Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #17

The Future of Weapons - The XM307 Rifle


I don't condone violence or wars in any way, but I have to admit: the technology behind this weapon is amazing. This highly advanced, super accurate, recoil-free sniper rifle can program bullets to explode right after entering a window, thereby taking out any bad guys who might be hiding in the room.

In only a few minutes, it can be modified to be a .50 machine gun, powerful enough to take down walls.

You have to see it to believe it, so I have included a demonstration for your viewing pleasure:


Project Epoc - Mind Reading Device for Gamers


Higgs boson: Glimpses of the God particle

Dutch pioneer floating eco-homes

Reverse-engineering the brain's circuitry

Marvin Minsky On The Future Of Artificial Intelligence

To Be Almost Human Or Not To Be, That Is The Question (robots)

Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area

Heliodisplay/ Interactive Free-Space Display

Iranian family key to fatal heart gene

U.S. to develop new hydrogen bomb (requires subscription, get free login info at www.bugmenot.com)

Shell turns to wood chips and straw in search for the road fuel of the future

An Alternative to the Computer Mouse (eyetracker)

Scientists Use Bacteria to Store Data

Medication 'Robot' Fits Inside Tooth

Cheap Nano Solar Cells

Nanorod coating makes least reflective material ever

Nanotechnology's Future

Have scientists found a way to read your mind?

The rice with human genes

Scientists Discover 'Natural Barrier' to HIV

Scientists claim first in using brain scans to predict intentions

Environmentally minded ingenuity drives the latest business wave to plant its roots in the Bay Area

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #16

Another cool bag of technology links.

Even more than in my previous post, but collected in about half the time.

How GPUs Work (have a look at tomorrow's level of realism in computer graphics)


James Bond-style strap-on jet pack flying wing to extend special forces


Detailed Roadmap of the 21st Century (should you have the desire to become a lucid dreamer... this clip will provide you with plenty of inspiration I think)


Dexter Walks (biped robot)


Future Forecasts for the Next 25 Years

Led Paint Drawing Technology

Lie detector software catches e-mail fibbers

Xerox Inkless Printer

Inter-planetary Internet expands to Mars and beyond

Chemical origami shrinks 2D discs into 3D objects

Nanotech Chain Mail Fabric a Perfect Fit

Milky Way Black Hole May Be a Colossal Particle Accelerator

The Future of Garbage

Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

Electricity from Seaweed

Mice get smarter with drug (requires login which you can get at www.bugmenot.com)

Body shop (cybernetics)

Carbon Nanotubes versus HIV

Bionic cat eyes help in battle against human blindness

What If the Singularity Does NOT Happen

Brain works more chaotically than previously thought

Chinese Scientists Control Pigeons With Brain Implant

First steps to develop artificial retina with nanotechnology

Scientists invent real-life `Star Trek Tricorder`

Gravity waves to show birth of cosmos

A hidden twist in the black hole information paradox

Regain walking ability with robot-driven leg support

The 12 greenest cars of 2007

Solar powered robot chariot

Nanotechnology Seen as Answer to Counterfeiters

Researchers safely regenerate failing mouse hearts with programmed embryonic stem cells

Let Robots Sweat the Boring Stuff

NASA tests moon building

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

Milestone for giant physics lab

Singularities and Nightmares

Fantastic animation that visualizes physiology of the body

Robots and Emotion

Nanotechnology in a small world

Army Developing Paralysis Beam

Algorithm helps computers beat humans at Go

Man Invents Machine To Cure Cancer

Electric switch could turn on limb regeneration

Easy Cheap Solar Heat

Microscope discerns atoms of different elements

The thinnest material ever and could revolutionise computers and medicine

AMD Demonstrates Accelerated Computing Solution that Breaks Teraflop Barrier

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #15

Here's another collection of technology links that I've collected in the past week.

I can't believe there's 43 of'em!!!

