Cheap Solar Power On The Way

A team of UCLA scientists have cut down the cost of solar panels down by a factor of five to ten by using plastics.

The efficiency of solar panels is, at this point in time, pushing 40%.

I can't find the source of that anymore, but the article is posted somewhere on the Kurzweil site.

Solar panels are almost cost competative with conventional resources. Solar energy is only three to four times as expensive as conventional energy. It will only take a few more years before they'll start being taken into use.

These plastics, however, may bring us solar energy faster than most of us imagine.

In research published today in Nature Materials magazine, UCLA engineering professor Yang Yang, postdoctoral researcher Gang Li and graduate student Vishal Shrotriya showcase their work on an innovative new plastic (or polymer) solar cell they hope eventually can be produced at a mere 10 percent to 20 percent of the current cost of traditional cells, making the technology more widely available.

...

The price for quality traditional solar modules typically is around three to four times more expensive than fossil fuel. While prices have dropped since the early 1980s, the solar module itself still represents nearly half of the total installed cost of a traditional solar energy system.

...

The plastic solar cell is still a few years away from being available to consumers, but the UCLA team is working diligently to get it to market.

"We hope that ultimately solar energy can be extensively used in the commercial sector as well as the private sector. Imagine solar cells installed in cars to absorb solar energy to replace the traditional use of diesel and gas. People will vie to park their cars on the top level of parking garages so their cars can be charged under sunlight. Using the same principle, cell phones can also be charged by solar energy," Yang said. "There are such a wide variety of applications."

This world can definately do with a solution to our energy problem. Here in Holland, life has become really expensive since the Euro was introduced. Our real estate market is friggin' impossible, our groceries cost a small fortune, and our energy bills are over the top!

It would sure be nice to have a future in which solar energy becomes extremely cheap, so we can basically build small solar panels into just about anything (say: rooftiles, windows, clothing, traffic signs). That way, energy will become a little bit more like oxygen: completely free, and available everywhere.

And it would probably also shut up the peak oil doomers. ;)

What a relief that would be...

Doomer Type #1 - The Social Darwinist

Doomer Type #2 - The Survivor

Doomer Type #3 - The Partyer

Tissue Engineering At Lightning Speed

I thought Ellen Heber-Katz's super-regenerative mice were already pretty impressive. But as it turns out, super-regeneration is only the beginning.

Scientists have managed to produce tissue in a matter of minutes, instead of days. They do this by simply removing water from the starting material.

This method has great potential for people who need tissue for surgery real fast. Normally, growing tissue takes multiple weeks. Using this new method, this time can be cut back a hundred-fold, all the way down to 35 minutes.

UK scientists say they can cut the time it takes to grow new tissue from days to minutes.

...

The next stage is to test whether this method could help repair injured tissues. Ultimately, the goal is to design a rapid, inexpensive, automatic process for creating strong tissues which could supply hospital surgical units with a tool kit of spare parts for reconstructive surgery. The speed and control it offers means that our method could one day be used to produce implant tissue at the bedside or in the operating theatre.

Original link: New Tissue Grown In Minutes

Nano Silver Bullet Kills HIV

Nano Silver Bullet Kills HIV

In a groundbreaking study, the Journal of Nanotechnology has published a study that found silver nanoparticles kills HIV-1 and is likely to kill virtually any other virus. The study, which was conducted by the University of Texas and Mexico University, is the first medical study to ever explore the benefits of silver nanoparticles, according to Physorg.

...

After incubating the HIV-1 virus at 37 C, the silver particles killed 100% of the virus within 3 hours for all three methods.

...

Already used as a topical antibiotic in the medical industry, silver may now come under consideration as an alternative to drugs when it comes to fighting previously untreatable viruses such as the Tamiflu resistant avian flu.

Nanotech will allow us to solve problems that were previously not solvable, including curing HIV and cancer.

There's nothing else I can say to add anything to this.

Nanobombs Blow Up Cancer

Everybody who is familiar with nanotechnology has probably heard of the scenario where we'll have advanced nanotechnology that will help us diagnose diseases before the symptoms even hit. This way, it will be easy to treat and prevent our diseases, and a life in good health will be a guarantee.

