September 2009
5 posts
Status of Stem Cell Research →
The World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore MD held September 21-23, 2009 attracted several hundred professionals to discuss the contemporary science, industry and societal perspective on stem…
Personalized genomics inflection point →
One of the world’s fastest accelerating technologies is that of genomic sequencing. The first whole human genome (6 billion base pairs) was sequenced at a cost of $3b and was completed in…
VC guide to anti-aging biotechnology investing →
Several promising startup companies focused on the nascent but obviously significant and growing anti-aging biotechnology space were present or discussed with interest at the recent SENS4…
So discontinuous a discontinuity →
A key aspect of thinking systemically about the future is being able to see how rapidly advancing technologies across many fields interrelate. Whatever next Internet-like discontinuity or…
SENS Foundation →
August 2009
5 posts
Real-time unified search →
It is surprising that a unified search application across different types of web content does not yet exist. According to OneRiot, 40% of web searches at present are for real-time content…
Automatic Markets →
At Singularity University, one of the most pervasive memes was the “routing packets” metaphor; that many current activities are just like routing packets on the Internet. This includes…
iPhone Biodefense App →
Right now it would be nice for people to be able to perform a detailed inspection of whatever environment they are in, and of themselves internally. As the future evolves, it could become…
Open Global Courseware →
The U.K., long an adopter of surveillance technology, announced recently that high-definition CCTV cameras from Classwatch have been installed in 94 schools. The result has been an…
Bio-design automation and synbio tools →
The ability to write DNA could have an even greater impact than the ability to read it. Synthetic biologists are developing standardized methodologies and tools to engineer biology into new…
July 2009
4 posts
Ethics of brainless humans →
As a thought experiment, if it were possible, would it be ethical to make humans without brains for research purposes? The idea arises since a more accurate model of humans for drug testing…
The biomolecular interface and the definition of... →
Definitional and classification issues often arise in any field of heightened focus and progress (e.g.; what is a planet?). For the many fields integrating organic and inorganic materials,…
Ethics of the future: self-copies →
Just as the future of science and technology is rife with legal opportunities and psychological study possibilities, so is it with ethical issues. One interesting example is the case of…
Next-gen computing for terabase transfer →
The single biggest challenge presently facing humanity is the new era of ICT (information and communication technology) required to advance the progress of science and technology. This…
June 2009
5 posts
Mindfile deletion →
How do you know that your mindfile will not be deleted, either on purpose or by accident? What would you do if your mindfile is stored in memory and not allowed to run? How would you know…
Health Literacy Toolkit →
With one key life sciences focus shifting to health as opposed to healthcare (as HealthCamp founder Mark Scrimshire exhorts) and to preventive, predictive health management as…
Genomics: highest-impact near-term advance →
Genomics is making faster progress than any other technology in recent history. Usually the vista from any point on an exponential curve looks flat to the experiencer but not so with…
Aging is solvable →
That aging is understandable and solvable, not necessarily immediately but ultimately, was one topic not seeing a lot of opposition at the American Aging Association (AGE) conference in…
The future of computing – rotaxanes? →
One of the great human endeavors at the moment is being able to work at the molecular scale (e.g.; 1-100 nm), using organic and inorganic materials for a variety of purposes ranging from…
May 2009
5 posts
Expanding notion of Computing →
Expanding notion of Computing →
As we push to extend inorganic Moore’s Law computing to ever-smaller nodes, and simultaneously attempt to understand and manipulate existing high-performance nanoscale computers known as…
Synthetic biology – what is next? →
Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology, re-designing existing biological systems and designing new ones, for a myriad of purposes. The most obvious killer apps are the improved…
Status of cancer detection →
The Canary Foundation’s annual symposium held May 4-6, 2009 indicated progress in two dimensions of a systemic approach to cancer detection: blood biomarker identification and molecular…
Opportunities in level-two nanoscience →
The April 20-24, 2009 Foundations of Nanoscience conference at Snowbird UT provided an interesting look at the wide variety of subfields and applications for nanoscience in thirteen tracks…
cadnano →
April 2009
6 posts
From ITRS roadmap to latest lithography... →
Ultimate possibilities for life and technology →
Thinking really long term, what would it be like if all matter, including life, could be designed and built to specification with nanotechnology and synthetic biology? Form factor could…
Roadmap for Synthetic Biology →
The most pressing issue in Synthetic Biology is building the groundwork to eventually advance to large-scale commercialization. How can the field’s growth from fringe to core be accelerated?…
Gene Encyclopedia of all Life →
A tremendous resource would be an open gene database of all of the genes present in eukaryotic, archaeal and bacterial life. There are several open genomic databases now but the…
Societal Design 101 →
Social construction and economic design like that in Dubai/the UAE is particularly interesting in two ways: what it suggests for the future of technology on Earth and in the context of…
March 2009
8 posts
Dubai: possibilities or probabilities? →
There is an exciting energy that emanates from Dubai and the UAE, an aura of possibility and momentum that is refreshing and reduced but not fully hijabed by the global economic crisis and…
Integration of life and technology →
Life and technology are thought of as discrete but they are starting to converge and could continue to become increasingly integrated, unified as is sought with the physical laws. Life…
Future of physics →
The future of physics and cosmology was discussed at length at a recent conference held by the foundational physics research institute FQXi, particularly considering what may be…
Catalog of Exoplanets | The Planetary Society →
Welcome to FedSpending.org →
Halfbakery: Molecular Velcro →
Greentech Media | The 2008 Greentech Market... →
Foundations of bio-info tech convergence →
The most important thing that became clear at last week’s 2nd annual Unither Nanomedical & Telemedical Technology Conference is that many different foundational technologies are starting…
February 2009
12 posts
Science fiction invention tracking →
Science fiction has served as inspiration for real world design so many times that it would be useful to have a wiki with a rigorous index of innovations proposed in science fiction and a…
Robot wine taster knows variety and vintage |... →
Daemon's bot-mediated reality →
In the entertaining and new paradigm-defining ARG thriller Daemon, Daniel Suarez makes some interesting philosophical claims at a broader level. One is that democracy may not be viable in…
Molecular Nanobots - Two Legged DNA Walker Robots... →
A One-Step Homogeneous Immunoassay For Cancer... →
Nanobot Lets DNA Legs Do the Walking →
Nanomedicine - National Center for Design of... →
Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better... →
Perplex City →
Akoha ~ Come Play It Forward →
Show me the hardware apps! →
There is a lot of energy focused on hardware hacking and composable controllable ubiquitous computing but there do not seem to be any usable consumer applications yet. Paul Saffo is somewhat…
Youth mentoring adults →
As Don Tapscott suggests in Grown Up Digital, for perhaps the first time in history, youth knows more about something - social media and other technologies - than adults. So it could be…