Can you smell time? Your dog can.
On a very basic level, so can you: When you crack the lid on that old quart of milk, tentatively sniff and—peeyouu!—promptly dump that foul stuff down the sink, you are, in effect, smelling time. Specifically, you can smell that far too much time has elapsed since that milk was fresh.
But a dog can smell time with a sophistication that puts our simple sniffers to shame. “Odors exist in time, and dogs perceive that,” explains cognitive scientist and canine researcher Alexandra Horowitz of Columbia University. “Dogs use smell to ‘tell time,’ in some sense, because a more recently laid odor smells stronger, and an older odor smells weaker.”
A dog’s nose is a notoriously sensitive piece of equipment. With up to 300 million olfactory receptors compared to our lousy 5 million, a dog can detect a single teaspoon of sugar dissolved into a million gallons of water, the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools. Unlike us, dogs are able to take in scent continuously, even as they exhale. What’s more, a dog’s nostrils are smaller than the distance between them, effectively giving dogs “stereo” sniffing power that carries subtle grades of information, including directionality.
Read full article at Strange Attractor
Solar impulse is a single-person aircraft that depends entirely upon solar energy for power. It employs no fossil fuel power once it is up in the air. As a result, the aircraft is a platform for technological innovation: structurally, it marks the first time mass-produceable carbon fiber composites are being used, along with ultra-light thin ply technology. The high-efficiency (22.7%) solar cells are the thickness of a human hair, and the LED landing lights were designed with the assistance of Swiss watchmaker Omega. “Intelligent fibers” stabilize the pilot’s body temperature, and personalized diets have been developed by Nestlé Health Science to ensure pilot nutrition. In fact, the list of innovations seems endless, and underscores the technical complexity of creating, constructing and flying an aircraft with “the wingspan of a jumbo jet (63.4 m/ ~208 ft), the weight of a car (1600 kg/ ~3527 lbs.) and the average power of a scooter over 24 hours.” Just a few weeks ago, in fact, a Brazilian aviation official told me of how he and his colleagues were monitoring the Solar Impulse experience, confident that there were glimpses into the future of flying to be gained by studying the lessons of this venture. Text and Image via FORBES. Continue THERE
32 year-old Dmitry Itskov believes technology will allow him to live forever in a hologram body. His ‘2045 initiative’ is described as the next step in evolution, and over 20,000 people have signed up on Facebook to follow its progress, with global conferences planned to explore the technology needed.
‘We are in the process of creating focus groups of experts,’ said Itskov. ‘Along with these teams, we will prepare goal statements and research programs schedules.’ The foundation has already planned out its timeline for getting to a fully holographic human, and claims it will be ready to upload a mind into a computer by 2015, a timeline even Itskov says is ‘optimistic’.
‘The four tracks and their suggested deadlines are optimistic but feasible,’ he said of the foundation’s site.
‘This is our program for the next 35 years, and we will do our best to complete it.’
The ultimate aim is for a hologram body.
‘The fourth development track seems the most futuristic one,’ said Itskov.
‘It’s intent is to create a holographic body. Indeed, its creation is going to be the most complicated task, but at the same time could be the most thrilling problem in the whole of human evolution.’
A recompilation of US Patent illustrations. US Patent Illustrations: The Past when it was still the Future.
US Patent 3316993MOTORIZED TRAVELING CASE SCOOTER TO CONVEY PASSENGER – DM Weitzner, 1967
EP0396720 B1 – Method for Increasing Body Heat Transfer – William Patrick Campbell – 1989
US 620600B1 – Canine scuba diving apparatus – Dwane L. Folsom, 2001
Thanks to new observation technologies, powerful software, and statistical methods, the mechanics of collectives are being revealed. Indeed, enough physicists, biologists, and engineers have gotten involved that the science itself seems to be hitting a density-dependent shift. Without obvious leaders or an overarching plan, this collective of the collective-obsessed is finding that the rules that produce majestic cohesion out of local jostling turn up in everything from neurons to human beings. Behavior that seems impossibly complex can have disarmingly simple foundations. And the rules may explain everything from how cancer spreads to how the brain works and how armadas of robot-driven cars might someday navigate highways. The way individuals work together may actually be more important than the way they work alone.
Excerpt from an article written by Ed Yong at WIRED. Continue THERE
“The future of” is a participatory book project initiated by Crap is good which tries to provide an insight into the future role of architecture. Realizing the problematic nature of the simple question ‘What is the future of Architecture?’ we feel it is still somehow relevant in describing the architectural practice of today.
Every architectural attempt starts by making a representation of an imaginative situation or design, which will happen, or could happen in the future. In many cases an architectural design remains a future plan, and in times of economical and political crisis, the question of what comes next, gains relevance. So, while architects shape the future, this book is concerning about the future of architecture.