Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief The United States Navy has announced that the LaWS laser defense system is up and running. The weapon is designed to take out drones and ships and has future potential in missile defense.

The U.S. Navy has announced that the worlds first functional laser weapon is ready for action. The weapon, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), can be found mounted on the USS Ponce, which is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf.

The weapon was designed to strategically take out flying unmanned vessels. It alsohas the ability to surgically destroy engines of manned watercraft without endangering the lives of any onboard personnel. The Geneva Convention restricts the use of laser weapons against humans, but the high precision of the laser could allow it to target a ships engine without the use of missiles. That type of precision weapon work is something that you dont really get with conventional weapons because there tends to be more collateral damage, Inez Kelly, a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command science adviser, told CNN.

This technology could be the beginning of replacing missiles for the purpose of destroying enemy targets. On top of sparing lives, the cost comparison of a single shot from LaWS and a missile is astounding: while missiles can cost up to millions of dollars, a single LaWS round only costs about one dollar.

The weapon is currently only approved for drones and water vessels, but the Navy is alsotesting other applications under the cover of classified status, of course.

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The World's First Functional Laser Weapon is Ready to Protect You - Futurism

In Brief The United Arab Emirates Space Agency has finally unveiled the first of its missions to Mars: sending a probe to study the planet's atmosphere. This plan puts in motion a major goal of the space agency since its foundation back in 2014.

While, in the United States, NASAs plans to go to Mars are in financial trouble, other nations seem to be stepping up their own goals for the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency has finally announced its plans to send a probe to Mars. The Al Amal (which means Hope in Arabic) Probe is set to reach the Mars orbit by 2021, which is the 50th anniversary of the UAEs independence.

The objectives of the mission are to build highly qualified UAE human resources in the field of space technology, to develop knowledge, scientific research and space applications that benefit mankind, to create a sustainable knowledge-based economy, to promote diversification and encourage innovation, the announcement said.

The probe will study the Martian atmosphere to understand how it developed into its current state. This mission would be taking us to another level so it would be adding to the level of Science or knowledge about Mars and its atmosphere to the scientific community, Salem Humaid AlMarri, assistant director general for Scientific and Technology Affairs, told EuroNews. This knowledge, the UAE Space Agency hopes, will help us to better protect the Earths atmosphere.A crucial part of UAEs Al Amal mission, which already has a total funding of $5.44 billion, is academic progress. Working with scientists from the University of Colorado, the Al Amal teams are expected to learn everything they need to construct the space probe.

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.

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The UAE Will Launch Its First Mission to Mars in 2021 - Futurism

In Brief The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has sent a dual remote controlled/autonomous robot to the International Space Station. The robot will help crew members with various tasks by replacing the need for them to take pictures.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has sent a crew member to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX launched rocked. The Int-Ball, is a spherical camera droid that takes full advantage of the gravity deficiency on the space station to zip around unencumbered by wheels or arms attached to heavy machinery.

The robot has big, blue, owl-like eyes, making it reminiscent of the top portion of the Eve robot from Disneys Wall-E. Int-Ballspurpose is to provide crew members with a means of sending pictures and video back to Earth so experts on the ground can better assist with repairs and other tasks.

Before Int-Ballsarrival, the crew membersneeded to handle a camera to send this media back to Earth. The droid, which can be controlled remotely or autonomously, gives crew members back their full functionality by taking the camera out of their hands.

JAXA has released video of Int-Ball in action.

JAXA is committed to continuing improvements on Int-Ballscapabilities and functionality. Experiments like this will likely help space agencies and private companies to innovate new ways of incorporating both remote controlled and autonomous robots into their missions. Replacing astronauts with robots will help to further drive down the dwindlingcosts of space exploration and travel while allowing for exploration in ways that are beyond human capability.

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Japan Has Sent an Autonomous Drone Assistant to the International Space Station - Futurism

Crime Prevention

Authorities in China are exploring predictive analytics, facial recognition, and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help prevent crime in advance. Based on behavior patterns, authorities will notify local police about potential offenders.

Cloud Walk, a company headquartered in Guangzhou, has been training its facial recognition and big data rating systems to track movements based on risk levels. Those who are frequent visitors to weapons shops or transportation hubs are likely to be flagged in the system, and even places like hardware stores have been deemed high risk by authorities.

ACloud Walk spokesmantoldThe Financial Times,Of course, if someone buys a kitchen knife thats OK, but if the person also buys a sack and a hammer later, that person is becoming suspicious. Cloud Walks software is connected to the police database across more than 50 cities and provinces, and can flag suspicious characters in real time.

