Category Archives: Futurism

Teslas higher end P100D model of the Tesla Model S just set a new quarter-mile record, making itthe fastest street-legal electric vehicle on the road today.

In a video posted by Drag Times, two Model S P100Ds were tested. One without a few key features like a sunroof making it 300 pounds lighter, versus the fully outfitted version. In both races, Drag Times racethe Model Salongside aCamaro ZL1 and a BMW 550i. Teslas electric sedan broke the record for speed in4-door production cars. The heavier model clocked in at 10.875 seconds for a quarter-mile, while the lighter version came in 10.723 seconds.

That record-breaking achievement didnt last though: on the same day, in a separate test conducted in Oregon, these already impressive speeds were broken by amonth-old 2017 Tesla Model S P100Dwhich came in at 10.638.It should be noted that no changes were made to the vehicle: it was tested with its original interior, stock wheels, and tires.

This speed was achieved through Teslas Ludicrous+ mode, part of its latest software upgrade for the vehicles. Its expected that the Model SP100D will be able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds a feat which is worthy of being chalked up to a functionality with ludicrous in the title.

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A Tesla Just Broke a World Record for Speed Twice in One Day - Futurism

In the US, there are 5.5 million Americans with Alzheimers adiseasedefined by the progressive deterioration of brain function, most often affecting thinking and memory, that typically begins during middle or old age. Among the 5.5 million patients, the vast majorityare at least 65 years old, while an estimated 200,000 suffer from whats known as early-onset Alzheimers.

Assessing someones lifetime risk ofcontracting the disease is of concern not just to patients and families,but also healthcare providers. Alzheimers risk factors are notoriously hard to identify, but getting that information as early as possible can help prepare patients and families to manage the disease, andin many cases support preventative efforts.

Gaining more insight into a patients risk may soon becomeremarkably easier: researchers from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have createda genetic test that can calculate a patients age-specific risk of Alzheimers.

The method looks for 31 genetic markers,gathered from over 70,000 individuals, including patients suffering from Alzheimers as well ashealthy elderly patients. Scientists based the test on background genetic variations which, individually, have a tiny influence on Alzheimers but collectively, their effect is substantial enough that they can accurately predict an individuals risk of developing the disease.

Preventing the development of dementia symptoms is the holy grail of Alzheimers research but to succeed we first need accurate methods to predict who is most likely to develop the condition. This studys approach was fairly successful at predicting the likelihood of someone developing dementia over the coming year, but needs to be tested further in mixed, non-US populations, said James Pickett, head of research at Alzheimers Society in a report published by The Guardian.

It should be noted that scoring high on this genetic test doesnt automatically mean someone will develop Alzheimers. Nor does it imply that scoring low means someone would be considered immune to the disease. Genetics is one of several factorsthat determines a persons risk fordevelopingany disease, including Alzheimers.

From a clinical perspective, the [test] provides a novel way not just to assess an individuals lifetime risk of developing Alzheimers disease, but also to predict the age of disease onset, said senior author Dr Anders Dale, of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

While we have yet to find a viable treatment for the disease, experts believe that we are getting close. To that end, they assert that once a cure isfound, it would still need to be administered as early as possible in the course of the disease, to ensure that damage done to the brainis at a minimum.

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A New Genetic Test Predicts If and When You'll Develop Alzheimer's - Futurism

In Brief Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and founder of BlueOrigin, unveiled the world's first manned bipedal robot at the MARS conference this week. The 4-meter-tall (13-foot-tall) robot suit, called Method 2, weighs in at 1.5 tons and could be used to work in areas that are too hazardous for humans to go unprotected. A Supervillain Billionaire?

One of the worlds billionaires now has built and tested his own gigantic robotsuit. No, Im not talking about the infamous antagonist of the superman series, Lex Luthor. Instead, its the well-known CEO of Amazon, founder of BlueOrigin, and owner of the WashingtonPost, Jeff Bezos, who, now that you mention it, might not look too different from Lex Luthoror even Jeff Bridges character from Iron Man.

Amazon hosted its invitation-only Machine-Learning, Automation, and Space Exploration (MARS2017) conference this week. This is where Bezos introduced the Method 2. The company CEO gladly stretched his arms wide while sitting the robust machine, having the suit mimic his movements and display its physical prowess to the audience of the highly coveted conference. While other reports are alarmed by Bezos acquisition of the robot, his genuinely excited smile assured many of his continued interest in investing in new, beneficial technology.

