The ‘Doomsday Vault’ preserving agricultural biodiversity
This Norwegian vault holds nearly one million preserved seeds from all across the world, just in case they’re needed in the future. When I first played Bethesda’s Fallout video game series, in which you are thrown into a giant vault underground and then eventually released hundreds of years later,...
Current in Tech
Can gaming become an arm of educational discovery?
In conjunction with ever improving tech, Ubisoft continues to bring historical periods to life with unerring accuracy in its games. But has its latest development opened a door to educational discovery that we never knew was there? As gaming technologies become more intricate and advanced, so too do the digital...
Robot baristas help customers social distance in South Korea
South Korea is showing the rest of the world how to social distance in style. The lengths people go to for coffee... You know that awkward moment when you’re approached by a needy waiter at a local café and have to reassure them that your order is ‘delicious’ through a mouthful of...
Is the quantum computing in ‘Devs’ really possible?
We take a peek at the physics behind Alex Garland’s new sci-fi offering Devs. Will quantum computers be able to tell us the future? Alex Garland’s newest foray into sci-fi, the Hulu show Devs, is one of the most innovate programs to be screened on prime-time Television for a...
The app on a mission to change shopping for good
A new artificial intelligence-powered app called The Yes is set to drastically change the way consumers shop by building a virtual store around the individual needs of each user. Yesterday, after a year of teasing the launch of their new startup, e-commerce veteran Julie Bornstein and her technical co-founder, Amit...
AR lenses to cure the visually impaired?
These days most of us wake up to the sight of a smartphone screen, so why not cut out the middle man completely? Thanks to the likes of Elon Musk and Drew Perkins, I can scarcely remember a time where nutty human tech projects weren’t ‘close’ to commercialisation. Nowadays, stories...
Online dating during lockdown- can love thrive while we’re apart?
Lockdown has accelerated the transition of online dating apps to purely online hangout spaces. Should this trend continue beyond quarantine? If modern communication falls broadly into two categories – the online and the offline – then where do we place online dating? Pre-COVID, it occupied some strange liminal place between the two, with the majority of conversations never traversing the digital despite the fact that this was, for most people,...
Could AI become a music artist?
AI’s place in the music industry is becoming a copyright minefield. AI can create music, but does this make AI an artist? Do AI algorithms create their own work, or are the humans behind these algorithms the real ‘artists’? If an algorithm is fed music by a certain artist, does it then owe that artist royalties, or can it be considered an independent creative body? These are some of the questions...
Indie developers can now use Unreal Engine for free
Yesterday’s demo of the Unreal Engine 5 was certainly something wasn’t it? And small indie devs will get a taste of the new cutting-edge technology for free. Consider yourself an avid gamer? the chances are you’ve already played several titles developed using one of the constantly improving iterations of the Unreal Engine. Whether we’re talking Mass Effect, Bioshock, Borderlands, Mortal Kombat, or owners Epic Games’ in-house projects Fortnite and Gears of War, a hefty chunk of the most popular franchises...
Adidas makes 3D-printed footwear a reality
The sneaker giant has introduced AI technology and 3D printing to its manufacturing process in order to cope with plunging sales during the Coronavirus pandemic. In all industries, technology is revolutionising how businesses operate. Drastically evolving to adapt to the new landscape, footwear giants have begun introducing tech to their manufacturing processes, acknowledging that it not only saves time and cost, but is also highly beneficial for the environment. During...
