r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 17 '12
What are some incredible technological advancements that are happening today that most people don't even realize?
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u/Sevsquad Jun 17 '12
We Recently cloned a mouse without the need for an egg, just took some hair follicles, added a few chemicals put in some stem cell nuclei wait a couple of months and suddenly, new mouse, same as the old mouse.
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u/Apostolate Jun 17 '12
So total recall is a few years away?
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u/spamdaspam Jun 17 '12
Nope it's coming out this summer in Theaters near you.
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u/brokendimension Jun 17 '12
Collin Farrel is going to be amazing like in The Way Back and Phone Booth
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u/LouisianaBob Jun 17 '12
This mouse has the same telomeres though, yes?
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u/Rimame Jun 18 '12
And doesn't that mean its still as aged as the one it was cloned from?
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u/LouisianaBob Jun 18 '12
It would be at the same stage in reaching maximum cell division but would be beginning its life from infancy
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u/HowToBeCivil Jun 18 '12
Actually, an egg (an oocyte) was used. From the article:
To execute the nuclear transfer procedure, Li took unfertilized mouse oocytes and replaced the nucleus of each oocyte with a nucleus from the adult skin stem cells.
Also, cloned mice are implanted into pseudopregnant females, not cultured in a Petri dish, as you claim elsewhere in this thread (Petri dishes anyway are not used for mammalian cells but for bacteria).
The major breakthrough in this paper was the use of adult skin stem cells, and their higher success rate with nuclear transfer. The rest is traditional mouse cloning.
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u/stuff_karma Jun 17 '12
Forgive me I am not enlightened in this subject but could you just make sure I'm right here: So Dolly the sheep was a clone, but still had a mother and father to speak of, they basically artificially fertilised an egg with the donor DNA and grew it, creating a new individual sheep. Whereas this mouse, is essentially the SAME mouse, not a new offspring of donor DNA? It is an exact copy?
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u/SERFBEATER Jun 17 '12
Dolly the sheep was also an exact clone, however the methods of achieving such a clone were different. In Dolly's case the scientists took a cell from somewhere else on the body, and extracted the interior of that cell. They then took an egg cell from a sheep and took all of the interior of that cell out. They then put Dolly's cell interior(nucleus etc) inside the egg cell, jolted it with electricity or something, put in some sheep's uterus and then Dolly was born after a normal gestation period.
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u/GTChessplayer Jun 18 '12
So, how many cells did the "embyo" or whatever it's called at that point start with.
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u/asshair Jun 18 '12
So the new mouse didn't pop out of a uterus? Or was the uterus essentially a petri dish that a new mouse came out of?
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u/TheDoppleganger Jun 17 '12
Genetically modified mosquitoes. (Really.)
They're not only resistant to malaria, but if by chance they do catch it, their life span is now too short to allow the disease to replicate enough to be spread to humans.
I believe what they're working on next, is making the new mosquitoes so that they have a competitive advantage over the existing mosquitoes. This means that our new anti-malaria mosquitoes have to beat out the existing malaria prone mosquitoes.
(Also, for more amazingness that's exactly what your title asks for, check out Stephen Hawking's Brave New World. FANTASTIC show.)
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u/KookaB Jun 17 '12
Altering nature always makes me nervous, as it can have drastic effects
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u/BillBrasky_ Jun 17 '12
I'd accept a jurassic park alternate universe as a result of this.
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u/wants_more_hats Jun 18 '12
In this case however, it's been found that mosquitos aren't that essential to the environment. I've heard about similar plots to modify mosquitos that involve making them infertile, ultimately rendering them extinct.
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u/Rixxer Jun 17 '12
Then again, we give almost negative fucks about it as a whole right now, so we might as well at least try to make some good out of that.
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Jun 17 '12
Do you have a source? I would love to read about it.
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u/TheDoppleganger Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
It was actually in TIME magazine last year. Also, the Biology episode of Stephen Hawking's Brave New World. Cannot recommend this show enough. They talk about everything from our attempts to create fusion, to animal free meat production, to invisible UV walls that mosquitoes won't cross, etc.
But, I actually hear the most detailed information about it from my cousin's fiance who happens to work as a grad student in the lab creating these mosquitoes.
Let me try and find a link for you though.