The 4-meter-tall (13-foot-tall) robot suit, weighing in at 1.5 tons,was created by the South Korean technology firm, Hankook Mirae Technology,that claims the robot is the worlds first manned bipedal robot and is built to work in extreme hazardous areas where humans cannot go (unprotected). The comments come from Mirae company chairman, Yang Jin-Ho, who might have to jump a few more hurdles before The Method 2 is fully completed. Reports suggest that the $8.3 million robot might not be able to walk yet, let alone take on demilitarized war zones between North and South Korea.

Pushing aside the technological specifics, if you think the suit looks familiar, thats because it is. The suit itself was designed by Vitaly Bulgarov, someone recognized for his work on transformers, terminator, robo-cop, and even Boston Dynamics bipedal robots.

Currently, there are claims that the suits will help clean up and restoreFukushimain response to the 2011 nuclear energy accident. Moreover, others are keen to militarize the concept if the model proves successful and versatile.

Hopefully, they are looking for more test pilots, because it does look like fun.

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Amazon's CEO Just Demoed the World's First Manned Bipedal Robot - Futurism

Investing in the Future

Today,seed funding provider Y Combinator introduced 52 startups at Day One of its W17 Demo Day, which is actually a two-day event. The companies hailed from a wide range of industries, including artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and health and medicine, and many showcased apps that aim to improve one aspect or another of our daily lives.

After the last Demo Day, we highlighted 10 of the most promising startups featured on Day One. Now, well give you the five companies we thought were the most futuristic or, at the very least, interesting.

Though the technology has been around for a while, VR remains a potential game changer, andPantheon VRwants you to be part of that change. Its VR game creation tool lets you sculpt and add textures toshapes. You can create your VR world, then use a drag-and-drop tool to add insimple game mechanics. Creators can publish their works instantly to the platform, which hopes to become the YouTube of VR gaming.

Vinsightwants to help farmers earn more money by not losing crops due to bad forecasting. The startups crop yield forecasting tooluses machine learning, satellite imagery, weather data, and historical reports to generate insight or actionable intelligence that the company claims is four times better than whats currently available. Vinsight is already being used by the worlds largest winery and second largest almond producer. It charges $25 per acre, which isnt muchcompared to the $11 billion a year that U.S. farmers lose from bad forecasting.

Of course, in any lineup of futuristic tech, youll find at least one focused on robotics or, in this case, robot prosthetics. Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems (CBAS)wants to be the standard for bionic implants. We work on solving and standardizing the connection between bionic devices and neural & soft-tissue systems within the body, according to their website. Currently, the company is working on a low-cost implant that can connect a bionic device to any part of the body.

Because helping animals stay healthy is part of any happy future, Demo Day also featured a startup that wants to do just that for bovines. Cowlar is a wearable tech for cows (obviously) that keeps track of the animals temperature, activity, and other data. It uses a solar-powered cow router to collect all this data in real-timeand then makes it available to farmers.

Flexible displays are gaining traction, and Sinovia Technologies hopes to be at the forefront of the trend. The startup wants to make OLED displays for devices with smaller screens 80 percent cheaper using a technology that allows them to print paper-thin, transparent, flexible displays roll-to-roll, the same way newspapers and magazines are printed.

Truly, the event featured far too many interesting startups to mention them all here, and were only through Day One. Tomorrow is sure to bring just as much innovation though perhaps not quite as many wearables for farm animals.

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The Most Futuristic Companies That Just Launched at Y Combinator Demo Day 1 - Futurism

Keeping the Wilderness Wild

Prompted by the 10 million acre gift of Parque Pumaln, the Chilean government has announced a massive conservation campaign. President Michelle Bachelet signed an agreement which merged 10 million acres of federal land with the million acres of Pumaln, creating five new national parks and placing all of it under the strict environmental protection afforded to designated national parklands. Miles of undeveloped coastline, virgin forests, and active volcanoes grace the area which dwarfs all other protected areas in Chilean history.

The 11 million acres of Patagonian wilderness arent dissimilar to the granite cliffs and icy peaks of Yosemite but the Yellowstone and Yosemite park areas together make up less than one third of the area now contained in Chiles new protected parklands. Put another way, the parklands are 5,000 times larger than Manhattans Central Park. This single act places Chile in the neighborhood of Costa Rica, one of the worlds countries with the highest percentages of protected lands.

Bachelet praised Americanphilanthropists Doug Tompkins and Kristine McDivitt Tompkins for their work in support of the preservation of Patagoniaa passion project theyve beenpursuing for decades. Doug Tompkins didnt liveto see his dream come to fruition; he died in a kayak accident in 2015. At the time of the announcement there was no opposition to the conservation project, but Tompkins had fought major resistance mostly from local politiciansoften taking the form of a personal smear campaignfor years.

