Category: Breakthrough Thinking

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Genetically Modified Crops That Glow Green When Stressed

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Genetically altered Arabdopsis Thaliana plant, with green fluorescent protein (GFP) inserted near the on/off
switches for anoxia and drought genes. Cells expressing those genes glow green under a blue light (as shown).

A group of University of Tennessee plant scientists has genetically modified tobacco plants so that the plants will give off a phosphorescent green “glow” when plant immune systems are under stress – as might be caused by plant pathogens, drought, insects, etc. (The stress-indicating fluorescent proteins can be detected by scientific instruments only, as pictured above.) To implement this on a commercial basis, it is hypothesized, farmers would scatter the day-glow plants amidst a far greater number of normal plants, each GM plant serving as an attack sentinel for the surrounding a crop zone…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Culture, Current Events, Education, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Latest News, Latest Trend

Create a World-Class Online Community for Your Business

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Who knows what your business community will look like?

Name the companies that set the standards for social media use in business. Nothing coming to mind immediately? Me neither.

Telligent, an enterprise collaboration software company, believes that some day the same answer will immediately occur to both of us.

“We think that if you give [leaders in corporate social media use] a little more time, you won’t even have to do research,” says Cecilia Edwards, Telligent’s senior director of strategy. “This stuff is going to start rolling off of your tongue…some of these leaders will start being known as the definitive world-class leaders. They’re going to start setting the norms in industry for how to do this well.”

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

British Artist Creates Stunning ‘Inksplosions’

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This one is entitled Micromacrocosm

These incredible ‘inksploding’ liquid artworks are the brainchild of a British artist who blends her work with cutting-edge science. The images, which have been compared to visions of alien worlds, have been produced by Pery Burge.
She has devoted many hours to perfecting her technique, since she began exploring ink in water forms in 2006, having abandoned painting because she developed repetitive strain injury from traditional brushwork.

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Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Robot Elephant Offers Hope To Autistic Children

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A new hope for autism

A robotic elephant that can hug using its trunk and has hundreds of potential facial expressions is offering hope to autistic children. Scientists at Vrije University in Brussels have developed the robot, which is now being trialled with children from Romanian orphanages which they believe could be a major breakthrough for children suffering from autism.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

E. Coli Bacteria Could Become Our Next Computer Hard Drives

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Data can be stored in bacteria?

Researchers have figured out that data can be stored in bacteria, and that a single gram of bacteria can store more information than 450 2-terabyte hard drives! This storing and encrypting information in living organisms is called biostorage, and students at Hong Kong’s Chinese University are using E. coli to test the possibilities of how we store information in the future.

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Current Events, Entertainment, Great New Product, Latest News, New Viewpoints

Google Goggles Can Now Read Print Ads and Play Sudoku!

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Google Goggles is simply the coolest!

Of all the mobile applications that Google has come out with in the past couple of years, Google Goggles is definitely one of the coolest. You point your smartphone at any object, and Google attempts to figure out what it is — and it’s actually pretty good at it. And now it’s gaining two pretty interesting features. Well, one interesting and one awesome.

The first is the ability to recognize print ads. Yes, you can now point your smartphone at an ad in a magazize or newspaper and Google will recognize the brand or product and return results for it. Google says that this will work for major U.S. newspaper and magazine ads from August 2010 onward…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Music, New Inventions

Kitara Synth-Guitar

Kitara MDI-1-ALU

The Kitara Synth-Guitar

Michael Zarimis offers an unassailable logic for developing his synth-guitar: it is the last band instrument to get the proper treatment.

“I’m a big fan of electronica,” Zarimis said, “but the band format is missing. It’s usually people sitting at desks or tweaking knobs behind the scenes.”

Unlike keytars, which remain keyboards, or MIDI guitars, which are “too temperamental,” his Kitara keeps the frets but replaces the strings with an 8-inch multi-touch display. Inside is a polyphonic synthesizer, with 100 default sounds and 6 effect, each of which can be assigned to different ‘strings.’

(video after jump…)

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Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Entertainment, Great New Product, New Inventions

Sphero Lets You Play Ball with Your Phone

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The Sphero, from Orbotix

The Sphero, from Orbotix, is one of the toy hits of CES 2011. Like the AR Drone, the toy hit of CES 2010, you control the Sphero with your smartphone (a remote control app is available for iOS and Android). Your phone connects to the Sphero via Bluetooth, and to control the ball you can use a virtual joystick or the accelerometer (simply tilt your phone). In our brief hands on, the Sphero proved a little tough to control, but we’ll chalk some of that up to the dying battery.

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Study Links Meditation to Telomerase, An Anti-Age Enzyme

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Meditation may make the body age more slowly.

It’s always awesome when meditation is given a nod by science and shed of its commonly regarded view as a new-agey, inaccessible practice. In 2009 and 2010, we shared meditation’s practical application to common health ailments as studied by researchers: heart disease and depression.

I’m not sure how I missed this third incredible find from TIME that was issued at the tail end of last year. Could we meditators also have a leg up in the longevity factor?

According to researchers at the University of California-Davis, quite possibly…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Ecological Products, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

Inmates in UK Prison Repair Bikes and Donate Them To African Schoolchildren

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Life-Changing Wheels


Inmates at Gloucester prison in the UK are spending some of their free time (and you have a lot of that in prison) repairing donated bikes which are then shipped by Jole Rider to a partner organisation in Gambia, Africa. Once there, the bikes can change kids lives by allowing them to get to school. Bikes remain school property, with teachers allocating them to the students who need them most. When a child graduates from school, their bike is re-allocated to another child, multiplying the long-term impact of each bike.

Once at least 333 bikes have been refurbished, they are packed in a container and sent to Africa…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Economy, Education, Hot Issues, Internet, Latest News, Latest Trend

Online Resources That Are Transforming Education

education not ammunition

Education needs transforming

Education technology has become a busy space in recent years. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates continue to push the envelope with enormous philanthropic gifts toward education reform; Blackboard.com was traded at a $1 billion plus valuation; and Google is putting millions into education tech sites like KhanAcademy.

With so many startups on the scene, it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, most innovation is centered around a short list of fundamental ideas. In this post, we’ll walk through a few clusters of education tech companies…

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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.