Transcendent Man — movie
This new movie based on Ray Kurzweil’s work opens in NYC April 28th. Really looking forward to seeing it!
Yeast-powered fuel cell feeds on human blood
From the New Scientist: “Yeast cells feeding on the glucose in human blood might one day power implants such as pacemakers. A living source of power that is able to regenerate itself would eliminate the need for regular operations to
Artificial muscles
From rdmag: Researchers at the UT Dallas Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute have demonstrated a fundamentally new type of artificial muscle, which can operate at extreme temperatures where no other artificial muscle can be used—from below the temperature of liquid
Bionic Eye Gives Blind Man Sight
Video of the story here. Hat tip to Slashdot for the story. “”A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye. Ron, 73, had the
Singularity University announces launch
I’ve been involved with SU since the beginning and am an associate founder of the venture. Read more about it in this News.com article.
Self-powering sensors to transmit data
Cnet reports that “Engineers at Kansas State University have developed a radio with sensors and microprocessors that can transmit data and is self-sufficient when it comes to power. The device, called by the engineers an “energy-harvesting radio,” is essentially a
New Magazine H+ covering science, tech, and culture
A new magazine called H+ has launched and I have an article in its first edition (“Science Fiction Gets Funding”). It’s edited by cyberculture icon RU Sirius and is published by Humanity Plus (aka the World Transhumanist Association). Here’s some
Virginia Postrel’s new blogging gig
It’s called deepglamour.net and she says: “With tart commentary and probing analysis, we’ll be examining glamour, allure, and the seductive images we find throughout media and culture.” Great! Looking forward to reading it, Virginia!
Wireless laptop charging — Intel’s plan
Here is an article and video about Intel’s plan to deliver wireless power. Note that if we can charge a laptop using wireless tech, we can also charge robots etc.
Cheap, clean water using nanotech
Researchers Peter Majewski and Chiu Ping ‘Candace’ Chan in South Australia “have discovered a simple way to remove bacteria and other contaminants from water using tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active nano-material.” Here’s the news story.
World’s first transplant of two arms
“The 16-hour operation was carried out last Friday on a farm worker who lost both arms in an accident.” Read more here.
World Science Festival
This looks like it would have been a cool event. According to this report, “The discussion of aging was a closing event of the first World Science Festival, a five-day celebration of science for the public that brought together researchers
Science and the meaning of life?
This op-ed by Brian Greene makes the eloquent case that science is more than just details, facts, and figures. He says that it also helps explain why we are here, why the sky is blue, and other important questions perennially
Paralysed man walks in Second Life using brain-machine interface
A brain-computer interface was implanted in a Japanese man’s motor cortex. Signals that would have made his own arms and legs move instead went to the avatar’s, making it move. Here’s the video and the story.
Paul Allen’s next step — Mapping Genes in the Brain
The Allen Institute for Brain Science is launching a four-year, $55 million project to build an atlas of genes’ activity in the brain. From the WSJ: “Jones and his colleagues will take about a half dozen brains from recently dead
Venter very close to creating artifical life
Today, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they have created the first man-made chromosome. The next step will be to place it inside a living organism so it can replicate and they can claim to have created an artifical
Monkey controls robot — again
On Thursday, a monkey named Idoya made a 200-pound, 5-foot humanoid robot walk on a treadmill using only her brain activity. She was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan. Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at
Researchers create a new heart in the lab
University of Minnesota researchers created a beating heart in the laboratory by injecting fresh heart cells into a non-living rat heart matrix. Amazing stuff. “In the United States alone, about 5 million people live with heart failure, 550,000 new cases
Want to buy a brand new car for $2500?
Now you could — in India. Tata just released what they are calling the “people’s car.”
Command College links
I spoke at Command College today on future tech issues. Below is a list of links for the people in the room who want to read more on the issue areas. Command College Links 2008 Virtual Reality and Intellectual property