This week on We are Living in the Future: It’s long been thought that there’s a limit on the efficiency of power plants, because electrons occasionally get stuck or confused and block the flow through the wires – like plaque in an artery, or a clog in a drainpipe. A new “thermoelectronic” device uses external [...]
Archive | February, 2013
Daily Quote: Richard Beck
“Goodness is, perhaps, more banal than heroic. Goodness is achieved through a million small acts of kindness, goodness, and generosity. Goodness is achieved through a million small acts of subversion, resistance, and protest. Millions of small Yes’s and millions of small No’s.” -Richard Beck, Experimental Theology
Daily Quote: Abdul Baha
“As difference in degree of capacity exists among human souls, as difference in capability is found, therefore, individualities will differ one from another. But in reality this is a reason for unity and not for discord and enmity. If the flowers of a garden were all of one color, the effect would be monotonous to [...]
Daily Quote: Mary Morrison
“Mystery–it is all around us, and we do not know it. But sometimes when we give it time and space, whether in deep peace or great anguish, it will come up behind us, or meet us face to face, or move within us, changing the way we see everything, and filling our hearts with joy [...]
Daily Quote: Adlai Stevenson
“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft.” -Adlai Stevenson
Living in the Future: Crystal “life”, Health-care via robot, and Gold-extracting bacteria
This week on We are Living in the Future: crystals that imitate some aspects of life, doctors who offer healthcare via robot telepresence, and bacteria that extract gold from sediment. While life has several characteristics that define it, including reproduction, metabolism, and mobility, most people agree that crystal and fire are not lifeforms. But scientists [...]
Daily Quote: Aldous Huxley
“Experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house. It is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and coordinating. Experience is not what happens to you; it [...]
