The deadline to apply for the 2013 Graduate Studies Program (GSP) at Singularity University is fast approaching. If you're an entrepreneurial innovator, disruptive technophile, or aspiring futurist, be sure to fill out an application here by next Thursday, January 31.
Chalk up another victory for gene therapy. A recent clinical trial has shown that gene therapy can be used to extend the lives of children with a rare brain disorder that typically proves fatal in the first few years of life.
On the simplest level, GravityLight converts gravitational energy into light, just like its name promises. That's right, you lift a bag filled with 20 pounds of stuff (sand, earth, whatever) and attach it to a cord. As gravity pulls the bag down, an LED light is illuminated, working kind of like those hand-cranked flashlights. A braking mechanism causes the weight to drop slowly, producing about 30 minutes of light, and returning the bag to its original height "restarts" the light.
As a sort of highlight reel of all that has happened at the Khan Academy in 2012, let's take a look at its progress and hopefully you'll agree that its as hot as ever.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
If you watch Doug Wolens’ latest documentary, “The Singularity,” the quote from Arthur C. Clarke is the...
While Google and Stanford build robot cars from the top down, mainstream automakers are building autonomous autos from the base up. Before too long, the two will meet—at the least, relieving humans from an hour of stop-and-go traffic and maybe even taking over the entire commute.
In a December paper published in Nature’s preliminary research online publication, Scientific Reports, Stanford researchers announced a fabrication process that makes thin-film solar cell (TFSC) stickers. The resulting TFSCs are thinner and lighter than today’s solar panels. And according to the researchers these “peel-and-stick” solar cells can be stuck just about anywhere—no surface is too curvy or uneven.
Digital filmmaking is transforming Hollywood, no doubt, but for independent filmmakers, it is nothing short of a revolution. Case in point: 22-year-old German student Kaleb Lechowski. After seven months of writing, designing, and editing as well as reporting his progress on his blog, Kaleb recently posted his short sci-fi film R'ha on Vimeo. The six-minute film, which does not include a single human being, was completed as part of his first-year studies in digital film design in Berlin.
Singularity Hub chatted with Paul Lazarus about his award-winning short film "Slingshot" and the film's namesake invention. Lazarus told us about the agony of condensing a grand challenge and potential solution to three minutes—and what he thinks the future promises for both.
Industrialization has its price.
This past weekend Beijing, the epicenter of one of the world’s fastest growing and largest economies, reached the highest smog levels...
Want to bring international expertise to Silicon Valley without the hassle of getting a visa? You may soon get that chance. Tech startup Blueseed wants to open a floating office park for non-US tech entrepreneurs off the California coast. And while the idea has its naysayers—it also recently secured a $300,000 infusion of capital from respected Silicon Valley investor, Mike Maples.
It's a staggering modern-day irony that the most common complication for hospital patients is acquiring an infection during their visit, affecting 1 in 20 patients in the US. It's a problem estimated to cause millions of infections with 100,000 or so leading to death per year and a whopping $45 billion annually in hospital costs. If this isn't bad enough, the tragedies from deadly superbugs within healthcare facilities are on the rise and will likely continue as the last lines of antibiotics fail without any new drugs moving fast enough up the pipeline to help.
The researchers behind the current study seek a new tactic from stem cell pluripotency: instead of making one thing from another, they seek to take a good thing and simply make more of it.
Microsoft developers in the UK working with researchers from Newcastle University have recently announced an intriguing project: a wrist strap sensor that tracks finger motions...
To kick off 2013, South Korean electronics firm LG launched the world’s first commercially available 55” OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television. And according to LG, it’s “as thin as three credit cards.” Which is both jaw dropping and an entirely appropriate unit of measurement. If you want thin, expect to pay. The model’s $12,000 US price tag will have you handing over those credit cards in short order.
IBM's 2012 "5 in 5" list is all about the senses. Computers can already see and hear by way of microphone and camera. And plenty of apps use these senses for fun, like recording music, and more serious purposes, like monitoring moles for skin cancer. But why not go further? The “5 in 5” visionaries predict we’ll have touch screens that not only sense our fingers but give back subtle vibrations to simulate how certain items feel—from a silk shirt to a cotton pillow. Or devices that will smell our breath to see if we have diabetes, cancer, or a cold.
Rather than wait for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to take action, Berkeley, California is attempting to take the lead and proclaim the sky above their city a ‘No Drone Zone.’
Jason Silva, a 21st-century version of a beat poet (if that'a real thing), kicked off 2013 with a video titled "A Mind Made For Mating!" that's 90 seconds of pure "tech ftw" goodness. Rattling off connections between human sexuality, the brain, and internet technology, Jason delivers a stream-of-conscious epiphany about how the social function of the human brain has evolved from a courtship instrument intended to assist in the spreading of genes to a digitally connected device aimed at the propagation of memes.
The urinal video game console delivers ads and promotes engagement with interactive games (five currently including a racing game and trivia) all within the approximate 1-minute window of time it takes for a man to empty his bladder. And apparently, it helps men keep their aim too, which could make restrooms cleaner.
If you haven't been watching television lately, you're not alone. Television viewership continues to decline, especially among younger viewers. While new shows come out...
A German company has brought us one step closer to the kinds of shootouts only seen in Sci-Fi films. Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Defense recently tested...
Mid-2012, Leap Motion unveiled the most accurate motion sensing technology on the market to date. The Leap detects every subtle finger flick and hand...
One particular genetically modified salmon is on the verge of successfully navigating the treacherous regulatory waters of the FDA. The agency just issued a...
