Technology has immortality, cures for the worlds devastating diseases, quantum computing and a host of other science fiction notions in its grasp. Current trends in a number of areas indicate that over the next 10 years many of these technologies will come to fruition. "The Next 10 Years" tracks the trends that will transform our everyday lives in almost unimaginable ways.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Technology Review: Big and Bright Flexible Displays

Technology Review: Big and Bright Flexible Displays: "Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays are attractive because they are bright, efficient, and thin enough to be flexible. But they are currently limited to use in small displays, such as those in mobile phones. That's in part due to the failings of one piece of the device, a transparent electrode used to light up the display. Now researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new type of electrode that could help clear the way for large, flexible OLED displays."

New Scientist Environment Blog

New Scientist Environment Blog:
As a poster-child for climate change, it's probably as good as it gets. A previously unknown island has emerged from beneath melted ice off the east coast of Greenland.

We knew the land was there, but until Arctic explorer Dennis Schmitt, from California, spotted a thawed strait on an expedition in summer 2005, no-one had realised that the island was not connected to the mainland. Schmitt has named the new island Uunartoq Qeqertoq, which means "the warming island".
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Quantum physics says goodbye to reality (April 2007) - News - PhysicsWeb

Quantum physics says goodbye to reality (April 2007) - News - PhysicsWeb: "Some physicists are uncomfortable with the idea that all individual quantum events are innately random. This is why many have proposed more complete theories, which suggest that events are at least partially governed by extra 'hidden variables'. Now physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of hidden-variables theories that focus on realism -- giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it"

Some 40 years ago the physicist John Bell predicted that many hidden-variables theories would be ruled out if a certain experimental inequality were violated – known as "Bell's inequality". In his thought experiment, a source fires entangled pairs of linearly-polarized photons in opposite directions towards two polarizers, which can be changed in orientation. Quantum mechanics says that there should be a high correlation between results at the polarizers because the photons instantaneously "decide" together which polarization to assume at the moment of measurement, even though they are separated in space. Hidden variables, however, says that such instantaneous decisions are not necessary, because the same strong correlation could be achieved if the photons were somehow informed of the orientation of the polarizers beforehand.

Bell's trick, therefore, was to decide how to orient the polarizers only after the photons have left the source. If hidden variables did exist, they would be unable to know the orientation, and so the results would only be correlated half of the time. On the other hand, if quantum mechanics was right, the results would be much more correlated – in other words, Bell's inequality would be violated.

The Next Net: Startup Watch: Yapta (Beating the Airlines at Their Own Game)

The Next Net: Startup Watch: Yapta (Beating the Airlines at Their Own Game):
A stealth startup called Yapta (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant) will soon let you not only track price changes on specific flights, but it will also help you get a refund for flights where the price drops after you've already bought the ticket. The service, which is in a closed beta right now, is set to launch publicly on May 15th.
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Remedies: Dark Chocolate Similar to Blood Pressure Drugs - New York Times

Remedies: Dark Chocolate Similar to Blood Pressure Drugs - New York Times: "Eating dark chocolate may be almost as effective at lowering blood pressure as taking the most common antihypertensive drugs, a review of studies has found. Tea, on the other hand, appears to be ineffective."

The article says a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is healthy partly because plants contain chemical substances called polyphenols that help control blood pressure. In Western countries, the major sources of dietary polyphenols are tea and chocolate, but studies of their ties to blood pressure have had mixed results.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Aspirin may protect against cancer - health - 23 April 2007 - New Scientist

Aspirin may protect against cancer - health - 23 April 2007 - New Scientist:
Regular aspirin use may protect more than just your heart - it could also reduce your risk of getting cancer.

Aditya Bardia and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, analysed the cancer history of more than 22,000 post-menopausal women over 12 years. Those who reported taking aspirin regularly at the start of the study were 16 per cent less likely to develop cancer and 13 per cent less likely to die from it during that time. The only lifestyle factor that influenced the results was smoking, which reduced the protective effect slightly.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

How to be a genius - being-human - 15 September 2006 - New Scientist

How to be a genius - being-human - 15 September 2006 - New Scientist

My mother, rest her merry, brainy soul, convinced me early on that I was - as she liked to put it, quoting the cartoon character Yogi Bear - "SMARRR-ter than the average bear!" I happily assumed that my Yogi-like intelligence would ensure great things. My sense of entitlement grew when I easily won good marks in school, then grew some more when three different college professors told me I had a talent for writing. Rising to the top, I gathered, was a matter of natural buoyancy.

The reality check came in my twenties, when nearly a decade of middling effort failed to cast the glow of my writing genius much beyond my study walls. By my early thirties I saw the obvious: my smarts and "talent" - above average or not - would count for little unless I outworked most of the other writers. Only when I started putting in some extra hours did I get anywhere.

About the time I had my epiphany, a growing field of scholarship was more rigorously reaching the same conclusion. It seems the ability we're so fond of calling talent or even genius arises not from innate gifts but from an interplay of fair (but not extraordinary) natural ability, quality instruction, and a mountain of work. This new discipline - a mix of psychology and cognitive science - has now produced its first large collection of expert reviews, the massive Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 052184097X).



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Friday, April 06, 2007

Technology Review: Bacteria vs. Humans: Score One for Us

Technology Review: Bacteria vs. Humans: Score One for Us: "Bacteria vs. Humans: Score One for Us
Researchers in San Diego announce a new molecule that stops bacteria from mutating to become resistant to antibiotics. "

Microbes have ruled the earth for more than a billion years; comparatively, we humans are just upstarts. Yet since the invention of penicillin in 1940, we have inflicted a crippling blow on many types of bacteria that make us ill or kill us.

But the bugs have struck back by activating DNA that is prone to errors when it replicates. This increases the chance that mutations will develop to fend off the mortal threat posed by antibiotics. In 2005, biochemist Floyd Romesberg of the Scripps Research Institute, near San Diego, announced that his lab had discovered a gene called LexA that switches on the error-prone DNA, enabling the microbe to mutate rapidly.

Shortly before this announcement, Romesberg presented some startling findings during a meeting at the institute I cofounded, the BioAgenda Institute. Romesberg, a short, intense man with a graying beard and an ability to explain complex ideas to nonscientists, told us that his lab had learned how to turn off LexA. Several major biotechnology figures at the meeting said to me, "This is huge." At the time, several top-tier venture-capital firms were vying for Romesberg's attention in hopes of starting a company. Ned David was one of the lucky cofounders who later named the company Achaogen--"achao" means "against chaos" in Latin.