Next Big Future - 10 new articles

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"Next Big Future" - 10 new articles

1. DNA Nano-Assembly can be scaled up and also assemble inorganic materials
2. Dragon Tyrant Video Explains in a Fable the Mistake in How People Think About Aging
3. Periodic heating Can Double the Efficiency of Materials to Convert Heat to Electricity from 15% to 30% and Other Advances to Capturing 50% of all Wasted Heat and Tens of Billions in Market Potential
4. Ray Kurzweil's Goal at Google is to enable true natural language understanding
5. Google Expands Gigabit Fiber and a UK community has its own gigabit internet
6. Optical trickery lets a modified LCD produce hologram-like still images and videos at 127 dots per inch and appears to be a path to practical nearterm commercial 3D displays
7. Data driven eugenics, Genetic Enhancement, computer cloud AI via devices and Memristor Neuromorphic Devices over the next ten years
8. Voyager One spacecraft 'exits' Solar System or at least new transition boundaries
9. Wireless power, wireless data, no mice and no keyboards
10. Smartphone Screens Will be Made out of Sapphire
11. More Recent Articles
12. Search Next Big Future
13. Prior Mailing Archive

DNA Nano-Assembly can be scaled up and also assemble inorganic materials An 18 page presentation on Nano-Assembly using DNA bricks by Peng Yin of Harvard.   This is a plan for scaling up DNA Brick Nanoassembly and to enable the use of DNA nanotechnology as scaffolding for other inorganic molecular nanatechnology. DNA can already be assembled into many structures as shown below Scaling up DNA Bricks Hierarchical assembly NanoAssembler: iterative, solid phase synthesis of geometry DNA can become scaffolds for functional materials Fluorescent barcodes for multiplexed imaging DNA "nanorobot" for targeted delivery Chiral gold arrays for "Carving light" Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Dragon Tyrant Video Explains in a Fable the Mistake in How People Think About Aging Nick Bostom's philosophical parable about death, recounts the tale of the most vicious dragon that ate thousands of people everyday, and of the actions of the king, the people and an assembly of Dragonolgists to destroy this ancient threat. Out situation with regards to human senescence is similar to the situation of the people in the fable in regard to the dragon. Therefore, we have compelling reasons to get rid of human senescence.   A link to Professor Bostrom's original text Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Periodic heating Can Double the Efficiency of Materials to Convert Heat to Electricity from 15% to 30% and Other Advances to Capturing 50% of all Wasted Heat and Tens of Billions in Market Potential 1. Researchers have shows that the use of a periodic heat source, instead of a constant heat source, can improve the conversion efficiency of a thermoelectric power generator (TPG). A periodic heat source drives a periodic temperature difference across the thermoelectric with an amplitude ΔT. While the time average of ΔT is identical to the temperature difference under a constant heat source with equivalent energy input, the time average of (ΔT)2 is larger, resulting in improved conversion efficiency. Here we present experimental measurements on a commercial thermoelectric device (bismuth telluride based) to validate analytical and numerical models. These models show that maximum efficiency is achieved when the period of the heat source is much larger than the thermal time constant of the TPG. Under this quasi-steady condition, the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT is still the relevant parameter for material optimization. A conventional thermoelectric material with ZT = 1, operated with sinusoidal and square-wave heat sources (ΔT = 100 K, TCold = 300 K), can achieve 140% and 180% of the constant heat source efficiency; or otherwise stated, can perform like advanced materials with ZT of 1.6 and 2.8. Even greater improvement, inaccessible through materials-based ZT enhancements, can be achieved with low duty cycle heat sources.   Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Ray Kurzweil's Goal at Google is to enable true natural language understanding Ray Kurzweil has explained that his project is to get the Google computers to understand natural language, not just do search and answer questions based on links and words, but actually understand the semantic content. That's feasible now. To successfully do this will involve employing technologies that are already at Google like the Knowledge Graph, which has 700 million different concepts and billions of relationships between them. His team will also develop software as part of a system that will be "biological inspired" and can learn in a way analogous to the way the human brain is designed, that is, in a hierarchical structure. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Google Expands Gigabit Fiber and a UK community has its own gigabit internet Olathe, Kansas approved an agreement to bring Google Fiber to their city. Olathe has a population of 125000. In the UK, Arkholme a village in rural Lancashire is a community that is working together to install gigabit internet. B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) is a community fibre network offering fibre to every home providing 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) futureproof connection for £30 (US$45/month) a month. Farmers in rural After installing the network on the property, which is estimated to be around $1,500 (much less than what ISPs would charge). Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Optical trickery lets a modified LCD produce hologram-like still images and videos at 127 dots per inch and appears to be a path to practical nearterm commercial 3D displays A new kind of three-dimensional display developed at HP Labs plays hologram-like videos without the need for any moving parts or glasses. Videos displayed on the HP system hover above the screen, and viewers can walk around them and experience an image or video from as many 200 different viewpoints—like walking around a real object. The screen is made by modifying a conventional liquid-crystal display (LCD), the same kind of display found in most phones, laptops, tablets, and televisions. Researchers hope these 3-D systems will enable new kinds of user interfaces for portable electronics, gaming, and data visualization. The work, carried out at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, relies on complex physics to make 3-D displays that are as thin as half a millimeter. Nature - A multi-directional backlight for a wide-angle, glasses-free three-dimensional display Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Data driven eugenics, Genetic Enhancement, computer cloud AI via devices and Memristor Neuromorphic Devices over the next ten years Recently, various indicators point to China starting widespread embryo screening for higher intelligence which will allow parents to pick their brightest zygote and potentially bump up every generation's intelligence by five to 15 IQ points. There is a big cultural difference. In China, 95 percent of an audience would say, "Obviously you should make babies genetically healthier, happier, and brighter!". At BGI Shenzhen, scientists have collected DNA samples from 2,000 of the world's smartest people and are sequencing their entire genomes in an attempt to identify the alleles which