by automation. However, there are also great benefits of robots to humans who perform dangerous or labor intensive tasks that could possibly be mitigated with the help of technology.
Kurzweil: By 2030, Nanobots Will Flow Throughout Our Bodies
Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering, is a well-known futurist who seems to have a penchant for accurate predictions. Most recently, he has again reiterated his prediction that the so-called technological singularity will happen by 2045. For Kurzweil, this doesn’t translate to an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario courtesy of artificially intelligent (AI) machines. Rather, it means human beings will become powered by machines.
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Study: Women investors better than men
Female investors earned higher returns and saved more of their pay to fund retirement accounts than men, even though most women didn’t think they would, according to a recently released Women and Money Survey from Fidelity Investments.
Cryptocurrency wars – Untraceable coins storming into top 10
Bytecoin, an untraceable privacy-preserving cryptocurrency, has just seen an astronomical triple-digit percent surge in price. The cryptocurrency soared to the all time high market capitalization of $444,000,000, before calming down to around $300,000,000 and establishing itself at the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization at the time of writing (according to CoinMarketCap). A symbolic turning point for one of the first untraceable cryptocurrencies launched in 2012.
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Robot completes 2-hour brain surgery in just 2.5 minutes
Brain surgery is precision business, and one slip can spell doom for affected patients. Even in one of the most skilled jobs in the world, human error can still be a factor.
Researchers from the University of Utah are looking to provide less opportunity for those errors to occur. A robot that the team is developing is able to reduce the time it takes to complete a complicated procedure by 50 times.
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Bio-sensing contacts can monitor for signs of disease
Finger pricks, blood draws, and urine testing are miserable for just about everyone. But now researchers are working on a new concept to make testing for disease much easier. The project? A contact lens that would use the condition of the eyes to help spot illness.
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How will human rights change in the era of A.I.
Will we have more rights or fewer rights when artificial intelligence kicks in? How about the right to have our diseases cured, the right to a full head of hair, the right to a job that matches our skills, or the right to marry our perfect mate?
In response to advances in neuroscience and technologies that alter or read brain activity, some researchers are proposing a recognition of new human rights to mental integrity. These would protect people from having their thoughts abused, hacked, or stolen. The idea of this kind of human right is a recognition that although brain-related technologies have the potential to transform our lives in many positive ways, they also have the potential to threaten personal freedom and privacy.
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