Wave 6-sleeper camper van marks Westfalia's big return to US RV market

[New Atlas logo]( Automotive [Wave 6-sleeper camper van marks Westfalia's big return to US RV market]( [Westfalia is back]( Westfalia announced a US return last year and is now preparing to reveal its first new camper van for the market. The all-new Wave brings serious family-sized sleeping capacity, smart home controls, plus a flexible floor plan for gear and people. [Read more]( Special Promotion for New Atlas Readers [Get on CompTIA certification track for just $65 now]( A new year is a great time to set new goals, like raising your earning potential or starting a new career. With The Complete 2024 CompTIA Certification Training Super Bundle by IDUNOVA, you can get on track for a lucrative IT career, now $15 off. [Read more]( Science [Coal-to-protein livestock feed uses 1/1000th as much land as farming]( [Researchers have created what they say is a cost-effective way to create livestock feed proteins from coal]( Chinese scientists have developed a cost-effective method of converting coal into protein, which they say could feed livestock much more efficiently than natural plants, while using a tiny fraction of the land. [Read more]( Wearables [Vixion's autofocus eyeglasses: Relax your eye muscles all day]( [Vixion01: eyeglasses with built-in autofocus, so you can relax your eyes and still see things sharply between a couple of inches away and infinity]( The lenses in our eyes stiffen as we age, making it harder to switch focus between different distances. But autofocus systems are now getting so compact and efficient that they fit in a set of glasses – provided you don't mind looking a bit dorky. [Read more]( Health & Wellbeing [New COVID variants better infect lungs, could cause more severe disease]( [Research indicates newer COVID variants stemming from BA.2.86 can infect the lungs more effectively than any variant since Delta]( A new study has found the BA.2.86 variant of SARS-CoV-2 has a greater propensity for infecting certain lung cells than any prior Omicron variant. The research suggests BA.2.86 could potentially lead to COVID severity similar to the Delta variant. [Read more]( Space [Mystery of bizarre radio circles in space may finally have been solved]( [An image of an odd radio circle (ORC). Radio images captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope are highlighted in green, while the background was filled out with optical and near-infrared data from the Dark Energy Survey]( It’s not often that space throws something entirely new at you, but in 2019 astronomers discovered a completely unknown phenomenon they called odd radio circles (ORCs). Now, more data may have revealed just how these rare objects form. [Read more]( Science [Study provides first direct evidence explaining why we sleep]( [A new study has provided the first direct evidence to explain the function of sleep]( Researchers have provided the first direct evidence explaining the function of sleep. They demonstrated that sleep resets the brain’s ‘operating system,’ undermined during waking, returning it to an ideal state to optimize thinking and processing. [Read more]( Space [America's Peregrine lunar lander mission in jeopardy from fuel loss]( [Peregrine lander as seen from onboard camera]( America's privately owned and operated Peregrine lunar landing mission may be in peril due to a malfunction. An anomaly in the lander's propulsion system discovered shortly after this morning's launch may require the February landing to be scrubbed. [Read more]( Robotics [Housekeeping robot quickly learns a range of autonomous chores]( [The Mobile ALOHA open-source robot fries up a shrimp]( Stanford and Google DeepMind researchers have presented an open-source housekeeping robot, and trained it relatively quickly to sauté shrimp, rinse out pans, put pots away in a kitchen cabinet, and clean up wine spills – but it has greater ambitions. [Read more]( Lifestyle [Plus-shaped pool will offer New Yorkers a cleaner swim in the river]( [+ Pool will be installed sometime this summer (Northern Hemisphere) for testing, with public use expected in 2025, if all goes well]( Some 13 years after we first saw it, + Pool's idea for creating a floating and self-filtering swimming pool that lets New York City residents cool off in a local river is now finally set to go ahead, with testing expected later this year. [Read more]( Good Thinking [Assistive "anti-freeze" exoskeleton keeps Parkinson's patients walking]( [A prototype of the planned commercial version of the gait-freeze-eliminating exoskeleton]( People with Parkinson's disease often develop a problem known as "gait