Fertiliser costs have tripled so synthetic biology startups are re-inventing how its made
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This year, you might not know it, your food costs will increase not necessarily because of scarcity but because the cost of fertiliser tripled last year and for farmers and consumers in poor countries that’s almost a death sentence. Love the Exponential Future? Join...
One gram of DNA now capable of storing over 500Pb of data thanks to synthetic DNA breakthrough
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The rate of information growth is now so vast that in a century the planet could end up being just one giant datacenter, so we need new ways to store huge volumes of data cheaply and easily. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential...
In a world first researchers created a digital cell that grows like the real thing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF By digitising biology in this way it means one day we will be able to create and test new cures for all kinds of diseases at digital speed. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read...
Disney just got closer to nailing life-like androids
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Noone would take one of today’s robots for a human, so Disney’s development teams have been zeroing in on the fine details to close the gap. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Researchers find a new way to train AI’s to protect them from deadly adversarial attacks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more of the world comes to rely on AI adversarial attacks pose a particular challenge to companies and people in critical industries who are responsible for the safety of people and systems. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
New Mantis Shrimp inspired camera will make self-driving cars safer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over the past few years people have been killed when their semi-autonomous cars got confused and blinded by the Sun so scientists have turned to biology to solve the problem. A little while ago a man driving a Tesla on autopilot was killed when...
Researchers unveil the first telepathic link between a robot and a human
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of the biggest problems in manufacturing is having to re-train robots to complete new tasks, but now Robot-Human telepathy could make that problem disappear. Those of you who wish others could read your mind must think it’s Christmas – whether it’s because Zuckerberg seems...
Photosynthesis breakthrough crams millions of years of plant evolution into months
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Scientists have used gene editing to turn off specific plant genes to boost plant growth by 15%, if transplanted into rice, maize and wheat this could help reduce famine and hunger in the world without the need to use extra fertilisers or chemicals. Scientists...
