Archive for the ‘futurism’ category: Page 1070
Dec 21, 2016
Scientists build bacteria-powered battery on single sheet of paper
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: energy, futurism
Instead of ordering batteries by the pack, we might get them by the ream in the future.
Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have created a bacteria-powered battery on a single sheet of paper that can power disposable electronics. The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, and the design could revolutionize the use of bio-batteries as a power source in remote, dangerous and resource-limited areas.
“Papertronics have recently emerged as a simple and low-cost way to power disposable point-of-care diagnostic sensors,” said Assistant Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi, who is in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department within the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also the director of the Bioelectronics and Microsystems Lab at Binghamton.
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Dec 19, 2016
The Transhumanist Future of Christmas
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: futurism, transhumanism
Happy Holidays! The Transhumanist Future of #Christmas! http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-transhumanist-future-of-christmas #Future
Kids might be disappointed.
Dec 16, 2016
Beer pump lets customers order, pay and serve themselves
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: futurism
As pubs and bars in the UK get busier in the run up to Christmas, Barclaycard has uncorked a way to reduce the time people spend waiting to be served. Pay @ Pump is a beer pump that allows customers to pour their own pint and pay with a contactless card in as little as a minute.
According to Barclaycard, people spend an average of 12 minutes per order waiting to be served over the Christmas period. The Pay @ Pump system is designed to reduce customer queuing time and speed up service.
“I’m sure everyone has been stuck behind the person who orders the most complicated cocktail on the menu or a round of 10 drinks for their group of friends,” explains Barclaycard’s commercial director for digital consumer payments Tami Hargreaves. “When people told us that waiting time was one of their biggest annoyances, we wanted to help solve a common problem with a simple solution.”
Dec 15, 2016
The future arrives? Amazon’s Prime Air completes its first drone delivery
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: drones, futurism
Dec 14, 2016
Ancient Human Ancestor Was One Tall Dude, His Footprints Say
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: futurism
He stood a majestic 5-foot-5, weighed around 100 pounds and maybe had a harem. That’s what scientists figure from the footprints he left behind some 3.7 million year ago.
He’s evidently the tallest known member of the prehuman species best known for the fossil skeleton nicknamed “Lucy,” reaching a stature no other member of our family tree matched for another 1.5 million years, the researchers say.
The 13 footprints are impressions left in volcanic ash that later hardened into rock, excavated last year in northern Tanzania in Africa. Their comparatively large size, averaging a bit over 10 inches long (26 centimeters), suggest they were made by a male member of the species known as Australopithecus afarensis.
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Dec 14, 2016
CellAge could make stem cell therapies safer
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, futurism
Dec 13, 2016
Light based microchips are the future of electronics
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: computing, futurism
For the past four decades, the electronics industry has been driven by what is called “Moore’s Law,” which is not a law but more an axiom or observation. Effectively, it suggests that the electronic devices double in speed and capability about every two years. And indeed, every year tech companies come up with new, faster, smarter and better gadgets.
Specifically, Moore’s Law, as articulated by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, is that “The number of transistors incorporated in a chip will approximately double every 24 months.” Transistors, tiny electrical switches, are the fundamental unit that drives all the electronic gadgets we can think of. As they get smaller, they also get faster and consume less electricity to operate.
In the technology world, one of the biggest questions of the 21st century is: How small can we make transistors? If there is a limit to how tiny they can get, we might reach a point at which we can no longer continue to make smaller, more powerful, more efficient devices. It’s an industry with more than US$200 billion in annual revenue in the U.S. alone. Might it stop growing?
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