I'll do anything to please my readers. ;)


Robot Fish (very cool video)


Renewable fuels will revolutionize agriculture, says U.S. official

Trials for 'bionic' eye implants

Real game characters 'next year'

Robot-driven cars on roads by 2030: scientist

Science Finding Ways to Regrow Fingers

Grid computes 420 years worth of data in four months

Artificial lung a surgical first in North America

Dominican prostitutes, facing AIDS crisis, test experimental vaccine

Google to rule the Earth

Google's Page urges scientists to market themselves (also talks about AI)

Labgrown Replacement Teeth Fill the Gap

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

Scientists Create Super-Heavy Element

Steven Kosslyn on increasing human intelligence

Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half

Pet prosthesis - Dolphin recovers swimming ability with artificial fin

Robotic jacket has power up its sleeve (great picture)

Science finds new ways to regrow fingers

Tangled nanowires morph water droplets

Monkey Controls Robotic Arm with Mind (video)

A Tool Worthy of Batman's Utility Belt

Biologically Inspired Vision Systems

The Open Source Singularity

Vivid on-line videos demonstrate Superbot progress

Solar powered car

Intel Pulls 45nm Xeon Launch Into 2007

Selling Homeowners a Solar Dream

Korean researchers aiming for 100 GB flash memory cards

Virgin-birth method promises ethical stem cells

Solar Foil Technology to Cut Cost of Solar Power

Scientists Produce Neurons From Human Skin

Super Robots Gear Up for Space

The Promise of Personal Supercomputers

Darpa Chief Speaks (talks about AI)

Software That Will This Sentence Fix

Sharpest Manmade Thing

Einstein + bacteria DNA = organic computer breakthrough

Air Car Tantalisingly Close

PG&E eyes power grid plan to boost electric cars

Emotion robots learn from people

Scientists working out bugs for use in biofuel production

Making torn tendons tough

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Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #14

First off, a few links that talk about the latest demonstration of a quantum computer:

First "Commercial" Quantum Computer Solves Sudoku Puzzles

Prototype Commercial Quantum Computer Demo'ed

Start-up demos quantum computer

The Father of Quantum Computing


Next up, biotech, robots and cybernetics:

Human Stem Cell Transplants Repair Rat Spinal Cords

Robotic retina offers second chance for sight

Human-animal chimeras: from mythology to biotechnology

Human brain can make new cells: study

Growing a Brain in Switzerland

Pharm Animals Crank Out Drugs

Scientists expose HIV weak spot

Meet RoboNurse

Loans launch state's stem cell ambitions

Millions to benefit as first bionic eye comes to market


Some other stuff that's also cool:

Nanotech Battery Claims to Solve Electric Car Woes

'Flying' wind generators

Computer Model Mimicks How Brain Recognizes Street Scenes

Bright future for OLEDs, report predicts

Closeup of microscopic machinery


And last but not least:

Human Immortality: A Scientific Reality?

If you're alive in 20 years, you may be able to live forever.

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #13

Cloning mice from stem cells?

Curing autism?

Building CPU's with 80 cores?

Reading the mind?

Regenerating teeth?

Nothing seems out of reach for modern science these days.

Have a look for yourself...

Scientists Clone Mice From Hair Follicle Stem Cell

Biology Goes Open Source

Fermions Do Not Travel Together: Physicists Demonstrate Expected Effect Of Quantum Theory

Intel shows off 80-core processor

Revealing secret intentions in the brain

Reversal of Symptons in an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Reactor upgrades help researchers study nuclear fusion as energy source

Brain scan 'can read your mind'

Computers mimicking the brain

A Spherical Solar Cell From Japan: The Sphelar

Scientists Develop 'Natural' Breast Implants

Kurzweil: Biotech Will Drive Software Security

Intel Prototype May Herald a New Age of Processing

Envisioning the Future (of personal healthcare)

Possibities for self regeneration of teeth

Optical Chips Coming in 5 Years

MIT Says Optical Chips Coming in 5 Years

It's a problem chip manufacturers have known about for some time: As electronic components continue to grow more and more diminutive in size, the metal interconnects between them will soon cease to meet the needed performance criteria that devices demand.

This is where optical interconnections—or using light instead of an electrical current as a transmission medium—come into play. Engineers and physicists at MIT have devised a new method for integrating this photonic circuitry onto a silicon chip, a discovery that could soon add the power and speed of light waves to traditional electronics.

