A new wave of ultra-fast charging stations can fill up an electric vehicle in the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.  That is, if the cars' batteries can keep up.

One company, the Australia-based Tritium, says it can provide drivers about 210 miles of charge in just 10 minutes — a feat that would shatter prior standards.  To put Tritium's claims in perspective, an average electric vehicle, with a normal charger, takes about eight hours to fully charge.

And Tritium isn't alone in their quest.  A European consortium of auto manufacturers that include BMW Group, Ford, and Volkswagen called Ionity has invested in the company's charging stations as a preemptive move according to a recent report by Bloomberg.

Volkswagen told Bloomberg in an email: 'The charging capacities of electric vehicles have doubled in the space of a few years.  We expect that fast-charging in public spaces will become the norm.'

Across Europe, Ionity is in the process of building 400 stations which will have as many as six ultra-fast chargers at each.

Shell also began to roll out ultra-fast chargers in Europe last year.

As EV infrastructure and car companies look to get ahead of the curve, however, battery manufacturers are struggling to advance their technology quickly enough to meet the chargers half way.   Most cars are not yet compatible with ultra-fast charging and according to CEO of electric infrastructure company ABB, who spoke at a recent conference in Houston, and the process of trying to develop a viable ultra-fast charger can be dangerous.

'[Ultra fast chargers] are a real breakthrough in terms of convenience,’ said Ulrich Spiesshofer at CERAWeek conference in Houston last month as reported in Bloomberg.  'We barbecued a couple of cars until we got there.'

The biggest hindrance for ultra-fast chargers is reportedly the size of the current generation of batteries as well as the voltage they can accept.  Despite those restrictions, some newer electric vehicles are beginning to close the gap.  Among them is the Jaguar I-PACE which can accept 440 Volts giving it a top charge time of 1.5 hours according to the company.

Several battery technologies are also emerging that could help increase range and charging capabilities of electric vehicles, including one recent company that says it has developed a lithium-ion battery capable of allowing cars to travel up to 600 miles in one charge.  Current batteries offer about 200 to 300 miles of range.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

The United Nations is exploring the possibility of building floating cities as the world continues to find a way to curb rising sea levels.  Ninety per cent of the world's largest cities are vulnerable to inundation as glaciers melt and seas rise on a warming planet.

A UN-backed partnership will study the futuristic prospect of modular platforms anchored to the sea floor could be connected in a ring to house communities atop the oceans, members said.

UN-Habitat, which works on sustainable urban development, will team up with private firm Oceanix, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Explorers Club, a professional society, to advance the concept.

As climate change gathers pace and more people crowd into city slums, 'floating cities is one of the possible solutions', said UN-Habitat's executive director, Maimunah Mohd Sharif.  The partnership plans to build within months a prototype open to the public, which it hopes to dock on the East River next to UN headquarters.

Compared with another located in Copenhagen, the New York City version aims to grow its own food and meet its water and energy needs, said U.S. company Oceanix, which will build it.

The vision for floating cities has raised questions over whether they could divert attention from dealing with the root causes of climate change, which by boosting sea levels threatens low-lying coastal communities with storm surges and flooding.  Some have also warned the cities may end up being only for the ultra-rich - such as floating villas currently being sold off the coast of Dubai - a risk the new project aims to address by exploring sea-borne homes for the neediest too.

The concept has prompted cutting-edge research in water management, ocean engineering and farming that could produce floating cities which are self-sufficient and safe from extreme weather like storms, a discussion at the United Nations heard.

'We're basically building resilience at the platform level,' said Marc Collins Chen, Oceanix chief executive.

Should global average temperatures increase 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°F) from pre-industrial times, sea levels could rise as much as 30.3 inches (77cm) by 2100, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The lower 1.5°C limit enshrined in the Paris Agreement is likely to be breached between 2030 and 2052 if global warming continues at its current pace and unprecedented measures are not taken to stem the increase, a 2018 IPCC report said.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told the Reuters that much of the technology emerging from research on floating cities could also be used to improve existing cities on solid ground.  'The benefits are not just going to be what you will be doing on water, but on land,' he said

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

There were two nuns: One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM), and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL).

