White House’s Tom Kalil on “Grand Challenges”

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Grand Challenges create a new vision of the future.

Tom Kalil of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy gave a presentation today about Grand Challenges, such as the ones proposed by futurist Thomas Frey HERE. Kalil called them “ambitious yet achievable goals that capture the public’s imagination and that require innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology to achieve,” like NASA’s Green Flight Challenge and the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health. I think Tom’s speech, delivered to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, does a terrific job showing why the grand challenge approach is a powerful way to tackle some pretty daunting problems. He also puts grand challenges in the context of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. (By the way, it must be nice to be authorized to use the Presidential PowerPoint template.) From Tom’s speech

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An Igloo for Book Lovers

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Now there’s something an iPad can’t do.

Miler Lagos’s installation at the MagnanMetz Gallery in New York City is entitled simply “Home”. After he finished it, the dome was completely enclosed and self-supporting. Just imagine if you had one of these, consisting entirely of the books that you have read over the course of your life…

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Is NASA tracking the Cosmic Shift?

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Cosmic changes are coming.

When it comes to terraforming, the Universe makes man’s puny efforts to be king of the hill look pretty pathetic. Not only are we completely at the mercy of a constantly changing planet, but we’re careening through space totally vulnerable to a sea of objects and cosmic influences beyond our wildest imagination.

Yet intuitively we have the peace that all is under control in some magnificent way.

The decades long assertion that our solar system would soon enter an electrically charged life altering photon belt around the Sirius star system has been regularly dismissed as pseudo science–NASA speak for “conspiracy theory”. Despite periodical scientific validation it has been continually pushed aside by mainstream science.

Until now…

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Paper iPhones as burnt offerings for the dead

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The dead want an iPhone?

Apple’s iPhone is so popular in China that even the dead want one! It’s the latest trend in burnt paper offering, a distinctly Chinese tradition where Hell Bank Notes, and paper items resembling cars, luxury villas, computers and so on, are burnt to send to the deceased…

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Nanotechnology Used to Hunt for Hidden Pathogens

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Isolation of MAP requires collection of infected white bloods cells from blood samples via centrifugation. For direct nPCR analysis, DNA directly isolated from white blood cells is purified in multiple steps prior to amplification and detection by gel electrophoresis. Meanwhile, culture-based nPCR requires the growth of MAP in specialized liquid media for 12 weeks, followed by DNA isolation before nPCR. Hybridizing magnetic relaxation sensors (hMRS) can detect MAP DNA in minimally processed blood samples via changes in magnetic signal (”¤2) in 1 hour, as opposed to 24 hours for direct nPCR and 12 weeks for culture nPCR.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a novel technique that may give doctors a faster and more sensitive tool to detect pathogens associated with inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease.

The new nanoparticle-based technique also may be used for detection of other microbes that have challenged scientists for centuries because they hide deep in human tissue and are able to reprogram cells to successfully evade the immune system…
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Latin American leaders, Obama to discuss ending the war on drugs

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The upcoming Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, which will be attended by many latinamerican heads of state as well as Barack Obama, is set to be an historic debate over the legalization of drugs and the end of the war on drugs. Jamie Doward writes in the Guardian…

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Scrap metal transformers theme park opens in China

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Optimus Prime sent me to inform you that we have arrived.

Chinese artist Kefeng Zhu and his team of artists use heavy metal as their medium, and the results are pretty darn neat. His unofficial Transformers theme park is calledMr. Iron Robot, and it’s a big hit with kids from throughout the Zhejiang Province and beyond…

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Use of common pesticide, Imidacloprid, linked to Bee Colony Collapse

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Imidacloprid is in a lot of commonly used products.

The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)…

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Hard evidence that giant tyrannosaurs were cute

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Don’t ya just wanna cuddle em?

Imagine a tyrannosaur weighing one and a half tons, completely covered in soft, downy plumage. Even its tail is fluffy with feathers. Though we’ve known for a while that many dinosaurs were covered in feathers, a group of Chinese researchers have now provided direct evidence that gigantic, deadly tyrannosaurs might have looked a bit like wuffly birds. Three nearly complete, well-preserved fossils give us a glimpse of tyrannosaurs the way we’ve never seen them before…

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

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