In fact, consumers could start to see entirely new devices, systems, and applications in computing and telecommunications that use "optics on a chip" within the next five years, MIT researchers said in a new study published in the Journal of Nature Photonics.

Virtual Model of Human Metabolism

Human metabolism recreated in lab

US researchers say they have created a "virtual" model of all the biochemical reactions that occur in human cells.

They hope the computer model will allow scientists to tinker with metabolic processes to find new treatments for conditions such as high cholesterol.

It could also be used to individually tailor diet for weight control, the University of California team claimed.

...

A team of six bioengineering researchers at the University of California analysed the human genome to see what genes corresponded to metabolic processes, such as those responsible for the production of enzymes.

They spent a year manually going through 1,500 books, review papers and scientific reports from the past 50 years before constructing a database of 3,300 metabolic reactions.

The information was then used to create a network of metabolic processes in the cell, similar to a traffic network.

Are Flying Cars Close to Reality?

Are we on the brink of the flying car?

For 50 years, science fiction has been tantalizing us with visions of airborne roadways and quickly maneuvering, sports-car-like flying cars. And for 50 years, companies have been chasing the dream, releasing the occasional prototype to keep their investors investing. Now, an Israeli company names Urban Aeronautics has made a bold projection: A flying car on the market by 2012.

Nanotech Breakthroughs

Breakthrough in nanodevice synthesis revolutionizes biological sensors

A novel approach to synthesizing nanowires (NWs) allows their direct integration with microelectronic systems for the first time, as well as their ability to act as highly sensitive biomolecule detectors that could revolutionize biological diagnostic applications, according to a report in Nature.

"We electronically plugged into the biochemical system of cells," said senior author Mark Reed, Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Engineering & Applied Science. "These developments have profound implications both for application of nanoscience technologies and for the speed and sensitivity they bring to the future of diagnostics."

In other words, we can turn our reactive healthcare system into a preventive healthcare system. That means we'll catch diseases in early developing stages and undertake measures to prevent them from happening. We'll be healthier and greatly curbing our healthcare costs.

This is one of the reasons why I'm optimistic for the future.


Scientists build nanomachine envisioned 150 yrs ago

"We have a new motor mechanism for a nanomachine," said David Leigh, a professor of chemistry at the University.

Scientists are trying to unravel the secrets of nanomachines and nanotechnology, which works on a tiny scale. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter, or about 80,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

"Molecular machines allow life itself to occur at a molecular level. Our new motor mechanism is a small step toward doing that sort of thing with artificial molecular machines," Leigh told Reuters.

"It is a machine mechanism that is going to take molecular machines a step forward to the realization of the future world of nanotechnology. Things that seem like a Harry Potter film now are going to be a reality."

Not sure what the Harry Potter remark is all about. I guess Leigh is just trying to get the world to brace itself for vast change...

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #12

First off, something that struck me as really special.

I was just surfing around and stumbled upon a video that demonstrated blind people receiving electrical signals to their tongues, which allowed them to see.

Cameras are used as replacements for their eyes and electrical signals are sent to their tongues. Eventually, or so the video claims, the blind person will start processing this input with their visual cortex.

This means they would actually see, just like you and me.

I looked up an article to go with the video. The article I found is from 2003 so it's already pretty old stuff. The technology is called BrainPort.

[update]I also found a newer article. The video shows the technology in its current state, not the 2003-state.[/update]

BrainGate technology pulled off something similar. BrainGate is responsible for allowing Mathew Nagel to move a mousecursor with his thoughts.


Also in this mixed bag, two lightly digestable, semi-scientific writings:

8 technologies to save the world

The scariest ideas in science


And then there's the rest of last week's breakthroughs:

Meet the world's first 45nm transistors (CPU's are getting so fast these days that it's just not funny anymore)

Scientists build memory chip as small as blood cell

Scientists restore gene to shrink tumors in mice

Biology's next revolution

Test printing a two story house

3D display screens videogaming needs

Liquid metal (no, not the Terminator)

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #11

The breakthroughs just keep on coming and I just keep on piling'em up!

