Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Scientists believe that most, if not all, sun-like stars are born with a twin. Evidence also suggests that our solar system's sun's twin may be responsible for knocking the comet that killed the dinosaurs toward Earth. Stellar Doppelganger

We have long known that the dinosaurs were killed by a catastrophic comet impact with the Earths surface but what if there was some foul play afoot? Astronomers have discovered that our sun may have been born with a twin, and an evil one, at that. One hypothesisstates that every 27 million years, the evil twin, aptly dubbed Nemesis, returns to wreck havoc on the solar system. They believe that the star lobs a few meteors in our direction as it makes its may through the outer limits of the solar system.

Research has lead scientists to believe that most stars are born with at least one sibling. According to UC Berkeley astronomer Steven Stahler, We ran a series of statistical models to see if we could account for the relative populations of young single stars and binaries of all separations in the Perseus molecular cloud, and the only model that could reproduce the data was one in which all stars form initially as wide binaries.

These findings could have implications for our understanding of how stars are formed. Looking into how they maintain or break those familial relationships will give us a deeper understanding of how our Universe came to be what it is today. Stahler said, Our work is a step forward in understanding both how binaries form and also the role that binaries play in early stellar evolution. Stahler also pointed out that this could even lead to a better understanding of how galaxies are formed.

These findings were made possible by the VLA nascent disk and multiplicity survey (VANDAM) which took a census of a group of baby stars merely a half-million years old. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and can be read pre-publication at arXiv.org.

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Astronomers Discover That Our Sun Likely Had an Evil Twin That Killed the Dinosaurs - Futurism

In Brief A collaboration between MIT and Harvard has yielded a fascinating new way to monitor dynamic levels in blood using color-changing tattoo ink. Though the team has no plans to pursue clinical trials, the technology could foreshadow the future of blood level monitoring. The Tattoo Test

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and Harvard Medical School have developed a tattoo ink that could provide real-time updates on the bodys health. By making ink that responds to interstitial fluid the liquid in which our cells are suspended the researchers have found a unique way to monitor blood glucose, sodium, and ph levels.

The idea of the DermalAbyss project is that an individual would have the ink tattooed onto their body in the pattern of their preference. The tattoo would then change color according to the amount of the activating agent present. A tattoo using the ink designed to respond to glucose levels, for example, would change color from blue to brown as the persons blood sugar level rises.

The technology is an ingenious interaction of the body-art, medical, and bio-sensor sectors. While the researchers haveno immediate plans to release their inkto the public, the potential of the project is huge, and others could possibly explore and expand upon it in the future.

Aside from the initial tattooing process, the researchers skin interfaces are non-invasive, unlike the methods currently usedto monitor diabetes. Theyre also much harder to damage than current wearable technology.

That means the tech could improve millions of lives in the United States alone by helping the 10 percent of the population with diabetesmore easily monitor their disease.

As stated on the project website,the technology could potentially be used to measure far more than just the levels tested in the study: It could be used for applications in [continuous] monitoring, such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.

This isnt the only research exploring innovative uses of tattoos others have found ways to link body ink to sound filesor use it to control smartphones but this research is the first to explicitly explore the medical possibilities of inked biosensors. Though just a proof of concept right now, DermalAbyss could be offering us a glimpse into the future ofhealth monitoring.

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Color-Changing Tattoos Could Help Millions Monitor Their Health in Real-Time - Futurism

Whats on the inside matters. It drives all of us at Futuris to design, innovate and manufacture superior seating and interior trim systems for the worlds leading automotive brands. We deliver engineering expertise and craftsmanship for products with flawless finish and function.

Our award-winning fully integrated design and development solutions for automotive interiors from concept through production yield products built to the highest standards of quality, comfort, safety and reliability.

At Futuris, we push progress. Whether its partnering with the global leader in electric car innovation or expanding our manufacturing capabilities with state-of-the-art sewing equipment, digital cutting, trim pattern technology and urethane foam, molding and plastic prototyping mastery. We offer agility and speed.

