🪵 Wood 10 times tougher than steel, world’s biggest supercomputer, camel-feet inspired tires

A US-based biotech startup is aiming to reshape the construction industry with the launch of a new material that mimics the look and feel of natural wood. What’s more interesting, the new material outperforms high-grade steel in strength and durability.

InventWood, based in Maryland, has given the name “Superwood” to its engineered wood product. It is a result of molecular-level transformation that turns natural wood into a material up to a dozen times stronger and 10 times tougher than its original form.

According to the company, the material boasts a strength-to-weight ratio nearly 10 times greater the steel. Dive deeper into this Must-Read.

Reading Time: 4 mins

Did a friend forward this e-mail to you? Subscribe here.

MUST-READ

🪵 US creates wood 10 times tougher than steel, can resist water, fire

To design the innovative material, the researchers selectively removed specific components of the wood’s cellular structure and compressed it under precise conditions.

The approach resulted in a biogenic composite that maintains all the desirable features of wood, including warmth, texture, workability, and natural aesthetic, while enhancing its performance far beyond traditional limits.

“Superwood demonstrates what’s possible when we combine nature’s most highly evolved structure with revolutionary science,” said Alex Lau, InventWood CEO, adding that the funding will enable the company to scale the material’s production.

🖥️ World’s biggest supercomputer: Musk’s Colossus aims for 1 mil GPUs

Elon Musk’s intelligence company xAI has achieved a significant milestone with its Colossus supercomputer operating 200,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).

The company says that Colossus has been built in just 122 days (around four months), as compared to the estimates of 24 months or two years. xAI then took 92 more days to bring the number of GPUs to 200,000.

It is now planning to increase the number of GPUs in the world’s biggest supercomputer to 1 million GPUs. xAI has a goal to compete with its rivals like the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, which has approximately 1,31,072 GPUs.

🐪 NASA plans camel-feet inspired tires for next-gen Moon, Mars rovers

The Artemis astronauts will spend longer on the lunar surface than their Apollo forebears. They will also travel longer distances and explore treacherous terrain at the lunar south pole. As such, they will require much stronger tires than the ones used for Apollo.

Several companies are looking to deliver the perfect tire for lunar exploration. This month, they will present their findings to NASA at the John Glenn Center in a bid to win contracts to further develop their technologies for future lunar rovers.

Tire company Bridgestone has turned to biomimicry for its Moon wheels. The company took inspiration from the soft foot pads of camels.

Love what you're reading, but too many emails? Sign up to IE+ to get Blueprint Weekly, our exclusive weekly premium newsletter that gives all the insights you love in a more digestible weekly format– plus, enjoy an Ad-Free experience on our website. Try IE+ today for just $1 in the first month. Subscribe here

HOT TOPICS OF THE DAY

SCIENCE

> Scientists observed a radiant and intriguing physical phenomenon in mice and leaves that might suggest that all living things emit light until they die. (More)

> Real human brain tissue reveals how toxic amyloid beta disrupts brain connections long before symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear. (More)

> Over 500 million years ago, a sea creature straight out of a futuristic sci-fi movie swam around British Columbia as the ancestor to arthropods. (More)

ENERGY

> The U.S. is sitting on a rare earths goldmine — not buried underground, but suspended in toxic wastewater. (More)

> Lyten, a San Jose-based company developing lithium-sulfur battery technology, has launched a new initiative to transform drone propulsion for the defense and aerospace sectors. (More)

> China’s battery and tech giant CATL has shaken up the global EV industry with the unveiling of its new sodium-ion battery, in a move that could spell serious trouble for U.S. allies scrambling to maintain their footing in the fiercely competitive battery race. (More)

INNOVATION

> Meet “Zippy,” a palm-sized, two-legged robot that’s breaking records in both size and speed, all while offering potential applications far beyond its toy-like appearance. (More)

> The Old Continent is getting ready for a major breakthrough in the fight against climate change with the launch of its first-ever offshore CO₂ carrier, built to transport hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide each year. (More)

> A student-designed robot solved a 4×4 Rubik’s Cube in a record-breaking 45.305 seconds, surpassing the previous record by 33 seconds. (More)

VIDEO

> Chinese company LimX Dynamics shows off the dynamic flexibility of their CL series humanoid robot. What’s fascinating is the VideoGenMotion, their innovative algorithm for training their robots. (More)

> The Volonaut Airbike is a real-life vehicle inspired by the Star Wars speeder, powered by jet engines and capable of reaching speeds up to 124 mph. Would you want to ride one? (More)

FROM THE WEB

> Watch the sun unleash 600,000-mile-long eruption in fiery outburst

> Humanoid Robots Freak You Out? Why A Well-Timed Frown Can Make Androids Less Creepy

> First study of its kind sheds light on pregnancy in the Viking Age

> New nuclear generation eyed for shuttered Kewaunee County plant site

> AI company Helsing unveils swarming underwater surveillance drones

> Onion-like nanoparticles found in aircraft exhaust