Category Archives: Futurism

In BriefNASA has detailed a plan to prevent the Yellowstone supervolcano from ever erupting. By drilling into the volcano and pumping water into and out of it at high speeds, they believe they could cool the volcano and use the emerging hot water to generate electricity.

When people think of Yellowstone, its usually in relation to the national park, a massive 8,983 square kilometer (3,468.4 square mile) area comprising mountains, rivers, and forests. Less commonly considered is the Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano whose eruption could be devastating for our planet.

Thankfully, such an explosion is highly unlikely, and now,NASA has come up with a way to not only ensure that the volcano remains inactive, but also use it to provide the surrounding area with electricity.

Following their release of a story on supervolcanoes, the BBC was contacted by a few NASA members who wanted to share details on a previously unreleased plan to deal with Yellowstone. Even NASA admits their incredibly ambitious plan is risky, but the potential benefits resulting from its success cant be completely ignored.

First, they would drill into the volcano from the lower sides, outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. Coming from this direction would prevent the intense heat from making its way to the top of the chamber, where it would cause further problems.

Once drilling is complete, water would be pumped into and back out of the supervolcano at high pressures, with the exiting water heated to a temperature of around 350 degrees Celsius (662 degrees Fahrenheit). The water going in would slowly cool the volcano, while the hot water coming out of it could be used to generate electricity.

Yellowstone currently leaks around 6GW in heat, Brian Wilcox, a researcher at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), explained to the BBC. Through drilling in this way, it could be used to create a geothermal plant, which generates electric power at extremely competitive prices of around $0.10/kWh.

Aside from the dangers inherent in any plan to drill into a volcano, the NASA proposal is also largely theoretical no one knows for sure that it would work, and the cost of finding out would bean estimated$3.46 billion. Wilcox doesnt think this cost is insurmountable, however.

You would have to give the geothermal companies incentives to drill somewhat deeper and use hotter water than they usually would, but you would pay back your initial investment and get electricity which can power the surrounding area for a period of potentially tens of thousands of years, he noted. And the long-term benefit is that you prevent a future supervolcano eruption which would devastate humanity.

Even if the system can effectively cool Yellowstone at NASAs estimated rate of 1 meter (3.2 feet) per year,it would take thousands of years before only cool rock was left and longer than that to actually confirm that the process had permanently eliminated the threat of an eruption.

Despite all of these variables, the plan is worth consideration, especially given that Yellowstone is just one of about 20 supervolcanoes on the planet. NASA hopes that their proposal will encourage more practical discussions and debates on what to do about these massive structures prior to an eruption, at which point the Earth could be thrust into a volcanic winter.

More:
NASA Has a $3.46 Billion Plan to Ensure the Yellowstone ... - Futurism - Futurism

In BriefAt approximately 3:00 PM ET August 24th, SpaceX launched a Taiwanese observational satellite called FORMOSAT-5 on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, California. This launch marks the 12th successful mission for SpaceX in 2017, the most its had ever in one year.

SpaceX is at it again. After a successful slew of launches that began earlier this year, Elon Musks rocket venture company has just launched a Taiwanese Earth-observation satellite called FORMOSAT-5 into space aboard a reused Falcon 9.

The launch took place on site in Vandenberg, California and the rocket landed on SpaceXs drone ship 10 minutes after it took off. Its the 12th successful launch SpaceX has had this year, the 40th flight for a Falcon 9, and the ninth time one has landed without hiccups.

Its been a promising year for SpaceX. Not only has the aerospace company hadmore launches than everthis year prior to 2017, the most launches itd had in a year was eight its also moving forward with a number of other endeavors. SpaceX recently launched the last of its unused Dragon 2 spacecraft, and is preparing to launch a Falcon Heavy this November. Theres also the highly-anticipateddevelopment of its Mars mission coming out this upcoming September. Even further, Musk has given a long-awaited sneak peek into its space suit development project for NASA, releasing the first image of the futuristic suit earlier this week. Its expected to see space action in 2018, as SpaceX plans to send two tourists on a round trip to the Moon. SpaceX will continue with its commercial partnership missions, just like with this most recent launch of a satellite specially designed and built in Taiwan.

Read this article:
The 40th Flight of the Falcon 9 Was a Success - Futurism

In BriefStudying the effects of a drug undergoing clinical tests to fight cancer, researchers from the Gladstone Institutes discovered it could be used to treat HIV. The drug can reactivate HIV and then help kill or silence it.

One of the biggest hurdles in HIV treatment is the nature of the virus itself. Aside from its ability to quickly replicate, HIV can also remain latent in the cells of a patients body. This means HIV is never really cured, as it could resurface the moment a patient stops taking medications. Scientists have been working on ways to combat latent HIV, either through a shock and kill method where the virus is reactivated and then destroyed, or by silencing it for good.

