Amplituhedron
Understanding exactly what happens after subatomic particles collide has been a long struggle for physicists. For decades, the best tool involved basic sketches (called Feynman diagrams) of each possible result. For all but the simplest scenarios, this method fills pages with drawings and equations.
Continue reading… “Amplituhedron may revolutionize the future of physics”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Some of us get bitten by the genealogical bug early in life, others a bit later. But there are few of us who haven’t been haunted by the question – where did I come from?
Continue reading… “Launching the Whole Earth Genealogy Project”
Rain House
This concrete house turns into an oversized water filter every time it rains. Rainwater runs from the roof through a custom-designed system and ends up in a cistern, clean enough to drink. A demonstration building was on display during Milan Design Week last month, complete with a fake cloud overhead to show it in action. (Photos)
Continue reading… “A ‘bioconcrete’ house that turns rain into drinking water”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Earth’s appetite for power continues to grow. Since the 1960s, power consumption has quadrupled around the globe, with many countries opting to build large oil and coal plants to meet the demand.
Continue reading… “The Next Great Space Race – Space-Based Power Stations”
A plant growth chamber designed to make gardens thrive in weightlessness.
NASA scientists believe they may have found a solution to how to grow vegetables in space. It could bring an end to astronauts on the space station subsisting largely on a diet of pre-packaged dehydrated food.
A nanophotonic solar thermophotovoltaic device.
Traditional photovoltaic solar cells have an inherent limit on the efficiency at which they can convert sunlight into energy. This limit—based on the bandgap of the material used and known as the Shockley-Queisser limit—is about 33.7 percent for standard solar cells. It is essentially due to any material’s inability to respond to all wavelengths of sunlight; so what if there was a way to change the wavelengths that actually reach the cell to those it converts best? MIT researchers have unveiled the best-yet version of that idea, known as solar thermophotovoltaics.
A plastic panel that can harvest light when it hangs off the edge of a rooftop, redirecting sunshine down into dark urban streets below.
Cities keep getting taller as they run out of buildable space. A record number of skyscrapers are planned in London, places like Bangkok and Panama City have dozens of new towers under construction, and Mumbai is building more skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world.
Continue reading… “Simple device designed to pull sunlight down to dark city streets”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Every day we wake up different.
Moment by moment, our lives are changing. Much like a strobe light with flashes of memories jumping through our minds we randomly recall where we’ve been.
Continue reading… “Betting on Your Future Self”
Solar Roadway panels
Sandpoint, Idaho could be the first city in the nation with solar roadways thanks to an Idaho inventor. However, the inventor behind the revolutionary idea needs help from the public. (Video)
Continue reading… “Solar Roadways offer an asphalt alternative”
Science fiction can be used to help scientists think about the uses and ethics of their inventions.
The Smithsonian Magazine May issue has an essay on the relationship between science, science fiction, and the future by Boing Boing buddy Eileen Gunn. She writes, “What’s science fiction good for? Major writers — Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Samuel R. Delany, Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow and others — talk about why science fiction likes to think about the future and how science fiction can be used to help scientists think about the uses and ethics of their inventions. The rest of the issue covers science and ethical issues of the near future.”
Continue reading… “Science fiction influences our thinking about the future”
Multimaterial 3-D printing – a complex lattice using different inks.
3D printing capabilities are rather limited despite the excitement that 3-D printing has generated. It can be used to make complex shapes, but most commonly only out of plastics. Even manufacturers using an advanced version of the technology known as additive manufacturing typically have expanded the material palette only to a few types of metal alloys. But what if 3-D printers could use a wide assortment of different materials, from living cells to semiconductors, mixing and matching the “inks” with precision?
Continue reading… “A 3D printing breakthrough: 3D printed biological tissue”
Disposable housing will blindside the real estate industry
in virtually every country on earth
Futurist Thomas Frey: When it comes to doing something first, and winning the technology race, there are typically no official forms to fill out, no rulebooks, no judges, and certainly no deadlines.
Continue reading… “Disposable Houses”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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