Ultra high capacity bacterial made DNA hard drives get a boost with new funding round
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF DNA storage can store almost half an Exabyte of information in a gram, and is revolutionary. But it’s still early days for the technology. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and...
Scientists are using AI to dream up amazing new unnatural enzymes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Enzymes are crucial to all living things and to many human processes and activities, so revolutionising how we create them will change the world. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and...
New genetic firewalls keep engineered alien bacteria safe from outside attack
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We’re becoming increasingly adept at coding life and created new kinds of DNA, and that’s good and bad … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Viruses become CRISPR Trojan Horses to genetically re-engineer bacteria
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bacteria can be hard to reach, and even harder to genetically modify – until now. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. CRISPR, arguably the world’s...
Another breakthrough brings powerful molecular computers closer to reality
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Future computers won’t necessarily be silicon, they could be chemical, liquid, molecular, or even biological in nature. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. All life,...
Microbes can now make a rare in demand Cancer drug
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Using bio-manufacturing and genetic engineering we are getting better at re-programming nature to make us all kinds of products, from armour to drugs. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, ...
An AI just invented a new enzyme that breaks down plastics in weeks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Firstly AI creating new enzymes is a game changer that accelerates new product development, and secondly plastic is a scourge, so this breakthrough has a double whammy. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about...
A new DNA tool is speeding up vaccine development by a million fold
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In short? The faster we can create vaccines for diseases the fewer people that have to suffer or die from those diseases. Enough said? Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and...
Genetically engineered gut bacteria produce Parkinson’s drugs in vivo for patients
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF What if pharmacies and doctors weren’t in a remote building somewhere but in your body instead? Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. New research presented...
A new DARPA project is experimenting with living factories in space
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Why take stuff with you into space when bacteria and other bugs can make everything you need in situ? Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
New molecular assembler method makes manufacturing new drug compounds faster
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of manufacturing will be molecular assemblers, and while they’re already here and making products they have a long way to go before they mature. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential...
This tech-style startup is replacing cotton with clothes made from algae
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Growing cotton is environmentally intensive and has a large environmental footprint – algae doesn’t and it’s just as good. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Molecular farming means your next vaccine could be grown in a plant
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF What if your food could vaccinate you against diseases? And other odd questions … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. It’s a hot summers day and you bite down on a plump,...
MIT and Harvard scientists develop a face mask that detects COVID-19 in the air
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Were you exposed to the COVID-19 virus when you were out and about? Now you can find out … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. A little while ago I wrote about...
Speedo’s insane 3D printed whale inspired Aquaman swimsuit has its own onboard AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF All the technologies in this concept swimsuit are here already – that’s the real crazy part. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Just before the 2021 Olympic swimming trials Speedo unveiled an...
Bacteria manage to recycle plastic into vanilla flavouring in weird world first
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If you think plastics can only be recycled to make new plastics you’d be wrong. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. I see many weird things – such as molecular assemblers and...
A new mini 3D bio-printed Pancreas could spell the end of diabetes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Diabetes is quickly becoming one of the world’s top afflictions, and 3D printing could offer an on demand solution to end it forever. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Over the past...
Scientists built a perfectly replicating synthetic cell
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future not all organisms will be children of Mother Nature … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Synthetic cells and basic synthetic organisms that have no equal or equivalent in...
MIT’s lab grown wood and plants take aim at traditional farming and forestry
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Agriculture and forestry account for over 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, but what if you could grow only the parts of the plant you want in a lab like lab made meats using no chemicals and without any of the waste? Love...
Higher Steaks shows off the world’s first lab made bacon and pork bellies
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of food doesn’t involve raising animals for slaughter or growing crops in fields … and it’s arriving. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Amazon and Ocado are growing crops in vertical farms in warehouses, not open fields, companies are 3D printing beef...