China is also using personal re-identification in crime prediction: identifying the same person in different places, even if theyre wearing different clothes. We can use re-ID to find people who look suspicious by walking back and forth in the same area, or who are wearing masks, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics professor of bodily recognition Leng Biao told The Financial Times. With re-ID, its also possible to reassemble someones trail across a large area.

China is, in many ways, the ideal place to use this kind of technology. The government has an extensive archive of data from citizen records and more than 176 million surveillance cameras. In other words, China has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to big data, and can train its AI systems very effectively, without any meaningful legal hurdles. Click to View Full Infographic

These arent the only ways that China is extending its AI capabilities. The government just revealed a massive, well-organized and funded plan to make China the global leader in AI by 2030. The nation deploys facial recognition in schools to counter cheating, on streets to fight jaywalking, and even in bathrooms to limit toilet paper waste. It should come as no surprise that the Chinese government would also employ these technologies to prevent crime and maybe even predict it.

If we use our smart systems and smart facilities well, we can know beforehand . . . who might be a terrorist, who might do something bad, Chinas vice-minister of science and technology Li Meng said to The Financial Times.

However you feel about Chinas Minority Report style plans, AI is making the world safer. Although AI is certainly a potential surveillance tool, it can also be used to protect privacy, keep healthcare records private, secure financial transactions, and prevent hacking. AI is responsible for smart security cameras, robot guards, and better military technologies. AI is also the reason self-driving cars are about to eliminate at least 90 percent of traffic fatalities. In other words, while you might object to certain applications, its hard to argue against AI technology on the wholeif youre concerned with the future of safety and privacy both online and off.

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China's Minority Report Style Plans Will Use AI to Predict Who Will Commit Crimes - Futurism

Advancing Fusion Research

There are already a number of researchers involved in developing stable nuclear fusion. The goal may seem simple enough in theory:harnessing the same energy that powers the Sun but attaining it has proven to be rather difficult. For one, sustaining a stable nuclear fusion reaction is tricky, as it requires playing with variables that arent that easy to manipulate. Thats why Google Research is working in tandem with nuclear fusion company Tri-Alpha Energy to help simplify the process.

Their solution is a computer algorithm, dubbed the Optometrist algorithm, that can speed up experiments involving plasma, the core ingredient in a fusion reaction. Its also the most challenging aspect to manipulate. The whole thing is beyond what we know how to do even with Google-scale computer resources, Ted Baltz, a senior software engineer fromthe Google Accelerated Science Team, wrote in a Google Research blog.

We boiled the problem down to lets find plasma behaviors that an expert human plasma physicist thinks are interesting, and lets not break the machine when were doing it, Baltz added. This was a classic case of humans and computers doing a better job together than either could have separately.

The Optometrist algorithm was applied to Tri-Alpha Energys C2-U machine, where it was able to perform experiments that usually took a month to finish in just a few hours. The result, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, was a 50 percent reduction in system-induced energy losses that increased total plasma energy. It was only for about two milliseconds, but still, it was a first! Baltz wrote. The next step is reaching that critical threshold necessary for nuclear fusion to occur and to stabilize.

Fusion research hasgarneredsignificant attention in recent years as scientists have recognized itspotential as arenewable and clean energy source. Nuclear fusion could generate four times the amount of energy nuclear fission produces (one fission event yields about 200 MeV of energy, or about 3.2 10-11 watt-seconds). Its no wonder, then, that fusion is considered the holy-grail of energy research.

Recent questions in fusion research have been concernedwith finding ways to stabilizethe plasma that powers it not an easy feat, since it requires temperatures of over 30 million degrees Celsius to sustain. Thus far, some researchers have proposedbuilding better fusion reactors,and others arelooking at the possibility of using a different base for plasma. Instead of the usual hydrogen, deuterium, or helium, physicists from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratoryhave been tinkering with argon-based plasma.

Where does Googles algorithm fit in? Well, it couldsignificantly shorten the amount of time needed for each of these experiments. Results like this might take years to solve without the power of advanced computation, Baltz said. By running computational modelsalongsidehuman experiments, the Optometrist algorithm can breeze through every possible combination for nuclear fusion to work.

Tri-Aplha Energy has already ditched the C2-U machine in favor of the more advanced Norman, which already achieved first plasma earlier this month. Theyre set to build a power generator for demonstration pending more successful experiments withthe Norman.

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Google's New Algorithm Wants to Help Researchers Stabilize Nuclear Fusion Reactions - Futurism

In Brief The key to recalling memories from the void of Alzheimer's disease may be to use lasers to activate certain neurons in the brain. If this research undertaken on mice could be applied to humans, it could help the millions suffering from the disease. Lighting the Way Ahead

Scientists at Columbia University discovered during a study published in the journal Hippocampusthat the memories of mice with Alzheimers disease can be recovered optogenetically meaning with the use of lights. This could shift our understanding of the disease from the idea that it destroys memories to the concept that it simply disruptsrecall mechanisms.

The results were garnered by comparing healthy mice with mice given a disease similar to human Alzheimers. First, parts of mices brains were engineered to glow yellow during memory storage and red during memory recall. Then, the mice were exposed to the smell of lemon followed by an electric shock associating the two memories.

A week later, they were given the smell of lemon again: the healthy mices red and yellow glows overlapped and they expressed fear, showing they were accessing the right memories. However, the Alzheimers brains glowed in different areas, and the diseased mice were indifferent, showing they were recalling from the wrong sections of the brain.

The team, lead by Christine A. Denny, then used a fiber optic cable to shine a blue laser into the mices brains. This successfully reactivated the lemon and electric shock memory and caused the mice to freeze when they smelt it.

The research could possibly revolutionize Alzheimers research and treatment, helping the 5 million Americans who are suffering fromthe disease. Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia told New Scientist that it has the potential to lead to novel drug development to help with regaining memories.

However, the crucial question is whether mice brains and the artificial Alzheimers disease that the team exposed them to are sufficiently similar to the human variant for the results to be medically significant. In particular, humans loose more neurons than mice during the course of Alzheimers, and it would be extremely difficult to target specific memories because our brains are far more complicated.

While further studies must be done, thesefindings are one of many promising avenues that are currently being developed in Alzheimers research. Artificial intelligenceis being applied to the condition and has successfully predicted who will develop Alzheimers 10 years out, the leukemia drug nilotinib has been shown to help combat the condition and finally,a metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration treatment has also reversed some of its symptoms.

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New Evidence Suggests Alzheimer's Doesn't Destroy Memories, it Only Blocks Them - Futurism

In Brief Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that the brain's white matter is of lower quality in individuals with depression. This is the largest of its type to date, and it could help produce a better treatment for the world's leading disability. White Matter Matters

A new study published in Scientific Reportshas revealeda link between depression and the structure of white matter in the brain, which we use to process our emotions and thoughts. The research, which was conducted by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, analysed data from 3,461 people in the U.K. Biobank database, making it the largest study of its kind in history.

The scientists used diffusion tensor imaging which is based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create highly detailed maps of the fibers in the brain. When they compared depression sufferers to healthy individuals they realized that there were substantial differences in the integrity (or quality) of the white matter.

Heather Whalley, who led the team, said in a Biobank press release that there is an urgent need to provide treatment for depression and an improved understanding of it[s] mechanisms will give us a better chance of developing new and more effective methods of treatment. Our next steps will be to look at how the absence of changes in the brain relates to better protection from distress and low mood.

Depression is epidemic in todays society, with 40 million adults 18 percent of the populationbeing affected in the U.S. alone. However, only a third of people suffering from anxiety related disorders receive treatment. Research like this study is pivotal to improving the quality of millions of lives by uncovering thephysical causes of the disorder.

The studyadds toa growing body of research that supports theunderstanding that depression as a physical condition rather than a chemical or purely psychological one. This has instigated a fundamental change in the way depression is treated.

For example, researchers at UCLA have begun to use magnetic pulses to target the specific parts of the mind that are associated with depression actually changing how the brain circuits are arranged, how they talk to each other as the press release stated.

In order to fight depression these types of research are crucial let us all hope one of them leads to a cure capable of helping millions.

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New Study Reveals That The Brains of People With Depression Look Different - Futurism

In Brief NASA has bought supersonic aircrafts a step further by completing the preliminary design review for a Quiet Supersonic Transport. It is one of many projects that could herald a second golden age of flight. A Thump in the Flight

NASAs Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) an experimentalX-plane the organizationhas been developing with Lockheed Martin to decrease the strength of sonic booms has passed an initial design review. It flew successfully in an 2.5-meter by 2-meter (eight-foot by six-foot) supersonic wind tunnel at NASAs Glenn Research Center.

Theplane is the first stage in NASAs wider plan to make the Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) airplane, and it completed its objective comfortably. A NASA statement said the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircrafts mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds 1.4 times the speed of sound but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today.

The next stages in the plan are to hire a contractor to build the piloted, single-engine plane, with initial flight testing ideally occurring in 2021. The next test will focus on ascertaining the consequences the atmosphere has on supersonic speed and quantifying the effect the plane will have on people on the ground through a combination of measurement and survey findings.

NASAs experimental plane is one of many test aircraft that are looking to push the boundaries of aviation in different directions.