determine human intelligence. They are about two months from having the results of that work. A specialized set of 23andMe-like tests ($99 to check for 200 genetic markers) would look for the set of intelligence markers that are found could be used like we now screen for Downs Syndrome. This seems like it will takeoff in China. It also seems that the genetic engineering services would also have wide usage in China as they become available. The CRISPR technique for genetic engineering is about 10-15% accurate and a lot better than Zinc fingers and TALEN methods A prospective process for neuronal rejuvenation was outlined by George Church and George noted that 80 gene therapies are in clinical trial now. This will not be beyond anything human until George Church and others starts pulling in genes from non-human sources. At first it will begin massively skewing towards the maximum of human capabilities or 1 in a million mutations (like mutations for myostatin inhibited muscles - four times better than steroids or very strong bones). China's move would mean tens of millions of people with data driven eugenics and perhaps a few million with various forms of genetic engineering within ten years. There will also be tens of thousands of athletes who will be pushing the frontier of genetic engineering to try to get a performance advantage. There will also be experimentation by DARPA and the militaries of the world. A unique new cancer treatment uses gene therapy to induce a cancer-fighting immune response whose intensity can then be controlled with a pill. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Voyager One spacecraft 'exits' Solar System or at least new transition boundaries The Voyager-1 probe has left the Solar System, according to some scientists. If confirmed, it would be the first man-made object to do so. Launched in September 1977, the probe was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going. Researchers who have studied its data indicate it has now entered a realm of space beyond the influence of our Sun. But the US space agency (Nasa) says there is still some doubt about this. Voyager is currently moving more than 18 billion km from Earth, or 123 times the distance between our planet and the Sun. The findings have been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. "Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He calls this transition boundary the "heliocliff." In the GRL article, the authors state: "It appears that [Voyager 1] has exited the main solar modulation region, revealing [hydrogen] and [helium] spectra characteristic of those to be expected in the local interstellar medium." However, Webber notes, scientists are continuing to debate whether Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space or entered a separate, undefined region beyond the solar system. "It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," Webber said. "We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting." Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Wireless power, wireless data, no mice and no keyboards We are not quite to a world of wireless and plugless devices. We have Wifi and cellphones but the devices must still be plugged in and a lot of devices still have to be plugged in for high speed data or for power. We still need a wide range of power adapters. It may not ever (or not for a long time) make sense to go completely wireless and plugless. The tradeoffs may not be worthwhile to not have plugs or connections for many appliances. However, wireless should be used to make things more convenient, seamless and reliable. Current voice recognition and gesture control of devices in cars and other applications needs to be made more convenient and seamless. Software and design need to be improved. Below we look at the technology and devices which will take us further down the road to more convenient and widespread world of wireless and plugless devices. Wireless Power The new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone is using the Wireless Power Consortium-backed Qi standard for wireless charging. Following the steps of Nokia, LG Electronics and HTC, Samsung Electronics and Apple are expected to add wireless charging capability to their flagship models in 2013 Apple is likely to adopt the wireless charging technology developed internally, but it remains unknown if the next-generation iPhone will come with built-in wireless charging capability or with other attached accessories, said the sources. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is working with the industry's leading technological companies and standardisation bodies to expand the scope of application of wireless charging technology to other, smaller portable devices, such as mobile phone accessories, wrist devices, wireless mice and sensors. This can be done by combining wireless power transmission with NFC connectivity technology, which enables cost-effective and compact design. In the near future, NFC devices will be able to receive electrical power wirelessly, as well as acting as charging platforms capable of transmitting wireless electrical power. The challenges include, among others, current NFC antenna circuits which have not been optimised for efficient, wireless energy transfer. In addition to technological development, introducing NFC-based charging to commercial products requires amendments to the NFC standards so that they also support the design of open interfaces, both in the device to be charged and the wireless charger devices. This work is under way at the NFC Forum. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Smartphone Screens Will be Made out of Sapphire Manufactured sapphire—a material that's used as transparent armor on military vehicles—could become cheap enough to replace the glass display covers on mobile phones. That could mean smartphone screens that don't crack when you drop them and can't be scratched with keys, or even by a concrete sidewalk. Sapphire, a crystalline form of aluminum oxide, probably won't ever be as cheap as Gorilla Glass, the durable material from Corning that's used to make screens on iPhones and other smartphones. A Gorilla Glass display costs less than $3, while a sapphire display would cost about $30. But that could fall below $20 in a couple of years thanks to increased competition and improving technology, says Eric Virey, an analyst for the market research firm Yole Développement. And since sapphire performs better than glass, that price could make it cheap enough to compete. By some measures, Sapphire is three times stronger than Gorilla Glass, and it is also about three times more scratch resistant. That's why Apple uses it now to protect the camera on its iPhone 5. Virey says that all major mobile-phone makers are considering using sapphire to replace glass. Some high-end smartphones should be using sapphire in 2013. Crystal clear: These unpolished, uncut boules of manufactured-sapphire crystal weigh 130 kilograms (left) and 100 kilograms (right). Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • More Recent Articles Phasers work but you have to step inside the gun RF chip at 10 Gbps will enable wireless high definition video connections between devices New flash memory combines graphene and molybdenite NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Spring Symposium Videos of All Days and Sessions Solve for X Malaria Eradication

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