MIT senior, Christina Tringides, holds a sample of the multifunction fiber.
MIT researchers reveal an interface that could make plugging our brain into a computer a reality. Their system uses new fibers less than a width of a hair that could deliver optical signals and drugs directly into the brain, along with electrical readouts to continuously monitor the effects of the various inputs.
Bill and Melinda Gates have a pretty substantial to-do list. In the Gates Foundation annual letter, they have outlined their long-term, 15 year goals for the challenges they wish to solve. Continue reading… “Bill Gates wants to tackle mobile banking without bitcoin”
By Developing systems to identify the tangibles in life come to her naturally, from how to stock her canned goods to labeling her music collection so she can listen to which ever genre strikes her, Karen Koch Rasmussen can navigate life just fine without sight. Continue reading… “New iPhone app helps blind with sight on demand”
Thomas Frey is a the founder of the DaVinci Institute, and his job is to think about the future. How cool is that? Continue reading… “Semi-Random Walks #26: Futurist Thomas Frey”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKtsK-PRYA[/youtube]
Futurist Thomas Frey: Business owners today are actively deciding whether their next hire should be a person or a machine. After all, machines can work in the dark and don’t come with decades of HR case law requiring time off for holidays, personal illness, excessive overtime, chronic stress or anxiety.
Continue reading… “Technological Unemployment and our Need for Micro Colleges”
If the fundamental premise of President Obama’s new initiative to make community college free is to open up career and life opportunities for the nation’s young — especially those from underprivileged backgrounds — then the federal government should also be thinking of ways to cover the tuition costs of individuals attending coding boot camps. Instead of paying for a two-year community college program, the government could instead get more bang for less buck by paying for a 12-week program. That’s something that the nation’s first coding president should understand.
90 year old grandmother tries Oculus Rift
Nearly 50 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. It is a devastating disease that leaves individuals as shells of their former selves. For the millions of family members of those affected by the disease, one of the hardest things in dealing with the disease is empathizing with the victims. What the patients are going through simply is not within our own personal realms of experience, and it makes it hard to relate and help them cope with their disorder. With Alzheimer’s Disease International projecting the number of sufferers to nearly double within the next 15 years, it is clear there is a need to help caregivers and families empathize better with these victims. That is exactly what Opaque Multimedia is hoping to accomplish with the Virtual Dementia Experience.
Continue reading… “How Virtual Reality can Help with Curing Alzheimers Disease”
San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes flat—that was the dream of the Hyperloop.
Back in 2013, Elon Musk introduced the world to this dream with a 60-page white paper. The paper caused a stir. The idea—a levitating, solar-power, supersonic train—was both pure geek porn and a transportation revolution in the making. It definitely captured people’s imagination.
Continue reading… “How Elon Musk’s Hyperloop will Change Transportation”
Get your toilet humor and poop puns ready – it’s time for another edition of “What do astronauts do with all that doo-doo?” NASA recently asked researchers to come up with a way to use all of the human waste expected to pile up when it builds a moon base. The best answer was to use it to fuel spacecrafts on their trips back to Earth.
Continue reading… “Human Waste can be used as Fuel in Space”
Article By Heather Wood Rudolph
Alaina Percival never envisioned a career in technology. But after a successful career in marketing and brand management that took her around the world, the 34-year-old quit her job, learned to code, and changed careers. Today she runs Women Who Code, a nonprofit mentoring and education group focused on increasing the number of women in all areas of the technology industry. Percival talks to Cosmopolitan.com about feeling the gender gap in tech and the importance of a good challenge.
Continue reading… “One woman who plans to teach a million how to code”
The articles posted on the Impact Lab represent an unusual mix, all of which are oriented around future trends, future thinking, or recent innovations that may more may not alter the course of history.
With that in mind, here are the posts that caught most people’s attention over 2014.
Continue reading… “Top 10 Articles on ImpactLab.net”
Engineers have invented a material designed to help cool buildings.
Engineers at Stanford have invented a revolutionary coating material that can help cool buildings, even on sunny days, by radiating heat away from the buildings and sending it directly into space.
Continue reading… “Stanford engineers invent high-tech mirrors to help cool buldings”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.