Graphene kirigami could lead to flexible, nanoscale machines

Graphene’s looking more and more like an all-around wonder material that can be used to make armor tougher than kevlar, thin light bulbs, long-lasting batteries and even high-tech tattoos. Now, a team of Cornell physicists have discovered that they can make kirigami out of 10-micron sheets (a hair strand’s 70-micron-thick, for comparison) of graphene, as well. Kirigami is the art of cutting out designs on a single piece of paper like in the image above. The ones made by the Cornell team are much, much smaller — they’re quite literally nanoscale versions of what you see above — but since they’re made of the wondrous one-atom-thick material, they’re also incredibly strong.

During the researchers’ testing, they found that their microscopic kirigamis remain perfect and elastic even after being stretched open and closed (the researchers attached gold-tab handles to them so they can manipulate the shapes) 10,000 times. Here’s how the study’s first author, Melina Blees, describes the experience of watching them get stretched:

It’s one thing to read about how strong graphene is; it’s another thing entirely to crumple it up and watch it recover, or to stretch a spring dramatically without tearing the materials.

The team believes its creations could serve as flexible, nanoscale transistors and machines for medical purposes and experiments, among other things. One of the project’s lead researchers, Paul McEuen, says they “could be placed around human cells or in the brain for sensing.”

[Image credit: Joe Wilensky/Cornell Chronicle]

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Source: Cornell University, Nature

Tesco’s self-service checkouts are getting a lot less irritating

You don’t step up to a self-service supermarket checkout unless you’re ready to gamble. Either you hit the jackpot and escape in record time, or you end up wildly hailing the nearest assistant while the infernal machine’s repetitive accusations slowly chip away at your sanity. While Tesco can’t make its automated checkouts any better at weighing up your loose veg, it can train them to be less annoying. So, for the first time since Tesco introduced self-service checkouts over a decade ago, it’s changing their voice alerts, which the supermarket admits “has become a source of frustration for customers.” Most importantly, you’ll never have to listen to chants of “unexpected item in bagging area” ever again, as well as six other “unhelpful phrases” like “please take your items.”

According to Tesco customers, the original voice was “shouty,” “irritating” and put them under unnecessary pressure to finish up and get moving. Based on this feedback, Tesco is rolling out a new male voice that badgers you with “softer phrases” and is allegedly friendlier — it’ll thank you for your business as you leave, for example, rather than pointing you towards your change, your shopping, and the door. The new voice is already relieving stress in a few Tesco stores, like those in Hatfield, Peterborough, Edinburgh and Kensington, and it’ll be on every automated checkout by the end of October. In the meantime, you can get familiar with your new friend in the clip below.

Filed under: Misc, Household

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Source: Tesco

CA offers $75,000 to catch firefighter-interrupting drone pilots

Officials in California’s San Bernardino County are tired of drones grounding their airborne firefighting efforts, that’s why they’ve decided to take action. They’re now offering a total of $75,000 in rewards to catch the pilots who flew their UAVs over three different forest fires — they’re allotting $25,000 in rewards for each one — that took place these past months. During the latest one, which happened this mid-July, aerial firefighters reportedly came across five hobby drones flying over the affected areas that ultimately forced them to land. The 20-minute delay those drones caused was apparently enough for the flames to spread to the Interstate 15 freeway, burning cars in the process.

Officials plan to set up a hotline, and they’re hoping the money’s enough to entice people to call and speak up about what they know. UAVs are considered a hazard for planes and choppers, that’s why aerial firefighters can’t do their jobs while they’re flying around. Authorities aren’t allowed to shoot them down either, though a new bill submitted by California lawmakers wants to give first responders the right to disable drones that hamper their efforts.

.@sheriffmcmahon on the severities, dangers & penalties of flying drones in and around fire zones. pic.twitter.com/eh1dj4Okw1

– SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff) July 29, 2015

[Image credit: Official U.S. Air Force/Flickr]

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: LA Times

Google walks us through Android M’s promising Auto Backup for Apps feature

Android M is bringing a selection of new features and changes to our mobile OS of choice later this  year. One of the less instantly noticeable, yet perhaps most useful additions is the new automatic app data backup feature, which Google has recently been talking about in greater detail.

The idea is simple, backup and retain all of your app data automatically, so that you can restore all of your old details and settings, should you need to perform a factory reset or when you move over to a new device. Custom ROM enthusiasts are probably used to performing this type of thing manually, but having an automatic system baked into the OS is going to be far more convenient.

The “Auto Backup for Apps” feature, as Google calls it, has been introduced with the latest version of the Android M Developer preview. App developers can automatically begin using the system by rebuilding their app with version 23 of the SDK. There is also an opt out feature for developers to use, to prevent storing things like sensitive user data off device.

Apps are limited to 25MB of backup data and are synced to a user’s Google Account. The data is stored with a user’s Google Drive account, but doesn’t eat into their available storage. Interestingly, side-loaded apps and even apps installed from third party stores can also make use of the backup service, as it is not tied in directly with Google Play.

Developers and enthusiasts keen to learn more about the way the feature works should check out the video below. There are also further details and coding examples available over at the Android Developer Blog.

Virgin Media’s superfast broadband network heads to Leeds

After breaking ground in its first UK city last month, Virgin Media has chosen its the next location for its £3 billion broadband expansion: Leeds. The company confirmed today that it’s investing £40 million to deliver superfast broadband, TV and landline services to 80,000 homes and businesses in and around the city. Virgin Media says that people living in Middleton (around 11,000 homes) will be the first to receive 152Mbps broadband, but will then prioritise its rollout based on demand for its services.

Once work in Manchester and Leeds is completed, Virgin Media can connect almost a quarter of a million new customers to its network. Through Openreach, BT already covers 80 percent of the UK with fibre connections, so the cable provider definitely has its work cut out. That said, with help from parent company Liberty Global, “Project Lightning” will boost its reach by around a third and bring its services to four million more British homes and businesses by 2020.

Filed under: Household, Internet

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