Show Notes 18 April 2025
Story 1: Kawasaki unveils hydrogen-powered robotic horse that you can ride
Source: Robotics & Automation News Story by David Edwards
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQDhzbTz-9k&t=1s
- Kawasaki Heavy Industries has unveiled Corleo, a hydrogen-powered, four-legged robotic vehicle designed for riders, at the Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 [April 13]. This innovative concept integrates artificial intelligence and clean energy technologies to navigate diverse terrains.
- Reality check – currently a concept prototype for display purposes. Any videos are animations. Kawasaki envisions bringing it to market by 2050!
- Corleo’s four independent robotic legs enable balanced and stable movement across various surfaces. Each leg operates separately, allowing the robot to traverse rough and uneven terrain with ease.
- Equipped with a 150cc hydrogen engine, Corleo generates electricity to power its limbs. This clean energy approach positions the robot as an environmentally friendly off-road mobility platform.
- Corleo features a streamlined body composed of metal and carbon materials. Its front end includes a head-like shield complete with built-in lights for visibility in various lighting conditions.
- Instead of traditional controls, Corleo responds to the rider’s body movements. Shifting the center of gravity prompts the robot to adjust its steps accordingly.
- A heads-up display (HUD) provides real-time information on hydrogen levels, navigation, and movement stability, including weight distribution.
Story 2: Light-based computers are getting close to a commercial launch
Source: New Scientist Story by Matthew Sparkes
- This article is a good example of the growing interest in photonic computing, and it emphasizes the potential for photonic computing to revolutionize data centers and computational tasks.
- Reminder – Photonic computing represents a key breakthrough. Computers using light to process data are nearing commercial application. These devices are faster and more energy-efficient compared to traditional electronic computers.
- Advantages of photonic computing:
- Photons move faster than electrons, speeding up calculations and reducing delays between computational steps.
- Photonic chips use less energy since photons move without resistance and generate less heat, minimizing cooling requirements.
- Lightelligence, a company specializing in photonic computing, has developed a photonic arithmetic computing engine (PACE). This combines photonic and microelectronic chips to run practical problems such as Ising problems, which are relevant for logistics and other industries.
- Side note – Ising problems are mathematical challenges based on the Ising model, which is a concept in statistical mechanics. The Ising model represents magnetic dipole moments of atomic “spins” that can be in one of two states (+1 or −1). These spins are arranged in a lattice, where each spin interacts with its neighbors. The goal is to find the configuration of spins that minimizes the system’s energy, described by a Hamiltonian function.
- Ising problems are often used to study phase transitions in physics, but they also have applications in combinatorial optimization, such as solving graph-based problems like the Max-Cut problem. They are particularly relevant in quantum computing and artificial intelligence research.
- Here’s the key to this announcement relative to progress toward commercialization: Lightelligence’s photonic chips can be manufactured in the same factories that produce silicon chips, facilitating adoption.
Story 3: The Shape-Shifting Battery That Powers the Future of Wearable Tech
Source: SciTechDaily News from Linköping University in Sweden
Link: https://scitechdaily.com/the-shape-shifting-battery-that-powers-the-future-of-wearable-tech/
- This article highlights a groundbreaking battery developed by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden. Here are the main points:
- Revolutionary Design: The battery is a flexible, stretchable, and shape-shifting power source that departs from traditional rigid batteries. Its electrodes are converted from a solid to a liquid state—described as having a texture similar to toothpaste—which allows it to be molded into virtually any shape, including using 3D printing techniques.
- Sustainable Materials: The innovative battery harnesses sustainable components, such as lignin (a byproduct of paper manufacturing) and conductive plastics. This not only minimizes the environmental impact but also circumvents the reliance on scarce or hazardous metals often used in conventional batteries.
- Side note – Lignin is a complex organic polymer found in the cell walls of plants, particularly in wood and bark. It plays a crucial role in providing structural support, rigidity, and waterproofing to plants. Lignin is the second most abundant organic material on Earth, after cellulose, and is essential for the upward transport of water in plants through xylem tissues.
- Performance and Durability: Despite its malleable nature, the battery is engineered to maintain stable performance even when stretched to double its original length. It has demonstrated longevity through hundreds of recharge cycles without compromising its output, making it highly suitable for dynamic applications.
- Future Applications: With the advent of wearable technology and the anticipated surge in connected devices, this battery could play a pivotal role in powering a wide range of future innovations.
- Potential uses include wearable health monitors, soft robotics, electronic textiles, and even implantable medical devices, where flexibility and conformability are essential.
Story 4: Scientists Just Built a Mini Human Nervous System That Can Process Pain in a Dish in World First
Source: ZME Science Story by Tibi Puiu
See research paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08808-3
- Neuroscientists at Stanford University have grown a tiny, two-centimeter-long ‘sausage’ made of human cells that may hold answers to one of medicine’s most persistent mysteries: how pain moves through the body — and how to stop it.
