Change your genes, change your life?

A new technology known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) as been created that can potentially change genes so that people will be not subject to certain diseases or illnesses. It is comparable to word correcting features on our devices, in which when a word has been spelled incorrectly, the computer automatically corrects it for us. In addition, it is also not too expensive, which will allow it to be more accessible.
One simplistic way of describing one way CRISPR works is that DNA from certain viruses and bacteria is cut up and sent to a CRISPR technology, which creates new RNA that targets and protects against the invading DNA from the viruses and bacteria.
Another way CRISPR is used is that a small piece of RNA is created (which is linked to specific portion of the DNA strand) and bound to an enzyme called CAS9 (or another enzyme). The RNA identifies the portion of the DNA to be cut, and then the enzyme is used to cut the DNA so that scientists can modify the DNA at the specific area.


https://futurism.com/a-new-gene-editing-breakthrough-could-forever-change-life-on-earth/
https://www.neb.com/tools-and-resources/feature-articles/crispr-cas9-and-targeted-genome-editing-a-new-era-in-molecular-biology
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/genomeediting

Google's Duplex Has Even More Human Qualities

Google unveiled the Duplex, an artificial intelligence voice technology in the early week of May 10. It is supposed to be used with Google Assistant, and it can book your appointments and reservations over the phone. According to Richard Nieva of Cnet, Duplex sounds "jaw-droppingly human." The release of Duplex has created some controversy because in the past, Google had said that they wanted to make sure that people know if they're talking to a robot. However, the Duplex sounds so realistic that it can be mistaken for a human. It even has the ability to identify itself to humans. It uses verbal ticks like "uh" and "um," and it speaks as if it's a real person. This is shown when it pauses before responding as if it is thinking about their reply, and when they sound out certain words as if they want to buy themselves some time to think about what to say.

The creation of this voice technology could be the next step to creating a robot that's on par with a human, but as robots keep growing to mimic humans, problems of deceiving arise. People are questioning whether robots have to identify themselves as robots, or if they should be allowed to just roam free without letting others know that they're a robot.

Link: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-says-its-designing-duplex-with-disclosure-built-in/

Natural Gas that doesn't Produce Carbon

A company on the outskirts of Houston called Net Power have found a way to capture the Carbon Dioxide released by Natural Gas and turn it into energy again. What the company did was find a way to capture the carbon dioxide released by the production of natural gas and then put it under high pressure and convert it into a type of CO2 that will drive a machine that will eventually recycle carbon dioxide and produce more energy for future use. This is very important, because it means we can use natural gas without causing damage to the environment through the release of CO2. By cutting our carbon emissions, we can lessen out carbon footprint.

https://www.citi.io/2018/03/12/top-breakthrough-technologies-for-2018-zero-carbon-natural-gas/

Holographic Phone

A US-based company called RED is going to be releasing a phone, and it's surprising because they are known for building cinema cameras for Hollywood and they have never made a phone. The phone costs $1595 for the titanium version, and $1195 for the aluminum one. RED's phone will have two modes: a regular 2D mode and then a 4-View holographic mode (4V). According to the people who have seen the 4V view in person, they have reacted with gasps, swears, and grins. The 4V mode is said to be better than a 3D image, and it does not require glasses. There are also add ons for battery and camera, and the modules can be added onto each other. The camera module seems to have the greatest interest because it allows a phone to have a camera with the quality of cameras used in Hollywood cinema. The release of this phone may lead to a whole different dimension (4D?) and a lot more functions for phones, a day-to-day technology used by almost everyone.

Link: https://www.cnet.com/news/red-hydrogen-one-holographic-phone-might-actually-ship-this-summer/

Drug Testing on Animals is a thing of the past

For years, we have always used animals to test products designed for humans. However, scientists have determined that computer models of organs, such as the heart, are more accurate in testing new drugs developed for humans. These models can run from a few cells to a 3D model of the heart. The few cells can take a few minutes to run, whereas a complete 3D heart can take up to hours and use up a lot of energy. Despite this, scientists believe that this simulation has great potential in reducing the number of animals that will be used for drug testing, and that the testing of drugs for humans and its effects on our bodies will be more efficient with these simulations.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-we-should-test-heart-drugs-on-virtual-human-instead-animals-180968588/

The First Ever Projector Smartwatch?