I started this blog halfway through 2005 and back then, techno news wasn't coming in as quickly as it is now.

The exponential acceleration in scientific breakthroughs is obvious to me.

By reading this blog, it will become obvious to you as well.

Enjoy:

Scientists to attempt sending a signal into the past (yeah I know... it sounds whacked, but it's for real)

First there was RoboDoc, now there is RoboNurse

Neural extension cord developed for brain implants

Battery breakthrough

Putting the brakes on light speed

Bionic cat eyes may help humans

Nano-wheels seen rolling at last

Microbot to swim through arteries and digestive system

Can ageing be stopped?

Japanese scientists cage light

Bacteria turn toxins into plastic

Wind power growing rapidly in US

About the latest cancer cure

White House steps up push for ethanol

Hacking the human lifespan

Military builds robotic insects

The Future of Cars

The Perfect Electric Car?

The Phoenix Motorcars SUV will be introduced in late 2007, having a range of 130 miles, and can be recharged in less than 10 minutes with an off-board charging unit or trickle-charged overnight when plugged into a 220V power source, similar to the SUT. The estimated cost to recharge the battery pack is a small fraction of equivalent gasoline costs

Microsoft Blue&Me in-car computing coming to US via Ford in 2007

Remember Microsoft's Blue&Me project with Fiat, the one that equipped select models with an in-car computer system with all kinds of connectivity functionality? Well, we've learned from a source close to Microsoft's car-computer project that Microsoft and Ford are planning to announce the US availability of the system in 2007...

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #10

Where can you read about next generation videogames, nanotechnology, stem cell research, cancer breakthroughs and mysterious physics-coolness all at once?

Well, only at Our Technological Future ofcourse!

I have here no less than twenty tech-links for your entertainment. Enjoy!


Tests show 'artificial sun' is reliable

Edge Annual 2007 Optimism Questions - Marvin Minsky on Immortality

Next generation Ghostbusters videogame footage - looks very real

Cheap, safe drug kills almost all cancers

Soundtrack of Spore (upcoming videogame) to be generated in real time

Next generation videogames coming in 2007

Physicists closing in on mysterious missing particle

Cancer deaths drop for second year

Research removes major obstacle from mass production of tiny chips

Mach C? Scientists observe sound travelling faster than light

Intel builds 80-core chip

Intel shows 45-nm processors

Virtual reality spreading in business world

Folic acid sets back brain aging effects by 5 years

Scientist finds MRSA cure

Quantum computer demo dates announced

The rise of stem cell research - Did George Bush inadvertently jumpstart a stem cell revolution?

Desk of the future will power electronic devices

Entire image compressed to a single photon

Scientists find potential off-switch for HIV

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #9

Top 10 Robots You Can Buy

Research Continues For Deep Space Travel Propulsion

The Hydrogen Gold Rush Is On

The World's First Bionic Woman

Hundreds Will Test New Lung Cancer Vaccine

The World's First Hydrogen Race Coming In 2009

New Alzheimer Gene Identified

Robot House Builder Threatens Construction Worker Jobs

Anti Cancer Chicken Eggs Produced

Killing Cancer With Spicy Foods

How spicy foods can kill cancer

Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.

They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells' energy-generating boiler rooms.

The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.

...

The study showed that the family of molecules to which capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria to trigger apoptosis, or cell death, without harming surrounding healthy cells.

Capsaicin was tested on cultures of human lung cancer cells and on pancreatic cancers.

Lead researcher Dr Timothy Bates said: "As these compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers.

...

The fact that capsaicin and other vanilloids are already commonly found in the diet proves they are safe to eat.

This could make development of a drug containing them a much quicker and cheaper process.

Our Technological Future - Mixed Bag #8

Another collection of technolinks...

