Compared to meat, milk is not so difficult to produce in the laboratory. Most researchers seek to obtain milk protein, whey, and casein through a fermentation process rather than growing from stem cells. Some products from companies like Perfect Day are already on the US market, and ongoing work is focused on recreating the taste and nutritional benefits of regular milk.
In addition, researchers are working on laboratory-grown mozzarella cheese that dissolves completely in pizza and other cheeses and ice cream.
Hydrogen plane
For commercial flights, carbon emissions are a major concern, but there are potential solutions and we are receiving a lot of money.
A £ 15m UK project has unveiled plans for a hydrogen-powered aircraft. This project is known as Fly Zero and is run by the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan in collaboration with the British Government.
This project has developed the concept of a medium-sized aircraft entirely powered by liquid hydrogen. It can carry about 279 passengers around the world non-stop.
Implementing this technology could mean flying carbon-neutral non-stop between London and West America, or from London to New Zealand on a stopover.
Digital “twin” to keep track of your health
Star Trek, where many of our ideas for future technology come from, allows humans to enter the Medbay and scan their entire bodies for signs of disease or injury. Doing this in real life, as the creators of Q Bio say, will improve health outcomes and reduce the burden on clinicians.
A US company has built a scanner that measures hundreds of biomarkers in about an hour, from hormone levels to fat that accumulates in the liver, markers of inflammation and any number of cancers. Use this data to create a 3D digital avatar (called a digital twin) for the patient’s body. It can be tracked over time and updated with each new scan.
Jeff Kaditz, CEO of QBio, said the large amount of data collected not only prioritizes the patients the doctor most urgently needs to see, but is also a more sophisticated way of diagnosing the disease. We hope to usher in a new era of prevention and personalized medicine that will help us develop. .. Read the interview with him here.
virtual reality universe
After making a dramatic name change, the company formerly known as Facebook became Meta. This shows that Zuckerberg and his huge team have moved into the Metaverse. This is a reified Internet accessed primarily through virtual reality and augmented reality.
As part of this move, Meta will spend more time, particularly in VR, on devices to access this new world. Announced in 2021, Meta is developing a new headset under the title “Project Cambria”.
Unlike previous VR companies from brands like the Oculus Quest 2, this isn’t your average consumer device, their goal is to deliver the best VR experience they can create.
Cambria focuses on advanced eye and face tracking (to improve accuracy of avatars and in-game movements), high resolution, wider field of view, and significantly smaller headsets.
Between Meta, Google, Sony, and many other big tech companies, VR is making a lot of money and will see significant improvements in the coming years.
Direct air intake
Throughout the process of photosynthesis, trees remain one of the best ways to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. However, new technologies can play the same role as trees, absorbing more carbon dioxide and taking up less land.
This technique is known as direct air capture (DAC). This includes extracting carbon dioxide from the air and storing CO2 in geological caves underground, or combining it with hydrogen to produce synthetic fuels.
Although this technology has great potential, it currently presents many challenges. Direct air capture units are currently in operation, but newer models require a lot of energy to operate. If energy consumption can be reduced in the future, DACs could be one of the best technological advances for future environmental protection.
green funeral
Sustainable living is becoming a priority for those facing the reality of the climate crisis, but what about environmental death? Death is usually the process of consuming large amounts of carbon and is the final mark of our ecological footprint. For example, during cremation, an average of 400 kg of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. So what’s a more eco-friendly way to do this?
In Washington, USA, it can be composted. The body is placed in a chamber filled with bark, soil, straw and other compounds that promote natural decomposition. In 30 days, its body turns into soil, which can be returned to the garden or forest. The company behind the process, Recompose, claims to use one-eighth of the carbon dioxide released during cremation.
Alternative technology uses mushrooms. In 2019, the late actor Luke Perry lounged in a bespoke “mushroom suit” designed by startup Coeio. The company claims the suit is made from fungi and other microbes that help break down and neutralize toxins produced by the body’s normal degradation.
Most alternatives for disposing of our bodies after death are not based on new technologies. They are just waiting for public awareness to catch up with them. Another example is alkaline hydrolysis. In this case, the object is broken down into chemical components during the 6-hour process in the pressure chamber. This is legal in some US states and emits less than traditional methods.
Prosthesis
The bionic eye has been a staple of science fiction for decades, but now real-world exploration is starting to catch up with the cunning storyteller. There are many technologies on the market to restore vision for people with various types of visual impairment.
In January 2021, an Israeli surgeon transplanted the world’s first artificial cornea into a 78-year-old man who was blind on both sides. When he removed the bandage, the patient was immediately able to read and recognize the family. The implants also naturally fuse with human tissues and are not rejected by the recipient’s body.
Similarly, in 2020, Belgian scientists developed artificial irises suitable for smart contact lenses that correct various visual impairments. Scientists are also working on wireless brain implants that bypass the eye entirely.
Researchers at Montash University, Australia, are working to test a system in which users wear camera glasses. This sends data directly to the implant. The implants are placed on the surface of the brain and provide the user with basic vision.
Airport for drones and flying taxis
Our crowded cities are in desperate need of respite, and relief can come from the sky, not the road. Plans are underway for various types of transport hubs (for drone delivery and electric air taxis), with the city’s first UK government-funded airport.
It is built in Coventry. The hub is a pilot and hopefully a proof of concept for the company behind it. This idea, powered entirely by hydrogen generators, replaces the clean alternative of a new type of small plane, without the need for so many delivery vans or private cars on the road. The project is under development. ..In the first place, Huyundai and Airbus.
Infrastructure is important. Organizations such as the Civil Aviation Authority are considering installing an air corridor that could link the city center with an airport or local distribution center.
energy storage brick
Scientists have found a way to store energy in the red bricks used to build houses.
Researchers led by Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, have developed a way to turn cheap and widely available building materials into “smart bricks” that can store energy like batteries.
The research is still at the proof-of-concept stage, but scientists say these brick walls “can store a significant amount of energy” and “can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times per hour.”
Researchers have developed a way to turn red bricks into a type of energy storage device called a supercapacitor.
This involved applying a conductive coating called Pedot to a sample of the brick, which penetrated the porous structure of the fired brick and turned them into “energy storage electrodes”…
The researchers said that iron oxide, the red pigment in bricks, contributed to this process.