Friday Futures: sensory cocktails, clothes as batteries, listening to light

cocktails
Image credit: Volodymyr Goinyk / Shutterstock.com

Welcome to Friday Futures, our weekly guide to the latest visions of The Future from around the web. This week: sensory cocktails; saving the northern rhino; listening to light; coding: the next blue collar job; the story of the young Zuckerberg; biological transportation and really quiet planes.

The next big thing in cocktails – science and smell

Bartending is drawing on art and science to create sensory cocktails for adventurous drinkers. The extra effort to invent unique concoctions and heightened experiences comes at a time when 55% of Americans say they prefer drinking at home. Read more…

One day the Northern White Rhino may charge again

In March, the last male northern white rhinoceros (NWR) died, leaving behind just two females of the subspecies. Without any way to procreate naturally, it may look like the subspecies is nearing extinction. Read more…

Soon we might be able to ‘hear’ light

For millions of people with hearing impairment, getting a cochlear implant can be life-changing. These electronic devices can bypass the damaged part of a person’s ear, translating sounds into electrical signals that then reach the brain via the auditory nerve. Read more…

Our clothing will become our batteries

Engineers with the University of Cincinnati are leveraging a partnership with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to create clothing that can charge your cell phone. Move over, Iron Man. Read more…

Coding is the next blue collar job

When I ask people to picture a coder, they usually imagine someone like Mark Zuckerberg. But most are like Devon, a programmer who helps maintain a ­security-software service. He isn’t going to get fabulously rich, but his job is stable and rewarding: It’s 40 hours a week, well paid, and intellectually challenging. Read more…

NASA is testing really quiet planes

“The number one public complaint the Federal Aviation Administration receives is about aircraft noise,” says Mehdi Khorrami, an aerospace scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. He part of team of researchers across NASA who are figuring out ways to make planes quieter. Read more…

The future of transportation – according to the Hyperloop CEO

Almost five years ago, Elon Musk suggested that passenger pods could zip through a vacuum tube at breakneck speeds. People — some high-profile investors, dozens of universities, and pretty much anybody that’s ever been stuck on a plane — went bananas for it. Hyperloop was born. Read more…

Meanwhile, here is the story of Zuckerberg in College, knocking off the Friendster

Everyone who has seen The Social Network knows the story of Facebook’s founding. It was at Harvard in the spring semester of 2004. What people tend to forget, however, is that Facebook was only based in Cambridge for a few short months. Read more…

Video: Here is how to respond to spam (very funny): Watch now…

Video: Dan Gibson is on to a new project: “biological transportation,” which holds the promise of beaming new medicines across the globe over the internet. Learn more about how this technology could change the way we respond to disease outbreaks and ‘download’ your new prescription. Watch now…

(Compiled by Alex Leslie; Edited by John C. Tanner)

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