When will robots replace our jobs? It will take some time, and there will always be some jobs that will, at least for the near term, always be the exclusive domain of humans, but lots of really smart people are predicting and anticipating a future where robots/automation do many of the jobs that people do today.
3D printed interactive speaker
What if every object in your life could talk? A door handle warns you when someone has attempted to enter without a key. A desk ticks off your appointments when you sit down. A rubber duck quacks at a child in the tub, then his pillow sings him a lullaby to sleep. (Video)
Continue reading… “Disney ‘s new 3-D printing technique turns any object into a speaker”
Deputy Attorney General James Cole
Thousands of nonviolent federal prisoners are expected to take up an offer by the Obama administration to apply for early release. It’s an effort to deal with high costs and overcrowding in prisons, and also a matter of fairness, the government says.
Continue reading… “U.S. weighs clemency for thousands of inmates jailed for 10 years”
Higher levels of education correlate with cognitive reserve.
Having a little education goes a long way toward ensuring you’ll recover from a serious traumatic brain injury. In fact, people with lots of education are seven times more likely than high school dropouts to have no measurable disability a year later.
Continue reading… “Education better equips the brain to recover from traumatic injury”
Graphene and carbon nanotubes can generate intense surface plasmons for use in nanoelectronics and cancer therapy.
Engineers at Monash University Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) have modeled the world’s first “spaser” (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) to be made completely out of carbon.
Continue reading… “Smartphones in the future could be printed on your clothes”
The SCiO is a handheld molecular analyzer.
If you wanted to look up the calorie content of a specific food you are eating you could take it to a lab and run it through a spectrometer. But accurate spectrometers are huge, expensive machines that are often only owned by institutions and require training to use. A new startup, however, wants to make it easy as running an app and pairing a bluetooth dongle. (Video)
Continue reading… “$150 smartphone spectrometer can tell the number of calories in your food”
Aerographite
Scientists are always on the look out for lighter, stronger, and more energy-efficient materials. Here’s a glance at some materials that will change the way we build things in the future.
China was the world’s largest economy until 1890 before America surpassed it. By the end of 2014 China is on track to reclaim its crown.
Continue reading… “China will become the world’s largest economy by the end of 2014”
The “off-switch” could help scientists develop treatments for patients with some brain diseases.
Scientists have essentially developed an “off-switch” for the brain by using light pulses to effectively shut down neural activity.
Continue reading… “Scientists develop an ‘off-switch’ for the brain”
Young adults spend leisurely time at Marion Square in Charleston, SC.
Jessica Duggan grew up in this starchy historic city in the 1990’s. She remembers field trips with her mother to the historic Battery neighborhood, watching tourists “doing the horse thing and the market thing.” She dreamed of staying here as an adult. But she had to admit that her hometown was hopelessly uncool.
Continue reading… “‘Post college towns’ teem with college-educated young adults, jobs”
The results of corporate acquisitions of startups are often disappointing.
Large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups for decades. The pressure of continuous disruption has forced them to step up the pace lately.
Continue reading… “Why corporate acquisitions of startups usually fail”
The FBI plans to start using facial recognition software.
Most technology watchers believe we shouldn’t be overly concerned just yet about the privacy implications of facial recognition technology because it isn’t yet sophisticated enough to identify people accurately,
Continue reading… “Massive FBI facial recognition database raises concerns about privacy”