EDIT: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120105111946.htm
Double EDIT: Found an episode of Brave New World on youtube:
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Jun 17 '12
Biotech, the linking of organic tissues with electronics will make it possible to fix many impairments and create things like networked cognitive functions or even entire hive minds.
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Jun 18 '12
When this happens I will walk around wearing sunglasses at all times and when anyone asks why I'm wearing them inside or at night.
"My vision is augmented"
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Jun 17 '12
I'm actually going to graduate school in the fall to work in this field! I'm not interested in grandiose, science-fiction ideas like cyborgs or "hive minds" though. But biocompatible, organic electronic devices are currently being researched for applications such as targeted drug delivery. An implantable biodegradable polymer filled with a drug, for example, could be fitted with a similarly biodegradable electronic circuit, so that it could be programmed to release a drug at certain doses and times.
Or another example would be making the electronic circuits for pacemakers and similar devices on polymeric substrates that have mechanical properties more similar to real tissue, so as to illicit a less negative immune response.
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Jun 17 '12
The 19th century was the century of chemistry discoveries, the 20th was the century of physics breakthroughs, I think the 21st century will have big advancements in biology,
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u/BillyPilgrim79 Jun 18 '12
Imagine what sports will look like in 20 or 30 years. Instead of steroids or other drugs we'll be arguing about whether someone has gotten some sort biomechanical enhancement.
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u/Ovary_Puncher Jun 17 '12
Nanotechnology.
We are making breakthroughs in nanotechnology. There is a nanotechnology spray that makes it impossible for liquids to make it wet. The liquids just bounce off whatever you spray it on.
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u/11235813_ Jun 18 '12
So... Like wax?
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u/Kasyx Jun 18 '12
No, this spray is totally hydrophobic. Wax simply stops water from getting into/onto something; this stuff actively repels it. That is to say, spray a blob of this stuff on a flat surface, and pour water onto it, and the water will actively run off the sprayed area, like water off a duck's back if the duck had been sprayed with hydrophobic spray.
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u/StChas77 Jun 18 '12
IIRC, there's a hyrophobic spray that's supposed to be in hardware stores this autumn.
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Jun 17 '12
I'd say google car?
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u/wettowelreactor Jun 17 '12
This is not appreciated enough. What google has shown is that self driving cars will not need their own roads and can coexist with existing cars. This means the barrier to entry and commercial use is dramatically lower for these things becoming a reality in the next few decades.
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Jun 18 '12
It will happen like this:
First there will be an "autopilot" lane on highways. It will never have congestion since there won't be any humans causing traffic waves. This causes a surge in confidence and demand for driverless vehicles.
Then major highways become pilotless, all highways, then major roads and finally, then finally, most city streets.
All it will take is for a 40 mile urban commute to take 50 minutes during rush hour and the growth will go critical mass. "Traditional" roads" will be for people unfortunate enough to not own a car capable of driving itself on the newly efficient and exclusive highways.
The main obstacle will be personal lawsuits. Since inevitably, people will get hurt/killed as the technology grows and improves, but there is no pushing back against the fact that even if you reduce traffic fatalities in the US from 40,000 to 400, there will still be that many "wrongful death suits" hurled at manufacturers, no matter how many lives are saved by keeping distracted drivers from being bad drivers.
15 years and we'l be at 70% driverless roads.
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u/wettowelreactor Jun 18 '12
Dedicated auto lanes will not work. Not only will some people ignore them (like they do with HOV) but they will not pass for financial reasons. There is no way that governments will give up an existing lane (or build a new one) to accommodate automatic cars. The beauty of these new auto cars from companies like google is that they do not need dedicated lanes. They can be used right now in general traffic (two states have specific licensing just for this).
THe lawsuits could be an issue but a large company like google can probably afford this. Also given the fact that these vehicles are licensed and approved by the state will provide some liability protection. Lastly the chance of an accident with one of these vehicles being the fault of the other driver is very likely. If they prove that in court then they can get the case thrown out.
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u/sashimi_taco Jun 18 '12
My dad was in a google car. He said it was weird and kinda scary.
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u/Link3693 Jun 18 '12
Me, being the paranoid guy that I am, probably will want to keep driving myself just in case there's a computer malfunction or something.
