Chuckable Cheetah
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| Chuckable Cheetah | |
| Number | 3481 |
| Broadcast Date | MARCH 5, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 29:56 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
Scientists from Heriot-Watt university in Edinburgh to weld glass to metal. Corning is developing a new Gorilla glass that can bend. Plus, MIT’s mini-cheetah robot can doing a standing back-flip.
Quick Hits
- The National Security Agency shut down a system of logs of US domestic calls and texts, according to Luke Murry, the US House minority leader’s national security adviser. This halts a program that has involved disputes about privacy and the rule of law since the Sept. 11 attacks. Edward Snowden disclosed the program’s existence in 2013 and contributed to awareness of how both governments and private companies harvest and exploit personal data.
- Spotify announced it has added more than 1 million users in India across both paid and fee tiers since launching last week. India has a population of 1.3 billion, with more than 400 million smartphone users. Reuters reports Tencent-backed Gaana leads the Indian market with 80 million monthly users.
- Corelle brands, which markets kitchenware under the CorningWare and Pyrex brands, announced plans to merge with Instant Brands, the makers of the Instant Pot. Instant Brands CEO Robert Wang said it will help expand product development. He will stay on in the merged company as Chief Innovation Officer and Instant Brands will continue to operate out of its offices in Ottawa, Canada.
Top Stories
- August introduced the August View video doorbell for $230 in the US starting March 28th. The View has a shape that should fit much more easily on a doorframe than August's previous model, and it's also battery-powered, rather than hardwired, meaning you can install the View in a lot more places. It also comes with a remote doorbell chime, a rechargeable battery and a Micro-USB cable.
- John Bayne, general manager at glass manufacturer Corning, told Wired his company is working on a bendable version of gorilla glass that could be available in two years. Corning is targeting a 3-5 mm bend radii for its 0.1mm thick glass while increasing damage resistance. Corning makes bendable Willow Glass but its manufacturing process requires a dip in a salt solution which would corrode in-glass transistors needed for displays. Samsung and Huawei's bendable phones use plastic screens, which are likely less scratch resistant. Coincidentally, Apple invested $200 million in Corning in 2017 in order to support research and development.
- Scientists from Heriot-Watt university in Edinburgh have developed a system that uses picosecond pulses of infrared light in tracks along the material in order to weld glass to metal. The team has welded quartz, borosilicate and sapphire glasses to metals like aluminum, titanium and stainless steel. The welds held at temperatures from -50 to 90 degrees celsius. Glass and metal have different thermal properties making them very difficult to weld. That means most glass is held to metal parts by adhesive which can slip and outgass over time, reducing product lifetime. The process will have direct applications in aerospace, defense, optical technology and healthcare.
- IDC is now including earbuds and headphones that connect to smart assistants in its wearables number. Apple still leads as AirPods and some Beats headphone models added to Apple Watches for a total of 46.2 million in 2018. Xiaomi came second up 45% with the Mi Band 3, the best-selling wrist-worn fitness tracker in the world. Fitbits fell 10% to third. Huawei jumped 147% to fourth and Samsung took 5th. IDC noted the disappearance of headphone jacks, and the rise of in-ear biometrics and smart assistants as the reason it sees ear-worn wearables as the next product battleground.
- Universities and Academics have been pushing for open access to published research for years as the Internet makes it easier to search and access peer-reviewed research. Journals have pushed back as open access is seen to threaten bottom lines. The University of California System made open access provisions for its research as a requirement for renewing subscriptions to journals from Elsevier. Elsevier agreed to the terms if UC authors paid large publishing fees. As a result, the University of California system and its 10 campuses have decided not to renew subscriptions with Elsevier. National library consortiums in Germany, Hungary and Sweden have all made the same decision. UC researchers will rely on preprints and Sci-Hub to obtain copies of hard to obtain research.
- MIT’s mini cheetah robot has a very cool skill, achieving a 360-degree backflip from a standing position. Researchers claim the mini cheetah is “virtually indestructible,” and can recover with little damage, even if a backflip doesn't land. The cheetah is 20 pound quadruped that can bend and swing its legs wide, enabling it to walk either right side up or upside down. The robot can also traverse uneven terrain about twice as fast as an average person's walking speed. The cheetah also has a modular design. Each leg is powered by three motors made of off the shelf parts, so if a motor is damaged it can be easily swapped for a new one. The researchers will present the mini cheetah’s design at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in May. They hope to build 10 of these and loan them out to other labs. Next up, figuring out a landing controller so you could toss it and have it land on its feet.
Mailbag
- I just got really excited when I heard you cover Excels new ability to take a photo and make it a spreadsheet! I handle printouts of spreadsheets daily in my job as a low voltage electrician. We use them to lay out connection pathways at the data center I work at, filled with panel, device and port information. The ability to simply take a photo of that sheet and have it become an editable document is great for me, as I can then make changes as needed to update the master that my foreman has. Also, I work with some pretty old school guys that just want the paper, so I often take a photo of the document for my own use, but that photo can be difficult to navigate sometimes. This would make it easier to highlight a row and easily identify all the connections I need to look at in one run.
Just thought I'd give you another use case other than photos of spreadsheets in word documents. 😁 - Sent by Ben
- I just got really excited when I heard you cover Excels new ability to take a photo and make it a spreadsheet! I handle printouts of spreadsheets daily in my job as a low voltage electrician. We use them to lay out connection pathways at the data center I work at, filled with panel, device and port information. The ability to simply take a photo of that sheet and have it become an editable document is great for me, as I can then make changes as needed to update the master that my foreman has. Also, I work with some pretty old school guys that just want the paper, so I often take a photo of the document for my own use, but that photo can be difficult to navigate sometimes. This would make it easier to highlight a row and easily identify all the connections I need to look at in one run.
- I bike to work daily, and most places on the weekends. I would be happy to see delivery bots in the bike lanes for one simple reason: the more the bike lanes get used, the more drivers will respect them, and more cities will be incentivized to build them. Reasonable speeds in a bike lane range from 7-15 mph, so the robots should be able to get where they’re going safely and in time.
- Sent by Bex Fortin, Patreon supporter
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| Preceded by: "Inductive Seasoning!" |
Chuckable Cheetah |
Followed by: "Your Reputation Precedes You" |