Category Archives: Futurism

They called it a "missile defense umbrella," which sounds way less cool.Shields Up!

The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) seems to be working on bringing a staple of science fiction weaponry the force field into reality.

The announcement arrived as part of a new AFRL report on the future of directed energy weapons you know, lasers and stuff and how they might be used by the military in the coming decades. The report concedes that developing a missile defense force field will take substantial technological development, but it also opines that directed energy weaponry has reached a tipping point of practicality, with a press release sent to The Drive claiming that the concept of a [directed energy] weapon creating a localized force field may be just on the horizon.

Unfortunately, when the AFRL talks about force fields, it doesnt quite mean the laser-like bubbles that the Gungans used against the Trade Federation in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Rather, the military describes a force field as an umbrella formed by various directed energy weapons currently mounted on vehicles but eventually orbiting in space that zap down any missiles entering a certain radius.

By 2060 a sufficiently large fleet or constellation of high-altitude [directed energy weapon] systems could provide a missile defense umbrella, as part of a layered defense system, if such concepts prove affordable and necessary, the report reads.

By 2060 we can predict that [directed energy] systems will become more effective, and this idea of a force field includes methods to destroy other threats too, AFRL Directed Energy Deputy Chief Scientist Jermey Murray-Krezan said in the release. Eventually there may be potential to achieve the penultimate goal of a Nuclear or ballistic missile umbrella. Its fun to think about what that might be in 2060, but we dont want to speculate too much.

READ MORE: Air Force Directed Energy Report Argues Defensive Force Fields May Be Just On The Horizon [The Drive]

More on lasers: US Army Testing Machine Gun-Style Laser Weapon That Vaporizes Targets

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Air Force Research Lab Says Force Fields Are "on the Horizon" - Futurism

Climate change and a lunar "wobble" are about to pack a dangerous one-two punch.Tide Pool

Starting next decade, scientists say, a wobble in the Moons orbit is about to make coastal flooding here on Earth a whole lot worse.

When the wobble begins, American coastal cities may suddenly start to flood three or four times as often as they do now, according to research by NASA and the University of Hawaii that was published in the journal Nature Climate Change last month.

In the study, scientists predicted that the lunar wobble will cause increased clusters of flooding that will significantly disrupt life and damage infrastructure throughout coastal cities that have acclimated to far milder and less frequent floods an eerie reminder of Earths close relationship with its natural satellite, and perhaps even a pressing infrastructure issue.

As Live Science reports, this lunar wobble is actually a perfectly natural cycle thats been going on for eons and will continue to do so long after were gone. The Moons orbit creates periods of higher and lower tides according to a roughly 18.6-year rhythm.

What makes it dangerous this time around is the fact that the sea level has been rising thanks to the effects of climate change and unchecked greenhouse gas emissions. So when the next tide-amplifying period begins in the early 2030s, the resulting floods will likely be worse, more persistent, and more dangerous than ever before.

Its the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact, University of Hawaii researcher and lead study author Phil Thompson said in a news release. If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business cant keep operating with its parking lot under water. People lose their jobs because they cant get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue.

READ MORE: A wobble in the moons orbit could result in record flooding in the 2030s, new study finds [Live Science]

More on flooding: Deadly Condo Collapse Linked To Climate Change

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NASA Says a Change in the Moon's Orbit Will Make Flooding on Earth Worse - Futurism

A shocking number of neurological, pulmonary, and musculoskeletal diseases seem to be linked to ADHD in adults, according to a massive new study.

ADHD in adults remains critically understudied, especially when it comes to how the psychiatric condition impacts the rest of a patients overall health. But that could change researchers have now identified a number of associated conditions and risk factors linked to adult ADHD, according to research published Tuesday in the prominent medical journal The Lancet Psychiatry.

In the study, Swedish scientists analyzed the medical records of millions of people to identify the diseases and conditions that seemed to emerge alongside ADHD,and then probed them for shared underlying causes. With this new study in hand, doctors may be able to better treat adults with ADHD while keeping a closer eye out for any of the associated conditions as well.

Identifying co-occurring physical diseases may have important implications for treating adults with ADHD and for benefiting the long-term health and quality of life of patients, lead study author and Karolinksa Institutet medical epidemiologist Ebba Du Rietz said in a press release.

The team found that ADHD is strongly linked to liver diseases, sleep disorders, obesity, epilepsy, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Then, to a lesser extent, adult ADHD also appears to be correlated with conditions like Parkinsons disease, dementia, cardiovascular disease, along with others.

