Life Science
By Christie Rizk | November 22, 2012, 8:52 AM
Talk of robots and robotics research tends to conjure worries about manufacturing and futuristic fantasies about the “singularity.” But new bio-robots are designed instead to help us understand our evolutionary origins, and are providing insights into biology. In a lab on the campus of Vassar College in upstate New York, biology professor John Long and his team are studying robots in a water tank as they fight for evolutionary supremacy. The researchers are using biomimetic autonomous robots to understand how fish-like vertebrates that lived 500 million years ago evolved into the fish of today. More
The Arts
By Flavia Barbat | November 22, 2012, 7:53 AM
As the 2012 film festival season generates buzz about the latest and greatest in cinematic creation, one producer stands out as a real industry game-changer, and it’s not a film producer. It’s a solution to the organizational and logistical nightmare known as “event management” that for years has governed small- and large-scale festivals. More
Techonomy Tucson Video
By Sarah Evelyn Harvey | November 13, 2012, 10:30 AM
Who’s your biggest competition for that new job? Turns out, it could be a robot named Baxter. This humanoid robot, created by Rodney Brooks and his team at Rethink Robotics, is easy to program and costs only $22,000. At the Techonomy conference in Tucson, Ariz., Brooks joined MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee to talk about how robots will change our lives. More
Startup Culture Techonomy Tucson Video
By Adrienne Burke | November 13, 2012, 10:10 AM
How do you raise two sons who will make enough money by age 30 to ensure you have a very comfortable retirement? Tell them their youth is no barrier to achieving. Take them on vacations to developing countries where their imaginations can run wild with ideas for solving the planet’s greatest problems. And teach them to rebel in the right ways. Brothers Sujay Tyle, 19, and Sheel Tyle, 21, shared their short but impressive life stories with Techonomy founder David Kirkpatrick on stage at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson. More
Energy & Green Tech Techonomy Tucson Video
By Sarah Evelyn Harvey | November 13, 2012, 10:00 AM
Just weeks after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast, climate change was on the forefront of everyone's mind at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson, Ariz. In a session about geo-engineering, Harvard physics professor David Keith and Harvard Kennedy School research fellow Andrew Parker talked about the realistic possibility of reflecting sunlight away from the planet to lower the earth's temperature -- and, more pressing, the complicated political implications of this climate change quick-fix. More
Digital Techonomy Tucson
By Sarah Evelyn Harvey | November 13, 2012, 10:00 AM
The Techonomy 2012 conference outside of Tucson, Ariz. wrapped up with a session featuring two Facebook team members: Sam Lessin, Project Manager, and David Fischer, VP of Business and Marketing Partnerships. Together they explained an ideal future of Facebook where the newsfeed is a perfectly aggregated newspaper and advertising efforts do what traditional print newspapers cannot: make money. More
Techonomy Tucson
By Adrienne Burke | November 13, 2012, 8:58 AM
Leave it to a technology innovators’ conference to frame the relief of global malnutrition as a business opportunity. Other sessions at this week’s Techonomy meeting in Tucson described how technology is transforming developing communities and how mobile devices are already ubiquitous in Africa. But Steve Collins, an MD from Ireland devoted to improving nutrition in Africa, says think of it this way: People unaffected by irreversible brain damage—often the effect of malnutrition in infancy—are more likely consumers of technology. More
Techonomy Tucson Video
Techonomy Video | November 13, 2012, 6:10 AM
Live streaming video from the Techonomy 2012 conference continues today from 11:30am to 2:15pm ET. Click on this post for the full streaming schedule. More
Techonomy Tucson Video
Techonomy Video | November 12, 2012, 5:09 PM
This is a must-see conference highlight. Rock legend Richard Thompson, OBE, covers Britney Spears's "Ooops!... I Did it Again" at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson, Ariz. More
Business Digital Techonomy Tucson
By Sarah Evelyn Harvey | November 12, 2012, 2:30 PM
Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple: four Internet companies that are, arguably, the best of the best. They’re global goliaths that leave little room for competitors in a fast-growing online world. At the Techonomy conference outside of Tucson, Ariz., an afternoon panel explored why these companies succeed, how they can keep growing, and whether they are stifling innovation. More
