Netizen

Don't Push Me, I Am On The Edge

Agricultural Drones Relatively cheap drones with advanced sensors and imaging capabilities are giving farmers new ways to increase yields and reduce crop damage.
Ultraprivate Smartphones New models built with security and privacy in mind reflect the Zeitgeist of the Snowden era.
Brain Mapping A new map, a decade in the works, shows structures of the brain in far greater detail than ever before, providing neuroscientists with a guide to its immense complexity.
Neuromorphic Chips Microprocessors configured more like brains than traditional chips could soon make computers far more astute about what’s going on around them.
Genome Editing The ability to create primates with intentional mutations could provide powerful new ways to study complex and genetically baffling brain disorders.
Microscale 3-D Printing Inks made from different types of materials, precisely applied, are greatly expanding the kinds of things that can be printed.
Mobile Collaboration The smartphone era is finally getting the productivity software it needs.
Oculus Rift Thirty years after virtual-reality goggles and immersive virtual worlds made their debut, the technology finally seems poised for widespread use.
Agile Robots Computer scientists have created machines that have the balance and agility to walk and run across rough and uneven terrain, making them far more useful in navigating human environments.
Smart Wind and Solar Power Big data and artificial intelligence are producing ultra-accurate forecasts that will make it feasible to integrate much more renewable energy into the grid.

Robotic Farming

This robot blends in. It looks like a small tractor.

A Nimble-Wheeled Farm Robot Goes to Work in Minnesota

Corn is planted on 100 million acres in the United States, and nitrogen fertilizer runoff is a major pollution problem. .... GPS-guided tractors routinely apply seed and fertilizer across large areas, and new airborne drones are providing farmers with high-resolution sensing ability ..... the ability to apply fertilizer at precise times and locations is “very critical.” ..... The next step is to deploy multiple Rowbots on industrial-scale farms, and to add more sensing capacity to the machines. The company is also testing using them for planting seed on cornfields for fall crops, called cover crops, while the mature corn is still standing.

Agricultural Drones

the vanguard of farmers who are using what was once military aviation technology to grow better grapes using pictures from the air, part of a broader trend of using sensors and robotics to bring big data to precision agriculture.

Sapphire Screens

I believe that 11% figure. It is probably an underestimate. A phone case is also a solution, the one I use.

Sapphire Screens Would Test Apple’s Manufacturing and Design Skills

According to one estimate, 11 percent of all iPhones have cracked screens. ..... virtually unscratchable, unbreakable screens could make for a compelling marketing campaign. .... The company’s decision to invest about $700 million in an industrial sapphire plant in Arizona starting last year has added considerable weight to the theory. ..... Sapphire is already used in small amounts to make scratch-resistant screens for luxury watches, and Apple uses small pieces of sapphire to protect the camera and the home button on the iPhone 5S. .... sapphire’s high cost has limited its applications; although new ways of growing sapphire crystals have made it cheaper to produce in recent years, it’s still roughly five times more expensive than toughened glass. ..... second only to diamond on a standard scale of hardness ..... Some types of cutting and polishing can introduce defects into the material that make it easier to break than glass.