Futurist Thomas Frey: Over the next year I will be proposing a series of eight major prize competitions, competitions designed to pit the countries of the world against each other in a series of extraordinary tests of skills and abilities.
Continue reading… “Prize Competition #1: The Race to the Core”
Antibiotics made more effective with sugar.
A spoonful of sugar, it seems, can do more than help the medicine go down – it can also help make it work. Sugar can improve the effectiveness of antibiotics against infections, according to researchers.
Self-driving Toyota Prius, modified by Google.
Google is quietly lobbying legislators to make Nevada the first state to allow autonomous vehicles on public roads. The company’s self-driving cars might soon become more than a pet project. (Video)
Continue reading… “Google Lobbies Nevada Legislators to Allow Self-driving Cars”
In the future, paper money may be displaced with digital points of a vendor.
Karl Dakin: The subject of how we will be paid and make payments in the future was presented at the DaVinci Institute’s Night with a Futurist on Monday night. The presentations covered potentially major changes in the way we conduct business and interact as a society as technological advances in mobile computing enable new ways of exchanging things of value.
Continue reading… “Predictions for money, currencies and payments”
What will cause the power to shift among nations between now and 2050?
Futurist Thomas Frey: I often get interview requests from newspaper and magazines as they probe for a better understanding of the world ahead. However, the request I received two days ago was a bit unusual.
Continue reading… “Interview with Ukraine’s InvestGazeta”
Doctors hope it will prevent the birth of oversized babies.
In a trial described as ‘disturbing’ by weight loss groups, babies will be given a diet drug in the womb to stop them being born overweight. One hundred obese moms-to-be will be given Metformin as part of a three-year study to tackle obesity rates and reduce the number of difficult births.
The “digital wallet” will store the banks’ customers’ credit and debit card account information, both for Visa cards and other cards.
The world’s largest credit and debit card processing network, Visa Inc, is building a digital wallet that people can use to pay for things online or with their phones instead of with traditional cards.
Continue reading… “Visa Plans to Launch Digital Wallet for Banks in the U.S.”
Nuclear power plant in Dukovany, Czech Republic
There are 440 commercial nuclear reactors in use worldwide. They are all currently helping to minimize our consumption of fossil fuels. But how much bigger can nuclear power get?
Information at the speed of need
Futurist Thomas Frey: The distance between information and our brain is getting shorter.
Twenty years ago if you had access to a large information base, such as the Library of Congress, and someone asked you a series of questions, your task would have been to pour through the racks of books to come up with the answers. The time involved could have easily have been 10 hours per question.
Continue reading… “Power of 10 Interface”
In-car portable navigation systems could be gone entirely in five years.
Change is the one thing that is predictable in the technology world. Technology that was commonplace ten years ago, such as PDA’s, CRT televisions and fax machines are all quickly fading away.
Continue reading… “Five Tech Gadgets That Will be Obsolete in Five Years”
MIT scientists discover that bee venom can detect explosives and some pesticides.
Scientists from MIT have discovered that by coating carbon nanotubes in bee venom, they can create ultra-sensitive detectors for explosives such as TNT, as well as at least two different types of pesticides. This means that bees and their stingers could become important to making better environmental sensors.
The U.S. is running out of wireless spectrum.
The United States is facing an imminent spectrum crisis in which exploding demand from smartphones will soon overwhelm the nation’s wireless capacit, according to the FCC.