Welcome to the Futures Foundation

NORMAL’ IS NOW AN OXYMORON After 7 months of riding the pandemic rollercoaster, I recently experienced some penny-drop moments that I wanted to share with you. First, I realised that I need to embrace the fact that there will be … Continued

The intricate arrangement of base pairs in our DNA encodes just about everything about us. Now, DNA contains the entirety of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as well. A team of University of Texas Austin scientists just vastly improved the … Continued

Climate change scenarios are everywhere. These data-driven exercises in mapping out multiple visions of a warmer future appear in corporate sustainability reports, investment portfolio analyses, and consultancy offerings. Scenario analysis can be a great way of structuring one’s thinking about … Continued

Maricá, near Rio de Janeiro, is using its own digital currency to fund one of the world’s largest basic income programs. Moacir Conceição Ramos used to work on private yachts off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Before the pandemic, … Continued

In a bid to lessen the blow of COVID-19, the town of Tenino has started issuing its own wooden dollars that can only be spent at local businesses. Will it work? Wayne Fournier was sitting in a town meeting when … Continued

States that resemble sleep-like cycles in simulated neural networks quell the instability that comes with uninterrupted self-learning in artificial analogs of brains. No one can say whether androids will dream of electric sheep, but they will almost certainly need periods … Continued

Goats in Wales; coyotes in San Francisco; rats, rats, everywhere: With much of the world staying home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, animals have ventured out where normally the presence of people would keep them away. Under the … Continued

In order to develop solar panels that generate electricity at night, you just need them to operate in the exact opposite way solar panels work during the day. One of the problems with solar panels is that they don’t generate … Continued

Tiny ‘xenobots’ assembled from cells promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up A book is made of wood. But it is not a tree. The dead cells have been repurposed to serve another need. Now a team of … Continued

The site will house up to 2,000 people and break ground in 2021 Toyota wants to give a new meaning to the term “company town.” The Japanese auto giant said it will transform the 175-acre site of a former car … Continued

They’ll reportedly last for thousands of years. This technology may someday power spacecraft, satellites, high-flying drones, and pacemakers. Nuclear energy is carbon free, which makes it an attractive and practical alternative to fossil fuels, as it doesn’t contribute to global … Continued

The desperate search for ways to help the world’s coral reefs rebound from the devastating effects of climate change has given rise to some radical solutions. In the Caribbean, researchers are cultivating coral “nurseries” so they can reimplant fresh coral … Continued

Submerged sculptures and others that appear at low tide to be installed at several Queensland sites, as part of a project that also aims to rehabilitate sections of the reef From a colour-changing figure warning of warming seas to a … Continued

Consider this schedule: At 8 a.m. you arrive at work. Immediately you are busy with a quick problem needing to be solved. You sit and get to it, but only for about three minutes. You break your focus to stop … Continued

Greenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change. … Continued

Clusters of living brain cells are teaching scientists about diseases like autism. With a new finding, some experts wonder if these organoids may become too much like the real thing. Two hundred and fifty miles over Alysson Muotri’s head, a … Continued

Back in 2017, neuroscientists used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains. What they discovered is that the brain is full of multi-dimensional geometrical structures operating in as many … Continued

IN 2010, EMILY Whitehead was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a cancer of certain cells in the immune system. THIS IS THE most common form of childhood cancer, her parents were told, and Emily had a good chance to beat it with … Continued

Aha experiences aren’t as serendipitous as you may think. Here’s how to proactively produce them. It’s the third century, B.C., and the King of Syracuse is suspicious. He has commissioned a new gold crown. But upon receiving the crown from … Continued