Technology

Cockroaches may be unwelcome house guests, but their hard-to-kill nature could help save humans trapped in buildings destroyed by storms, earthquakes or terrorism.As part of the research, the University of California, Berkeley, scientists have also revealed why it takes so much force to squash the pesky insect and therefore, they have studied how cockroaches infiltrate our homes and used the findings to develop a soft-bodied robot that can compress itself and crawl into confined spaces. As Dr Robert Full, from the university's Department of Integrative Biology, said "soft-bodied animals, such as worms, had inspired a new field of soft robotics but  there were clear disadvantages in the functionality of these robots, including speed of travel and their ability to support weight. 'This discovery not only has far-reaching implications regarding the behaviour and ecology of insects and other arthropodes', says Weihmann. 'Our results can also c...

This week’s video could mark something of a changing of the guard, with the all-electric NIO EP9 setting a lap record of 6:45.9 at the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife. Having taken the EV record on the 20.8 km circuit back in October , the world’s fastest electric car returned to the ‘Green Hell’ this month in pursuit of the overall record. The EP9’s 1 Megawatt of power (equivalent to 1342 bhp) delivers a top speed of 313kph (194mph). But it’s the lightning fast acceleration that really sets it apart, capable of going from 0-200kph (0-124mph) in just 7.1 seconds. That acceleration was key to breaking the previous Nürburgring record, set by the Pagani Zonda R in 2010. The EP9 was able to shave nearly two seconds off the Zonda’s record of 6:47.5, and petrolheads will be watching keenly to see if the internal combustion engine can strike back. At just over seven minutes, the video is a little on the lengthy side, but it’s seven minutes that we may look back on i...

Because of a Reddit post and the loose interpretation of subsequent benchmark tests posted by Primate Labs ’ John Poole, the “Apple throttles old iPhones” meme has reared its ugly head again. The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower. As always, the answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly short-sighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen. Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries. Here’s a statement that Apple provided when I inquired about the power profile that people were seeing when testing iPhones with older batteries: Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which inclu...

Charlie Lee, the former director of engineering at Coinbase, is selling almost all of his holdings in Litecoin (LTC), the cryptocurrency that he founded in 2011. Lee explained in a post on Reddit  that he is selling all of his LTC coins — bar a number of physical coins he keeps as collectibles — to avoid the conflict of interest that comes with his influence and position as LTC founder. Thanks to his time at Coinbase and LTC, Lee is regarded as a key influencer in the crypto space and he has accumulated more than 378,000 followers on Twitter, where his handle is @SatoshiLite . While he said he has stayed away from tweeting about LTC prices directly, he acknowledged his tweets have been criticized in some quarters as manipulating the price despite whatever his best interest. Lee readily admits that his position represented a conflict of interest, hence the unload. “Whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bad news, I get accused of doing...

Elon Musk made a bet to build the world's biggest battery in 100 days or he'd pay for it. And he's done. Tesla has completed installing its colossal lithium ion battery in South Australia, a Powerpack system with 100 megawatts of capacity. But now comes the test. SEE ALSO: This isn’t the first time Elon Musk made big promises Regulatory testing will begin in the next few days to ensure the battery is optimised and meets AEMO and South Australian Government requirements, before operation commences on Dec. 1. Tesla's Australian Powerpack, now the world's biggest lithium ion battery. Image: Timothy Artman/tesla Representatives from Tesla, French renewable energy company Neoen and Adelaide engineering firm Consolidated Power Projects will join South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill next week to officially launch the battery. Connected to Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, three hours’ drive from Adelaide, the Powe...

Solar technology is set to help with the extraction of crude oil following an agreement to build California’s largest solar energy plant. Belridge Solar GlassPoint Solar will supply Aera Energy, one of California’s largest oil and gas producers, with an integrated solar plant that will be the first of its kind to use solar steam and solar electricity to power oilfield operations. It is claimed that the finished Belridge Solar project will deliver the largest peak energy output of any solar plant in California. “Our partnership with Aera demonstrates the growing energy convergence where renewables and traditional energy leaders are working together to address some of the biggest challenges of our time,” said Sanjeev Kumar, GlassPoint SVP, Americas. GlassPoint’s solar technology will be used for the extraction of heavy oil , which accounts for half of California’s crude oil production. Heavy oil is produced by injecting steam into the reservoir to heat the oil so it ...

Biomedical engineers at Duke University in the US have developed a fully functional artificial heart muscle that could ultimately be used to repair heart damage suffered during cardiac arrest. The technology could help restore normal function to a damaged heart Unlike some human organs, the heart cannot regenerate itself after a heart attack. The dead muscle is often replaced by scar tissue that can no longer transmit electrical signals or contract, both of which are necessary for smooth and forceful heartbeats. The Duke team claims that its breakthrough – which is described in Nature Communications – could enable surgeons to patch a damaged heart with tissue made outside of the body. Whilst researchers have been exploring the concept, this is claimed to be the first patch of its kind both large enough to cover affected tissues, and as strong and electrically active as natural heart tissue. “Creating individual cardiac muscle cells is pretty commonplace,” said...