10 Supertechnologies of the future

10 – DIGITAL LIBRARIES

You might want to check out Google Book Search, its a very good example. There will come a point in time when any factual based question can be answered online.

9 – GENE THERAPY AND / OR STEM CELLS

A lot of deseases involve inherited conditions – as they are pass through your genes. Good news, scientists are working to change those genes and trick defective cells into growing correctly.

8 – PERVASIVE WIRELESS INTERNET

That implies the possibility of full connectivity between any two random devices. Want to check your burglar alarm from your cell phone? It’ll be easy.

7 – MOBILE ROBOTS

 We may see convoys of robot trucks on the highways. Admittedly, they’ll probably have more initial acceptance in warehouses, handling pick-and-pull chores.

6 – BETTER CHEAPER SOLAR CELLS

In less than ten years the cost of solar energy could be at parity with the cost of electricity from the grid, and solar cells could be standard features in new residential construction. 

5 – LOCATION BASED COMPUTING

Instead of clicking an icon on a browser screen, you can walk outside, point your cell phone at an actual three-dimensional thing (presumably, a building that houses a business), click the phone, and get information about (or jump to the Web site of) whatever you were pointing at. As well as servers with Internet address, there will be servers with geographic coordinates.

4 – DESKTOP 3-D PRINTING

Instead of going to the store for your next gadget, you might download a design of your choosing and generate it in your desktop 3-D printer. The next step will be to design your own gadgets, post the designs, and sell them, etc. Toys, kitchenware, and decorative household items should be fair game, at least. Cottage industry, here we come!

3 – MOORE’S LAW UPHELD

The law, stated by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore in 1965, implies that available computer power can be expected to double every other year. For at least two decades pundits have been pointing out barriers to the law’s fulfillment, and the chip industry has been smashing those barriers. Currently they can’t agree if the law has a couple of more decades of life left, or 600 years. Either way, in terms of available computing power, it’s clear that we ain’t seen nothing yet.

2 – THERAPEUTIC CLONING

Forget the stories about generating identical copies of a particular sheep or person. The whole idea behind cloning all along has been to grow replacement organs or tissue in a vat, which the body would see no reason to reject. Cancerous or damaged organs could be replaced by new, disease-free clones of themselves.

1 – THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY

Instead of guzzling imported oil (and being at the mercy of oil suppliers) we could turn water into hydrogen and burn that (or use to charge fuel cells.) Meanwhile, the only byproduct of the combustion of hydrogen is … more water! However, hydrogen storage remains a thorny issue, due to its low density, and hydrogen may end up being only one of many interlocking components that replace the current oil economy.

Top 10 US Disasters

10. Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake

9. New York Hurricane

8.  Asteroid Impact

7. Los Angeles Tsunami

6. Supervolcano

5. Midwest Earthquake

 

4. Heat Waves

 

3. East Coast Tsunami

 

2. Gulf Coast Tsunami

 

 

1. Total Destruction of Earth

Okay, so nobody is spending too much time worrying about what to do if the planet is annihilated, but at least one person has seriously pondered whether and when it could happen. From being sucked into a black hole to being blown up by an antimatter reaction, there are scientifically plausible risks of an event that would render this whole list moot.

Preparing for the next Big-one (earthquake) in California

Scientists believe that the possibility of a very strong California quake in the next few decades is very real. California quake Scientists imagining the next “Big one” and they considered the section of the San Andreas to be the most primed to break. A team of scientists, government first responders and industries are working to create a realistic crisis and disaster scenario that can be used for preparedness. The “Big One,” as earthquake scientists imagine it in a detailed, first-of-its-kind script.

San Andreas Fault – the 800-mile boundary where the Pacific and North American plates grind against each other.

Scientists chose the parameters of the fictional temblor such as its size and length of rupture and ran computer models to simulate ground movement. Engineers calculated the effects of shaking on freeway buildings pipelines and other infrastructure. Risk Analysts used the data to estimate casualties and damages.

The scenario: The San Andreas Fault Suddenly rumbles to life on November 13, 2008 just after morning rush hour. The quake begins north of the US Mexican border near the Salton Sea and the fault ruptures for about 200 miles on a Northwest direction ending near high desert town Palmdale about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Scientist chose the scenario because it wold create intense shaking in the Los Angeles Basin and neighboring countries – a region with nearly 22 million people.

The scenario will be released at a House of Subcommittee on the Energy and Mineral Resources meeting in Washinton.

Here are the major elements:

-10 AM The San Andreas Fault: ruptures sending shock waves racing at 2 miles per second.

-30 seconds later: The agricultural Coachella Valley shakes first sections of the Interstate 10 one of the nation’s major east-west corridors break apart.

-1 minute later: Interstate 15 a key north-south route id severed in places, Rail lines break; a train derails. Tremors hit burgeoning Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles.

-1 minute 30 seconds later: Shock waves advance toward the Los Angeles Basin shaking it violently for 55 seconds.

Super-Rice

It is a fact that there is an ongoing World Food Crisis and it seems that there is no easy way to fix this problem. Good news though, a team of researchers are putting a Genomics project to hasten the modern rice genetics. On a simpler note, it is a search for strains of rice that have traits like higher yields, desease resistance and a wider range of nutrients. The project advocates the pursuit of Super Hybrids. Rice is the main staple food for more than half the world’s population. The world’s population has increased precipitously and its an underlying fact that rice production can hardly keep up. This project if not antagonized by inevitable constraints could definitely make a difference in the long run. But what about the rest of us who are in great doubt, are we willing to embrace this change if time and technology permit it. Some of us if not most of us still prefer to eat food with insect bites than those without blemishes. The biggest question is can it really help end the world hunger or is it just a commercial move to make someone famous and opulent within the realm of technology and poverty. Is this purely just scientific manipulation or are they really eager to end this problem.