The continued growth in our capabilities, engineering and technical expertise also fuels our strategic corporate growth. With locations in five countries and more than 5,600 associates worldwide, we deliberately expand where it best suits our auto manufacturing partners, to direct source our seat and interior components.

That means a growing North American footprint. Futuriss headquarters and advanced design center in Detroit are in the heart of the U.S. auto industry. Our partnerships with these storied automakers are built on the industrys spirit and pride.

And like the automotive industry we serve, we are proud of what we do well understanding that hard work produces excellence. Because whats on the inside matters. With our products, our people and our partnerships.

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Futuris Group - SEATING

In Brief Industry veteran General Motors announced this week that it has finished mass-producing Chevrolet Bolt EV test vehicles. These autonomous cars can potentially catapult GM into the forefront of the growing self-driving car market. GM Joins the Race

Theres a potential new major player in the autonomous vehicle industry, and its a seasoned player in the automotive market. Veteran car maker General Motors (GM) announced Tuesday that its completed 10 self-driving test vehicles of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle (EV). Thecars were manufactured at the companysplant in Lake Orion, Michigan. GM believes the achievementcould position the company at the head of the autonomous car race.

The autonomous vehicles you see here today are purpose-built, self-driving test vehicles, GMs chairman and CEO Mary Barra told her employees Tuesday morning, USA Today reported. GM has the platform and the technology to back up its claim: itsthe first car manufacturer to mass produce self-driving vehicles.

The level of integration in these vehicles is on par with any of our production vehicles, and that is a great advantage. In fact, no other company today has the unique and necessary combination of technology, engineering and manufacturing ability to build autonomous vehicles at scale, Barra added.

GM, however, didnt rush to mass production when it came to the development oftest versions of the Chevy Bolt EV. In addition to the efficiency inherent to electric vehicles, the carsare also designed to be more affordable than other EVs on the market. To achieve what we want from self-driving cars, we must deploy them at scale, Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt said in a press release. By developing the next-generation self-driving platform in San Francisco and manufacturing these cars in Michigan, we are creating the safest and most consistent conditions to bring our cars to the most challenging urban roads that we can find.

Currently, autonomous vehicles are still part of a rather niche market, though a number of studies seem to indicate that soon may change.One predicts that by 2024, the demand for self-driving vehicles will have grown to 138,089 units a huge jump from the current demands. Not only that, a previous study, published in 2014,concluded that the autonomous vehicle market would grow to $87 billion by 2030.

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General Motors Just Became the First Car Manufacturer to Mass Produce Autonomous Cars - Futurism

In Brief Fisker Inc. has released details concerning their first electric car, the EMotion. The EV is set to be a game changer in the electric car market due to its impressive milage, high top speed, and fast charging time.

If competition drives innovation, a crowded electric vehicle (EV) marketmay be the bestway to save the environment. One of the latest competitors to enter, Henrik Fisker, just announced a new electric car that may instigate an innovation war that leads to the next wave of cool, high-performing and most importantly climate friendly EVs.

The EMotion the luxurious sibling to the as-yet-unannounced mass market design ostensibly has a range of 643 kilometers (400 miles), a not insignificant improvement on the 563 kilometer (350 mile) range of Teslas Model S. With a top speed of 259 km/h (161 mph) and a nine-minute charging time, the EV lays down a serious benchmark for Tesla.

Fisker is best known for designing some of the most iconic luxury car models in history, including onesthat were used in James Bond films. The EMotion is the first car to be produced by his EV company,Fisker Inc.

Although details concerning the vehicles price, launch date, and autonomous capabilities have not yet been revealed, the EMotions announcement is a welcome update for the people who have been waiting with baited breath to see what the car would look like and how it would compare to Musks designs.

Electric cars are a pivotal part of the global fight against climate change, and the efforts of several car manufacturers including Toyota and Porscheto make them faster, sleeker, and more luxurious are helping EVs break into the supercar sector of the automotive market. Once there is an EV to meet the taste and desires of every driver, we can start to really phase out the vehicles gas-guzzling counterparts.

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Tesla's Original Designer Created a New Car and It Charges in Just 9 Minutes - Futurism

In Brief NASA will artificially create colorful clouds that move in the Earth's upper atmosphere, similar to how auroras do. The purpose of the experiment is to track how particles, particularly ions, behave in that portion of the planet's atmosphere.

Seven is, in many cultures, a lucky number and NASA is hoping it could prove to be the same for them. Tonight, June 13, between 9:04 and 9:19 pm EDT, the space agency will attempt for the seventh time to launch a sounding rocket from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Five minutes into the rockets takeoff, it will jettison 10 canisters, each about thesize of a soft drink can, which will spray minute amounts of barium, strontium, and cupric oxide into the atmosphere. This cloud-seeding process will create red and blue-green artificial clouds.

Whats it for? Well for one, tocreate colorful clouds to adorn to night sky but also as a way to study how particles move around the ionosphere. Located about 74 km (46 miles) above the surface and extending into space nearly 1,000 km (621 miles), the ionosphere is the part of the Earths upper atmosphere where charged particles from thesun turn atoms into ions.

After releasing this material in space, researchers then visually observe the subsequent movement of the vapor as it traces the motions of background environment, NASA wrote in a poston their official website. This technique is analogous to that of injecting a small, harmless dye into a river or stream, to study its currents, eddies, and other motions.

If you want to observe this perfectly harmless experiment,it will belive-streamed via the link below.

Offline, in real life,it may actually be visible along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. from New York to North Carolina, and as far inland as to Charlottesville, Virginia assuming there are clear skies. Otherwise NASA might just have cancel if lucky number seven doesnt prove lucky after all.

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NASA is Making Glowing Rainbow Clouds Tonight Here's How to Watch - Futurism

A Major Spike

On April 1, 2017, the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies was slightly higher than $25 billion. Roughlytwo months later, the cap exceeded $100 billion. In just over 60 days, the value of cryptocurrencies surged by 300 percent. So what is going on?

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, recently made headlines by climbing dramatically in value (itscurrently sitting around $2,600USD, about 160 percent higher than its value in April). But Bitcoin hasnt been alone in this extreme growth. The cryptocurrency market as a whole has spiked in value within the last few months.

While those already invested in Bitcoin might be celebrating, this jump is clearly reason to pause for anyone considering entering the market. Historically, what goes up super-fast must come down at least when it comes to the stock market. This has prompted many to call this rise a bubble, leaving investors to wonder when it will burst.

In an interview with Bank Innovation,cryptocurrency trader Jacob Eliosoff, who runs a Bitcoin-focused investment fund, explains:

Factor number one in the general price rise is just another of cryptos periodic bubble[s]: see Nov 2013, March 2013, July 2011. Lots of coins which patently have no plausible long-term use case or value the classic example is Dogecoin, an obsolete joke have set new highs during this frenzy a bad sign.

Author, professor, and game designer Ian Bogosthas previously written about bitcoin for The Atlantic.He shared his view on the latest cryptocurrency surge in an interview with Mic, explaining how the investors themselves could cause a drop in value:

Weve seen with these sort of ups and downs, these small groups of mostly Chinese pools end up with more than 50% of the capacity. And we dont know anything about these organizations. Are they state controlled? The moment [there is too much consolidation in the mining pools], then effectively the platform is dead, at least as a currency.

Anyone looking for proof of the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin, got it whenMark Cuban publicly criticized the currency.After the billionaire entrepreneur claimed on Twitter that Bitcoin was in a bubble and not, in fact, a currency at all, the cryptocurrency dropped significantly in value, seemingly illustrating a fragile and unstable nature.

Whether due to historical precedent, a monopoly on investment, or simply an easily swayed investor pool, it seems pretty likely that this recent rise of cryptocurrencies will lead to some sort of drop. However, that doesnt mean cryptocurrencies dont have the potential to be a major player, if not the only player, in the future of finance.

One positive development is the increasing diversity of cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin was long the definitive leader in the market, holding roughly 80 percent of the total market cap, others such as Ethereum are making major gains, knocking Bitcoin down to just about 50 percent. As TechCrunch writer Fitz Tepper notes, The fact that these gains have come from currencies other than Bitcoin are a good sign that this is less of a bubble and more of a resurgence of interest in crypto.

Other experts notethat while drops in value are likely, they dont signal an end to cryptocurrency by any means. As Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of global investment management firm BKCM, told CNBC, Bitcoin isin the first years of what is likely to be a multi-year bull market. Of course there will be corrections and even crashes along the way, but Bitcoin is here to stay.

Blockchain, the technology supporting these digital currencies, may be even more worthy of the investment than the cryptocurrencies themselves. I would say I think conventional wisdom now is that blockchain and the underlying technology is probably more interesting and has more potential than maybe Bitcoin does by itself, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari explained in aReuters report.

The link between digital currencies and this super-securedistributed database lends further support to the argument that digital currencies are a sound investment. However, only time will tell whether this current period of rapid growth will slow, plateau, drop, or continue skyward. As with any investment, the potential for reward comes with its share of risks, but right now, the future looks pretty bright for cryptocurrency.

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The Cryptocurrency Market is Exploding. Here's What You Need to Know. - Futurism

In Brief Tesla's electric SUV, the Model X, is now officially the safest SUV on the market, scoring 5-star ratings in every crash safety test administered by the NHTSA. The vehicle also had the lowest probability of injury of any SUV tested by the administation.

Tesla has done it again. Just like the Model S before it, the all-electric Model X has scored a 5-star rating in all categories following a crash test conducted by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Tesla proudly shared news of the achievement in a blog post: We engineered Model X to be the safest SUV ever, and today, the [NHTSA] announced that after conducting independent testing, it has awarded Model X a 5-star safety rating in every category and sub-category, making it the first SUV ever to earn the 5-star rating across the board.

In addition toreceiving the highest safety rating, the Model X also set a new standard for injury risk. More than just resulting in a 5-star rating, the data from NHTSAs testing shows that Model X has the lowest probability of injury of any SUV it has ever tested, according to Teslas blog post. In fact, of all the cars NHTSA has ever tested, Model Xs overall probability of injury was second only to Model S.

Not only can the Model X survive crashes, it can avoid them before they even occur thanks to Teslas self-driving system. The NHTSA itself previously reported that Teslas autonomous system lowered its crash rates to 40 percent. Self-driving cars are expected to save up to 40,000 lives every year in the U.S. by removing the major cause of car crashes, which is human error, so it seems the only car safer than a Tesla is a Tesla thats driving itself.

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It's Official. Tesla's Model X Is the Safest SUV on the Market With 5 Stars in Every Category - Futurism

States Take A Stand

While the White House and Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, have indicated their plan to roll back vehicle emissions standards set by the Obama administration in 2011, the attorneys general of 12 states and Washington District of Columbia have pledged to sue the EPA if the roll back happens. The states California, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Oregon, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland made their intentions clear in a letter to Pruitt.

Back in 2011, President Obamas administration made the deal with automakers, who agreed to work on doubling their average fuel efficiency fleet-wide until it reaches 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025. The parties also agreed to undergo mid-term evaluations no later than April 2018 to ensure progress was on track. Under former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the evaluations were ahead of schedule, so the administration did not make any adjustments before President Obama left office.Click to View Full Infographic

Once President Trump took office, however, Fiat Chrysler, VW, Ford, Toyota, GM, Nissan, Honda, and Hyundai asked for a re-evaluation of the efficiency guidelines. Trump ordered the EPA to review the standards for fuel efficiency, and Pruitt is clearly onside, calling the standards costly for automakers and the American people.

The states all dispute these characterizations, as well several unusualprocedural issues the Trump administration and Pruitt have cited: Although EPA is often faulted for missing deadlines, we are unfamiliar with any occasion on which the EPA Administrator has criticized his own agency for fulfilling its regulatory obligations ahead of schedule, reads the letter. [T]here are at least three separate reports by scientists, engineers, and other experts analyzing the standards and concluding that they are feasible. The record is clear that appropriate technology exists now for automakers to achieve the current standards for model years 2022-25 at a reasonable cost.

