Science

Graphite is often hailed as the ideal anode and, as such, may become one of the hottest manufactured commodities in the battery industry going forward. However, a Finnish company asserts that its new alternative compound is comparable, if not superior, and can be made using less energy. Furthermore, it can apparently be made using an abundant by-product of the forestry industry.

After lowering the Starlink satellite Internet prices in a lot of regions, yet introducing download restrictions, SpaceX is now running a deal on the RV bundle. US Starlink for RV subscribers will get a month free, while Canadians are offered an equipment discount.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship processor is projected to be on the market in the form of new smartphones by 2023. However, those who would like it in something more like a reference platform for purely AI applications are in luck. The OEM will also offer the SoC as part of a new Innovators Development Kit to academic and research entities.

IBM is checking the box for the 2022 QPU scaling roadmap with the 433-qubit "Osprey" model. Next year, the company is set to triple the qubit count with a "Condor" model. The processing power of such QPUs is already being put to good use by companies like Bosch, which seeks to produce sustainable alternatives for low-supply metals and rare-earth elements needed for EV motors.

The entire Internet's bandwidth almost twice over was squeezed through a single fiber optics cable with the aid of a revolutionary photonic chip that splits a laser beam into different colors.

5G is touted as capable of delivering multi-gigabit per second (Gb/s) downloads; however, some proponents of its next generation assert that it will scale mobile data speeds up to terabit (Tb) speeds. LG purports to have gotten even closer to this kind of future with the latest demo of what is known as "6G THz (or terahertz) data" at Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI). Furthermore, the partners assert that it has worked over the longest distance outdoors recorded to date.

The upcoming High-Performance Spaceflight Computing processors that will power NASA's future space missions are designed around SiFive's 8-core Intelligences X280 SoCs plus 4 more general purpose cores. These processors are said to be 100x faster than the ones powering current spacecraft.

LG has previewed its PuriCare Objet Collection Aero Furniture series, three tables with built-in air purifiers. Compatible with the LG ThinQ ecosystem, the three devices mirror the IKEA Starkvind, which is already orderable. LG will exhibit the PuriCare Objet Collection Aero Furniture series at next month's IFA 2022 conference.

The new device resembles a bandage that is primarily made of gallium nitride and gold plus various sensing membranes. Thanks to the piezoelectric properties of the gallium nitride layer, the e-skin can wirelessly transmit signals related to pulse, sweat and other human biomarkers.

The search for a cure of male or female alopecia in the form of significant hair loss has seen two major development in the span of just a few weeks. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have discovered the molecule that signals hair growth, SCUBE3.

The FDA has cleared Rune Labs to collect Parkinson's symptom information from patients via its StrivePD Apple watch app. The software can detect tremors and other symptoms of the disease and can be used to log the benefits felt by medication. Rune Labs will use the data collected by the app in clinical trials for new Parkinson's therapeutics.

The results of a new study conducted in 2022 can be used to conclude that smartphone use-frequency among adults based in the United States has increased by about 366% compared to that measured three years ago. The researchers report that 1 in 5 of their subjects wouldn't go without their phone for more than a few hours, while only 1 in 4 could withstand the temptation to bring their device into the bathroom with them.

Samsung and Naver have partnered to present South Korea's first ever private 5G network. It exists to support a cloud that co-ordinates a new fleet of robots at the latter's new HQ. They are intended to move around the place by themselves, serving the company's employees with their meals, mail and coffee throughout the building.

We've all heard of deepfakes, search algorithms, and the AI-powered computational photography systems that enhance our cat photos, but those applications are just the tip of the iceberg. AI is becoming more and more present in industry nowadays, so let's have a look at some interesting applications of AI that we might not have seen coming.

AstroForge, a California-based asteroid-mining startup, has secured seats aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the company's maiden space mission. The mission is meant to be a demonstration and is scheduled for next year.

Researchers in Portugal, the US, and the UK recently published a paper in which they attempted to leverage quantum computing algorithms to optimize ray-traced rendering workloads. The researchers' approach helped cut intersections per ray in a scene by a factor of three. The use of older NISQ quantum computing technology meant rendering took several hours, however.

The UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors has created what they call a "multi-tasking wearable" for continuously monitoring not only blood sugar levels, but also the impact of drinking alcohol and participating in strenuous exercise on them. This Holy Grail of diabetes vitals' monitoring is made possible by a painless skin patch with microneedles that can be worn at all times.

Huawei has announced that it will sell the Watch D in Europe. To be released for €449, the Watch D can monitor blood pressure levels, take ECGs and provides up to 7 days of battery life.

A team of researchers at MIT has developed a loudspeaker as thin as paper. The ultra-thin film can turn any surface into a loudspeaker, requiring little power to produce a high-quality sound. The researchers suggest many applications for the material, including wallpaper and smart devices with limited battery life.

InspectIR's COVID-19 Breathalyzer device takes only three minutes to analyze and detect an active infection with 99% accuracy for the negative or 91% for the positive test results. The COVID-19 breath test sample itself is collected in about ten seconds, but the device is not intended for at-home usage.

Lambda, a company known for building deep learning-focused PCs, and Razer have teamed up to release a new version of the Tensorbook, a slim laptop with machine learning chops. The notebook is packed to the gills with hardware designed for AI development, comes preinstalled with lots of Lambda's software, and has some solid gaming capabilities.

iRobot has released the Create 3, an educational robotics kit based on the Roomba i3 series robot vacuum. The product has been designed to provide advanced makers with a lower cost, out-of-the-box kit to further their skills. The robot has intelligent features such as an optical floor tracking sensor.

Dyson has gained plenty of attention with the Dyson Zone, a pair of headphones that have a built-in air purifier. While novel, it appears that the technology behind the wearable is outdated and does not reflect current public health practices post-pandemic.

University of British Columbia researchers have managed to bioprint working tubular structures from human testicular stem cells in order to fight a common causes male infertility. The 3D-printed testicular tubes will now be "coached" into sperm production the way they behave in healthy human testicles and potentially used for developing novel in-vitro fertilization treatments.

The robotics division of the well-known conglomerate Kawasaki has raised some eyebrows with its new ridable electric goat robot, which may be a tad too slow for fans of the sporty motorcycles for which the Japanese company is usually known.

SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink has notched another achievement on its average download speed belt, piercing the 100Mbps threshold required for funding by various rural broadband initiatives in the U.S. In some countries like Australia, Canada, UK, or Germany, Starlink provides internet that is faster than their fixed broadband services on average.

A new material for the blue diodes in an OLED panel triples the current luminous efficiency preventing the dreaded burn-in problem and increasing the lifespan of the screen significantly. A dual-stack OLED display method adds 30% lower power consumption to the increased lifespan, too.

From foldable phones to floppy CPUs, the future of tech is bright and ever-changing. Some of the technologies of the future are obviously still in their infancy but let's have a look at some of the most exciting upcoming developments anyway.

Rockley Photonics has partnered with Medtronic, a medical device company. Rockley and Medtronic will collaborate in bringing the Bioptx biomarker sensing platform to market, which takes the form of a wrist-based device. The Bioptx biomarker sensing platform can measure core body temperature, hydration levels and blood pressure non-invasively, among other capabilities.

The next gen AI applications require computing power that cannot be provided by traditional hardware. In order to solve this problem, Luminous Computing is building a supercomputer based on silicon photonics and optical pathways that can increase bandwidth and power efficiency orders of magnitude beyond what is offered by current solutions.

Redmi launched a special Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1-themed edition of its K50 Gaming phone alongside its vanilla counterpart in China recently. The Xiaomi subsidiary has released the phone with a 120W power brick in the box, rated to run on advanced gallium nitride (GaN) technology provided by the OEM's industry partner Navitas.

A research team from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia has designed a solar panel that simultaneously generates electricity and collects water to grow crops.

Research being conducted by Apple and Harvard University is investigating menstrual health. The latest report from the study contains insights gathered from participants around polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

A patent has been submitted to the USPTO by Toyota for an innovative robotic muscle technology. These artificial muscles would allow robots to mimic human movements and carry out dangerous tasks.

