Category: Special Edition — Tomorrow’s Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Buckle Up for Gene Drives of the Future!

by Jessalyn Ubellacker figure by Jovana Andrejevic Between September 1999 and June 2000, the first human genome was sequenced. Since then, scientists have learned not only to read the human genome, but also to manipulate it, offering unprecedented opportunities to improve human health through genetic alterations. One example of this is gene drive technology, which circumvents classical inheritance patterns to ‘drive’ the presence of particular … Continue reading Buckle Up for Gene Drives of the Future!

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

It’s All in the Mind: Insights to the development of mixed reality technology

by Busola Olukoya figures by Rebecca Senft In the past year, I was excited to see Ready Player One, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity Wars in theaters. What these three movies have in common – besides the action-packed storylines that kept me on the edge of my seat, gripping my boyfriend’s bicep until he was in a lot of pain – is their depiction of … Continue reading It’s All in the Mind: Insights to the development of mixed reality technology

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Organs-on-Chips: A promising future for therapeutic drugs

by Garrett Dunlap figures by Rebecca Clements  It’s no secret – pharmaceuticals are expensive for the patients who need them. One major reason for this is the cost and time needed to bring a drug to market. In our current medication pipeline, many drugs will ultimately fail during the process of development, which influences this cost. But could a better, less costly drug development process … Continue reading Organs-on-Chips: A promising future for therapeutic drugs

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

GDPR and the Challenges of Digital Memory

by Kiran Wattamwar Have you noticed the wave of privacy policy updates flooding your inbox from nearly any website you’ve interacted with? Whether it’s Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, social media platforms and other web-based services are updating their policies to meet the new requirements established by the General Data Protection Directive (GDPR), aimed to strengthen consumer privacy on the Internet. The GDPR follows the 1995 … Continue reading GDPR and the Challenges of Digital Memory

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Commercialized Space and You

by Matthew Smith figures by Bradley Wierbowski Step aside, NASA. The 20th century model of space exploration is running out of fuel, and private companies are now leading the race for human expansion across the galaxy. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos are three of the billionaires leading this extraterrestrial adventure with their respective companies, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin. Bezos, the founder … Continue reading Commercialized Space and You

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Smart Cities: Can tech improve our towns?

by Krissy Lyon  Think about your daily commute. How many times have you hit every green light while driving or stepped out your front door just in time to catch your bus? If you’re like me, then your answer is probably never. But what if you could catch the bus right on time every day? Hundreds of Silicon Valley companies already collect and analyze data … Continue reading Smart Cities: Can tech improve our towns?

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Even Silicon Valley’s Elite Age, but for How Long?

by Patrick Griffin figures by Abby Burrus There has been much talk in recent years about the disconnectedness of coastal elites, epitomized by Silicon Valley characters such as VC-mogul Peter Thiel and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their wealth and fame make them appear god-like, free of the mortal cares of middle-America. Yet, death, the great equalizer (it could also be said to be … Continue reading Even Silicon Valley’s Elite Age, but for How Long?

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Using Genetics to Fight Cancer: The pros and cons of direct-to-consumer testing

by Alyson Warr figures by Olivia Foster One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. This statistic makes breast cancer the leading cancer diagnosis for women in the US. With such staggering numbers, a focus on prevention is key: how can we stop breast cancer before it starts? One way is to develop fast and convenient methods of … Continue reading Using Genetics to Fight Cancer: The pros and cons of direct-to-consumer testing

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Computational Biomedicine: How data can revolutionize the patient experience

by Aparna Nathan Hospitals are churning out medical data at an unprecedented rate. 153 billion gigabytes of health care data were produced in 2013, and we’re expected to reach 2300 billion gigabytes per year by 2020. That’s almost 9 billion MacBooks’ worth of storage each year, not even counting the hundreds of thousands of genomes sequenced each year. It’s more than a human can process … Continue reading Computational Biomedicine: How data can revolutionize the patient experience

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Blog, Special Edition -- Tomorrow's Technology: Silicon Valley and Beyond

Retrofitting a Cleaner Future: How technology can counteract the negatives of coal-fired power plants

by Cheng-Kuan Lin figures by Sean Wilson President Trump has repeatedly promised to bring coal back to the US, but most experts believe coal-mining jobs will continue to disappear.  Natural gas plants are replacing coal power plants due to decreased costs and more stringent environmental regulations. Unfortunately, this trend does not hold true worldwide. In most countries, especially developing ones such as China and India, … Continue reading Retrofitting a Cleaner Future: How technology can counteract the negatives of coal-fired power plants

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