Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief New research from the University of Manchester developed a graphene-based sieve that can filter out salt from seawater. The graphene oxide membrane could be a cheaper and more efficient filter for desalination plants to use. Abundantly Scare

The Earths surface is largely made up of water. The irony is, this highly abundant resource is also generally scare, particularly in its potable form. While the Earths surface may be 71 percent water, 96.5 percent of this come from the planets oceans. Salt water, as everyone knows, isnt potable. The quest to find ways totap into this abundant source and turn it into drinkable water iswell underway, facilitated mainly bydesalination plants. But these plants are expensive to maintain and dont necessarily serve the populations that need them most.Click to View Full Infographic

The question, then, is how to make these plants cheaper and more efficient? Thats just what a study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnologyrecently explored. The research was conducted by a UK-based team led by Rahul Nair from the University of Manchester. Their solution to the worlds drinking problem? A graphene oxide sieve that can remove salt from seawater.

Since it was first discovered in 2004, graphene has become a wonder material capable of remarkable feats. Graphenesremarkable nature is at least in part thanks to its unique properties,such as electrical conductivity and tensile strength. Graphene oxide can be produced by simple oxidation in the lab, Nair told the BBC. As an ink or solution, we can compose it on a substrate or porous material. Then we can use it as a membrane. In terms of scalability and the cost of the material, graphene oxide has a potential advantage over single-layered graphene.

Graphene oxide has proven effective for sieving out nanoparticles, organic molecules, and large salts. To filter out common salt, Nair and his colleagues used walls made of epoxy resin on both sides of a graphene oxide membrane. This prevented the graphene oxide from expanding when immersed in water. It also gave the researcher the ability to control these pores.

When dissolved in water, common salts form a shell of water molecules around the molecules of salt. Tiny capillaries from the graphene oxide membranes can then block these salts from flowing through. This also allows the water molecules toflowthrough the membrane much faster. Water molecules can go through individually, but sodium chloride cannot. It always needs the help of the water molecules. The size of the shell of water around the salt is larger than the channel size, so it cannot go through, Nair explained.

Once these graphene oxide membranes can be industrially (and cheaply) produced, they can become a more efficient option than the polymer-based membranes currently used in desalination plants. The selective separation of water molecules from ions by physical restriction of interlayer spacing opens the door to the synthesis of inexpensive membranes for desalination, Ram Devanathan, from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory wrote as a review to Nairs research. The ultimate goal is to create a filtration device that will produce potable water from seawater or wastewater with minimal energy input.

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Scientists Just Figured Out How to Use Graphene to Make Seawater Drinkable - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk took to Twitter today to defend Tesla against claims that it is overvalued. In the process, he delivered a mini lesson on how value is determined in a free market. Value: Past Versus Future

On Twitter today, Elon Musk responded to critics who were skeptical of Teslas hot streak in the stock market. The Wall Street Journal tweet that began the debate noted that Tesla passed up Ford by market cap. Christopher Mims, a tech columnist at the WSJ, took this opportunity to comment:

Walt Mossberg, executive editor for The Verge, responded to Mims with a tweet of his own:

Twitter user ForIn2020then responded to both critics, eliciting agreement from Musk himself:

The Twitter debate brings up to really two important points. The first is exactly what Musk noted. In a free market, value isnt focused on the past. To do so would not only limit innovation, it would be foolhardy.

Value is based on what investors can see happening in the future. Past performance plays a part in that, but so do many other factors. Its one of the reasons the stock market is risky. Not only can you notcontrol what other investors will do,you also can never be sure what anything will be actually worth when you make an investment.

The second point is this: Ford is just a car company. Tesla is a technology and energy innovation company that creates solar roofs, electric cars, power storage solutions, and other breakthroughs. The company even changed its name from Tesla Motors Inc. to simply Tesla Inc. earlier this year to make this distinction clear.

That focus on widespread energy innovation is why Tesla is poised to reach itsambitious target goal of delivering 47,000 to 50,000 vehicles in the first half of 2017 and why the Powerwall is going to come standard in all new Arden homes in Australia. The Tesla one stop shop model for sustainable energy is only going to become more relevant as non-renewable sources of energy get more expensive and eventually completely fall out of favor.

Its easy to understand why investors see a high earnings future for Tesla. Failing to see that the company is going to continue to shape the future is perhaps short-sighted. Failing to understand how the market values companies is a bit more mystifying. Either way, Tesla and its investors are going to be laughing all the way to the bank whatever form the bank takes a few decades from now.

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Elon Musk Responds to Criticism, Says Tesla is Not Overvalued - Futurism

In BriefA company in Sweden is turning employees into cyborgs byimplanting them with tiny microchips. These chips change how theemployees interact with their office environment, giving them theability to do everything from open doors to order snacks with awave of their hands. Worker Implants

A company based in Stockholm, Sweden, is turning its employees into cyborgs usinga microchip implant about the size of a grain of rice. Though not the first time such microchip implants have been used, this program is the first example ofsuch implants being made available to a companys employees on this sort of level.

The biggest benefit I think is convenience, Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter, told the Associated Press. Epicenter provides network and office space to budding digital startups, and it is currently home to more than 100 companies and about 2,000 workers. The companycalls itself Stockholms first digital House of Innovation, and it only started implanting workers in January 2015.

The microchips, which are implanted in the hands of employees and startup members, function as swipe cards.It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys, Mesterton said, who demoed opening a door just by waving his hand near it. The implant doesnt just open doors, though. Epicenters cyborg employees can operate their printers with it or even order smoothies with a wave of their hands.

The devices arent mandatory, but being chipped has become popular amongst Epicenters employees, with more than 150 now implanted withthe devices. The company even hosts monthly events where participants can get the implants for free, as well as parties to celebrate those who got implanted.

An obvious concern is security and privacy. Of course, putting things into your body is quite a big step to do, and it was even for me at first, Mesterton said, recalling his initial doubts about the implants, which carry information that can be transmitted to other devices via electromagnetic waves, but cannot receive information themselves.

The data that you could possibly get from a chip that is embedded in your body is a lot different from the data that you can get from a smartphone, explained Ben Libberton, a microbiologist at Stockholms Karolinska Institute. Such devices, he said, can be exploited by hackers to gain huge amounts of information.

Conceptually you could get data about your health, you could get data about your whereabouts, how often youre working, how long youre working, if youre taking toilet breaks and things like that, Libberton added. The more sophisticated a microchip is, the bigger the ethical dilemmas that can come with them.

For Mesterton, there really isnt a problem. I mean, people have been implanting things into their body, like pacemakers and stuff to control your heart, he said. Thats a way, way more serious thing than having a small chip that can actually communicate with devices.

Indeed, devices that augment the human body, whether through implants or other means, have been turning people into cyborgs for some time now. Some call the trendbiohacking, and it can potentially help us do much more than simply navigate an office environment. The tech couldbe used to monitor health conditions orto treat neurodegenerative diseases. Elon Musk is working on his own version of such a device with a soon-to-be-launched company, Neuralink.

As one Epicenter employee said while she was being implanted, I want to be part of the future, and that may just mean becoming a cyborg.

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Real-Life Cyborgs: A Company Is Implanting Its Employees With Microchips - Futurism

In Brief The Tesla Powerwall will now become a standard feature for houses built by Australian home builder company Arden Homes. It's a setup that will help cut the cost of electricity in many Australian homes. A Renewable Package for the Home

An Australian company, home builder Arden Homes, is partneringwith Bradford Solar and Tesla to give their houses a renewable twist. The company has announced that the Tesla Powerwall will now be a standard inclusion in every Arden home, as part of offering the Bradford Solar ChargePack.Bradford Solar is a solar installer and a certified reseller of Tesla Powerwall.

The energy that is created can be used to power your appliances, fed back into the grid or stored for later use, according to Arden. At the heart of your Bradford Solar ChargePack is Tesla Powerwall, a [rechargeable] lithium-ion battery that charges using electricity from your solar panels.

Prior to Teslas acquisition of SolarCity, both companies had been working with home builders to incorporate products such as the Powerwall into home designs.

Teslas Powerwall is part of a product lineupthat buildsa sustainable renewable energy ecosystem directly intohomes. Its designed to store energy at a residential level for self-consumption of solar power generation, emergency backup power, load shifting and other applications, according to Tesla.

The idea is to have a battery that can store energy generated by sources like solar panel or even by Teslas electric vehicles. This stored power can then be used when needed, like after the sun has setor in the event of apower outtage. Tesla notes that it can extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar.

The Powerwall also helps homeowners cut downtheir electric bills by much as 92 percentby charging during low rate periods when demand for electricity is lower and discharging during more expensive rate periods when electricity demand is higher.

Its a truly advantageous setup in a country like Australia, which has the worlds highest penetration of rooftop solar per capita:15 percent of households in the country are using solar. Thats roughly 1.5 million homes that can benefit from a truly renewable energy source.

