American startup Astroforge plans to become the first company to master the extraction of minerals from asteroids and their delivery to Earth.

The startup has already received $13 million in seed investment to develop its project. The founders of the startup, former SpaceX, NASA and Virgin Orbit engineers are Matt Gialich and Jose Acain. They have developed a fundamentally new technology for processing materials in outer space, but specific details have not yet been disclosed. What is currently known is that this technology requires a high vacuum and only works in zero gravity. Astroforge promises to demonstrate it in low-Earth orbit as early as 2023 and to arrange the supply of minerals from space before the end of this decade.

British schoolchildren will be fed insects.

School canteens in the UK will begin serving dishes with crushed insects. The pilot project starts this week. It involves children aged 4-11 from four schools in Wales. They are expected to understand the benefits of alternative proteins. Researchers claim that insects are rich in proteins and vitamins. At the same time, their breeding farms are more environmentally friendly than poultry farms - they emit 75% less carbon. Worldwide, insects are eaten by approximately two billion people. They mainly live in regions with corresponding culinary traditions.

The largest plant in the world was found off the coast of Australia.

The vast kelp meadows in Shark Bay on the west coast of Australia are actually the shoots of a single plant. This was shown by his genetic analysis. For 4.5 thousand years, the Posidonia australis algae has captured an area of ​​​​200 square kilometers and has become home to many fish, crabs, turtles and other animals. Posidonia australis grew at a rate of 35 centimeters per year. In some places, the length of her ribbons is only 10 centimeters, in others - a whole meter. The algae was able to survive in difficult conditions - at 15-30 ° C in the saltiest parts of Shark Bay. Posidonia australis has become the largest plant on Earth. It is several hundred times the size of a Pando Poplar colony in Utah with a common root system.

The pygmy marmoset is the smallest monkey on the planet, weighing only 150 grams.

They spend most of their lives in trees. They feed on tree sap, insects and fruits.

Giant bulb

Pete Glazebrook from Northern England looks lovingly at the nearly 9 kg bulb he has grown. She entered the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest bulb.

Desman, starfish, and other mammals that spend a lot of time underwater and forage there can smell underwater.

They blow air bubbles out of their nostrils. From the water, odorous substances get there, which reach the cells of the olfactory epithelium when the animal draws the bubble into the respiratory tract. In fish, the nostrils are filled with water, in which receptors catch dissolved substances.

In China, they made a neural network CogVideo, which creates short videos based on a text description

In fact, the output is gifs. CogVideo can generate video at a relatively high frame rate of 32 frames in four seconds. The developers noted that the actual text input for video generation is in Chinese. CogVideo works on a principle similar to the neural networks DALL-E 2 and Imagine, which generate images from a text description.

Tamagotchi children can solve the problem of overpopulation.

Catriona Campbell, one of Britain's top AI officials, said that by 2070 Tamagotchi babies could be the norm. Parents will simply be given a virtual child so as not to use the extra resources of the planet and not overpopulate it.

Rolls-Royce has released the most expensive modern car in the world - Boat Tail.

One of three examples of the Boat Tail model was made by order of a businessman whose family business is based on pearl mining. By order of a businessman, the car is made in the color of "mother-of-pearl cigar with a hint of whiskey." In the decoration of the car - parts made of bronze, gold, aluminum, mica and crystal. The trunk is finished with royal walnut veneer. Its cost is $30 million.

The most expensive butts.

The most expensive buttocks of the famous singer Kylie Minogue. Her petite ass is insured for no less than $4.7 billion. Jennifer Lopez is a little behind her - only 1 billion euros.

A pair of penguins can find each other even in a crowd of thousands of other individuals.

Penguins are amazingly accurate at distinguishing frequencies and accurately identify the voice of their partner. The same thing happens with chicks.

The tiger never undermines the population of ungulates in its habitat.

Despite the fact that the tiger eats about 50 ungulates a year, it is the most "soft" predator - it kills exactly as much as it can eat.

Created the world's most durable laptop for the military.

Panasonic has announced its most durable laptop yet, the modular 14-inch Toughbook 40. The device is resistant to rain, temperature and pressure drops, and drops from a height of 1.8 m. The Toughbook 40 weighs 3.35 kg, has a 14-inch touchscreen Full HD IPS panel with 1200 nits brightness and a first-in-class 5MP webcam with privacy shutter and IR for Windows Hello facial recognition.

In Scotland, the largest bottle of whiskey in the world was sold for a million pounds.

In Edinburgh, the largest bottle of whiskey in the world was sold at an auction by Lyon & Turnbull for 1.1 million pounds. Its height is about 180 centimeters, volume is 311 liters, these are 444 ordinary bottles. The buyer of Macallan 32-year-old single malt scotch wished to remain anonymous. The bottle has its own name - "Fearless". It is dedicated to the achievements of 11 researchers and innovators, their portraits are on the label.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz has shown off a new feature for its upcoming G-Wagon EQG premium electric SUV.

The electric car is able to rotate 360 ​​degrees around its axis. The company calls this trick the G-Turn. The EQG handles the G-Turn with a quad-motor drivetrain that allows it to spin each wheel independently. So, pairs of wheels on each side move in opposite directions, thereby causing the car to rotate like a tracked vehicle. The electric SUV is expected to go on sale sometime in 2024 or 2025 and is rumored to cost around $150,000.

In California, parents were allowed to sue social networks because of their children's addiction.

The California House of Representatives has approved a bill that would hold social media accountable for the development of addiction in children. Thus, parents will be able to sue companies on behalf of their children under 18 if they have developed an addiction. According to the document, social networks on relevant claims can be fined up to $25,000.

Space exploration progress.

NASA studied the current rate of progress in space exploration and concluded that at this rate, the first manned mission to an asteroid could take place in 2071. And we fly to the moons of Saturn somewhere by 2132.

At the Rotterdam Zoo, visitors are given 'look at the ceiling' glasses.

After a gorilla broke out of its enclosure and attacked a woman at the Rotterdam Zoo, Holland, visitors were given glasses with eyes depicted on them, looking into the upper left corner. Glasses in the style of "look at the ceiling" are needed in order to avoid eye contact with primates, for which a direct look is a manifestation of aggression. And they see in these glasses through small holes located in the middle of the "lenses".

Most members of the cat family have retractable claws.

This allows you to maintain sharpness without grinding them when walking, and at the same time walk silently.

Asian giant hornet.

Asian giant hornets are the largest of the hornets, reaching four centimeters in length. Their stinger is so large that it can pierce through two layers of clothing, including a protective bee suit.