Future 10 August 2025 - 19 August 2025

nuclear fusion
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Fusion Energy Frenzy: Are We Closer Than Ever to Unlimited Clean Power?

China’s EAST tokamak set a world record in January 2025, sustaining high-performance fusion plasma for 1,066 seconds. ITER in France, funded by 33 countries, targets first plasma in 2035 but faces delays and cost overruns. The US NIF achieved fusion ignition in December 2022. Net power from fusion remains unproven, despite recent milestones.
August 19, 2025
Cosmic Gold Rush
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Cosmic Gold Rush: Inside the 2025 Race to Harvest Asteroid Riches

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx returned 121.6 grams of asteroid Bennu material to Earth in 2023, the largest sample yet. The Psyche mission, launched in 2023, targets the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, valued at $10,000 quadrillion, for a 2026 rendezvous. AstroForge received the first FCC deep-space mining license in late 2024 and plans two asteroid missions in 2025. China launched Tianwen-2 on May 29, 2025, to collect samples from Kamoʻoalewa.
August 19, 2025
Neuromorphic Computing: The Brain-Inspired Tech Revolutionizing AI and Beyond
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Neuromorphic Computing: The Brain-Inspired Tech Revolutionizing AI and Beyond

Neuromorphic computing uses networks of artificial neurons and synapses on computer chips to mimic the structure and function of the human brain. These chips process and store information together, using spiking neural networks that activate only when needed, which sharply reduces energy use. The field began in the 1980s with research by Caltech’s Carver Mead.
August 19, 2025
Pig Neurons in Human Brains? The 2025 Reality Check on Neuron Xenotransplantation—Breakthroughs, Risks, and What Happens Next
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Pig Neurons in Human Brains? The 2025 Reality Check on Neuron Xenotransplantation—Breakthroughs, Risks, and What Happens Next

Porcine interneuron precursors have successfully engrafted and functioned in rodents and an epileptic sea lion. Human neurons and glia have integrated into animal brains in research settings. In 2024–2025, FDA-cleared kidney xenotransplant trials began enrolling, and regulators updated guidance, but neuron xenotransplantation in humans has not yet started. Advances in CRISPR and immune-shielded pigs have improved safety foundations.
August 18, 2025
Yamanaka Factors Are Resetting Aging Cells
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Rewinding the Clock: How Yamanaka Factors Are Resetting Aging Cells

In 2022, 124-week-old mice treated with inducible OSK via AAV9 and a 1-day-on/6-days-off cycle lived about twice as long in remaining lifespan, with a 9–12% median lifespan extension. Earlier studies showed partial reprogramming with OSKM extended lifespan and improved tissue function in mice. Human cell experiments reset aging markers by about 30 years. Safety concerns, including cancer risk, remain unresolved.
August 18, 2025
IBM Quantum Supercomputer
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IBM’s 4,000-Qubit Quantum Supercomputer Could Change Computing Foreve

IBM plans to build a 4,158-qubit quantum supercomputer by 2025 by linking three 1,386-qubit Kookaburra chips in its Quantum System Two platform. The company powered up the first System Two in late 2023, running three 133-qubit Heron processors. The new system will operate in the NISQ regime, using error mitigation rather than full error correction. Competitors include Google, IonQ, Quantinuum, and D-Wave.
August 17, 2025
Asteroid Classifications and Their Mining Potential
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Asteroid Minerals: Mining C-Type, S-Type & M-Type Space Rocks Worth Trillions

C-type asteroids make up over 75% of known asteroids and are rich in water and organics, while S-types contain significant metals including platinum and gold. M-type asteroids, though rare, hold vast iron-nickel and platinum-group metals. NASA's Psyche mission launched in 2023 to study asteroid 16 Psyche, and OSIRIS-REx returned Bennu samples in 2023. Launch costs have dropped below $2,000 per kilogram.
August 17, 2025
Senolytic Drugs
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The Secret “Zombie Cell” Killers: Niche Senolytic Drugs Fighting Aging’s Clock

A Mayo Clinic-led Phase 2 trial published July 2024 found dasatinib plus quercetin modestly increased wrist bone density in older women with high senescent-cell burden. Unity Biotechnology’s foselutoclax improved vision in diabetic macular edema patients after a single injection. About 20 senolytic clinical trials are underway worldwide, with Alzheimer’s disease results expected in 2025.
August 17, 2025
Inside the Race to Scout and Mine Space’s Richest Rocks
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Asteroid Gold Rush: Inside the Race to Scout and Mine Space’s Richest Rocks

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx returned 250 grams of carbon- and water-bearing soil from Bennu in September 2023. The Psyche probe launched in October 2023 to a metal-rich asteroid valued at $10 quadrillion, with arrival set for 2029. China’s Tianwen-2 will attempt a sample return from Kamoʻoalewa by 2027. Private ventures and international agreements are shaping the future of asteroid resource extraction.
August 16, 2025
Deep-Water Wind - Floating Turbines
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Deep-Water Wind Revolution: Floating Turbines Set to Transform Offshore Energy

Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating wind farm, began operation in 2017 with five spar-buoy turbines totaling 30 MW and a 54% capacity factor. By mid-2025, global floating wind capacity reached about 200–250 MW, with Europe accounting for 208 MW by late 2023. Industry forecasts expect 6–7 GW operational worldwide by 2030. Current costs exceed $200/MWh but are projected to drop sharply by 2050.
August 16, 2025
Bottling Power in CO₂ - Compressed Carbon Dioxide Could Revolutionize Energy Storage
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Bottling Power in CO₂: How Compressed Carbon Dioxide Could Revolutionize Energy Storage

