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Sep 13, 2015

3D Printed Solar Cells Could Provide 1.3 Billion People with Electricity

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, energy, solar power, sustainability

Solar power has been gaining more and more popularity worldwide since the efficiency of solar panels has significantly increased during the recent years, along with the dramatic decrease in the costs. However, its popularity is not only due its affordability to a wider audience but also to the growing awareness about the benefits of clean sources of energy. Yet, the costs of transportation and production often make it extremely difficult to implement solar technology in developing countries. Printed solar cells could offer a solution to this problem.

Thanks to the advances in printed solar cell technology during the past few years, its energy efficiency has increased from 3% to 20%.

Its success is due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity. A 10×10 cm solar cell film is enough to generate as much as 10–50 watts per square meter,” said Scott Watkins from the Korean company Kyung-In Synthetic.

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Sep 13, 2015

No More Air Conditioners: This “Skin” For Buildings Keeps The Inside Cool With Zero Energy

Posted by in category: energy

The facade works with no power at all—not even solar panels—and keeps the temperature comfortable and light bright inside.

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Sep 13, 2015

I got a computer chip implanted into my hand. Here’s how it went.

Posted by in categories: computing, cyborgs

Cool story:


Believe it or not, it happened at a presidential campaign event.

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Sep 13, 2015

Hacking The Body: This Implant Can Trap Cancer Cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Why is cancer so deadly? It spreads and consumes in a process called metastasis. If it stayed put we’d have an easier fight on our hands. Researchers hope this sponge-like implant could offer an intriguing solution, sucking up circulating cancer cells and warning you of their presence early on.

9 out of 10 cancer deaths are caused by spreading to other organs

Time is often cited as ‘our most precious resource’. Beating cancer is no exception to this; if we caught every cancer early success rates would be vastly improved. Curing cancer therefore requires more than simply destroying these cells. It also means improving diagnosis.

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Sep 13, 2015

Changing behavior through synaptic engineering

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, neuroscience

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to show that it’s possible to reverse the behavior of an animal by flipping a switch in neuronal communication. The research, published in PLOS Biology, provides a new approach for studying the neural circuits that govern behavior and has important implications for how scientists think about neural connectomes.

New technologies have fueled the quest to map all the neural connections in the brain to understand how these networks processes information and control behavior. The human brain consists of 1011 neurons that make 1015 connections. The total length of neuronal processes in the human brain is approximately 4 million miles long, similar in length to the total number of roads in the U.S. Along these networks neurons communicate with each other through excitatory and inhibitory synapses that turn neurons on or off.

The neuronal roadmap, or connectome, however, doesn’t include information about the activity of neurons or the signals they transmit. How stable are these neural circuits in the brain? Does their wiring constrain the flow of information or the behaviors they control? The complexity of the human brain makes it almost impossible to address these questions.

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Sep 13, 2015

Why The Future Of Technology Is All Too Human

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, robotics/AI

The concept of artificial intelligence got it’s start at a conference at Dartmouth in 1956. Optimism ran high and it was believed that machines would be able to do the work of humans within 20 years. Alas, it was not to be. By the 1970’s, funding dried up and technology entered the period now known as the AI winter.

Slowly, however, progress was made. Computers became increasingly able to do human tasks, such as character recognition, making recommendations on Amazon and organizing itineraries on travel sites. We didn’t see the algorithms at work, but they were there, computing on our behalf.

So the answer to our technological dilemma is, in fact, all too human. While the past favored those who could retain and process information efficiently, the future belongs to those who can imagine a better world and work with others to make it happen.

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Sep 13, 2015

Ancient virus discovered in melting Arctic ice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, sustainability

This particular giant virus won’t kill you, but climate change means that something deadly could one day emerge.

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Sep 13, 2015

A Dying Young Woman’s Hope in Cryonics and a Future

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Cancer claimed Kim Suozzi at age 23, but she chose to have her brain preserved with the dream that neuroscience might one day revive her mind.

By AMY HARMON SEPT. 12, 2015.

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Sep 13, 2015

The House just passed a bill about space mining. The future is here.

Posted by in category: space

And it gives a huge boost for the FAA. Here’s why.

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Sep 13, 2015

Physicist discovers that the reason we all live in cities is… 1.15

Posted by in category: futurism

There is a mathematical pattern that connects all cities across the world, transcending political and geographical boundaries, according to British scientist Geoffrey West.

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