Another Breakthrough in Solar Cell Efficiency

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/asu-agt102513.php

Engineering Students Create Exoskeletal Arm That Adds 40 lbs to Your Lifting Weight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ueN19g_7U

The NSF Invests $38 Million in Next-Generation Robotics

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129284

New Polymer Heals Itself

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/terminator-plastic-polymer-heal-itself-014827978.html

Someone With No Imagination

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/increasing_human_lifespan_could_have_a_serious_side_effect_boredom.html

If you think of retirement as the end of your life, time to wind down physically and mentally as you march steadily onward toward death, then yeah, you'll get bored and soon look forward to dying. But if you look at retirement as doing what you really WANT to do rather than what you HAVE to do (like I do), then it's like opening up a new world of possibilities. And if we could become youthful again, the possibilities would open up further. You don't have to be under someone else's whip; you can find your own motivation by following your passions. Of course, if you don't have any passions, well then yes, you might as well die.

Using IBM's Watson to Create a "Moon Shot" to Eradicate Cancer (and More)

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42214.wss

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42203.wss

An important step, but I want to see Watson applied to creating virtual friends/assistants that are essentially indistinguishable from human friends/assistants.

Sleep Flushes Waste Material From the Brain

Want to survive long enough to live forever? Get enough sleep so your brain can flush out the causes of Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders:

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=3956

Nearly 1000 Exoplanets Found

Just because it's a very cool milestone:

http://www.universetoday.com/105548/on-the-road-to-one-thousand-exoplanets/

Scientists use DNA to assemble a transistor from graphene

http://www.nanomagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2296:scientists-use-dna-to-assemble-a-transistor-from-graphene&catid=38:nano-news&Itemid=159

How Do People Want Their Personal Robots to Look?

Interesting:

http://www.news.gatech.edu/2013/10/01/putting-face-robot

Personally, I'd go with the "hot chick" option. ;-)

3D Printing Moves Into the Food Industry

Well, we should have seen this coming sooner than expected....

http://www.livescience.com/40445-the-ultimate-iron-chef-when-3d-printers-invade-the-kitchen.html?cmpid=555141

3D Printing is Now Being Done With Metal

Massive potential here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24528306

Bionic Limbs With a Sense of Touch

http://www.kurzweilai.net/restoring-touch-for-amputees-using-a-touch-sensitive-prosthetic-hand?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=47f0871cb0-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-47f0871cb0-281903081

Ray Kurzweil Interview

Kurzweil summarizing his vision of the future:

http://www.exponentialtimes.net/videos/ray-kurzweil-when-man-and-technology-merge

Using Robots to Reduce the Price of Solar

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/business/energy-environment/putting-robots-to-work-in-solar-energy.html?partner=yahoofinance&_r=1&

Using "Shells" to Terraform a Planet

http://news.yahoo.com/incredible-technology-shells-terraform-planet-140940649.html

An interesting idea, but what happens when meteoroids and especially comets and asteroids hit the shell? Also, Kevlar? Seriously? That's like Jules Verne suggesting whalebone struts for Victorian Era spaceships.

The Current Maximum Bionic Man

What you get when you assemble all the machine replacements we've created into a single bionic man:

http://news.yahoo.com/bionic-man-walks-breathes-artificial-parts-151617572.html

New Treatment Halts Alzheimer's Disease

Since we are our brains, Alzheimer's is a form of living death. Finding a treatment for it is thus HIGHLY important for those of us approaching old age but who wish to live long enough to benefit from indefinite life-extension technologies:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24462699

Better Robot Vision Algorithm Developed

http://web.mit.edu/press/2013/better-robot-vision.html

Fusion Powered Rockets Technically Viable

http://news.yahoo.com/quick-fusion-powered-trips-mars-no-fantasy-scientists-113723220.html

Moore's Law Continues as Existing Fabricators are Adapted to Photonics

http://www.colorado.edu/news/features/cu-mit-breakthrough-photonics-could-allow-faster-and-faster-electronics

The Human Brain Project Has Begun

http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-human-brain-project-has-officially-begun?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1d3b55b24b-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-1d3b55b24b-281903081

Introducing the Wildcat Robot From Boston Dynamics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g

Sleep well tonight. ;-)

Self-Assembling Swarmbots Invented

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/simple-scheme-for-self-assembling-robots-1004.html

Watch the video. Fascinating stuff.