Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a floating, solar-powered device that can turn contaminated water or seawater into clean hydrogen fuel and purified water, anywhere in the world. The device could be useful in resource-limited or off-grid environments, as it works with any open water source and does not require any outside power. The machine is inspired by photosynthesis, the natural process by which plants convert sunlight into food. However, unlike previous versions of the ‘artificial leaf’, which could produce green hydrogen fuel from clean water sources, the
Google has unveiled GraphCast, a powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) that can make weather forecasts more accurately than existing best tools. In only one minute, the technology on a single machine made accurate predictions up to 10 days in advance, a task that usually takes many supercomputers hours to achieve. In tests, GraphCast running on a single Google TPU v4 machine was compared to the current gold-standard for weather prediction – High Resolution Forecast (HRES), a simulation system running on supercomputers. It was able to make 10-day forecasts in under a minute, and was m
Laurie Leshin, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has lauded the collaboration with Indian space agency, ISRO, calling it the most significant technological partnership between the US and India in space exploration history. Set for liftoff in the first quarter of 2024, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will utilise the world’s most expensive Earth imaging satellite to study climate change. NISAR marks the first collaboration between NASA and ISRO on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. It aims to shed light on how changes in the ecosyste
InterGlobe Enterprises and US-based Archer Aviation will launch an all-electric air taxi service in India in 2026 that will be cost-competitive with on-road services, the companies said on November 9. The partnership, once the companies get regulatory clearances, aims to capitalise on a growing need for transport solutions in India. The world’s most populous country is battling severe ground travel congestion and pollution in its main cities. Backed by companies like Chrysler-parent Stellantis, Boeing and United Airlines, Archer Aviation makes electric vertical takeoff and landing (eV
The first full-colour science images from the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope have presented crystal-clear views of hundreds of thousands of galaxies, star clusters and other astonishing cosmic objects. There are more than 100,000 galaxies in the telescope’s first snapshot of the Perseus cluster, including extremely faint ones that were never seen before. The images are just a snapshot of what researchers expect the space telescope to provide over its planned six-year primary mission. Launched in July, Euclid is stationed 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It has a
The X-ray spectrometer, HEL1OS, onboard ISRO’s Aditya-L1 spacecraft on its maiden solar mission, has captured the first high-energy X-ray glimpse of solar flares, said the space agency on November 7. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have provided continuous imagery and data on space weather conditions and solar activity since the 1970s. According to ISRO, the HEL1OS instrument is currently undergoing fine-tuning of thresholds and calibration operations. It is set to monitor the Sun’s high-energy X-ray a
The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and its regional counterparts have begun collaboration on a framework for safety rules and standards to regulate air taxi and drone operations. The authorities of the region met on November 9 to develop a set of regulatory reference materials by 2025 that each country can adapt and adopt to govern the emerging sectors. The inaugural meeting, organised by CAAS, was attended by representatives from 17 civil aviation authorities in the Asia-Pacific region, including delegates from China and Japan, 24 private-sector institutes, and companies suc
India is developing its own long-range air defence system, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, under Project Kusha. This system, with a range of up to 350 kilometres, aims to protect the country against various threats and provide strategic and tactical coverage. Initially believed to be nearly impenetrable, Israel’s Iron Dome is a state-of-the-art rocket defence system that faced a stern test on October 7 when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched about 5,000 rockets in just 20 minutes. Despite the attacks, this defence system provided a considerable level of protection for the country
Boston Dynamics has harnessed the power of ChatGPT to train its robot dog to communicate like a seasoned tour guide, combining scripted dialogue and visual question-answering models for a captivating interactive experience. In an effort to give its robot, Spot the ability to “speak,” Boston Dynamics leveraged OpenAI’s ChatGPT API and incorporated open-source large language models (LLMs) to meticulously fine-tune its responses. It also equipped the robot with a speaker, integrated text-to-speech capabilities, and enabled it to mimic human speech. For each room within their faciliti
Motorola has showcased a new smartphone form factor that’s built around a flexible adaptive display that can bend backwards and wrap around a wrist like a large digital wristband or a smartwatch. The concept phone was unveiled at the Lenovo Tech World 2023, held on October 24-25, 2023, in Austin, Texas, US. It is said to be an improved version of Lenovo’s wrist phone concept, which was showcased almost seven years ago. The Motorola phone can also be used in tent mode, where it can rest elegantly on a table. The year 2023 marked the ninth consecutive year of the annual event, Lenovo