A team of scientists has repurposed living cells — scraped from frog embryos — and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide “xenobots” can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient) — and heal themselves after being cut. “These are novel living machines,” says Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. “They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artifact: a living, programmable…
Author: Tebogo Nkabinde
The City of Cape Town has announced plans to secure an independent power producer officer to secure renewable energy. This follows after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during the SONA address that municipalities are more than welcome to procure their own power form IPPs. Executive director for energy at the City of Cape Town, Kadri Nassiep says the City has engaged national treasury with a view to setting up its own independent power producer (IPP) office along the lines of the renewable energy independent power producer programme (REIPPP). He says “we have also engaged CSIR to prepare our mini-IRP that will…
President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the pulpit yesterday to deliver his much anticipated SONA speech. Although it was met by plenty of disturbances from opposing parties, he sure made quite a few key points that citizens should look into. This is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s full State of the Nation Address delivered at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020. Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Thandi Modise, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Amos Masondo, Deputy President David Mabuza, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and esteemed members of the judiciary, Former President Thabo Mbeki and Mrs Mbeki, Former President Kgalema…
As part of Eskom’s financial relief plan, the entity is offering managers in its non-core operations and employees over the age of 60 voluntary retrenchment packages. The power utility has secured R400m ($26.8m) to implement the process and is expected to be implemented between March and April this year. The utility is adamant there will be no forced retrenchments. “This process is being run in order to get to a point where Eskom can be an efficiently run company. The management has identified opportunities and savings that could be had in the top structure of the organisation. There will be no forced…
Japanese appliances giant, Panasonic has just raised the bar high for its competitors by announcing plans to launch internet-connected home appliances in India this year. Good news is that the Japanese firm is not going to charge a premium for this tech advance in an aggressive bid to corner market share, unlike the industry practice where such products are sold at the highest price. Convenience, is what you’ll be basically paying for since all your smart door bells, plugs and switches (etc) will be at the tip of your fingers. This will be followed by side-by-side refrigerators, front-loading washing machines,…
News of the coronavirus outbreak not only affects the health departments but also the tech industry and its market as well. Since the outbreak, Foxconn factories, which make Apple’s iPhone and AirPods, are reportedly extending their closure. The closure will be a “shock to the system” and “disrupt the supply chain further” for Apple’s best-selling products, analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities wrote in a note. Ives guesses that every week Foxconn shuts down its remote factories, it could shave roughly 1 million iPhones off Apple’s sales. That amounts to the production of 40 million iPhones this quarter, roughly 3…
Embattled power utility, Eskom, has announced in a statement that there will be no power outages/load shedding for today. While the system remains vulnerable, several units have successfully returned, and emergency reserves have been replenished. We may may be celebrating this relief but Load shedding is far from over. Eskom has said it is still monitoring the situation and will implement Load shedding if necessary. Our power grid is fragile and constantly at risk and this will only be alleviated once all pre-existing plants have undergone comprehensive maintenance and new plants have been completed. The power utility explained that while…