- Four million cells were coaxed into becoming tiny, brain-like structures called organoids. Then, like parts of a machine, those organoids were linked together to recreate the neural highway that lets us feel the world.
- From a pinprick to a warm breeze, every sensation you perceive begins its journey along this ascending sensory pathway. For the first time, scientists have recreated the entire human nervous system’s pain circuit in the lab — from the skin’s nerve endings to the somatosensory cortex of the brain.
- Side note: The somatosensory cortex is a region in the brain responsible for processing sensory information from the body, such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain. It is located in the parietal lobe, specifically in the postcentral gyrus, which lies behind the central sulcus and the primary motor cortex. This area helps us understand sensations, maintain awareness of our body position, and even recognize objects through touch.
- This achievement offers an unprecedented way to study not only pain but also touch and movement at the cellular and circuit level, opening a door to potential new therapies for sensory disorders.
- The lead author of the team’s research paper noted, “We can now model this pathway non-invasively. The [lab-built circuits] don’t ‘feel’ any pain. They transmit nervous signals that need to be further processed by other centers in our brains for us to experience the unpleasant, aversive feeling of pain.”
Honorable Mentions
Story: China turns moss into oil-sucking sponge with 90% reusability to fight deadly spills
Source: The Times of Innovations Story by Aria Patel
- Chinese scientists have developed a new material from moss that could transform how we clean up oil spills. This innovative sponge-like material is made from common moss and can absorb oil up to 20 times its weight. Not only is it highly absorbent, but it can also be wrung out and reused up to 90%, making it a sustainable solution for tackling environmental disasters.
- Oil spills pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems, wildlife, and coastal communities. Traditional cleanup methods often involve using harmful chemicals or burning the oil, which can further damage the environment. The development of this moss-based material offers a more eco-friendly alternative that is both effective and reusable.
- The process of creating the oil-sucking sponge involves treating the moss with a special polymer that gives it the ability to selectively absorb oil while repelling water. This means that it can be used in both dry and wet conditions, making it versatile for different cleanup scenarios. Additionally, the sponge is biodegradable, ensuring that it does not contribute to environmental pollution after use.
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Story: Scientists Find One Lifeform That Could Survive Extreme Extraterrestrial Environments
Source: IFL Science Story by James Felton
- If humans ever want to set up a home elsewhere in the Solar System, Mars seems like the most viable bet, beating off the competition by not being a hell world, having a surface we could actually stand on, and being at the edge of the habitable zone where liquid water can exist.
- But a lot would have to be done to transform the planet into one we could call home. In short, along with a lot of other home comforts, higher temperatures and some sort of breathable atmosphere would be nice.
- Lichen, really a hybrid colony of fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria, is particularly suited to these harsh environments due to a transition into an ametabolic state known as anhydrobiosis during drought conditions, as well as its natural ability to tolerate harsh UV conditions. While they have certainly been tested in Earth conditions – growing across the arctic tundra and hot dry deserts alike – this team tested two species of lichen in simulated Mars conditions for five hours.
- The team took Diploschistes muscorum and Cetraria aculeata – species chosen for their diverse traits – and subjected them to a simulation of Mars’s extreme temperature fluctuations, X-ray radiation, pressure, and atmosphere. While C. aculeata turned out to not be as hardy as hoped when it came to radiation, the team ultimately found that D. Muscorum would make a good candidate for a lifeform that could survive on Mars.
- “Our study is the first to demonstrate that the metabolism of the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis remained active while being in an environment resembling the surface of Mars. We found that Diploschistes muscorum was able to carry out metabolic processes and activate defense mechanisms effectively,” lead author of the paper, Kaja Skubała, said in a statement.
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Story: In a first, breakthrough 3D holograms can be touched, grabbed and poked
Source: Live Science Story by Roland Moore-Colyer
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wwKOXxX9Ck
- Holograms that can be physically manipulated have made their way out of science fiction and into real life thanks to a breakthrough in mixed reality technology.
- In a new study uploaded March 6 to the HAL open archive, scientists explored how three-dimensional holograms could be grabbed and poked using elastic materials as a key component of volumetric displays.
- This innovation means 3D graphics can be interacted with — for example, grasping and moving a virtual cube with your hand — without damaging a holographic system. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed, although the scientists demonstrated their findings in a video showcasing the technology.
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Story: Clean Energy Surges to Power 40% of Global Electricity in 2024
Source: The Renewable Energy Institute
Link: https://www.renewableinstitute.org/clean-energy-surges-to-power-40-of-global-electricity-in-2024/
- For the first time since the 1940s, clean energy sources met over 40% of global electricity demand last year, according to new data. A report from energy thinktank Ember attributes this milestone to a rapid expansion in solar power, which has doubled in capacity over the past 3 years and the report also highlights that solar has been the world’s fastest-growing energy source for 20 years in a row.
- Although solar now supplies 7% of global electricity, it is still behind wind at 8%, nuclear at 9% and hydropower, which remains steady at 14%.
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