Home Robots Grow in Popularity

Scots Inventor Cracks Centuries Old Puzzle (energy)

Top 5 Robots of 2006

Super Soldiers: Tomorrow's 'Army of One' Technology

Scientists Discover Gene Therapy for Depression

Cancer Killing Invention Also Harvests Stem Cells

PCs Get Set to Scream in 2007

Gates Says Day of the Home-help Robot is Near

Stem Cells Regenerate Teeth in Pigs

GM's New Plug-in Hybrid

Genetically Modified Spud Healthier

Cancer Cure Breakthrough Thanks to Genetic Technology

British gene team are on the brink of cancer breakthrough

British scientists are on the verge of producing a drug that could revolutionise cancer treatment.

It shuts down the rogue genes that cause cancer and is due to be tested on humans for the first time in the next few months.

If successful, the drug will be used to stop the disease spreading to other parts of the body, at the same time improving quality of life and life expectancy.

The technique, known as RNA interference therapy, is still in its early stages of development but one day it could be extended to treat other conditions ranging from asthma to Aids.

The drug works by preventing genes from making disease-causing proteins. Similar in structure to DNA, it should halt the disease in its tracks.

...

The first human trials are due to start in the next few months and it could be on the market within three years.

Nanoparticles Destroy Cancer

Remotely Activated Nanoparticles Destroy Cancer.

The first in a new generation of nanotechnology-based cancer treatments will likely begin clinical trials in 2007, and if the promise of animal trials carries through to human trials, these treatments will transform cancer therapy. By replacing surgery and conventional chemotherapy with noninvasive treatments targeted at cancerous tumors, this nanotech approach could reduce or eliminate side effects by avoiding damage to healthy tissue. It could also make it possible to destroy tumors that are inoperable or won't respond to current treatment.

One of these new approaches places gold-coated nanoparticles, called nanoshells, inside tumors and then heats them with infrared light until the cancer cells die. Because the nanoparticles also scatter light, they could be used to image tumors as well. Mauro Ferrari, a leader in the field of nanomedicine and professor of bioengineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center, says this is "very exciting" technology.

"With chemotherapy," Ferrari says, "we carpet bomb the patient, hoping to hit the lesions, the little foci of disease. To be able to shine the light only where you want this thing to heat up is a great advantage."

Anti Aging Molecule Discovered

Anti-Aging Molecule Discovered

A team of South Korean scientists on Sunday claimed to have created a ``cellular fountain of youth,’’ or a small molecule, which enables human cells to avoid aging and dying.

The team, headed by Prof. Kim Tae-kook at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, argued the newly-synthesized molecule, named CGK733, can even make cells younger.

The findings were featured by the Britain-based Nature Chemical Biology online early today and will be printed as a cover story in the journal’s offline edition early next month.

``All cells face an inevitable death as they age. On this path, cells became lethargic and in the end stop dividing but we witnessed that CGK733 can block the process,’’ Kim said.

``We also found the synthetic compound can reverse aging, by revitalizing already-lethargic cells. Theoretically, this can give youth to the elderly via rejuvenating cells,’’ the 41-year-old said.

Kim expected that the CGK733-empowered drugs that keep cells youthful far beyond their normal life span would be commercialized in less than 10 years.

Reading things like this sometimes gives me the impression that significant life extension is closer than you'd think. I'll bet humanity is going to see a great improvement in public health in the next decade.

And thanks to the recent change of year, the next decade is now only 3 years away. ;)

Mad Cow Breakthrough

Scientists Announce Mad Cow Breakthrough

Scientists said yesterday that they have used genetic engineering techniques to produce the first cattle that may be biologically incapable of getting mad cow disease.

The animals, which lack a gene that is crucial to the disease's progression, were not designed for use as food. They were created so that human pharmaceuticals can be made in their blood without the danger that those products might get contaminated with the infectious agent that causes mad cow.

That agent, a protein known as a prion (pronounced PREE-on), can cause a fatal human ailment, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, if it gets into the body.

More generally, scientists said, the animals will facilitate studies of prions, which are among the strangest of all known infectious agents because they do not contain any genetic material. Prions also cause scrapie in sheep and fatal wasting diseases in elk and minks.

In the future, experts said, similar techniques might be used to engineer animals with more nutritious meats -- though the Food and Drug Administration has said it will require engineered food animals to pass tests far more stringent than those it recently deemed adequate for clones.