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Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) already has some of the most energy-dense electric vehicle batteries available, with the company's Model S able to travel over 400 miles on a single charge. Now it looks like Tesla's vehicles will be able to travel even farther, as a report from Reuters details Panasonic's (OTC: PCRFY) lans for future improvements. Over the next five years, Panasonic is planning to increase energy density by 20%, while also having cobalt-free batteries available in the next two to three years, according to Reuters. The 2170 cells that will be receiving these improvements are currently found in Tesla's...

A growing number of places of worship around the world are employing robotic priests, who can recite prayers and even comfort worshippers experiencing spiritual crises Religions around the world are evolving as technology progresses, and now some faiths are relying on "god robots " to spread the good word. Back in the Middle Ages, Christian "robots" of a kind were fashioned to perform the religious pageantry of the Easter and Christmas rituals. In the 16th century, a mechanical monk was created by a Spanish clockmaker that incredibly remains fully functional to this day. The automaton beats his chest and raises...

Tissue engineering has seen a surge of interest in recent years. Traditionally, it involves seeding cells onto biocompatible “scaffolds”, which biodegrade once tissues have assembled themselves into 3D organs. However, more flexible, scaffold-free approaches are also emerging, which enable cells to assemble themselves without the need for structural biomaterials. To do this, researchers use techniques including removable supports, and guiding forces from acoustic and electrostatic fields. One particularly promising approach involves magnetic levitation, through which strong field gradients can precisely guide tissue cells into place. To achieve strong enough gradients, however, cells must be suspended within a paramagnetic medium containing...

A schematic showing lithium battery with the new carbon nanotube architecture for the anode Credit: Juran Noh/Texas A&M University College of Engineering Cell phone batteries often heat up and, at times, can burst into flames. In most cases, the culprit behind such incidents can be traced back to lithium batteries. Despite providing long-lasting electric currents that can keep devices powered up, lithium batteries can internally short circuit, heating up the device. Researchers at Texas A&M University have invented a technology that can prevent lithium batteries from heating and failing. Their carbon nanotube design for the battery's conductive plate, called the...

Toward the end of his new book, The Return of Great Power Rivalry, Matthew Kroenig offers sensible if tentative advice for responding to China’s ambitions for technological leadership: U.S. government investments in basic science and R&D have been critical in past technological breakthroughs, including nuclear power and the Internet. . . and the United States could do more to invest in the technologies of the future. Democracies are often slow to build consensus for a problem, and that helps them to avoid mistakes. But when a national consensus is achieved, they can mass resources toward a problem just as...

Small metal injection molded (MIM) parts are common in firearms, but the decades-old process for lower-pressure components may be short-lived if the latest figures from 3DEO are any indication. The Los Angeles-based company, which specializes in high-volume metal 3D printing technology, experienced 600-percent growth in revenue from 2019 to 2020, with orders increasing 394 percent during the same period and staff increasing by 172 percent to meet that demand. It now has 25 engineers working on research and development. 3DEO is barely four years old, and although its products are usually taken for granted by most enthusiasts, firearm manufactures have...

With an estimated 224.3 million smartphone users in the U.S. and an estimated 2.1 billion smartphone users worldwide, it’s likely that you own a smartphone. But as you’ve spent thousands of minutes scrolling through social media or browsing the internet, did you ever wonder where your smartphone came from? Did you ever think that the device which demands so much of your attention could have been made by a slave?

Google has removed a popular Indian-developed app from its Play Store that promised to find and remove Chinese apps from smartphones. The search giant confirmed to Gadgets 360 that the app, which was called “Remove Chinese Apps,” was removed for violating its Deceptive Behavior Policy, which prohibits software from encouraging or misleading users into “removing or disabling third-party apps.” Remove Chinese Apps had grown popular in India. Reuters reports that it had amassed over five million downloads since late May, and was the top trending free app in the country. The app worked by scanning phones for Chinese apps like...

