Daily Tech News

Harvard engineers have come up with a robot octopus that is made entirely of soft materials, is autonomous, and requires no tether to operate. The Octobot combines 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics to create what could be the first in a new generation of soft, autonomous machines. If you're going to make a  soft robot , you could do worse than choose an octopus as inspiration. The most intelligent of the molluscs and one of the most advanced invertebrates, its dexterity and ability to manipulate are all combined with a body completely without hard parts save for its beak, which robots don't need. This makes it an ideal model for soft robots that strive to go beyond  mechanical worms , but there's more to making a soft robot than choosing an animal to mimic. The current generation of soft robots are limited in that they aren't entirely soft. Many of them include hard components, such as  heating wires , batteries, and circuit boards for c

China  has started  a test with a possibly revolutionary straddling bus, also known as  the Transit Elevated Bus. The basic idea is that the vehicle straddles multiple lanes of traffic, moving over cars without any worries about traffic jams or other delays. The test track is 300 meters long, from a factory building to an elevated station. The track is located in the great beach town of Beidaihe , Qinhuangdao City, in Hebei Province. The fully electric test vehicle is called TEB-1, 巴铁1号 in Chinese, best translated as ‘Rail Bus Number 1’. It measures 22 meters long, 7.8 meters wide, and 4.8 meters high. The passenger deck has space for 300 people; 245 standing and 55 seated. The height of the ‘tunnel’ under the bus is two meters, and it straddles two lanes. There are traffic lights on each side. The eventual production vehicles will be much bigger, able to straddle four lanes and to carry 1200 passengers. The test vehicle is piloted but the real thing will be autonomous. The T

Small Intro About Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne. It is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with the past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is one play presented in two Parts, which are intended to be seen in order on the same day (matinee and evening) or on two consecutive evenings. Vide