Lifeboat Foundation

HB1 is an automated wall-climbing robot that was designed to streamline home construction projects.

No matter the size, location, style, or chosen building material–when it comes to constructing houses, it can be a dangerous job. Even with bulky construction vehicles, building homes requires a lot of finesse and attention. As our technological worlds evolve, so do our tools and that includes those used for home construction. Home-building robotics company Hausbots developed an automated, climbing construction robot called HB1 to help get home projects done.

The research study of Spanish clinical neuropsychologist Gabriel G. De la Torre, Does artificial intelligence dream of non-terrestrial techno-signatures?, suggests that one of the “potential applications of artificial intelligence is not only to assist in big data analysis but to help to discern possible artificiality or oddities in patterns of either radio signals, megastructures or techno-signatures in general.”

“Our form of life and intelligence,” observed Silvano P. Colombano at NASA’s Ames Research Center who was not involved in the study, “may just be a tiny first step in a continuing evolution that may well produce forms of intelligence that are far superior to ours and no longer based on carbon ” machinery.”

A computer is suspended from the ceiling. Delicate lines and loops of silvery wires and tubes connect gold-colored platforms. It seems to belong in a science-fiction movie, perhaps a steam-punk cousin of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But as the makers of that 1968 movie imagined computers the size of a spaceship, this technology would have never crossed their minds – a quantum computer.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that conventional computers can’t. Conventional computer chips can only process so much information at one time and we’re coming very close to reaching their physical limits. In contrast, the unique properties of materials for quantum computing have the potential to process more information much faster.

These advances could revolutionize certain areas of scientific research. Identifying materials with specific characteristics, understanding photosynthesis, and discovering new medicines all require massive amounts of calculations. In theory, quantum computing could solve these problems faster and more efficiently. Quantum computing could also open up possibilities we never even considered. It’s like a microwave oven versus a conventional oven – different technologies with different purposes.

As long as the wheels turn —

Yet more proof that the internal combustion engine is on borrowed time.

Tesla China is recalling some 20,000 Model S sedans in China over a faulty frunk latch and 180,000 Model 3s over a potential rearview camera issue.

With the world turning to electric vehicles and other battery-powered machines, a strong supply and demand gap is expected with lithium in the coming years. A new solar generator using sodium-ion batteries might just be the solution we need.

The sun can power many things, but it takes a lot of math to realize it’s not ideal for powering cars.

Our reluctance to think, talk or communicate about death is even more pronounced when we deal with others’ loss compared to our own, new research finds, but either way we tend to frame attitudes and emotions in a sad and negative way.

Teaching new more positive ways to address these difficult conversations is the focus of a new paper in PLOS ONE journal by palliative care specialists across Australia.

Led by Flinders University’s Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD) and Palliative and Supportive Services, researchers from Flinders, CQUniversity Australia, NT Palliative Care Central Australia and University of Technology Sydney, surveyed 1,491 people about the use of language to express their feelings and insights into death and dying.

The ongoing dispute between wireless carriers and the aviation industry heated up over the holidays, with AT&T and Verizon on Sunday refusing a request from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to delay their planned 5G deployments.

Why it matters: The Federal Aviation Administration has warned that potential interference from 5G signals, especially in bad weather, could cause flight cancellations or force planes to divert to different airports.

Instead of further postponing their 5G plans for a second time, the wireless providers offered to beef up protections around airports to address concerns about potential signal interference with aircraft equipment.