It is getting dark and they are still far away from the convent.

SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for the past 38 ½ minutes?  I wonder what he wants.
SL: It's logical.  He wants to violate us.
SM: Oh, no!  At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes at the most! What can we do?
SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

A little while later...

SM: It's not working.
SL: Of course it's not working.  The man did the only logical thing.  He started to walk faster, too.
SM: So, what shall we do?  At this rate he will reach us in 1 minute.
SL: The only logical thing we can do is split.  You go that way and I'll go this way.  He cannot follow us both.

So the man decided to follow Sister Logical...

Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical.  Then Sister Logical arrives.
SM: Sister Logical!  Thank God you are here!  Tell me what happened!
SL: The only logical thing happened.  The man couldn't follow us both, so he followed me
SM: Yes, yes!  But what happened then?
SL: The only logical thing happened.  I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.
SM: And?
SL: The only logical thing happened.  He reached me.
SM: Oh, dear!  What did you do?
S : The only logical thing to do.  I lifted my dress up.
SM: Oh, Sister!  What did the man do?
SL: The only logical thing to do.  He pulled down his pants.
SM: Oh, no!  What happened then?
SL: Isn't it logical, Sister?  A nun with her dress up can run faster than a man with his pants down.

And for those of you who thought it would be something else…………………
And the Moral of the Story is: Logic Beats Math Anytime.  And Math cannot survive without Logic.

Extracted from: Internet

AI may be able to predict when patients battling chronic diseases will die, research suggests.

Scientists and doctors used data from half a million people to develop the tool that foresees who is at risk of an early death.   It takes into account everything from a patient's family history of disease and how much salt they eat, to medication use and whether they wear sunscreen.  Researchers said the AI system was 'very accurate' in tests and around 10 per cent more reliable than estimations by existing machine-learning systems.

The research was carried out by the University of Nottingham and led by Dr Stephen Weng, an assistant professor of epidemiology and data science.

Dr Weng said: 'Preventative healthcare is a growing priority in the fight against serious diseases.  So we have been working for a number of years to improve the accuracy of computerised health risk assessment in the general population.  Most applications focus on a single disease area but predicting death due to several different disease outcomes is highly complex, especially given environmental and individual factors that may affect them.  We have taken a major step forward in this field by developing a unique and holistic approach to predicting a person’s risk of premature death by machine-learning.'

The AI algorithm was created from data of 502,628 people aged 40-to-69 who took part in the UK Biobank study between 2006 and 2010, and were followed until 2016.  It took into account 60 health predictors, including the participants' BMI, blood pressure and vitamin or supplement use.  The AI model also included information on the participants' fruit, vegetable, meat, cheese, cereal, fish and alcohol consumption.

'We mapped the resulting predictions to mortality data from the cohort using Office of National Statistics death records, the UK cancer registry and "hospital episodes" statistics,' Dr Weng said.

The model was then compared against two standard machine-learning techniques.  Results - published in the journal PLOS ONE - suggest the new AI model was up to 10.1 per cent more accurate than existing networks.

Dr Weng said: 'We found machine learned algorithms were significantly more accurate in predicting death than the standard prediction models developed by a human expert.’

Study author Professor Joe Kai, head of primary care at the faculty of medicine & health sciences, added: 'There is intense interest in the potential to use "AI" or "machine learning" to better predict health outcomes.  In some situations we may find it helps, in others it may not.  In this particular case, we have shown that with careful tuning, these algorithms can usefully improve prediction.  These techniques can be new to many in health research and difficult to follow.  We believe by clearly reporting these methods in a transparent way, this could help with scientific verification and future development of this exciting field for healthcare.'

The latest study builds on past research by the University of Nottingham that suggested four different AI algorithms were significantly better at predicting heart disease than an established one used in cardiology guidelines.