Well, we're not exactly there yet, but Balaji Panchapakesan of the University of Delaware is working to make this fictice scenario a reality.

Researchers have created "nanobombs" that can produce nanoscale explosions to blow up cancer.

Balaji Panchapakesan of the University of Delaware has reported on the nanobombs in both NanoBiotechnology and Oncology Issues.

Panchapakesan says the nanobombs are in the early stages of development, but that the goal is to use them in medical applications.

"Make no mistake, we are focused on eradicating cancer," he says.

...

The bombs are created through the bundling of carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes dissipate heat generated by the light into surrounding air. In bundles, they can't dissipate the heat as quickly and the result is "an explosion on the nanoscale," says Panchapakesan.

...

"The nanobomb is very selective, very localized and minimally invasive," Panchapakesan said. "It might cause what I would call nanopain, like a pin prick."

...

The nanobombs could also offer advantages over other nanotech treatments as they are destroyed along with cancer cells. Macrophages then clear cell debris and exploded nanotubes, preventing nanoparticles from jamming up in the body.

This stuff is all for real these days.

How lucky are we to be alive right now... come the next decade, we'll look back on cancer as we now do on poor hygene and all consequences thereof.
See also this related Wired article on nano-sensors.

The field of nanotechnology has been long on hype and short on real products -- with the possible exception of stain-free pants. Likewise, the emergence of personalized medicine -- that utopian vision of detecting a disease at the doctor's office before symptoms have hit, and then treating it at the molecular level -- has long been foretold, but still hasn't arrived.

But a product that should appear next year could fulfill both visions. Northbrook, Illinois-based Nanosphere is preparing to launch a diagnostic system that uses nanoparticles to detect various proteins at a level of sensitivity never before seen.

...

"[Nanospheres] could really be the breakthrough technology that revolutionizes the medical field," he said. "Often, discoveries lead to technologies in search of a use. But in this case, the need for this type of technology is so intense that if it works as advertised, it will be hugely popular."

And the nanotech revolution hasn't even started yet...


[update]

Here's an article that describes the professor and his nanobombs a little more elaborately.

Driverless Cars Race 130 Miles

Driverless robots reach milestone in DARPA race

Stanford University's Racing Team has accomplished a historic feat of robotics, finishing first in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 131.6-mile driverless car race that no artificially intelligent machine has ever conquered before.

Some of the implications for our society, when driverless cars become the norm:

• No more wasting time travelling to work by bus or a manually driven car. You can have cars drive you to your job, and you can work in the meantime. Traveltime will be worktime. You'll save a few hours per day.
• Driving software could communicate wirelessly with other software in other cars, allowing for efficient use of the road. The capacity of our roads will suddenly increase by a certain factor x.
• Assuming the software will be debugged properly before it is taken into use: no more accidents. Ever.
  

You think this is great? Just imagine having a system like this in a flying car.

Yes... they actually exist. And according to the creator, they'll be taken in mainstream use 15 years from now. Military, police, and rescueworkers will use them even sooner.

Be sure to watch the movieclips.


[update]
Will Our Cars Become Our Chauffeurs?

Self-Navigating Vehicle

The Future Of Computers (4)

I've spoken about this before in my Future Of Computers blogpost-series. Now it has actually come true.

I'm talking about nano-memory here, or NRAM, as it's officially called.

NRAM stands for Nano Random Access Memory, or NanoRAM. RAM is the stuff that computers of today use for working memory.

And this working memory is about to be revolutionized.

Nantero is gearing up to massproduce NRAM in the short term.

Will computers that require no time to boot up become a reality? One company thinks the answer is yes, thanks to its carbon nanotube memory chips.

...

Nantero calls its technology NRAM, which is loosely short for nanotube-based, non-volatile random access memory.

Non-volatile components, which by definition keep all data even when the power is turned off, are currently on the market in the form of flash memory cards. These hold electrons in insulated cells to act as ones and zeroes. They can be found in many portable gadgets, from MP3 players to digital camera memory cards.

