We’ve seen 3D-printed rocket engines, but what about 3D-printed rocket fuel? Florida-based Rocket Crafters, Inc. (RCI) has been awarded a patent for a method of fuelling hybrid liquid/solid rockets using 3D printing technology. The company claims that the process ensures the fabrication of flawless, high-performance, safer-handling fuel grain. It will enter service in 2019 for launching satellites.
via Read More → "Rocket Crafters granted patent for safer, cheaper 3D-printed rocket fuel"

The last thing [self-driving] automakers want is for bored drivers to default to their current time killer: their phone. The problem for the companies is that if you get your entertainment from the computer in your pocket, it really doesn’t matter which car you own. They’re all going to get you to your destination without your input. So they’ve concocted a novel idea: the AI friend.

Read More → "AI ‘friends’ will help you pass the time on autonomous drives"

A team of bioengineers from the University of Nottingham and Nile University in Egypt are developing a new substitute for conventional plastic carry bags using a material made out of shrimp shells. This biodegradable alternative to the more conventional polythene made from fossil fuels that is used in shopping bags is not only greener, but can also extend the shelf life of foodstuffs,
via Read More → "Plastic bags made from shrimp shells might help Egypt’s trash problem"

NS, the Dutch rail operator, has announced that its trains now run on 100 percent wind energy, according to The Guardian. Together with energy supplier Eneco, the railway company—which runs about 5500 trips a day—achieved the global milestone on January 1, substantially before its goal of 2018.
via Mental Floss</ … Read More → "Trains in the Netherlands now run entirely on wind energy"

In a paper published on January 6, a team of collaborators from the University of Alberta, Charles University and the Czech Technical University claimed that their DeepStack AI is the “the first computer program to beat professional poker players in heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em”. That confident (but not yet peer-reviewed) proclamation on the heels of a string of victories against high-level human players — in total, 44,852 hands were played against 33 … Read More → "Two research teams taught their AIs to beat pros at poker"

It’s incredibly strong and has unique electrical, thermal, optical, and chemical properties, but in some ways Graphene’s two-dimensional structure makes it a bit like the laser was in the 1960s – a solution in search of a problem. To give graphene a new dimension, a team of MIT scientists have developed a sponge-like 3D version that has only five percent of the density of steel, yet is … Read More → "New 3D graphene is ten times as strong as steel"

They’re strange looking relatives of sharks and rays, they’re elusive and live 2600 meters or more below the surface, and they have retractable sex organs on their foreheads.

They’re Chimaeras, or ghost sharks or pointy-nosed blue ratfish, and they’ve never been captured on video before 2016, when a remotely operated vehicle deployed by the Read More → "Ghost shark filmed alive in the ocean for the first time"

We will all at some point have forgotten to water a plant. If we’re lucky then the limp vegetation we return to will magically revive when we rush to water it, if not then we have the shame of an empty plant pot to remind us of our folly.

No matter, you might be thinking, we can bring technology to … Read More → "The internet of dirt, a texting plant"

As Medical Daily reports, a new, two-part study conducted by a team of international researchers from Stanford, University of Cambridge, Maastricht University, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology suggests that people who can easily let loose with a string of obscenities are likely more honest as well.

For the first part of the study, the team … Read More → "People who swear more may also be more honest, study says"

Science fiction has long imagined a future in which humans are ousted from their jobs by machines.

For 34 staff at a Japanese insurance firm, that vision just became a reality.

Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is laying off the employees and replacing them with an artificial intelligence ( … Read More → "Japanese insurance firm replaces 34 staff with AI"