Every day we wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and get ready for work. Following are a handful of stories from around the tech world condensed to fit into one single cup of coffee. These are the things you need to know before you step foot out of your door (or in front of a webcam) and into the real world this morning.
So sit back, grab a cup, and start your morning off right with a few “Quick Bytes” from Innovation & Tech Today.
Elon Musk is Providing Internet to Ukraine Using Starlink Satellites
Broadband internet is now back online for many Ukrainians after Musk announced that the satellite-based service is now “active.” Starlink is a program created by SpaceX, aimed at providing internet to rural areas using a network of orbital satellites. Many areas in Ukraine have seen blackouts due to Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov requested Musk activate the service in a recent tweet:
“While you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.”
Starlink currently has nearly 2,000 satellites in orbit across dozens of successful launches.
SWIFT Boots Russian Banks Off It’s Platform
Financial messaging company The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, has cut off several Russian banks from its platform. A number of European countries created a coalition to kick the banks out of the messaging service after Russia’s repeated incursions into Ukraine.
The implications for Russia are substantial, as the move could impact Putin’s ability to utilize some of his $600 billion war chest to fund the invasion.
Booting Russia from SWIFT, the coalition said, “will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.”
SWIFT is “the global provider of secure financial messaging services,” according to its website, connecting more than 11,000 financial institutions worldwide.
Microbes Convert CO2 Into Less Harmful Chemicals
Researchers have engineered a microbe that can convert molecules of industrial waste gases into significantly less harmful ones.
A team of researchers at LanzaTech, Northwestern University, and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed the microbe to convert waste carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into acetone and isopropanol. The process not only cleans up the environment, but also produces chemicals used in a wide variety of industries. Acetone and isopropanol serve as the basis of thousands of products, from fuels and solvents to acrylic glass and polypropylene.
“This discovery is a major step forward in avoiding a climate catastrophe,” said Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech CEO. “Today, most of our commodity chemicals are derived exclusively from new fossil resources such as oil, natural gas, or coal. Acetone and IPA are two examples with a combined global market of $10 billion. The acetone and IPA pathways developed will accelerate the development of other new products by closing the carbon cycle for their use in multiple industries.”
Sony is Engineering the Future of Film Making
Sony is taking virtual production technology to the next level. Rolled out at CES 2022, new tech allows film creators to capture real-world spaces and locations and project them onto a giant LED screen, effectively making green screens obsolete.
The advanced LED tech became a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic when on-location scenes had to be postponed indefinitely. Sony has now mastered the technology, which will not only cut costs and speed up production, but will give actors in big-budget action and comic book movies something to interact with.
“I think back to when it was a couple of actors sitting in a big green space with ping pong balls,” animator Jeff Cannata said. “This technology seems like a big level up.”
