November Ideas and Innovation

Read the articles selected in November 2016

Study sees slant to search

di Jack Nicas

Source: The Wall Street Journal Europe, 23 November

A quite contested study on Google’s websites accuses this search engine of political bias in a liberal direction. Anyway, the report raises concerns about the control by a few subjects over the public sphere and on technology’s impact on society and democracy.

See attached

The world’s tallest modular building may teach cities to build cheaper housing

by Liz Stinson

Source: Wired, 23 November

461 Dean is the Brooklyn’s residential tower made of 363 pre-fab apartments on 32 stories put on a triangular plot of land. In spite of the troubles in building it, this kind of modular architecture seems to be promising for the future of cities, in terms of costs and time.

A bet about a cherished theory of physics may soon pay out

Source: The Economist, 12 November

Wrong theories in science can move progress, and the fascination of someones like Susy, a unifying story about matter and energy that would solve many puzzles in physics, though not proved, are beautiful and can inspire new ideas.

Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are remaking themselves around AI

by Cade Metz

Source: Wired, 21 November

On the new front in the AI wars, the biggest Internet companies are re-shaping their deep learning systems in cloud computing services, trying to accelerate the progress of artificial intelligence across their own organizations but building online tools that anybody can use to build their own technology.

CRISPR gene-editing tested in a person for the first time

by David Cyranoski

Source: Nature, 15 November

The CRISPR- Cas9 technique has been used for the first time in the clinic, injecting a patient with genetically edited cells. This clinical trial is a promising revolution for the treatment of several cancers but its efficacy and safety are still under evaluation.

Rise of digital DNA raises biopiracy fears

by Kelly Servick

Source: Science, 17 November

Next month at an international meeting in Cancun, Mexico will be discussed how to extend the Nagoya Protocoll on the use of genetic resources to digital DNA sequences. The question is how to justify a benefit-sharing if a company can’t reach a physical native genetic source in the open-access culture of research.

Giant corporations are hoarding the world’s AI talent

by Cade Metz

Source: Wired, 17 November

Many big companies are soaking up startups with a big know-how in machine learning and so small software companies with the mission to create tools anyone could use to build deep neural networks to be applied in physical wares are disappearing into these techno giants.

Astronaves en Argentina

by Enrico Fantoni

Source: El País, 17 November

An object of a cultural rediscovery is the architectural work of Francesco Salomone, who in the ‘Thirties realized in Saldungaray and in the Buenos Aires suburbs more than sixty monumental and déco buildings with a technique based on the massive use of reinforced concrete.

Facebook manages to squeeze an AI into its mobile app

by Cade Metz

Source: Wired, 8 November

A Facebook’s new app can transform a photo on a smartphone in a Cubist or Pop-art image through a special filter. After Google injected artificial intelligence into its Google Translate app, now Facebook is pushing neural networks onto smartphones.

Read more:

https://www.wired.com/2016/11/fb-3/

VR is totally changing how architects dream up buildings

by Sam Lubell

Source: Wired, 9 November

In a virtual building, you can move in all directions, explore every angle, every material, every shadow in a space that is not “hard” but fluid. The use of virtual reality in architecture improves the participation of clients to the project and changes the space building.

Asì quiere “volar” Hyperloop

by Alvaro Ibáñez 'Alvy'

Source: El País, 10 November

The concourse launched by Elon Musk to realize Hyperloop, the eco-friendly capsule which will travel long distances through large tubes, has seen Waterloo university present the project Waterloop with a levitation system based on a mechanism of compressed air.

Today in LoLol: Hyperloop pods that “hyperjump” out of the tube

by Alex Davies

Source: Wired, 8 November

Hyperloop One, the company which proposed Hyperloop, is going to build it in Dubai. They have not yet figured out how safe is to travel through tubes beyond the sound barrier, but they know exactly what they want to sell: time.

What Silicon Valley can learn from Buddha’s diet

by Cade Metz

Source: Wired, 31 October

Silicon Valley is a product of American counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s, that challenged the post-industrial society and its giant creations like IBM. The hippie inheritance is in its vision of technology as something that makes us more human and is reflected in the daily life of Google.

Engineers debut the acoustic prism

by Knvul Sheikh

Source: Scientific American, November 2016

It’s time to think about living in parking garages

by Aarian Marshall

Source: Wired, 2 November

In Seattle a future of shared transportation is ready. No empty cars on the horizon, no parking buildings just for cars. A new project will build a tower, the tallest in the city, which includes, with residential units and offices, four levels of parking designed to be adapted someday for residential use.

Missile tracking

Source: The Economist, 5 November

Liposomes squeezed between cancerous tissues to deliver anti-cancer drugs can go astray. A new PET technique can track where the liposomes are going to individual patients and the success of the therapy, permitting a treatment more tailored to the patient.

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Pubblicato il : 20/12/2017
Modificato il : 04/04/2019

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