Technology Tuesday:November 1
Welcome to Technology Tuesday! Every week The Job Shop Blog will bring you our 5 top science and technology news stories from around the web.
This week: Room wide wireless energy, solar roofs, government investment in self-driving cars, gene therapy treatments for cancer, and Scotland is set to be 100% zero-carbon by 2020.
Turning Your Living Room Into A Wireless Charging Station
The flat-screen TV on your living room wall could soon be remotely charging any device within its line of sight. Well, not your actual TV, but a device that is similar in size and shape.
In a paper posted October 23, 2016 on the arXiv pre-print repository, engineers at Duke University, the University of Washington and Intellectual Ventures’ Invention Science Fund (ISF) show that the technology already exists to build such a system –it’s only a matter of taking the time to design it.
Elon Musk Unveils Solar Roofs
Elon Musk as finally unveiled his new solar roofing styles surrounded by houses roofed by the technology along with a 14 kWh second generation Powerwall.
The tiles are not meant to retrofit existing homes, but to be used in the construction of new ones. The cost of the materials is said to be less than the cost of traditional materials, plus electricity.
READ MORE
Governments Are Investing In Self Driving Cars Because They Will Save Lives
The discussion surrounding automated vehicles persists, as companies, lawyers, and regulatory agencies wrestle with tough questions about society’s future alongside vehicles that drive themselves.
As we’ve reported over the past year, the federal government has emerged as a key member of this discussion. Just this year, Washington upped the ante: the Department of Transportation released their long-awaited set of guidelines for AVs , outlining safety expectations and encouraging uniformity in design. However, as many journalists and policy wonks have suggested, the regulations are meant to convey to automakers that “the door [is] wide open for driverless cars.” One day before, President Obama published an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explaining his administration’s continued support for AVs
Changing The Properties of DNA Helps Fight Cancer
Promising data has revealed a new treatment for breast cancer and leukemia. It works by attacking cancer cells’ ability to repair pathways (specifically, damaged pathways) in their DNA.
The team reports that a combination of an experimental, not-yet-approved drug and an epigenetic drug (called alazoparib and 5-azacytidine, respectively) resulted in a strong antitumor response.
READ MORE
Scotland Plans to go Carbon-Zero by 2020
A world run completely on renewable energy—it sounds to be an impossible feat, but in a some places around the world, people have stopped burning fossil fuels for electricity. Another country is about to join the club: Scotland.
Scotland’s lush green countryside is home to a steady soldiery of spinning white turbines. These windmills help the country’s other renewables account for over half of the electricity production.
Know any interesting stories we missed? Let us know in the comments!