Weekend Edition: Strange combinations can be great innovations

There are some weird concoctions brewing in the twilight of 2021: a ski-slope powerplant, a paper piano, a bus that thinks it's a train, a tractor that thinks it's sexy, and the most freakily lifelike humanoid robot we've seen ... and that's before we even get to the story about poo-packed probiotic hippopotamus shakes. Enjoy our look back at the biggest news of the week. Noel McKeegan Editor-in-Chief Automotive [Visionary tractor concept is as entrancing as the wine it helps create]( New Holland Agriculture has teamed with Pininfarina to present a concept that's sexier than a tractor should be. The Straddle Tractor Concept navigates steep, narrow vineyards to help get aromatic reds and whites to dinner tables the world over. [Read more]( Special Promotion for New Atlas Readers [This Smart Visual Ear Cleaner takes daily hygiene to a new level]( The Smart Visual Ear Cleaner reinvents your daily hygiene routine with a 360° wide-angle view of the inside of the ear that’s streamed directly to your phone. It gives you access to information that you've never had before. [Read more]( Tiny Houses [The best tiny houses of 2021]( [The utilitarian design of Gawthorne's Hut, by Cameron Anderson Architects, references a hay shed that was installed on the farm property, but was destroyed in a storm]( This year has been a bumper one for downsizing and, as 2022 fast approaches, we've chosen a selection of the most interesting, innovative, and well-designed examples of small living we've seen throughout the year. [Read more]( Medical [Harvard team disables newly discovered hormone to reverse diabetes in mice]( [Artist's impression of insulin interacting with the surface of cells]( Scientists at Harvard University have made a breakthrough that implicates a newly discovered hormone in the onset of diabetes, and shown how it can be targeted to reverse the effects of the disease. [Read more]( Aircraft [10 unique eVTOL aircraft that do things very differently]( [Joby Aviation's remarkable tilt-prop S4 is among the front-running aircraft in the nascent eVTOL sector, but there are plenty of other companies out there throwing even stranger ideas at the wall to see what might stick]( Although the electric VTOL market is beginning to reach adolescence, there are still plenty of designs coming in from way out of left field, hoping to disrupt the market with all sorts of interesting approaches. Here are 10 of our favorites. [Read more]( Architecture [Combined ski slope and power plant named WAF World Building of the Year]( [CopenHill, by BIG, has won the 2021 WAF World Building of the Year prize for its inspired combination of ski slope and waste-to-energy power plant]( The prestigious World Building of the Year prize has been revealed at the close of this year's World Architecture Festival. CopenHill, by Bjarke Ingels Group, has won for its inspired combination of waste-to-energy plant and ski slope. [Read more]( Transport [World-first road/rail-traveling bus to enter use on Christmas Day]( [The DMV bus is claimed to be able to switch between road and rail modes within 15 seconds]( Why bother transferring between a bus and a train, if you could just stay in one vehicle that travels on both roads and tracks? That's the thinking behind a new dual-mode vehicle (DMV), which is slated to begin operations in Japan on December 25. [Read more]( Robotics [Ameca, "the future face of robotics," is as freaky as you'd expect]( [Ameca the robot is able to perform a range of human-like gestures and expressions]( UK robotics firm Engineered Arts has offered a sneak peek at its new humanoid, presented as "the world's most advanced human-shaped robot," and a brief look at the "future face of robotics" suggests it might just live up to this claim. [Read more]( Motorcycles [WMC puts "big hole" technology into 3-wheel hybrid police scooter]( [WMC hasn't provided any photos looking through the big hole, but we're assured it's there between the front wheels where the arrows are]( UK company White Motorcycle Concepts, best known for the big hole in its land speed racer, has stuck a big hole and a small hybrid system into a three-wheeled police scooter, and says these two modifications can reduce emissions by up to 50 percent. [Read more]( Photography [Awe-inspiring auroras dazzle in annual Northern Lights photo compilation]( [Forest of the Lights by Marc Adamus, shot in Alaska, US. A coat of rime ice on the trees makes for a magical landscape matched only by the swirling blues and purples in the sky.]( The upcoming aurora season is set to be particularly beautiful. To inspire people to get out and point their cameras skywards, Capture the Atlas has released a new batch of stunning shots for its Northern Lights Photographer of the Year collection. [Read more]( Space [Rocket Lab reveals reusable Neutron launcher with "Hungry Hippo" jaws]( [Artist's concept of Neutron deploying its second stage]( Rocket Lab has unveiled its concept for a new reusable launch vehicle called Neutron. Looking like something a Bond villain would deploy, it carries its second stage inside a permanently attached captive “Hungry Hippo” fairing design. [Read more]( Electronics [Paper-thin piano demonstrates the power of printed electronics and NFC]( [Printed circuits, ordinary paper and NFC technology combine for a piano keyboard that's played on a smartphone]( Anyone who uses a smartphone will be familiar with NFC technology, which is used for such things as contactless payments. To demonstrate the versatility of the technology when combined with printed circuitry, Prelonic has created the Paper Piano. [Read more]( Biology [Hippo pools brimming with poo act as communal "probiotic shakes"]( [Scientists at the University of Florida have studied hippo pools to explore the effects of their considerable excrement on the surrounding environment]( Bold new research has plumbed the depths of poo-packed hippo pools and found they constitute a type of "meta-gut," in which microbes might be shared between the hippos to their benefit, kind of like a "probiotic shake." [Read more]( Medical [Grape seed compound shows anti-aging potential by taking out tired cells]( [A compound derived from grape seeds has shown anti-aging potential in new research on mice]( New research out of China has uncovered a natural compound in grape seeds that takes aim at dysfunctional senescent cells, and demonstrated how it can extend the lifespan of aging mice by more than nine percent. [Read more]( Health & Wellbeing [New evidence builds on emerging link between depression and inflammation]( [New research has detected an association between increased white blood cells and higher genetic risk scores for depression]( Furthering understanding into the links between inflammation and depression a study has found a fascinating association between increased white blood cell counts and higher genetic risk scores for depression, even in the absence of depressive symptoms. [Read more]( Aircraft [Squirrel-cheeked liquid H2 airliner will take you anywhere in two hops]( [FlyZero's midsize liquid H2 concept will fly as fast as current airliners and nearly as far, linking any two airports on Earth with a maximum of one stop]( Long-haul aviation presents a tough challenge for decarbonization, but a group of 100 aerospace experts working on the UK government's FlyZero project says 279-seat liquid hydrogen airliners will connect any two points on the globe with just one stop. [Read more]( Medical [“Functional cure” for type 1 diabetes passes first human trials]( [As well as the primary device (bottom) the trial is implanting patients with smaller "sentinel" implants that will be removed after periods of time so stem cell growth can be measured]( New studies are reporting results from a type 1 diabetes human clinical trial testing a device containing stem cells designed to mature into insulin-secreting cells. The experimental implant was found to be safe, well-tolerated and mildly effective. [Read more]( Aircraft [eHang's pilotless eVTOL may be certified and operational within months]( [China's eHang says its EH216 autonomous air taxi is "hopefully" going to be fully certified and commercially operational within months]( It seems China's about to win the race to commercial, autonomous, electric VTOL air taxi operations, with daylight a distant second. eHang says its EH216 could be fully certified within months, several years ahead of competitors from the USA and EU. [Read more]( Outdoors [Rotomolded plastic teardrop camper bashes through the African bush]( [Not the roughest stream crossing it's likely to encounter, but a nice photo op]( Rotomolded construction has become a staple in outdoor recreation via tough, bear-resistant coolers. Now it takes on a new role. South Africa's Edgeout crafts a rotomolded plastic teardrop ready for a quick safari or an intercontinental expedition. 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