Three people played Tetris telepathically together in world first
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we unlock more secrets of the human brain we are slowly but surely getting better at communicating with each other telepathically. Telepathic communication is nothing new but it’s still in its early years as a technology. The first major telepathic breakthrough came in 2012...
Virgin Atlantic completes world’s first biofuel trans Atlantic flight
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The global airline industry is one of the world’s heaviest polluters, and new clean sources of fuel are vital in helping the industry become more sustainable. First Alaskan Airlines flew an aircraft using nothing more than wood pellets, but now Virgin Atlantic has gone...
Researchers 3D print human corneas in world first
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tens of millions of people a year go blind because of a lack of donor corneas, this work will, literally, give them a new outlook on life. There are so many parts of the human body now that can be 3D printed that it’s...
World first as scientists just turn human blood cells into human eggs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Biology keeps surprising us, and scientists are finding amazing new ways to treat infertility and create new life. Scientists at Kyoto University in Japan have announced they’ve made significant progress in the quest to combat infertility by creating the precursor to a human egg cell in a...
World first as Japanese rovers relay incredible photos from distant ancient asteroid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In galactic terms Earth’s neighbourhood is huge, and we’re only just beginning to explore it. First Japan wants to be the world’s first country to drill a hole through the Earth’s mantle, and build the world’s first space elevator, and now the Japan Aerospace...
World’s first AI government policy maker gives China a diplomatic advantage
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI will play an increasingly central role in both government policy making and governing as China rolls out their first AI policy maker. If you’re a foreign policy maker with a government then, whether you like it or not, you’ll soon be working with...
Estonia becomes the world’s first virtual nation capable of rebooting itself
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Technology is showing us how ancient the concept of the traditional nation state is, and as virtual nations take shape being able to reboot them in times of war is crucial. How do you reboot an entire country? It’s an odd question, but in...
World’s first space elevator hitches a ride to the ISS to begin first trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cost of getting astronauts and cargo into space is still astronomical, a space elevator could eliminate the need for costly rocket launches and democratise access to space. Let’s be honest, launching things into space with rockets is a pretty inefficient way to do...
World’s first digital teacher starts work teaching kids about energy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI, avatars and bots will play an increasingly central role in the future of education, and Will is the first teacher of his kind. It’s back to school time for millions of children around the world and you know what that means – it’s...
IBM injected a virus into a neural net to create an undetectable cyberweapon
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Even today’s cutting edge cybersecurity products have no defence against virus laden, weaponised neural networks. It’s been a very busy few weeks in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and neural networks with the creation of the world’s first DNA neural network, and the world’s...
Artificial General Intelligence is here, DeepMind unveils its Impala AGI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The development of an AGI that can master tens, hundreds, and eventually thousands or millions of subjects is the “holy grail” of AI, and it will change every corner of society. One of the most significant Artificial Intelligence (AI) milestones in history was quietly...
Scientists have 3D printed the world’s first physical neural network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print advanced and complex AI’s mean we can produce them cheaply and position them at the edge of networks where computer power might be limited. Recently a team of researchers in the US revolutionised artificial intelligence when they made the world’s first...
Scientists created a DNA Neural Network and the world’s first “test tube AI”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI neural networks made out of DNA will let us create “AI’s in a test tube” that will usher in the next AI revolution and exponentially increase the number of AI use cases. Recently we’ve seen significant advances in the development of living biological...
Revolutionary injectable brain implant restores mobility in paralysed patients
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People with paralysis or nervous disorders could soon be regaining their movement thanks to a revolutionary new form of wireless brain machine interface. Imagine if a tiny matchstick sized brain implant could circumvent damaged spinal cords and help paralysed people, and anyone for that...
This is the world’s first 3D printed carbon fiber bike
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Carbon fiber’s light weight and superior strength make it idea for many applications, but up until now it’s been expensive and very difficult to work with to create products, that’s all about to change. Modern carbon fibre bikes, stiffer and stronger than their metal...
BMW and MIT create the world’s first 3D printed inflatable material
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to 3D print materials with different and unique properties opens up a whole new range of use cases and applications, from car design to implanted medical devices, to soft robots and beyond. A two year collaboration between BMW and MIT has produced...
General AI, the “holy grail” of AI, demonstrated for the first time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI’s that can learn quickly, and from very small data sets, will fundamentally change how we train AI’s, their capabilities, and how fast they are deployed into the market. Recently we saw a new “Master algorithm” that could be used to create the first...
Editing living memories demonstrated for the first time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We all have memories we’d like to change, keep, or even, perhaps, edit, embellish, or erase, and now the technology to do all of these and more, including correcting blindness and reversing dementia, has just been demonstrated in living subjects. Recently scientists transferred memories...
Scientists turned live bacteria into the world’s first biological computer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF You could argue that DNA is actually the oldest programming language on Earth, and today we’re starting to learn how to write and program it in new ways to create new a completely new class of living, biological computers. Hot on the heels of...
Scientists stored a movie inside a living bacteria, then replayed it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today our computing platforms are mechanical and non-organic, but tomorrow’s will be biological, and immensely powerful, this is just one of a host of breakthroughs in the space. The bacteria E. coli might sometimes make us sick, but they have served as a workhorse in science...