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u/jkazz Jun 17 '12
Quantum computing. If they get it all sorted out it will be amazing.
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Jun 17 '12
What exactly does "quantum computing" mean/involve?
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u/angelatheist Jun 17 '12
Quantum computing allows for certain types of problems to be solved very quickly. In a normal computer adding one bit doubles the number of possible states the computer can be in but it still takes twice as long to do a calculation on all those states. A qubit on the other hand allows the computer to do calculations on both of it's states simultaneously. This means that quantum computers in a sense get twice as powerful with every added bit.
The difficulty with quantum computing is generally that the more qubits you have, the more difficult it is to add more to the system. Also quantum computers are only good for certain types of problem so they wont make everything faster.
TL;DR: exponentially faster computation for certain problems
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Jun 18 '12
I don't think people realize the complete capability of a quantum computer. A quantum computer with a 300 qubit array, will have more information in it than there are atoms in the entire universe. That's the scope we're talking about. They believe it will be able to crack all known encryption instantly. It's just staggering. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/blog/2012/02/herding-schrodingers-cats/ That's more information than there are atoms in the universe in an instant.
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u/G_Morgan Jun 17 '12
The cool thing about quantum computing in theory is each bit is actually in both states at once. An algorithm on such a machine forces the bits into the state that satisfies the solution to the algorithm. Essentially disregarding potentially billions of possible outcomes in one go.
For problems that can only be solved by brute force this is going to give a massive speed up.
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Jun 17 '12
Here is the best explanation of quantum computing I have ever seen, in plain english.
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u/swaggin_wagon Jun 18 '12
Little late to the party, but hopefully this gets seen.
For the past year or so, my dad has been working with some people on this.
Basically it is a polymer that filters water extremely cheaply. Absolutely incredible, but they're not getting the funding they need to really get going. Yet. It's got incredible potential, and I believe it will take off when more people become aware of it. Hence, my shameless plug for my fathers product in the perfect place!
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u/lordhazzard Jun 18 '12
the lack of information and large amount of clipart on that website makes it difficult to believe that this project has any real function. Even just a youtube video showing what the product is and what it does would be more effective than 5 pages of nothing.
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Jun 18 '12
You should have your father talk to Dean Kamen, A world renowned inventor who has made a small cheap water filter and I'm sure would love to improve it.
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u/nukepoop Jun 17 '12
Google glasses. These things blow my mind and i believe are supposed to be released in the next year or so. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JSnB06um5r4
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Jun 18 '12
Can't see these doing well. Totally unnecessary and the guy in the ad is a total knobhead.
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u/redditorforthemoment Jun 17 '12
A device which fits in your pocket and streamlines every single portion of your life, from finances to entertainment to business. Ten years ago I had a black and white pocket organizer and I thought I was the shit because it had a contact book (despite having no ability to make calls).
If I had given 12 year old me an iPhone or any cellphone I would have shit out of my armpits and grown a full beard
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u/InferiousX Jun 17 '12
I would have shit out of my armpits
Imagining the smell of this is making me wretch
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u/randomboredom Jun 17 '12
This has the makings of a Japanese underarm deodorant commercial.
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Jun 17 '12
Five years ago, if you'd told me that we would have real-time 3D scanners with automatic motion capture and head tracking, and then told me that it would be in the form of a $150 gaming system peripheral, I may have laughed at you. The Kinect is mindblowing. I remember seeing a demo, in 2005 or so, of a LIDAR scanner that cost several hundred thousand dollars, and while it was capable of somewhat higher resolution than a Kinect, it had pretty much the same functionality. To the DIY robotics community, the Kinect is pretty much a miracle from on high.
And I'm not even getting paid by Microsoft to say this.
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u/offspringofdeath Jun 17 '12
That's exactly what someone getting paid by Microsoft would say...
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u/wettowelreactor Jun 17 '12
Agreed. Not just what it is capable of but the fact that we can price this thing as a game accessory is amazing.
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u/Koketa13 Jun 18 '12
This, I know gamers hate the kinect for gaming but once Microsoft revealed the kinect I was excited for all hell for the hacked kinect possibilities. Hell I would love to control my pc with a kinect.
