Sci/Tech

Ant behavior is extremely fascinating. Humanity could learn a great deal from the way these tiny creatures communicate, travel and manipulate their environment. Researchers from the University of York are fitting one thousand northern hairy wood ants with micro radio receivers.

The leading cause of car accidents is pretty obvious - its human error. The only way to truly make driving safer for everyone is to give the person behind the wheel more tools to drive safely - or even remove the human element altogether.

originally posted at The Trend and Foresight Blog

JC Penney's CEO Ron Johnson has made a bold statement regarding the future of the company - that it plans to move all of its inventory onto an advanced RFID system and obviate the need for human cashiers.

With the arrival of the 2012 Olympic Games, we find ourselves focused on the extremes of human performance. But what happens when we reach the natural limits of human ability? What happens when the last record has been broken?

In 1954, Brook Stevens, a well-known industrial designer gave a keynote speech at an advertising conference titled “Planned Obsolescence.”

By his definition, planned obsolescence was “instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary.” Over time, planned obsolescence has become a commonly used term for products designed to break easily, and our cars have become the product that most consumers associate with this business practice...But the idea of replacement cycles will soon change as we enter the driverless car era, as automobile companies make the transition from selling cars to selling transportation.

A remote village in Kenya may be hundreds of miles from the nearest hospital, so what can its villagers do when one of their own comes down with a serious medical condition? That’s where point-of-care tests (POCTs)—portable devices that can diagnose patients on-site for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, heart disease, and many other illnesses—come in.