Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Facebook's Aquila drone completed its second successful test flight. The solar drone stayed aloft for almost two hours, providing more data that will eventually help the Aquila team bring internet access to billions around the world. Second Successful Test Flight

Facebookssolar-powered Aquila drone completedits second successful flight Thursday near Yuma, Arizona. It stayed aloft for 1 hour and 46 minutes, cruising over the desert and gathering data the team will use to optimize its efficiency moving forward. After the flight was over, the drone landed smoothly without incident, Mark Zuckerberg reported in a Facebook post.

This was the latest step in the Aquila project which will eventually see an entire fleet of the drones staying in flight for months at a time. The unmanned drones will need to be completely optimized to make this kind of longer term performance possible, so these test flights are critically important.Zuckerberg said that Facebook intends to use the drone to increase the worlds access to the internet.

When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. Today, more than half the worlds population 4 billion people still cant access the internet. One day, Aquila will help change that.

Aquilas wingspan is wider than a Boeing 737, but it weighs less than 455 kg (1,000 pounds). To stay aloft, Aquilas solar panels collect power during the day and stores enough in a battery for the dark hours. It uses about 5,000 W of power at its cruising altitude, which will be about 18,300 meters (60,000 feet). Aquila cruises at a deliberately slow speed of about 129 km/h (80 m/h) to maximize efficiency.

Right now the Aquila team is working to make the craft lighter and trim down its power consumption. They also aim to more accurately assess how much power it will take to operate during the different altitudes and temperatures of take off, flight, and landing, and how those power demands will affect battery size, latitude range, solar panel performance, and seasonal performance. Additional test flights will also allow the team to assess actual in-flight dynamics and see how the massive drone batteries stress the large, flexible wings.

The Aquila fleet is just one way Facebook is working to connect people with technology. Zuckerberg has also revealed that the company is working on a brain-computer interface that will let uscommunicate using just ourminds.

Read more here:
Facebook's Drone Is One Step Closer to Beaming Internet to the World - Futurism

A Hub of Ideas

Dubai is already leading the world in a number of innovative conceptsthey have plans for a Hyperloop system, a robot police force,a store that changes shape,self-driving electric vehicles,flying taxis,a space agency that will work towards getting people to Marsand this is just the beginning.

Now, its looking to continue that trend through a unique and innovative program that gathers the worlds industry leaders with key figures in government in order to solve some of humanitys greatest challenges.

The Dubai Future Accelerators is an intensive nine-week program that aims to connect the most innovative companieswith partners in the government in order to bring to life viable futuristic prototypes at a city-wide scale. Their goal is to actually testthe technologies that could be the solutions to some of thechallenges that plague modern society.Our mission is to imagine, design and create the future by facilitating partnerships between forward-thinking entrepreneurs and the government using the city of Dubai as a living testbed, the programs website notes.

For the program, they are focusing on seven key opportunities of the 21st century. This includes the application of cutting edge technologies like AI and robotics, genomics, 3D printing, distributed ledgers, biomimicry, and biotechnology, as well as new business models and ways of working, notesthe programs organizer, the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF).

Together, these focal points represent the most pressing sectors that could accelerate society into a new age of efficiency,productivity, and abundance. Each of the seven sectors act as umbrellas, housing a number of opportunities for innovation beneath them.

Applications for the third run of the program, which will go from October 1 to November 29, are already open. Interested companies have to be familiar with the challenges defined by the DFFs government partners and then choose one theyd like to focus on before filling out the application form.

The challenges come from a number of Dubais government offices, including the Roads and Transport Authority, the Dubai Police, the citys Health Authority, and the Department of Economic Development.

In the official release, Maha Khamis Al Mazeina, Project Manager at Dubai Future Foundation, noted that the program is really all about setting a course and tone for the future: The Dubai Future Accelerators program embodies the strategies set by the UAE as the country aims to lead the global charge to build the future, focusing on the strategic sectors that most affect peoples lives in the UAE and abroad.

To that extent, the program is doing a lot more than uniting governing officials with tech execs. They are inspiring the coming generations. For example, events held by the Dubai Future Accelerators will include members of the community, such as their Masterclass a series of interactive workshops that are meant to provide a comprehensive introduction to some of the technologies of the future and how to use them to benefit society.

Other events will be less like classes and more like discussion panels, where individuals can come together to ask the best and brightest about their ideas regarding how to build a better tomorrow. Such sessions will be hosted by international experts and participants in the Accelerators program, and they will explore the impact that these latest trends will have (and are having) on people today and tomorrow.

This is not a traditional accelerator. This isnt about how to write a business plan or how to pitch your startup. Its not about coding languages or search engine optimization. We arent going to tell you how to run your business or how to develop your website, the DFF says.This is about changing the world. Today.