...

Norman Armour, vice-president and general manager of the LSI factory in Gresham, Oregon, says developers are "working aggressively" to put the technology to use in electronic devices. He says they still have to check that the chips can be reliably produced on a large scale, but he expects prototypes of products with NRAM to be ready by the summer of 2006.

Sounds good to me.

Fortunately, RAM is not the only thing shrinking to ever smaller proportions. Take a look at these extremely thin color displays. Not only will these be extremely thin, but also extremely cheap. And extremely ubiquitous, ofcourse.

They'll be used on food cartons, informational brochures, medicinal packages, admission tickets, etc.

Oh, and they could also be used on business cards, I suppose...

Artificial Kidney On The Way

Artificial Kidney On The Way

Using nanotechnology, researchers have taken the first steps towards creating a fully functioning, artificial kidneys.

As Nissenson told Reuters Health, "a connection to the bloodstream is necessary, which allows blood to flow into the device. In the device, it is filtered and processed by the membranes, with waste and water being discharged into a bag -- the external bladder -- to be discarded, and important substances like salt, calcium, and nutrients returned to the body." In its final form, the device would operate continuously, imitating natural kidneys. No dialysis solution is used.

Using computer modeling, the researchers found that the device, operating 12 hours per day, seven days per week, actually provides a greater filtering rate than conventional dialysis given three times a week.

That's damn good news for people with kidney problems.

Furthermore, this is actually quite a fascinating development.

Why, you ask?

Extrapolate...

First it's kidneys. What's next? If we can build artificial kidneys and wombs, why not build artificial replacements for the rest of our organs?

At first, these artificial organs will be used to replace our broken ones. But then... the artificial organs will start reaching a level of functionality that surpasses the functionality or our own organs.

The result...?

The birth of bionic man. Or Human Body Version 2.0 as Ray Kurzweil so eloquently puts it.

We will become cyborgs.

The possibilities include:

• Replacement vascular system: programmable blood (respirocytes, read about them on the web), no more failure-prone heart necessary.
• Upgraded digestive system: eat whatever you like, never get fat, stay healthier with less maintance (and by that I mean healthfood and exercise)
• Stronger skeleton, allowing us to survive carcrashes and other accidents more easily.

And I'm sure there are lots more things to be upgraded about our bodies, but you get the picture.

Prepare for a wild ride.

Nanomachines Simulations

So, you've read some stuff about The Future Of Molecular Manufacturing, and you were impressed and fascinated with the prospect of molecular manufacturing providing us with any material needs cheaply and quickly.... but now you actually want to see some nanomachines in action?

Well, today's your lucky day, because you can take a look at some nanomachines over at the nanoENGINEER-1 website.

These machines are not exactly as sophisticated as the nanobots you've probably read something about by now. You know... the ones that can clean up our environment by disassembling (or otherwise neutralising) chemical crap, and that can keep our bodies in perfect health until the end of time.

But they're not just pretty pictures either. These machines have been simulated using the nanoENGINEER-1 simulation software, which is based on known physical laws.

This means that, if you'd have a bunch of atoms stuffed together as shown in the pictures, they would behave the same way in the real physical world as they do in the simulations shown.

A few days ago, these pictures were animated. Now they seem to be still pictures. Kind of a shame. But still cool to look at.

Molecule Walks Like Man

Molecule Walks Like Man

After a nano motor, a nano elevator, nano-capsules (and a whole bunch of other, simple machines at the nanoscale), there is now a nanomachine that walks like a human.

From the article:

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A research team, led by UC Riverside’s Ludwig Bartels, is the first to design a molecule that can move in a straight line on a flat surface. It achieves this by closely mimicking human walking. The “nano-walker” offers a new approach for storing large amounts of information on a tiny chip and demonstrates that concepts from the world we live in can be duplicated at the nanometer scale – the scale of atoms and molecules.

...