115 years ago, divers found a hunk of bronze off a Greek island. It changed our understanding of human history. One hundred fifteen years ago, an archeologist was sifting through objects found in the wreck of a 2,000-year-old vessel off the Greek island Antikythera. Among the wreck’s treasures — beautiful vases and pots, jewelry, a bronze statue of an ancient philosopher — was the most peculiar thing: a series of brass gears and dials mounted in a case the size of a mantel clock. Archeologists dubbed the instrument the Antikythera mechanism. The genius — and mystery — of this piece...

Care and feeding of Software Defined Radios We will cover the various kinds of antennas available to optimized your SDR radio for different types of spectrum monitoring. We will also explain why RF filters are necessary on most SDR's and when Low Noise Amplifiers help, and when Low Noise Amplifiers hurt reception.

NASA’s top executive concentrating on human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, has resigned just a week before the scheduled start of a milestone space mission. Loverro became NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations last December, and was playing a leading role in NASA’s Artemis moon program as well as preparations for next week’s launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. That mission, set for liftoff on May 27 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is due to send NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the station for a stay that could last...

Capella Space announced May 13 that it signed a deal to provide synthetic aperture radar to the U.S. Navy, even though the company has yet to put a satellite on orbit. SAR creates images with radar, meaning it can produce images regardless of the weather or lighting conditions. SAR satellite constellation will be able to collect sub-0.5 meter imagery, capable of identifying various types of aircraft or vehicles at ground level.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been in discussions for several years with both TSMC and Intel to build advanced chip manufacturing plants in the U.S. and extract U.S. supply chain needs from China and southeast Asia. It appears his efforts, and the emphasis on global supply-chain shifts from President Trump, are getting results. According to numerous media reports Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is likely to announce this week they will build an advanced chip manufacturing facility in Arizona. A manufacturing facility for advanced 5 nanometer chip manufacturing is a steep investment decision costing around $10 billion. This shift in...

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Regardless of where the Eastern Panhandle stands with COVID-19 this fall, Jefferson County students will have a choice of how they attend school. During Monday night’s regular meeting, Superintendent Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson said the school system is continuously updating its technological infrastructure. Students will have the option of full virtual learning.

It is a risky bet for US President Donald Trump’s administration to push for building advanced semiconductor factories in the US due to growing fears about the US’ heavy reliance on Asia for chip supply and potential disruptions from uncontrollable factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The US government is in discussions with chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), to build new fabs in the US to create a self-sufficiency in chips, the latest in a slew of Trump’s renewed “Make in the US” efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Even before the pandemic, the US had...

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With the current coronavirus crisis creating a boom for video meetings, competition for secure platforms has become fierce. The recent controversies surrounding early frontrunner Zoom allowed Google to pounce at the opportunity, making rival Google Meet free to the general public. Google has begun positioning itself as the pro-privacy option because of supposed protections it has in place, even as many in the public remain skeptical. No protections in the world, however, will change that Google is a corporation whose whole business model revolves around tracking, mining, and selling personal user data, along with the history of privacy violations that...

I need a surge protector good one. Considering a UPS/surge but dont think I need one but maybe I wont hurt. I will be putting my iMac on it and the cable companies data modem. All I get from them is internet. CATV guy told me dont put the Coax through it it will blow the data out of the water.Just the 110 AC power side Curious what some of you would recommend in regard to Mfg and Juoles or what ever they are called? UPS/surge VA/Watts. I am in a wicked summer lightning area. These are the specs for...

Facial recognition systems threaten our privacy. They can track where you go and add that information to the massive amount of information already saved about each of us. Big Brother is watching you and enabled by AI. And when it makes a mistake reading your face, you could end up with criminal charges far worse than when the toll tag system misreads your license plate. Here are several methods for fooling and interfering with facial recognition systems.

Martensite steel powder used for 3D printing. Inset shows a zoomed-in view of the steel powder. Credit: Raiyan Seede/Texas A&M University College of Engineering For millennia, metallurgists have been meticulously tweaking the ingredients of steel to enhance its properties. As a result, several variants of steel exist today; but one type, called martensitic steel, stands out from its steel cousins as stronger and more cost-effective to produce. Hence, martensitic steels naturally lend themselves to applications in the aerospace, automotive and defense industries, among others, where high-strength, lightweight parts need to be manufactured without boosting the cost. However, for these and...