Nearly all technological advances in the past century or more have depended on our ability to produce and manipulate the vast variety of materials that nature has given us. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of electronics. From a smorgasbord of semiconductors, polymers, and metals, we’ve been able to create a dazzling array of circuitry that now underpins pretty much every aspect of modern life.
Continue reading… “Making a better invisibility cloak with lasers”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Many of us suffer from a sinister and often contagious disorder, something I call just-in-case disease.
We own toolboxes full of tools, just in case we need to fix something. We have kitchens full of appliances just in case we want to prepare a meal. We have cars in our garages just in case we need to go somewhere. We even have closets full of clothes we know we’ll never wear just in case we get desperate.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4d3NmO4-_k[/youtube]
The international hospitality chain, Starwood, has two boutique hotels that will soon let travelers bypass the check-in counter and unlock their room by using digital keys sent to a special application available for Apple’s iPhone.
Continue reading… “iPhones to replace room keys at select Starwood hotels”
There are several critical technology trends that are likely to affect your business in the year to come, from connected devices to new security concerns to a more demanding and discriminating user base.
Continue reading… “Top 5 business tech trends to watch in 2014”
Tesla’s coast-to-coast network of electric vehicle recharging stations.
A cross-country road trip in a Tesla is now a reality. According to CEO Elon Musk, the electric car maker has expanded its network of Superchargers from coast to coast.
Continue reading… “Tesla connects supercharger network from coast to coast”
In the United States a solar system is installed every four minutes. The solar industry is adding a lot of new jobs in the process. There are 142,698 jobs throughout the industry, according to the Solar Foundation. That’s a 20 percent increase since 2012 — a jump driven both by growth in installations and new categories for academic and research jobs.
Continue reading… “Top 5 facts about the solar jobs market”
MarkForged 3D printer
Aeromotions builds computer-controlled racecar wings. The use carbon fiber to make those wings both strong and lightweight. Carbon fiber is the material of choice for many advanced motorsports parts. The problem is that making custom racecar parts out of carbon fiber is daunting. The only real method available is the expensive and difficult process of laying up carbon fiber pieces by hand.
Continue reading… “MarkForged is world’s first carbon fiber 3D printer”
Nielsen put out its latest figures on the state of the advertising market across old and new media platforms this morning. One big takeaway is that Internet advertising continues to be the fastest-growing medium, but it remains a small player. Global display advertising across the web, mobile internet and apps collectively grew by 32.4% in 2013 — by far the biggest leap of any media — but that still worked out to a 4.5% share of the overall spend in ads. In contrast, television grew only 4.3% but remains the behemoth when it comes to ad spend, taking nearly 58% of the market.
Continue reading… “Internet display ad spending up 32% in 2013, but still just 4.5% of market share”
The U.S. Army has recently declared that it is cutting troop levels. Over the next sixteen years, each and every brigade in the Army will see its soldier count drop from 4,000 to 3,000, with robots making up the loss in firepower. That’s according to General Robert Cone, who said robot soldier levels would reach their new peak between 2030 and 2040 during an Army Aviation symposium last week.
Continue reading… “By 2030 U.S. Army will replace 25% of soldiers with robots”
Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation can improve learning and speed up mental calculations.
An Oxford University study gave participants just five days of training with a relatively new form of brain stimulation: transcranial random noise stimulation.
Continue reading… “Brain stimulation can improve mental arithmetic ability”
Finnish programmer Linda Liukas had a major crush on Al Gore as a teenager. She wanted to share her passion for the then-vice president with a fan page. She didn’t have the pre-made templates that Tumblr and WordPress now place at our fingertips so built a site from scratch by teaching herself HTML and CSS.
Continue reading… “‘Hello Ruby’ – a children’s book that teaches programming to 4 – 7 year olds”
Drones that can fly into some of the most dangerous crime scenes and disaster zones are coming to the aid of police officers and other first responders who put themselves in harm’s way. (Videos)
Continue reading… “Drones could be the next frontier in emergency response”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.