“Similar to a human walking, where one foot is kept on the ground while the other moves forward and propels the body, our molecule always has one linker on a flat surface, which prevents the molecule from stumbling to the side or veering off course,” said Bartels, assistant professor of chemistry and a member of UCR’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. “In tests, DTA took more than 10,000 steps without losing its balance once. Our work proves that molecules can be designed deliberately to perform certain dynamic tasks on surfaces.”

Even though this article stresses that this nano walker might be applied in storage technology, I think it's pretty safe to conclude that advances like these will also help out nicely with realizing The Future Of Molecular Computing.

On Brain-Computer Interfaces

Here's an interesting one...

Computer users move themselves with the mind

This is an excellent example of where exactly brain-reverse engineering is at this point in time. It's much farther progressed than most people think. We actually know a whole lot about how our brain works.

Enough to have chimps move artificial arms, anyway...

From the article:

Computer scientists have created a hat that can read your thoughts. It allows you to stroll down a virtual street. All you have to do is think about walking.

Called a brain-computer interface, the device detects activity in certain brain areas linked to movement, and uses the signals to mimic that movement in a virtual world. The technology could one day help paralysed patients to move robotic arms, or help sufferers of motor neuron disease to type out words on a virtual keyboard.

"Just thinking about movement activates the same neurons as actually moving," explains Gert Pfurtscheller of Graz University of Technology in Austria, who has been working on the device for around four years. By picking up on these bursts of nerve activity, the computer can decide whether you are thinking about moving your hands or feet, and react accordingly.

Interfaces such as these will definately come in handy once computers will start to become ever more mobile.

The Future Of Computers (3)

Sun President: PC's are so yesterday

I've written about this before, in my blogpost entitled The Future Of Computers. PC's aren't with us for many more years... at least not in their current form. In my blogpost I wrote about how computer systems are shrinking.

Sun President Jonathan Schwartz has something else to say about the fate of the PC that now clutters up your desktop:

"The majority of the applications that will drive the next wave of innovation will be services, not applications that run on the desktop. The real innovation is occurring in the network and the network services," Schwartz said.

...

Schwartz points to the increasing wealth and power of companies, like eBay, Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com, that profit from free services available over the network. Among his audience, many more people said they'd rather have access to Internet services than their desktop computing applications.

...

The threat to PCs is twofold. Not only are services moving to the network, Schwartz said, but PCs won't be the way people use those services--particularly in poorer areas of the world that have risen higher up Sun's corporate priority list. Instead, that access will come through mobile phones.

"The majority of the world will first experience the Internet through their handset," Schwartz said.

Ayup... that's the future of computers for ya.

And by the time this scenario will come to pass, we'll be enjoying scandalously high definition videostreams over our wireless connections as well.

Dermal Display

Gina - the nanorgirl - Miller and Robert Freitas have come up with an animation to design what a dermal display would look like.
Gina Miller is a strong nanotechnology advocate. Robert Freitas is well known for his Nanomedicine books.

A dermal display would basically allow our skins to function as displays. Pictures are included at the link, and since pictures say more than a thousand words, go and check'em out right now!

The technology presented here is something that could be realized by nanotechnology that is more advanced than we have now.

The possibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Dynamic Tattoos: tattoos that can change, or disappear completely when you need'em to (like... when you're headed for a job interview).
• Real-time health information: Imagine being able to check out your own health right off your own skin, whenever you like. Being able to do this is nothing to joke about. It has the capacity to turn your own healthcare from a reactive into a preventive healthcare. This basically means: not getting sick, but knowing you're about to get sick in advance, and then doing something about it before it actually happens.
  
• Real-time mood information: will people be able to get along better with each other if they could read other people's mood right off their skin? Well... most likely, yeah.
• Covering up of ugly skin blemishes, scartissue, etcetera.
• Live videostreams, anytime, anywhere: speaks for itself. We will also need fast connections for this. But those will undoubtedly be there once the dermal display-technology can be realized.

