A lithium-ion battery that self heats if the temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit has multiple applications, but may have the most impact on relieving winter “range anxiety” for electric vehicle owners, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and EC Power, State College.
I know many; who do take a break/ sabbatical from the valley to spend time with family or reconnect with friends on the east coast, Midwest, or other places that they refer to as home. However, once your sabbatical is in the 6 month period; you cannot wait to come back because the energy and excitement is truly hard to find anywhere else.
Like most people, I look up to and admire the heroes of Silicon Valley (the real ones, not the ones from the TV show). They’ve given rise to services (e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn, Airbnb) that we use every day and make the world a better place. They’ve created value, wealth, and opportunity at unprecedented historic levels.
I’ve also had the chance to meet some of the leading CEOs and entrepreneurs of the Valley and they are, by and large, good-natured, brilliant, and thoughtful people. They’re earnest and committed to building positive things. Some of them are donors to my organization, for which I’m immensely grateful. It’s clear that Silicon Valley is today more than ever the center of innovation and technological progress.
That said, there are a few things about it that are starting to make me nervous.
Here are 18 predictions that finally came true in 2015, from an actual working hoverboard to cyborgised brains.
It’s leading to a different way of thinking about computing.
This year’s Detroit auto show is proving that autonomous driving is no longer a techie’s pipe dream. Even holdout Akio Toyoda has finally joined the parade. The self-driving car is coming.
But behind that development is an even more profound change: artificial intelligence (also known as “deep learning”) has gone mainstream. The autonomous driving craze is just the most visible manifestation of the fact that computers now have the capacity to look, learn and react to complex situations as well or better than humans. It’s leading to a profoundly different way of thinking about computing. Instead of writing millions of lines of code to anticipate every situation, these new applications ingest vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and “learn” from them, much as the human brain does.
Was hit by a car when I was younger and broke my leg. This would have been better then a metal rod. Fascinating.
A team of researchers from the University of Michigan has developed a new technique to aid bone repair, using polymer nano-shells to deliver microRNA molecules. The method could one day have a big impact on regenerative medicine, directing cells already present at injury sites to aid healing.
The new study builds on previous research conducted back in 2011, where nanofiber microspheres were used to carry cells to injury sites to help the wounding process. The new work uses the same idea, but rather than transporting foreign cells, focuses on making better use of the cells already at the wound site.
The team developed tiny polymer spheres that are able to easily breach cell walls, carrying microRNA molecules to cells at bone wound sites. The spheres are designed to protect the molecules during transit, degrading once in place in cells at the site of the wound.
Just a day after a technology-heavy State of the Union comes news that the White House isn’t done pushing us into the future. Reuters believes that Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will head to Detroit tomorrow to talk about the administration’s efforts to accelerate the development of self-driving cars. It’s said that Google, which has been spearheading the project to build an autonomous vehicle, will also be in attendance at the event. The newswire mentions Mark Rosekind, head of the nation’s traffic safety bureau, who has asked for a “nimble, flexible” approach to writing new traffic regulations. Details are still thin on the ground, but it looks as if Obama’s “spirit of innovation” is alive and well.
[Image Credit: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg/Getty]
