Flu kills as many as 500,000 people annually worldwide. New generations of emerging superbugs have led researchers to forecast new flu pandemics, similar to that of 1918 that killed as many as 50 million. This simple discovery could avoid those pandemics and render flu as a manageable public-health concern.
Magic mushrooms in everything
Mushrooms – or, at least, the mycelium that makes up the network of fibers that supports and nourishes them – may be the new all-purpose material. MycoWorks, a young San Francisco company, has created a process to turn mushroom fibers into tables, rafts, bricks and construction tiles. The mycelium is cast into molds where fibers grow and entangle, then the...
Trendpost
From mushrooms to spider silk, engineers and entrepreneurs are taking inspiration from nature to make greener materials that perform virtually as well as conventional products. As consumers increasingly expect businesses to show an environmental ethic, nature-based materials will grow in demand and their inventors will profit.
From robots to co-bots
The speed with which robots and software are becoming more intelligent and more capable threatens to eliminate humans’ jobs ranging from manufacturing to accounting to journalism and the law. But in a Ford Motor Co. plant in Cologne, Germany, robots and people have found a way to co-exist. The plant uses specially designed “co-bots” to do tasks that require more...
Trendpost
The “co-bot” idea is under consideration at several manufacturing companies as a way to move more gently into a future in which robots outperform, and eventually replace, humans on the job.
Glass batteries: Lighter, more durable
Time to let go of lithium-ion batteries and get ready for lighter, longer-lasting lithium-air cells – especially now that a research team at MIT has figured out how to make them even lighter and get far more energy from them. Lithium-air batteries “inhale” air to use oxygen as part of their electrical reactions, eliminating the need for some metals and...
Trendpost
Lithium technology will continue to dominate the battery industry but configurations are changing. A challenge for research will be to create new batteries compatible with existing devices.
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Gerald Celente’s “Trends This Week,” a weekly show on the Progressive Radio Network, PRN.fm, airs live each Wednesday at 11 a.m. Trends This Week breaks down essential trends in economics, geopolitics, health and well-being, pop culture and more in classic Celente style. And, if you can’t catch the show live, you can listen 24/7 by accessing Trends This Week in the archives section...
Pregnancy and pot
Pregnant women who smoke pot endanger their children in a variety of ways, according to a study of studies done on the subject by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. Sifting the literature, the scientists found evidence in animals – and limited evidence from the few studies that have been done among humans – that pot and pregnancy don’t mix....
A picture of energy
That photo of Mom and Dad you keep on your desk also could be charging your cellphone. Researchers at Aalto University in Sweden have pioneered a way to turn photos into solar cells. Inks absorb light; that’s why we can see print. But, in absorbing light, inks also generate heat, although usually in amounts too small to detect. The Aalto...