While the quest for pulling more megawatts from wind turbines has generally led to bigger and bigger rotors on turbines of conventional design – like this monster 22-MW number in China – Norway’s Wind Catching Systems (WCS) has taken a different path. It claims its mega-array of smaller rotors arranged in a grid would achieve up to 126 MW, or five times the energy of a 15-MW single-rotor tur...

There is a world of college majors to choose from in topics that range from broad to obscure. Over the years, there have been many trends and changes in the higher education industry. STEM is on the rise, liberal arts struggles, then surges again.The team at Student Choice gave us an illustrated look at these changes with a range of graphs showing us the popularity of majors between 2016 and 20...

The Dynamic Drives Intelectra: Part electric quad-cycle, part pickup truck, and part heavy duty go-cart.Looking like a cross between a pedaled dump truck and a modern day motor carriage, the new Intelectra from German startup Dynamic Drives Giessen is a seriously muscular cargo mover for cities.Its pickup truck-like bed swallows up to half a dozen Eurocrates and carries just under 1,000 lb (454...

Topgolf — the driving range chain where families, friends, and colleagues can whack a few balls onto greens littered with interactive targets — isn’t getting the footfall it used to, leading parent co. Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp. to explore a potential spinoff.Golf ball, bag, and club-making giant Callaway acquired Topgolf in a 2021 deal that valued the make-golf-fun-again brand at more th...

The audacious architecture will come with some serious challenges.Saudi Arabia is embarking on a new project that defies belief. In addition to the 10,200-square-mile urban development, Neom, the country now has to finish 11 new soccer stadiums, expand four more, and build 132 training venues for 48 national teams before the World Cup kicks off in 2034. To call it a big job is an understatement...

Retailers continue to experiment with generative AI and are seeing that the technology holds great promise for reigniting growth—if they move quickly to seize the opportunity.Once generative AI (gen AI) hit the mainstream, in late 2022, it took little time for retail executives to realize the potential in front of them. Mentions of artificial intelligence (AI) in retailers’ earnings calls soa...

The company filed a patent application for “voice input for AR wearable devices,” referring to its smart glasses. Snap’s tech aims to give its users more control over their augmented reality interfaces. “Often, the wearable devices have very little room for interface controls on the wearable devices,” Snap said in the filing. By using voice control, this tech allows users to “operate [the...

Skild’s foundation model is intended to serve as a shared, general-purpose brain for tasks including manipulation, locomotion, and navigation. A new wave of startups is emerging to apply recent artificial intelligence advances into more sophisticated robot behavior. Yesterday, Skild AI emerged from stealth mode and announced that it has closed a $300 million Series A round. The Pittsburgh-base...

While athletes compete in the Paris Olympics for gold medals and records, one title is still far from being taken: the most victorious Olympic athlete of all time.With 28 medals, American swimmer Michael Phelps is considered the GOAT. But who else joins the list, and which of those athletes are still active?In this graphic, we show the top nine athletes by the total number of Olympic medals won...