Year: 2012

Impact Lab > 2012
Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, DIY, Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, People Making a Difference

Why every single one of you should learn a little code

Either you get with the code or get left out in the cold.

As technology becomes more and more ingrained in our everyday lives, you have to make a choice: Are you a consumer of tech, or are you someone who understands it?

Buying the latest iPhone and keeping up with the who-works-where, who’s-launching-what tech gossip is all good and fine, but if you can’t code, you ain’t no kind of techie.

Startups like Codecademy are making it easy to learn coding online — easy enough for school children, in fact. More intense programs like DaVinci Coders take learners from total noob to novice programmer in an 11 week bootcamp. And one game, Coderacer, will have you on the ground and coding in just five minutes…

Continue reading… “Why every single one of you should learn a little code”

Health & Fitness, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Medical inkjet printer could one day print living tissue on demand

Do you need an artery for bypass surgery or custom cartilage for that worn-out knee?  One day you will be able to print an artery.

Biomedical engineers in about a dozen major university and corporate laboratories are working on ways to print living human tissue. There is the hope of one day producing personalized body parts and implants on demand. Still far from clinical use, these tissue-engineering experiments represent the next step in a process known as computerized adaptive manufacturing, in which industrial designers turn out custom prototypes and finished parts using inexpensive 3-D computer printers.

 

 

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Business, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend

Growth of urgent care centers worries some doctors

An estimated 3 million patients visit urgent cares each week.

In Annapolis, when Emily Auerswald and her children need care for minor illnesses or injuries, they head to a shopping center that has a Starbucks, a Five Guys hamburger joint and an urgent care center.   Doctors Express, an urgent care center,  is open nights and weekends, and accepts walk-ins without an appointment.

 

 

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Analysis, Robots, Science & Technology News

The artificial intelligence revolution is here and how it is changing our lives

Where do humans fit in?

Nikolas Janin, who lives in Silicon Valley,  get’s up every morning for his 40-minute commute to work just like everyone else. He is the shop manager and fleet technician at Google.  In the mornings Janin gets dressed and heads out to his Lexus RX 450h for the trip on California’s freeways. That’s when his the car takes over. Mr. Janin’s ride is one of Google’s self-driving vehicles and it is equipped with sophisticated artificial intelligence technology that allows him to sit as a passenger in the driver’s seat.

 

 

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Analysis, Business, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Is the era of the personal computer over?

PCs consumed the majority of memory chips since sometime in the 1980s until 2012.

We have been hearing for years about the so-called Post-PC Era.  But now it seems pretty hard to argue with.  Personal computers no longer consume the majority of the world’s memory chip supply as of this year.

 

 

 

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Analysis, Great Videos, Science & Technology News

DNA sequencing is improving faster than Moore’s law

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzSXTWhBUD0&hd=1[/youtube]

The cost of sequencing genomes has declined 50% faster per year than the cost of computers, since 2007. Declining sequencing costs have been due to a combination of Moore’s law and massive scaleups. An author and an expert on the life sciences industry, Juan Enriquez, runs a venture capital fund that invests in life science startups that could produce useful products and treatments within the next five years.  He also engages in more long-term forecasting. In an interview for Next Big Future, Enriquez discusses the exponential rate of change for biotechnology with Sander Olson. Enrique also discusses why he believes that the changes wrought by the biosciences during the next three decades could surpass the industrial revolution in importance. (video)

 

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, DIY, Education, Historical Perspectives, New Inventions, New Viewpoints

The five big lies of inventors: Common misconceptions can cause the best ideas to fall flat

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The DaVinci Inventor Showcase will take place on Oct 13th

The economic downturn has forced us to rethink our lives. For many, this means a time of stepping into the workshop to give shape to ideas that have been waiting for the right opportunity to emerge.

While Hollywood likes to portray inventors as the wacky mad-scientist type, nothing is further from the truth. Inventors may be wired differently, but for the most part they are very dedicated, hard-working individuals bent on making the world a better place.

But in the business world, few things go according to plan. New products are especially prone to commercial failure. Many of the failures stem from common misconceptions that steer us radically off course. Here are five big lies that will give you a more realistic picture of how to make the grade in the world of invention…

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Art, Entertainment, Great New Product, Green Friendly, New Inventions, New Viewpoints, Video Games

Make your stand with tabwood’s laser cut high quality birch and bamboo wood designs

 

 tabwood is an eco-friendly stand for your devices.

tabwood is a blend of Modern Technology and Old World Craftsmanshipthat uses natural materials as oppose to energy intensive non-renewable products that are currently used to support Tablet Computers, eReaders andSmart Phones. You have a beautifully design digital device so why wrap it up in an ugly plastic case. Let tabwood put it on display!

tabwood is one of the featured exhibitors at the DaVinci Inventor Showcase, which takes place on Oct 13, 2012 at the Denver Merchandise Mart. If you want to see one of these in person, this is your chance!

Recently, inventor Lou Hayes took a moment answer some questions about  creating 3D models in AutoCAD, his Kickstarter project and producing something that solves a problem and resonates with people…

Continue reading… “Make your stand with tabwood’s laser cut high quality birch and bamboo wood designs”

government, Latest News, Science & Technology News

Japan will eliminate nuclear power by the 2030’s

The new energy policy calls for a wider use of renewable energy sources.

 The Japanese government’s just-released energy policy calls for the complete phase-out of nuclear power. However, the timeline is somewhat longer than many expected, with the policy saying that nuclear generation will be eliminated by the end of the 2030s, instead of at the beginning of that decade. The 20-page policy paper also lacks specific details about how the government will achieve its target.

 

 

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Analysis, Food, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Top 20 most important inventions in the history of food and drink

Science experts rank the refrigerator as Invention #1.

The UK’s national academy of science, The Royal Society asked a question: What are the most meaningful innovations in humanity’s culinary history? What mattered more to the development of civilization’s cultivation of food: the oven? The fridge? The plough? The spork?

 

 

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.