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Best Drugs Based on Venoms: Turns Out, Pit Vipers Aren’t All Bad READ MORE
Rise of the corporate super hero
Any freak in a costume can sling webby wrist goo or pilot an invisible plane. But it takes a special breed of superhero to use the “higher authority close” to sell welding equipment to a steel fabricator.
At least that’s the conclusion of SmarterComics‘ new line of books, which transforms 300-page business best sellers into rock-’em-sock-’em graphic novels. Gone are the adamantium-clawed avengers. Instead, these books feature a new kind of mutant—wonky business writers endowed with bulging brainpans and killer neologisms.
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Virtual Reality Reinvents the Dream Home
The microwave flickers in my vision, and unseen people talk about kitchen countertops. In an instant, the tile on the walls changes from white to slate grey. The sink transforms from white to silver. The floors swap wood for tile.
When I take off the Oculus Rift headset, I'm transported out of this digital kitchen and back inside a Lowe's Home Improvement store in Fort Collins, Colo. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Is Virtual Reality the Ultimate Empathy Machine?
PHILIPPE BERTRAND HAS seen through the eyes of a child, a woman, a stranger, a close friend, and a disabled man. How? Virtual reality.
As one of the eight artists in the international art collective Be Another Lab, Bertrand spent months building and testing the technology behind The Machine to Be Another, a performance art piece that’s been traveling around the world. READ MORE
Meet the Brothers With a Bold Plan to Teach Every Kid to Code
IT’S NOT EASY changing a school’s curriculum locally, never mind globally. Yet in just two and a half years, twin brothers Hadi and Ali Partovi have influenced educators around the world through their nonprofit, Code.org. The initiative has introduced computer science to kids in 100,000 schools, from New Zealand and Argentina to Tanzania and Indonesia. READ MORE
Snakebots Are Transforming Robotics with Reprogrammable Software
Hate snakes? Take comfort in the fact that the slinky reptiles are providing inspiration in the robotics world as machines capable of reaching confined spaces that other robots and people cannot. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
When Artists Paint with Algorithms
Modern artists insist the technology is secondary, but new tools are enabling beautiful forms of human expression. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Going to War Against Cyberwarfare:
It’s not every day that you write a piece of code and three days later get a multimillion dollar investment from Michael Dell to turn it into a startup.
That’s the story for Amir Husain, who started Austin-based cybersecurity firm SparkCognition. Since it launched 14 months ago, the startup has attracted millions of dollars from investors including Dell’s firm MSD Capital and added 25 Fortune 100 customers to its roster. Revenues are on track to exceed $5 million in the next year, according to Husain. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Awesome Pizza, Killer App
How Domino’s built a Siri for pizza to deliver piping hot sales. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Public officials get schooled in big data
Universities arm a new class of government leaders with computer science and analytics skills. LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE
4 Ways Tech Will Put (Good) Food on Your Table by 2050
SALAD: THE FINAL frontier. Last week astronauts on the International Space Station proclaimed their space-grown, red romaine lettuce a success. How did it taste? The reviews to mission control in Houston were glowing: “That’s awesome. Tastes good.”
Back on Earth, humans are looking for innovative ways to satisfy the appetites of an estimated 9 billion people by 2050. Unless we rethink how to grow and consume food, we’re in for some real-life Hunger Games scenarios.
Luckily, the technology world is on the problem. Food tech is a hot market, with startups drumming up $1 billion from investors last year, according to research firm CBInsights. The most ambitious next-gen food technologies go beyond grocery delivery and subscription cooking services. Here’s a look at a few that promise to take a hacksaw to the food chain as we know it. READ MORE