Technology

27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012. We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here.

From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year. 1. Quadriplegic Uses Her Mind to Control Her Robotic Arm At the University of Pittsburgh, the neurobiology department worked with 52-year-old Jan Scheuermann over the course of 13 weeks to create a robotic arm controlled only by the power of Scheuermann’s mind. The team implanted her with two 96-channel intracortical microelectrodes. 2. Once the robot figures out how to do that without all the wires, humanity is doomed. 3.

Photo Courtesy of Indigo Moon Yarns. At the University of Wyoming, scientists modified a group of silkworms to produce silk that is, weight for weight, stronger than steel. 4. Using an electron microscope, Enzo di Fabrizio and his team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa snapped the first photos of the famous double helix.Source: newscientist.com / via: davi296 5. 6. 7. 8. Atomic-scale magnetic memory. The world's smallest bit Scientists from IBM Research have been investigating and controlling matter on an atomic scale for decades.

So, naturally, their latest quest would involve greatly decreasing the storage capacity needed for one bit of data, which on today's computers stands at about 1 million atoms. They set out to develop the ultimate memory chips of the future. Starting at the very beginning of density—single atoms—they created the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit and answered the question of how many atoms it takes to reliably store one bit of magnetic information at a low temperature: 12. By studying the behavior of atoms, researchers can identify crucial factors for building smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices for business and consumers. A history of innovation As one of the last remaining industrial labs, IBM continues to emphasize fundamental science and investment in R&D. Archive & [CES 2010] RCA Airnergy Charger Harvests Electricity From WiFi Signals.

By Evan Ackerman This thing is, seriously, the highlight of CES for me (so far) this year. 3D TVs and eBook readers are fine, but there’s nothing amazing about them.

The Airnergy Charger is amazing. This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.

The Airnergy has a battery inside it, so you can just carry it around and as long as you’re near some WiFi, it charges itself. Here is the really, really unbelievable part: RCA says that the USB charger will be available this summer for $40, and a battery with the WiFi harvesting technology will be available soon after. Top 10 Clever Uses for Dropbox.