A CO₂ Battery stores surplus electricity by compressing and liquefying CO₂, then recovers power by reversing the process through turbines. The system delivers 66.7 kWh per cubic meter, uses standard industrial parts, and avoids lithium or rare metals. Energy Dome’s Sardinia pilot began in 2022; commercial units are planned in Italy, Wisconsin, and India. Google has partnered to expand global deployment, including in Oman.
August 16, 2025
Perovskite - flexible solar cells
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Perovskite Solar ‘Stickers’ Are Almost Here: How Flexible Laminates Could Turn Walls, Cars & Roofs into Power Plants

A flexible perovskite module with WVTR ≈ 5.0 × 10⁻³ g/m²/day retained 84% of its power after 2,000 hours at 85°C/85% RH. Japan is subsidizing Sekisui Chemical to build a 100 MW film-type perovskite plant by 2027. A Chinese startup unveiled a 1.2 m × 1.6 m flexible module rated 260–300 W and weighing 2.04 kg. Several manufacturers have passed IEC reliability tests for flexible perovskite modules.
August 15, 2025
Smart Fabrics with Sensors
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Smart Fabrics with Sensors: The Wearable Tech Revolution You Didn’t See Coming

The global smart fabrics market reached $6–8 billion in 2024, with defense accounting for 29% of revenue. Recent products include Google’s touch-sensitive Jacquard jacket, Cornell’s exercise-tracking SeamFit shirt, and Cambridge’s AI sleepwear. The U.S. intelligence community’s SMART ePANTS program received $22 million in 2023. Sports and fitness is the fastest-growing sector, expanding at about 35% annually.
August 15, 2025
LoRaWAN is Transforming Smart Cities and Farms
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The Long-Range IoT Revolution: How LoRaWAN is Transforming Smart Cities and Farms

Over 350 million LoRaWAN devices were connected worldwide by mid-2024, with forecasts topping 3.5 billion by 2030. Montevideo deployed 70,000 LoRaWAN streetlights to cut energy use by up to 80%. LoRaWAN supports long-range, low-power sensors in cities and farms, and by 2024, at least three firms offered LoRaWAN-from-space via satellite gateways. The ecosystem includes over 500 member companies.
August 15, 2025
How Engineering Nature’s Catalysts is Transforming Medicine, Food & the Planet
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The Enzyme Revolution: How Engineering Nature’s Catalysts is Transforming Medicine, Food & the Planet

The global industrial enzyme market was valued at $9 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $13.8 billion by 2027. Advances include the 2022 development of FAST-PETase, a machine-learning-designed enzyme that breaks down plastic waste in 24 hours, and a 2024 report of a highly evolved CRISPR-Cas enzyme variant with low off-target activity.
August 14, 2025
Laser Reflectors are Revolutionizing Satellite Communications
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How Laser Reflectors are Revolutionizing Satellite Communications

NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration in 2013 achieved 622 Mb/s downlink from lunar orbit. In June 2023, MIT’s TBIRD CubeSat set a record with a 4.8 TB transfer in five minutes. By 2024, Europe’s SpaceDataHighway logged over 80,000 laser links and 2.5 petabytes downloaded. In December 2023, NASA linked the ISS to its LCRD optical relay, completing a two-way laser relay.
August 14, 2025
Fuel Cell Revolution: How Hydrogen Power is Transforming Transportation, Energy and Tech in 2025
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Fuel Cell Revolution: How Hydrogen Power is Transforming Transportation, Energy and Tech in 2025

The global fuel cell electric vehicle market is valued at $3 billion in 2025, with annual growth over 20%. About 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations operate worldwide; Japan has 160, Germany over 100. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act offers up to $3/kg for hydrogen production. Hyundai’s XCIENT fuel cell trucks in Switzerland surpassed 4 million kilometers by 2025.
August 13, 2025
Uploading Minds - Whole Brain Emulation - WBE
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Uploading Minds: The Race for Whole Brain Emulation (WBE) and Its Profound Implications

Researchers mapped the full adult fruit fly brain in 2023, charting 139,000 neurons and 54 million synapses. In 2025, the MICrONS project published a 1 mm³ mouse visual cortex map with half a billion synapses among 75,000 neurons. The human brain contains about 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. The nematode C. elegans connectome, completed in 1986, has 302 neurons.
August 12, 2025
No-Code AI Revolution --- How Non-Techies Are Building Machine Learning Models
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No-Code AI Revolution: How Non-Techies Are Building Machine Learning Models

A nurse informaticist used a no-code tool to build a hospital readmission prediction model without coding. Platforms like Google Cloud AutoML and DataRobot automate model building for non-technical users. Analysts expect up to 65% of new app development to be no-code or low-code by 2025. Limitations include less customization, opaque models, and integration challenges.
August 10, 2025
Vertical Solar Farms
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Vertical Solar Farms: How Bifacial Panels Are Revolutionizing Solar Energy in 2025

Japan’s Ashikaga City installed a vertical solar farm in May 2024, yielding 5% less rice but selling power to Marubeni. Austria’s 2022 vertical PV plant with 4,500 modules saw only minor damage and no manual cleaning needed. Upfront costs for vertical bifacial systems in Austria reach €200,000 per MW, higher than traditional setups. Japan’s industry group projects 20–30% annual growth for vertical installations in snowy regions.
August 10, 2025
Sodium-Ion Batteries
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Sodium-Ion Batteries Are Coming – Cheaper, Safer and Poised to Disrupt Lithium-Ion

CATL announced a second-generation sodium-ion cell with 175 Wh/kg energy density, targeting mass production by December 2025. China’s HiNa and Datang connected a 100 MWh sodium-ion storage farm in Hubei in July 2024. JAC began serial production of a sodium-ion EV in January 2024. Natron Energy opened North America’s first mass-production sodium-ion battery plant in Michigan in 2022.
August 10, 2025
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