That doesnt mean ADHD causes these conditions or that someone with one condition from the list is destined to develop another. But regardless, knowing about the possible correlations is important because clinicians can theoretically be more mindful about various risk factors while treating ADHD, especially since doctors tend to prescribe stimulants.

These results are important because stimulant therapy requires careful monitoring in ADHD patients with co-occurring cardiac disease, hypertension, and liver failure, senior study author and rebro University epidemiologist Henrik Larsson said in the release.

The scientists werent able to identify all of the underlying reasons that these conditions appear alongside one another, but they did start to uncover some links the same genetic factors seem to contribute to both ADHD and various physical conditions, for example but they hope to discover more with follow-up studies.

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Adult ADHD Is Linked to a Ton of Serious Diseases - Futurism

The car can "collect a tennis ball worth of pollution a year. Introducing the Airo

A British designer has created a new electric car that he claims can clean the air of pollution as it drives.

Thomas Heatherwick, an award-winning English designer and architect, was approached by IM Motors, a Chinese car manufacturer, to help develop the concept car, according to the BBC. The vehicles front grill holds an air filter which he says will be able to collect a tennis ball worth of particulate matter per year.

That might not sound a lot but think of a tennis ball in your lungs, that is contributing to cleaning the air, and with a million vehicles in China alone that adds up, Heatherwick said to the BBC.

Dubbed the Airo, the vehicle is hoped to go into production in China by 2023.

The car is like nothing youve seen before. The interior of the car looks like a living room, with a table in the middle and four adjustable chairs that can be transformed into beds.

Also, the steering wheel is hidden in the cars dashboard to allow for even more room inside when needed.

The novelty of the cars design is intentional. In fact, IM Motors approached Heatherwick specifically because he had never designed a car before. Not only could he give a fresh spin to how the car looked, but he could also innovate in ways that had a positive impact on the environment.

Car manufacturers are falling over themselves to make electric cars, but a new electric car shouldnt just be another one with a different look, Heatherwick told the BBC.

While Heatherwick believes in the ability of his car to cut down pollution, others are much more skeptical.

I cannot see how this car can make any significant contribution to resolving the many problems associated with car ownership and use, said Peter Wells, professor of business and sustainability at the Cardiff Business Schools center for automotive research, to the BBC.

He continued, The contribution of this car cleaning the air in our polluted urban centers would be so small as to be impossible to measure.

Thats fair criticism especially when you consider how rare it is for concept cars to get produced on a massive scale. However, the idea behind it (i.e. a car that can clean the air while you drive) is incredibly innovative and a worthwhile pursuit. Its also one that Heatherwick is very optimistic about.

This isnt a fantasy, Heatherwick told the BBC. The whole idea was for it not to be a concept car, which is why we are working with a manufacturer, and we focused everything on ideas that can happen.

READ MORE: Pollution-eating car shown off at Goodwood Festival [BBC]

More on electric cars: Dodge Says Its Only Making an Electric Car Because the Performance Is So Good

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New Car Sucks Up Pollution While It Drives - Futurism

"Have you lost your key? Have you tried everything to unlock your crypto wallet with no luck?"Tales from the Crypt

The producers of the popular Netflix series Queer Eye are working on a new show andto the crypto crowd, it might hit a little too close to home.

A casting call, spotted by New York Times tech reporter Taylor Lorenz, outlines what the show is about.

Have you forgotten your crypto wallet password? reads the notice, posted to a casting site and LinkedIn. Have you lost your key? Have you tried everything to unlock your crypto wallet with no luck?

If so, this show is for you. The producers are looking for people who are currently locked out of their crypto wallets and on the verge of losing their money.

In the notice, the producers offer the help of trained experts to give you guidance, suggesting that the show may eventually be about them regaining or failing to regain access to their long-lost millions.

In other words, its a potential feel good hit for Netflixs global audience or, alternately, a theater of tragedy.

There have been countless incidents in which hapless crypto-heads have lost access to their digital wallets, leaving them locked out of potentially enormous sums. While many have gotten filthy rich by investing in the tokens early, others were far less lucky, unknowingly losing access to their newfound wealth.

Some have a few password attempts left, making their last endeavors to access their wallets a hair-raising and binge-worthy affair.

For instance, German programmer Stefan Thomas only has two password guesses left to access his 7,002 Bitcoin currently worth around $234 million. Thomas simply lost the paper where he wrote down the password and has used eight of his ten possible guesses.

I would just lay in bed and think about it, Thomas told The New York Times back in January. Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldnt work, and I would be desperate again.

