Scientists use CRISPR to alter the genomes of fruit flies so they can eat poison
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As your understanding of genetics improves we have now reached the point at which we can cause mass extinctions, and change the ecology of the planet in one stroke. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Nature is a...
Google’s quantum computer allegedly achieves quantum supremacy milestone
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Quantum supremacy is the point at which quantum computers become the most powerful computers on the planet. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. This could be the dawn of a new era in computing. Literally. After years in...
Synthetic proteins with “unlimited potential” usher in new era of smart cell therapies
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New synthetic proteins, that are artificially made and unseen in nature, could usher in a healthcare revolution and open the door to new individually tailored treatments. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Medicine has a “Goldilocks” problem. Many...
Bioengineering breakthrough paves the way for tomorrow’s superplants
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Plants face a variety of stresses, whether it’s crops suffering as a result of climate change, or our new need to grow food on other planets, and this breakthrough makes engineering new plants faster. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote,...
Scientists develop bio-hybrid robots to decontaminate polluted water
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As Earth’s waters become more polluted we need to find new ways of de-contaminating them as quickly and as sustainably as possible. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! Watch a keynote, grab a free book, read thousands of articles, and connect! Bio-Hybrid Robots, that...
Facebook’s new non-invasive brain reading tech achieves 61 percent accuracy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future what’s in your head won’t stay in your head as companies develop new, powerful Brain Machine Interface devices, and that’s good and bad. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More and connect with Matthew. Back in 2017,...
New “unclonable computer chip” stops botnets in their tracks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the number of connected devices increases we need new ways to prevent them from being hijacked by cyber criminals. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. While we embrace the way the Internet of Things (IoT) already is making...
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...
Colorful bio-engineered bacteria could end fashions obsession with toxic dyes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The dye in your jeans, and most of your clothes, comes from countries whose dead rivers run red and blue, but now there’s a way to put an end to it, for good. Throughout the fall of 2012, Marie-Sarah Adenis and Thomas Landrain toiled...
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 –...
Blockchain startups are trying to break big tech’s hold on AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Companies with better brand recognition, and deeper pockets, are cornering the market for AI talent, but now companies want break that hold, and they have a way to do it. Despite how easy the combination is to mock, the idea of applying the Blockchain...
Scientists have created a decoder to turn brain activity into speech
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF For a wide range of reasons many people have speaking disabilities, but now a Brain to Speech breakthrough gives them their voices back. Scientists have announced a breakthrough in Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technology that has, for the first time, let them translate electrical...
First of a kind material lets solar panels generate electricity from snow
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our knowledge of materials and how they behave improves we can generate electricity from almost anything. Scientists have announced that they’ve developed a first of its kind material that generates electricity from nothing other than, wait for it… snow. Based upon the principles...
Researchers unveil the world’s first programable DNA computer prototype
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of computing isn’t silicon, it isn’t even quantum, it’s biological, and it’s coming. We’ve already turned bacteria into computing and storage devices that we’ve used to re-play videos from, and perform basic calculations, but just like tomorrow’s Biological computers DNA too, it’s...
Scientists discovered a way to read information directly from black holes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The physics behind Quantum Mechanics mean scientists have discovered a way to read information directly from within blackholes, which is just awesome. Black holes are gravitational monsters, squeezing gas and dust down to a microscopic point like great cosmic trash compactors, and they’re getting...
Experts believe Chinese scientist who Gene-Hacked twins “likely boosted their brainpower”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetic enhancement has a variety of unknown impacts on human biology and cognition, and we are no where near to understanding them. When now infamous Chinese scientists He Jiankui edited the genes of human twin babies last year, he was reportedly trying to make them immune...
World first as scientists get the “Extinction Gene” to work in mammals
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Gene drives over rule the laws of genetic inheritance, which means you can cure inherited genetic diseases forever, wipe out the entire human population, and everything in between. The phrase Gene Drive often sends a shudder down a scientist’s spine, one of awe and...
Researchers 3D printed a working spinal chord implant in 1.6 seconds
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today if you break your spine, you’re paralysed, but paralysis is increasingly no longer for life. 3D Bio-Printing, an offshoot of its better known cousin 3D Printing, lets scientists manufacture everything from real bones, cartilage, corneas and kidneys, to hearts, ovaries, skin, and teeth, by laying...
A lab grown brain just spontaneously started producing its own brain waves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF While we are becoming increasingly adept at growing brains, we still don’t know much about them. Researchers are doing a lot with brains – whether it’s growing them in jars, or even 3D printing them, but now a team of neuroscientists from the University...
Stuntmen face the last act as technology comes to replace them
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are increasingly few areas of work and society that technology isn’t influencing, and even stuntmen aren’t immune. A new Artificial Intelligence (AI) system has been used to create computer animated stuntmen that could make action movies cooler than before. Researchers at University of...
