Building materials are made from plants (Image: CNET) A research team at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Sciences has found a way to create durable, strong building materials that are still edible. These materials are very special as they are made from plants. Mashed cabbage leaves, seaweed and banana peels may not sound appealing, but they can be part of a recipe for sustainable building products. “Our goal is to use seaweed and leftovers to create sustainable building materials,” says Yuya Sakai, a sustainable building materials expert and lead author of an upcoming study on the material. building materials are at least as strong as concrete. But since we are using edible food waste, we were also interested in determining whether the recycling process affects the taste of the starting material.” The team tried a heat pressing technique commonly used to compress wood pulp into building materials. Instead of wood, they are vacuum-dried and then ground into a variety of foods and leftovers, including onion and fruit peels, as well as cabbage. “The processing technique involves mixing food powder with water and spices, then pressing the mixture into a mold at high temperature.” All the products obtained, except for the pumpkin peel, passed the group’s strength and endurance tests. Researchers have found a solution to the pumpkin problem. “We also discovered that Chinese cabbage leaves, which can be made into a material three times stronger than concrete, can be mixed with the material,” said Kota Machida, a collaborator on the project. made from pumpkin to enhance the effect”. The materials are still edible, although the team did not say whether they would be difficult to chew. Even exposing the material to air for four months does not change the taste and there are no problems with insects or rotting. The development of building materials from crushed food is still in the early stages, but perhaps one day you can build a place to live and then use it for food when it is no longer needed.

Welcome to the hotel of dinosaur robots. (Photo: Internet) The check-in process of visitors is easy when the two unique dinosaur receptionists at Henn na Hotel can speak 4 foreign languages: Japanese, English, Chinese and even Korean Country. Thanks to the tablet system, you can completely choose the method of communication with these interesting employees without having to worry about the language barrier. Coming here, you will experience the feeling of “interacting” with the robot dinosaurs. (Photo: Internet) More specifically, these two employees are also able to communicate using “body language” thanks to their long clawed hands and simple pre-programmed sentences. Passengers proceed to check-in with the “help” of the dinosaurs. (Photo: Internet) The hotel’s robots and management systems were designed by Kawazoe Lab, the Institute of Industrial Sciences at the University of Tokyo, and construction company Kajima. According to the hotel managers, the service robots here are very friendly and operate extremely efficiently. These dinosaurs are very friendly! (Photo: Internet) Not only stopping at the front desk, the interesting and uniqueness is still waiting for visitors when they come to the room. In each room, in addition to the necessary equipment that every hotel has, at Henn na Hotel, there are also small robot staffs that assist guests with everything from changing TV channels to turning on music. Inside a room at the Henn na Hotel. (Photo: Internet) Besides, this place is also equipped with many other modern technologies, such as not needing a key but using facial recognition to open the room door. Each room has sensors to control the lighting system, if no one is in the room, it will be controlled to turn off automatically. The space of the hotel is also designed in the style of “jungle” with different large and small dinosaurs. (Photo: Internet) Although most of the work is done by robots, the Henn na Hotel still has operators behind, especially the security department. Accordingly, security staff will monitor the hotel through the camera system to ensure the safety of guests as well as prevent the risk of expensive robots being stolen. These people also help with technical problems in the robots, if any. One of the branches of the Henn na Hotel. (Photo: Internet) In addition, housekeeping is a step that robots cannot do, so it also requires human hands. It is known that the price of staying at Henn na Hotel is about 9,000 yen ($72) per double room, much cheaper than other hotels of the same class.