What's Emerging July 2020
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy
Introduction
Welcome to our end of July newsletter.
In the next few weeks, Paul will be continuing to work on a strategic view for a national cleaning company. He is also working on a community vision project for a Melbourne Council, and creating a consortium in the Not for Profit sector to assist in the “Build it Back Better” movement. He is also participating in a working group with the Leading Edge Foundation in the UK looking at the industrialisation of robots.
If any of this interests you then please Contact Us
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
Last newsletter it was:
Microsoft’s solution to Zoom fatigue is to trick your brain
What are we Writing About?
Paul has written two blogs posts since our last newsletter:
A Bloodbath for CBD Commercial Office Space? – One future for commercial office space in Australia.
This follows some work Paul has been doing in this space to advise clients on what might happen to commercial office space in the work from home era.
GETTING OLDER IN THE AGE OF A PANDEMIC
Changes to how we think about ageing in response to the pandemic may have profound impacts across a number of sectors, both as increased risks, but also opportunities
You can read both of these by going to our Home Page and looking under our latest work
What’s Emerging?
Hello Robot’s Stretch wants to reinvent how mobile manipulators perform tasks in home environments
Salad Bars, Killed by COVID, Now Replaced With Custom-Salad-Making Robots
A California-based company called Chowbotics may just be in the right place at the right time. They've been working on Sally the Fresh Food Robot, a sort of vending-machine-plus that workers load up with individual ingredients. . …. Read more
How effective does a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine need to be to stop the pandemic? A new study has answers
“We found that a coronavirus vaccine’s effectiveness may have to be higher than 70% or even 80% before Americans can safely stop relying social distancing. By comparison, the measles vaccine has an efficacy of 95%-98%, and the flu vaccine is 20%-60%” .…. Read more
Pixelopolis, a self-driving car demo from Google I/O built with TF-Lite
Pixelopolis is an interactive installation that showcases self-driving miniature cars powered by TensorFlow Lite. Each car is outfitted with its own Pixel phone, which used its camera to detect and understand signals from the world around it. In order to sense lanes, avoid collisions and read traffic signs, the phone uses machine learning running on the Pixel Neural Core, which contains a version of an Edge TPU. Translation : running real cool stuff using machine leaning systems at the edge. …. Read more
KFC and russian 3D bioprinting firm to lab-produce the chicken 'meat of the future'
The project aims to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets, which will be as close as possible in both taste and appearance to the original KFC product. You would think they would want to make them taste better …. Read more
Seawater could provide nearly unlimited amounts of critical battery material
Booming electric vehicle sales have spurred a growing demand for lithium. But the light metal, which is essential for making power-packed rechargeable batteries, isn’t abundant. Now, researchers report a major step toward tapping a virtually limitless lithium supply: pulling it straight out of seawater .…. Read more
Apple's 2030 carbon-neutral pledge covers itself and suppliers
It told BBC News any company hoping to become a supplier would have to commit to "be 100% renewable for their Apple production" within 10 years. The importance and difficulty of this should not be understated.…. Read more
Ireland donates the world’s most successful contact tracing app to the Linux Foundation
This will enable jurisdictions worldwide to quickly build and deploy their own contact tracing apps using a wildly successful proven base. The donated app has been named COVID Green …. Read more
People don't want to fly': Covid-19 reawakens Europe's sleeper trains
In the last few weeks there has been a flurry of announcements and inaugural journeys. Last Thursday the Swedish government said it would provide funds for two new routes to connect the cities of Stockholm and Malmö with Hamburg and Brussels …. Read more
Six-minute EV battery could be made at mooted $3 billion Australian gigafactory
Magnis Energy says in a statement that its partner Charge CCCV (C4V) has successfully tested a lithium-ion cell with a six minute charge time, labelling it a “potential game changer” for EV makers.
Magnis also says it could produce a battery with the extra-fact charging (EFC) capability in Australia, presumably from its planned $3 billion “Giga-scale” factory in Australia, for which it has received $3.1 million in grants from the Queensland government. …. Read more
Over half of coronavirus patients in Spain have developed neurological problems, studies show
New research indicates that Covid-19 is causing a wide range of disorders in the nervous system and may be directly attacking the brain. This should not be over interpreted but it also means being very cautious about catching the virus …. Read more
Fitbit for chickens" detects mite infestations
Even when they're allowed to roam about the farmyard, chickens are still susceptible to infestations of blood-sucking mites. It now turns out that a backpack-like device could let farmers know when those mites are biting, so treatment could begin as soon as possible. …. Read more
Amazon takes on supermarkets with free food delivery
Amazon Fresh offers same or next-day grocery deliveries for customers in London and parts of the Home Counties.
Shoppers have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get it and users currently have to pay an additional monthly fee or a delivery charge per order. It has about 10,000 products including fresh, chilled and frozen food. Retailers should be alarmed at this move by the logistics giant. …. Read more
Super-Wicking And Light-Absorbing “Solar Panel” Purifies Water
Backed by funding from the U.S Army Research Office, researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a super-wicking and super-light-absorbing material that can be used for accelerated water evaporation and purification.
The laser processing technology developed by the researchers turns aluminium black, making it highly absorptive, and etches it in a way enabling the sheet to wick water against gravity.. …… Read more
Business Tips
Microsoft Teams opens its doors to third-party apps during meetings
Microsoft is allowing third-party app developers to integrate into the Microsoft Teams meeting experience for the first time. The new developer-focused features will let apps integrate into Teams meetings during video calls, and even before and after meetings. Third-party apps will be able to display content during Microsoft Teams calls, and even display notifications during calls. It’s a big expansion of what third-party apps are able to do in Microsoft Teams right now …. Read more
Mary Meeker's coronavirus trends report
This is 3 months old now but still well worth a read if you have not looked at it…..Read more
Statement by Jeff Bezos to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary
Love them or hate them, Amazon is still an example of a company that executives strategy really well. Jeff Bezos was one of the big tech bosses recently grilled by the US congress. This statement is a masterclass in strategic thinking and communication. …. Read more