Caltech’s newest Smart Pill will one day track the nanobots in your body
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the next two decades or so we will be increasingly exposed to nanobots that can perform extraordinary feats as they move around inside our bodies, but up until now there’s not been any way to track them. The other day I made a...
World’s first holographic smartphone makes its debut
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Advances in nanotechnology and nanophotonics are helping companies make great strides in creating, and bringing to market, new holographic display systems and they’re only just getting started. A few months ago cinema camera maker RED came out with the surprise announcement that they were...
Researchers use just 14 atoms to build the world’s first 0.5nm transistor
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As silicon based transistors, the bed rock of today’s modern computing platforms, near their theoretical limits we will see the birth of several new types of computing platforms that will dominate the decades to come. We are always being told that Moore’s Law is...
Healing touch, Regenerative Medicine breakthrough reprograms skin cells
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tissue Nanotransference technology could help us heal organs quickly, and on demand, and put an end to the need for immunosuppressant drugs and the rejection of transplants This week scientists from Ohio State University announced a “breakthrough” in Regenerative medicine, the field of healthcare...
Printed transistor breakthrough opens door for printed electronics and smart goods
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to simply, and cost effectively, print transistors en masse will create millions of new use cases and help turn even the most mundane, dumb objects into smart ones Researchers at the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Center in Ireland have, for the...
A miniature CERN, scientists create a ‘Particle Accelerator on a Chip’
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Particle accelerators are enormous beasts but being able to miniaturise them and put them onto chips will democratise the technology and open doors for new discoveries in energy, healthcare, materials and many more fields of science. Sixteen months ago The Gordon and Betty Moore...
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...
Cryonics breakthrough could one day end transplant waiting lists
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Freezing objects is easy, defrosting them so they’re alive, or functional, is the hard part but now we’ve just made a giant leap forward. Recently we’ve seen breakthroughs in suspended animation, which one day might allow humanity to travel across galaxies and live to...
Harder than diamond, the meteorite diamond that’s made in a lab
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Scientists have managed to manufacture Lonsdaleite, an ultra-hard diamond found in meteorites, which could have implications for the mining and construction industries Ever since Lonsdaleite was discovered inside fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite in 1967, the mysterious hexagonal diamond has divided the scientific...
Antivenom made from nanoparticles could treat bites from any snake
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over 100,000 people die and another 4.5 million people are seriously affected by poisonous animal bites each year, now a broad base nanoparticle anti-venom could help save countless lives. Not all anti-venom is created equal. Different types of snakes produce different types of toxins....
New nanomaterial exploits radiation to create more powerful nuclear reactors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Todays nuclear reactors are limited by their operating temperatures, this new nanoceramic material could dramatically increase the temperatures they can operate at and increase both their power production and efficiency An international team of researchers have created a nanoceramic material that not only can...
This scuba mask concept lets divers swim without tanks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New nanomaterials that can filter and separate out a wide variety of chemicals, organic materials and particulates have many uses, from filtering pollutants from seawater to filtering bacteria from blood. South Korean designer Jeabyun Yeon has unveiled his new concept of a scuba mask...
Nanocrystal discovery turns normal glasses into night vision specs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New advanced manufacturing techniques, such as nanomanufacturing, are helping scientists create metamaterials that have new, previously unseen properties which pave the way for a raft of new applications Night vision goggles do a great job of countering the human eye’s poor ability to see...
Drones are fighting back against laser attacks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Drones are seen by many military and terrorist organisations around the world as the new weapons platform of choice and working out new ways to destroy and disable them is a top priority but it’s a game of cat and mouse. Back in 2014,...
Scientists have created the worlds first artificial neuron
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Neurons play a crucial role in helping ensure our bodies run smoothly, but when they’re damaged, or degrade there can be dire consequences, from dementia to quadriplegia, this breakthrough might let us restore, or even enhance, neurological functions. Researchers have built the world’s first...
Scientists have found a way to turn your body into a computer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A chemical computer, one that doesn’t use electrical signals to communicate, means that we now, potentially, have a way to send computer instructions around the human body that won’t interfere with our nervous system. You probably take it for granted that the devices that...
Scientists have designed a nanoscale computer that’s smaller than a virus
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nanoscale computers could work inside, or outside the body to help control, direct and interact with other atomic, molecular or nanoscale devices and systems. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. While the...
Berkeley Lab team pushes the limits to build a 1nm transistor
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Berkeley Lab breakthrough might help to reboot Moores Law. Transistor size is an important part of improving the price-performance of today’s computer systems – the smaller your transistors, the more you can fit on a chip and the faster and more efficient your processor can be. Accomplishing...
World first as a brain chip implant helps paralyzed man feel again
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In a world first scientists have helped a paralyzed man experience the sense of touch in his mind-controlled robotic arm. The cutting edge experiment, a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, implanted electrodes smaller than a grain of...
Scientists create breakthrough everything-phobic nanomaterial
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Sadly ANU’s new everything-phobic spray won’t keep children clean but everything else is game. If you have not been able to bag an iPhone 7 or are still looking jealously at your friend’s dunk proof Galaxy, do not worry as scientists have created a...
