“In a break from tradition, Kawasaki, a Japanese motorcycle maker, has announced plans to build a new breed of off-road machine shaped like a robotic horse. Corleo, as the machine is called, has a body like a headless steed, complete with four multi-jointed legs powered by electric motors. A pair of handlebars serves as reins and adjustable leg supports, of the kind found on motorbikes, pass for stirrups. Corleo will also not require a farrier: instead of being shod with steel horseshoes, its hooves are clad in rubber. This will help it absorb shocks and improve its grip.
Like a real horse, the rider will control it by moving their hands, arms and legs as well as by shifting their weight about. These movements, which can be very subtle in real equestrians, are detected by a combination of sensors, with the data passed on to an artificial-intelligence system that instructs the motors to respond accordingly and to maintain the robot’s balance. Once development is completed, Corleo could carry two people and be able to break into a swift canter.”
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- US launches solid fuel rocket ramjet from drone in first-ever test
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- Europe pledges €500M to attract global science talent
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- The future of manufacturing might be in space
- FAA green-lights Starship launches every other week from Starbase
- How to build strong magnets without rare-earth metals
- Silicon Valley is coming for the Pentagon’s $1T budget
- Pentagon’s hypersonic milestone: Stratolaunch reusable vehicle breaks Mach 5
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Scientists at the University of Bayreuth have used CRISPR-Cas9 for the first time to genetically edit spiders, enabling them to produce red fluorescent silk. By injecting spider eggs with a gene sequence for a fluorescent protein, researchers achieved a successful knock-in of the gene into silk proteins. This breakthrough paves the way for developing spider silk with new, customizable properties for materials science applications. (via Phys.org)
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- Haya banks $65M to scour the ‘dark genome’ for new drugs
- Brian Armstrong’s human life extension venture NewLimit raises $130M Series B
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