The future looks pretty groovy. ;)

University of Denmark Scientists Develop Hydrogen Tablet

University of Denmark Scientists Develop Hydrogen Tablet

Scientists have come up with a solution to one of the three major barriers that prevent the hydrogen economy from taking off right now. The three barriers are:

• hydrogen production (is still expensive and mostly produced with fossil fuels, needs to become cheap and renewable)
• hydrogen usage (this is what fuel cells do, and fuel cells are expected to become cost competative with internal combustion engines in the coming years)
• hydrogen storage (hydrogen is a real bitch to store and transfer, and there needs to be an efficient way to do this)
  

The one barrier which now comes crumbling down because of this solution, is the last one.

Hydrogen is a dangerous material. In gasform, it occupies too much volume, and it is also highly flammable (Hindenburg, anyone?). Therefore, many a scientist has spent many an hour thinking of a solution around this.

These researchers have now managed to develop a hydrogen 'tablet', which basically stores hydrogen in a solid form.

From the article:

The hydrogen tablet is safe and inexpensive. In this respect it is different from most other hydrogen storage technologies. You can literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety precaution.

...

“We have a new solution to one of the major obstacles to the use of hydrogen as a fuel. And we need new energy technologies – oil and gas will not last, and without energy, there is no modern society”, says Jens Nørskov.

Thanks to technological strides like these, a few years from now, we will be able to have a good laugh at the peak oil doomsday crowd, which seems to actually want peak oil to cause the collapse of civilization as we know it.

For more information on why the peak oil doomsday scenario is absolute, total, utter nonsense, see these links:

• Alternate Energy Blogspot
• Peak Oil Debunked Blogspot
• Peak Oil Will Be A Non-Event

There are many more links to debunk peak oil. There are plenty of links to follow from the above links.

[update]
I just spotted this right after posting this post:

Shell CEO: Enough Oil To Last A Century

It's a Dutch article, so you'll have to run it through a page-translator if you want to actually read it.

Summary:

At the moment, an oil well is dubbed 'empty' once 30% has been pumped from it. With better technology, it will become feasible to drill deeper.

Fuel might not become cheaper, so it is entirely possible that other fuel sources will become competative through normal market mechanisms.

This is exactly what Marshall Brain predicts in his peak-oil-non-event post (see link above).

The Singularity Is Near

A new book by Ray Kurzweil, the guy behind the legendary essay The Law Of Accelerating Returns, is coming out.

After The Age Of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, we can now look forward to The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.

In this book, Ray writes some more about his already wellknown views about how humanity is about to merge with its own technology, thereby transcending our biological limits and launching ourselves into a transhuman / posthuman era.

Here's what Bill Gates has to say about Ray Kurzweil:

Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations--transforming our lives in ways we can't yet imagine.

- Bill Gates

I'm thinking about getting it. Even though Ray's views are, in my opinion, nowhere near as realistic as those of the Singularity Institute for AI (who predict the Singularity will occur way sooner than 2045), I still find his writings to be inspiring.

Home DNA Tests Now Feasible

Home DNA Tests Now Feasible

Isn't that amazing? You can now do a simple DNA test at home for a few measly bucks.

As the cost of DNA sequencing is dropping like a brick (thanks to exponential increases in the technology to do it), we can be sure that humanity will achieve the 1000 dollar genome by 2010.

From then on, it will become standard to get a computer generated summary of your own cheaply-scanned DNA, which will tell you what your genetic predispositions are.

You'll be able to take measures to avoid diseases that you are prone to. And you'll know what your personal advantages are too, allowing you to exploit them without going through a long process of trial and error to find out exactly what your advantages are.

Personal genome-scans also open the door for personalized medicine. That is, medication that is suited to your personal genome, which will make it lots more efficient than today's "one size fits all"-drugs.

Because of the preventive power that technology like this will give us, your healthcare would have to be insane not to pay for your personal genome-scan. After all, it is likely to save many thousands of dollars in the long run.

Airgo Comes Up With 240Mbps Wireless Chip

From the press release:

Airgo Networks, Inc., pioneer and world leader in high performance wireless technology, today announced its third generation True MIMO chipset with support for data rates up to 240Mbps. For the first time consumers will be able to experience faster-than-wired speeds over a wireless network - and almost three times the speed of other premium wireless technologies on the market today.

