A new ultrasensitive diagnostic device could allow doctors to detect cancer quickly from a droplet of blood or plasma, report researchers.
The device could lead to timelier interventions and better outcomes for patients.
The “lab-on-a-chip” for liquid biopsy analysis detects exosomes—tiny parcels of biological information tumor cells produce to stimulate tumor growth or metastasize.
Continue reading… “Device spots cancer in a single blood drop”
Augmented reality startup Magic Leap wants to merge the digital and the physical worlds.
In October, CEO Rony Abovitz first shared the idea of the “Magicverse,” a series of digital layers that would exist in AR over the physical world.
On Saturday, the company elaborated on the concept with a blog post and new interview — and its vision of the future is one in which the line between the physical and digital realms blurs until it almost disappears.
Continue reading… “Magic Leap wants to build AR “Layers” over the entire earth”
This curious rotating garden boasts automatic watering and space for up to 90 plants at any given time.
If you like the idea of growing your own vegetables indoors all year round, then you should check out the new and improved OGarden Smart. It’s a rotating Ferris wheel of sorts that can hold up to 60 plants at various stages of growth. The wheel turns steadily, dipping the roots into water at the bottom and exposing the plants steadily to a 120 watt LED in the center.
Seedlings are started in handy seed cups filled with organic soil and fertilizer, 30 of which can fit into the incubator located below the rotating upper part. These are also automatically watered, and all you have to do is ensure the water reservoir stays full. (It can go up to 10 days and a warning will pop up if you forget.)
Once they sprout, the cups go into the wheel and grow until they’re ready to be harvested. The entire process takes 30-40 days, after which the seed cups and plant roots can be composted, and the gap in the wheel filled with a new seedling.
Continue reading… “OGarden Smart grows fresh veggies year-round in your house”
The first evidence for a planet-wide underground water system will help aid future missions in our hunt for life on Mars.
Mars wasn’t always a dusty, barren planet.
Previous modeling has demonstrated the planet was once overflowing with water that eventually retreated under the surface. But new research details the first direct geological evidence for a “planet-wide groundwater system” explaining Mars’ watery history and providing new sites for future missions to hunt for signs of life.
The revelations come via some plucky Mars geologists and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter. The spacecraft, launched in 2003, circles the planet and is fitted with a number of high-resolution cameras constantly snapping images of the Martian surface. Researchers at the University of Utrecht, led by Francesco Salese, pored over these images, intently studying 24 deep craters in Mars’ northern hemisphere looking for signs that water once flowed there.
Continue reading… “Scientists find first evidence of huge Mars underground water system”
“Data is the new oil” is one of those deceptively simple mantras for the modern world. Whether in The New York Times, The Economist, or WIRED, the wildcatting nature of oil exploration, plus the extractive exploitation of a trapped asset, seems like an apt metaphor for the boom in monetized data.
Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) is an Ideas contributor for WIRED. Previously he worked on Facebook’s early monetization team, where he headed its targeting efforts. His 2016 memoir, Chaos Monkeys, was a New York Times best seller and NPR Best Book of the Year.
The metaphor has even assumed political implications. Newly installed California governor Gavin Newsom recently proposed an ambitious “data dividend” plan, whereby companies like Facebook or Google would pay their users a fraction of the revenue derived from the users’ data. Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes laid out a similar idea in a Guardian op-ed, and compared it to the Alaskan Permanent Fund, which doles out annual payments to Alaskans based on the state’s petroleum revenue. As in Alaska, the average Google or Facebook user is conceived as standing on a vast substratum of personal data whose extraction they’re entitled to profit from.
Continue reading… “No, Data is not the new oil”
Doctor Antonio Lacy of Hospital Clinic de Barcelona delivers a speech about the first 5G tele-mentored live surgery at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on February 27, 2019. – Phone makers will focus on foldable screens and the introduction of blazing fast 5G wireless networks at the world’s biggest mobile fair as they try to reverse a decline in sales of smartphones.
Barcelona (CNN Business)When a team of doctors at Hospital Clinic Barcelona began removing a cancerous tumor from a patient’s colon on Wednesday, the surgeon overseeing the procedure was over three miles away.
Continue reading… “Doctor uses 5G to direct surgery live from a stage at Mobile World Congress”
A new study has found that listening to music may have a negative impact on creativity. This is contrary to the popular idea that music and creativity often go hand in hand. According to the researchers, the negative impact was found even in cases where the music had a positive impact on mood and was liked by the person listening to it. However, background noise didn’t have the same effect.
Music is often used for background noise while studying and as a way to help increase someone’s creativity while working on a project. The psychologists behind a new study have found this routine may have the opposite effect, actively impairing — rather than boosting — the individual’s creativity. The findings were based on three experiments.
Continue reading… “Study finds listening to music has negative impact on creativity”
The database includes detailed, but “de-identified,” information about people’s lives culled from conversations between police, social services, health workers, and more.
Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behaviour of vulnerable people—including minors and people experiencing homelessness—with little oversight and often without consent.
Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces—Ontario and Saskatchewan—maintain a “Risk-driven Tracking Database” that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people’s lives. Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a “negative neighborhood.”
Continue reading… “Police in Canada are tracking people’s ‘negative’ behavior in a ‘risk’ database”
Trials of the robot, which has a top speed of 10 mph, will begin later this year
Startups do it. Amazon does it. And now even Fedex is doing it — experimenting with robots for short-range deliveries. Today, the company officially announced its new FedEx SameDay Bot, which it says could help make “last mile” deliveries more efficient.
The SameDay Bot is battery-powered, has a top speed of 10 mph, and is autonomous, meaning it can steer itself around pedestrians and traffic using a combination of LIDAR sensors like those found in self-driving cars and regular cameras.
Continue reading… “FedEx unveils autonomous delivery robot”
DeepMind knows which way the wind blows
Wind power has become increasingly popular, but its success is limited by the fact that wind comes and goes as it pleases, making it hard for power grids to count on the renewable energy and less likely to fully embrace it. While we can’t control the wind, Google has an idea for the next best thing: using machine learning to predict it.
Google and DeepMind have started testing machine learning on Google’s own wind turbines, which are part of the company’s renewable energy projects. Beginning last year, they fed weather forecasts and existing turbine data into DeepMind’s machine learning platform, which churned out wind power predictions 36 hours ahead of actual power generation. Google could then make supply commitments to power grids a full day before delivery. That predictability makes it easier and more appealing for energy grids to depend on wind power, and as a result, it boosted the value of Google’s wind energy by roughly 20 percent.
Continue reading… “Google’s DeepMind can predict wind patterns a day in advance”
Photo of young people using Hippo Rollers
Technologies don’t have to be cutting edge to make a profound difference in people’s lives.
Continue reading… “Ten recent low-tech inventions that have changed the world”
Autonomous 3D-printed vehicles start driving around college campus
They’re self-driving shuttles that just rolled up to Sacramento State.
They can fit up to eight people on board, and there’s a special spot reserved for the safety steward. He can pull a hand-brake to stop the Olli if absolutely needed, but otherwise it will operate on its own.
According to the company, they’re the first of their kind – electric and 3D-printed.
Continue reading… “Driverless, 3D-printed vehicles debut on California college campus”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.