Similar to a hologram, a smartwatch developed by researched at Carnegie Mellon University and ASU Tech projects an interactive surface area on the wearer's arm or hand. This means that you can tap or swipe on your skin to use the watch. The watch is made up of a logic board, projector, depth sensor, metal enclosure, and battery. The projection is bright enough to be seen outdoors and can be used for 1 hour of continuous projection. However, with intermittent use, it is anticipated to last an entire day.

Although this smartwatch is not the first to project images on the wearer's skin, it is the first to project a useable on-body interface. However, this function causes the smartwatch to be bulkier than average. But with further research, the abilities of the smartwatch would be improved, and the size may also be reduced.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/4/27/17289572/lumiwatch-projector-smartwatch-arm-touch-screen

How AI Can Help Us Make New Materials

The traditional way of discovering new materials is going into a lab and trying to physical and chemical structures that could combine to create the material the scientist wants. This can be very time consuming and may not even yield any results. However, with the use of artificial intelligence, this process can become much easier and quicker for scientists. All scientists need to do is tell AI the type of material they want, and the AI would tell them the best experiment to run to make the new material. AI could also be used to store all the procedures to make certain types of materials, which would make accessing information much easier. The use of AI in material science would speed up creation of new materials.
Currently, MIT is trying to make the use of AI even more accurate by teaching it to read databases and come up with new recipes on its own.

Low Cost Genetic Testing

A new era of medicine has been started by the publication of the full human genome sequence. The sequencing of the genome actually took 10 years, and it cost around $30 billion, but today, the cost has fallen to as low as $500. A hand-held reader for genetic materials has been developed by Oxford Nanopore, and the firm wants to create a real time connection with DNA information using those readers.

The hand-held DNA readers can be used for restaurants, food factories, water supplies, crime scenes, and more. It doesn't have to be limited to healthcare, like genetic modification originally was. Dr Gordon Sanghera, the chief executive of Oxford Nanopore, called it "the ultimate barcode." The handheld reader is called the MinION, and it can read each strand of DNA by squeezing them through a tiny hole called the nanopore and analyzing the electrical signals.

Sanghera believes that the MinION can be used to diagnose infections at home and reduce trips to the doctor. It can also prevent the over-prescription of antibiotics. It can also help help to access genetic dispositions for diseases at birth, in order to create a stable plan of action to prevent the disease from getting worse.

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43897018

Pain Free Vaccines and Injections?

A company called portal instruments is selling a new piece of technology that allows people to inject vaccines and medicines into their bodies without the use of a needle. This technology was created by researchers at MIT, and it utilizes a small, hand-held, portable device that inserts a stream of vaccine into a person's arm. This jet is extremely thin, and it delivers vaccines in a almost painless manner. This is good for people who have anxiety about getting shots through needles. For each vaccine, you have to use a new capsule that you will attach to the handheld device. This device also comes with an application that monitors your health.


https://www.portalinstruments.com/blog/a-better-jet-injection-system/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9LHa0YHeEQ

Sea Bubbles

Sea Bubbles are flying taxis created by Bertrand Lambert. They have been tested successfully in June 2017, and Lambert says that these Sea Bubbles will be able to be used from May-June of 2018. Some problems that Lambert faced was the issue of accessibility to the public and the speed of the flying taxi. They can fly at a maximum speed of 32 miles per hour, and that speed cannot be reduced. However, the Sea Bubbles are set to drive at 7.5 miles per hour in the center of Seine and 11.2 miles per hour around Seine. The final speed that they decided at for these flying taxis is 15.53 miles per hour.

Sea Bubbles can seat 4 passengers in addition to a pilot, and it's electric and simple to use. The flying boat is set up so that there are wings run by two electric motors, and when the boat is started up, they will touch the water, but will lift off the surface of the water a little bit.

After testing, it is expected that they will be available to use across Paris and get passengers to different locations within 15 minutes in groups of 5-10 in each port. This can lead to new water transportation for many other cities in the world.