Today, it seems that everyone in the countrys government agrees onthebenefits parklands will bring to the country. This move toward conservation is smart for ecological reasons, and represents a massive safeguard against habitat destruction. Its also a clevereconomic move for Chile: the parklands are among the nations biggest drivers of tourism, and most of the trails, infrastructure, cabins, and other related services are already in place. The formal protection will now ensure that the parklands are guarded as they are enjoyed by tourists and locals alike.

National parks are the gold standard of conservation, said Hernn Mladinic, a longtime advocate of protecting southern Chiles ecosystems.

For every dollar you invest in national parks, you get 10 back; its more profitable than copper.

The new parks will be modeled after the wild and scenic highways aesthetic American parks are known for: artfully designed signage, scenic lookout points, and roads that avoid disturbing the naturally rugged terrain, instead following its contours. Kris Tompkins oversees rewilding programs in Argentina, which have been successful at bringing many species back from the brink of extinction. She hopes they will implement similar programs in Chile.

This action of aggressive conservation by the Chilean government on behalf of the people stands in clear contrast tothe current political climate in the U.S.Although the parklands in Chile are being designed after a classically American model for national parks, new U.S. policies reversing preservation accords,slashing budgets directed towards environmental science and conservation, and rejecting climate science threaten the integrity of U.S. parklands that have served as the gold standard for the rest of the world for so long.

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Chile Just Converted a Staggering 11 Million Acres of Land into Protected National Parks - Futurism

Y Combinators Demo Day is a time when startups get to present their ideas to investors, an audience that can actually fund these big dreams. In a gathering of people with so many smart ideas, theres bound to be some that are more futuristic than others. Or better still, some ideas soar above the rest literally, in the case of Wright Electric.

At the second day of Demo Day W17, this one-year-old startup presented a bold idea that can change future of passenger planes. This is one of best hard tech teams Ive seen said Michael Seibel, who heads Y Combinators accelerator program, in an interview with TechCrunch.

Wright Electrics idea is for a commercial passenger airplane thats battery-powered. Designed for flights under 480 km (300 miles), the electric plane can seat 150 people and is designed to disrupt the Boeing 737 market. To put itsdesign on the air, Wright Electric has partnered with budget British airline EasyJet. Italso hired a team that had been previously funded by NASA to figure out just how possible electric planes are. Working with all these people has put Wright Electric ahead of its competition, according to co-founder Jeff Engler.

Our aero team has decades of experience in aircraft design, electric planes, and certification. Our battery team has decades of experience in battery design, battery manufacturing, and early stage startup R&D, Engler wrote in a blog post. This is just about the best group of people one could imagine embarking on a such a journey.

At their Demo Day presentation, the ambitious startup was able to show off their electric plane aptly named the Wright One in the parking lot. Though limited to just short-haul trips, its still going to disrupt a sizable market. According to Englers estimations, short-haul trips represent about 30 percent of all flightsand 50 percent of regional flights. Also, these flights make upa $26 billion market. For reference, Airbus and Boeing sold 967 narrowbody planes in 2016, Engler wrote in a blog post.

A fully-electric Wright One depends on developments in battery technology in the next decade or so. If batteries dont get dramatically better in the next decade, we design our plane as a hybrid with electric motors, like a [Chevrolet] Volt, Engler wrote in a blog post. It still has great cost savings as compared to todays planes, and it doesnt require massive battery advances.

The Wright One would drastically decrease consumption of fossil fuels by planes, whether it becomes a fully electric model or a hybrid one. Currently, a 10-hour international flight consumes 50,000 liters (36,000 gallons) of fuel. A Boeing 747, which is a bigger plane meant for long-haul flights, can burn roughly 12 liters of fuel per kilometer (5 gallons per mile).

Theres a long way to go before their electric plane finds itself on a runway. But, the potential it presents to cut down on fossil fuels makes the Wright One a flight worth waiting for.

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Electric Flights Are Coming: Engineers Unveil a 150-Seat Battery-Powered Plane - Futurism

I Said Yes Immediately

Stephen Hawking, the worlds most renownedphysicist and cosmologist, stated today that he is, in fact,heading to spaceand its happening all thanks to the Virgin group (and a bit of modern technology).

In astatementback in2015, Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, said that, one day, he hoped to be able to carry Hawking to the stars. In the statement, Branson noted that this offer came as a result of the great respect and admiration that he has for Hawking:

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the people I admire most in the world, an undisputed genius who has opened our eyes to the wonders of the universe, while also happening to be a kind and delightful man. He is the only person I have given a free ticket with Virgin Galactic, and he is signed up to fly as a Future Astronaut with us if his health permits it.

At 75 years of age, Hawking wont be the oldest astronaut ever (that designation belongs to John Glenn, who went to space at the age of 77), but he will be the first person to go to space with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. ALS is amotor-neuron disease that generally leads to death within five years of the initial diagnosis. Hawkings condition was first diagnosed when he was 21, and he was not expected to see his 25th birthday. Fast-forward 50 years, and here we are.

Traveling to space, of course, is risky business, even more so when health concerns come into play. Now, it seems that Hawking is set to go. Hawkings voyage to space will alsogive scientists an opportunity to study the effects of ALS in new ways, such as how it operates in zero-gravity.

When discussing the anticipated event, Hawking toldGood Morning Britain that he never dreamed hedhave such an opportunity, and that he said yes immediately. Hawking continued by noting that he looks forward to the voyage with great anticipation, comparing flying into space to the same joy that his three children have brought him. During the discussion, he stated, my three children have brought me great joy and I can tell you what will make me happy, to travel in space.

Of course, space is one thing, but this isnt the first time Hawking experienced Zero-G

Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwoisa reusable, winged spacecraft designed to carry up to eight people (including two pilots) into space, and the link between Hawking and Virgin Galactic isnt exactly new. Just last year, Hawking unveiled the name of theSpaceShipTwo craft, the VSS Unity. During afour-minute recorded video, Hawking explained that the Unity: will help bring new meaning to our place on Earth and to our responsibilities as its stewards, and it will help us to recognize our place and our future in the cosmos which is where I believe our ultimate destiny lies.

Ultimately, Hawking has long been an advocate of commercial spaceflight, and to this end, he notes that he greatly admires Virgin Galactics role in democratizing space, specifically, he clarified hisrespect for enabling more of humanity to experience the true wonder of space.

I have said in the past Look up at the stars and not down at your feet, but I believe that looking up will no longer be a requirement to see the universe in all its glory.

In Hawkings interview withGood Morning Britain, he focused on the importance ofthe unifying power of space exploration, especially in terms of bringing together governments from across the globe and inspiring future generations.

As Alan Stern, head of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, famously stated, enterprises like this are worthy for a number of reasons, but that, for him, two stick out in particular: Beyond the obviousthat were creating new knowledgewe create a greater society. We do something which is, in the case of great exploration, historic. Its something people read about, not just days and weeks later, but decades and centuries later. It makes a mark for our time of what we aspire to be, which is a greater society.

In short, the things that we invest in (whether that is sports, or war, or science) are a direct reflection of both the values that we hold and the society that we are currently building. And as is clear from this revelation, Hawking truly believes in going where no ones gone beforeor at least, only a very few people.

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Stephen Hawking is Going to Outer Space - Futurism

Drug Combination

A new clinical trial demonstrated positive effects caused by the drug combination lapatinib and trastuzumab againstHER2 positive breast cancer in a treatment period of just 11 days.

Led by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, the University of Manchester, and University Hospital of South Manchester, the study comprised257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer who were split into groups and treated for 11 days prior to surgery. Women who were treated with the drug combination were compared to women who received only one the drugs or no drugs before undergoing surgery. To assess results, samples of the tumor tissue were taken from an initial biopsy and once again during surgery, to determine if there was a drop in Ki67 protein, which indicates cell proliferation.

Results showed that not only was there a marked drop in Ki67 among subjects who received the combination drug treatment, but 11 percent of those women wereclassified as having pathological complete response meaning no active cancer cellswere found. An additional 17 percent of the women treated with the drug combination hadminimal residual disease.

Judith Bliss, lead researcher from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, emphasized at a EBCC-10 press conference that the short time frame during which this kind of effect wasachieved had not been seen before.

These results show that we can get an early indication of pathological response within 11 days, in the absence of chemotherapy, in these patients on combination treatment, Bliss said, who co-led the trial. Most previous trials have only looked at the pathological response after several months of treatment.

Despite the positive results, researchers assert that further study and confirmation has to be done to support the current findings.

Our results are a strong foundation on which to build further trials of combination anti-HER2 therapies prior to surgery which could reduce the number of women who require subsequent chemotherapy, which is also very effective but can lead to long-term side effects, Bliss said at the press conference.

The drugs trastuzumab and lapatinib are preferable to traditional chemotherapies because they specifically target and kill cancer cells that over express HER2. Traditional chemotherapy generally targets any rapidly growing cells including healthy cells which can cause side effects such as hair loss and nausea.In other similar studies, the drug combination of trastuzumab and lapatinib has also demonstrated impressive response rates, but only after several months of therapy, not in less than two weeks.

Given that this treatment is administered within the two week window between diagnosis and surgery, it could potentially identify patients whose disease is more responsive to the drugs, allowing individualization of therapy. This treatment could allow patients to avoidgoing through chemotherapy post surgery, lowering their risks ofadverse side effects and giving thema better quality of life.

Approximately one in five womenwho are diagnosed with breast cancer are found to have HER2 cancer, which is one of the more aggressive forms of the disease. While is not a cure, this breakthrough serves asa strong basis for further research towards defeating HER2 positive cancers.

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A New Treatment Destroyed Breast Cancer Tumors in 11 Days Without Chemo - Futurism

A Solar Scope

Each day we get closer to exploring farther reaches of our solar system and universe. We have come incredibly far and seem to make progress with each day. However, our ability to survey the outer corners of the cosmos is limited by our current telescopic technology. Now, modern telescopes are nothing to scoff at. As the iconic Hubble Telescope is phased out, the James Webb Space Telescope will continue to capture the beauty of outer space. But scientists have figured out a way to push the boundaries of telescopic technology even further: by turning the Sun (yes, that sun) into a telescope.

To use the sun as some sort of massive magnifying glass, scientists have deferred to Einsteins Theory of Relativity. According to the theory, large objects (like the Sun) bend the space around them, and so anything traveling in that space (even light) bends as well. In a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, if light is bent around an object in a particular way, it can magnify the space (quite literally, space) behind it.

Scientists have previously used gravitational lensing to help telescopes to be more effective, but now, researchers aim to use this distribution of matter as a telescope. This new approach certainly has its pros and cons. In order to harness this lensing, the necessary instruments would need to approach pretty close to the sun, in order to reach a target 550 AU away. While humans and probes have traveled much closer to the sun than this, and plan to do so in the future, this difficult journey would take a long time and the equipment would have to be somehow placed into the middle of space.

However, if this is pulled off, it would be a massive leap forward in imaging technology. We could finally get a closer, clearer look at Trappist-1, and would be that much closer to discovering life outside of Earth.

As mentioned previously, this sun scope is not the only highly advanced space-imaging technology thats surfacing. The James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in October of 2018, will hopefully continue and advance the incredible work of the Hubble Telescope. In fact, this telescope is so powerful that Lee Feinberg, an engineer and James Webb Space Telescope Optical Telescope Element Manager at Goddard, was quoted as saying. The Webb telescope is the most dynamically complicated article of space hardware that weve ever tested.

The technology that we use to capture the incredible images of space isimproving every day. Modern telescopes will continue to advance, becoming more powerful, more precise, and more detailed. So, while the idea of a sun-based telescope is incredible and could yield unprecedented images and information, even if it doesnt pan out, we will most certainly continue to find improved ways to look at the Universe.

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NASA Plans To Turn The Largest Object in Our Solar System into a Telescope - Futurism

In Brief

In case you hadnt noticed, there are a lot of agencies and companies working hard to get humans to Mars. SpaceX says it will definitely launch their crewed mission by 2020. NASA has a mandate to get the US to Mars by 2033.

China will launch its first Mars probe by 2020 with the aim of becoming a frontrunner in space exploration by 2030. While that hasnt included explicit plans for Mars yet, other frontrunners in space will be there in the 2030s. Mars Ones goal is to establish a permanent human colony on the Red Planet. The UAE has also stated that it plans to place a human colony on Mars, with a safety goal date of 2117.

While getting to Mars may be the initial hurdle to overcome, the challenges wont stop oncewe get there. Humans living on Mars must be equipped to handlethe necessarysocial disruptions, potential emotional turmoil, medical dangers, and other potential hardships. Life on Marswould demand that humans adapt to the planet rather than expecting Mars to adapt to their presence. Physical health problems that arise on Mars could well beuntreatable, depending on the type of expertise, equipment, or other resources that would be needed to treat them. Further complications could arise on a genetic basis, as concerns of consanguinitycould be a threat to colonies if an insufficient number of people for propagation made the journey.

Mental health concerns could be even more salient for Mars colonies, which would essentially be cut off from the life they knew on Earth. Although results from NASAs HI-SEAS isolation experiment which seals off small crews near the top of Hawaiis Mauna Loa volcano have been promising, many believe that there is really no way to truly prepare humans mentally for life on Mars while theyre still on Earth.

The real, and perhaps simplest, answer may be that life on Mars wont be for everyone. Neither is life in New York City, or tattoos, or any number of lifestyles or practices. The beauty in the diversity of human experience is that all those things have theirloyal adherents and so will off-world living.

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Space Agencies Want to Put Humans on Mars by 2033, but Will Humans Be Ready to Go? - Futurism