Efforts to create vehicles that use renewable energy and run clean are just one important aspect of managing climate change an area that states as well as municipalities and private companies have taken thelead in as the federal government effectively abdicates its leadership role. Some of the largest states in the U.S., along with several major cities, have formed the United States Climate Alliance with the intent of adhering to the Paris Accord despitePresident Trumps removal of the U.S. from it. Various American cities, including Burlington, Vermont, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City have all stepped up to the plate in recent weeks wth plans to continue to their fight against climate change.This latest move by state attorneys general todefend against theEPAs backsliding is another major boost for fighting climate change at the state and local level, as these officials are recognizing the importance of their role. Any effort to roll back these affordable, achievable, and common-sense vehicle emission standards would be both irrational and irresponsible, attorney general Eric Schneiderman of New York wrote in the letter. We stand ready to vigorously and aggressively challenge President Trumps dangerous anti-environmental agenda in court as we already have successfully done.

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In Letter, At Least 12 States Will Sue to Block Any Rollback of Emissions Standards - Futurism

Seeing Like Never Before

Neuroscientists have used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains. What theyve discovered is that the brain is full of multi-dimensional geometrical structures operating in as many as 11 dimensions.

This latest brain model was produced by a team of researchers from the Blue Brain Project, a Swiss research initiative devoted to building a supercomputer-powered reconstruction of the human brain.

The team used algebraic topology, a branch of mathematics used to describe the properties of objects and spaces regardless of how they change shape. They found that groups of neurons connect into cliques, and that the number of neurons in a clique would lead to its size as a high-dimensional geometric object.

We found a world that we had never imagined, says lead researcher, neuroscientist Henry Markram from the EPFL institute in Switzerland. There are tens of millions of these objects even in a small speck of the brain, up through seven dimensions. In some networks, we even found structures with up to 11 dimensions.

Human brains are estimated to have a staggering 86 billion neurons, with multiple connections from each cell webbing in every possible direction, forming the vast cellular network that somehow makes us capable of thought and consciousness.

With such a huge number of connections to work with, its no wonder we still dont have a thorough understanding of how the brains neural network operates. But the new mathematical framework built by the team takes us one step closer to one day having a digital brain model.

To perform the mathematical tests, the team used a detailed model of the neocortexthe Blue Brain Project team published back in 2015. The neocortex is thought to be the most recently evolved part of our brains, and the one involved in some of our higher-order functions like cognition and sensory perception.

After developing their mathematical framework and testing it on some virtual stimuli, the team also confirmed their results on real brain tissue in rats.

According to the researchers, algebraic topology provides mathematical tools for discerning details of the neural network both in a close-up view at the level of individual neurons, and a grander scale of the brain structure as a whole.

By connecting these two levels, the researchers could discern high-dimensional geometric structures in the brain, formed by collections of tightly connected neurons (cliques) and the empty spaces (cavities) between them.

We found a remarkably high number and variety of high-dimensional directed cliques and cavities, which had not been seen before in neural networks, either biological or artificial, the team writes in the study.

Algebraic topology is like a telescope and microscope at the same time, says one of the team, mathematician Kathryn Hess from EPFL.

It can zoom into networks to find hidden structures, the trees in the forest, and see the empty spaces, the clearings, all at the same time.

Those clearings or cavities seem to be critically important for brain function. When researchers gave their virtual brain tissue a stimulus, they saw that neurons were reacting to it in a highly organised manner.

It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building [and] then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc, says one of the team, mathematician Ran Levi from Aberdeen University in Scotland.

The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materialises out of the sand and then disintegrates.

These findings provide a tantalising new picture of how the brain processes information, but the researchers point out that its not yet clear what makes the cliques and cavities form in their highly specific ways.

And more work will be needed to determine how the complexity of these multi-dimensional geometric shapes formed by our neurons correlates with the complexity of various cognitive tasks.

But this is definitely not the last well be hearing of insights that algebraic topology can give us on this most mysterious of human organs the brain.

The study was published in Frontiers of Computational Neuroscience.

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Scientists Discover That Our Brains Can Process the World in 11 Dimensions - Futurism