Future of Science

A 3D printed cybernetic ear that even a transhumanist would...

arielwaldman — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:07:50 -0400

A 3D printed cybernetic ear that even a transhumanist would love

“this bioengineered ear is unique in that it utilizes embedded electronics that allow it to pick up radio frequencies outside the range of normal human hearing”

Modified DVD drive analyzes blood and performs quick HIV tests for $200

arielwaldman — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:04:37 -0400

Modified DVD drive analyzes blood and performs quick HIV tests for $200:

Cool science hack of the week.

Mars or bust: a private mission to the red planet can take risks Nasa can't

arielwaldman — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:40:42 -0400

Mars or bust: a private mission to the red planet can take risks Nasa can't:

“Impossible it isn’t, but the Inspiration Mars Foundation’s proposed mission would run the risk of catastrophic failure”

Science Hack Day is coming to your city! And I need your...

arielwaldman — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:27:33 -0400

Science Hack Day is coming to your city! And I need your help: http://arielwaldman.com/2013/03/21/science-hack-day-is-coming-to-your-city/ .

Let’s get excited and make future-y science-y things together!

mothernaturenetwork: Brain cells can outlive the body The...

arielwaldman — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:28:54 -0500

mothernaturenetwork:

Brain cells can outlive the body

The findings suggest that our brain cells won’t fail before our bodies do which is good news for longer human lifespans.

Exciting news for creating space elevators! Scientists spin...

arielwaldman — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:53:59 -0500

Exciting news for creating space elevators!

Scientists spin carbon nanotube threads on industrial scale

“We finally have a nanotube fiber with properties that don’t exist in any other material,” said lead researcher Matteo Pasquali of Rice University. “It looks like black cotton thread but behaves like both metal wires and strong carbon fibers.”

The thread has ten times the tensile strength of steel and is as conductive as copper, but is flexible enough to be wound around a spool or woven. The team envisages it being used in “smart” clothing and the aerospace industry, and says that its properties will be of particular use to electronics manufacturers.”

Scientists Build A Working Tractor Beam “With this...

arielwaldman — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:18:49 -0500

Scientists Build A Working Tractor Beam

“With this experimental success, it’ll be fascinating to see some of the applications to come out of this. Just one thing, though – don’t expect these tractor beams to be pulling spaceships anytime soon. Right now, those applications are pretty limited to microscopic particles. That doesn’t make this any less of an achievement, however.”

thedailywhat: Space News of the Day Future is in the making!...

arielwaldman — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:01:39 -0500

thedailywhat:

Space News of the Day

Future is in the making! The asteroid mining firm Deep Space Industries, Inc. launched today with an ambitious plan to build an entire fleet of spacecraft by 2015 and deploy them to harvest resources from asteroids near the Earth.

Scientific evidence that you probably don’t have free will

arielwaldman — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:04:07 -0500

Scientific evidence that you probably don’t have free will:

“As the early results of scientific brain experiments are showing, our minds appear to be making decisions before we’re actually aware of them — and at times by a significant degree. It’s a disturbing observation that has led some neuroscientists to conclude that we’re less in control of our choices than we think — at least as far as some basic movements and tasks are concerned.”

US no longer lists satellites as weapons

arielwaldman — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:39:00 -0500

US no longer lists satellites as weapons:

Huge win for the future of making space exploration more accessible! ITAR has constantly been a thorn in the side of spacehackers and space entrepreneurs.

“On 3 January, President Barack Obama authorised a revision of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations law. Since 1999, ITAR listed US satellites and related technology as munitions with strict limits on exports to foreign powers – much to the annoyance of satellite makers. They say they cannot earn what they need to stay innovative without selling advanced technology abroad.

The updated law takes Earth-orbiting satellites and technologies off the list, although the president retains veto power, and the ruling doesn’t apply to some countries, including China, Iran and North Korea.

The new rules should also allow US students who aren’t citizens to access computer data and documents from US aerospace companies, which they had been denied until now. So says Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose students design and build small satellites called CubeSats.

But major issues remain, Seager says, such as what will happen to international collaborations on more far-ranging probes. For instance, her students are designing instruments for the OSIRIS-REx mission to an asteroid, and it’s unclear how the new rules might impact her non-US students.

“Why did they focus on satellites that orbit Earth and not spacecraft that go beyond Earth?” she says. “It’s not clear whether the government can fix this language before it is written up into regulations.”“

Will humans continue to evolve during multigenerational space...

arielwaldman — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:37:16 -0500

Will humans continue to evolve during multigenerational space missions?

“Nanotechnology expert Robert Freitas has outlined a plan for the elimination of lungs, making breathable air unnecessary. Ray Kurzweil has speculated that future humans won’t require food, equipped instead with nanobots that can energize our cells. And even Craig Venter has chimed in, putting out the call to develop an advanced inner ear that can allow people to escape motion sickness, genes for bone regeneration, and DNA repair for radiation He’s also suggested that we develop a small stature, higher energy utilization, hairlessness, and slower skin turnover. And yet others have speculated about transforming humans into gangly octopus-like creatures who would be far more adapted to slithering around in zero gravity environments.”

Excited to announce that I am a member of a congressionally-requested study on the future of human spaceflight!

arielwaldman — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:21:01 -0500

Excited to announce that I am a member of a congressionally-requested study on the future of human spaceflight!:

Thought I’d also share my exciting news on here since it is future-related! Do check out the link to the study’s site, it’ll elaborate on the exact future it’s looking at.

