This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through January 22) – Singularity Hub

ROBOTICS

Now You Can Rent a Robotic Workerfor Less Than Paying a HumanWill Knight | WiredLast year, to meet rising demand amid a shortage of workers, Polar hired its firstrobot employee. The robot arm performs a simple, repetitive job: lifting a piece of metal into a press, which then bends the metal into a new shape. And like a person, the robot worker gets paid for the hours it works. Jose Figueroa, who manages Polars production line, says the robot, which is leased from a company calledFormic, costs the equivalent of $8 per hour, compared with a minimum wage of $15 per hour for a human employee.

Going Bald? Lab-Grown Hair Cells Could Be On the WayAntonio Regalado | MIT Technology ReviewWere born with all the hair follicles well ever havebut aging, cancer, testosterone, bad genetic luck, even covid-19 can kill the stem cells inside them that make hair. Once these stem cells are gone, so is your hair. [Ernesto] Lujan says his company can convert any cell directly into a hair stem cell by changing the patterns of genes active in it.

Autonomous Battery-Powered Rail Cars Could Steal Shipments From TruckersTim de Chant | Ars TechnicaParallel Systems isnt just taking an existing freight train andswapping its diesel-electric locomotive for a battery version. Instead, its taking the traction motors and distributing them to every car on the train. Its how many electric passenger trains operate, but its a system that has been slow to migrate to the freight world. Parallel Systems is going a step further, though. Each of its rail vehicles consists of a battery pack, electric motors, four wheels, and a package of sensors that allow it to operate autonomously.

A $3 Billion Bet on Finding the Fountain of YouthStaff | The EconomistThough preparations for the launch of what must surely be a candidate for the title of Best financed startup in history have been rumoured for months, the firm formally announced itself, and its modus operandi, on January 19th. And, even at $3bn, its proposed product might be thought cheap at the price. For the alchemy its founders, Rick Klausner, Hans Bishop and Yuri Milner, hope one day to offer the world is an elixir of life.

Intel Selects Ohio for Largest Silicon Manufacturing Location on the PlanetJon Porter | The VergeAfter helping to establish Silicon Valley, Gelsinger said the new site could become the Silicon Heartland. Intel plans to invest up to $100 billion in the site over the next decade, as well as around $100 million in partnership with Ohio universities, colleges, and the US National Science Foundation to foster new talent.

Machine to Melt Moon Rocks and Derive Metals May Launch in 2024Eric Berger | Ars Technicaa Houston-based company says there is value in the gray, dusty regolith spread across the entire lunar surface. The firm, Lunar Resources, is developing technology to extract iron, aluminum, magnesium, and silicon from the Moons regolith. These materials, in turn, would be used to manufacture goods on the Moon.

Its All Just Wild: Tech Startups Reach a New Peak FrothErin Griffith | The New York TimesHow crazy is the money sloshing around in start-up land right now? Its so crazy thatmore than 900 tech start-upsare each worth more than $1 billion. In 2015, 80seemed like a lot. Investors and founders have adopted a seize-the-day mentality, believing the pandemic created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shake things up. The basic fabric of the world is up for grabs, [entrepreneur Phil Libin] said, calling this time the changiest the world has ever been.i

What Happens If a Space Elevator BreaksRhett Alain | WiredIn the first episode ofFoundation, some people decide to set off explosives that separate the space elevators top station from the rest of the cable. The cable falls to the surface of the planet and does some real damage down there. What would a falling space elevator cable look like in real life? Its not that simple to model, but we can make a rough guess.

Image Credit:Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash

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This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through January 22) - Singularity Hub