So, if youthink that you might be able to help address one of the problems listed above, consider applying at the website by sending along a proposal,and if selected, you could be heading toDubai to help usher in a better tomorrow.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism and is one of our sponsors. This post was not paid for or edited by DFF.

The rest is here:
Dubai Announces Accelerator to Solve the 21st Century's Most Pressing Challenges - Futurism

In Brief During an appearance on an online radio show, SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell revealed the company's upcoming plans for its Falcon Heavy rockets and more. As reusable rockets become the standard, space is becoming cheaper and more accessible.

SpaceX has no plans to relax following their recent successful weekend doubleheader. Serial entrepreneur Elon Musks space venture company is already looking ahead, beginning with a final upgrade to their Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for later this year.

We are flying Block 3s right now, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell saidduring a June 22 appearance on the online radio program The Space Show. Block 4s start flying shortly, and then Block 5 at the end of this year. We definitely have gotten better [at] more smooth introducing of change. You dont see the big impacts to production weve had before when weve changed vehicle designs.

Block 5 is going to be the definitive version for the Falcon 9, Shotwell explained, and it is capable of being relaunched a dozen or so times. It would also not require refurbishing the reusable rocket would simply undergo inspections prior to launch.

Shotwell said during her radio show appearance that SpaceXs much larger Falcon Heavysfirst mission in 2018 will be carrying a payload for Arabsat. Well be flying Arabsat to [geostationary transfer orbit] on the second Falcon Heavy flight, and then well be flying STP-2, an Air Force mission, she said. In total, the Falcon Heavy has three missions scheduled in the next 18 months, the first being a demonstrationlater in 2017.

SpaceX has much more planned for the months to come, including that commercial Moon roundtrip. Three years ago or so we were producing six rockets a year, Shotwell said. This year we are going to produce more than 20. When you consider that reusability is a key element of SpaceXs design, you can imagine just how many missions those rockets will be capable of handling in the coming years.

See the original post here:
SpaceX COO Claims the Company Will Produce 20 Rockets in 2017 - Futurism

In BriefIn 2016 researchers said that there is a limit to the humanlifespan, of about 115 years. Meanwhile, 5 teams of scientists havepublished rebuttals to the 2016 study, and other researcherscontinue to push the aging envelope with new technologies. The Claim And Criticisms

In October 2016, molecular geneticist Jan Vijg published a paper claiming that the human lifespan was limited to 115 years. This kindled a vigorous controversy among scientists, and on June 28 of this year, five groups of scientists published formal rebuttals to the claim.

Vijgs work analyzed demographic data from the 20th century, taken all over the world, and demonstrated that peak age plateaued at about 115 years starting in the mid-1990s. Based on their results, the authors concluded that the natural human age limit is 115 years old and that there is the probability of less than 1 in 10,000 of living to be more than 125 years old.

You could probably guess, not everyone in the scientific community agrees. Most criticisms arise from the way the Vijg team handled their data, and their process for drawing conclusions. First, the Vijg team tested their data to prove whether or not the plateau they felt they observed after 1995 was in fact present. In other words, they generated a hypothesis and then tested it using the same dataset, which is typically unacceptable, as it causes inaccurate results due to severe overfitting, a fit based on error or noise, not a real relationship.

Second, the teams actual data set was very small because in each year they counted only the oldest person who died. They then subjected this inordinately small sample to standard linear regression techniques, which was not appropriate based both on the small sample size, and the additional fact that the individuals being counted were outliers who should have been subject to extreme event analysis. In fact, the decline suggested in the 2016 conclusions appears to be suggested by a single death in the data set.

Moreover, other scientists reanalyzed the data and found it consistent with multiple lifespan trajectories, not just the one reported in 2016. Finally, several scientists in their rebuttals point to the overall body of work on the biology of aging over the past few decades which suggests that the human lifespan has been far more flexible than previously believed; which alone indicates that the proposed limit should be viewed with extreme caution.

The authors of the original study stand by their work and disagree with the criticisms of the statistical methods used. Vijg also believes that the real cause of the outcry is not the data, which is convincing, but the fact that aging cant be stopped and there is a limit to human life: I guess the main message is that a lot of people have difficulty accepting that everything now points toward an end in the increase of maximum lifespan, Vijg told The Scientist.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor of public health Jay Olshansky, who was involved in neither the original study nor the rebuttals, thinks the criticizing scientists are missing the real point of the 2016 study, which he clarified for The Scientist: The most important message to get across, in my view, is that we should not be trying to make ourselves live longer, we should only be trying to extend the period of healthy life.