The scientists predict AI will play a vital role in the development of personalised medicine.  But, they add, further research is required into machine learning's effectiveness in other population groups, as well as how to incorporate AI into everyday healthcare.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Where do failed and defunct tech products go when they die?  In most cases, the answer to that question is that there really isn't one answer, but for historians of Google's many felled initiatives, remembrance is now only a click away.

At killedbygoogle.com, the brainchild of coder, Cody Ogden, all of the search giant's killed or soon-to-be killed products, including, apps, services, and hardware, are compiled in a list that reads less like a ledger and more like an actual graveyard.

Ogden in a recent blog post: 'We grow accustomed to the apps, services, and devices we use as a part of our routine.  We come to know their characteristics, their quirks, and like a relationship, it deeply affects us, even for years after they are no longer with us.'

The extensive burial ground contains 149 different apps, services, and types of hardware that run the gamut of Google products, ranging from the company's ill-fated social platform, Google+, to lesser known -- or almost entirely unknown -- offerings like BebaPlay, an electronic ticketing platform in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since the website's creation, fans and critics of Google's deceased products have taken to Reddit to opine about which products they remember fondly and which they might be better off without.

'Google Reader was the biggest loss.  It was a really handy RSS/Atom feed aggregator.  Still miss it these days and nothing comes close.  Even Feedly (which is paid),' said one user.

'I'm pissed about Inbox.  I love it.  And even though Google says they've incorporated Inbox's features into Gmail...  They haven't.  The bulk sweep of emails isn't there, and that's what made Inbox great,' griped another.

The website's creation comes on the heels of several announcements from Google in March that spell the end of three relatively well-known services.  Among them are Allo, Google's messaging service launched in 2016, a Google's URL shortener, and Google Inbox, an email service with a loyal following that is set to be discontinued on April 2.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

NASA could have humans back on the moon within the next five years under the latest orders from the Trump administration.  Vice President Mike Pence revealed the new deadline during a speech at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama on 26 March, where he told an audience that the president wants astronauts to touch down on the lunar south pole by 2024.

The VP called on NASA to ‘reignite the spark of urgency’ for space exploration and make it a priority to set ‘bold goals’ and stay on schedule.  This accelerated timeline, however will undoubtedly be met with many challenges; just weeks ago NASA said it was on schedule to have humans on the moon by 2028 – a full four years later than the new target.

NASA’s plans to send humans to the moon rely on its upcoming Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion crew capsule.  But, SLS has faced numerous delays over the years, and the agency just recently revealed it will not be ready for the uncrewed Exploration Mission-1, which will serve as crucial proving ground for subsequent missions with crew on board.  Despite the mounting obstacles, the Trump administration says it's eyeing a much sooner deadline than NASA had previously planned for.

The Vice President said on 26 March: 'Since the end of Apollo 11, we’ve forged incredible breakthroughs in our technology that have allowed us to go further, more safely in space than ever before.  We have the technology to go the moon and renew American leadership in human space exploration.  Just as the United States was the first nation to reach the moon in the 20th century, so too will we be the first nation to return astronauts to the moon in the 21st century.'

The administration is recommending a 'major course correction' for NASA to prioritize human presence on the moon.  Speaking 'on behalf of the president,' Pence said it is the administration's stated policy to put American astronauts on the moon within the next five years.  The administration is now calling on NASA to 'embrace a new mindset.'

Pence said: 'That begins with setting bold goals and staying on schedule.  To reach the moon in the next five years we must select our destinations now.  NASA already knows that the lunar south pole holds great economic and strategic value.  Now it’s time to commit and go there.'

Going there won't be easy, though, and NASA has already been struggling to meet its deadlines.  Instead of using its own SLS rocket for the initial uncrewed tests, for example, NASA said that it may instead have to use a commercially developed rocket in order to stay on schedule.

SLS and Orion were expected to be ready for their first uncrewed test flight in 2020.  Though it has not yet named a company that could provide a substitute for SLS, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance's Delta IV are essentially the only contenders.  Even with this solution, though, the plan will require extensive workarounds.

While NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) would be able to boost Orion and the European Service Module to orbit on its own, there’s no rocket currently in existence capable of doing that.  To get the two components into orbit around the moon as planned, NASA will need two heavy-lift rockets – one to launch Orion and ESM, and a second to launch an upper stage that will dock with Orion in Earth’s orbit and give it a boost to the moon.

Pence's statement today comes as a baffling departure from the agency's previously discussed plans.

Construction on the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway – an orbiting lunar outpost that will facilitate human exploration – isn't expected to begin until 2022 at the earliest.

And in a statement at the beginning of this month on the $21 billion 2020 budget, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said NASA is currently on track to have humans back on the moon by 2028.  ‘Beginning with a series of small commercial delivery missions to the Moon as early as this year, we will use new landers, robots and eventually humans by 2028 to conduct science across the entire lunar surface,’ Bridenstine said at the time.

Now, NASA will be working under a much tighter deadline, giving it less time to come up with the technology necessary to get humans, safely, to the surface of the moon.  But so far, NASA doesn't appear to be shying away from the challenge.

'This agency is up to the task.  We are going to do everything we can to meet it,' Bridenstine said in response to the vice president's new recommendation. ''

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

A range of robots capable of instantly making sushi at the touch of a button has been created by engineers.  The machines do not require the years of training and hard-work needed for a human to become an accomplished sushi chef but can churn out the fishy delicacies relentlessly.  Sushi-making firm AUTEC say the device can create 2,400 nigiri rice balls and 200 sushi rolls per hour.

Monk Conveyors, based in the UK, manufactures the AUTEC robots.  They are capable of making a wide-range of Japanese food, including rice balls and sushi rolls.

Rice is moulded inside a rotating container and poured out flat in the form of various sheets.  A plethora of ingredients can be added to the process to create different recipes, such as sashimori, nori and vegetables.  It can then also wrap, package and cut them ready for serving.

The designers of the products say they are intended to be used alongside human chefs in cafeterias and chain restaurants.  They are available to buy in the UK but may be imported from Japan for delivery in two to eight weeks.

Automation is making its way into the food industry as restaurateurs and companies try to minimise costs and maximise efficiency.

'Flippy' the one-armed robot chef hit headlines when it was 'fired' for being unable to work with humans.  The one-armed robot chef has been re-tooled and is now flipping 300 burgers a day, seven days a week at Caliburger in Pasadena, California, its developers say.  It ran into problems after being unable to work in sync with its human colleagues and continuously placing cooked burgers on the wrong trays.  The robot also attracted so much national interest that the CaliBurger was struggling to keep up with the crowds.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Future footballers may look more like the slender bodied Marcus Rashford than the stockier looking Wayne Rooney, scientists say.

Significant changes to footballers' body shapes due to improvements to football pitches and increased workload, researchers have found.  The new, better maintained pitches favour leaner body types than the muscular physiques of older generation of players.   These changes have reportedly created leaner and more slender body shapes in footballers.

Muscle and power, epitomised by the likes of Alan Shearer, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney – have been replaced by the lean, slender physiques of today's top players such as Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford, say scientist.

A new report led by University of Wolverhampton sports scientists, reveals that the well-maintained pitches of today, along with tough new training regimes, have had a major impact on the evolution of footballers' body shapes.

Lead researcher Professor Alan Nevill, at the University of Wolverhampton, said: 'Footballers of today have adapted to the modern game, and as a result their body shape has altered.  Today's players are more like endurance athletes than power athletes.  To compete at today's high levels, they are also working harder and harder so are much leaner.

Modern players are ectomorphic, characterised by a lean, slender body, as opposed to the muscular, mesomorphic builds which were more common in the seventies and eighties.  A lot of this can be attributed to the increased quality of playing surfaces where footballers train and compete.  Modern pitches are immaculate and well-maintained and not the mud baths that they used to be.  Pitches used to get very heavy and soggy, particularly in mid-winter, which accounted for players being bulkier and more muscular.'

The findings, which examined more than 2,600 top-division players also showed a dramatic decrease in BMI, which Professor Nevill believes is an indication of leaner body mass.  The researchers examined how body size, shape and age characteristics had changed for footballers since the 1970s.  Findings showed footballers have steadily been getting taller, with an average height increase of 1cm per decade.

