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 –...
Nanoscale Metalenses put Virtual Reality in perfect focus, and eliminate headsets
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s VR headsets are still low resolution and big, this technology would reduce them to just millimeters thick and make UHD resolution the norm. If wearing a Augmented Reality (AR) glasses or Virtual Reality (VR) headsets is ever to become commonplace then hardware manufacturers...
Scientists have unlocked the secret to whole body regeneration
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Humans genetic ability to regenerate body parts naturally was “turned off” millions of years ago, but now scientists have found a switch that turns it on – in worms. When it comes to regeneration some animals are capable of amazing feats. For example, if...
3D Printing with sound, new tech opens door to printed cosmetics, food, and drugs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As 3D printing becomes more popular the ability to control the size of droplets opens the door to 3D printing everything from cosmetics and materials, to pharmaceutical drugs. Harvard University has announced that its researchers have developed a way to print objects using sound....
Rolls Royce is building cockroach like robots and snakes to fix airplane engines
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we’ll see more maintenance jobs performed by robots of all sizes. Typically engineers want to get bugs out of their creations but that’s not the case for Rolls Royce, the engineering company who are building everything from autonomous cargo ships and...
Scientists turned live bacteria into the world’s first biological computer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF You could argue that DNA is actually the oldest programming language on Earth, and today we’re starting to learn how to write and program it in new ways to create new a completely new class of living, biological computers. Hot on the heels of...
Scientists stored a movie inside a living bacteria, then replayed it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today our computing platforms are mechanical and non-organic, but tomorrow’s will be biological, and immensely powerful, this is just one of a host of breakthroughs in the space. The bacteria E. coli might sometimes make us sick, but they have served as a workhorse in science...
Harvard’s Metalense breakthrough could pave the way for real invisibility cloaks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to manipulate light is improving with every passing month, now a new Metalense breakthrough could help scientists create the first generation of genuine cloaking devices. For as long as human beings have been writing science fiction the dream of being able to...
Harvard revolutionises camera technology, invents Metalense
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Centuries after they were first invented most lenses are still made of plastic or glass and Harvard’s new metalense will revolutionise the industry and let us make cameras and lenses that, eventually, will be just atoms thick. Metalenses, flat surfaces that use nanostructures to...
MIT’s new Smart Tattoo is like having a doctor on your arm
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Wearables might not have taken off as much as anyone hoped but companies are still experimenting with new technologies that help us monitor and track our health better than before. Apparently there’s a common problem with health-tracking devices like smart watches and the other things that...
Google’s AI is helping scientists unravel the mysteries of the human genome
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With the advent of personalised medicine and new revolutionary gene treatments, being able to interpret and make sense of the vast volumes of human genomic data in order to better predict disease indicators and outcomes, and provide patients with better treatments, will become increasingly crucial....
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