This is much faster than most people have ever seen. My own connection is a lowly 4Mbps, sixty times lower than 240Mbps. And that's just the downstream. The upstream is even lower.

Technology like this can provide us with television on demand, which means that basically only one TV-channel will exist: yours.

Especially if the folks at Google get their way. They plan to scan all books and tv programs into digital media.

It could also provide us those really cool, live videostreams that we seen in Hollywood movies. And I'm not sure I even want to think about what this technology is going to do to the gaming industry (which is already struggling to keep its head above water), once warez can be distributed at rates like these.

Wirelessness is a very important enabling technology for The Future Of Computers. We can all rest assured that Airgo's chip will make it so that wirelessness won't be a problem in the near future.

Nanochip Emulates Human Brain

KurzweilAI.net reports the following: Nanochip Emulates Human Brain

Researchers are developing a new 3-D chip design using spintronics and a complex interconnected network of nanowires, with computing functions and decisions performed at the nodes where they meet -- an approach similar to neurons and axons in the brain.

It combines the storage capability of a hard drive with the low cost of memory cards, potentially increasing memory capacity by 200 times from an average of 500MB to around 100GB.

In my opinion, this is a pretty big deal. It is also a very good illustration of a certain scenario that I have written about in my Singularity FAQ.

In the FAQ, I describe the enabling technologies for a fullblown superior artificial intelligence. Two very important 'enablers' are nano-circuitry, and a thorough understanding of how the human brain's intelligence works.

A nanochip that emulates the human brain to store information efficiently, is an impressive feat. It not only shows that nanocircuits are possible (as if there was any doubt in these last few years), but it also (once again) shows that it is entirely possible to understand how our own brain works.

It is an impressive achievement. And yet this is only the beginning. We ain't seen nothin' yet. I expect that chips will slowly but surely take on more and more characterstics of brains that are based on the neural network paradigm. Such a chip could dynamically (re)configure itself to be faster at specific tasks. Standard CPU's, the ones we use today, can't do that. They need to be very general in design... being able to run any sort of application, to reflect the demands of users worldwide.

This makes them slower than, say, CPU's in game consoles, which are dedicated to run graphical applications. Games that run on game consoles require CPU's that have much less clockspeed than games that run on general-use PC's, due to the game-dedicated hardware of game consoles.

Nano-tsunami also reports on this: New Microchip Design Could Be The Key To Expanding Mobile Phone Memory.

Researchers from Imperial College London, Durham University and the University of Sheffield say their new computer chip design will enable large amounts of data to be stored in small volumes by using a complex interconnected network of nanowires, with computing functions and decisions performed at the nodes where they meet a similar approach to neurons and axons in the brain.

Large amounts of data in small volumes?

Sounds like a technology that could help out nicely with The Future Of Computers.

Another fine example of a respectable amount of data (4GB) in an extremely small volume, is the new iPod Nano. The Archos GMini 402 is not too shabby either: it has 20GB of space, it can play music, movies, videogames, and it functions as an external harddisk.

I'd say a true 'all-in-one' pocket-machine is just a few years away.

Back on topic. By reading the title of the article, you'd think that this is all about memory for mobile devices. But that's just one of many optional applications:

Lead researcher Russell Cowburn , Professor of Nanotechnology in Imperial's Department of Physics, explains: "The new video mobile phones are very popular, but they desperately need more memory so that people can take longer videos and store them. This technology has the potential to transform mobiles into fully functioning video cameras, in addition to a range of other applications."

I'd say we're headed for a very cool mobile and wireless world, where we take our computational power with us wherever we go.

Extrapolations show that, circa 2015/2020, we'll be able to record our entire lives at only a fraction of the storage space that will be cheaply available to us.

Think about that.

Nanocells Hitting Cancer Hard... And Targeted

Anybody who is familiar with nanotechnology, knows that this technology has the capability to enhance our products and systems many-a-thousand-fold. Nanotechnology allows for the building of systems at the molecular level, with atomic precision.

In a way, nanotechnology IS precision.

And the article Nanocell's Double Hit On Cancer is one of the many examples of the fact that nanotechnology brings us exactly that.

