🚧 Self heating concrete, Nvidia's powerful chip, Milk drone delivery

A self-heating concrete developed by researchers at Drexel University in the U.S. can melt inches of snow without using salt. The concrete has been tested extensively over the past three winters and begins warming up without an external heating system as soon as the temperature dips to freezing levels. 

The critical ingredient in achieving this has been liquid paraffin. For more on what’s behind this technique, check out today's Must Read.

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MUST READ

🚧 New self-heating concrete melts snow without shovels or salt

In the northern regions of the U.S., millions of dollars are spent yearly to repair roadways damaged by the harsh winter. This is in addition to the over two billion dollars spent on ice removal operations.

According to Amir Farnam, an associate professor at the College of Engineering at Drexel University, if the roadways could be maintained at temperatures above freezing point, it would improve their service life. So, his team developed a solution that keeps concrete at a higher temperature, even in freezing cold, using paraffin.

This self-heating concrete is suitable for mountainous and northern regions in the US, such as Northeast Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, where there are suitable heating and cooling cycles in winter.

💾 ‘World’s most powerful’: Nvidia unveils record 30 times faster AI chip

Nvidia believes that every business that generative AI affects has the potential to be revolutionized; all that’s needed is the technology to match the challenge.

Aiming to empower the next generation of AI technologies for enterprises, the American chipmaker unveiled its advanced Blackwell computing platform at the firm’s annual GTC conference in San Jose, California, on March 18.

The new architecture is named after David Harold Blackwell, a mathematician at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in statistics and game theory. The firm claims the platform allows organizations to deploy real-time generative AI on trillion-parameter language models with 25 times less cost and energy than before.

🥛 Stockholm’s ‘flying milk can’ drone delivery services to start in May

Stockholm's ‘flying milk can’ drone delivery services are set to begin in May for a select few of the 10,000 population.

The drones, called Nimbi, are equipped with six weatherproof motor/propeller units arranged in three sets of two at the ends of its three arms. They have a maximum load-carrying capacity of 8.8 lb (4 kilograms) in a 10-liter (2.6-gallon) cargo compartment.

Each Nimbi can travel up to 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) when fully loaded, while it can go as far as 13 miles (21 km) if empty. While hovering, it produces a motor noise level of 65 decibels, which compares to that of a busy office environment. Beyond milk, the drones will soon deliver pharmacy products, groceries, meals, and retail items.

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