Month: July 2016

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Harvard researchers built a living robot out of rat hearts

What do you get when you mix the heart cells of a rat with silicone from breast implants and then sprinkle in a bit of gold and genetic engineering? No, not Trump’s next trophy wife — you actually get this incredible "living" robot. Developed by a team of researchers at Harvard University, the bio-engineered marvel looks, flexes and swims just like a tiny stingray.

The stingray-bot is made up of four distinct layers: a silicone substrate that forms its body, a skeletal system made of gold wire, a second layer of silicone that insulates the skeleton and, finally, 200,000 genetically-engineered rat cells. Those cells are designed to contract when exposed to a specific wavelength of light. When they do, the robot effectively swims in the same undulating manner as its namesake. What’s more, the "biological life-form," as lead researcher, Kit Parker, describes it, automatically follows the light source as it swims through the nutrient-rich liquid that keeps its cells alive, allowing it to be remotely controlled.

The bio-bot can’t survive outside of the lab yet. Even if it didn’t need its specialized liquid, the rat cells have no immune system and would be immediately attacked by bacteria and fungal pathogens. Even so, Parker hopes that it will lead others to develop a complete, genetically-engineered heart, among other things.

"Roboticists and engineers can see different ways to use biological cells as building materials," Parker told Popular Mechanics. "Marine biologists can take a look to better understand why the muscle tissues in rays are built and organized the way they are."

Source: Popular Mechanics

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There’s a new fast-charging system for electric buses, and the patents are free

(credit: Proterra)

As Tesla and its Supercharger network have demonstrated, it’s a lot easier for people to make the switch to electric vehicles if there’s a robust and rapid charging infrastructure in place. But we have to electrify more than just passenger vehicles if we want to get serious about reducing emissions. EV manufacturer Proterra certainly thinks so, which is why it just opened up the patents for a new fast-charging system it has developed for electric buses.

Not all heavy-duty vehicle applications lend themselves to electric powertrains—think long distance freight trucking, for example. However, buses, garbage trucks, and other vehicles that make frequent stops on urban routes are ripe for battery power, provided they can recharge and get back to work with minimal downtime. Which is where Proterra’s charging system comes in.

Proterra’s high-voltage overhead charging system uses robotic control (and some autonomous software on the bus) to replenish bus batteries in as little as 10 minutes, depending on the size of the battery pack. Charging at 250-1000V (DC) and up to 1400A, the system is eight times faster than the CHAdeMO fast-charging standard and between three and four times faster than Tesla’s Superchargers. And unlike the old-fashioned pantograph, which needs to cover the vehicle’s entire route, Proterra’s system is static. This means bus operators can install them in terminals or at the same locations they use to refill their diesel tanks.

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Google buys a backbone for pay TV services

Google is snapping up Anvato, a company with tech that’s designed to make it easy for broadcasters to put live video online. The system is currently used by plenty of brand-name firms to pump out online video, edit clips in the cloud and handle pay-per-view transactions. Anvato counts companies like NBC and Fox Sports as customers, the former uses it as the backbone for NBC.com, while the latter used it to stream the Super Bowl. Anvato’s software and employees will now join Google’s cloud platform team, enabling other firms to benefit from what’s being called "scalable media processing and workflows in the cloud."

As TV becomes just another part of the internet, it’s not simply about which tech company can reinvent (part of) itself as a broadcaster. After all, Google may have already won the war thanks to YouTube, which itself now offers a premium TV option. But away from simply producing stuff for people to watch, there’s also plenty of money in the infrastructure underpinning live TV. It’s why Microsoft has Azure Media Services (used by the CW) and Amazon has AWS Digital Media, which Netflix uses to process its data. All in all, this move means that Google’s dominance over the broadcasting world just got that little bit stronger.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Anvato, Google

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China’s largest space launch vehicle, the Long March 7 flies, with a Technological Triple Whammy

On June 25, 2016, the Long March 7 rocket, China’s largest space launch vehicle to date, blasted off from Wenchang, Hainan to a successful maiden flight. With a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) payload of 13.5 tons, the CZ-7 is China’s new medium space launch rocket (the heavy Long March 5 will have its first flight later this year as well). In addition to that nice milestone for China’s space program, the CZ-7 carried three important payloads in its cargo.