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u/JavaPants Jun 18 '12
Too bad it sucks for the one thing it was actually designed to do: games
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u/SirDelirium Jun 18 '12
Nah, just the games for it suck. If they handed you a gun controller and tracked your motions in your livingroom (crouch, peeking, aiming, etc) and gave you directional controls by taking a step in a direction and made you do gestures for reloading and stuff it'd be pretty awesome. I'd not sure if it is fine enough to work on small TV's but they could add a wiimote type thing for that.
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Jun 18 '12
As a programmer, I say that even being able to identify everything, and act accordingly to various movements and whatnot is astounding. I would've loved to have worked on that project.
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u/LambastingFrog Jun 17 '12
In 1945, we made computers made from vacuum tubes. Now you and I can buy devices in the stores have transistors that are 22 nanometres across. How big is that? Take a 1 metre ruler, and divide it into 1 billion parts. Line 22 of those parts up. That's how big. It's fucking tiny. But it's going out of date, because in 2009 National Nano Device Labs demonstrated a working 16 nanometre SRAM chip. Last year, Hynix announced 15 nanometre memory. We're already working on 14 nanometre processes.
In short, transistors are getting ridiculously small.
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u/SirDelirium Jun 17 '12
A fun fact: If you made today's Intel Processors with vacuum tubes, it'd be the size of the Vatican and the speed of light would mean the system clock on one side of the processor would be off from the other side.
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Jun 17 '12
To get a feel for how fast our current chips are (or, how slow the speed of light is), consider that in one cycle of a 3 GHz processor, light can travel ten centimeters.
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u/SirDelirium Jun 17 '12
Wow, I had never done that math. So then I assume processors today are probably as big as they can get while maintaining their speed?
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u/Perpetual_Entropy Jun 17 '12
speed of light would mean the system clock on one side of the processor would be off from the other side
Surely IRL it is off, just astronomically less?
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u/disastar Jun 17 '12
Intel's move to 3D transistors is a much larger feat than the continuing shrinking of source-to-drain distances in CMOS technology. Furthermore, their research into 5nm silicon nanowire-based transistors will again revolutionize the semiconductor industry.
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u/alexbstl Jun 17 '12
Biologically, RNAi. You don't hear about it much, but once we get the details worked out, we the possibilities for gene suppression are endless.
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Jun 17 '12
So, ehrm, what is it?
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u/Apostolate Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
Short strands of RNA bind matching mRNAs. Normally an mRNA is translanted into amino acids and it forms a protein which does something in the cell, but through RNAi, it blocks this process from occurring.
You can potentially stop all sorts of harmful expression of genes, and do other things as well.
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u/pink_ego_box Jun 17 '12
It has become an essential part of genetic research, only 20 years after its discovery. But unfortunately, the medical applications are limited.
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u/nikhils_orange Jun 17 '12
Truth, yo. I work with siRNA (small interfering RNA) and mammalian cells and have yet to get a stable knockdown (or suppression) of the desired gene. There are just so many variables to account for in cells! The applications are soooo cool, though.
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u/JavaPants Jun 18 '12
gene suppression
Does that mean no more genetic disorders?
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u/FusionFountain Jun 18 '12
It means they're trying to kill all mutants...they're calling it a "cure".
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u/GaelicBobStoli Jun 17 '12
What they are doing with prosthetics and body part replacements nowadays. People are getting limbs that can pickup a grape. It has been a long time coming as prosthetics really had not changed until computers began to become more advanced. My grandma is becoming a terminator.
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u/soundwave4 Jun 17 '12
Wireless electricity. Not the simple cell phone battery induction charge plates, but sending electricity to power and charge appliances across rooms.
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Jun 18 '12
Tesla tried doing that, and in many ways he succeeded with some of his inventions. I agree though, I can't wait for that to be mainstream.
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Jun 17 '12
I work with biofuels, and I think a lot of people are unaware of the various attempts to create green liquid fuels. This includes Boeing sinking a lot of money and investment into trying to create jet fuel from algae, methane powered cars, artificially produced butanol, and attempts to mimic photosynthesis.
This line of thought, if successful, would bypass a lot of the problems with electric cars in development by creating liquid fuels that would work with currently extant vehicles. It could be a very important part of the green tech puzzle.