Link: https://www.sortiraparis.com/news/in-paris/articles/133643-sea-bubbles-flying-taxis-testing-in-may-june-2018/lang/en

Become a Bird with the FlyJacket

Is the time where humans can fly finally here??? Sorry but despite how it may sound in the title, no. The FlyJacket is actually just a VR headset and soft upper-body exoskeleton that you can wear to control a drone. When you wear this exoskeleton, you spread your wings like a bird and your body movements would control the drone. The exoskeleton detects bending forward/backwards and bending sideways, and the company wants to further improve this by allowing users to control the speed of the drone. Wait- why can't you just use a controller to control the drone? Well, according to the company, it is much more effective and easier to control than a traditional controller. The goal of the researchers is to make this into a commercial product, so they are keeping their materials relatively cheap and affordable. So, in the near future, you may be able to fly like a bird! Virtually.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/18/17251132/drone-exosuit-bird-control-ieee

Arms, real or fake?

People in need of prosthetic limbs often have difficulty adapting to the use of their new limbs. They require months of physical training in order to be able to use their prothetic limbs naturally. However, with a new innovation in bionic arms, people can now use their prosthetics naturally within minutes of receiving them. The innovation in this prosthetic is the implementation of small electrodes on the limb that senses the motion that the user wishes to make, and translates that wish into movement on the arm. in addition, a joystick attached to the user's foot can help people move the prosthetic in a more complex way. This new technology (electrodes) will help people adapt easier to the "bionic arm" more efficiently.

http://bestofwhatsnew.popsci.com/deka-luke-arm

3d printed rc car

Open RC f1 is a fully 3D printed RC car based off of a F1 car, it was designed by Daniel Noree.
He made this to show how powerful 3D printing can be.
Here are two examples of the RC car, If you look closely you can see that even the tires are 3D printed.
 
Daniel Noree made his design public which means anyone can down load on ad make it for themselves. He even made a build guide to help people but it together. 

links 
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1193309
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6SvgLBYgeQ

Semanic Experiences

On April 13th, Google announced their new A.I. experiments from the research division that works with semantics and language. Google is a company that is known for their textual search engine, and the advancement that they made can help them to expand their business and make software that can understand human language.

Google now has many A.I. language tools, also known as the Semantic Experiences. It uses word vectors, which is a type of natural language that matches similar phrases to other points based on similarity in ideas and language. Word vectors allows algorithms to use actual language usage to relate words.

One of the experiments released is called Talk to Books, and it basically allows the user to speak with an algorithm based on learning. The algorithm brings up answers to questions with relevant texts. It's different from Google Search because the user doesn't need to click on links to get their information. The algorithm displays the passages that are relevant for the user.

A limitation to this experiment is that it is mainly good for answering factual questions, and it's not as good at answering questions about geopolitics, culture, and historical importance. Despite these limitations. Talk to Books is a nice way to learn on the web. It is the start to future education.

Link: https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/13/17235306/google-ai-experiments-natural-language-understanding-semantics-word-games

The End to Passwords?

On Tuesday, April 10th, a web standards milestone was announced. The new standard is called WebAuthn, and it defines a standard application program interface that can be used for browsers and websites. It may be the beginning to the end of passwords on the internet.

Security online has always been a problem, and although there are many other problems, passwords ultimately creates the biggest problem of privacy online. WebAuthn protects consumers online by allowing them to reveal a credential secret in order to authenticate their identity. Because WebAuthn is written by the FIDO Alliance, FIDO helps to create a way to authenticate the consumer's identity without asking them to reveal a secret (a password).

Google, Microsoft, an d Mozilla have already consented to using WebAuthn for their browsers. and it is starting to be implemented into Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, and Android. Although WebAuthn will probably experience rapid growth, some challenges it might face in the future are catching up to the authentication technologies that are already in place. There are other technologies that work better than FIDO, and they have the advantage of low cost and efficiency. Another problem is the resiliency of passwords; passwords have been used for many years, and some people will probably be uncomfortable with not using them. However, as the benefits of WebAuthn is expressed to the public, it could possibly change the security online forever.