A nanocell that can burrow into a tumour, cut off its blood supply and detonate a lethal dose of anti-cancer toxins has been developed.

The double-action therapy, which comes packed in a tiny double chamber, leaves healthy cells unscathed.

It has proved safe and effective against melanoma and a form of lung cancer in mice.

...

The technique combines two methods of combating cancer - poisoning tumour cells and cutting off the blood supply to the tumour.

"The idea of using nanoparticles as a sort of therapeutic 'Trojan horse' is entirely new."

Henry Scowcroft

For many years, cancer has been a potential death warrant. With nanotechnology, we have gotten down to the level where cancer (and all other diseases) manifest: the molecular level. This means that, for the first time in history, we have a serious and realistic shot at turning cancer into a minor complication, that can be eradicated upon diagnosis.

The upcoming biotechnology revolution will make sure that we will turn our healthcare from a reactive system into a preventive system.

The former is exactly what we largely have now: We get ill, a disease is diagnosed, and we treat it with so-called 'cures' in which something is either poisoned or cut away. This is a very invasive method for the body of getting rid of corrupted bodytissue. And then you just have to hope you were diagnosed in time.

The latter is where we'll be moving in the next decade or so: We'll have portable, cheap, and fast diagnosis-systems that make use of nano-sensors. These nano-sensors will most likely be built into people's toilets in due time, so their droppings are being analysed each time they use the bathroom. Just imagine... you develope cancer, and a few hours after it becomes measurable you use the toilet, and you'll know about your cancer while it is in early stages, and still easily treatable. Is that preventive or what?

Thanks to nanotech, nobody needs to succumb to terrible diseases any longer. Technology like this will greatly enhance the quality of our lives, and it will also greatly decrease the financial burden on the healthcare system.

Everybody benefits.

Here's to hoping everybody will have intelligent toilets in the near future.

As soon as they're available, I suggest you get one. It's going to be the best health-investments you'll have ever made in your life.

Artificial Intelligence Analyzes DNA

I just started a new job this week, and this whole 8-hours-a-day-stuff is taking quite a lot from me. My posts will probably be a little shorter from now on.

Back on topic:

Artificial Intelligence Analyzes DNA

"We were able to feed the patterns into an artificial intelligence computer program developed in my group," Frey says. "The computer analysis identified thousands of instructions and changed our view of how genes work." For example, their analysis showed that a region of the fourth chromosome which was thought to contain four short genes actually contains a single very long gene, which is now thought to be involved in the assembly of large protein molecules in the nucleus. By better understanding this and other genes, researchers hope to learn how these genes malfunction and cause disease.

It's things like these that make possible a fullblown biotechnology-revolution, which is predicted to be from 2010-2020 (after which we will enter the nanotech-revolution). Things are really speeding up. Just read this next quote:

The program also revealed a startling discovery: there are no new protein-coding genes to be discovered - the genetic instructions that are largely responsible for managing cells, determining everything from eye colour to disease. By analysing the data and inferring the most likely genes based on user-programmed variables, the program matched what research has taken 30 years to discover. "This flies in the face of research that says there are many more protein-coding genes to be discovered," Hughes says. "We've reached a milestone in gene exploration."

That '30 year'-comment is a marker for exponential acceleration. I read a lot of news articles that cover breakthroughs in all sorts of areas. And these last few years, it is very common for scientists to say that, something that used to cost a number of years, now only takes a number of months. The DNA chip, for example, allowed scientists to look at the activity of many genes all at once. This allowed them to discover more in the last 3 months, than they had in the last 3 years.

I'd never seen anything, that previously took decades, happen in one run of an AI software program. That's pretty impressive!

We are now able to develop an understanding of life itself. Next time somebody tells you science won't decrypt the language that our own genes speak in a hundred years, just send them over to my blog:

"I think that genomics research is one of the most compelling areas of science today," Frey says. "Many people I talk to, from my seven-year-old son to university students across multiple disciplines, are excited when they find out that we now have the capability to develop an understanding of one of the most fundamental aspects of life."

