Our brains edit our memories with new information by updating our past memories.
Try thinking about your fifth birthday when your mom was carrying the cake. Can you remember what her face looked like? You are not alone if you have a hard time imagining the way she looked then rather than how she looks now.
Continue reading… “How our brains put the present in the past by rewriting our memories”
Ray Kurzweil, Google’s engineering director, is famous for the strides he has made in machine learning, speech recognition and music technology. But he would rather be known for achieving immortality.
Continue reading… “Futurist Ray Kurzweil’s radical plan to be the first man to achieve immortality”
A city is a large, permanent human settlement. But try and define it more carefully and you’ll soon run into trouble. A settlement that qualifies as a city in Sweden may not qualify in China, for example. And the reasons why one settlement is classified as a town while another as a city can sometimes seem almost arbitrary.
Continue reading… “‘Natural cities’ emerge from location-based social media”
A demonstration of two sugar biobatteries connected in a series to power a digital clock.
Almost all living cells break down sugar to produce energy. Researchers at Virginia Tech say they have developed a battery that can store the most energy for its weight using sugar as a fuel source by mimicking what plants and animals do naturally..
Continue reading… “Sugar battery could soon be powering your electronics”
Even a moderately innovative idea can become a huge success.
If you want to be a success and an economic opportunity, it’s important that your idea meet certain criteria for it to be groundbreaking. Even a moderately innovative idea can become a huge success if it has all the right “ingredients.” But keep in mind, some ideas could go either way depending on the execution and the choices you make in developing your idea into a real product.
Continue reading… “Top 10 must-have ‘ingredients’ for a successful invention”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo[/youtube]
The Hugo Award was given to Philip K. Dick in 1963 for his novel The Man in the High Castle. He beat out such sci-fi luminaries as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Arthur C. Clarke. The Guardian writes about this novel, “Nothing in the book is as it seems. Most characters are not what they say they are, most objects are fake.” The plot—an alternate history in which the Axis Powers have won World War II—turns on a popular but contraband novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Written by the titular character, the book describes the world of an Allied victory, and—in the vein of his worlds-within-worlds thematic—Dick’s novel suggests that this book-within-a-book may in fact describe the “real” world of the novel, or one glimpsed through the novel’s reality as at least highly possible.
The top coding languages for 2014 have been named by CodeEval, and we see a couple of interesting surprises. Year after year, C# was the second-fastest growing language. And Internet powerhouse PHP was the biggest loser, down 55 percent from 2012.
Continue reading… “Top programming languages for 2014”
Breastfeeding is an important strategy to ensure a healthy balance of good bacteria in an infant’s gut.
Babies have legions of microbes that set up shop in their guts, skin, and more right from birth. These microbes are vital. They help the growing human to digest its food, and to keep harmful microbes away. They are so important that newborns temporarily suppress their own immune system to give their microbial partners a chance to establish themselves.
Continue reading… “How a breast milk antibody plays an important role in infant gut development”
Discoveries in the field of telomere biology will have an impact on how we can stay young naturally and look younger than our chronological age.
Research in telomere biology has the potential to extend human life span, to dramatically lower rates of the great remaining killer diseases: heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s. All three diseases increase exponentially with age, and their toll will be slashed as we we learn how to address the body’s aging clocks.
Continue reading… “The most promising medical technology on the horizon today”
Utilities are under fire from technologies such as rooftop solar.
Duke Energy is the biggest utility in the U.S. The recently retired head of the utility company, Jim Rogers, has had some interesting things to say about the fate of the traditional utility, particularly with the proliferation of rooftop solar.
Continue reading… “Why the days are numbered for traditional utility companies”
A Unify survey of knowledge workers recently found that 79% of the respondents reported working always or frequently in virtual teams, but only 44% found virtual communication as productive as face-to-face communication. The vast majority connected via email, phone, or conference calls even though 72% said video would make teamwork easier. Only 34% of people use video to collaborate with coworkers. And 43% feel confused and overwhelmed by the mishmash of collaboration technology at their disposal.
Continue reading… “Virtual teams can create human connections despite distance”
Academics at MIT have dreamed up something straight out of the pages of science fiction: a “wearable” book, which uses temperature controls and lighting to mimic the experiences of a story’s protagonist.
Continue reading… “MIT researchers develop a book that lets you feel the protagonist’s pain”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.