In the most recent decade, however, footballers are now also lighter and nimbler, which researchers have put down to less muddy pitch surfaces favouring leaner body shapes.

Professor Nevill added: 'Body shape is clearly important and English professional clubs might be advised to attract young, less muscular, more angular players as part of their talent identification and development programmes to improve future chances of success.  In an industry that is so financially competitive, any advantage that can be gained has the potential to positively influence future performance.'

Last December, Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku himself blamed his poor form at the start of this season on being too muscular.  The researchers say it also has implications for the identification and development of talent to increase England's chances of future success.

The full report was published in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Thousands of newly discovered fossils of showing stunning details of sea organisms have been unearthed in China.  They represent a range of species that lived as far back as 518 million years ago, during a time where there was a surge in life forms on Earth.

These new finds could reveal new details early life during that period which is known as the Cambrian Explosion, say scientists.

Paleontologists found the fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui River in the Hubei province of southern China.  Amongst the fossils, primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, anemones, worms, algae, tiny invertebrates called kinorhynchs or mud dragons and arthropods were found.

Scientists believe the rocks show what was in a mudslide that took place more than 500 million years ago when life on Earth experienced a massive burst of diversity in life forms known as the Cambrian explosion.

The 4,351 separate fossils excavated so far include 101 species, with 53 of them previously unknown to scientists.  More than 50 per cent of the discoveries are thought to be previously unknown species, the study published in the journal Science on 21 March.

Unlike other Cambrian fossil troves, the Qingjiang site is unique in that it not only includes well-preserved fossils but soft-bodied organisms as well, the study states.  According to the authors, the unique aspects of Qingjiang have the potential to greatly inform the understanding of early animal evolution.

Dr Allison Daley, a paleontologist with an interest in the Cambrian Explosion at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, was not part of the study but wrote a perspective that accompanied the study.  She wrote: 'The treasure trove of the Qinjiang biota provides an exciting opportunity to explore how paleoenvironmental conditions influenced ecological structuring and evolutionary drivers during the Cambrian Explosion.'

Researchers say the discovery in China may rival previous fossil hauls, such as the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in 1909, Chengjiang in China and Emu Bay Shale in Australia.  The site in Burgess dates back to 508 million years ago and includes well-preserved fossils that show evidence of animal's skin, eyes, gut and brains.  Scientists will be studying the recent Chinese discoveries to try and work out what they can reveal about early life on earth.

The full report was published in the journal Science.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Images which appear to be of a strange handful of pink marbles in a patch of mud are actually the eggs of a legless amphibian.  The pictures show the little see-through balls which contain the creatures which belong to the Chikilidae family, related to the salamander.

The chikilidae is a caecilian, the most primitive of three amphibian groups that also includes frogs.  Because they live hidden underground, not much is known about them unlike their more famous - and vocal - amphibious cousins, the frogs.  In adult form, they look a lot like worms or a miniature snake, despite having a spine.  They do have eyes, but their sight is extremely limited as they spend most of their time underground.

The species was discovered in 2012 in India, giving more evidence that the region is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting.  Biju said in an interview at the time: 'This is a major hotspot of biological diversity, but one of the least explored.  We hope this new family will show the importance of funding research in the area.  We need to know what we have, so we can know what to save.'

The female brood with the eggs for 2-3 months, and researchers think the adults don't feed during this time.  When they finally hatch, there's no larval stage - like frogs tend to have with tadpoles.  Instead, they emerge as small adults and squirm away.  They grow to about 10 centimeters, and can ram their skulls through some of the region's tougher soils

The chikilidae's 2012 discovery brings the number of known caecilian families in the world to 10.  Three are in India and others are spread across the tropics in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.

Only 186 of the world's known amphibious species are caecilians, compared with more than 6,000 frog species - a third of which are considered endangered.

They are harmless feed on worms and insects that might harm crops; and they churn the soil as they moves underground.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk