Cool Future Technology Stories of the Week

Here are a few cool future technology stories that I’ve squirreled away (using real life squirrel plus a ferret) in the event that you my esteemed guest would also like to read them.

So be amazed, be enthrawled and be anything but benign (or ten) when it comes to this future tech that is right square in your peripheral vision.

 

Star Trek Tractor Beam Is Not Science Fiction Anymore

Another piece of Star Trek technology has become a reality. Captain Kirk would instantly recognize new blueprints developed by a team of Chinese scientists as plans for a tractor beam.

The proposed device hasn’t yet been built. But a similar one conceived by an American physicist was tested last year. Each device would fulfill the science fiction dream of reeling in objects using light — though neither could move anything bigger than a bacterium, much less a starship.

Traveling Wave Reactor Recycles Uranium Waste and Creates Energy

Any new business venture gains a little bit of clout when Bill Gates gets on board. Washington-based company TerraPower is developing a new form of nuclear power, and their efforts have attracted the investment of the billionaire Microsoft founder. The experimental nuclear technology that TerraPower is pursuing, called the traveling wave reactor, was first proposed in the 1950s, but has seen little in the way of research or development in the decades since.

Anti Laser Beams – Say What

Physicists have built the world’s first device that can cancel out a laser beam – a so-called anti-laser. The device, created by a team from Yale University, is capable of absorbing an incoming laser beam entirely.

Lunar X Prize Contest Teams Announced

Twenty-nine privately funded teams have thrown their hats in the ring, contest organizers announced Feb. 17, and entries are closed. The teams represent 17 nations spanning four continents, and the competitors range from non-profits to university consortia to billion-dollar businesses.

Google publishes facial recognition patent, could use social network photos

If you are out in public, you are fair game, but how would you like it if a stranger took your picture and then ran a search to find out your name, online aliases and all the information about you via that image? We are very nearly there with automatic face-recognition technology and social media aggregation.

NASA’S Chandra Finds Superfluid in Neutron Star’s Core

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered the first direct evidence for a superfluid, a bizarre, friction-free state of matter, at the core of a neutron star. Superfluids created in laboratories on Earth exhibit remarkable properties, such as the ability to climb upward and escape airtight containers. The finding has important implications for understanding nuclear interactions in matter at the highest known densities.