Tianyuan 1 is China’s first satellite to satellite refueling system. The National University of Defense Technology said that data and video from the Tianyuan showed the refueling system to be a success. In orbit refueling of satellites can save money by enabling satellites to continue using their chemically powered thrusters to avoid reentry into the atmosphere, as well as reposition themselves for new missions or to avoid space debris.

Space debris, rubble generated from satellite collisions and other space junk, is a longstanding menace to manned space mission and satellites (China has especially been criticized for a 2007 anti-satellite test that may have doubled the number of space junk objects). The Aolong 1 (translated to Roaming Dragon), is a collaboration between the Harbin Institute of Technology and Chinese Academy of Launch Technology. It is a small satellite with a robotic arm that will be used to push space debris into a decaying orbit, so that it eventually reenters the atmosphere and burns up. There have been somewhat hyped space warfare and sabotage concerns, but the Aolong 1 could face legal problems outside of any context of war; space debris, legally speaking, is still the property of the country or organization which launched it, so pieces of, say, a defunct Russian satellite would still belong to Russia. It would be a monumental task to figure out which pieces of space debris belong to which nation.

Looking to the future, the Long March 7 also carried a sub-scale version of China’s next manned spacecraft, the Next Generation Crewed Vehicle (NGCV). The capsule successfully landed in Inner Mongolia after 24 hours. The NGCV is expected to be similar in size and capacity to the U.S. Orion, carrying about 5-7 astronauts per capsule. It comes in two versions, a 14 ton vehicle for LEO operations, and a 20 ton version for deep space operations such as lunar missions, and 21 days of independent operation.

Each of these efforts is notable, but China’s space march didn’t stop there. In other Chinese space news, the Tiangong 2 space station is undergoing its final rounds of testing before its launch latter this year in mid September. The Tiangong 2, which will replace the older Tiangong 1, is a one module space station outfitted to study long term human space habitation, and additional space to conduct experiments in. It will be followed by the manned Shenzhou 11 mission in mid October, delivering the taikonauts who will stay in the Tiangong 2 for 30 days.

You may also be interested in:
China’s Space Station Plans in Powerpoint: A Closer Look at Tiangong 3

What Will the Next Chinese Spaceship Look Like?

China Showcases Plan to Become the Leading Space Power

China Aims For Humanity’s Return to the Moon in the 2030s

Next Generation of Chinese Space Launch Vehicles Begins Its Long March (By Standing Up)

The Little Space Tug That Can

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Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

Everyone carries the Internet in their pocket, yet radio and television remain the primary way people get information in an emergency. So when a disaster knocks out power and takes down cell service—along with those government emergency alerts—you’re going to need a radio to know what’s going on.

A radio? Who owns a radio anymore?

You do. Every smartphone in the world has an FM tuner built in. But here in the US, just one-third of them actually works, even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency says radio can save lives in an emergency. “We know that if Internet networks or cell phone networks go down, FM still works so long as you have a battery to turn the device on,” says agency spokesman Raphel Lemaitre.

Broadcasters and public safety officials have long urged handset manufacturers and wireless carriers to universally activate the FM chip, and recently brought the campaign to Canada. Carriers have little financial incentive to do so because they profit from streaming data, says Barry Rooke of the National Campus and Community Radio Association. But the wireless industry is coming around, and says anyone who wants a phone with FM radio can find one.

FM capability is baked into the Qualcomm LTE modem inside nearly every cellphone, including iPhones. Tuning in on a smartphone is common in the developing world, so it’s easier to deactivate the chip then install different modems for different markets, says Paul Brenner, CEO of NextRadio, a radio-tuner app for FM-enabled phones. Manufacturers can activate the chip, but the decision to do so typically rests with carriers. If you’re Verizon customer, tough luck. AT&T and T-Mobile are embracing activation for all Android phones, following a move Sprint made in 2013.

Apple remains the biggest holdout. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but critics say it has little incentive to do anything that might undermine Beats One, Apple Music, and other streaming services.

Congress has held multiple hearings on the issue over the years and the FCC could require handset makers and carriers to activate FM capability, but it has been reluctant to act by fiat. Agency chairman Tom Wheeler told lawmakers last year “the issue may be resolving itself in the marketplace.” 

