Beginning more than a hundred years ago, science fiction writers, early filmmakers, and, later, serious scientists explored the possibilities of human beings expanding beyond Earth to dwell in the Solar System. Whether on the Moon, on Mars, in hollowed-out asteroids, or in constructed space stations, the dream of our species breaking free from this wet rock on which we evolved has been a source of fascination. We're getting closer now to having the technological capability to make the attempt. Some would argue, in fact, that we could have had thriving colonies on the Moon for decades now, had the US and the USSR not cut back on their space programs in the 1970s. Join discussion...

Aging is one of the most complex biological processes we know of, and the human brain the most complex biological system. Unsurprisingly, that makes figuring out how aging affects our brains – affects those processes we really care about like learning, behaviour, and memory – enormously difficult. A whole host of gross-level neuroanatomical changes take place as we get older, but it’s unclear to what extent these can explain the cognitive deficits that characterize normal aging and diseases of age like Alzheimer’s. For example, while some parts of the hippocampus (a brain structure crucial for the formation of new memories, and linked to dementia) lose neurons as we age, other parts only grow more and more synaptic connections. Join discussion...

SAP TV shows us how new technology such as 3D printing and the IPhone in daily use. SAP is discovering the new possibilities by combined research and development with other companies. Join discussion...

Live 20 more years and you may never die, futurist claims By Dick Pelletier Much decorated entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil sums up how new technologies might play out over the next two decades with the following futuristic claim: “If you can remain in good health for 20 more years, you may never die.” Kurzweil looks at today’s technology trends to piece together a convincing picture of what science hopes to accomplish in the decades ahead. He believes we will eliminate all disease, pain, and forgetfulness; even most unwanted deaths. “If you live well for the next 20 years,” Kurzweil says, “you may be able to live in perfect health for as long as you want.” Though accidents, crime, wars, and terrorism could still cause death in this future time, nobody will die from heart disease, cancer, AIDS, malnutrition, or any of today’s illnesses. Join discussion...

Biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey expects many people alive today to live to 1000 years of age and to avoid age-related health problems even at that age. In this excerpt from his just-published, much-awaited book, Ending Aging, he explains how. Join discussion...

Design consultancy Frog design showcases their concept for the future of personal healthcare entitled Aura. The concept breathes core values such as simplicity, tranquillity, lightness, calmness, poetry etc. Aura was modelled against a backdrop shaped by trends such as an ageing population, the shift from remediation to prevention, a multidisciplinary (mind-body) but also more holistic approach to healthcare (Western & alternative) etc. Join discussion...

So, you want to take over the Galaxy. A good career move. Ultimately, you're hoping to communicate with extraterrestrials, colonize entire sets of star clusters, and eventually lord it over the entire Milky Way. Join discussion...

From the original description of the concept: nanotechnology is based on the concept of tiny, self-replicating robots. The utility fog is a very simple extension of the idea: suppose, instead of building the object you want atom by atom, the tiny robots linked their arms together to form a solid mass in the shape of the object you wanted? Then, when you got tired of that avant-garde coffee table, the robots could simply shift around a little and you'd have an elegant Queen Anne piece instead. Join discussion...

Nanolevel Replication Replication--the creation of something new from something old, that is also similar to the old and preserves the old--will make it possible for an assmbler to make copies of itself. This advancement is important because it will allow creation of goods on a scale previously unimagined, a scale that continues to grow exponentially. By the time such technology is developed, nanotechnology would have already been partially developed. The next step, then, is to integrate these two advancements. We will then have a unversal self-reproducing nanoassembler: Finally an end to material scarcity. Final liberation of the man and the control of mind over matter. A posthuman level, where turning all dumb matter into smart matter is finally possible. Join discussion...

From this year's annual Clinical Congress, the American College of Surgeons is profiling two new technologies that are showing great promise in animal and clinical trials. One is an experimental technique to make sutureless arterial anastomoses, and the other the device you might have seen on our pages before: Dr. Gurtner [Geoffrey C. Gurtner, MD, FACS, plastic surgeon at Stanford --ed.] described his new technique by first explaining that when he is trying to sew tiny blood vessels together, they tend to collapse because there is no blood in them, as clamps have been applied to hold blood back. As these floppy, hollow vessels become smaller and smaller, he has increasing difficulty putting sutures into them. One thing that is easy to do, however, is to fill them with fluid. Instead of attempting to stitch hollow, floppy vessels together, Dr. Gurtner explained, he fills the blood vessels with a liquid poloxamer already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other human-delivery purposes. He describes this material as a clear, colorless, hair-gel-like synthetic polymer. When the blood vessels are filled, he heats the liquid polymer using a convection blower, like a hair dryer. The liquid phases into a solid at 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and is solid at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Join discussion...