Photovoltaic technology, most commonly seen as the bulky solar panels used on solar farms, is expected to become a dominant energy source by 2050. But these panels are often installed on land that might otherwise be used to grow crops for feeding a burgeoning population. Agrivoltaics aims to solve this problem by planting crops around…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Balloons have always been made from natural latex, a material derived from rubber tree sap. Natural latex is biodegradable. The rubber tree has been producing it since before the first balloon was invented in 1824. On its own, it breaks down. The problem is what manufacturers do to it…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most to-do lists have two kinds of items on them: the real work you’re managing, and the small things that keep getting moved to tomorrow. Reply to that email. File that paper. RSVP to that thing. None of them take long, yet none of them seem to get done….
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For 16 weeks, an AI-generated variation of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” sat in Australia’s top 20 singles chart. At its peak, it hit number two. Listeners streamed it, and the chart counted it. And then the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) decided that probably shouldn’t keep happening. Starting today,…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM September is a transition month for the sky. The Milky Way‘s core is still visible in the Northern Hemisphere, but not for much longer. The nights are getting longer, Venus is at its most radiant all year, the Harvest Moon is coming, and the autumn equinox opens aurora season….
Skild AI said S1 enables in-context learning for robotics. | Source: Skild AI Skild AI recently unveiled S1, the company’s flagship robot foundation model. Since it was founded in 2023, the company has raised nearly $1.7 billion in funding to create a general-purpose robot brain. With S1, robots can learn new, complex tasks from watching…
Drones often hover in the air, noisy and whining. They can already be used for many tasks, but not when you need some quiet. Their batteries would also last longer if they could take a “rest” from time to time. But when a drone is monitoring a rainforest, its cluttered surroundings and its own gripper…
Models can generate actions, but hardware must execute those actions. | Credit: OnRoot Physical AI promises robots that can perceive, act and adapt in the real world with far less task-specific engineering than traditional automation. It’s a compelling proposition: robots powered by AI models trained on vast amounts of data, capable of improving over time…
Reframe Systems combines robotics, Pixels to Parts software, and a network of microfactories to build homes. | Source: Reframe Systems Reframe Systems, a robotics company using physical AI to industrialize home construction, today announced said it has raised $40 million. The company said the funding will help it scale its microfactory network across North America….
A new electrochemical process can rapidly strip dissolved carbon dioxide from ocean water while self-cleaning its own mineral buildup, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study published in Environmental Science & Technology. Because one step produces energy while another consumes it, the method could also help flex the load on the grid.