This is not the first time that humans are being outperformed by machines in the lab. A robot scientist has already outperformed humans in the lab more than a year and a half ago.

An intelligent robot that could free genomics researchers from routine lab chores has proven as effective as a human scientist. The robot not only performs genetics experiments, it also decides which ones to do, interprets the results and comes up with new hypotheses.

The Future Of Organ And Limb Regeneration

Okay... I was already familiar with the fact that worldwide progress was accelerating exponentially, and that things in the magnificent world of science are moving fast.

And so was everybody who reads this blog. ;)

But this latest breakthrough is just insane!

Get this: Engineered Mice Regenerate Complete Organs.

The obviously very talented Professor Ellen Heber-Katz has managed to engineer mice in such a way that they become super-regenerative. Her mice can regrow organs, and even limbs.

"We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow," she said. "It is quite remarkable. The only organ that did not grow back was the brain.

"When we injected foetal liver cells taken from those animals into ordinary mice, they too gained the power of regeneration. We found this persisted even six months after the injection."

A good while back, Ellen Heber-Katz was experimenting with mice, and punched holes in their ears in order to tag them. After a while, though, the mice had regenerated the holes in their ears. This accidental find stirred her interest, and she decided to research this tantalizing phenomenon. Only three years later, she makes this major breakthrough.

The implications for human beings are potentially enormous. It is likely that the results can be translated to humans with further research.

Here's why:

Mice are genetically very much like human beings. They are higher order creatures with vertibrae, just like us. This is one of the reasons why mice are used very often in laboratory environments: they are very much like us, and have short lifespans. Therefore, it is easy to observe what happens to the mouse over his entire lifespan, after a certain genetic modification.

For the very same reason, Aubrey de Grey has come up with the Methuselah Mouse Prize for curing aging. Aubrey de Grey's SENS is based on the idea that, if aging can be cured in mice, people will have no choice but to take it seriously, because of said reasons. Curing aging in mice will therefore unleash a true war on aging, which means that the needed funds will be readily available.

Back on topic. Here are some of the implications of regenerating organs and limbs in humans:

• Losing a limb will no longer be a heavy psychological burden. Lifelong traumas beacuse of lost bodyparts will be a thing of the past. All you have to do is wait a few weeks until your body regrows itself.
  
• No more sky-rocketing surgery bills. No more hours of time and energy wasted on building you a personalized prosthesis, which wouldn't be able to hold a candle to an organic bodypart anyway. All the money that your government/healthcare would have spent on all of this, can now be invested in other things such as education, the evironment, or better yet: more research!
• Better chances of survival rate due to increased regenerative capabilities. Taking a bullet can do a lot of damage. It it does too much damage all at once, it won't matter if you've been modified to be super-regenerative. You'll still be dead. But in the case where the bullet did a lot of not-directly-vital damage (such as destroying half of an organ), and your chances at life depend on your capability to regenerate... then your odds have suddenly increased by several dozens of percentage points.
• Super-regeneration is a damn good way around the controversial issue of stem cell technology, in which embryo's need to be destroyed. Oh sure, scientists have already found ways to reprogram adult cells to revert back to stem cells. And that is also a good work-around. But this new super-regeneration is based on a small amount of genetic modifications. I'd say this is less likely to turn into a controversial subject.
  

I'm sure there are more. If you can think of more implications, post them. I'll add them to the list.

Here are two other articles on Ellen Heber-Katz's magnificent breakthrough:

Miracle Mouse Can Grow Back Lost Limbs

It's A Miracle: Mice Regrow Hearts

Read them. Then close your eyes for a while, and take your time to reflect on the fact that you are now living in a world that has super-regenerative mice. And all it took was a small number of genetic modifications.

What other feats can be accomplished by simply modifying a few genes?

Isn't it amazing?

And so short right after a huge breakthrough in nano materials.

Ladies and gentlemen... you are now witnessing the implications of exponential growth with your very own eyes.


[update]

Check out the article Mouse Clues To Human Genetics to get an idea as to how similar mice DNA is to ours.

"We share 99% of our genes with mice, and we even have the genes that could make a tail."