The vitual garming game FARMVILLE now attracts over 11 million daily active users, making it the largest and fastest growing social game in the world. Players create and manage virtual farms with connectivity to friends through the Facebook social network. They also buy buildings, animals and plants.

Many crops, including corn, have been proven to grow just as well if not better underground, as in a typical greenhouse or in a field. These are the findings of a team at Purdue University which has built a crop growth facility inside a 60-acre former limestone mine in souther Indiana. Cary Mitchell, Pursue professor […]

Imagine a future where fruits and vegetables can all be obtained locally–even in our cities withoutbeing trucked or shipped thousands of miles before reaching our stores? Some new architectural thinking may become a reality in the form of vertical urban farming, IF (and its a big IF), certain problems, particularly costs, can be worked out. One […]

Researchers have found new statistical methods to see whether publishers of medical journals are biased about what they report or do not report about clinical trials. The new methods use as a “gold standard” newly released FDA data on anti-depressant drugs in the U.S. and what has been published about it. This data is considered […]

Singularity University is a unique course of studies founded by Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis and Salim Ismail. This rigorous nine week course in Mountain View California,  looks at exponentially growing technologies including biotechmology; bioinfirmatics; nanotechnology; AI and robotics. A class of 40 students is chosen from over 1200 applicants from around the world , based […]

Much study has been done lately on the planet’s ice including the immense ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. The speed of melting and draining of the world’s ice reserves will determine the speed and amount of sea level rise. In its 2007 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast a sea level […]

Floating cities on the ocean have received increased attention due to concerns about global warming and rising seas. A number of groups are  designing and planning floating or undersea cities of the future. One floating city is already operatonal, a super cruise ship in Florida operated by Residensea, for the wealthy who want a sea […]

An idea is circulating that the human race will overcome the pressing problems of global warming, terrorism, nuclear threats and widespread pandemics, through a melding of top minds via new technology. Massive and organized data analysis and modeling will lead to a “collective intelligence” that will solve these issues.  Not everyone agrees. Some say that […]

A new study reveals that the brain areas most associated with complex problem-solving are actually more active when we focus on routine tasks than when we focus on the problem. This suggests that there may be benefits to daydreaming when faced with difficult issues. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of […]

Gamer is a science fiction thriller in which the players can control human death row prisoners in mass-scale death matches. An inmate who wins 30 rounds gains his freedom. The film is one of several probing the growing power and influence of video games on society and their future. Some multiple player game companies have […]