freeze," in which their legs simply stop stepping forward as they're walking. A new exoskeleton, however, has proven to be very effective at keeping such individuals' legs going. [Read more]( Around The Home [Samsung revives Ballie smart robot assistant, adds 1080p projector]( [Samsung's Ballie smart robot assistant keeping pooch entertained while the home owner is at work]( Back at CES 2020, Samsung rolled out a bright yellow robot companion called Ballie, which was designed to help out around the home. Now an updated version featuring projection capabilities has been revealed at this year's event. [Read more]( Health & Wellbeing [New way to track pollen may be a game-changer for hay fever sufferers]( [A new measure of pollen allergen count could help hay-fever sufferers pre-empt how they'll be affected]( For the first time, scientists have found that measuring airborne allergen levels, instead of the traditional method of performing a pollen count in real time, can help the 25% of US adults with hay fever better assess risk and manage their symptoms. [Read more]( Medical [For people with obesity, weight loss surgery may slow cognitive decline]( [A study has found that obese people who undergo weight-loss surgery had stable cognitive function two years post-op]( A study has found that people with obesity who underwent weight-loss surgery had stable cognition two years after, and their executive function improved. It's a positive finding, given the association between obesity and rapid cognitive decline. [Read more]( Biology [Tiny sea creature's 'snot palace' inspires new water-pump tech]( [Oikopleura dioica constructing its 'snot palace,' an unlikely feat of engineering]( A house made of mucus may not sound like a desirable abode, yet researchers have found that the crafty animal creating such an unappealing structure may help engineers design cheaper and more efficient pumps for industrial uses like water filtration. [Read more]( Medical ["Armored" immune cells make their own medicine to keep fighting cancer]( [Scientists have supercharged immunotherapy by engineering CAR T cells that can produce their own "medicine" to keep them fighting in the hostile environment around tumors]( A new form of immunotherapy helps immune cells “armor” themselves against exhaustion by releasing their own medicine to keep them going in the fight against cancer. The new method is faster and cheaper to produce than existing immunotherapies. [Read more]( Space [Scientist find the true color of Uranus ... and Neptune]( [Uranus and Neptune turn out to have a very similar color]( A team of scientists from the University of Oxford has concluded that our popular ideas about the colors of the planets Uranus and Neptune are all wrong. Far from being two distinct shades, they are, in fact, nearly the same shade of greenish blue. [Read more]( Medical [AI assist allows humble chest X-ray to diagnose COVID with 98% accuracy]( [Researchers have created an AI algorithm that can detect COVID-19 infection from chest X-rays with 98% accuracy]( Researchers developed an AI algorithm that automatically analyzes chest X-rays to rapidly detect COVID-19 infection with more than 98% accuracy, distinguishing between normal X-rays and X-rays from people with viral pneumonia. [Read more]( Bicycles [Vanpowers rolls into Las Vegas with a gravel ebike and eMTB]( [Vanpowers is at CES 2024 in Las Vegas with two versions of a new gravel/road ebike (shown) and two flavors of an all-weather eMTB]( California's Vanpowers is heading east this week with two new bikes set for a CES 2024 reveal. The UrbanCross is the company's new lightweight gravel bike, and the GrandTeton rides as an all-terrain, all-weather all-rounder. [Read more]( Wearables [Skyted mask is made to keep confidential calls private]( [The Skyted Silent Mask is presently on Kickstarter]( If you're frequently making confidential phone calls, putting your hand over your mouth and whispering is a far from ideal means of maintaining privacy. That's exactly where the Skyted Silent Mask is intended to come in. [Read more]( Music [Budget-friendly Theremin gets players waving their hands in the air]( [Dubreq's Stylophone Pitch Theremin is up for pre-order]( The physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen may not be a household name, but the eerie sounds of the synthesizer he invented are instantly recognizable. Now Dubreq is inviting music makers to wave their arms about for its own take on the Theremin. [Read more]( You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at [newatlas.com]( (or [gizmag.com]( before August 2016). [Update profile]( | [Unsubscribe]( Copyright New Atlas © 2022