A team of researchers from the Gladstone Institutes want to combine both approaches, and theyve found a potential key to doing this in an anti-cancer drug called JQ1. Already in the early phases of human clinical trials, JQ1 can actually reactivate latent HIV, according to the teams study published in the journal Molecular Cell.

Our discovery was born out of frustration, researcher Melanie Ott, senior investigator at Gladstone, said in a press release. We already knew that the drug JQ1 targets a protein called BRD4, but our experiments were not yielding consistent results. Then, we started looking at different forms of the protein and, unexpectedly, found that a short form was the key to silencing HIV.

Curing HIV, either through shock and kill or by silencing it requires that latent viruses be reactivated. JQ1 allows for both methods, either by helping HIV resurface to then be eradicated, or by strengthening the bodys ability to suppress it. Either way, because the drug is already in clinical trials, its a matter of time before it finds commercial use.

You could start by shocking and killing the virus thats easy to target, then use silencing mechanisms to slow the resurfacing of latent virus, Ott said. Thats how I see the future of HIV cure research. While it may not be an overnight cure for HIV, its definitely a step in the right direction.Click to View Full Infographic

JQ1 might also impact a broader range of diseases by targeting the BRD4 protein to treat not just cancer but also heart failure and inflammation. While uncovering the role of this protein in HIV, we discovered that it may also be involved in fighting other viruses related to HIV, first author Ryan Conrad explained. Therefore, our findings could provide new insights into an old cellular defense mechanism against invading viruses.

More here:
A Cancer Drug May Be Key in Defeating HIV - Futurism - Futurism

In BriefIn an effort to improve the efficiency of natural photosynthesis, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, has created cyborg bacteria. These bacteria were trained to grow and cover their bodies with tiny semiconductor nanocrystals that act as efficient solar panels for harvesting sunlight.

Although most life on Earth relies upon photosynthesis as its source of energy, the process has a weak link: chlorophyll. Plants and other organisms use the green pigment to harvest sunlight during photosynthesis, but it is rather inefficient. To that end, scientists have been searching for ways to upgrade natural photosynthesis sohumans would be able to capture and use energy from the Sun more efficiently.

Now, Kelsey K. Sakimoto, a researcher at Peidong Yangs lab at the University of California, Berkeley, has come up with a new alternative to natural photosynthesis: cyborg bacteria that were trained to cover themselves in solar panels that are much more efficient than chlorophyll at converting sunlight into useful compounds.

Rather than rely on inefficient chlorophyll to harvest sunlight, Ive taught bacteria how to grow and cover their bodies with tiny semiconductor nanocrystals, Sakimotosaid in a press release. These nanocrystals are much more efficient than chlorophyll and can be grown at a fraction of the cost of manufactured solar panels.

To produce his cyborg bacteria, Sakimoto fed them the amino acid cysteine and the element cadmium. The bacteria then synthesized cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles, which efficiently absorb light, functioning as solar panels on the bacterias surfaces. The new hybrid organism, called M. thermoacetica-CdS, produces useful acetic acid from light energy, water, and CO2 at a rate that outperforms any sources of natural photosynthesis.

Today, Sakimoto is presenting his work at the 254th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Humanity is facing an ever-growing need for alternatives to fossil fuels as we face down the consequences of greenhouse gas emissionsand a rapidly increasing population that requires energy to sustain.

Artificial photosynthesisisnot a new concept, and a system that requires only sunlight and simple organic chemicals to generate renewable energy cheaply and cleanly is understandably highly desirable.

While some limited progress has been made in this area, until now, no proposed solution has been nearly efficient enough to warrant commercial use.

Sakiomotos bacteria, however, operate at an efficiency of more than 80 percent and are both self-replicating and self-regenerating, making this a zero-waste technology with multiple uses. Once covered with these tiny solar panels, the bacteria can synthesize food, fuels, and plastics, all using solar energy, he explained. These bacteria outperform natural photosynthesis.

While he does acknowledge that more research is needed, Sakiomotois hopefully that his cyborg bacteria could prove to be a viable alternative to fossil fuels, helping the world produce energy more cheaply and cleanly.

Link:
Cyborg Bacteria Could Be the Key to Commercially Viable Artificial Photosynthesis - Futurism

In BriefBitcoin is the world's most popular cryptocurrency, and its value continues to reach new heights. Here are a few reasons this relatively unknown digital coin was able to make the climb from obscurity to the mainstream consciousness.

So far, 2017 has been an eventful year for Bitcoin.