More on crypto: Neighbors Accuse Bitcoin Mining Facility of Warming Up Entire Lake

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Reality Show Seeks Idiots Who Have Forgotten Their Bitcoin Passwords - Futurism

Researchers dumped 60 brown trout in a water tank that contained low levels of methamphetamine to see if they would get addicted,like humans.

After eight weeks, the fish started preferring waters with concentrations of the illicit drug over waters without it, suggesting they were starting to get hooked.

While it sounds a little crass, the levels of meth used in the experiment actually mimicked those found in some freshwater rivers, a result of the drug ending up in sewage and eventually bodies of freshwater a stark reminder,as CNN reports, of the negative effects drug use can have not just on human health but on the local environment as well.

The team, led by led by Pavel Horky, a behavioral ecologist from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, found that the 60 trout exposed to meth were less activethan a control group of 60 other trout.

According to the teams study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the meth-exposed trout were subsequently placed in a tank with two streams of water: one with and one without methamphetamine in it. The ones previously exposed to meth preferred the meth-spiked water in 50.5 percent of the observations. The control group preferred the meth-laced waters only 41.5 percent of the time.

The drug also caused other physical side effects. After just ten days, traces of the drug showed up in the exposed groups brains.

Fish are sensitive to adverse effects of many neurologically active drugs from alcohol to cocaine and can develop drug addiction related to the dopamine reward pathway in a similar manner as humans, Horky told CNN.

Such effects could change the functioning of whole ecosystems as adverse consequences are of relevance at the individual as well as population levels, he added.

In fact, according to Horky, the desire to get another hit might even supersede the natural inclination to mate with other fish.

But the results of the experiment should be taken with a grain of salt.

Im not sure you can truly say these fish are addicted to methamphetamine, but they certainly show a preference for the compoundwhich they shouldnt, really, Gabriel Boss, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah who was not involved in the study, told Live Science.

Boss also argued that because the preference died down after a few days, the fish may not have actually been addicted. If they were, he said, the preference would have stuck around longer, and possibly experienced withdrawal.

READ MORE: Methamphetamine in waterways may be turning trout into addicts [CNN]

More on drugs in the water supply: Scientists Propose Adding Psychoactive Drug to our Water Supplies

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New Research: There's Enough Meth in Some Rivers to Get Fish Addicted - Futurism

The two worked with Parts and Labor Design to create an elegant, jewel-box restaurant and lounge inspired by Futurism (Italian, Afro, and beyond). Because we felt we were doing something unprecedented in NYC, we decided to really embrace the future, says Rose. The future can sometimes be described as cold, so it was important for us to make the space feel chic, warm, and inviting. We want to be a beacon for the islandyoure able to see this moment atop this building on Roosevelt Island, and it gives a sense of intrigue.

Design details includea large-scale, monolithic chandelier with translucent tubular acrylic set above an Orobico Red marble bar top; palatial black mosaic tile columns adorned with geometric chrome sconces; vintage-inspired blush velvet lounge sofas; additional seating in deep wine and grey velvet; and touches of chrome and marble everywhere.

Parts and Labor Design custom-made all of the furniture and lighting in the space.

Parts and Labor Design custom-made all of the furniture and lighting in the space, except for a show-stopping sculptural mirrored DJ booth near the entrance. This was designed by Cdric Hervet, the longtime creative director of Daft Punk, who has a furniture atelier in Normandy with his cousin.

When we talked to Cdric before COVID about the DJ booth, Daft Punk was still together as a band, and this went on for so long that now theyre no longer a band, says Rose. So we kind of feel like this is almost a piece of Daft Punk, and maybe well be lucky enough to get a stop on the reunion tour.

Rose and Abrous enlisted two friendsAnna Furney, who runs the Venus Over Manhattan gallery in NYC and designer/creative director Darren Romanelli, who is based in L.A.to curate the restaurants art collection. There are pieces including a painting by Spencer Lewis from a series he has been working on for nearly a decade but has rarely shown; Norwegian artist Ida Eklbads textural and brightly colored Tannin Stains a Noble River, 2020; and a sculptural piece custom-made for the space by Brian Belott.

The duo partnered with an all-female team to run the kitchen, with JaToria Harper (Michael Mina restaurants) as executive chef, Lindsey Verardo (Benno and Gramercy Tavern) as executive pastry chef, and Estelle Bossy (Union Square Hospitality Group and Del Posto) as beverage director.

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This New Rooftop Bar Boasts Never-Before Seen Views of New York City - Vogue

Cities like Las Vegas are expected to break all-time heat records. The West Coast Re-Heated

Stop me if youve heard this one before: a sweltering heatwave is set to hit the West Coast.