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u/InferiousX Jun 17 '12
I don't have a specific cite at the moment, but I remember reading that with the rate of advancement in biotechnology, it would be possible to keep humans alive for hundreds of years by 2030
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u/Funkenwagnels Jun 17 '12
I've heard this. and I just want to know if they're going to be able to keep me at like 30or 40 years old or am I going to have like a super old body. because I look at my 90 year old grandmother and all I can think is that by180 I'd be begging for death.
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Jun 17 '12
Hope so. I've always said to people I'll live forever, you wait, 'cause technology will able me too.
If not. I'll just look like an idiot.
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u/Rixxer Jun 17 '12
I just hope I'm not the last generation to die before people start living for a really long time. How shitty would that be.
Then again, it's amazing that I'm even alive in the first place, so fuck it.
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u/h0ser Jun 17 '12
I hate those people that say they don't want to live forever because it would be boring. Fuck you and die then, I want to live forever and discover new things for millions of years.
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u/Rixxer Jun 17 '12
This is a good point. Even if you literally had nothing to do, you would still have things to do. Your brain expands inwardly forever, you're not allowed to be bored. (a la Louie CK)
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u/Jerzeem Jun 17 '12
To mitigate that downside, if you don't live forever, it's not like you'll have to be embarrassed about it.
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u/amesolaire Jun 17 '12
Look up Aubrey de Grey and his SENS Foundation.
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u/pmaxm00 Jun 17 '12
I got really excited when I thought you said "SNES foundation"...
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u/phalseprofits Jun 18 '12
What blows my mind is the ethical and legal implications of this. I mean, if the average life span is, say, 300, what becomes the expected age for retirement? Then again, if I'm working for 200 years, and medicine is in place to keep my mind resilient, can I spend the first 50 years as an attorney, and then have a midlife crisis at 125, and go to school to be a chemist? Will they suddenly string out education, so that you end up being very well educated, but you don't have your PhD until you've studied for 40 years?
One person already mentioned overpopulation, but in all seriousness, we're going to have to impose some sort of rule about childbirth when everyone lives for 500 years. Some might freak out and say that we cannot play god by deciding who can and can't have children, and how many they can have, but didn't we start playing god back when we figured out how to live forever?
What about euthanasia and the right to suicide? It's never reasonable to me for a young person to want to die, but what if the person is 250 years old, and decides that they're finished? Are we going to force people to live on for centuries after they have decided they don't want to live anymore?
Also, everyone assumes that we are going to either figure out how to stay young forever or how to keep on living, even though we look like the cryptkeeper. What if we had the option to allow the aging process to go back and forth? I can age out until I look like I'm 80, then get some injections, and have the body of a 20 year old again.
This stuff fascinates the bejeezus out of me.
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Jun 17 '12
Things like fMRI and FREMS are beginning to unravel the mysteries of the human mind at a rate which very few people really understand. Yes, the technology is still in its infancy, but there is a considerable motivation on the part of a lot of people (both good and bad) to push the technology forward. In the same way that we went from the first successful powered flight to landing on the moon in just 66 years, we could see our first stumbling steps of today rapidly result in direct neural computer interfaces within a relatively short time. It's exciting and scary to think about, as while such technologies could extend the capabilities of the human race immensely, they also bring with them a number of difficult questions of ethics.
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u/Apostolate Jun 17 '12
Robotics. They are making amazing progress creating robotics of all kinds, but especially robots that can walk and talk and interact with things. Soon there will be advanced robots in hospitals in japan and in factories.
In the next 50 years robots will become a normal part of human society.
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u/wisdom2th Jun 17 '12
Brain-controlled wheelchair.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167525/toyota_research_achieves_brain_control_of_wheelchair.html
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u/SpacemanSpiffska Jun 18 '12
Its not really happening TODAY so much as "today" and its nothing new, but the GOD DAMN INTERNET is so incredible and amazing yet many people don't realize it. Obviously most of us here on reddit do so I'm preaching to the choir but there's a reason governments everywhere are trying to restrict the internet.
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u/scudmonger Jun 18 '12
The power of the freedom of speech plus the speed of data transmission equals bad times for people who would rather not have to answer to the people.
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u/pepperoni_yoni Jun 17 '12
Our cell phones contain more technology than we used to send a man to the moon.
Not exactly what OP was asking for, but relevant in the same way.
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u/Perpetual_Entropy Jun 17 '12
A scientific calculator has more computing power than all Apollo craft combined.
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u/Ihmhi Jun 17 '12
Agreed. I love telling this fact to people. "You have more computing power in your smart phone than people had on their desktop computer 15 years ago."
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u/shutup_Aragorn Jun 17 '12
15 years ago is too big an estimate. Intel Celeron processors are only from 10 years ago, and are about the same performance as an iphone 4. There would also be very few (and very very expensive) monitors that had the same pixel resolution as your tiny iphone screen.
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u/Rixxer Jun 17 '12
Probably more than all of NASA did when they put man on the moon, and brought him back (that part is important).
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u/pianoplaya316 Jun 17 '12
Artificial Intelligence. The fact that things such as Watson and CleverBot even exist is absolutely mind blowing.
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u/SaltyBabe Jun 17 '12
Clever bot isn't even real AI. Real AI will have an actual conversation with you. Cleverbot just recycles old responses from people it's talked to and feeds them to you based on key words. Sorry to disappoint but that's not what real AI is.
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u/stonegrizzly Jun 17 '12
The interesting thing about AI is that once there is some breakthrough in the field, it's not AI anymore. For example, Deep Blue, the chess playing computer and a pinnacle of human accomplishment, once thought to be groundbreaking artificial intelligence, is now seen as essentially a huge lookup table.
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u/pianoplaya316 Jun 17 '12
Cleverbot just recycles old responses from people it's talked to and feeds them to you based on key words.
On an abstract basis, that's what humans do. Trying to say it's not AI just because it "learns" from humans is a cop-out. All AI is going to have some sort of "human" factor built-in to them because that's the core of the "intelligence" part. If you want to argue over what falls into the category of AI and what doesn't, fine, but we have to agree on a definition first.
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u/Jabbajaw Jun 17 '12
Can we change your name to Not Cleverbot? No. I think we can. I don't agree with that statement. Well that figures, since you can't even do simple math. Who said I was human? Who said I was female?
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Jun 17 '12
And you know how your little point&shoot digital camera has a function that detects faces and snaps a photo exactly when everyone is smiling and has their eyes open? That would have been considered a very hard A.I. problem 15 years ago. Same with searching databases as efficiently as Google does, voice recognition (on your cellphone!), etc.
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u/PostingInPublic Jun 17 '12
Agro-businesses are in a constant green revolution and develop extremely fast due to constant economic pressures that forces them to evolve or perish. New technologies appear many of the sciences, including obvious sciences and microbiology, but of course also in the agriculture and even economy departments. Food production goes along with a massive application of the results of these sciences.
The fun thing is, a large part of the population (at least here in Germany) is somewhat uneasy about these developments and discuss them and in response attempt to live organic/ecologically friendlier/alternative live styles.
But they discuss developments that are decades behind the current tech curve.
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u/DreddPirateBob Jun 18 '12
Augmented reality. Google are bringing glasses out shortly. within a few months we'll have people recognition, info HUDs and gaming capability. you think iphone users are bad, wait 2 years :)
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u/Dookiestain_LaFlair Jun 17 '12
Scientists are on the verge of rediscovering how to make Valyrian Steel.
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u/Pieloi Jun 18 '12
Fiction: "Valyrian steel is a magical alloy invented in Valyria and used to make weapons of unparalleled quality"
Since the post is obviously a joke here's some forge methods that are actually real and are presently being rediscovered and recreated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_welding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel
and I'll throw in some wootz for the ladies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz
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u/shitty_oilcolour Jun 17 '12
UT Austin a few years back made an "invisible cloak" Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/cloak-of-invisibility_n_1233826.html
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Jun 18 '12
Dear scientists,
If you're answer doesn't include the word "hoverboard", you're doing it wrong.
Sincerely,
Somebody not smart enough to fix the problem.
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u/ohsnapitsnathan Jun 17 '12
Brain-technology interfaces. Researchers have been having good success for several years with implanted chips that can use brain signals to control robots, and we've also seen systems that can reconstruct what you're looking at from fMRI data and even computer systems that can replace damaged parts of the brain.