The platform recentlyendured a hard fork that saw it split in two and come out seemingly unscathed. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency has risen from relative obscurity to become a popular topic of discussion in the mainstream, with everyone from Bloomberg to Forbes covering it regularly. The year isnt even over, and bitcoin has reached numerous milestonesalready, both in terms of its own history and that ofcryptocurrency in general.

Overall, Bitcoin seems to be steadily trending upward, with even greater heights predicted for the platforms future. So, how did a cryptocoin originally associated with the internets darkest corners become a popular contender for the future of financial and other transactions?

Longevity seems to play a factor. After years of trading, the coin has proven itself as here to stay, leading to years of value increases first a steady rise from 2012 through 2016, and then a more dramatic surge that is still ongoing today.

A cryptocurrency researcher who goes by the Twitter handle Jack Sparrow shared a comparative overview of just how fast bitcoins value has risen.

After it was created in 2009, bitcoin needed roughly seven years to reach a $2,000 valuation. However, the crypto saw the same level of increase from $2,000 to $4,000 in a matter of just 85 days.

The numbers are backed up, of course, by confidence fromlarger institutions. Big financial firms like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Fidelity Investments are now invested in the crypto, and nations such asChina, Japan, and, more recently, Australiahave started considering more permanent roles for cryptocurrencies in their respective economies as well.

All of this large-scale support is giving smaller organizations and individual investors confidencein the crypto.

The growing popularity of blockchain enterprise use has also contributed to the successes of Bitcoin and other platforms. As more institutions in the financial industry and beyondlook for ways to utilizethe decentralized and secure digital ledger, the cryptocurrencies that spring from these blockchains also get a boost.

Still, even with Bitcoins seemingly unstoppable successes, experts advise caution. As with any hot item, investing in bitcoin can be risky. Some, such as billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and veteran investor Peter Schiff, even warn that the current cryptocoin craze is simply a bubble. However, while Schiff claims cryptocurrencies will never be money, many others thinkotherwise.

Are we witnessing the beginnings ofa truly cashless future? Only time will tell, and as with any revolution, Bitcoinhas many hurdles to overcome before it can truly transform our society. Right now, though, the crypto is clearly on the rise.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

Read more here:
Here's Why Bitcoin Rose More than $1000 in Two Months - Futurism

A New Kind of Composer

Break Free is the first sone released in a new album by Taryn Southern. The song, indeed, the entire album, features an artist known asAmperbut what looks like a typical collaboration between artists is actually much more than that.

Taryn is no stranger to the music and entertainment industry. She is a singer and digital storyteller who has amassed more than 500 million views on YouTube, and she has over 450 thousand subscribers. On the other hand, Amper is making his debutexcept hes (its?) not a person.

Amper is an artificially intelligent music composer, producer, and performer. The AI was developed by a team of professional musicians and technology experts, and its the the very first AI to compose and produced an entire music album. The album is called I AM AI, and the featured single is set to release on August 21, 2017.

Check out the song Break Free in the video below:

Asfilm composer Drew Silverstein, one of Ampers founders, explained to TechCrunch, Amper isnt meant to act totally on its own, but was designed specifically to work in collaboration with human musicians: One of our core beliefs as a company is that the future of music is going to be created in the collaboration between humans and AI. Wewant that collaborative experience to propel the creative process forward.

That said, the team notes that, contrary to the other songs that have beenreleased by AI composers, the chord structures and instrumentation of Break Free are entirely the work of Ampers AI.

Ultimately, Amper breaks the model followed by todays music-making AIs. Usually, the original work done by the AI is largely reinterpreted by humans. This means that humans are really doing most of the legwork. As the team notes in their press release, the process of releasing AI music has involved humans making signicant manual changesincluding alteration to chords and melodiesto the AI notation.

Thats not the case with Amper. As previously noted, the chord structures and instrumentationis purely Ampers; it just works with manual inputs from the human artist when it comes to style and overall rhythm.

And most notably, Amper can make music through machine learning in just seconds.Heres an example of a song made by Amper,andre-arranged by Taryn.

Yet, while IAMAI may be the first album thats entirely composed and produced by an AI, its not the first time an AI has displayed creativity in music or in other arts.

For example, an AI called Aiva has been taught to compose classical music, like how DeepBach was designed to create music inspired by Baroque artist Johann Sebastian Bach. With this in mind, the album is likely just the first step into a new eraan era in which humans will share artistry (and perhaps even compete creatively) with AI.

Editors Note: This article has been updated to clarify what songs were made by Amper and rearranged by Taryn.

See the rest here:
The World's First Album Composed and Produced by an AI Has ... - Futurism