Squirting a little nasal spray up the nose before mealtime is helping obese people shed an average of 50 lbs in a year. Nastech Pharmaceutical Company of Bothell, WA said its compound, known as PYY, addresses obesity and other ailments suffered by overweight patients – diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. Statistics show that 65% of Americans are overweight and nearly half of them are considered obese. In an Associated Press interview, Nastech CEO Steven Quay stated that in tests, PYY reduced patients’ daily calorie intake by 30 percent. Join discussion...

Two reports out this week hint at a new political alignment in the coming decades. Both reports focus on nanotechnology, but have implications well beyond. Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows a strong correlation between moral doubts about nanotechnology and embrace of religion. Join discussion...

It has long been known that certain psychoactive chemicals, found in such plants as the peyote cactus and diviner’s sage, enhance access to other planes of awareness. (Hence the old saw, “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs.” Needless to say this comes with risks as well.) More recently, pills have revolutionized brain function among the mentally ill, beginning with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1950. Now, drugs that enhance mental functioning in healthy people are becoming known and - increasingly - used. We are in the midst of a series of discoveries that will progressively enhance mental abilities. Alpha-CaM kinase II causes remembering a bad memory to erase it, at least in mice. Credible evidence exists for other biomolecular approaches to cognitive enhancement, some listed in the table. Join discussion...

Scientists are getting closer to creating a bionic human, or at least a $6 million one. Today, we can replicate or restore more organs and various sundry body parts than ever before. From giving sight to the blind to creating a tongue more accurate than any human taste bud, gentlemen, we have the technology. Join discussion...

People commonly assume that our species has evolved very little since prehistoric times. Yet new studies using genetic information from populations around the globe suggest that the pace of human evolution increased with the advent of agriculture and cities. If we are still evolving, what might our species look like in a millennium should we survive whatever environ­mental and social surprises are in store for us? Specu­la­tion ranges from the hopeful to the dystopian. Join discussion...

I’m in Melbourne Beach, Florida, for the 4th Colloquium on the Law of Futuristic Persons. As one might assume from the title, this is a legally focused gathering, and addresses legal issues related to cryonics patients, cyborgs, artificial biological intelligent beings, enhanced human beings, and artificial intelligences. I’m attending to record the whole thing and summarize it for those that aren’t here. Our gracious hostesses are Martine Rothblatt and Bina Aspen Rothblatt, who covered all our expenses and put us up in a nice hotel on the beach, with fantastic views of the Atlantic Ocean and the palm tree-covered residential areas of Melbourne Beach. Martine Rothblatt, our hostess, opens us up with an intro to the conference. She’s wearing video eyeglasses invented by the famous Steve Mann. They’re continuously taking video and beaming it to the Internet, an example of sousveillance. She’s also showing us how it can be beamed directly to the big LCD screen at the front of the room. Pretty cool… I think I’d want these if I were a political protester in danger of being attacked by overly enthusiastic riot cops. Join discussion...

Where will you live? How would concepts and norms of physical proximity evolve if cars were no longer the dominant form of transportation? How would residential areas self-organize if not laid out around the needs of cars and roads? Imagine gardens replacing driveways and roadways. What if people just walked outside of their houses or onto their apartment rooftops to alight via jetpack, smartpod or small foldable, perhaps future versions of the MIT car. At present, cities, suburbs and whole countries are structured per the space dictates of motor vehicular transportation systems. Join discussion...

Primo 3M+ is a prototype future body, a conceptual design with superlongevity in mind. Primo by design is multi-functional. It is reliable, changeable, upgradeable, and complete with enhanced senses. Primo is the new designer body. Join discussion...

The ‘green movement’ has swept the world and architecture is at the forefront of the new industrial revolution - buildings being by far the biggest energy-sappers in the world. Many contemporary architects are limited by the confines of budgets, time tables and constricting clients. Some industrious innovators, however, are breaking convention and collaborating to launch our imaginations into the future of green design. A surprising number of the following projects are even slated to be built. Join discussion...

Late yesterday, Google released a very cool new mobile application which employs voice recognition technology. The question is not so much what the technology can do today, the question is what will the technology be able to do in the near future—and how might it change education, health care, and a host of other daily activities? Join discussion...