Long distance communication has come a long way in the last 150 years. In 1860, the first pony express sent a hand-written message 200 miles per day on horseback. Not even two years later, the foundation was laid for the telegraph to send long distance messages seemingly instantaneously. While it must’ve seemed amazing at the time, it was still a very impersonal form of communication; we still weren’t able to use any of our five senses to communicate.

The telegraph led to the telephone, which amazingly opened our ears and let us hear a loved one’s voice from an incredible distance. Phone lines eventually enabled us to connect to the internet, and we can now not only hear each other, but see eachother in real time from anywhere in the world. The ongoing evolution continues to make long distance communication as personal as ever. The next natural step is to implement another one of the five senses into the equation; in this case, the ability to touch or feel someone via the internet. That possibility is closer than you think.

What do lotus leaves, moth eyes, and desert beetle shells have in common? They are all underappreciated pieces of nature that fulfill multiple amazing purposes simultaneously. These three natural objects inspired MIT researchers to look at a modern day staple, glass, and modify it to have life changing capabilities. The future applications are endless.

A collaboration of scientists from around the world have reached an unfathomable goal, one that could drastically change the way that we look at computers forever. North American, Australian, and South African scientists have built a crystal about 1 mm in diameter and consisting of only 300 atoms, that will be able to power a computer to do calculations beyond our wildest dreams.

Mowing the lawn can be a pain with the hot sun, allergies, and your neighbor checking you out. We’ve all see the the vacuum cleaner that cruises around your floor cleaning up pet hair and dust, so why not devise something similar for your lawn? A couple of companies have done just that, just in time for summer.

Being able to see and enjoy all of the beautiful colors and various sights in life may be the greatest privilege that we take for granted everyday. Do we ever take the time to ponder what it would be like to live in darkness? Due to macular degeneration (loss of sight during old age) and other ailments, millions of people around the globe have to deal with this unfortunate truth. Millions of people are unable to see the faces of their loved ones, or a comfortingly familiar landmark or sunset.

Finding a cure for blindness has enthralled humanity for thousands of years. Fortunately, there have been several advancements in the field lately. Many involving a form of stem cell therapy, but others as foreign as using algae to revitalize our eyes. Still to this day, scientists have not discovered one definitive stop-gap measure to restore our vision. A major recent breakthrough could help lead us onto that path.

A group of successful and distinguished individuals are starting a company to capitalize on assets floating around in space. The company is called Planetary Resources. They held a press conference describing their aspirations this afternoon. While this won’t happen overnight, the company has an incredible staff with immense experience and desire to succeed, and they are committed to success. Here’s some of the revolutionary ideas from their plan.

Forbes covered a story this week about a dream team of billionaires looking to space for the next gold rush, and potentially trillions of dollars in untapped resources. The group is headlined by Google mainstays Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, along with James Cameron (fresh off his journey to the center of the Earth) and space enthusiast and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis.

Author Brian Caulfield speculates that this group has come together to mine asteroids, looking for precious metals that are essential to the electronics that have come to dominate our world. NASA has already demonstrated the ability to land a probe on an asteroid. A formal announcement of the groups intentions is expected on Tuesday of next week, and you can expect it to be major news.

Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest musicians, lyricists, and performers of all time, and to see him seemingly alive and kickin’ sixteen years after his tragic death is definitely worthy of the world spotlight. The epic performance of Tupac and Snoop Dogg at Coachella in California will live on in history for a number of reasons, but what it really did was shed some light on one of the coolest forms of future technology that could be in our living rooms soon. Holograms and Telepresence are about to become a major part of the way we live our everyday lives. We are nearing an age where will be able to trick ourselves into thinking people and objects are there that aren’t.

Humans have been grounded for most of their existence. From Nostradamus and beyond, humans have dreamed of sprouting wings and touching the clouds. When the Wright brothers first got off the ground and into the air in 1903, the course of human histroy changed forever. Now you’re considered an oddity if you haven’t floated up above the clouds and seen the Earth from a stratospheric perspective.

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The initial taste of flight has spawned an incredible addiction for many human beings. The limits of what our bodies can handle are being pushed to the extreme; we are discovering new ways of getting airborne. In the future, we will take off vertically from a standstill. Gravity may become a thing of the past. Here are a few examples of how this hover technology is making it’s way into our lives today and in the future.

Heart complications have been plagued humanity since the dawn of time. 300,000 people with heart disease die each year. Options to fix various heart conditions have been severely limited. Even with advancements in heart transplant science, the supply of available organs cannot come close to meeting the demand. There are currently over 100,000 patients waitlisted to receive an annual supply of 2,200 hearts. That means that only 2.2% of people who need a heart will get one.

Normally the human heart pumps blood throughout our system using a set of cardiac muscles. These muscles subconsciously squeeze and push blood through each of our four chambers in a coordinated fashion. Each muscular squeeze allows for efficient blood circulation through the body, and can be heard as a beat.