Happy New Year! It’s that time of the day when we can take a moment to reflect on what was and think about what will be. It’s also the time in which many of your might still be on vacation and not yet back to work – so enjoy this special time of the year.
2020 we worked as hard as always to bring you interesting news and stories. As the TechAcute team always was working remotely, there wasn’t a big change for us, but there were other challenges still to manage. Yet I don’t want to bore you with that. Everybody had challenges in the last year, but I hope we helped you a little bit to stay on top of things.
In this article, we wanted to present you with some posts we did in 2020 that were particularly popular or discussed widely on social media. They are not sorted in any way, but we tried to have at least one post for each type of article that we do. Naturally, it’s not possible to do a large number of articles justice when you can only showcase ten of them, but I hope you enjoy these that we picked for you.
1. Getting rid of plastic waste forever?
Researchers Study Engineered Bacteria Able to Biodegrade Plastic
In our time and age, we should focus on reducing waste in all possible ways. Of course, it’s good to reduce the plastic that is created by changing how we consume, but who would say no to a method to biodegrade plastic?
2. Fuel cell gaining traction
Nikola & Bosch: First 40-ton Fuel Cell Truck for Mass Production
There was a lot of good news this year for fuel cell technology. One aspect was the adaption, and the pioneering of fuel cell vehicles, but equally important was the sustainable production of hydrogen by leveraging only renewable energy to run such plants.
3. 2020 was the year of 5G, and here’s how it works with the Edge
5G was all around us in 2020. The latest generation of mobile communication networks is on the brink of being made available for consumers and businesses alike. Truth be told, in some areas, they are already making use of 5G as of now. To some, the comparison and the explanation of collaboration didn’t make sense, but this article sums the concept up real nicely.
4. Who’s shadowbanned, and who’s not?
5G communication helps us to stay together with our friends, loved ones, and Twitter followers. But what if nobody heard what you’re tweeting? The concept of shadowbanning is not completely clear. At some point, Twitter denied manipulating the visibility of particular users, but later it was confirmed they had such a mechanism in place. This article explains what’s happening and how to check whether you’re shadowbanned or not.
5. Less invasive methods for glucose monitoring
FreeStyle Libre 3: The World’s Smallest and Thinnest Glucose Monitor
In 2020 we also saw a lot of technology that aimed at improving our lives outside of merely entertaining us or making us work more efficiently. At TechAcute, we always care about medical and health technology just as much. Because it’s not the fault of anyone how they are born or if they get sick at some point in their lives. Everybody deserves quality of life, and this article is an example of this.
6. VR is not only for games
Mother Wants Closure, Says Goodbye to Deceased Daughter in VR
VR has been around for a while. It had a bit of an appearance some decades back but is now making a stronger move into everybody’s homes, primarily as a device for entertainment. But in 2020, there was a particular project that had an entirely different focus. It’s strongly debated whether or not this sort of emotional closure is a good application for the technology or not, but check the article and form your own opinion.
7. Meetings all year long, but what did it cost?
With many people in remote working locations, many complained about the rising numbers of meetings that happen. From a business point of view, this not only makes people less effective as they feel meeting fatigue, but the people’s time also costs money, and everybody seems to be able to book any amount of time with any amount of people. Here’s the calculator to add some numbers to what your meetings cost your organization. Maybe better re-think how we schedule calls and appointments and who we invite – and why.
8. Meetings all year long (part two): Hit the nature!
That being said, reducing the number of meetings is one thing you could think about. The other is to think outside the box and move outside the box. Or at least move the box into nature. Outside Society designed a portable meeting space so you can have your meetings in the forest or other charming locations – now with social distancing features enabled.
9. A new form of art emerging
Things evolving around video games are usually not taken fully seriously by the group of people who have no idea about the subject matter or don’t care. This article goes deep into the essence of video game photography, also called virtual photography in a broader sense, and I was fortunate to get to interview a few experts and practitioners to provide their insight.
10. Play the classics for free in your browser
But it’s not all just about taking pictures or enjoying the art of others. In 2020 you certainly also needed to get some time for yourself, and we found this great source of retro gaming geekery for you. Play your old favorite video games from DOS in your browser now, and it won’t cost you a thing. Enjoy!
Bonus: Motivation that came in time for a challenging year
This article is actually from December 2019, but the tone and message couldn’t have set a better course for 2020. At that time, we still didn’t have a true sense of what COVID-19 would mean to us, but at least for me, this made it a little bit easier. We have hope that 2021 will get better, but perhaps you would also enjoy a bit of motivation and emotional power? Can’t get enough of that juice.
Thank you for being our reader, and I wish you a great year 2021!
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Kelly Sikkema.
Source: VirtualSpeech article by Dom Barnard.
