Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unveiled an ambitious space programme for the country over the next decade, which includes developing satellite systems and sending a Turkish astronaut on a space mission. The programme is ambitious in its timescale, with Erdogan aiming to establish “first contact with the Moon” in 2023 (‘The Moon Programme’), marking … Read more
A café run by robots has opened to customers in one of Dubai’s most popular tourist destinations – ideal in a time where social distancing is still prevalent. It is located in Dubai Festival City, a large residential, business, and entertainment development. Customers can place their orders with German-made robots, who then prepare and deliver the … Read more
A compact 3D lidar imaging system has been developed that its creators say can match the performance and accuracy of most advanced, mechanical systems currently used. Lidar (light and radar) uses the precision of lasers to sense an environment by emitting them into the nearby environment and measuring the time taken for them to be … Read more
Facebook has said it will direct users on where and how to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as it also announces a ban on misleading information about vaccines in general. The social network claims it has connected over two billion people from 189 countries to information about the disease through its ‘Covid-19 Information Center’ [sic]. Starting … Read more
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is to stage a production inspired by the faerie realm of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will allow audiences to remotely interact with characters. The Midsummer Night’s Dream-inspired performance, ‘Dream’, had originally been scheduled to be staged as a more conventional live performance in spring. However, with most large theatres … Read more
A quantum sensor has been developed that can analyse the full spectrum of radio frequencies, which could enable new options for military communication. Researchers for the US army built the quantum sensor, which can sample from zero frequency up to 20GHz, detecting AM and FM radio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other communication signals along the way. … Read more
The UAE’s Hope probe is expected to reach Mars tomorrow, just hours before China’s orbiter-rover combo and a week ahead of Nasa’s probe. The Hope Probe, which was launched from Japan last year, will orbit Mars for more than two years and beam back data about the Martian atmosphere. It will observe the Martian atmosphere from an … Read more
Experts at the United Nations have accused North Korea of modernising its nuclear weapons by flouting UN sanctions, using cyberattacks to help finance its programmes, and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal. The panel of experts monitoring sanctions on the north-east Asian nation say in a report sent to UN Security … Read more
Researchers in the US have developed a low-cost method for soft, deformable robots to detect physical interactions, from pats to punches to hugs, without relying on touch. The method, devised by a team at Cornell University in New York, uses a USB camera located inside the robot that “captures” the shadow movements of hand gestures on … Read more
A new way to create ‘food inks’ from fresh and frozen vegetables that enables 3D-printed food has been developed by Singapore researchers. The research team claims their method preserves the nutrition and flavour better than existing methods. Food inks are usually made from pureed foods in liquid or semi-solid form, then 3D-printed by extrusion from … Read more