An off-road hydrogen car racing series, Extreme H, has been announced. The event will accompany the existing Extreme E electric car racing championship from 2024, with a prototype of the racing vehicle expected early next year.

University of Utrecht researchers have managed to hone their 3D-bioprinting method enough to achieve the creation of functional liver-mimicking units that can detoxify impurities like the human organ. By using volumetric bioprinting via light sources, the scientists kept the liver organoids alive and intend to use the method for studying new drugs or regenerative medicine of damaged livers.

The fastest Alder Lake-S processor is expected to launch in early March with a considerable price bump over the existing i9-12900K. For an additional US$200, one would get 5.5 GHz boost clocks by default with 260 W PL2.

MIT researchers have managed to create a new polymer material called 2DPA-1 that has twice the yield strength of steel and up to six times the deformation resistance of bulletproof glass. The unorthodox sheet polymer can be easily spun in mass quantities and used as ultradurable coating for phones and cars, or even as a building material.

Mark Webber and a group of scientists from the University of Sussex calculated that it would take a quantum processor with 1.9 billion qubits to effectively crack the Bitcoin encryption, and this is most likely not going to happen in the next 10 years, giving Bitcoin core developers enough time to make the code quantum-resistant.

GPU fingerprinting is facilitated through websites relying on the WebGL 2.0 rendering API. This technique is currently 67% faster than any other tracking methods, but could become even faster with newer API versions. WebGL developer Khronos is looking to mitigate this type of vulnerability with a future update, while web browser developers can deactivate the API by default.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham teamed up with the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust to determine the accuracy of those widely used pulse oximeters based on the color of your skin. Standard pulse oximeters, it turned out, significantly overshot the blood oxygen saturation for the Mixed ethnicity group compared to the White cohort.

Researchers have developed a tiny clip-on sensor that can make any mask smart by monitoring the fit and wear duration, as well as the wearer's vitals. Busy healthcare professionals in COVID-19 wards may be first to test the FaceBit sensor and get notified about mask-wearing problems via the accompanying app.

Almost a month after its launch from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, in French Guiana, NASA's signature James Webb Space Telescope project will be docking at its final destination in the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2. NASA will be streaming the telescope's parking efforts live on YouTube and take questions from viewers.

MRAM's inherent low resistance was bypassed using a 64 x 64 crossbar array of MRAM cells that also support in-memory processing capabilities, making it highly effective for AI-powered applications. More complex MRAM structures could eventually be used to store biological neuronal networks.

A new eco-rower from SportsArt lets you generate electricity as you workout. This energy can immediately be plugged back into the machine or used to power other devices.

Developed by researchers from the Lancaster University in UK, UltraRAM is almost ready for mass production and could soon offer a unified solution that acts as RAM and storage. The technology relies on compound semiconductors that are usually used for photonic arrays like LEDs and lasers.

Razer has been caught red-handed over the marketing of its Zephyr and Zephyr Pro face masks. Previously, the company marketed both as being 'N95 grade'; it has been selling the Zephyr since October 2021. Neither are 'N95 grade' and nor has Razer received any certifications to make such claims.

Abbott's best-known consumer products might be the FreeStyle line of blood glucose-monitoring "biowearables". Now, the biomedical OEM has announced that it will expand this category with new tracking prowess. This Lingo series of sensors is touted to put the user in more control over their health and fitness than ever before.

Rapid antigen tests may be a waste as far as the fast-spreading new COVID-19 Omicron virus variant is concerned, says a new scientific study. The researchers followed frontline workers whose jobs require daily testing with PCR and rapid antigen tests, and found out that most of them have been shedding Omicron virus particles long before it showed on the rapid antigen tests, while PCR tests caught the infection much earlier.

NASA is set to equip its Orion space capsules, which are part of its ongoing Artemis project, with an A.I. assistant. Named Callisto, the assistant is based on Amazon's Alexa and Cisco's Webex software. As such, it will allow astronauts to telecommunicate with Mission Control and will operate as a voice assistant on the rocket.