It sounds, admits Chris Finlayson, like a “pretty nutty” idea. Yet the new law that declares the Whanganui River, New Zealand’s third-longest, a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the courts, is … Continued
Arachnophobia is a common and powerful fear. Spiders sit high in the pantheon of species that have an outsized terror-to-danger ratio. But, unsettling though they may be, the eight legged to excel at keeping six-limbed pests in check. They prey … Continued
The booming growth of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), like most transformational technologies, is both exciting and scary. It’s exciting to consider all the ways our lives may improve, from managing our calendars to making medical diagnoses, but it’s … Continued
There’s a lot of carbon in automobile exhaust. Carbon is also used as a pigment in black ink. The guys at Singapore-based Graviky Labs have combined the one with the other, by harvesting carbon from vehicles’ tailpipes to make their … Continued
Google recently announced that its new AI-based translation software, Neural Machine Translation (NMT), has developed an internal language of its own to facilitate its translation of certain languages — and Google can’t explain how it did it. Neural Machine Translation … Continued
Thermoelectric generators convert heat or cold to electricity (and vice-versa). Normally solid-state devices, they can be used in such things as power plants to convert waste heat into additional electrical power, or in small cooling systems that do not need … Continued
For the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year – a troubling development linked to a panoply of worsening health problems in the United States. Rising fatalities from heart disease and stroke, diabetes, … Continued
Tesla has announced their solar panels are nearly entirely powering the island of Ta’u in American Samoa. The island used to depend entirely on imported diesel fuel for its electricity, but a new initiative has seen the islanders build a … Continued
With the rise of mobile technologies comes a need for mobile power sources, and it’s hard to think of a more discreet way to do this than weaving them right into our clothes. Such a task requires new advances in … Continued
Sunshine and seawater. That’s all a new, futuristic-looking greenhouse needs to produce 17,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year in the South Australian desert. It’s the first agricultural system of its kind in the world and uses no soil, pesticides, fossil … Continued
We are all farmilar with the tragedy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which was caused by an enormous tsunami that occurred back in 2011. It brought the nuclear power debate back to life. Now, one Japanese engineer wants to harness the power of another potentially … Continued
In northern Queensland, Australia, two giant holes in the earth are about to be put to good use. What were the twin pits of the Kidston gold mine will soon become a place to store a tremendous amount of energy. … Continued
Researchers at MIT have developed an easy-to-use “biological programming language” that allows genetic engineers (or just about anyone) to design biological circuits and “hack” the genomes of living cells. LIFE-SHAPING The evolution of human technology has proceeded in lockstep with … Continued
Scientists say they have invented a super thin fabric that generates electricity from sunlight and movement. It has taken Chinese and US researchers about two years to develop the fabric, which they say is a flexible and foldable power source … Continued
Scientists from the University of Southampton have reengineered the fundamental process of photosynthesis to power useful chemical reactions that could be used to produce biofuels, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. Photosynthesis is the pivotal biological reaction on the planet, providing the … Continued
Fastbrick Robotics, an ASX-listed company based in Perth, has created a robot brick layer, a form of 3D printing which can create the shell of a house without being touched by human hands. The Hadrian 105 robot, named after the … Continued
The grimsel electric racing car has broken the world record for acceleration by an electric car. The vehicle accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 1.513 seconds over a distance of less than 30 m. The record-breaking car was developed by students … Continued
German engineers have created a camera no bigger than a grain of salt that could change the future of health imaging — and clandestine surveillance. Using 3D printing, researchers from the University of Stuttgart built a three-lens camera, and fit … Continued
Scientists are getting closer to directly observing how and why water is essential to life as we know it. A study in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the strongest evidence yet that proteins—the large and complex molecules that fold … Continued
Researchers at Harvard have developed a more efficient version of the bionic leaf, which can turn sunlight and water into electricity and liquid fuels. Over the last few years, great strides have been made in creating artificial leaves that mimic the … Continued