Try looking online for images of ‘Antarctica’ and rest assured you will have a series of enchanted pristine white landscapes presented to you on a silver platter. Well that’s about to change as rising temperatures have boosted the growth rates of seasonal moss on the southern part of the continent over the last 50 years.
Dressed in its green uniform and proudly wearing a police hat, the first robotic officer will soon hit the streets of Dubai. It will patrol 24/7 city malls and tourist attractions, citizens will be able to use its buil-in touchscreen pad to report crimes, pay fines or just ask any question you would ask to a human police officer.
Meet Grovio, a smart and wireless assistant to add to your smart home. Using specialized sensors, Wi-Fi networks and a built-in thermometer, this white cylinder tracks the light, temperature and humidity of your surroundings, and informs you about it in real time. Did we already mention Grovio was developed for plants?
Ever wondered what future geologists will find in the Earth crust of the 20th century? Surely nuclear waste, plastic, but also a lot of fossilized chicken bones. The Pink Chicken Project wants to genetically modify chickens with pink bones and feathers in order to mark our geological age, the Anthropocene, and leave a message to the next ones to come – whoever they might be.
We warmly welcome newly appointed fellow Leanne Wijnsma to the Next Nature Network. Her award-winning project The Smell of Data, a scent dispenser to warn Internet users from digital hazards online, was developed in partnership with NNN, and has been broadly covered by (inter)national media outlets. Exclusively for our readers, Wijnsma made a documentary series following her search for a more instinctive Internet. We will share it on nextnature.net in a five-part weekly series. Introducing part one: Digital Jungle.
Humans and computers have a long history of competing when it comes to playing board games. From Wolfgang Von Kempelen’s ‘Turk’ (a mechanical chess-playing machine which eventually turned out to be operated by a small human) to the infamous match between IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue versus human chess genius Garry Kasparov. Another victory can be added to computer wins, as Go world champion Ke Jie has just lost two games of ‘Go’ against Google’s DeepMind AI system AlphaGo.
Always wanted to own a piece of art for yourself? Then we might have some good news for you. The museum for contemporary art in Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum, has added The In Vitro Meat Cookbook to its public art collection, hence it is officially art! The book, containing 45 speculative recipes with lab-grown meat, was part of last year’s exhibition Dream Out Loud – Designing for Tomorrow’s Demands. You can find our award-winning art piece on our web shop.
Fasten your seat belts, Air New Zealand is equipping its flight attendants with augmented reality headsets to explore in-flight optimization. The project, currently in beta testing, uses Microsoft’s Hololens technology to improve inflight customer service, giving passengers a glimpse of what the future of air travel might look like.
We have noticed you are a frequent visitor to our website. Do you think we are doing a good job? Support us by becoming a member.
Join
