Science is in a different time now.

bloodredorion:

We live in a different time now than we did decades ago. How people approach science, the ethics behind science, and the public opinion of science, has all changed. You can’t just go in your garage and build something revolutionary. I mean, sure, you can… But if something goes wrong, not only will they take all of the things you built, and the documents that you’ve written; but they may also criminalize you. 

There’s always been a topic that brings hesitance in every decade involving science. Like when the church continued to state that the sun rotates around the Earth and we’re at the center of the universe. When people were (and some still are) against stem cell research despite it’s revolutionary discoveries to health and medicine. When they started building the LHC, and some people were claiming the LHC would bring the end of the world, and scientists were getting death threats from opposers. And now, even though nanotechnology was technically created around 50 years ago, it’s become a controversial topic; like, will the toxins affect the Earth? Will it’s research change our world too much when people aren’t ready for it? Will transhumanism happen sooner than we thought?

So you always have to be a bit cautious when you’re coming up with new ideas ( or what you may think is a new idea), or when you’re working on something you need to take some steps to make sure you’re not going to be doing something dangerous. And yet, sometimes when you’re trying something new you can’t make a guess when something is going to be dangerous. And you might be criminalized just due to your research.

I also need to consider this when I consider taking something apart, or trying to make something.

This hesitance isn’t limited to hypothesis, research, creation, testing, etc. The hesitance also reaches to data from climate change. We live in a time where global warming is an opinion, not a fact. Imagine that. We’re reaching many peaks in science and technology, just around the corner from scientific discoveries that will revolutionize our perspective, change our ethics, and the possible structure of society… And topics as simple as evolution and global warming are opinions. 

We also live in a time where NASA is no longer important, no longer funded. We were making plans to travel to mars, there were plans to have space tourism, there were plans to possibly terraform mars! (Even though it was just a thought, and would take much time and effort. ) I can’t think of anything more important than expanding our horizons, expanding what we call our home, and making travel to other areas besides our own planet, Earth. And yet… We don’t fund it.

And this isn’t just happening in the U.S., this step away from science is happening in Canada too. But I can’t speak much for what’s going on in Canada, because I don’t live there.  But it’s happening around the world. Money is being taken away from science and being put into sports, music, television, and movies; that’s what people care about these days. 

Science is in a hard time. And if we want this to change, it’s going to have to make some leaps with the limited funds it has; and we will have to popularize it; and we will have to hope that we can continue progressing and not going backwards in our progress to improve ourselves.

eutektiks:

UCSD Electronic Wireless Tattoo Receives Grant from the Gates Foundation

Described as an electronic “tattoo”, the device is a wearable patch of circuits, sensors, and wireless transmitters that sticks to the skin like a temporary tattoo and is able to stretch and flex with the skin. The researchers hope that the final product will continuously measure and monitor uterine contractions, fetal heart rate and oxygen, and maternal heart rate and body temperature.

The nice aspects of this device includes its ability to continuously monitor the status of the fetus within the womb in a noninvasive manner and to transmit the data wirelessly to physicians. Aside from its usage of monitoring fetal health, be prepared to notice the varying usage of the electric “tattoo” concept. In fact, one of its usages has been explored in this blog a while back as a food monitor.

(via bloodredorion)

futurescope:

DARPA plans to place diagnostic nanochip in soldiers

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has announced plans to create and implant nanochips in soldiers that will monitor their health. As you might have guessed, this plan has raised a little bit of controversy with the fear that this could turn the Earth into Total Recall.

The chips would monitor soldiers’ health, especially in terms of illness in the field.

Though it seems like a simple and efficient way to keep soldiers alive and healthy, a number of opponents have come out the woodwork claiming this could be the beginning of computer chips for everyone.

Katherine Albrecht, co-author of Spychips says, “It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, ‘You’re going to have a tracking chip. It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, ‘Come on, it’ll be interesting seeing where we go.’”

But DARPA said the implants are a “truly disruptive innovation,” since most medical evacuations are the result of ordinary illness, not injuries. The chips will report to doctors and reportedly aren’t to be used for tracking.

[via] [image credit: Amal Graafstra]

(via bloodredorion)

bloodredorion:

blamoscience:

Researchers have cleverly devised a way to make paper that is waterproof, bacterial resistant, and magnetic. By wrapping certain nanoparticles around the fibers of the paper, it’s properties can be changed. The researchers point to using iron oxide nanoparticles to make the paper magnetic, and using silver nanoparticles to repel bacteria. The implications this technology has on the future of food packaging and medical applications are astounding. 

Full story here.

WOW. This is getting me all excited!

jtotheizzoe:

How to Count Infinity

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” - Hazel Grace Lancaster

Are there really more numbers between 0 and 1 than there are integers? MinutePhysics explores, in typically wonderful fashion.

(by minutephysics)

(via bloodredorion)

futurescope:

The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

Horizon 2020 offers a useful glimpse of what topics will be important for the future. Check out the items listed on their video page (although some don’t have videos, yet):

Health, demographic change and wellbeing

Exercise: the way to a healthier European society?
Technology for people living with dementia
Animal to human: hidden diseases
Independent Living – multiple hopes for multiple sclerosis
Hi-tech future for ageing Europe
Malaria: tracking a serial-killer
Bilharzia and the ‘fluke’ discovery
Digital fight against breast cancer
Flu vaccine: A race against time
European initiative spearheads medical advances
New frontiers of imaging the human body
Food allergies
Mobility for all
Solar-powered disinfection
The fight against fat
Unveiling the mysteries of sleep
Number of Alzheimer’s patients set to increase

Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research, and the bio-economy

A photovoltaic oasis
Mapping out the future of Alpine glacier
A world without bees?
Tagging the eel
Rescuing European forests
Crusts, Crumbs and Chromatography
Food allergies
The quest for better rice

Secure, clean and efficient energy

Energy Saving
A photovoltaic oasis
Building energy efficient cities
Home green home
A tale of underground alchemy
Home green home
Spotlight on OLEDs
CO2 capture in great carbon roundup
Harvesting energy from the sea

Smart, green and integrated transport

A safer road ahead
“Smart” cars to help reduce road fatalities
Easier, cleaner and safer urban transport
Hydrogen: vector for clean energy
Further than the Orient Express

Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials

The Cloudbusters
Building energy efficient cities
Home green home
Ocean acidification
CO2 capture in great carbon roundup
Dustchasers seek answer to the Aral
Mercury falling
Harvesting energy from the sea
Easier, cleaner and safer urban transport
Shaping the future of shipping
Hydrogen: vector for clean energy
Weather Detectives
Getting to the bottom of Africa’s carbon figures

Inclusive, innovative and secure societies

High-tech textiles
Robots: man’s new best friend?
Technology for people living with dementia
Rescuing European forests
Robots designed to roam city streets
Developing intelligent fabrics
Robots learn to express emotions
A safer road ahead
Mobility for all
The robot child
Rehabilitation Robots
Independent Living
European Digital Library

[via] [Presentation on Horizon 2020] [Horizon 2020] [video page]

(via bloodredorion)

bloodredorion:

Programmable Matter

(Source: neo-technology)