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...
Coup prediction algorithms are here to save and wreck democracy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to predict peoples behaviours before they occur can be useful, but it can also be dangerous if they’re in the wrong governments hands. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech...
This sci-fi like E. coli biocomputer solved a classic maze problem with no errors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of computing is a lot more sci-fi than you might think and we’re building that future today … 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...
World’s first living robots made by AI surprise scientists by spontaneously reproducing themselves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI, supercomputers and scientists created the world’s first living programable robots from frog cells, and they just spontaneously reproduced themselves surprising the everyone … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and...
Ocean Cleanup ships could be powered with the plastic they recover from the ocean
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It would be rather ironic if plastic helped fuel the ships that are collecting plastic from the oceans but that’s possible … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch...
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...
Genetically engineered barcoded spores could help improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When things go wrong in the global supply chain it can be hard to find and fix the fault and recall the products, this improves the situation. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my...
Revolutionary flat nano-thin cameras edge closer to mass production
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Metalenses are revolutionary – they’re nano-thin and flat which makes them the future of camera technology, now they could be manufactured at millionths of cents on the dollar. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from our...
A brain switch helped put mice into suspended animation, could do same for humans
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Putting humans into suspended animation would give surgeons more time to operate on critical patients, and help us colonise far off worlds, and we’re getting closer to it. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. As humanity continues to look...
Scientists are developing a face mask that lights up if it detects Covid-19
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Detecting the presence of Coronavirus is difficult, this makes it as easy as strapping on a basic face mask. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Coronavirus, Covid-19, is having a devastating impact on people and one of the...
Harvard invents self-healing rubber to nail your tyre’s puncture problems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While this is one example of how self-healing materials will be useful there are millions more use cases. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. If the world is free of flat tires a couple decades from now, you...
Harvard’s new multi-material 3D printer makes printing soft robots faster and easier
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many 3D printers still only print one material, or at best switch between different materials very slowly, this new printer therefore opens up a host of new use cases. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. 3D printers are...
An AI built to generate “Fake News” is now helping detect it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we won’t be able to believe everything we see or read, irrespective what the content is, so we need new ways to separate truth from fiction. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. In February OpenAI,...
Scientists just put human livers into suspended animation for the first time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The longer it takes for human transplant organs to be transported to the hospital the higher the chance the transplant will fail, this would solve that problem. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. A little while ago I...
Scientists want to use a silica blanket to terraform Mars
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If we are going to colonise other planets then somehow we need to make them less inhospitable to life, and this is one step in the terraforming process. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Recently I wrote about...
Scientists want to use man-made volcanic eruptions to solve climate change
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more scientists complain that Plan A to solve climate change isn’t working, some are working on Plan B. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. One of the biggest problems with climate change is that any solution we...
Molecular storage breakthrough stores information for millions of years without energy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the amount of information we create and store increases exponentially we need new radical ways to store it for long periods of time. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Books can burn. Computers get hacked. DVDs degrade....
Researchers use AI to create a “Self-driving lab” to solve climate change
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It doesn’t look like we humans are having much luck when it comes to solving climate change, so scientists are now getting AI onto the case. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. In...
MIT’s CRISPR gene editing alternative inserts new DNA without cutting
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Using the CRISPR gene editing tool to cut and edit DNA sequences can create unintended side effects, and CAST eliminates the cutting process. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. The CRISPR gene editing system is such a powerful and revolutionary...
Scientists hunt for “Kryptonite to stop CRISPR,” the world’s most powerful gene editing tool
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In time the cost and ease of modifying any living organisms genome and genetic makeup, for better and worse, will fall to almost zero, and as gene editing tools become democratised and sought after by Bio-Terrorists, researchers are trying to find the technology’s Kryptonite –...
