A new glut of oil and gas is emerging, floating at sea, as the coronavirus epidemic cuts China’s appetite for fuel and hampers work at Chinese ports. Dozens of ships are acting as floating storage vats for oil and liquefied natural gas because the owners of the fuel are unable to find buyers or places to store their cargo on land, according to The Wall Street Journal (March 4, 2020). Some 79 vessels are now storing crude oil at sea.
By Barry Render
Delta Air Lines is partnering with Sarcos Robotics to explore new employee technology fit for a superhero—a mobile and dexterous exoskeleton designed to boost employees’ physical capabilities and bolster their safety, reports New Equipment Digest (Jan. 15, 2020). Sarcos, the world’s leader in exoskeleton development, has developed a battery-powered, full-body exoskeleton designed to increase human performance and endurance while helping to prevent injury.
This robotic suit, designed for employees to wear, does the heavy lifting. By bearing the weight of the suit and the payload, the exoskeleton may enable an employee to lift up to 200 pounds repeatedly for 8 hours at a time without strain or fatigue. The Sancos model is designed for use in industries where lifting and manipulation of heavy materials or awkward objects are required and aren’t easily handled by standard lift equipment.
The walls of Redefine Meat Ltd.’s lab in Rehovot, Israel, are plastered with posters of cuts of beef, including sirloins, T-bones, and rib-eyes. But the startup isn’t looking to sell the perfect cut of beef. Instead, it wants to create a plant-based facsimile. The company is building a 3D printer that it says will produce a meatless steak that’s so fatty, juicy, and perfectly meaty that even the most dedicated carnivore won’t know the difference. “All meat alternatives today are basically a meat-homogeneous mass,” says Redefine Meat’s CEO. “If you 3D-print it, you can control what’s happening inside the mass to improve the texture and to improve the flavor.”
