ULTra PRT transport pod.
Chances are if you have been to London’s Heathrow Airport you have probably caught a glimpse of something called an ULTra PRT transport pod. These driverless pods have been shuttling travelers from terminal to terminal at the massive airport sonce 2011. That’s all well and good, but now these driverless robo-cars are breaking free of their confines and heading out into the city streets. (Video)
Continue reading… “Driverless cars to be launched on UK streets by 2015”
Futurist Thomas Frey: It’s easy to spot signs of desperation in people’s eyes. With unemployment rates at persistently high levels and young people unable to find jobs from one year to the next, we have become a society seething with anxiety.
Modern Meadow is developing technology to provide instant meat.
You have probably read about the “Googleburger,” so named because Google’s founder Sergey Brin bankrolled it. Have you heard of Modern Meadow, though? Modern Meadow is developing the technology that will someday in the distant future provide the meat counterpart of instant coffee: instant beef! For now, it is focusing on synthetic meat made with 3D printers.
Continue reading… “3D printed meat may be coming sooner than you think”
Bill Gates
Whatever Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires believe, the internet is not going to save the world, says Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates. But eradicating disease just might.
Continue reading… “Bill Gates thinks tech billionaires have all their priorities wrong”
The battery is the biggest limitation for electric vehicles (EV). Tesla, General Motors, Nissan and others install heavy batteries that limit vehicle range and performance. The batteries take up as much as 15% of the vehicle’s total weight.
Contour crafting.
There have been huge advancements in 3D printing. We have seen 3D printed oversized wrenches that measure 1.2 meters in length. Now. we can print an entire 2,500 square foot house in 20 hours. (Video)
Continue reading… “The 3D printer that can print a 2,500 square foot house in 20 hours”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Lg_kvLaAM[/youtube]
This YouTube video about the invention of a plastic-to-oil converting machine went viral and exceeded 3.7 million views. This shows that concern over “the plastic problem” is certainly not going away, despite encouraging bans on and decreases in the use of plastic shopping bags.
Hundreds of companies are investing in electricity transferred through magnetic fields.
Nikola Tesla, the inventor and rival to Thomas Edison, in the early 1900’s built the Wardenclyffe Tower, a 187-foot-high structure on Long Island, which he said could transmit electricity wirelessly. Financier J.Morgan backed the Wardenclyffe Tower. The project failed, and Tesla ended up broke. (In an earlier experiment in Colorado, Tesla had wirelessly lit up 200 lamps over a distance of 25 miles, but pedestrians witnessed sparks jumping between their feet and the ground, and electricity flowed from faucets when turned on. Oops.)
Continue reading… “Electric power without transmission lines”
Too much texting can disconnect couples.
Two researchers who study the societal effects of text messages, Lori Schade and Jonathan Sandberg of Brigham Young University, just released a new study claiming that too much texting can disconnect couples. Their research, published behind a paywall in the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, links too much texting to the stripping of nuance from a relationship.
Continue reading… “Couples who text together don’t stay together: Study”
What are energy CEO’s thinking?
Grid-Scale Energy Storage in North America 2013: Applications, Technologies, and Suppliers, author Chet Lyons spoke with dozens of energy storage CEOs and summarized their thoughts in a recent report. Below is an excerpt of his 311-page report, highlighting eleven common threads shared by energy storage executives.
Continue reading… “11 major trends in mass energy storage”
The State Departments’ goal is having more foreigners learn English and experience the U.S. education system.
U.S. embassies around the world this fall are hosting weekly discussions for students enrolled in free online courses, called MOOCs, in partnership with Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based platform with over 5 million users. Embassy employees and Fulbright fellows (Fulbright being an academic exchange program sponsored by the State Department) will volunteer to host the discussions. There will be over 30 sites to begin with, in countries like India, China, and Bolivia. Topics include English, science, technology, engineering, business, and U.S. civics.
Individual airlines still have to prove to the FDA that in-air electronics during takeoff and landing are safe for their fleet.
The Federal Aviation Administration has finally relaxed the restrictions on in-flight electronics usage. New regulations allow passengers to use e-book readers, play games, and watch videos on devices as long as they are in airplane mode.
Continue reading… “FAA approves using electronics throughout your entire flight”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.