A Japanese telecom company has designed a robot that it says has emotions (情绪). But rather than run in fear from it, we’ve welcomed it into our homes: Pepper, the “emotional robots” sold out within a minute of going on sale.

Created by Aldebaran Robotics and Japanese mobile giant SoftBaok, Pepper went on sale to the general public in Japan on June 20. It is “the first humanoid (类人的) robot designed to live with humans,” Aldebaran says on its website. Pepper costs about $ 1,600. And like all good mobile products, there’s a $ 120 per month data fee, as well as an $80 per month damage insurance fee. According to a news report, Pepper can pick up on human emotions and create his own using a “multi-layer neural (神经的) network.” Pepper’s touch sensors and cameras are said to influence its mood, which is displayed on the tablet-sized screen on its chest.

Pepper will sigh when unhappy, and can go around your house recording your family’s daily activity. Aldebaran says Pepper can feel “joy, surprise, anger, doubt and sadness,” but it doesn’t say how strongly it can feel these emotions. What happens when Pepper is having a bad day? Will it, like many humans, become uncooperative? Will it ask for some time alone? What happens if it knows that its purpose in life is just to take part in small talk? Thankfully, Pepper is only about four feet tall, with roller balls instead of legs, so if it is angry with and even turns on its owners, you’ll be safe if you can make it upstairs.

Aldebaran says in reality, they’re probably quite a few years away from artificial intelligence that could create real emotions. Aldebaran wasn’t immediately able to tell when Pepper will be available out of Japan, but additional sales are scheduled for July after the first 1,000 units sell out. SoftBank currently uses the robots in its stores as greeters, and it plans to offer Pepper to other stores in the future. Hopefully “boredom” is not an emotion Pepper can feel.

Robots used to be found only in science fiction. In the 1960s, the animated (动画片的) space-age family the Jetsons had a robotic maid who could do household tasks. In the 2014 movie Big Hero 6, the robot Baymax could diagnose and heal illnesses instantly. 【小题1】 In the field of medicine, robot patients help train doctors and nurses by pretending they have a variety of health conditions. Now robots are finding a home in the food service industry.

The globally spread disease and resulting economic crisis have created a lack of restaurant workers. Since restaurants   don’t   have   enough   workers,   the   remaining     staff   must   work   harder. 【小题2】 Some businesspersons are lending a hand—a robotic hand—in the form of server robots. These robots are not exactly modeled after Rosey, the Jetsons’ robotic household servant, but they are pretty clever and very cute.

Server robots come in several different varieties. Many have a design that looks like a rolling cart. One model named Bella even has a cute cat-like face. Many are fairly short and shaped like R2D2 of Star Wars fame. They are designed to deliver dishes to customers in a restaurant. They are also just the right height for customers to easily reach them. 【小题3】 They can not only deliver delicious food to hungry customers, but also get back dirty dishes at the end of the meal.

【小题4】 Concerning the price, a server robot costs from a few thousand to several thousand dollars. And in 2021, a restaurant even rented one for as low as US$15 per day. Regarding safety, special sensors on the robots keep them from crashing into customers. Because there aren’t enough restaurant workers, filling positions with these robotic servers is a no-brainer. Don’t be surprised if you see one rolling up to your table soon.

Scientists based in Japan’s Osaka University have found a way to 3D print wagyu beef (和牛) in a lab—a step they believe will one day help make widely available and sustainably-produced cuts of cultured meat that is very similar to original products.

Using cells that they took from wagyu cows, the Japanese scientists set out to create a structure with the special feature seen in wagyu beef that makes it different from other cuts of beef. By isolating beef cells, the scientists organized how muscles, fat and other cells should be placed. The researchers then shaped these tissues (组织) into the form of a steak using a technique called 3D bioprinting (生物打印), where cell structures can be made to look like real tissues in living things. The researchers believe that the development could be a big step toward a sustainable future. Its origins from real meat also make it different from plant-based options.

“By improving this technology, it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures, but also make small adjustments to the fat and muscle components,” Michiya Matsusaki, one of the project’s researchers, said excitedly in a statement. Michiya added that with these adjustments, more customers might one day be able to order a cultured cut of meat with the amount of fat they like, tailor-made to their tastes and health concerns.

Wagyu beef is known to be extremely expensive, with high-grade wagyu fetching prices of up to $200 per pound and adult cows selling for more than $30, 000. In 2019, Japan’s wagyu exports ranked in a record high of $268.8 million in profits, up 20% from 2018.

While this might be the first cut of wagyu beef ever to be 3D-printed, other attempts have been made to bio-print steaks. In February this year, Aleph Farms and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology jointly bio-printed and cultivated a rib eye steak using real cow cells.