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Jan 7, 2022

BMW debuts its new color-changing paint technology at CES: E Ink

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

At the touch of a button, the car changes colors.


The surface coating of the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink contains many millions of microcapsules, with a diameter equivalent to the thickness of a human hair. Each of these microcapsules contains negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments. Depending on the chosen setting, stimulation by means of an electrical field causes either the white or the black pigments to collect at the surface of the microcapsule, giving the car body the desired shade.

Just don’t expect to see this at your local BMW dealership anytime soon: the automaker says this is just an “advanced research and design project.”

Continue reading “BMW debuts its new color-changing paint technology at CES: E Ink” »

Jan 7, 2022

Toyota’s First Solid State Battery Will Equip A Hybrid, Not An EV

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Even though solid state batteries are seen as technology that could drastically improve today’s fully-electric vehicles, it seems the first vehicles to feature one won’t actually be EVs. This is at least true in Toyota’s case since the manufacturer has now confirmed that its first solid state-equipped vehicles will be hybrids expected to debut in two or three years’ time.

The news comes from Gill Pratt, Toyota’s chief scientist and head of the Toyota Research Institute, who made the announcement during an interview for Autoline. He also mentioned that the manufacturer has made progress with its solid state project and that development is on schedule.

He did not say which hybrid Toyota will get a solid state battery, but he did go on to explain why it won’t immediately offer solid state EVs. The main reason has to do with the size of the battery pack, which for a hybrid vehicle that still has an internal combustion engine, is considerably smaller than what you see in pure EVs.

Jan 7, 2022

James Webb Space Telescope: Primary Mirror Deployment — Mission Control Live

Posted by in category: space

Watch James Webb Space Telescope experts give real-time updates on the final step in the observatory’s deployment: the unfolding of the second of Webb’s two primary mirror wings. Engineers in mission control will send commands to deploy the wing and latch it into place, a process that takes several hours. The deployment will complete the mirror’s golden honeycomb-like structure, and will mark the end of an unprecedented 14-day unfolding process.

Webb launched on Dec. 25, 2021 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. An international collaboration with NASA partners including the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, it’s the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. The mission is managed from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Continue reading “James Webb Space Telescope: Primary Mirror Deployment — Mission Control Live” »

Jan 7, 2022

Starlink: SpaceX just launched a much-needed boost for internet service

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, satellites

SpaceX kicked off 2022 with a bang. CEO ELon Musk’s spaceflight firm launched a Falcon 9 rocket packed with Starlink satellites for its internet constellation.

Jan 7, 2022

Ruby Princess sparks Covid concerns after a dozen passengers reportedly test positive in US

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Princess Cruises’ ship was at centre of 2020 outbreak in Sydney which resulted in over 900 cases and 28 deaths.


The Ruby Princess cruise ship sparked concerns about a Covid-19 outbreak in San Francisco after a dozen passengers were reported to test positive.

It is nearly two years since a Covid outbreak when the ship docked in Sydney resulting in over 900 infections and 28 deaths.

Continue reading “Ruby Princess sparks Covid concerns after a dozen passengers reportedly test positive in US” »

Jan 7, 2022

Astronomers Discover a Strange Galaxy Without Dark Matter

Posted by in category: cosmology

New, high-resolution observations of a faint, fluffy galaxy suggest that dark matter’s not as ubiquitous as scientists thought.

Jan 7, 2022

Giant dying star explodes as scientists watch in real time — a first for astronomy

Posted by in categories: cosmology, materials

Astronomers were first alerted to the star’s unusual activity 130 days before it went supernova. Bright radiation was detected in the summer of 2020 by the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy Pan-STARRS telescope on Maui’s Haleakalā.

Then, in the fall of that year, the researchers witnessed a supernova in the same spot.

They observed it using the W.M. Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on Maunakea, Hawai’i, and named the supernova 2020tlf. Their observations revealed that there was material around the star when it exploded — the bright gas that the star violently kicked away from itself over the summer.

Jan 7, 2022

Artificial Intelligence That Escaped Evolution’s Lab: Human

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Originally published on Towards AI the World’s Leading AI and Technology News and Media Company. If you are building an AI-related product or service, we invite you to consider becoming an AI sponsor. At Towards AI, we help scale AI and technology startups. Let us help you unleash your technology to the masses.

Could a human be the very thing he feared?

In this article, we will see that human beings are actually an advanced artificial intelligence that escaped the engineering of evolution. The story of a disobedient species that rebelled against nature and evolution after gaining consciousness and general abilities.

Jan 7, 2022

Hypersonic missiles: The new arms race?

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military

North Korea has said it’s successfully launched another hypersonic missile. But what are hypersonic missiles, and should we be worried?

Project Force presenter @AlexGatopoulos breaks it down.

Jan 7, 2022

Novel memory technology based on compound semiconductors

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics

A pioneering type of patented computer memory known as ULTRARAM has been demonstrated on silicon wafers in what is a major step towards its large-scale manufacture.

ULTRARAM is a novel type of memory with extraordinary properties. It combines the non-volatility of a data storage memory, like flash, with the speed, energy-efficiency and endurance of a working memory, like DRAM. To do this it utilizes the unique properties of compound semiconductors, commonly used in such as LEDS, laser diodes and infrared detectors, but not in , which is the preserve of silicon.

Initially patented in the US, further patents on the technology are currently being progressed in key technology markets around the world.