TLDR 2021-05-28

Amazon ZenBooths 🧘, space refrigerators πŸ”, 3D printed rockets πŸš€

πŸ“±
Big Tech & Startups

Amazon Introduces Tiny β€˜ZenBooths’ for Stressed Out Warehouse Workers (3 minute read)

Amazon is introducing tiny booths for its workers to momentarily escape from their jobs. ZenBooths are part of the company's WorkingWell program that it announced on May 17. The program aims to provide physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthy eating support to employees to help them recharge and reenergize. The booths feature plants and a skylight. Employees can use the screen in the booths to navigate through a library of mental health and mindful practices. Amazon workers have tough schedules and notoriously short breaks, so it is unlikely that they will be allocated time to use the booths.

Relativity Space's massive 3D printers are reinventing rockets, and building the factory of the future (3 minute read)

Relativity Space is a company that uses 3D printing to build rockets. The company has the world's largest 3D printers, capable of printing metal pieces up to 32-feet tall. 95 percent of the parts for its Terran 1 rocket are 3D-printed, making the rocket many times less complex compared to traditional rockets. The company aims to eventually be able to turn raw materials into a rocket on the launchpad in under 60 days. A video with footage of the printing process is available in the article.
πŸš€
Science & Futuristic Technology

Zero-gravity space fridge could keep astronaut food fresh for years (2 minute read)

Refrigerators aren't able to work in space as they rely on gravity to distribute oil through the compressor system that regulates temperature. Purdue University researchers and Air Squared are creating an oil-free version of the traditional fridge that can work independent of gravity. The project was funded by NASA and it tested its first flight-ready prototype last month. The prototype worked in simulated microgravity on a parabolic plane flight. While the test was limited, it was able to help work out an issue with the device. The next test could be a longer-term installation aboard the ISS.

New Technology Makes Real-Time 3D Holograms a Reality (4 minute read)

Tensor holography is a new approach to holography that could create a technological revolution in fields like 3D printing and VR. It can generate holograms with near real-time fidelity on laptops and even some smartphones. The technique uses deep-learning AI to teach itself advanced physics. It won't be long until high-fidelity holograms are in the hands of ordinary products. The technology has many applications, for example, replacing animals in entertainment to remove the possibility of animal abuse.
πŸ’»
Programming, Design & Data Science

pyWhat (GitHub Repo)

pyWhat can identify what a file or string of text is. It breaks down files and shows structured data in it. It can also break down pcap files in seconds. GIF examples are available in the repository.

NocoDB (GitHub Repo)

NocoDB turns any MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, or MariaDB into a smart spreadsheet. It features a gallery view, rich spreadsheets, workflow automations, collaboration tools, programmatic access with APIs, and more. Screenshots are available in the repository.
🎁
Miscellaneous

Humans probably can't live longer than 150 years, new research finds (3 minute read)

New research from a Singapore-based biotech company explored how well the human body can recover from stress on its systems as it ages and found that the human body loses its ability to recover from stressors at some age between 120 and 150. The research looked at health data for large groups from the US, UK, and Russia. It showed that recovery rate is an important signature of aging. The research could lead to the development of drugs to slow the process and extend healthspan. It explains why current treatments can only improve the average but not the maximum lifespan.

Enigmatic Designs Found in India May Be The Largest Images Ever Made by Human Hands (4 minute read)

Large and mysterious land carvings have been discovered in India's Thar Desert. The geoglyphs may be the largest-ever graphical depictions designed by humans. They were discovered using Google Earth during a virtual survey of the region. The lines that make up the design are up to 10 centimeters deep and spread 20 to 50 centimeters wide. The largest geoglyph is made from a single looping line that runs for 12 kilometers. Another shape is composed of an 11-kilometer-long line. It is unclear what the meaning or function of the design is. The design is estimated to be at least 150 years old.
Get the most important tech, science, & coding news in a free daily email. Read by +1,250,000 software engineers and tech workers.
Join 1,250,000 readers for