All you need to know

This makes a good headline but it is unjust. Dr Venter is a brilliant scientist, a successful entrepreneur and a man who knows how to sell his ideas. While it is true that every new process in the physical as in the biological sciences may lead to unanticipated, potentially harmful novelties, it is also the case that, in the end, any scientific advance can potentially be abused for ill as well as used for good. A microbe that might be tailored, say, to clean up crude oil in an ocean can also be tailored so that it fails in any other environment. And we are in desperate need of scientific innovation, for there is no other way of escaping from the mess we have already made. Science is always part of the answer as well as part of the problem. What matters most is the political and regulatory environment in which it is pursued and then put to use. And that is a question for the politicians to sort out. … [Read more...] about Synthetic cells: It’s life, but not as we know it

But where would they go? That's like asking a trilobite to speculate on the lifestyles of humans. Obviously, we can say little, except this: heavy-duty computing takes plenty of power. The most attractive habitats for synthetic sentience might be the vicinities of exceptional sources of energy – for example black holes, or even the neighbourhoods of large stars, which routinely boil off the energy of ten thousand suns. These are the destinations they may seek. … [Read more...] about Alien life – but not as we know it

Besides UAV, another abbreviation you'll often see used when talking about consumer drones is FPV, for First Person View. That refers to drones capable of recording video as they go and streaming it so the owner can steer as if they were sitting in the drone. Some, like the AR.Drone 2.0, offer FPV through their built-in cameras. Others, like the Lehmann LA100, use cameras like the GoPro Hero3+correct, and there's plenty of sites explaining how keener owners can build their own FPV drones too. … [Read more...] about From Amazon to kebabs: 10 things you need to know about consumer drones

'Spoken like someone born to two actors in LA. Here’s my piece of advice: check your privilege,' wrote one. 'Some of us have full time jobs, and are desperate to escape those conditions. My dad was a mechanic. I can’t even afford his funeral. I have $700 in my bank. So yeah, I’ll shoot my shot.' … [Read more...] about ‘Your privilege STINKS’: Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas is called ‘ignorant’ and ‘tone deaf’ for telling young creatives they just need to work hard and ‘let people come to you’

In this context, it doesn't seem quite as preposterous as it should when somebody suggests using 3D printers (machines that build up objects layer by layer from a digital file) to print 3D printers, which can then print a pair of shoes. Or a house. Or dinner. "Actually, that's already happening," somebody else points out. But then 3D printers – and a prototype house made by extruding liquid concrete from a giant "printer" has indeed already been made – are just one of the Next Big Things coming down the line. We learn about dozens of them in the next two days. This is the "abundance": Diamandis's thesis is that we will soon enter a "post-scarcity" world. Forget peak oil. Who needs it when we have "15 terawatts of power from the sun hitting the earth every 15 minutes"? The challenge is simply harnessing it. "And we're getting better at that all the time." … [Read more...] about Singularity University: meet the people who are building our future