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70-storey wooden skyscraper planned for TokyoThis project is intended to mark the company’s 350th anniversary, which it reaches in 2041. The enormous building is expected to cost 600bn yen (£4bn) – approximately double the cost of a conventional skyscraper – although costs could fall in the coming years thanks to technological advances. Wood is considered […]

Classic Project: Pinhole cameraAlthough capturing images on light-sensitive media has only been around since the 1820s, the optical ‘camera obscura’ effect has been known since the Ancient Greeks, when Aristotle and Euclid wrote on naturally-occurring rudimentary pinhole effects, such as light travelling through leaves in trees creating unusual effects. The earliest description of this kind […]

Simulated Mars mission comes to an end in Israeli desertDuring the mission, the four men and two women lived in a small pod, eating encapsulated food and wearing spacesuits whenever leaving the pod to conduct experiments in their Mars-like surroundings. They tested the design of the habitat, spacesuits, and communication infrastructure and workflows with the […]

UK manufacturers’ leading role in automation ‘revolution’ will be boosted by Brexit, says Liam FoxStaunchly Euro-sceptic MP Liam Fox – one of the leading figures in the Brexit ‘leave’ campaign – has said that British manufacturers will benefit greatly when the UK leaves the European Union, due to their technological prowess. Speaking at the EEF’s […]

Robots from CES 2018: smart, funny, adorable and usefulMayfield Robotics’ companion robot Kuri is now shipping to her first owners. She will patrol the home, act as a videographer for your life and entertain the children, amongst her other charms. The Motoroid concept motorcyle from the Yamaha Future Garage experimental lab is designed to fuse […]

Interview: Peter Jones, technology strategy manager, ABB“What we’re looking at is the idea of ‘distributed energy resource’,” says ABB’s Peter Jones. He explains the term has been coined to accommodate the fact that there are contributing factors beyond renewables that go into today’s power generation, transmission and distribution mix. “If photovoltaics (PV) or onshore wind […]

StatusToday scores nearly $4M to grow its AI-powered ’employee insights’ service StatusToday, a London startup that is building out AI tech that it claims can help companies better understand their employees and in turn improve productivity, is disclosing $3.91 million in seed investment. The round is led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Notion Capital and Firstminute […]