Sci-Tech

Moon much older than previously thought

Reuters — The moon is much older than scientists thought. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have released a study which puts the moon’s creation at roughly 4.51 billion years ago, instead of the previously accepted 4.3 billion years. The finding is critical to understanding the formation of the solar system and gives new insight to the timing of life on Earth. Past studies on the moon’s age were made by studying […]

Robot drone mimics real life bat

(Reuters) — Sometimes the best science is found right in nature. Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed a new aerial drone based on the intricate wing anatomy of bats. Called “Bat Bot,” the robot is the brainchild of Caltech associate professor Soon-Jo Chung, who said he wanted to find a another means for drone flight that did not involve rotor blades, which most drones use […]

Japan’s troubled ‘space junk’ mission fails

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — An experimental Japanese mission to clear ‘space junk’ or rubbish from the Earth’s orbit has ended in failure, officials said Monday, in an embarassment for Tokyo. Over 100 million pieces of garbage are thought to be whizzing around the planet, including cast-off equipment from old satellites and bits of rocket, which experts say could pose risks for future space exploration. Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were trying to test […]

World’s longest flight lands in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The world’s longest commercial flight landed in New Zealand Monday with the arrival of Qatar Airways’s 14,535 kilometers (9,032 miles) Doha-Auckland service, the airline announced. “We’ve officially landed in Auckland,” the airline tweeted as flight QR920 landed at 7.25am (1825 GMT Sunday), five minutes ahead of schedule after a 16 hour 23 minute flight. The long-range Boeing 777-200LR crossed 10 time zones on its marathon flight. Qatar Airways noted the […]

Snowflakes videographic

Snowflakes or ice crystals are a buildup of icy particles, each some 10 million times smaller than the snowflake itself. Videographic about snowflakes. https://youtu.be/emfyXGAwtRk MARIAN HENBEST, STÉPHANE KOGUC / AFP VIDEOGRAPHICS / AFP

New wave of robots set to deliver the goods

The robots of the future will be coming soon, rolling along at a lumbering pace with those goods you just ordered. The six-wheeled, knee-high robots from startup Starship Technologies are part of a new wave of automated systems taking aim at the “last mile” delivery of goods to consumers. https://youtu.be/k-VsIe5XtcA

Sony halves forecast as yen, movie unit hammer profit

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Sony on Thursday halved its full-year profit forecast as it was battered by a near $1 billion writedown on its movie unit while a strong yen also dug into the Japanese firm’s bottom line. The dour reading comes as the once-iconic entertainment giant struggles with a painful restructuring drive that has included layoffs and asset sales after years of huge losses. It said net profit in the nine months to December […]

Renewables can’t deliver Paris climate goals: study

by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Expansion of renewable energy cannot by itself stave off catastrophic climate change, scientists warned Monday. Even if solar and wind capacity continues to grow at breakneck speed, it will not be fast enough to cap global warming under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the target set down in the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “The rapid deployment of wind, […]

Scientists see a mind controlled virtual reality

Reuters — In a laboratory in the Computer Engineering Department at the University of Washington, Justin Abernethy slides into a seat in front of a video monitor. A colleague adjusts the working end of a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) device that must be positioned correctly to send a signal to the brain. Information from a computer screen helps get the TMS coil to the right spot so that the stimulation is sent non-invasively, as Rajesh […]

Move over ink, finally you have competition

WADDINXVEEN, THE NETHERLANDSA Dutch university spin-off says its laser printing system could revolutionize the industry, making printing both cheaper and more sustainable, according to its developers. Tocano’s ‘Inkless’ printing technology enables monochrome printing without cartridges, toners or any other consumables using only a beam of laser light. In the past laser printing required special paper coated with thermochromic ink that changes color when temperatures increase or decrease. ‘Inkless’ printing requires no coated paper and no […]