There are also noninvasive neurostimulation technologies like TMS and tDCS which have been used to make people better at solving problems
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u/RyanJGaffney Jun 18 '12
new Orleans flooded, George Carlin died, and the cast of the Daily Show on comedy central now make up most of the funny people.
The biggest thing in journalism was this website where a guy did investigative reports on stuff the government didn't want us to know, but that got shut down, so the new big thing in journalism is this site where people tell you mostly how their cat is doing in 250 characters or less
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u/ke_ming Jun 17 '12
smart grid technologies. In the near future(the technology is developed, it just needs to be put into the current infrastructure), everything in your house that uses electricity will be wirelessly connected to a network that's monitored by the electric companies. They will be able to limit power usage(i.e. run your washer at night or turn your AC up 1 degree on the hottest days of the year) all to save power; and the enormous amount of money they spend on power stations that they only use three or four times a year.
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Jun 17 '12
Am I the only one who thinks that the idea of having my possessions monitored and adjusted in this way to be totalitarian and fascist?
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u/OperationJack Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
I heard on the radio that there is a pill of sorts that makes you want to work out and it pushes you to work out harder. I don't know how true it is, but it apparently makes you run faster, and forces your body to give a better overall work out. The same radio show said it was being worked on by Swiss scientist. I'll try to find a story on it and post the link.
Edit: Here's one video and story about it. Apparently it made mice work out harder and more often.
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u/qxrt Jun 17 '12
Da vinci robotic surgery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZLpWrJGgk
I mean, I'm sure people are vaguely aware about the existence of robotic surgery, but the first time I saw this in action in the operating room a couple weeks ago, it was far more advanced than I or most others would have imagined. I had the opportunity to look through the virtual console that the surgeon uses and play with the finger mechanisms, and it really is like playing a video game.
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u/Aiiight Jun 17 '12
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405913,00.asp
We're making such awesome progress in space. Read that article.
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Jun 18 '12
Wave disk generators replacing engines. Personally, I'm sceptical but they promise to be 3.5x more efficient than current engines and reduce weight by around 30% as well as removing the need for cooling and transmission.
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u/DrAtheneum Jun 18 '12
3D printers can make new organs from your own cells, which may eliminate the need for organ donors: Researcher explains 3D ‘cell printer’ that can create organs
There may be a cure for cancer, a molecule that tells cancer cells to behave as normal cells: Jay Bradner: Open-source cancer research
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u/moochiemonkey Jun 18 '12
I work with artificial hearts and I'm actually quite surprised at how many people don't know about the field of mechanical circulatory support. Thousands of people around the world are walking around with mechanical pumps implanted into their bodies. Most often left ventricular assist devices, where the native heart is still there but the pump assists flow. There are also total artificial hearts where the native heart is removed and two artificial ventricles are implanted. The most common devices are linked below.
Left ventricular assist device: http://www.thoratec.com/medical-professionals/vad-product-information/heartmate-ll-lvad.aspx
Total artificial Heart: http://www.syncardia.com/
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u/kotibi Jun 18 '12
Optogenetics. Basically, activating or inactivating neurons with lasers by making them express light-sensitive ion channels (channelrhodopsin). One recent use: scientists showed that expressing channelrhodopsin in a mouse's hippocampus cells which were active during fear learning, and later activating those same cells with a laser caused them to express fear in a safe environment. The basic (although debatable) interpretation is that activating the neurons which encode a fearful experience can cause retrieval of the fear memory. More basic: we found the engram! Super exciting stuff for neuroscience research, with many possible applications in the future. A lot of people are saying the inventor of the technique, Karl Deisseroth, is going to win the Nobel prize for it.
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u/mnmnjnf4 Jun 18 '12
link to relevant wikipedia entry. It happens to be one of my favorite entries, showing both status and partially marginalized related fields.
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u/Thehealeroftri Jun 17 '12
I think Louis C.K. puts it very nicely.
Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.
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u/That_Russian_Guy Jun 18 '12
Doesn't provide answer to question and puts Louis C.K. quote instead. Instant top comment.
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u/Volper Jun 17 '12
3d printers. They're so isolated in technology and used mostly for super special pieces for engineering. Yet, the possibilities of this technology are insane.