A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021

Invisibility cloaks. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A Facebook for genes. These were just a few of the startling topics IFTF explored at the recent Technology Horizons Program conference on the "Future of Science." More than a dozen scientists from UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, Scripps Research Institute, SETI, and private industry shared their edgiest research driving transformations in science. MythBusters' Adam Savage weighed in on the future of science education. All of their presentations were signals supporting IFTF's new "Future of Science" forecast, laid out in a new map titled "A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021." The map focuses on six big stories of science that will play out over the next decade: Decrypting the Brain, Hacking Space, Massively Multiplayer Data, Sea the Future, Strange Matter, and Engineered Evolution. Those stories are emerging from a new ecology of science shifting toward openness, collaboration, reuse, and increased citizen engagement in scientific research.

Download the Map as a pdf here

via IFTF

Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has developed amputees a bionic "to walk without the leg-dragging gait characteristic of conventional artificial legs". Unlike the average peg-leg, the Vanderbilt leg has motors in the knee and ankle to actively move like the real thing. Sensors and microprocessors predict what the user is about to do and the leg moves accordingly. The leg itself is also pretty light on power, running for up to three days (or 14 kilometers) on a single charge.

The Vanderbilt leg is seen above worn by Craig Hutto, left, and Professor Michael Goldfarb, who is leading the team at VU. The leg itself has been in development for always seven years now, and packs in quite a bit of tech.

From Vanderbilt:
The device uses the latest advances in computer, sensor, electric motor and battery technology to give it bionic capabilities: It is the first prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints that operate in unison. It comes equipped with sensors that monitor its user's motion. It has microprocessors programmed to use this data to predict what the person is trying to do and operate the device in ways that facilitate these movements.



via Wired and the Vanderbilt Unversity

Xbox Kinect in the hospital operating room

A team at Sunnybrook has come up with a novel new medical use for the Xbox Kinect.

via: http://sunnyview.sunnybrook.ca/

Kinect-Hacked Shopping Cart Automatically Follows Wheelchair-Bound Shoppers Around

Luis de Matos has rigged hackers’ favorite device to make a shopping cart follow a wheelchair user around the store.
The wi-Go project, as it’s called, could significantly improve autonomy for disabled shoppers. The video below shows the difficulty of trying to simultaneously operate a cart and a wheelchair and then (beginning around 1:20) a much less stressful shopping trip, courtesy of the wi-Go.



via Kinect Hacks

Precision Information Environments Envisioning the future of emergency management

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing future work environments for the emergency management community called Precision Information Environments (or PIEs). PIEs will provide tailored access to information and decision support capabilities in a system that supports the multiple user roles, contexts, and phases of emergency management, planning, and response.

Take a look at one vision for the future, then check out http://precisioninformation.org to view an annotated version that describes each of the technology concepts you'll see as well as the end user needs that motivated them and the research challenges that must be addressed to make them a reality.

The Social Web of Things

Ericsson believes that in the Networked Society, more than 50 billion things will be connected, in order to make our lives and our businesses more efficient and more enjoyable.

Microsoft's Vision of the Future (Parody)

Sarcastic Gamer takes a look at the future.

Brain-Controlled Robotic Arm Could Be Available in Just Four Years

The lifelike limb, controlled by a chip planted on the brain, is being tested as part of a program designed to speed development of medical devices.

On Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration said it would fast-track the DARPA device, pushing it through the approval process with priority assistance in order to get it to amputees — many of which are returning from combat zones—as soon as four years from now.

via LA Times

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science

Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.

via TED

Aubrey de Grey says we can avoid aging

Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that aging is merely a disease -- and a curable one at that. Humans age in seven basic ways, he says, all of which can be averted.

via TED

The Future of User Interaction

Several emerging technologies that have the potential to change how we interact with technology and the world. Some of these technologies may be many years away from maturity, but they are definitely going to have massive impact in years to come.

via UX Matters

Kaylene Kau's Prosthetic Arm

Fantastic innovative tentacle design for a prosthetic arm. Why replicate a human arm, when a tentacle is far simpler and useful.

Kaylene Kau writes: "For this project we were pushed by our Professor to push the boundaries of current upper-limb prosthetic design. Through extensive research I found that the prosthetic functioned as an assistant to the dominant functioning hand. The prosthetic needed to be both flexible and adjustable in order to accommodate a variety of different grips."

via Kaylene Kau

Shut Down Human Embryonic Stem Cell Experiments Immediately

The National Institutes of Health on Monday ordered an immediate shutdown of NIH experiments involving human embryonic stem cells.

The move, reported in ScienceInsider, comes on the heels of a ruling last week that blocked the use of federal funds to study new embryonic stem cell lines. A judge said President Obama's 2009 executive order violates a federal law barring the use of federal funds to destroy embryos.

via ScienceInsider

Nanoparticle bandages could detect and treat infection

A "self-medicating" bandage could become a mainstay of burns units. Laced with nanoparticles, it detects harmful bacteria in a wound and responds by secreting antibiotics.

via New Scientist