Mini drones, or drones that have the shape of an insect, are very particular robotic devices, as they manage to enter places inaccessible to humans, photographing what they see and therefore offering a real-time report of the situation. This is a sector in which science is investing a lot, and which is therefore becoming increasingly sophisticated. But how can insect drones see in low light? To give life to… Read more
Not just electric and hybrid cars: the airline sector also wants to renew itself, and EasyJet wants to lead the way with the project of a hydrogen hybrid plane. In fact, air pollution also comes from airplanes, and the EasyJet company has been trying for many years to reduce CO2 emissions and become more "green." The company recently presented the concept of an aircraft that uses fuel cells to power the engines during hovering. … Read more
It is a truly complicated period on a geopolitical level: an epochal transition towards the future world that almost imposes the dynamics of social networks even on political entities. What is happening in Syria (and in other neighboring nations) has every appearance of being a transition from a world of "nation states" to a world of "stateless nations". It is not the only indication of a change: other unknown factors that determine citizenship or belonging to a territory are changing. … Read more
Having been active in the field for years, and since 2012 with the WASP (World's Advanced Saving Project) project focused on the development of 3D printing with Open Source logic, Massimo Moretti and his team of terrible guys have developed a 3 meter high 12D printer capable of print an entire house in clay, and later with excellent potential an entire village. The presentation of the BigDelta (and the name "Big" really fits here), which took place on September 19th in Massa Lombarda during ... Read more
The digital divide in Italy is still at rather worrying levels: it's not just about the distance between those who have a connection and those without one, there is also a big difference between the various types of connections and the average time spent on the web. Internet connection today allows much more than the simple use of a PC: new generation consoles, on-demand video content and interactive activities on smart TVs can only be used through a 'broad' contract... Read more
It's a beautiful day at least for dogs: Jasper, a small dachshund paralyzed by an accident, responded magnificently to a 6-month treatment based on stem cells: the results are not far from what a little long ago it could easily be described as a miracle. Jasper no longer sits still, he socializes with others and wanders around the house: he has started walking again, he has come back. [youtube]IWIE_YoL1LA[/youtube] The process developed by a … Read more
Creating a wheelchair capable of overcoming architectural barriers couldn't have been very simple: today a team of engineers from the Chiba Institute of Technology, led by the Associate Professor, succeeded in the feat using a good dose of lateral thinking. A wheelchair? It's difficult to define it this way: when it encounters an obstacle, Chiba transforms its wheels into... legs! It goes without saying: the wheel is a universal and efficient way to allow all people with limited mobility to travel. However, … Read more
AFS (Engineers at Air Fuel Synthesis) based in the north of England claims to have produced 5 liters of synthetic oil in the space of 3 months. It's a little bit, you might say. And give me a break. The technique consists of extracting carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from the water, then combining them in a reactor which produces methanol with the help of a catalyst. The methanol is then converted into oil. Now have you understood why it takes 3 months for 5 liters? Not exactly the time that… Read more
Artificial blood could soon become a reality thanks to the first successful human transfusion. Dr. Luc Douay of the Parisian University 'Pierre et Marie Curie' extracted stem cells from bone marrow and 'encouraged' them to grow and transform into blood cells by administering a cocktail of growth factors: finally he injected 10 billion of these cells (the equivalent of 2 milliliters) in the donor's spinal cord. After 5 days 94% of the cells were still alive and… Read more
A group of English neuroscientists has discovered that it is possible to establish a two-way 'conversation' with people in a permanent vegetative state, thanks to a device already present everywhere capable of reading their brain activity. Researchers have noticed how some individuals in this state are able to understand what they are told and follow commands to perform certain actions: the project can radically change the way these patients are treated. In the experiment, 16 were asked… Read more
Lithium, the main element in the composition of the batteries that power our devices (and also in the war against bipolar personality disorder) is not omnipresent on Earth: several countries are forced to import it from abroad, and this shortage leads to notable swings in the prices of technological devices: the signs of its future scarcity are already there in the ever-increasing price that quality batteries present to buyers. A group of researchers from Tokyo University led by Professor Shinichi Komaba may have… Read more
ATLAST (The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope) is the acronym that distinguishes the project of the next Hubble space telescope: a little gem capable of studying and mapping the atmosphere and surface of habitable exoplanets within a radius of 200 light years. The ability to capture light in all its spectrum and the very advanced technologies are two particularities that can easily be summarized in a feature that will make ATLAST the largest human eye on the universe: the size of the optics. The 'old' Hubble 2.0 has the lens … Read more
The question was referring to the fact that it seemed strange to him that we were not receiving any extraterrestrial transmissions from space. If it is true that there are millions of planets similar to ours out there and if at least a small percentage of them have developed intelligent life, why don't we receive any radio transmissions? This inconsistency was later called the “Fermi Paradox”. It is clear that if intelligent life develops on a remote planet, once technological development has been reached, it will necessarily have to... Read more
Technically they never moved, in fact they only opened the doors of this bunker after 1 and a half years: nothing like Big Brother. Last February the simulator recorded the 'landing on Mars' with related spacewalks: the mission had the aim of testing the effects of stress and isolation that a long space journey can cause in the brains of astronauts. Good news: Patrick Sunblad, the ESA specialist who oversaw the mission, says “The team has… Read more
Dirty, smelly and not recommended for hygiene, but they do their job: these are our sewers. Although it may present serious structural problems (often all sorts of problems arise from their congestion, in conjunction with rains and overflows), our Network is an achievement of civilization from which not everyone in the world can benefit. Take developing countries: the absence of any system for disposing of our biological waste causes the death of hundreds of people every year... Read more
In the days that mark the fall of the Berlusconi government and the Italian economic crisis (remember? we predicted it on the old site) I am as disheartened as all of you. The moment is difficult: we can only get out of it if all levels of our country change by looking to the future more than to the past. Some jobs will still survive in the future, let's be clear: but there is a whole series of jobs that don't exist today and which could be useful in the near future. Let's go with common sense: 60%... Read more
Our planet needs a small overhaul: with an economy increasingly in crisis and an epochal transition from an energy system based on fossil fuels to another (hopefully ever closer) that focuses entirely on renewables, our presence activity is increasingly important to guarantee new generations greater freedom, greater variety of species and less pollution. We can do a lot: an important principle that will be able to keep our ecosystem standing is to... Read more
Solowheel is a unique one-wheel transportation solution that is gaining popularity, and very quickly.
Freshly approved by US health authorities, a new laser application could become the next winning weapon in removing unwanted fat. Osyris Medical, an American company specializing in medical instruments, has produced LipoControl, a device for laser-assisted lipolysis, the elimination of unwanted fat cells: it is an auxiliary tool that does not avoid the use of the operating room, but allows (unlike the cannula used in liposuction) to 'break down' targeted groups of fat cells, facilitating the operation and cleaning of the ... Read more
Magnetic levitation will be one of the cornerstones of global transportation in the near future: just take a look at concepts like these to easily realize this. It is a system that eliminates friction between the parties, reaches speeds unthinkable for current systems and can shorten distances in a decisive way, allowing a new, healthy decentralization of work and social activities and favoring demographic redistribution and decongesting megacities. All at more than 500 kilometers per hour :) In the … Read more
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