In terms of pure speed, Lockhead Martin hasconfirmed that the SR-72 reportedly capable of mach 6 speeds will be made for surveillance purposes, while British-based Skylonis planning to use a 5.4 mach plane to deliver payloads into space.

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen is also looking to apply planes to cosmic ends, but has developed the biggest plane ever rather than one of the fastest. After testing is complete, the Stratolaunch will be used to ferry spacecraft into orbit where they will require less energy to reach space when compared to a ground take off.

Eviation Aircraftwill target the green aviation industry by producing an all-electric prototype which could be the first stage in decreasing the carbon footprint of the aircraft industry. The plane is produces zero-emissions and is capable of flying 965 km/h (600 mph).

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NASA Developed an X-Plane that Can Go Supersonic Without a Boom - Futurism

In Brief While Bitcoin has been suffering some hard knocks of late, Goldman Sach's senior Sheba Jafari has reassured clients by referring to a 1938 economic theory that sees turbulence as a necessary aspect of growth.

It is a turbulent time for Bitcoin the cryptocurrency has risen to highs of $2,850 and sunk to lows of $1,836 just in July alone. But now, an influential voice has entered into the equation Goldman Sachs, whose chief technician Sheba Jafari has claimed, in a report to clients on Monday, that soon Bitcoin will rise to $3,600.

Jafari wrotethat anything above 3,000 (June 13th high) will suggest potential to have already started wave V, which again has a minimum target at 2,988 and scope to reach 3,691.

Wave V refers to the Elliott Wave theory, described in his 1938 book The Wave Principle, which is a means of technically analyzing financial cycles using stages of growth and fluctuation. Wave V indicates the final period of growth in which news is almost universally positive and everyone is bullish.

Despite Bitcoins variable month, which also involved asevere hackand a potentialcrypto civil war being avoided, 2017 has been an astonishingly successful year for the cryptocurrency and cryptocurrencies as a whole, for that matter.

Bitcoin has risen from $997 to todays rate of $2,512, which is an increase of 151 percent. Correspondingly, it is being used ever more for real world applications. It is now accepted as a legal form of tenderin 260,000 stores in Japan, and many countries,such as South Africa, are now considering how to regulate it which is a testament to the cryptocurrencys growth and potential legitimacy.

Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

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Goldman Sachs Chief Technician Predicts Bitcoin Will Rise to $3600 - Futurism

A New Age in Human Evolution

By now, most of usknow what CRISPR gene editing is. At the very least, we have heard of this revolutionary technology that allows us to alter DNAthe source code of life itself. One day, CRISPR could allow us to delete genes in order to eradicate genetic diseases, add in new genes in order to vastly improve various biological functions, or even genetically modify human embryos in order to create an entirely new class of humansof super humans.

But first, we have a lot of research to do.

And that brings us to today.Reports from MIT were just released which assert that the very first attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon.

So far as I know this will be the first study reported in the U.S., Jun Wu, who played a role in the project and is a collaborator at the Salk Institute, said to MIT.

According to MIT, the work was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who comes from the Oregon Health and Science University. Although details are scarce at this point, sources familiar with the work assert that the research involved changing the DNA of one-cell embryos using CRISPR gene-editing. Further,Mitalipov is believed to have broken records in two notable ways:

This is notable because, despite the fact that it has been around for several years now, CRISPR is still an incredibly new toolone that could have unintended consequences. As previous work published in the journal Nature Methods revealed, CRISPR-Cas9 could lead to unintended mutations in a genome. However, the work was laterreviewed by researchers at another institutionand the findings were brought into question. It remains to be seen whether the original study will be corrected or retracted, but this development highlights the importance of peer review in science.

In this regard, Mitalipovs work brings us further down the path to understanding exactly how CRISPR works in humans, and reveals that is it possible to avoid both mosaicism (changes that are taken up not by only some of the cells of an embryo, as opposed to all of them) and off-target effects.

It is important to note that none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days, and that the team never had any intention of implanting them into a womb. However, it seems that this is largelydue to ongoing regulatory issues, as opposed to issues with the technology itself.

In the United States, allefforts to turn edited embryos into a babyto bring the embryo to full termhave been blocked by Congress, which added language to the Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that forbids it from approving any such clinical trials.

Yet, the potential of the CRISPR-Cas9 system as a gene editing technology is undeniable. As previously mentioned, it has seen success in developing possible cancer treatments, in making animals disease-resistant, and ithas even shown promise in replacing antibiotics altogether.

This new work adds to the promise of CRISPR, and stands as an important step toward the birth of the first genetically modified humans.

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Scientists Just Successfully Edited the First Human Embryo Ever in The US - Futurism