A radical new fusion reactor could disrupt how all future fusion reactors are built
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way that scientists are using today to try to create the world’s first working fusion reactors might already be old hat after scientists found a way to short cut the process. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Spray on solar panels and solar skins push green energy to the next level
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we find new ways to create new types of solar materials we can see a day when you won’t need to plug anything into an electricity grid. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. The amount of electricity...
New Lithium-Sulfur batteries have five times the capacity of Lithium-Ion
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the world tries to move away from fossil fuels we’re seeing an explosion in the number of new battery and energy innovations like this one. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Researchers have developed a new battery. Yes,...
Lab grown meat could make eating T-Rex and Zebra burgers completely normal
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If you can grow any meat, from any animal, in a lab without ever having to rear, raise, or harm an animal then why wouldn’t eating exotic meats become culturally acceptable? Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. If...
Gallium “heartbeat” discovery gives re-configurable electronics a boost
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s electronics are static, but tomorrow’s electronics will be able to re-configure themselves automatically as needed. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. A drop of liquid gallium will oscillate like a beating heart when placed inside a ring-shaped...
World’s first vaccine entirely designed by an AI heads to human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There is a lot of hype about using AI to help design and discover new drugs, but we are starting to see results. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Researchers often spend billions of dollars and countless hours developing new...
Brick-bot Hadrian X gets to work building homes in Australia
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The combination of AI and Machine Vision are helping robots break new ground and take over more jobs and tasks from human workers. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More and connect with Matthew. Recently there have been a flurry of developments in...
Evolving robots discover new ways to walk thanks to AI advances
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People often think of robots as static things, with fixed forms that don’t evolve, but scientists are creating robots that can evolve to suit different situations. Evolution is a trip. On the one hand, it’s a seemingly simple mechanism -those best fitted to their environment have...
Breakthrough process lets researchers turn Carbon Dioxide back into Coal
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Climate change is getting harder to solve, and the effects are getting more severe so we need new ways to tackle it. Scientists from the Melbourne based RMIT University have announced they’ve developed a new technique using “a liquid metal electrolysis method to convert...
Scientists create Nanobionic plants that detect chemicals and could grow on Mars
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to bend nature to our will has its advantages, but it could also help us create plants that grow naturally on alien planets. Plants are naturally amazing little machines so, naturally, scientists think that giving them a bionic leg up could unlock...
Experimental vaccine for Celiac disease heads to human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF About 1 in 100 people have Celiac disease, and this could be the cure they’re all waiting for. Recently there have been several interesting vaccine breakthroughs, including the development of Contagious Vaccines, that mean vaccinate one person and suddenly everyone has the immunity, and...
Scientists have created the world’s first Star Trek like tractor beam
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If you’ve ever been too lazy to go and get something yourself then tractor beams are for you. Hot on the heels of researchers in the UK and US who over the years have created a variety of different types of tractor beams that...
Scientists jumped out of a plane to create a new wonder material
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Everything is made from some form of material, whether it be organic or inorganic, which means the right breakthroughs can change industries forever. Most people don’t care about materials – even self-healing materials, or state of the art programmable materials, or materials that will...
Revolutionary injectable brain implant restores mobility in paralysed patients
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People with paralysis or nervous disorders could soon be regaining their movement thanks to a revolutionary new form of wireless brain machine interface. Imagine if a tiny matchstick sized brain implant could circumvent damaged spinal cords and help paralysed people, and anyone for that...
Revolutionary blood test lets doctors see chronic pain in colour
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We all suffer from pain now and again, but for chronic pain sufferers the condition can leave them feeling depressed, disheartened, and isolated, this new test that lets people see pain could be a game changer. Around 100 million Americans are in pain right now. Chronic...
Scientists turn light into sound to create faster Photonic computers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Photonic computers will boost the speed of modern day computing by at least twenty fold, but while converting data into light is easy, getting it back again has proved a challenge. So far in the past few years we’ve turned light into a superfluid...
New graphene filter turns filthy water into drinking water
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world don’t have regular access to clean drinking water, and this breakthrough could help them. Every year millions of people around the world die from diseases they’ve contracted from drinking unclean water but now researchers in Australia have developed...
NASA inspired tech designed for outer space triples crop yields on Earth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As Earth’s population grows by another 2 billion in the next few decades scientists are coming up with new ways to feed them and produce food in previously unimaginable ways. Over the next few decades it’s estimated that the Earth’s population will grow by...
Researchers unveil the world’s first complete silicon quantum chip design
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Quantum computers promise unrivalled performance but all the chips designed so far are incompatible with today’s existing, silicon based legacy infrastructure, this breakthrough solves that and brings quantum computers with millions of Qubits within tantalising reach. Researchers have been trying to build quantum computers...
World’s first fully autonomous freight train goes for a spin in Australia
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While every transportation company on Earth is racing to build fully autonomous vehicle they’ve all been beaten to market by the world’s first fully autonomous freight train This week Rio Tinto, who are already operating the world’s largest autonomous dump truck, the 250 ton...
