The Dolphin G DM-i is BYD’s first car specifically designed for Europe. With up to 65 miles of pure electric range and 646 miles combined, BYD said the plug-in hatch will redefine the segment as an affordable, efficient alternative. It’s now available to order, starting at about $32,000.

Just days after Ford said you might see one testing in public, the low-cost EV pickup was caught driving in Long Beach, and it’s even smaller than expected.

Submit your abstract for “Advancing Weather and Environmental Science Through NASA and NOAA Commercial Satellite Data Programs,” a joint session hosted by NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program, in partnership with the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Commercial Data Program (CDP).

The session is part of the 23rd Symposium on Operational Environmental Satellite Systems, which will take place at the 2027 American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting January 10-14 in Denver, Colorado. It will examine the growing capabilities of commercial Earth observation providers that are creating new opportunities to advance weather research, operational forecasting, and environmental science applications.

NASA’s CSDA program and NESDIS’s CDP collaborate to expand federal access to commercial satellite data and accelerate its use in both research and operational applications.

The CSDA program supports the scientific community by evaluating and acquiring diverse commercial datasets, including optical, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation and Reflectometry, methane, precipitation, and Digital Elevation/Terrain Models for modeling, hazard monitoring, climate studies, and applied research.

Similarly, the CDP operationalizes commercial space-based environmental data, with demonstrated impacts from assimilated observations in weather forecasting and space weather applications. It also conducts pilot projects and transitions the piloted data to operations.

Together, the CSDA and CDP strengthen the nation’s weather enterprise by enabling innovative research, closing observational gaps, and integrating commercial data into real-world forecasting and decision support applications.

To submit an abstract or for additional information about the abstract submission process, visit the symposium’s website.

The post NASA, NOAA to Hold Joint Session at 23rd Symposium on Operational Environmental Satellite Systems appeared first on NASA Science.

Humanoid robots may soon gain more human-like dexterity thanks to a new wearable device developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The ultrasound wristband uses high-frequency sound waves to capture the movement of muscles, tendons, and ligaments beneath the skin, creating detailed data on human hand motions.

According to the team, the data collected by the system could be used to train robots to perform household tasks by replicating the dexterous hand movements used by humans.

Last year, researchers at the University of California San Diego developed a wearable AI system that accurately interprets arm gestures and controls robots, even during running, vehicle motion, or rough ocean conditions.

Wristband teaches robots

For robots to perform delicate tasks with human-like precision, they must first understand the complex movements of the human hand. Researchers have now developed a wearable ultrasound wristband that could help bridge that gap by capturing detailed muscle and tendon activity beneath the skin and translating it into robotic motion.

Tracking hand and finger movements is a key challenge in fields such as robotics and spatial computing. Existing solutions have significant limitations. Camera-based systems can struggle with restricted viewing angles and visual obstructions, while wearable devices based on strain sensors, inertial sensors, or electromyography often limit movement or lack the resolution needed to accurately capture continuous finger motions, according to the team’s study paper.

The new wristband builds on a series of advances in wearable ultrasound technology over the past several years. Researchers have steadily expanded the capabilities of ultrasound wearables beyond gesture tracking and robotics. In 2022, scientists demonstrated a wearable ultrasound device capable of continuously monitoring multiple internal organs. Subsequent developments included wearable systems for continuous heart imaging and bladder volume monitoring.

In 2024, researchers introduced a conformal ultrasound patch capable of tracking cerebral blood flow in three dimensions and an integrated wearable ultrasound system that monitored deep tissue activity with sub-millimeter resolution using a single transducer. More recently, flexible, disposable ultrasound patches were developed to reduce manufacturing costs.

Now, in a new study, researchers led by Xuanhe Zhao at MIT introduced a wearable ultrasound imaging wristband capable of tracking arbitrary hand configurations. The device uses high-frequency sound waves to image muscles, tendons, and ligaments inside the wrist, providing a detailed view of the mechanisms that drive hand movement.

Decoding human hands

The wristband could help robots achieve human-like hand dexterity by capturing the movements of muscles and tendons beneath the skin. The device incorporates a 256-channel wireless ultrasound imaging system that uses high-frequency sound waves to monitor structures inside the wrist responsible for controlling finger and palm motions.

The ultrasound data is processed by a hybrid Transformer–ResNet AI model capable of interpreting subtle muscle activity. The system continuously tracks all 22 degrees of freedom of the human hand, covering the full range of joint movements that allow fingers and the palm to bend, rotate, and coordinate complex actions. Achieving this level of tracking has been a longstanding challenge for hand-motion sensing technologies, reported AP News.

In laboratory tests involving eight volunteers, the wristband reproduced hand gestures with high accuracy and low latency, mirroring movements within 120 milliseconds. Researchers demonstrated the system’s ability to recognize all 26 letters of American Sign Language, highlighting its precision in capturing intricate finger configurations.