However, there are many others pushing the limits of human longevity right now who disagree strongly enough to put their money where their philosophy is. Since research has demonstrated that transfusions of younger blood, or parabiosis, was able to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, a startup called Ambrosia has started to offer a human clinical trial of parabiosis for paying clients. Peter Diamandis of the genotype research facility, Human Longevity, Inc., is searching for the key to using nanomachines or stem cells to regenerate our bodies. And Metformin, which has been shown to prevent cancer and extend life in animals, began clinical testing as an anti-aging drug in February.

There are so many possibilities in motion that it does seem hard to agree with a firm limit to the human lifespan. In the end, time will resolve the controversy once and for all. Ironically, well only be here to see it if the critics are right.

Originally posted here:
There May Be No Limits to How Long Humans Can Live - Futurism

Futurism only supports companiesthat we trust. Aura Premiumis one of those companies. We may collect a share of the sales from the items featured on this page. Sign up for Aura Premium here. A New Way to Think

Mindful meditation is becoming an increasingly popular tool, one that people use to manage both their emotional and mental health. The practice is,in essence, the art of not reactingthe art of finding inner stillness through the use of external stillness. Its taking the time to close your eyes, turn your focus inward, and put all of your energy into just breathing.

Its an incredibly simple practice that doesnt take much time at all, and it is incredibly helpful. Ina study published in Clinical Psychology Review,researchers at Boston University and Harvard Medical School found that the technique helps alleviateanxiety and allows individuals to better cope with stressfulsituations. Similarly, in a study fromFrontiers in Psychology, researchers found that individuals who meditate have more gray matter volume in their brains than those that do not.

Yet, only 18 million Americans report their participation. Unfortunately, the reality for many overworked Americans is that relaxation is a luxury. Indeed, 92 % of the country still hasnt caught onto the trend. Its a surprising statistic considering the fact that meditation has been proven to increase concentration, decrease anxiety, and even help to preserve the aging brain.

Over the last few years, there have been a variety of apps that have aimed to close the gap between people who make time for meditation and the people who dont know how to fit it into their lives. And while many of the apps that have hit the market have effective qualities, few are as impressive and progressive asAura Premiumthe app created by meditation teachers and therapists that actually gets to know you, so it can help you better.

The AI-infused app is programmed to take post-session feedback information and use it to become a dynamic tool that assists with your mental health. Each time you use the app, it creates more pathways for you to get better at finding your zen.

And while anyone whos into mindful meditation will appreciate the app for its relaxation enhancers, its most appealing for people who are new to meditation and need guidance. All users need is three minutes a day to practice, though you can also choose 7 and 10-minute meditation durations as well.

The app is mostly geared towards helping its users get into a better headspace through exercises, breathing routines, and key spoken wordsthough it also has the ability to track users moods to help them see patterns and form connections.

Aura is essentially like having a portable guide in your pocket. And its been so successful in helping its users find inner peace, it was rated the best new app for February 2017 with thousands of nearly perfect ratings. For $59.99 on StackSocial, you can get a lifetime subscription to the app and start your journeyto better mental health.

Follow this link:
There's A New Way to Use Meditation to Reshape Your Brain - Futurism

In Brief In a video shared by Bill Gates, Broad Institute director Eric Lander warns that the decline of support for private and public research sectors could lead to the U.S. falling behind as a global leader in research and innovation. The Miracle Machine

They say theres no alternative to hard work, butmost researchers probably wouldnt turn down the opportunity for more collaborative research thatswell-funded.Thats the philosophy behindwhat theBroad Instituteat MIT calls the Miracle Machine. The Miracle Machineproduces amazing advances in science and technology as a result of federal support an funding forthe public and private sectorsof the research community. However, as a video narrated by Broad Institute director Eric Lander explains, one of Americas greatest assets is falling into disrepair.

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates retweeted Landers post that linked to the video, echoing some of its major points. One of which is that research can do wonders for the economy, health, energy, and defense of the United States or any nation for that matter.

Unfortunately, federal support for research has been dwindling. Over the past decade, funding for a number of research institutions has been on the decline, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which has lost 25 percent of its budget over the past 13 years. The most recent budget proposed by the U.S. Congresswouldnt do much to improve those number, either.

In the same way that this private and public sector partnership pushed basic scientific research forward, much to the benefit of many sectors in the U.S., the decline in federal support will have a ripple effect across several industries. We may wake up to find the next generation of technologies, and industries [] are being produced elsewhere, Lander points out in the video. With Europe, China, Dubai, and other nations investing more in scientific research rather than less, it isnt a stretch to think that the U.S. could fall behind.

Read more here:
MIT Professor Gives A Dire Warning to the U.S. About Funding ... - Futurism