Author: Nigel Pereira

While these “Anthrobots” are about 30 to 500 micrometers in size and are made from cells from the human trachea, the applications could be endless, from neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis to irreversible retina damage, and beyond. To be clear, the robots we are about to talk about in this post are biological and do not contain any mechanical parts, chips, or batteries. That being said, however, they do act a bit like robots, are completely independent, and are made from clumps of biological cells. Why are they called robots then? Well, it all started when scientist Michael…

Nuclear fusion with a net gain in power would change the world we live in, the thought that an emulsion of eggs and oil could help make that dream a reality is intriguing to say the least. Human beings are resourceful creatures and we often find genuinely out-of-the-box solutions to problems. In a previous post we covered how scientists are using dental floss in quantum computers because of its unique ability to not become entangled at freezing temperatures. Similarly, in another post we covered the story of the first researcher to use a GPU (that was only used for games…

Last month, The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency announced that we are currently in the 4th Global Coral Bleaching Event, the second such event in the past decade, emphasizing the need for human and technological intervention. Earlier this year, India joined a list of nations deploying artificial coral reefs to encourage biodiversity, restore the ocean’s ability to fight climate change, improve fish habitat and divert pressure from our natural coral reefs that are disappearing at an alarming rate. In addition to the state of Odisha which got its first artificial coral reef in February this year, artificial coral reefs…

The fact that two things (plants and electricity) that rarely interact with each other in nature except for lightning (which is rare) could have such an intricate relationship, is fascinating. Hydroponic crop cultivation is the process of growing plants without soil and has become quite popular, especially in urban environments where there isn’t a lot of access to the sun or large open fields. Typically grown in soil-less mediums like lava rocks, perlite, clay pebbles, or coco peat, scientists have now come up with another medium, or novel conductive cultivation substrate, ideal for hydroponics. While that may sound like a…

Light Bio has also received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture to sell its plants in all 48 states of the US. From the glow friends of the 80s to the glowing stars and planets we stick to our ceilings, to glowing watches, and our obsession with fireflies, humans love shiny things that glow. Glowing plants are a part of almost every animated movie including some famous CGI movies like The Life of Pi where there’s an entire glowing island or Avatar where there’s an entire glowing planet. While there have been successful attempts to make plants glow…

Technology has made all of us hungry for quick fixes like app updates that fix bugs. Unfortunately…. While blocking out the sun to cool down the earth may sound crazy to a lot of people, that’s exactly what solar geoengineering is, and apparently, it has become a “respectable” idea of late. In addition to the European Commission and the US government, solar geoengineering has also become a major focus point for the Climate Overshoot Commission and the UN. What’s also strange about this particular branch of science is that it’s almost exclusively being funded and pushed down our throats by…

With most of us already addicted to the 2D screens in our pockets, holographic communication could be the deep end of the technology pool that we actually lose ourselves in. If you were born in the 80s, the most iconic holographic message you have ever seen is without a doubt Princess Leia’s message to Luke, Obi-Wan, and C3PO in Star Wars. If you watched that movie and thought “One day such a thing could actually happen,” the day has come and the thing, has happened. Holographs are real, as real as a holographic version of the late Tupac Shakur who…

Ever wish you could smell what’s cooking on your screen? Smells imprint in our long-term memory like nothing else and while these AI devices currently add smells to video games, they could be used for a variety of applications in the future. Have you ever been walking or driving through some random location and you suddenly smell something that immediately transports you back in time with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia? That’s the power of the sense of smell, it can trigger deep emotional responses and is often used to help people remember emotional memories. This is probably because the…

While most people expect Quantum computers to be the ones that disrupt our conventional hardware, there’s still a lot of work to be done before they go mainstream. Neuromorphic computers, on the other hand, have a very real chance of upgrading us from our binary system of 1s and 0s. The main difference between ChatGPT 3 and ChatGPT 4 is the scale (or number of parameters). In a recent JRE podcast, Jeremie and Edouard Harris, co-founders of Gladstone AI, talk about how every major player is throwing computational resources at its models in order to scale them up. They also…

In the present day, you age about a year but get back about 4 months, so you effectively age only 8 months. In 5 years, however, he predicts we will get back the full 12 months and even more, effectively reversing the aging process. In a recent Joe Rogan podcast, Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist, inventor, futurist, and author of recent titles like “The Singularity is Nearer,” talks about human beings achieving what he calls “longevity escape velocity” in the next 5 years. He then goes on to explain that in the present day, you age about a year but thanks…