Because the wristband operates wirelessly, users can control robotic systems remotely without being physically connected or located in the same room. To showcase its capabilities, the team used the technology to manipulate three-dimensional objects in virtual reality and direct a robotic hand to play the piano.

Beyond teleoperation, researchers believe the system could be used to generate large-scale datasets of human hand movements, providing valuable training data for future humanoid robots and helping them learn complex manipulation skills more autonomously.

Wearing England badges during the World Cup could intimidate detained migrants and must be avoided, immigration officers have been told.

The post Wearing England Badges During World Cup Could Intimidate Detained Migrants, Immigration Officers Told appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

It may be Kia’s smallest electric vehicle, but the EV2 is a “big” deal. Kia’s electric SUV beat its official range estimate in a recent real-world test, outperforming all others in its class.

Growing evidence suggests that excessive outdoor lighting at night may be harming wildlife.

For generations, rural communities worked to the rhythms of daylight and darkness. Today, the amount of harsh light switched on at nightime is having profound consequences for many living things.

Agricultural properties are often remote and vulnerable to equipment or livestock theft. In response, many landowners have now installed security floodlights, powerful halogen beams, and unshielded external LEDs to illuminate yards overnight.

The North York Moors National Park, an international dark sky reserve in the north of England, has been working with farmers to reduce the impact of artificial light on the natural environment.

The initiative is about ensuring that lighting is used in the right place, at the right time, and at the appropriate intensity. This might involve installing downward-facing fixtures, reducing glare through shielding, or switching to warmer-coloured lighting that is less disruptive to wildlife.

The best places to start trying to reduce bright nighttime lights are those rich in wildlife, and farms in the park are often in the darkest areas.

Since 2021, the national park has worked with more than twenty farms in key dark sky locations, with many more projects in development.

Carefully designed lighting systems can use shielded or motion-activated lighting, which reduce impact on wildlife.

How does it affect the environment?

Over-illumination disrupts complex regional ecosystems, extending daylight artificially and changing the behaviour of animals that depend on natural darkness. Research suggests that light pollution caused by humans, harms ecosystems because of the critical role light has on the timing of biological systems, which artificial light disrupts.

Read more: Why walking in a national park in the dark prompts people to turn off lights at home

The damage extends from the soil upward. Scientific research indicates that pressures on ecosystems due to habitat loss, pesticides, invasive species and light pollution could create a devastating decline in the insect population, with a knock-on effect on the food chain.

Benefits for farms?

There’s also evidence that suggests that changing lighting could help farms. This light disruption affects crucial agricultural allies. Moths, which serve as vital nocturnal pollinators, are heavily affected, alongside bats facing shrinking feeding grounds. Bats can help farmers control insect pests.

Artificial light exposure also alters vital plant cycles, for instance, and light at night can affect plant growth.

Small changes, such as switching to down-facing lights, can lead to significant environmental improvements.

Changing lighting around farms could also open up new tourism opportunities. Farms that also operate as B&Bs, for instance, can flag to tourists that they are part of a dark skies friendly community programme. This is an accreditation scheme for businesses that improve their lighting systems in accordance with international dark sky standards.

While UK national park authorities have powers to enforce planning restrictions on lighting, in places outside national parks, the UK lacks a comprehensive national regulatory framework to govern rural skyscapes.

The lesson in North Yorkshire and beyond is not that farms should switch off their lights. It is that lighting can be used responsibly to contribute to the stewardship of one of the countryside’s most valuable resources: the natural night sky.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Telefonica revealed it reused or recycled more than 4 million devices in 2025, as the operator steps up efforts to hit its zero-waste target by 2030.

The Spanish operator said 95% of its waste was reused or recycled during the year, including 3 million routers and set-top boxes. Devices were collected from customers, operations and offices, with 75% reused and the remaining 25% recycled.

Telefonica also reused more than 780,000 units of network equipment in 2025, adding this enabled it to meet the GSMA-backed industry commitment to reuse and recycle 100% of collected equipment.

In addition, the company claimed progress in mobile devices, collecting nearly 95 tonnes of handsets and reusing more than 357,000 units. It noted this represented 15% of all devices distributed, with all recovered handsets either reused or recycled.

Supplier engagement also forms part of the programme, with the operator working to include circularity in the procurement and equipment design stage through recycling, durability and repairability requirements. Telefonica explained its zero-waste strategy prioritises reuse, with recycling used when equipment cannot be put back into service. This approach helps avoid the manufacture of new equipment and cuts associated resource use and CO2 emissions.

Maya Ormazabal, global director of sustainability at Telefonica, said: “The circular economy is a priority pillar in our sustainability strategy and a key driver for advancing toward a more efficient, innovative, and competitive company.”

She added the approach enables the operator to “contribute to a more responsible use of resources and the reduction of environmental impacts associated with technological activity”, while supporting “more sustainable access to digital capabilities for society”.

The post Telefonica slashes e-waste footprint appeared first on Mobile World Live.

BYD is already the world’s largest EV maker, but the company’s CEO is confident it will become the world’s leading global automaker within the next five years.