In a world first an AI just made it’s own synthetic human genome
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF What happens when AI can design its own humans? And then breed them ex vivo? The future is weirder than you could ever imagine … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Have...
The french government just signed off on cyborg soldiers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The new announcement opens the door to France developing future cyborg soldiers … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Cyborgs – every sci fi fan loves them when they’re in the movies....
Futurist Podcast: The impact of emerging tech 2020 to 2050, Mark Metry
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world is changing at a faster rate now than at any other point in human history, and no part of human culture, industry, or society is protected from it. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from...
Nanogenerator breakthrough generates electricity from the blood in your veins
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As researchers continue to develop micro-machines and implanted medical devices that live within our bodies we might need to find new ways to power them. Humanity has been generating electricity from flowing water for millennia using everything from watermills to huge hydro-electric dams, but...
Scientists are creating next generation vaccines that are contagious
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way that we vaccinate people today is, arguably, outmoded, but the next generation of vaccines that are being produced could be contagious and that could change health, and healthcare, forever. What if you never got ill again? Ever. I’m not talking about not...
Indian regulators green light two companies to bring people back from the dead
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New technology is pushing the boundaries on life extension, and now death, and there are an increasing number of voices that think death is no longer inevitable. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my...
Scientists two headed ‘Franken-Rat’ paves the way for human head transplant trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Scientists have been performing head transplants on animals for decades, and now a Chinese team want to move to human trials by the end of the year Following hot on the heels of the creation of a Human-Animal hybrid “animal,” a team of Chinese...
Artificial womb gives new meaning to Lamb in a Bag
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Hundreds of thousands of babies are born prematurely and, one day, this breakthrough will offer parents new hope, it could also signal the beginning of humanity’s ability to create huge Star Wars like clone armies… In February a team of researchers from the UK’s Cambridge...
3D printed cartilage breakthrough offers millions of suffers new hope
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cartilage is unique in that it doesn’t grow back, leaving Arthritis patients, and cancer and injury victims with no option but surgery, now though 3D bioprinting offers them all new hope. Loosing a part of your body, such as an ear, knee or a...
Second anti-aging pill that extends lifespans by a quarter heads to human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A bacterium found on Easter Island is the source of a drug that extends life in lab animals, and researchers want to know if it could do the same for humans, but research and regulatory hurdles may make the road ahead a long one. ...
Promising anti-aging treatment that extends lifespans by a third heads for human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Anti-aging research has been going through a renaissance over the past few years, and now scientists plan on starting the first human trials. Over the past few years there has been more investment, and more interest in anti-ageing technologies, and while some scientists have...
Lifting the curtain on NeuraLink, Elon Musk’s adventure to connect humans and machines
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As artificial intelligence gets better at out performing humans visionary entrepreneurs like Elon Musk want to make sure humanity isn’t left on the sidelines, a footnote in an AI history book. Earlier this week wannabe Mars explorer, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, founder and billionaire...
Scientists discover a giant neuron around the brain that could explain conciousness
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of life’s mysteries is why life exists in the first place, and the mystery of consciousness comes a close second, but the latter might be about to be solved. Consciousness has long baffled, well, everyone. Let’s face it – noone really knows why...
The Terminator bought to life, researchers want to put artificial human skin onto robots
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots with human skin are nothing new, at least in sci-fi terms, but we now have the technology and a reason to make it happen… This week researchers Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and Andrew Carr from the University of Oxford announced that they believe robots dressed...
US Army to develop artificial human skin and powdered blood
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Blood has to be stored carefully, and skin is in short supply but new developments would mean they’re available anywhere, anytime. Researchers, doctors and bio-technicians at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research are working on new, more efficient ways to administer blood to...
Scientists have 3D printed functioning artificial human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print artificial human skin, on demand will change the lives of burns victims and reduce the need for animal testing. A few months after Stanford University announced it had created the world’s first artificial skin substitute, now researchers in Spain have...
New ‘Cyborg’ brain implants could help paralysed people walk again
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we’ll communicate with machines and other people using a form of telepathy, these new glassy carbon sensors just moved us another inch forward. Over the past few years advances in the field of Brain Machine Interfaces (BMI’s), which are essentially interface...
Artificial intelligence diagnoses disease by listening to your voice
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Your voice can tell people a lot about how you’re feeling, but now machine learning is taking diagnosis to the next level. Over the past few years technology has been finding a way to produce more and more innovative ways to diagnose disease, but...
New micro-rocket will one day travel round your body fighting disease
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Miniaturised rockets that can travel around your body at will, tracking and tackling disease, repairing tissue and looking for the early signs of cancer would usher in a healthcare revolution. In the 1980’s one of the decade’s most popular films was one called “Innerspace” where...
Scientists have developed the world’s first working artificial womb
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In an age when we can create motherless and fatherless embryos, and where artificial humans are on the horizon, one day artificial wombs could be commonplace. In what’s considered a landmark experiment, researchers in the US and the UK have managed grow human embryos to 14...
