Off the Wire: Spidey skills

I'm going to be posting comments about a Wired article every week.

This week's article details how DARPA is funding research into Spiderman skills. Apparently, they'd like soldiers to be able to climb walls like Spidey. While I have to admit this sounds really cool, I can't help feeling these tech guys are serious uber-geeks. I'm a mild tech geek, but I hate to think what some hard-core geeks with a billion dollar budget can do. How long until we have light sabres? Terminator robots? Bionic soldiers?

A team of chemical engineers at Cornell have created a palm-sized device that could one day turn troops into human wall crawlers, using an adhesive bond inspired by beetles.

No surprise that Darpa, the Pentagon agency often inspired by sci-fi, is behind this one. They’ve been funding superhero efforts for years, from Superman X-Ray vision to human flight via cannonball (well, sorta). Spider-Man capabilities have been a top priority too, in hopes that troops might one day scale verticals “without the need for rope or ladder.”

You can get the full scoop here:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-researchers-create-spider-man-gadgetry-for-real-life-wall-crawlers/

Stay inspired!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Singularity University and Nanotech materials

I'm sure all of you have heard of nanotech -- molecular-size technology. I thought I knew a lot about it between all the articles I've read and the all the sci-fi movies I've seen featuring tissue rebuilds to the grey goo nightmare scenario. Well, I came across a Wired article about Singularity University's lecture series in the area.


http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/singularity-university-rearranging-atoms-with-ralph-merkle/

Check these out:

• Respirocytes which could "carry oxygen in the bloodstream so you can hold your breath for an hour"
• Microbivores which could "eliminate diseases more rapidly than the body’s own system"
• Chromallocytes which could "remove chromosomes in a cell and replace them with a new set" 
• Space Transport Vehicle which could "transport 4 passengers into space for a few thousand dollars"
  

 In case you haven't heard of Singularity University before, here's the About Us summary:

Singularity University (SU) is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, SU hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. SU is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley.

Stay inspired!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi