Len Rosen's blog
Headlines at 21st Century Tech for January 11, 2013
Welcome to our second weekly headlines for 2013. This week's stories include:
- A Science Rendezvous to Inspire the Next Generation
- Next Steps for the Mars One Project
- Feeding the Planet Would Be Easier if We Didn't Waste Half of What We Produce
The Internet of Things and Smartphones are Breaking the Internet
I have written several articles on network communications on this blog site as well as on other sites, describing its e
BiFi, Biology, Engineering and Artifical Life
BiFi is to biology as WiFi is to computers. It's a technology being pioneered by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions, looking at bioengineering techniques for creating complex biological communities working together to accomplish specific tasks. In a sense every organ and every system of coordinated activity within our bodies runs as a BiFi network.
A Personal Note and Then On to Other Things - A Note About A Recantation
Today is my birthday. That puts me in a group that includes Elvis Presley and Stephen Hawking. It's nice to share this date with such talented and brilliant people. Elvis was fourteen years my elder. Stephen is 7 years older than me. What I have in common with both is music and science. I consider these two to be somewhat related.
Biomedicine Update: Cd Proteins And What We Are Learning
The acronym CD comes up a lot in science and technology. For those who remember them CDs or compact discs represented the primary media for music recordings from the 1980s until the rise of MP3 technology. Cd also stands for circular dicrhoism, a spectroscopic measure of light absorption in proteins.
The Aggie Bus is Electric and Recharges Wirelessly - The Future of Public Transit
If electric vehicles (EVs) are to become ubiquitous we have a number of hurdles to overcome. These include:
- Improvements to batteries not only to make them hold a charge longer but to also recharge faster.
- The building of an electric infrastructure with recharge capability not just at one point but at many.
Space Update: Has NASA Lost its Bearings or its Marbles?
NASA through the latter part of the 20th century developed two programs, one manned, the other robotic.
Tech Headlines for January 4, 2013
Welcome to 2013 and our first headlines posting of the year. This week's stories include:
- Mars Rover Approaches Ninth Anniversary on the Planet and is Still Ticking
- Study Correlates Climate Change with Increased Episodes of Volcanism
Mobile Ultrasound Lets You Encrypt and Email Images to Remote Physicians
MobiSante has built the first smartphone-based ultrasound system designed to support diagnostic imaging anywhere there is cellphone coverage and that means virtually everywhere on the planet.
Drilling in the Polar Extremes Frought with Potential Dangers
Shell Oil has been doing test drilling in the Arctic off Alaska's north shore and this week the reality of just how problematic this can be came to fruition. The Arctic is an extreme environment. And planning for all the potential things that can go wrong usually leaves out the one thing that does go wrong.
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Len Rosen is futurist, writer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. Read more of his work at 21stcentech.com. Follow him at @lenrosen4.
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Blogs
THE FUTURIST Magazine Releases Its Top 10 Forecasts for 2013 and Beyond (With Video)
Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. The forecasts are meant as conversation starters, not absolute predictions about the future. We hope that this report--covering developments in business and economics, demography, energy, the environment, health and medicine, resources, society and values, and technology--inspires you to tackle the challenges, and seize the opportunities, of the coming decade. Here are our top ten.
Why the Future Will Almost Certainly Be Better than the Present
Five hundred years ago there was no telephone. No telegraph, for that matter. There was only a postal system that took weeks to deliver a letter. Communication was only possible in any fluent manner between people living in the same neighborhood. And neighborhoods were smaller, too. There were no cars allowing us to travel great distances in the blink of an eye. So the world was a bunch of disjointed groups of individuals who evolved pretty much oblivious to what happened around them.
Headlines at 21st Century Tech for January 11, 2013
Welcome to our second weekly headlines for 2013. This week's stories include:
- A Science Rendezvous to Inspire the Next Generation
- Next Steps for the Mars One Project
- Feeding the Planet Would Be Easier if We Didn't Waste Half of What We Produce
Where is the future?
Like the road you can see ahead of you as you drive on a journey, I suggest the future is embedded in emerging, continuous space-time. Although you’re not there yet, you can see the road in front of you. In the rear-view mirror stretches the landscape of the past, the world you have been through and still remember.
Transparency 2013: Good and bad news about banking, guns, freedom and all that
“Bank secrecy is essentially eroding before our eyes,” says a recent NPR article. ”I think the combination of the fear factor that has kicked in for not only Americans with money offshore, countries that don’t want to be on the wrong side of this issue and the legislative weight of FATCA means that within three to five years it will be exceptionally difficult for any American to hide money in any financial institution.”
The Internet of Things and Smartphones are Breaking the Internet
I have written several articles on network communications on this blog site as well as on other sites, describing its e
BiFi, Biology, Engineering and Artifical Life
BiFi is to biology as WiFi is to computers. It's a technology being pioneered by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions, looking at bioengineering techniques for creating complex biological communities working together to accomplish specific tasks. In a sense every organ and every system of coordinated activity within our bodies runs as a BiFi network.