Future News & Copious Call-ins - SID report, Diablo Canyon Nuke plant, Lake Mead/Las Vegas Issues, NASA's DART Mission

Listen Now to Future News - August 30, 2022

We got a few Dr. F stories in, but boy, the phone lines were lit up today!  After our little discussion about our live show at the Stanford golf club restaurant with SID, the Society of Informational Displays, we got callers concerned about the upcoming extension of PG&E’s nuclear Diablo Canyon power plant, the last nuke plant in sunny California.  Lots of pros and cons around that, regarding CA senate bill, SB 846.  Not deterred, Dr. Future re-oriented the conversation towards space, and the DART mission, scheduled to knock an asteroid from its trajectory this coming September 26, Save the Earth! But callers wanted to talk about the drought stricken Lake Mead, Las Vegas drying up, and a Tesla equipped with a GM V-8 gas engine! Enjoy..

Future News and Views - Going for the Moon with Artemis 1 and Stowaway Science with Cubesats and 'Moonikins', Black Hole Speaks eerily, Voyager celebrates its 45th year in space.

Listen Now to Future News and Views 8.23.2022

It’s getting close now, the launching of NASA’s biggest effort in years, the Artemis 1 mission, which, after a hiatus of 50 years, will take us humans back to the moon. Like the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s way over budget and timelessly late, it nevertheless will finally launch in a few days from Cape Canaveral, if all goes well.  Much of the main mission will be discussed on mainstream media, but what caught our attention, are the secondary payloads of Artemis, the ten or so tiny Cubesat satellites that will be launched into space along the way to the moon, each with its own mission. The NEA Scout, for example, will unfurl its solar sail and head out in search of Near Earth Asteroids, and the Japanese Cubesat, OMOTENASHI, will attempt to land on the moon with the help on onboard thrusters and a giant airbag! The Italian Cubesat, ArgoMoon, will hover near the mothership and document the launch of it’s fellow Cubesats, before heading out into deep space to study the earth and the effects of deep radiation on it’s hardened technology. There is something for everyone on this mission, enjoy!

Future News & Solutions - So much for Addictive Personalities, Better health through young blood transfusion, Name that Exoplanet, Fusion advance, Virgin Orbits, Tesla Android, Repairing the Atmosphere

Listen Now to Future News and Solutions

Is there such a thing as an addictive personality?  Apparently, it’s not that simple, but more related to our individual reactions to the environment compounded by the mood in which we find ourselves.  We review some of the latest work in this arena.  Also, new rodent experiments with blood suggest there may be something to the vampire myths of old, in that senescence can be triggered in younger mice by transfusing them with elder blood.  But is the reverse also true? We take a closer look..also updates on the Virgin Orbit, Europa, Exoplanet naming, fusion advances, the Tesla Android, jokes, and fixing the atmosphere! Enjoy!

Virgin Orbit prepping for launch from Mothership

Future News - eVTOL Flights this Summer, Greenland Batteries, Ancient Future Vision, Search for Interstellar Object near New Guinea, The Blue Pearl and the Third Eye, Amazon, Roomba, and you.

Listen Now to Future News Now 8.9.2022

This could be the summer of eVTOL (electric Vertical Takeoff Landing) aircraft, the long held vision for practical flying cars and cheap and easy air flight.We have our eye on several companies in that race, one of them being the “Switchblade,” in Oregon, a hybrid machine that both flies and drives on the ground.  And to make it all the more greener to fly electric, the materials for the powerful batteries needed will soon be coming from Greenland rather than China or Africa, thanks to the discovery of a massive trove of critical minerals for hundreds of millions of electric vehicles.  Ironically, Greenland is ground zero for many impacts of climate change, but it could also become ground zero for the materials needed to be a solution to the crisis. 

Future News & Commentary - Monkeypox Update, Remembering Nichelle Nichols, Goldilock zones on Moon, Cartwheel Galaxy, Earth Spinning Faster, DALL-E 2 dream tool update, Protein Printer, Re-writing genetic heart conditions, Smartball for Canines, Clubhouse with Billy, AI in Westworld

Listen Now to Future News 8.02.2022

Lots to explore and chat about this week. We love the Carwheel Galaxy images from JWST, and that the moon has hundreds of temperate zones, where humans would feel comfortable with the temperature (63 degrees F), and that the visual drawing AI, DALL-E, has dramatically improved its ability to draw beautiful art from a simple description of a scene. And it looks like we have helped spawn a new ‘citizen scientist’ project with the advent of inexpensive ‘smart balls’ for canines, promising to dramatically increase their intelligence.  A ways to go but we gotta start somwhere!  Enjoy!

JSWT captures the large pink, speckled galaxy