This is the fourth set of highlights for Next Big Future for 2009.
Here is the link tothe highlights for weeks 13-19
Here is the link to the highlights for weeks 7-12.
Here is the link to the highlights for weeks 1-6
Nanotechnology
1. Week 20, had several developments where it is looking far more certain that a very powerful three dimensional DNA/RNA/Protein Nanotechnological capability is emerging and that nanotechnology will be integrated with carbon nanotubes and nanoparticle metal and can be used to bootstrap precise control and structures with carbon and metals
2. DNA wrapped carbon nanotubes for artificial tissue
Two ways to make large scale three dimensional structures out of DNA
3. One from Harvard, which appears more flexible and robust.
4. DNA boxes from Danish Aarhus university
5. The latest report on DNA nanotechnology is more 3d shapes like gears are being created.
6a. Improved DNA sorting of carbon nanotubes
7. J Storrs Halls Feynman path to molecular manufacturing
8. DNA and RNA engineered to count inside living cells
9. A proposal for creating Femtotech, technology beyond molecular nanotechnology
9a Nanoscale could allow fairly efficient maxwell demon and heat transfer is 1000 times better than Planck’s law at nanoscales.
9b. An electrically tunable bandgap has been created for graphene
Energy and Transportation and the environment
10. Nuclear powered commercial shipping is economic versus oil and better for the environment
13. New Zeolite membranes can increase oil refinery efficiency by 7-9%
15. Various ways to avoid one billion tons of carbon dioxide per year
16. Modularly constructed computer modelled nuclear reactors like the Westinghouse AP1000 and the APR1400 in Korea could be over half of the nuclear reactors made from now until 2020. They will cheaper and faster to make.
18. General fusion has gotten more private and canadian government funding. General fusion could have a commercial fusion reactor by 2018.
Eric Lerner interview. Eric has a funded dense plasma focus nuclear fusion project.
19. Lasers and plasma being used to make smaller and more powerful particle accelerators
Metamaterials and Materials
22. Cnano Technology has a 500/ton per year carbon nanotube factory
23. Carbon nanotubes make aluminum as hard as steel
Computers, Displays, Robots, Devices
27. Light Switched optical transistor and nanophotonic on a chip progress. On-chip photonics is key for enabling zettaflop supercomputers and can be part of optical computers.
28. The synapse is a memristor
Policy and Economics
30. Comparing world healthcare systems
31. The best way to lower healthcare costs is with better disease cures and other major medical advances
31b. Using ultrabroadband to boost GDP
34. Past, present and future US budget deficits
Futurist Debates
35. Phil Bowermaster and others on the transhumanist future.
36. Future cities and how independent can seasteads and space colonies be ?
37. Charter cities or micronations ? Freedom takes work and a military
AI and Quantum Computers
In separate but related research in Japan, Daisuke Takagi at NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Atsugi, Japan, decided to replace the metal nanoparticles (the seeds for growing carbon nanotubes) with a densely packed layer of diamonds, each around 5 nanometres across. Passing ethanol gas over these diamonds created a lush forest of nanotubes 1 to 2 nanometres wide. Carbon nanotubes grown from diamond nanoparticles can be grown closer together. This could eventually allow the carbon nanotube memory shuttle memory from Berkeley to be grown closer together.
39. Nvidia chief scientist predicts 20 teraflop GPU by 2015
The next Nvidia GPGPU (2010) should have 3 teraflop performance
Space and Long Range Predictions
Stem cells, gene therapy and advanced medicine
44. Rapamycin, an immunosuppressant, Enables Elderly Mice to live 9-13% Longer
47. The previously mentioned DNA wrapped carbon nanotubes for tissue replacement.
48. An infinite supply of healthy stem cells
-Harvested fibroblast cells from the skin of patients
– used standard gene-therapy viruses to fix genes if needed
– used a second virus to “reset” the cells to their embryonic condition. These induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are capable of differentiating into any of the tissues of the body.
– iPS cells are prone to becoming cancerous, making them too risky for clinical use. However, the research team is working on ways to overcome this obstacle.
-If they can, the technique should allow gene therapists to generate limitless supplies of genetically healthy stem cells derived from each individual patient
49. Skin cells from human stem cells and cloned mice from mice skin cells
50. Implantable device for monitoring cancer and biomarkers
51. Regeneration of teeth proved in mice
52. Progress to cancer vaccines
53. DARPA continues funding instant wound healing project
Enhancement and transhuman related
54. Genetic engineering sped up a thousand and evolution sped up a million times.
56. Technology for enhancing brains and bones
57. The big list of DARPA projects
58. Japanese create transgenic monkeys
59. Myostatin blockers protect against obesity and can improve health
Preventing starvation and Directly Life Saving Tech
61. Project to re-engineer rice could ensure food security for billions of people.
62. Interview with Aubrey de Grey who is leading the SENS project for radical life extension.
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) is a 25-year long research strategy, currently underway, to develop a regenerative medical procedure to periodically repair all the age-related damage in the human body, thereby maintaining a youth-like state indefinitely
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.