Energy & green technology biweekly vol.24, 6th May — 20th May TL;DR Based on similar technology to night-vision goggles, researchers have developed a device that can generate electricity from thermal radiation. Solar panel fabrication often involves toxic materials such as cadmium and industrial waste. In a new study, researchers have now…

Biweekly update on the Polkadot ecosystem vol. 37, 5th May — 19th May TL;DR With the passing of Referendum 60 and upgrading of relay chain to runtime v9190, parachain messaging is enabled and HRMP channels can be created. The Polkadot Staking Update for April is out. This edition introduces nomination pools…

Nanotechnology & nanomaterials biweekly vol.24, 4th May — 18th May TL;DR Microrobots have the potential to revolutionize medicine. Researchers at the Max Planck ETH Centre for Learning Systems have now developed an imaging technique that for the first time recognizes cell-sized microrobots individually and at high resolution in a living organism. …

Genetics biweekly vol.28, 4th May — 18th May TL;DR Researchers have developed a CRISPR-Cas9 approach to enable gene editing in cockroaches. The simple and efficient technique, named ‘direct parental’ CRISPR (DIPA-CRISPR), involves the injection of materials into female adults where eggs are developing rather than into the embryos themselves. Researchers have…

Robotics biweekly vol.50, 3d May — 17th May TL;DR A robot ‘chef’ has been trained to taste food at different stages of the chewing process to assess whether it’s sufficiently seasoned. Researchers have developed a single-material, single-stimuli microstructure that can outmaneuver even living cilia. These programmable, micron-scale structures could be used…

Vol. 94, 2d May — 16th May TL;DR New Fed Report repeats warning about stablecoin run risks as UST loses peg UST meltdown hasn’t spurred US Financial Stability Council meeting. US Treasury Secretary reaffirms need for stablecoin regulation following UST crash FASB to review accounting rules for digital assets held on…

Biweekly report on decentralized autonomous organizations vol.25, 30th April — 14th May TL;DR Index Coop implements dynamic quorum for metagovernance Uniswap to expand beyond the Ethereum ecosystem to Moonbeam, a Polkadot parachain. New research shows that Uniswap v3 has deeper liquidity than leading centralized exchanges The Aave snapshot vote to add…

Biweekly update vol.23, 29th April — 13th May TL;DR Welcome back to Humanode biweekly! Can you believe we’re nearing the middle of May already? A lot has happened over these two weeks. Let’s have a short overview of the news! The Humanode team has just officially announced the details of the…

A monthly update on Layer 2 protocols, 20th April — 12th May TL;DR On April 6th, 2022 The Arbitrum Nitro Devnet built on Ethereum’s Görli testnet went live. Arbitrum Nitro is the most advanced rollup stack ever built, and it enables massively higher throughput and lower fees. The Optimism Collective has…