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• Sebastian Thrun on the Future of Learning

  Udacity cofounder and CEO Sebastian Thrun says more AI is coming to online education, but we’ll still need humans to grade our English essays.

  Sebastian Thrun has worn many hats in the tech world: Stanford research professor, founder of Google’s X Labs, where he oversaw the development of self-driving cars and Google Glass, and, most recently, passionate advocate for MOOCs—or massive open online courses—through Udacity, the online education startup he cofounded and runs (see “The Most Important Education Technology in 200 Years”).

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• Kickstarter Campaign Wants to Send Tiny Satellites out of Earth Orbit

  Researchers have launched a crowdfunding campaign for a propulsion system that could send loaf-sized satellites on interplanetary voyages.

  A mini-satellite, no bigger than a loaf of bread, could push itself out of Earth’s orbit as soon as next year if a crowdfunding campaign to support development of a diminutive propulsion system succeeds. If such small spacecraft can be made to operate far from Earth, they could one day make inexpensive expeditions to asteroids, Mars, and beyond.

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• Zappos CEO Bets $350 Million on a Las Vegas Startup Scene

  Tony Hsieh believes the formula for innovation is more “collisions” and, occasionally, llamas.

  Tony Hsieh doesn’t really like sports, but he loves llamas and community gatherings. So once a month during baseball season, the CEO of the online shoe retailer Zappos holds a company-sponsored parade led by a llama named Cusco. The marchers get free baseball caps and noisemakers as they make the trek from Las Vegas’s Fremont Street to nearby Cashman Field.

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• Finding Cancer Cells in the Blood

  Technologies that can pull tumor cells from patients’ blood are giving researchers an unprecedented look at cancer.

  In the near future, oncologists may be using a finger-size plastic chip with tiny channels to extract a dozen or so cancer cells from a sample of a patient’s blood. Those cells, called circulating tumor cells, could then be screened for genetic disruptions that an oncologist could target with drugs best suited to attacking the tumor. Continued sampling would give doctors a way to monitor whether a treatment is working and decide whether to add or change a drug as the malady evolves.

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• A Manufacturing Tool Builds 3-D Heart Tissue

  A layer-by-layer fabrication tool lets researchers quickly form complicated biological tissue in three-dimensional space.

  By adapting a programmable device used to manufacture integrated circuits, researchers have devised a semi-automated process to build polymer scaffolds for guiding the development of three-dimensional heart tissue. The method, which entails layer-by-layer fabrication, will enable more precise investigation of the three-dimensional cues that drive cells to organize and form tissue—and could serve as a platform for the development of implantable organ tissue.

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• Meet Atlas, the Robot Designed to Save the Day

  New humanoid robots will compete in a contest designed to test the ability of machines to take on extremely dangerous and high-stakes human jobs.

  The latest innovation from the U.S. Defense Department’s research agency, DARPA, is a humanoid robot called Atlas that looks as if it could’ve walked straight off the set of the latest Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster.

• A Sneak Peek of the National Grid on Renewables

  A government research facility uses a megawatt-scale simulator and supercomputer to test futuristic grid technologies without disrupting today’s grid.

  A new $135 million research facility aims to solve a puzzle: how can countries prepare for an energy system that relies heavily on renewable energy? It can also test ways to improve reliability under stress, for example when demand soars in the summer as the air-conditioning load taxes the grid.

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• Next in Wearable Computing: A Device for Dogs

  As Google Glass gains momentum, companies and researchers are trying to decide what will be the next big breakthrough in wearable technology.

  We’re just starting to see the early adopters of wearable computing wandering the streets gazing through Google’s head-worn computer or staring down at their Pebble smart watch. But a slew of researchers are already hard at work figuring out what will come next. Among the more outlandish ideas these researchers are experimenting with: sensors embedded in clothing and teeth, and—oh yes—a wearable computer designed just for dogs.

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• Cars Are Fast Becoming Smartphones on Wheels

  Wireless connections in cars are becoming faster and more capable, bringing new features, new services—and new problems.

  Most new cars roll off the production line today with as many sensors, computer chips, and lines of code as you’d find in a trunk-load of smartphones. What’s more, thanks to deals between carmakers and wireless carriers, cars increasingly come with high-speed, always-on, wireless connectivity—setting up both new kinds of services and a higher potential for distraction and malfeasance.

• Beijing’s Great Leap Forward

  One man, Kai-Fu Lee, did more than anyone else to turn the Chinese capital into a technology powerhouse.

  Cities all over the world have tried to duplicate Silicon Valley’s prowess at churning out startups and multibillion-dollar technology companies. But only one has emerged as a serious contender: Beijing.

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• Redesigned Window Stops Sound But Not Air, Say Materials Scientists

  By exploiting some exotic acoustic techniques, researchers have built a window that allows the passage of air but not sound

  

• Once a Joke, Battery-Powered Airplanes Are Nearing Reality

  Aerospace companies are working on hybrid electric airplanes, and the earliest versions will likely arrive before the end of the decade.

  Last month Siemens and EADS demonstrated a new gas-electric vehicle capable of carrying two people and their luggage 900 kilometers—roughly the distance from New York to Detroit—between refuels and recharges. The prototype was not a car, but a small two-seater airplane.

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• Rebelbook: A Mix of Technologies Let Dedicated Citizens Change Egypt

  Protesters rallied behind a printed petition—but modern technology also played a role.

  It started not with a Facebook group or Twitter hashtag but a paper form. The day before what may have been the largest protest in history (and undoubtedly the biggest in Egypt) Mahmoud Badr, spokesman for Tamarod – ‘Rebel’ in Arabic – announced that they had collected 22,134,465 documented signatures on petition sheets calling for President Morsi’s removal and new presidential elections. Although impossible to verify, the numbers Tamarod mobilized on the streets – one military source estimated 14 million Egyptians protested on June 30^th – told their own story.

• Other Interesting arXiv Papers (Week Ending 6 July 2013)

  The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint server

  Is The CMB Telling Us That Dark Matter Is Weaker Than Weakly Interacting?

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