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A Company Just Announced That Tesla Will Be Included in All of Their Homes - Futurism

In Brief AI in medicine is changing healthcare as we know it. The introduction of deep learning systems is only possible by powerful computing capabilities; capabilities that Nvidia has made possible with their graphic processors. A New Age of Healthcare Artificial intelligence is slowly making its way into the realm of modern healthcare. Googles DeepMind is revolutionizing eyecare in the United Kingdom, and IBMs Watsonis tackling cancer diagnosticson par with human physicians. Both AI systems use deep learning, a concept loosely mirroring how our own brains work by having AI software analyze exorbitant amounts of data and uncover patterns which is particularly applicable in diagnostics.

As medical imaging technology continues to take advantage of every new deep learning breakthrough, the challenge is that the computing technology on which it relies must evolve just as quickly. A company called Nvidia is leading that charge under the guidance ofKimberley Powell, who isconfident that Nvidiasprocessors are not only meeting the deep learning standards of medical imagining, but also pushing the industry forward as a whole.

Nvidias hardware has established its silent but prominent role in deep learnings marriage with medicine. Powell believes projects like their specializedcomputers, such asthe DGX-1a powerful deep-learning product, will become increasingly more common in hospitals and medical research centers. Strongcomputing power, like what the DGX-1 can provide, stands to increase thereliability of the diagnostic process; something that, in turn, wouldsignificantly boost thestandard of care in developing countries.

While AI wont be replacing doctors anytime soon, it will provide physicians with tools tomore efficiently and reliably assess patients.AI is already involved in mining medical data, diagnosing medical images, studying genomics-based data for personalized medicine, and improving the lives of the disabled.

Thanks to NVIDIAs DGX-1, hospitals can efficiently compare a single patients tests and history with data from a vast population of other patients. Some medical research centers and startups are automating the analysis of MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays to assist physicians inmaking a diagnosis. Others are utilizing deep learning to create genetic interpretation enginesto identify cancer-causing mutations in patient genomes, bringing to life the concept of personalized medicine.

However, while AI will no doubt continue torevolutionize medicine for years to come, physicians often find themselves perplexed byhow to incorporate the technology into their regular practice. Only onceAI is accepted, and fully integrated, into medicinewill we see the full potential for the technology in terms of lending itself to more efficient and accurate diagnostics from routine checkups to more specialized fields.

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Artificial Intelligence is Completely Transforming Modern Healthcare - Futurism

In Brief A 3 day search for an undiscovered planet in our solar system has produced 4 possible candidates. The hunt for Planet 9 was part of a Zooniverse citizen science project, and shows what we can achieve when we collaborate on scientific projects. 3 Days, 4 Possibilities

An intense three-day crowdsourced search for an undiscovered planet in our solar system has produced four possible candidates. The hunt for Planet 9 was part of a Zooniverse citizen science project, conducted in real-time, with the BBCs Stargazing Live broadcast. The project was hosted at theSiding Spring Observatory at Australian National University.Click to View Full Infographic

About 60,000 people from all over the world participated in the search, which not only turned upfour possible candidates for Planet 9 but also helped classifymore than four million other objects. Participants worked using data from Siding Springs SkyMapper telescope. The project was led by ANU Researcher Brad Tucker, whose team agreed that regardless of whether one of the four possibles turns out to, in fact, bethe mysterious Planet 9, the scientific value of the project was certainly verified.

Other researchers agree with the ANU teams sentiment: astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech tweeted his support for the project:

In 2016, Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin discovered that the orbits of a few different objects in the Kuiper Belt were being influenced by a massive body. This was indirect evidence that a large, Neptune-sized planet exists in our solar system far beyond Pluto. However, looking for the mystery planet poses significant challenges. For one, it is probably 1,000 times fainter than Pluto. The task forresearchers, then, is to sift through old data and make new observations.

Thats where the crowdsourced project came in: With the help of tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers sifting through hundreds of thousands of images taken by SkyMapper, Tucker said, we have achieved four years of scientific analysis in under three days. One of those volunteers, Toby Roberts, has made 12,000 classifications.

The ANU team will continue their search and try to confirm whether or not one of the space objects is, in fact, Planet 9. In the meantime, theyre asking people to keep looking through the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Zooniverse project. The entire experience proves what can be achieved when many scientists (and laypeople who love science) come together. New technologies like deep learning and tools like the James Webb Space Telescope could one day make this kind of research happen quickly and easily, but for now, its all hands on deck to make things happen faster.

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Planet 9 Found? Astronomers Have Officially Found A Candidate - Futurism