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...
Promising solar energy breakthrough could replace steel making blast furnaces
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dirty industrial processes use huge amounts of energy and heat to create cement, glass, and steel, and now we have a way to replace them with green energy. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Creating cement, glass, and...
Researchers create a bone like metal foam that heals at room temperature
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When metal breaks it takes a huge amount of energy and heat to fix it, but this new breakthrough fixes that problem. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. For 6,000 years, humans have been making things from metal...
4D Bio-Printing emerges to help scientists print better human organs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D Printing human organs has its problems so scientists created a 4D Bio-Printing technology to solve them and pave the way for better printed, on demand, human organs that grow with their hosts. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my...
Scientists develop the world’s first infinitely recyclable plastic
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s plastics can’t be recycled forever because of the way they’re made and the way recycling systems today work, but a new breakthrough solves both these issues. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Recycling sounds great in principle,...
Watch the world’s largest 3D printer print a 25 foot boat
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing improves sustainability, lets us print products on demand and eliminate global supply chains, and revolutionises manufacturing. Now it’s scaling. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Boeing said many years ago that one day they’d like to...
Pinsized sensor brings chemical identification to your smartphone
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are plenty of situations when you want to know what something’s made from, such as food or goods, and soon that power will be in your smartphone. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Imagine pointing your smartphone...
University nabs multi-million pound to create next gen reconfigurable electronics
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When electronic systems are manufactured today they’re fixed forever, but in the future they’ll be able to re-configure themselves opening up millions of new use cases. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More and connect with Matthew. The University of Southampton in the...
Featured Futurist: How 4D Printing Will Shift the Shape of Manufacturing, SAP
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way we design, imagine, and build products is being revolutionised by the emergence of creative machines and new sci-fi like manufacturing technologies. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More and connect with Matthew. In a brief period, 3D printing — the process...
Ingenious new fabric cools you down and warms you up
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We adapt to the weather by changing our clothes, but in the future our clothes will be able to adapt to the weather. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Recently I wrote about a new type of 3D printed fabric...
NASA steps into the unknown with project to 3D print spacecraft in orbit
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Launching equipment and satellites into orbit is expensive, space limited, and slow, so NASA wants to eliminate these bottlenecks and 3D print and assemble objects in space. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. A little while ago I discussed...
Synthetic lifeforms closer to reality after AI creates world’s first synthetic genome
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The creation of the world’s first fully synthetic genome by an AI is a major milestone in synthetic biology researchers quest to create the world’s first fully synthetic lifeforms. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Scientists from ETH Zurich...
Designer cells with two genetic codes give life on Earth a serious upgrade
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future not all life will be organic, increasingly more of it will be synthetic, and that’s a game changer that at the very least means aliens and the X-Men could become real. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore...
KIT’s haptic tech brings a sense of touch to industrial control systems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We have five senses, but we only use two of them, hearing and sight, when interacting with technology, haptics introduces the sense of touch to interfaces. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. To perceive our surroundings humans can draw...
Artificial Photosynthesis breakthrough turns Carbon Dioxide into plastic
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today plastics are made from harmful fossil fuels, but this new process eliminates them from the manufacturing process. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. From fuels, to foam mattresses, to high performance carbon fibers and carbon capturing self-healing materials, scientists are...
Scientists have created a living material that has the three signs of life
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We often think of materials as static things, but what if they were alive? Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. The line between man made materials and living organisms is getting more blurred as time goes by, and it...
New self-healing material rebuilds itself using carbon from the air
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future it will be taken for granted that materials can self-heal, and they’ll be able to do it in a multitude of ways. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. In a world first researchers at MIT in...
New 3D printed material heals itself after being cut in half
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This is one of the first combinations of 3D Printing and Self-Healing materials, and it’s how many materials could be made in the future. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Recently teams of researchers showed off their self-healing computer...
Baxter the robot fixes its mistakes by reading your mind
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dealing with today’s technology can be cumbersome, which is why researchers think things would be better if it could simply read your mind. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Baxter is but a child, a robot child with...
“Green” concrete could help cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Concrete is a huge contributor to global green house gas emissions, so finding new ways to curb those emissions helps in the bigger battle against climate change. In an age where we can 3D print houses and entire communities using a range of different...
