Futurist Thomas Frey took time out of his busy speaking schedule for a short interview with Larry Nelson at W3W3 radio. This time Mr. Frey conversed with Larry about DaVinci Coders, the new beginner based Ruby On Rails program that he is putting together at DaVinci Institute…
Continue reading… “Futurist Thomas Frey interviewed about DaVinci Coders program”
If you were ever curious as to how much body parts can fetch on the black market,Medical Transcription created a snazzy infographic to show you. Some parts are shockingly cheap! Like would you want a new shoulder or a new iPad? Both cost 500 bucks.
Other organs are prohibitively expensive, like a kidney. That little sucker costs $262,000 in the US (other countries have it for cheaper)! Here’s the full list of body parts and their cost…
Continue reading… “Here’s how much body parts cost on the Black Market”
Artist’s impression based on a real atomic force microscopy (AFM) image showing conductive supramolecular fibers trapped between two gold electrodes spaced 100 nm apart. Each plastic fiber is composed of several short fibers and is capable of transporting electrical charges with the same efficiency as a metal.
Researchers from CNRS and the Université de Strasbourg, headed by Nicolas Giuseppone (1) and Bernard Doudin (2), have succeeded in making highly conductive plastic fibers that are only several nanometers thick. These nanowires, for which CNRS has filed a patent, “self-assemble” when triggered by a flash of light. Inexpensive and easy to handle, unlike carbon nanotubes (3), they combine the advantages of the two materials currently used to conduct electric current: metals and plastic organic polymers (4). In fact, their remarkable electrical properties are similar to those of metals.
Continue reading… “Self-Assembling Highly Conductive Plastic Nanofibers”
Mythology comes to reality.
Joaquin Baldwin, whose wonderful creative work we’ve featured on Boing Boing before, shares these photos of a lovely 3d-printed sculpture he’s just created. You can purchase your very own, right here. Cat not included.
Joaquin explains…
Continue reading… “Seed of Yggdrasil: nifty 3d-printed sculpture based on Celtic-style knot in Norse mythology”
If you do lots of push-ups, you get stronger – but if you do a lot of mental exercises, do you get smarter?
For most of human history, it’s accepted that you’re either born smart or (sadly) not and that there’s no amount of Sudoku that will make you smarter (sure you can be more knowledgable – say by educating yourself, but not intrinsically more intelligent).
But that common wisdom may be wrong: studies show that you can increase your smarts by improving your memory through certain types of games…
Continue reading… “How to make yourself smarter”
Dr. Julie Palais (left), NSF-OPP Glaciology Program Manager, and Anais Orsi (right) inside a back-lit snow pit at WAIS Divide
Because of global warming, ice sheets in Antarctica are melting and ancient creatures, which have been trapped there for hundreds of thousands of years, are being released into the world.
A well-worn premise for a sci-fi movie? No, actually – it’s happening for real…
Continue reading… “Ancient bacteria emerge from melting ice sheets”
Signs of the impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and scientists and fishermen point fingers towards BP’s oil as being the cause.
Two years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen are finding deformed fish and mutant shrimp in their seafood catch…
Continue reading… “The aftermath of BP oil spill: mutant seafood”
In an article in today’s New York Times, “A sharp rise in retractions prompts calls for reform,” Carl Zimmer documents and analyzes the sharp increase in the proportion of papers retracted in the scientific literature. From 2000-2009 the trend is disturbing (pictured above).
The article notes:
In October 2011, for example, the journal Nature reported that published retractions had increased tenfold over the past decade, while the number of published papers had increased by just 44 percent. In 2010 The Journal of Medical Ethics published a study finding the new raft of recent retractions was a mix of misconduct and honest scientific mistakes…
Continue reading… “Scientific retractions increasing exponentially”
From senior executives identifying the profit motive as an obstacle to sustainability to corporations questioning the very nature of capitalism as we know it, the plus side of the recent financial crisis and ongoing slow recovery has been that tough questions are finally being asked about how our economy functions and whose interests it serves.
On May 2nd Forum for the Future—whose work on system innovation aims to create change across entire sectors of our economy—are hosting an event in New York which will explore better ways of doing business in a post-Great Recession world…
Continue reading… “To envision sustainable business, We must reimagine our economy”
Is this the shape of the future?
If you happen to be curious about what the future home of your grandchildren might look like, take a glance at Remistudio’s concept hotel called The Ark. Russian architect, Alexander Remizov, is the mastermind behind the project, he believes that his floating “slinky,” which can hold up to 10,000 people can have multiple uses, including a safe house for disaster relief. The prototype’s main materials are timber, steel ,and high-strength ETFE plastic and it is built to handle land and/or water…
Continue reading… “Moby Hotel or disaster relief housing?”
Population density map with more than 5 people per square mile.
Derek Watkins created a fun interactive map showing population density across the world. You can use a sliding bar to change the display. The above screenshot shows the parts of the world with more than five people per square mile. Slide the bar up to five hundred people per square mile and watch the world almost vanish…
Continue reading… “Interactive population density map”
Sergey Aleynikov, wearing a baseball cap, leaves Manhattan federal court Friday
after his conviction for stealing Goldman Sachs’ high-speed trading code was reversed
Before leaving Goldman Sachs to earn a millionaire’s salary with Chicago High Frequency Trading (HFT) startup Teza Technologies, Sergey Aleynikov made one last transaction. At 5:20pm on his last day, just before his going-away party, Aleynikov uploaded 500,000 lines of encrypted source code from the Wall Street firm’s proprietary HFT system to a server located in Germany. Following the clandestine upload, Aleynikov deleted the encryption program, wiped his command history, and headed to the party.
Although Aleynikov later managed to download the source code to his home computer in New Jersy before flying to Chicago, he was apprehended by the FBI while returning through Newark Liberty International Airport.
But after his conviction at trial and imprisonment during the appeals process (his dual US-Russian citizenship presented a flight risk), Aleynikov is now a free man.
The reasons why will touch the entire software industry…
Continue reading… “Goldman Sachs code-theft conviction Reversed”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.