Lifeboat Foundation

Robots aren’t exactly known for their delicate touch, but soon, the stereotype of the non-gentle machine may change. Scientists say they have managed to develop a robot with “a new soft gripper” that makes use of a phenomenon known as electroadhesion — which is essentially the next best thing to giving robots opposable thumbs. According to EPFL scientists, these next-gen grippers can handle fragile objects no matter what their shape — everything from an egg to a water balloon to a piece of paper is fair game.

This latest advance in robotics, funded by NCCR Robotics, may allow machines to take on unprecedented roles. “This is the first time that electroadhesion and soft robotics have been combined together to grasp objects,” said Jun Shintake, a doctoral student at EPFL. Potential applications include handling food, capturing debris (both in space and at home), or even being integrated into prosthetic limbs.

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At Singularity University, space is one of our Global Grand Challenges (GGCs). The GGCs are defined as billion-person problems. They include, for example, water, food, and energy and serve as targets for the innovation and technologies that can make the world a better place.

You might be thinking: We have enough challenges here on Earth—why include space?

Continue reading “Space and Technology Review: Our Home Among the Stars” »

New method to make purify water and eliminate clean water shortages in the future by purifying waste water via artificial leafing.

For years, scientists have been pursuing ways to imitate a leaf’s photosynthetic power to make hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight. In a new twist, a team has come up with another kind of device that mimics two of a leaf’s processes — photosynthesis and transpiration — to harness solar energy to purify water. Their development, reported in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, could help address issues of water scarcity.

More than 1 billion people around the world live in areas where clean water is hard to come by, and that number will likely rise as the population grows.

Continue reading “Purifying Water with Leaf-mimicking Device” »

Memphis Meats, which grows meat from animal cells, will make its debut this week and plans to have its animal-free products on the market in three to four years. To show just how busy they’ve been in the lab, they unveiled the first meatball grown from beef cells.

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Traditional farming has challenges that are now being overcome by innovative and sustainable solutions. One instance is a floating island that is powered by solar energy and has several farms that were created by the Forward Thinking Architecture. The islands are designed to work in an energy efficient manner where rainwater and sunlight are harvested so that the farming is done in a sustainable manner. The floating farms are designed to produce vegetables of the amount twenty tons every day. The advantage of this approach is that it has paved the way for farms such as this to be built and run across the world, even in places that are not accessible or do not have the right resources for farming. Locals can grow the food they need and reduce the need to import food and other goods which can then save money and provide opportunities for local employment. The floating farms and their amazing technology and possibilities are shown below. There are links given as well for those who wish to know more. It surely will revolutionize the problems of food production that has been plaguing many countries.

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Meet the world’s first cultured meatball.

Continue reading “The World’s First Cultured Meatball” »

A Japanese firm said Monday it would open the world’s first fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvesting crops.

Kyoto-based Spread said the indoor grow house will start operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day.

It hopes to boost that figure to half a million lettuce heads daily within five years.

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My parents love their farm life, etc. However, as they are get older, and they need a way to maintain their land, etc. Maybe robots are the perfect solution. Certainly worth looking into.

Japan plans to open the first farm run completely by robots growing vegetables.

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How fast is Mach 24? A little over 18,000 miles per hour, which could allow the Antipode Concept jet to fly from NYC to London in the time it takes to eat lunch.

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