Broadcasters aren’t clamoring for the government to step in, either. “Mandating or requiring FM chip activation as some sort of public policy imperative is probably not the way to go,” says Michael Reskin of National Public Radio, which has long urged carriers to let people tune in on their phones. He believes continued pressure from listeners will prompt manufacturers and carriers to come around. Until then, it’s probably a good idea to get a transistor radio, just in case.

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Samsung Rolls Out Its First UFS Cards: SSD Performance in Card Form-Factor

Samsung today introduced the world’s first flash memory cards in UFS form-factor. The cards are compliant with the UFS Card 1.0 specification and offer performance comparable to that of desktop SATA SSDs. It is worth noting that the new cards are not backwards compatible with current microSD devices, which use various versions of SD cards, but they open doors to new levels of removable storage performance as the spec will develop in the coming years.

The new UFS memory cards from Samsung rely on the UFS 1.0 Card Standard (single 5.8 Gbps lanes) published earlier this year. Samsung intends to offer UFS cards with 32, 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities. The top-of-the-range 256 GB UFS card will offer sequential read performance up to 530 MB/s and sequential write performance up to 170 MB/s. As for random performance, then Samsung declares 40,000 read IOPS and 35,000 write IOPS for the 256GB version.

The Universal Flash Storage specification for consumer electronics was published around five years ago and is currently used to connect SoCs to NAND flash storage inside smartphones and other devices. UFS relies on the SCSI transfer architecture as well as on an M-PHY and UniPro electrical interface developed by MIPI Alliance. The SCSI architectural model allows the storage to take advantage of multiple commands with command queuing features, and thus greatly improve random read/write performance for NAND flash storage by supporting simultaneous reading and writing. Meanwhile, the M-PHY interface with 2.9-5.8 Gbps data-rate per lane gives a significant increase in bandwidth for NAND devices. The boosted performance typically helps speed up loading of applications, or capturing images or videos in higher resolution (and/or with enhanced bit-rate). UFS-compliant memory cards bring the advantages of SCSI and M-PHY to removable storage in card form-factor.

Samsung positions its UFS memory cards for a variety of future compatible devices, such as DSLRs, 3D VR cameras, drones, mobile devices and other electronics, which benefit from high-performance removable storage. At present, none of such devices are commercially available, but with new cards approaching, it is logical to expect makers of devices to catch up.

The world’s first UFS memory cards have passed Universal Flash Storage Association (UFSA)’s certification program, which assesses electrical and functional specifications. As a result, Samsung will be able to start selling its UFSA-certified UFS cards as soon as the first devices with appropriate card readers launch.

Other makers of NAND flash memory and products based on it, such as Micron, SK Hynix, Toshiba and Western Digital (SanDisk), will also likely launch their UFS memory cards in the coming months and quarters.

Since the UFS standard is developing (currently consumer electronics use UFS 2.0 spec for non-removable storage) and is expected to advance to versions 3.0 and 4.0 in the coming years. It is expected that the removable UFS card line will also improve to the newer standards over time.

Samsung did not touch upon pricing or availability of the upcoming UFS memory cards.

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Modular Plane Concept Treats Passenger Cabin Like A Shipping Container

Airplanes, trains, and cargo ships may travel through different mediums, but they roughly do the same thing: encase precious cargo in a similar container, and then unload it at the destination. “Clip Air” is a concept from Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne that wants planes, trains, and ships to carry people much the same way they carry shipping crates: in detachable, modular tubes, which can be put on rails, loaded on boats, or slung under wing.

EPFL explains the benefits:

The decoupling of the load (capsules) and carrying units (wings) allows for simplified fleet management and maintenance operations for airlines and is expected to improve the ground operations for airports. Clip-Air also provides effective possibility of combining commercial freight and passengers on the same flight without any compromise in comfort. Besides, Clip-Air is designed to operate in a multi-modal context and is expected to improve the multi-modality concept by allowing a better integration between air transport and other transport modes.

The concept could make layovers easier, but it’s maybe not so great if you want to leave your metal tube to go stretch your legs.

Still, it’s a neat way to envision simplified transportation systems for people, goods, and raw materials. It also guesses at a world that feels like a toddler’s play set of interconnected blocky structures, which is delightful.

Read more about it at CNN.

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