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Sep 14, 2018

Lego-style solar panels to smash energy bills

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Ready-made snap-together solar panels that turn waste heat into hot water are being developed at Brunel University London in a £10 million sustainable energy scheme starting next month.

With energy use in buildings predicted to double or even triple by 2050, and most home energy used to heat water, project PVadapt promises to crack several sustainable energy problems at once.

Funded by Horizon 2020, the three and a half-year multi-disciplinary project aims to perfect a flexible solar powered renewable energy system that generates both heat from and electricity.

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Sep 14, 2018

‘Optical rocket’ created with intense laser light

Posted by in category: futurism

In a recent experiment at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, plasma electrons in the paths of intense laser light pulses were almost instantly accelerated close to the speed of light.

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Sep 14, 2018

What We Have to Gain From Making Machines More Human

Posted by in category: futurism

If machines could bring emotional and intellectual capacities to our interactions with them, how would this affect the way we use and relate to them?

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Sep 14, 2018

Brain Cancer’s ‘Immortality Switch’ Turned Off with CRISPR

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Researchers have found a way to short-circuit the “immortality switch” that cancer cells use to divide indefinitely.

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Sep 14, 2018

Tsunami Capsule

Posted by in category: futurism

This pod could save your life in a tsunami.

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Sep 14, 2018

BMW’s Self-Driving Motorcycle Could Help Keep Bikers Safe

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

BMW’s self-driving motorcycle can start, stop, and navigate all by itself, but the company says creating a fully autonomous vehicle wasn’t its intention.

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Sep 14, 2018

Artificial Retinas Made Of This Ultra-Thin Super Material Could Help Millions See Again

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

TRULY SUPER. There’s a reason researchers call graphene a “super material.” Even though it’s just a single layer of carbon atoms thick, it’s super strong, super flexible, and super light. It also conducts electricity, and is biodegradable. Now an international team of researchers has found a way to use the super material: to create artificial retinas.

They presented their work Monday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

ARTIFICIAL RETINAS. The retina is the layer of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye responsible for converting images into impulses that the brain can interpret. And without a functional one, a person simply can’t see.

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Sep 14, 2018

This man built a flying car!😲

Posted by in category: transportation

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Sep 14, 2018

Ryff lets advertisers place any virtual object into commercials and films

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

Ryff has a big idea that it says could turn the $23 billion product placement market upside down. Product placement is the advertising tactic of placing a branded object, like a bottle of Coca-Cola, in a scene in a movie or a TV show.

Los Angeles-based Ryff has figured out how to do this digitally with cloud technology. Ryff figures out the places in video content where virtual objects can be placed in a scene where they seem like they are a natural part of the environment. That means the objects have to be rendered realistically enough so they can be mistaken for being part of a real scene, as recorded in a movie or TV show or a commercial, said Roy Taylor, CEO of Ryff, at an event on Thursday evening.

“We are on a new platform that makes images intelligent,” Taylor said. “Ryff is the world’s first image technology company using AI and visual computing to change the way we experience entertainment.”

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Sep 14, 2018

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos launches a $2 billion ‘Day One Fund’ to help homeless families and create preschools

Posted by in categories: futurism, space travel

The fund will launch with a $2 billion commitment, split between the Day 1 Families Fund — helping homeless families — and the Day 1 Academies Fund — creating a “network of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities,” Bezos said.


As CEO of Amazon, founder of rocket company Blue Origin and owner of The Washington Post, Bezos is the wealthiest man in modern history, with a net worth of at least $150 billion.

Critics have long called for him to put his billions toward philanthropic efforts.

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