Of all the energy sources available on planet Earth, ocean waves are arguably the most under-utilized.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the theoretical annual energy potential of waves off the coasts of the United States alone is estimated to be as much as 2.64 trillion kilowatthours. That’s roughly equivalent to 64 percent of the country’s total electricity generation in 2018 — and it’s all from just a tiny fraction of the waves sloshing around in the ocean.
But there’s a reason that wave power projects aren’t as numerous as those for solar or wind: the ocean is a notoriously difficult place for equipment to survive. Over time, salty, turbulent seas will corrode and break down just about anything you put in them, so it’s difficult to build power generation systems that can survive for more than a few years at a time.
That’s where Ocean Energy comes in. The company has spent the better part of the past decade perfecting a wave power generator that’s not only tough enough to survive the seas, but also capable of capturing huge amounts of energy from them. The result? A hulking, 826-ton marvel of modern engineering known as the OE Buoy. Thanks to its groundbreaking design, this steel leviathan can generate enough power to supply a small town all by itself.
If you’re curious about how it generates all that energy, here’s the scoop: “The OE Buoy is designed around the science of an oscillating water column.” Ocean Energy explains. “The buoy is shaped like an ‘L’ with a long open chamber that sits below the water line, and a turbine above the water. As water enters the open chamber it forces air upward, which turns the turbine, generating electricity.”
But that’s just half of the story. The buoy is capable of generating energy not only when waves crash into it, but also when they bounce back, thanks to a component known as a Wells turbine. “When the water recedes,” says OE, “it creates a vacuum and air rushes in to fill it, keeping the turbine spinning, and the cycle repeats.” Amazingly, this turbine is the only moving part on the whole rig, so the machine has very few points of potential failure. “The beauty of the OE design is its simplicity. Having only a single moving part substantially increases its reliability in the often hostile ocean environment.”
The buoy is currently being towed across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, where it’ll live for the next year and undergo testing. “Initially, the device will be tested at the US Navy Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) in Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii for 12 months.” the company explains. “Ocean Energy’s long-term plan is to build five units for deployment at the Oregon Wave Energy Test Site off the coast of Newport Oregon.”
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).