Sensors, Sensors
They're coming, a whole lot of them, and soon, the already saturated airwaves will have even more data using up frequency gaps. (Data smog anyone? or just dasmog?) They will also be a whole lot better than the sensors of today. Today's sensors are usually stationary data collectors that send data to a central processor for dissemination and interpretation. Tomorrow's will create wireless, intelligent networks that will not only share information, but also interpret and make decisions based on the information at hand. (I remember reading an article a little while back about the same concept being used to produce small, sub-orbital satellites that can link up and create networks, thereby increasing their usefulness and intelligence.) The range of applications for such devices can be anything from monitoring industrial processes, buildings and large scale infrastructure (bridges, roads, etc.), vehicles, climate conditions, all the way to military applications. The US DARPA has been investing heavily in this area in the last few years. Just imagine drones dropping thousands of little 'insects' into enemy territory before the invasion forces hit the ground - now imagine those sensors relaying back enemy troops movement, battlefield conditions, etc. That's enough to make any three star general salivate. Read the article from MIT Technology Review, or download the PDF that has some cool pictures!
The first chef
First came fire ... and then, as the camera shifts to the soon to be late-village idiot, you're left wondering -- just what was going through that mind -- and food is put on the fire, for the first time, and cooking is accidentally discovered by humanity. The first chef is ridiculed by grunts, then the local thug tries a sample of the burnt carcass, and soon, everybody gets queued at the McDonalds drive-thru. What happened? Richard Wrangham of Harvard believes there's more to cooking than evolutionary history would have you believe. Wrangham points out that there is no way homo sapiens could survive on just raw food. Raw food just doesn't give up calories as easily as cooked food -- and raw food makes the digestive system expend more energy to get at those calories. Cooking on the other hand breaks complex molecules down, allowing the digestive system to make easy work of them -- and cooking also softens food, allowing the body to get to the calories with less effort...
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