Less than a week after a record-breaking heatwave that pummelled the Pacific Northwest, rising temperatures are now set to hit the West Coast this weekend with California and Nevada bearing the brunt of it, according to Gizmodo. On Friday, the National Weather Service (NWS) even issued heat warnings for Northern and Central California.

This is a multi-day excessive heat event, the NWS alert said.

Gizmodo also reported that Death Valley in California might see temperatures hit a brain-melting 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius). If that happens, it would tie the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth which coincidentally, also occurred in Death Valley.

Cities such as Las Vegas, Nevada are expected to surpass their all-time record high temperatures.

So far 2021 has been a summer of climate crisis for the US.

Not only has the country seen a series of deadly heatwaves that have killed hundreds of people and might have decimated more than a billion sea creatures, the East Coast is dealing with torrential downpours, flash floods, and a tropical storm that threatens to exacerbate it all even more.

If one thing is clear, its this: Climate change is here, and its having a direct, outsized impact on our day-to-day lives in profound and often deadly ways.

READ MORE: A New Dangerous Heat Wave Is Coming for the West (Yes, Another One) [Gizmodo]

More on climate change: AOC Blames Subway Flooding on Politicians Taking Orders from Fossil Fuel Execs

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Another Heatwave Is Coming for the West Coast - Futurism

Image by @TeletubbiesHQ via Twitter / Futurism

The Teletubbies the nightmare half-baby-half-television creatures from your childhood are all vaxxed up and ready for a wild summer, according to a bizarre tweet from the TV shows brand account.

Were all vaxxed! the tweet reads. Just in time for a Tubby hot summer. Whos ready to come outand play.

Its eyebrow-raising, if not mildly off-putting, that beloved childrens television characters are getting in on the hot vax summer trend. But accompanying the tweet are images of all four tubbies holding up their vaccination cards not unlike the selfie you probably took after your own jab and something seems off.

Were not talking about how they got shots manufactured by companies like Noo-nson & Noo-nson and AstraTubbica or that there seems to be a health agency in the world of Teletubbyland with the inscrutable acronym TDC Teletubbyland for Disease Control and Prevention?

No, were more curious about the fact that all four Teletubbies seem to have told their local vaccine-doling pharmacist that they were born on February 20, 2003 nearly six full years after the first episode of the TV show aired.

Also, all four Teletubbies claimed that they got their second shot on July 22, 2021, a date that astute readers will note has not yet arrived.

All of this raises important questions. Like Do the laws of space and time apply to the Teletubbies as they do us mere mortals?

Or perhaps Did the Teletubbies forge their vaccination cards so they could book a flight out of their bizarre, fever-dream meadow home? If so, why would they be so bold as to broadcast the evidence of their particularly selfish crime to all 33,400 of their Twitter followers? Have they no shame?

Oh dear god, during the time I spent writing this article, the Teletubbies Twitter account announced that they vaccinated a sentient vacuum. Im sorry, my brain has short-circuited and the article will end here.

As of this articles publication, the Teletubbies brand account has not responded to Futurisms questions.

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There's Something Fishy About the Teletubbies' Vaccination Cards - Futurism

"The worst is yet to come, affecting our children's and grandchildren's lives much more than our own."Doomsday Report

A draft climate change report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues a dire warning that we are on the cusp of planetary destruction thanks to the myriad dangers of worsening climate change.

The report, which was leaked to Agence France-Presse, is 4,000 pages long but its central message can be summarized very clearly: Humanity has screwed up the planet, and well be reaping what weve sown very, very soon.

Specifically, the report predicts even more mass extinction, dangerously high temperatures, increased disease outbreaks, rising sea levels, and the collapse of entire ecosystems within the next few decades.

The worst is yet to come, reads the report, affecting our childrens and grandchildrens lives much more than our own.

The report is slated for release next February, which AFP notes is too late for it to influence any of the upcoming UN summits on climate change, biodiversity, and food security. Thats too bad, because it lays out the very real possibility that humanitys time as stewards of the planet could be coming to an end.

Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems, the report says. Humans cannot.

While some countries have made progress toward climate goals like the 2015 Paris Agreement, the report suggests that the wheels of climate-related devastation have already been set in motion. To slow them down, the entire world will need to take aggressive and immediate action on all fronts, lest we pass a point of no return.

We need transformational change operating on processes and behaviors at all levels: individual, communities, business, institutions, and governments, the report says. We must redefine our way of life and consumption.

READ MORE: Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: draft UN report [Agence France-Presse]

More on climate change: Global Warming May Be Way Worse Than We Thought, Scientists Say

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Leaked UN Climate Report: The Apocalypse Is Almost Here - Futurism