Telescope #67
SUSTAINABILITY
Cabinet Health just unveiled a pharmaceutical game-changer. Its new offering, Cabinet Health Rx, is a refillable glass bottle system for over 150 commonly prescribed medications. A world's first, the initiative aims to tackle healthcare's plastic waste problem; according to Cabinet Health, the pharmaceutical sector is responsible for generating 194 billion single-use plastic medicine bottles annually, with "an estimated 90%+ landing in our oceans, landfills and eventually our bodies as microplastics."DETAIL
Photo: Trendwatching
HEALTH
A team of researchers has surveyed 1220 people aged between 18 and 35 about their experiences with distraction, scoring their responses on a scale of 1 to 5. This allowed them to create a standardised score that combines different types of distractibility, which they named the “d factor”. There was a strong correlation between a high d factor and more pronounced ADHD symptoms.DETAIL
Smart glasses that play a specific noise when an object comes into their field of view, such as the sound of a page turning to represent a book, enable people who are blind to locate that item. DETAIL
The Food and Drug Administration earlier this week reported a widespread outbreak of salmonella food poisoning that sickened 73 people in 22 states, resulting in 15 hospitalizations. The cases have been linked to tainted bagged diced onions and celery made by the California company Gills Onions. DETAIL
DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE /AI
An artificial intelligence tool similar to ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft, will take its place in Office applications as of November 1. The tool called Microsoft 365 Copilot will be able to summarize meetings held on Teams in case of non-attendance. The new tool will be able to create email drafts and will also be able to prepare new documents, graphics and Powerpoint presentations in seconds. Microsoft says the new tool will reduce “drudgery” work. However, concerns are also expressed about such vehicles replacing employees. DETAIL
The United States, the world's second-largest engine manufacturer, has restricted Nvidia from selling advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under updated export controls. A100, H800 and even RTX 4090 graphics cards are subject to these limitations. US measures to limit exports of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China could create an opportunity for Huawei to expand in the $7 billion domestic market, according to analysts. DETAIL
China-based Unitary Robotics has produced an artificial intelligence-supported, autonomous, "guide dog" equipped with advanced vision and radar systems to help visually impaired individuals.
YouTube Music announced that instead of looking for a playlist cover or uploading your own image, the platform now lets you use generative AI to create custom playlist art right from the YouTube Music app. DETAIL
Tata Group is set to start assembling Apple iPhones in India after Wistron Corp approved the sale of its Indian manufacturing unit to the salt-to-software conglomerate, a minister said on Friday. DETAIL
ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION
Sparc will produce cheap renewable hydrogen using water, sun and mirrors. It does this by concentrating sunlight with mirrors and reflecting it somewhere and separating water into H2 and O2 with the help of catalysts. DETAIL
Japanese company Yamaha, the world's second largest engine manufacturer, introduced its newly developed dual-motor electric bicycle with both front and rear wheel drive. DETAIL
Photo: Donanım Haber
CYBERSECURITY
A powerful piece of malware has been disguising itself as a trivial cryptocurrency miner to help it evade detection for more than five years, according to antivirus provider Kaspersky. DETAIL
HUMAN
At machine parts producer S&D Blech, the head of the grinding unit is retiring. With Germany's acute labour shortage leaving few candidates to take on the skilled but dirty and hazardous manual work, the company will replace him with a robot. Other small and medium-sized companies are also turning to automation as the gradual exit from the workplace of Germany's post-war "baby boom" generation tightens the labour squeeze. DETAIL
The internet is divided over a Gen Z woman's complaint about working 9 to 5: "I don't have time to do anything." DETAIL