Link: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/Standards-Milestone-Could-Mark-Beginning-of-End-for-Passwords-85268.html

AMD's second generation Ryzen processors

AMD hasn't released full details of their new Ryzen processors; however, they have offered some information for preorders. There are four new second-generation Ryzen chips next week. The best one is the Ryzen 7 2700X which has a speed of 3.6 GHz with a boost to 4.3 GHz. AMD's release of their new and improved processors offers its first real competition to Intel's market-dominating power. This could cause both companies to work harder against their competitor, which can ultimately increase productivity in this field. In the future, we could be seeing even faster processors for our laptops and computers.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/4/13/17233630/amds-second-generation-ryzen-processors-available-preorder

Eat some Stem Cells

Throughout my entire life, I have had to deal with many issues related to my stomach. Doctor's and scientists run many tests to see if they missed anything with their bare eyes. In the end, it always turns out to be nothing and the only thing left to say to the patient (me) is "This seems to be related to stress and anxiety, we can sign you up for therapy if needed?" However, my cousin suffers far more worse then me when it was realized he got diagnosed with Crohn's disease. This ailment is so harsh and complex to deal with because it directly attacks the entire digestive system especially the intestines. People living with this disease constantly struggle with their joints, muscles, and insides being inflamed and their digestive tract is being devoured, there are minimal options for treatment. 

For many years Crohn's has been a big course of discussion in the medical world and we have't been so lucky so far... "As the disease worsens, the lining of the digesting tract may be destroyed, resulting abnormal connections (fistulas) or even blockages. Eventually, surgery may be needed to remove damaged parts of intestine, and over time patients may be left with very little of their gut intact.Therapies to control Crohn’s include anti-inflammatory drugs and immunological therapies. Currently, there is no cure for this disease." More and more research has been conducted over the years and stem cells have been shown to be effective. Scientists have started experimenting with animals and inserting stem cells into their digestive tract to translate the cells they already have. This is seeming to be effective and have started treatment on my cousin as well. He is going for insertions a few times every month which will hopefully change the harmful cells and allow him to be healthy again.

Crohn's Disease

3D Printing Metal

Currently a company called Desktop Metal's Studio is building a printer that can 3D print metal. This can make prototyping creations faster and cheaper (essentially more efficient). This new printer can help engineers prototype their ideas and help large companies mass produce their products. In addition, it can use a variety of alloys to make many different structures of different strength. Desktop Metal also offers software that can help make designing a product easier and basic models that can make printing easier.

https://newatlas.com/desktop-metal-3d-printing/50654/

Earbuds that Allow You to Understand Any Language

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to communicate with anyone in the world? To be able to effortlessly understand anyone, because there was no language barrier? Well, GOOGLE has created earphones that can translate 40 different languages and allow you to understand what other people are saying. Currently, laboratory tests show that the languages can be translated fast enough by the earbuds to help people hold a conversation. However, there are many external factors in our regular environment can can potentially hinder the earphones abilities to translate languages quickly. Nevertheless, these earphones have the potential to help break down language barriers across the world.

https://qz.com/1094638/google-goog-built-earbuds-that-translate-40-languages-in-real-time-like-the-hitchhikers-guides-babel-fish/

Walk it , talk it

Every individual that was put on this earth, was placed here for a reason. Each and every person has something special about them that sets them apart from others. What we don't see, is the problems that every individual has to face on their own and how much of an effect it could have on daily life. In the modern world, several people have to deal with Multiple Sclerosis which makes difficulty when walking. Without being able to walk, it puts a lot of pressure on the lives of these people since they aren't allowed to be the free individual that they once were. They now need assistance from a person or technology in order for them to get from point A to point B. Doctors and scientists have to come to see that this is a real problem in our society and a change is needed. They have been through many hours of devotion to enable them to fix this ailment. They have found that they are able to inject new stem cells into the bone marrow of patients dealing with this disease. Once this taken into place, the immune system is completely replaced. This is a one time procedure that has proven to change the outcome of individuals living with this condition.

http://myregenmed.com/5-advancements-in-stem-cell-therapy-that-will-excite-you/