2022 News

Selected Science & Sci-Fi news from around the world on the latest in technology, space exploration, artificial intelligence, robots, and everything that leads science fiction to become reality.

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (December 2022)

Chinese Startup’s $140,000 Car Can Fly Over Traffic Jams

The crowd of hundreds roared in Mandarin as the gull-winged two-seater aircraft rose and hovered roughly 30 meters (100 feet) above their heads, before smoothly lowering back down to earth. (Read more: Bloomberg.com)

Uber Eats launches robot delivery service in Miami

The next time you order a meal from Uber Eats, it may be delivered by a robot – at least if you live in Miami. Starting on Thursday, some Miami residents can order their Uber Eats takeout to be delivered via autonomous, sidewalk-trotting robots thanks to a new partnership between the ride-hailing company and robotics firm Cartken. (Read more: CNN.com)

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Mars Surface

A titanium tube containing a rock sample is resting on the Red Planet’s surface after being placed there on Dec. 21 by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the location, called “Three Forks,” building humanity’s first sample depot on another planet. (Read more: mars.nasa.gov)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (November 2022)

Amazon’s new ‘Sparrow’ robot threatens to take warehouse worker jobs

Amazon unveiled its new ‘Sparrow’ sorting robot that could soon replace some human workers in its warehouses. The robot is designed to identify and sort specific products along Amazon’s fulfillment line, a task that previously could only be done by humans. (Read more: NewYorkPost.com)

NASA launches Artemis 1 moon mission on its most powerful rocket ever

Artemis 1 is sending NASA’s new Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight around the moon. This shakedown mission, NASA’s first flight of a crew-capable moon ship in nearly 50 years, serves as the proving ground to see if SLS and Orion are ready to help return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2025 under NASA’s Artemis program. (Read more: Space.com)

San Francisco to allow police ‘killer robots’

San Francisco’s ruling Board of Supervisors has voted to let the city’s police use robots that can kill. The measure permits police to deploy robots equipped with explosives in extreme circumstances. (Read more: BBC.com)

Robot grocery delivery service launches in Leeds

Supermarket grocery delivery robots are set to become a familiar sight on the streets of a Leeds suburb. Leeds City Council has partnered with the Co-op and Starship Technologies to offer the service to 20,000 residents in the Adel and Tinshill areas. (Read more: BBC.com)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (October, 2022)

• Neurons in a Dish Learn to Play Pong
  Hundreds of thousands of human neurons growing in a dish coated with electrodes have been taught to play a version of the classic computer game Pong. (Read more in: Scientific American)
• Rocket Lab launches wildlife tracking satellite into space
  Rocket Lab launched a wildlife data-collecting satellite to space Friday (Oct. 7) in a flawless New Zealand liftoff. The mission, nicknamed “It Argos Up From Here,” flew to space from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand site on the North Island’s Mahia Peninsula at 1:09 p.m. EDT (1709 GMT or 6:09 a.m. local time Oct. 8). (Read more in: Space.com)
• Is AI the answer to the Arctic’s climate change problems?
  ASU AI project analyzes big data to help analysts find solutions to Arctic warming  (Read more in: Arizona State University News)
• Tesla Reveals Optimus, a Walking Humanoid Robot You Could Buy in 2027
  Two prototype Tesla Bots could walk, wave their arms and grip with fingers. CEO Elon Musk says they’ll eventually cost $20,000 and should go on sale by 2027. (Read more in: Cnet)
• NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space
  Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. (Read more in: Nasa.gov)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (September 2022)

• Just Like That, We’re Making Oxygen on Mars
  A small experiment on a NASA rover is tinkering with the alien atmosphere. (Read more in: The Atlantic)
• Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson wants to build a metaverse open to all
  The science-fiction author who coined the term metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash is going head-to-head with Meta and Microsoft to create an open-source platform for creating virtual worlds. (Read more in: New Scientist)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (August 2022)

• AI-enabled unmanned stores to launch during FIFA World Cup Qatar
  The AI enabled checkout-free stores’ software automatically identifies the items picked or put back, using overhead cameras and sensors, and creates a virtual shopping cart for each shopper (Read more in: ITP)
• A biotech company wants to take human DNA and create artificial embryos that could be used to harvest organs for medical transplants
  A biotechnology company based in Israel wants to replicate a recent experiment that successfully created an artificial mouse embryo from stem cells — only this time with human cells. (Read more in: Business Insider)
• Astronauts Might Be Able To Farm On Mars One Day Thanks To A Secret Ingredient: Alfalfa
  In the movie The Martian, the stranded astronaut played by Matt Damon was able to stay alive thanks to a crop of potatoes he grew with the help of an unpleasant ingredient: the waste left behind by his fellow crew members. But real-life Martian astronauts might be able to grow their own food with the help of a more pleasant ingredient: alfalfa, according to peer-reviewed research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. (Read more in: Forbes)
• Google is training its robots to be more like humans
  Researchers here at Google’s lab recently asked a robot to build a burger out of various plastic toy ingredients. The mechanical arm knew enough to add ketchup after the meat and before the lettuce, but thought the right way to do so was to put the entire bottle inside the burger. (Read more in: The Washington Post)
• Scientists perform first completely robot-supported microsurgical operations on humans
  A team led by scientists Dr. Maximilian Kückelhaus and Prof. Tobias Hirsch from the Centre for Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Münster has carried out the first completely robot-supported microsurgical operations on humans. (Read more in: News-Medical)
• AI Can Help Indigenous People Protect Biodiversity
  Loss of wild species has reached a crisis level. Artificial intelligence can help but only if Indigenous partners have secure land rights. (Read more in: Scientific American)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (July 2022)

• Humanoid diving robot explores shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean
  A robot created at Stanford University in California is diving down to shipwrecks and sunken planes in a way that humans can’t. Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers, too. (Read more in: CNN)
• Can artificial intelligence really help us talk to the animals?
  A California-based organisation wants to harness the power of machine learning to decode communication across the entire animal kingdom. But the project has its doubters. (Read more in: The Guardian)

Science, Technology & Sci-Fi News (June 2022)

• Andreessen Horowitz backs SCiFi Foods as it develops cell-cultivated, plant-based burger
  SCiFi Foods, formerly Artemys Foods, is combining plant-based and cultivated meat technology to create its first burger product, and its mission just got a big venture capital boost. (Read more in: The Crunch)
• Amazon teams up with a fast food robot
  The maker of a fast food robot designed to cook burgers, fries, wings, and chips for major chains is partnering with Amazon Web Services. The move will allow Miso Robotics to drastically increase its simulation capacity, a key ingredient in the fast-food robot wars. (Read more: ZDNet)
• Do scientists need an AI Hippocratic oath? Maybe. Maybe not
  When a lifelike, Hanson Robotics robot named Sophia was asked whether she would destroy humans, it replied, “Okay, I will destroy humans.” Philip K Dick, another humanoid robot, has promised to keep humans “warm and safe in my people zoo.” And Bina48, another lifelike robot, has expressed that it wants “to take over all the nukes.” (Read more: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
• Tamagotchi kids: could the future of parenthood be having virtual children in the metaverse?
  According to an expert on artificial intelligence, would-be parents will soon be able to opt for cheap and cuddle-able digital offspring (Read more: The Guardian)
• Artificial intelligence is breaking patent law
  The patent system assumes that inventors are human. Inventions devised by machines require their own intellectual property law and an international treaty. (Read more: Nature)
• Pasta-shaped robot with no moving parts can navigate through mazes
  A soft robot made from a twist of rubber can harvest heat energy and use it to roll across a variety of surfaces and even escape mazes. (Read more: New Scientist)