On June 24 CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman began his journey up and down the East Coast in search for new and interesting technology, research and development. Throughout the tour Terdiman will stop at NASA, the Naval Academy, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. His latest stop was the Media Lab at MIT where he took a look at some groundbreaking technological advances, a few of are definitely worth mentioning:

-NETRA, or near-eye tool for refractive assessment, is a smartphone application and device combo that would provide large numbers of people around the world with quick and easy eye tests, similar to what is available in a doctor’s office. An application of this kind could easily serve the 2 billion people with refractive issues, especially those in rural areas.

-Electrodermal sensors fitted to autistic children will help occupational therapists during sessions better understand the child’s emotional moods and work constructively. These sensors are the combination of biosensors, artificial intelligence and assistive technologies.

-The CityCar, better referred to as the folding vehicle, can fit into the tiniest parking spaces and could radically change urban environments. The battery-electric car is expected to average at least 150 miles per gallon, can rotate on its own axis- 360°- park sideways, and because there is no central engine it can be folded into a smaller vehicle.

What could the CityCar mean for the energy crisis? Do you think applications like NETRA will help developing countries become more competitive?

On Monday, Steve Jobs announced the phone that we’ve been waiting to hear about all year: The Iphone 4G! This phone is 10x more impressive than the last Iphone 3G and I can tell you that I am very impressed. I am definitely buying the new Iphone and can’t wait to get it in the palms of my hands, regardless of the long lines!. Enough talk, let’s see what the new Iphone has to offer. It comes with 100 new features, so take a look here at some of the best ones.

Features of the iPhone 4

9.3 mm thick (that’s 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS)
Front-facing camera
Micro SIM
LED flash for the camera
A second microphone for sound cancellation
Integrated antennas
Glass on the front and the back
326 pixels per inch display
Powered by Apple’s A4 chipset

FaceTime brings video chat to the iphone 4G

This front-facing camera is going to be very useful to make video calling.
Here’s a video to see how this works:

A huge improvement is: A bigger battery. This means the Iphone can last a lot longer than before!!
7 hours of 3G talk time
6 hours of 3G browsing
10 hours of wifi browsing
10 hours of videos
40 hours of music
300 hours in standby

Also,check out the integrated antennas
If you look at the edge of the iPhone 4G, you can see 3 lines that are part of the structure of the device. With the iPhone 4G, Apple introduced something new.

Retina Display makes the iPhone 4G an HD device

Retina Display dramatically increases the pixel density by 4 in the same amount of space.The result is that you get far more precised display.

What do you think of the iPhone 4? I’m personally really excited about FaceTime…Are you impressed?

With SXSW currently underway, there is a giddiness in the air about the newest toys in technology. This excitement does not stop with the latest new gadget in the show, but also in new applications of technology in the medical field. The stethoscope is becoming obsolete, as vital signs can now be monitored and sent to a smart phones via a special band-aid. With this feature you can check more than just your email on your phone, rather you can check your blood pressure, cardiac rhythms, respiration rate, sleep patterns, and more. This wireless technology is helping free up more hospital beds, is keeping people safer, and becoming as easy as an application you simply download on your phone.

Technology is booming.

With technology’s growth and advancement increasing at an exponential rate, every month there is a new product to know about and want. This progress is leaving TV’s, desktops, landlines, paper charts, and large incision surgeries obsolete. People want the newest, flashiest, easiest, and fastest toys, creating an environment of survival of the fittest.

Evolution has been occurring over billions of years, creating RNA then DNA, cognition, motor coordination, and consciousness. From there, humans were able to invent the wheel, a written language, and technology. Now, however, our invention of new technological products is changing the traditional natural selection into technological selection. Technology has become so intertwined into our survival, with its ability to screen for diseases and treat people, that the concept of natural selection is no longer natural. A concept called ‘reverse biology’ is allowing technology to help save lives. This is seen by early detection and therefore treatment of diseases due to the ease of genetic sequencing, in vitro fertilization due to precise microscopes and techniques,  and treatment of certain diseases via gene targeting possible due to numerous collaborative advancements made within biotechnology. Now, people who would not have survived, can and people who would not have reproduce, will.

This progress is showing no sign of stopping as technology grows upon itself at an accelerating rate. No longer are the weak filtered out of society, rather it is all about survival of the fittest new technological toy.  These toys, in turn, are changing the course of our own survival.

[via TED]

With the number of different social media interfaces that keep people connected, it’s not surprising that people are coming together at an increasing rate to work in collaboration. This, however, is a concept that has been in the scientific community since the beginning.  Take genetic engineering, for example.

Genetic engineers are literally just as their name suggests, engineers who work with genes. They are scientists who can essentially create new organisms, using smaller organisms such as yeast or bacteria, by changing the DNA sequence or expression within the creature. This allows them to create synthetic organisms that can do whatever they need, from smelling like bananas to creating electricity from sunlight.

These different attributes can literally be picked out of a database of DNA sequences that encode the desired function called the BioBrick and “snapped” together like Legos to create the desired affect. Literally, the protocol to generate an organism is to choose sequences of DNA, string them together, and insert them into the bacteria or yeast (of course, this is the highly simplified protocol).

Through this database of known sequences, scientists have been having much more successful results with more ease. This is only possible because of the collaboration seen among the scientific community in sharing the information they have learned in hopes of leading to a larger finding. Scientists take part in this endless progress, because it can lead to anything: from safe, clean batteries to banana smelling LCD screens.

The functionality is priceless, yet could be one day as easy as playing with Legos.

[via NYT]

We have been noting how technology and social media has changed society and how we spend our time. While we may be spending more and more time on social media interfaces, technology has also allowed us to save more and more time doing tedious work. This is prominently seen in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in one of their most exciting breakthroughs:

Taking medicine to target the symptoms will soon be a thing of the past, something that dates us, like knowing a time before the Internet and cell phones. Using the infinite progress technology has given society, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have changed the way science and medicine is done. While only 57 years ago, we did not even know the structure of DNA; now we can sequence entire genomes for a mere $50,000!

Dr. Quake’s new machine for sequencing genomes is going to revolutionize the manner in which medicine is practiced by easing the process of genome sequencing. This in turn will increase our bank of fully sequenced human genomes, currently at a grand total of seven, and allow for scientists to find the differences among people’s genomes. Thus, allowing medicines of the future to target not just a cough or scratchy throat, but the root of the disease and “fix” it. This new boom in biotechnology is the first step in creating the cure for some of the most deadly diseases afflicting humans. How much more progress can you ask for?

Technology has truly changed our society by bringing people together, sharing information, saving time, saving money, and now saving lives!