Superantibiotic 25,000 times more potent than its predecessor. Vancomycin 3.0. has a unique three-pronged approach to killing bacteria that could give doctors a powerful new weapon against drug-resistant bacteria and help researchers engineer more durable antibiotics.
First plant captures carbon dioxide from air. The world's first commercial plant for capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air opened this week near Zurich, refueling a debate about whether the technology can truly play a significant role in removing greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
The most powerful commercial broadband satellite to bring more Wi-Fi to airplanes. ViaSat-2, which is to be stationed above the Americas, has a total throughput capacity of about 300 gigabits per second.
Easy 3D robot printing. A new interactive design tool enables both novices and experts to build customized legged or wheeled robots using 3D-printed components and off-the-shelf actuators. Using a familiar drag-and-drop interface, individuals can choose from a library of components and place them into the design. The tool suggests components that are compatible with each other, offers potential placements of actuators and can automatically generate structural components to connect those actuators. Once the design is complete, the tool provides a physical simulation environment to test the robot before fabricating it, enabling users to iteratively adjust the design to achieve a desired look or motion.
A cyber-dragonfly blends nature and robotics. The DragonflEye, a genetically modified dragonfly, carries a small backpack of electronics that interfaces directly with the dragonfly’s nervous system to control it and uses tiny solar panels to harvest enough energy to power itself without the need for batteries. It uses optical electrodes to inject steering commands directly into the insect’s nervous system, which has been genetically tweaked to accept them.