27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012 We covered...

arielwaldman — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:04:00 -0500

27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012

We covered some of these topics last year on the Future of Science tumblr. Here’s the quick list, but be sure to read the full article for further details on the awesomeness:

1. Quadriplegic Uses Her Mind to Control Her Robotic Arm

2. DARPA Robot Can Traverse an Obstacle Course

3. Genetically Modified Silk Is Stronger Than Steel

4. DNA Was Photographed for the First Time

5. Invisibility Cloak Technology Took a Huge Leap Forward

6. Spray-On Skin

7. James Cameron Reached the Deepest Known Point in the Ocean

8. Stem Cells Could Extend Human Life by Over 100 Years

9. 3-D Printer Creates Full-Size Houses in One Session

10. Self-Driving Cars Are Legal in Nevada, Florida, and California

11. Voyager I Leaves the Solar System

12. Custom Jaw Transplant Created With 3-D Printer

13. Rogue Planet Floating Through Space

14. Chimera Monkeys Created from Multiple Embryos

15. Artificial Leaves Generate Electricity

16. Google Goggles Bring the Internet Everywhere

17. The Higgs-Boson Particle Was Discovered

18. Flexible, Inexpensive Solar Panels Challenge Fossil Fuel

19. Diamond Planet Discovered

20. Eye Implants Give Sight to the Blind

21. Wales Barcodes DNA of Every Flowering Plant Species in the Country

22. First Unmanned Commercial Space Flight Docks with the ISS

23. Ultra-Flexible “Willow” Glass Will Allow for Curved Electronic Devices

24. NASA Begins Using Robotic Exoskeletons

25. Human Brain Is Hacked

26. First Planet with FOUR Suns Discovered

27. Microsoft Patented the “Holodeck”

Earthworms that shit quantum technology! “When things get...

arielwaldman — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:49:46 -0500

Earthworms that shit quantum technology!

“When things get small–like millionths-of-an-inch small–they get very interesting. The ordinary rules of physics we’re used to fade back as the oddness of quantum physics looms large. Engineers have taken advantage of this fact by fashioning tiny bits of matter, known as quantum dots, that behave in all sorts of useful ways. For example, quantum dots made from cadmium telluride will respond to ultraviolet light by giving off a flash of visible light–the color depending on their size. If you attach certain molecules to cadmium telluride quantum dots, they will latch onto certain targets, making it possible to detect trace amounts of substances ranging from pesticides to cancer cells.”

“As versatile as cadmium telluride quantum dots are, however, they’re not easy to make. It’s especially tedious to fashion them so that they’re not toxic to living cells, since both cadmium and tellurium are nasty metals. In the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology, a group of scientists at Kings College London offer a remarkably easy way to make them. In earthworms.”

Studying lichen may be key in understanding immortality

arielwaldman — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:26:40 -0500

Studying lichen may be key in understanding immortality:

” Pale green and vaguely ruffled, like calcified doilies, lichens grow all over the tombstones and the old stone walls that fringe properties in this part of the world. Most people barely notice them. But Dr. Pringle, a mycologist at Harvard, believes they may help answer one of science’s greatest questions: Is immortality biologically possible?”

Hello (again)!

arielwaldman — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:35:16 -0500

You may have noticed that I’ve dusted off the Future of Science tumblr and started posting again. I think 2013 will be an exciting year for science - I’m looking forward to sharing the weird, creepy, awesome, amazing things I come across on here with you all!

Outside of Tumblr, more about me is at http://arielwaldman.com and you can also follow me on http://twitter.com/arielwaldman …and I’ve got some weird sea creatures & DIY space exploration boards to watch on http://pinterest.com/arielwaldman/.

More about Institute For The Future can be found at http://iftf.org and you can follow IFTF at http://twitter.com/iftf.

Personal satellites that fly into space “Unwrapping...

arielwaldman — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:52:55 -0500

Personal satellites that fly into space

“Unwrapping devices like smartphones and tablets is sure to bring people joy on Christmas Day. Some future-oriented folks may even get a 3-D printer or a toy drone. But what about a personal satellite?”

Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice “Helen...

arielwaldman — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:47:33 -0500

Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice

“Helen Fricker, a member of the WISSARD team and a glaciologist at University of California, San Diego, said that scientists didn’t begin to understand the vastness of Antarctica’s subglacial water world until after the turn of the century. That hidden, subterranean realm has “incredibly interesting and probably never classified biology,” Fricker said.”

MIT discovers a new state of matter, a new kind of...

arielwaldman — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:15:00 -0500

MIT discovers a new state of matter, a new kind of magnetism

“Really, though, the most exciting thing about quantum spin liquids is that they’re completely new, and thus we ultimately have no idea how they might eventually affect our world. “We have to get a more comprehensive understanding of the big picture,” Lee says. “There is no theory that describes everything that we’re seeing.””

Autodesk Wants To Build A Better Software For Printing Human...

arielwaldman — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:11:00 -0500

Autodesk Wants To Build A Better Software For Printing Human Tissue

“In other words, the goal isn’t to put a bioprinter in every home. Rather, the new software could open the technology up to a broader range of specialists, who could work together with Organovo to print the results. Which doesn’t sound very different from Staples’ new plan to allow customers to submit models for in-store 3-D printing.”