The Future This Week: Electric Cars and Robot Fingers

In The Future This Week, Serious Wonder takes a peak into the headlines of our technologically advancing society, exploring the dexterity of robotic phalanges and self-healing implants, to record breaking electric cars and the terraforming of other planets.

The future holds many great unknowns for us, especially as we try peaking farther and farther away. What is clear, though, given the recent news stories in the fields of science and technology, is that our future – both near and far – is going to be a rollercoaster ride for all of us.

What you’re about to see is merely a taste of what is to come. Welcome to the future!

BYU engineering students build an electric car that broke a new world land speed record by nearly 50 mph. SOURCE

Scientists in the Netherlands successfully planted 14 plant species in soils that simulated Martian and lunar surfaces. SOURCE

Researchers at MIT and Northeastern University equip robots with tactile sensors, enabling greater dexterity and coordination. SOURCE

In France, citizens will now be able to purchase their own 4-inch USB gene sequencer for around $1,000. SOURCE

DARPA launches new project, aiming to develop implants which trigger self-healing capabilities for soldiers. SOURCE

16-year-old student in India develops a breath-to-speech translation device that will “monitor variations in breath and generate two distinguishable signals,” which will be “further processed as a binary language and synthesised into speech accordingly.” SOURCE

Photo Credit: Popular Science