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The biggest digital trends of 2021 have been around cryptocurrency and NFT art; as the first country to use Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador continues to look for ways to remain at the forefront of the cutting edge. 

This month, President Nayib Bukele announced plans for a “Bitcoin city”, built in the shape of a large coin and utilizing the geothermal energy of the Conchagua volcano to power its Bitcoin mining. And though the country’s adoption of cryptocurrency has been controversial, Bukele’s ambitious plans for a city completed “devoted to Bitcoin” as its only form of currency is one that will certainly draw the attention of venture capitalists and international economists.

Bukele did not announce a timeline for the city’s opening in the southeastern region of La Unión, but estimated the cost of public infrastructure would be about 300,000 Bitcoins (or, at $60,000 per coin, approx. $1.8 trillion).

As alternative power sources continue to generate power (and funding), the next generation of wind turbines are beginning to take shape in Europe. This week, Vestas announced its latest wind turbine prototype, the V236-15 MW, which will be the tallest device of its kind when it begins generating electricity in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

Set to be installed in a facility in Western Jutland, Denmark, the 15 Mega Watt turbine would stand 280 meters tall, with 115.5m long blades - a massive contraption capable of generating enough electricity to power 20,000 European homes. 

And Vestas is not the only company scaling up the size and capability of their wind-harnessing technology; GE Renewable Energy is currently operating their own 260-meter tall prototype in Rotterdam, Denmark, which started generating 14 MW of power in October 2021. 

Another company, MingYang Smart Energy, announced a 16 MW offshore wind turbine, which falls in between GE and Vestas’ size at 264 meters tall. Wind energy is a growing industry, one with growing equipment and ambitions - and most importantly, growing potential in building a sustainable future.

Though the burgeoning age of the electric vehicle has proven to be an exciting time, its limitations - and potential dangers to the environment - have held the industry back from truly establishing itself as the technology of the future. With concerns around rare earth minerals needed for computer chips and electric batteries, consumers are looking for the next generation of EV’s to provide something safer and more sustainable; with the Ultium Drive, GM is one of the first to take a step forward.

Beyond the impressive specs of its three various motors (which range up to 255kW of power), GM’s new EV design is part of its goals towards a healthier ecosystem, which aims to have 100% of US facilities using renewable energy by 2030, and 100% of their global operations by 2040. With these ambitious goals come a new, ambitious motor system; a more flexible design promising more torque, more horsepower - and most importantly, less reliance on cobalt and other controversial rare earth minerals, an important step for every automaker to consider as we head into the Electric Age.

With companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic reigniting interest in space flight, there’s never been more interest about what a potential human-led trip to Mars might look like - or more importantly, when it might happen. In 2024, Rocket Lab will bring the world a little bit closer to that intergalactic dream, when it launches its Photon spacecraft into the great beyond, for an 11-month journey to Mars.

Led by a group of UC Berkeley researchers, the ESCAPADE mission (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, if you’re curious) is designed as part of a new turnkey program for space operations, providing a platform to do orbital work, scientific experiments and observational functions. Equipped with two satellites weighing about 400 pounds, Rocket Labs’ looks to demonstrate that advanced interplanetary science is within reach for a “fractional of traditional costs”, another step in the technology driven race to the stars.

One of gaming’s many niche sub-cultures revolves around the art of “speedrunning” - which, as it sounds, is the act of playing and completing a game as fast as humanly possible, often through the use of manipulating glitches, errors, and other fun quirks discovered over years of playing (and replaying) a game.

 Since 2010, the speedrunning community has held a twice-yearly charity event called Games Done Quick, gathering dozens of speedrunning streamers, masters, and commentators together for a 24-hour a day, week-long event held on the popular streaming platform Twitch. The first Games Done Quick, held from January 1-3 2010, raised $10,532 for CARE; it was only three years later, at Awesome Games Done Quick in January 2014, that GDQ raised over $1 million during a single event.

 In the years since, GDQ has raised over $34 million for charities, including the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the Organisation for Autism Research, and Doctors Without Borders, the beneficiary of this month’s Summer Games Done Quick marathon, which raised $2.9 million from over 22,000 individual donors. This was the 3rd highest total ever - despite the entire event taking place virtually from each individual speedrunner’s home.

During the week, viewers got to see 153 different events, like a blindfolded speedrun of Super Mario 64, a race between multiple speedrunners playing Pokemon Black/White, and the show-closing hard mode run of Kingdom Hearts II. What is even better than seeing a game broken in fun, strange ways? Seeing games broken for a good cause, something GDQ continues to do in new, impressive ways with each charity marathon.

Since announcing they were carbon-neutral in 2012 (a goal that’s now shifted towards being carbon-negative by 2030), Microsoft’s been an industry leader in forward-thinking technology designed to be cutting edge - and as green as possible, a trend that continues with today’s reveal of Windows 11.

Among the many trendy buzzwords thrown around during the reveal, one of Windows 11 details sounds to be one of its most promising; not only is the company’s flagship operating system faster and more powerful, but more efficient, requiring significantly less battery use and power draw than its previous iterations. 

Considering there are over 1.3 billion Windows 10 users, operating over 800 million individual devices a day,  the promises of Windows 11 are another impressive step forward for the much-aligned computer tech industry, insuring longer lifetime on computers (and more importantly, their batteries), and less impact on the electrical grid, a small but important step in securing our shared digital future.

On May 19th, Ford Motor Company announced the third project to emerge from their purported $22 billion investment into electrification; the Ford F-150 Lightning, a fully electric pick-up truck built at the company’s Dearborn, Michigan plant. 

What makes the Lightning interesting is not the size of its bed (5.5 feet, if you are wondering) or that it boasts 563 horsepower; the numbers are impressive, but how Ford is thinking about utilizing the technology in its new vehicles is more exciting. For example, one of the Lightning’s key features has nothing to do with its operability as a truck; rather, it can act as an emergency source of power, able to power the normal power usage of a family home for up to three days (on much more restrained use, Ford says the truck could power a home for over a week).

Using electric technology to provide emergency power is a fascinating feature, one that could hold enormous importance for rescue crews during hurricanes, people trapped in a remote area during a snowstorm, or just about any other natural disaster that could affect a power grid. It requires a special charger, of course - but even without it, Ford says the truck’s numerous electrical outlets could function for days. While a lot of attention has rightly been paid to the role of electric vehicles in preserving the environment, we’re only scratching the surface on what else this technology will be able to augment, and enhance, our daily lives.

https://www.cnet.com/news/stopping-plastic-in-rivers-from-reaching-the-ocean-with-new-tech-from-the-ocean-cleanup/ 

Back in 2012, Microsoft became one of the largest companies in the world to become completely carbon neutral. It was a move that would prove far ahead its time; Apple only announced last year it would be carbon neutral by 2030, and this week, gaming accessory company Razer followed suit with a similar plan.

For years, the computer gaming industry has faced criticism for its reliance on single-use plastics for packaging, extremely rare minerals for its internal parts, and the expansive use of power in both production and eventual utility of its products. The recent announcements by Razer - and previously, companies like competitor Logitech, Google, and Samsung - are a sign the tech industry is starting to embrace the innovative potential of looking towards a greener future. Some of these efforts are small - labels on devices on how much carbon dioxide they’ll emit in their lifetimes, switching to biodegradable packaging - but the cumulative effect could mark a meaningful shift in the production of the latest, most powerful technology in our everyday lives.

And what about Microsoft? Their latest pledge was announced in 2020, and continues to up the ante on setting a high bar for the industry; their goal by 2030 is to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases, a decade-long plan that could not only set the standard for the industry, but the world writ large. 

On February 18th, NASA successfully landed the rover Perseverance on Mars, to a live audience of more than two million people (and a lot of nervous NASA employees). After over 131 million miles traveling through space,, Perseverance shed its heat shield and gently touched down on the strange surface of Earth’s neighboring planet, the fifth rover to touch its wheels down on alien soil.

Perseverance was not alone, either: it was accompanied by Ingenuity, a tiny helicopter who tagged along for the trip, joining Perseverance (and the already on-planet Curiosity rover) as the metallic space trio exploring foreign lands. And Ingenuity is there for its own mission: while Perseverance is on its way to study a hole where a lake may have been over 3 billion years ago, Ingenuity will be attempting the first powered flight on any planet outside Earth, hopefully setting the stage for future Mars missions.

Strangely enough, anyone could run the software inside Ingenuity; Ingenuity runs on open-source flight software designed for the Linux environment called F’ (or “F Prime”), the first space object of its kind to operate successfully in space. So for those who always wanted to be a part of a space experiment, but maybe never had the advanced physics knowledge, to enjoy a little piece of space history, right above the trees in their own backyard.

As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be manufactured and delivered worldwide, organizations are looking to technology companies for solutions to resume in-person attendance of concerts, sporting events, school, and other public functions.

Recently, some of the United States’ biggest tech companies and healthcare organizations - including Microsoft, Cerner, Oracle, and the Mayo Clinic - formed The Vaccine Credential Initiative, aimed at ensuring every citizen has access to a secure, digitized record of their COVID-19 vaccination.

Along with acting as a medical record, these digital vaccine records could be used as a passport of sorts, for entry into schools, concerts, public venues - and even help facilitate interstate travel, which so far has been a disparate collection of laws and recommendations. An accurate, verifiable digital record of vaccinations could not only help accelerate a return to social normalcy, but would help states and organizations alike to coordinate more uniformly around COVID-19 restrictions and regulations.

The end of 2020 marks the beginning of a new venture for retail and tech giant Amazon; with the launch of Amazon Halo in early access this month, Amazon is throwing their hat - or more accurately, their tracker - into the ring of wearable fitness technology. Both a wearable wristband (without a screen, priced at $99), and a $4 monthly service, Halo is a device engineered to handle an impressive swath of functions; monitoring sleep cycles, exercise habits - and even emotional states, using a proprietary feature appropriately called Tone. 

Managed by a smartphone app, Halo also offers other intriguing features, like Body, a way to measure body fat percentage, using a 3D body scan as reference (which can be uploaded to your medical records, if you wish). And these features are only what’s available at launch; as Amazon refines its software and expands its third-party partnerships, Halo is an extremely intriguing tech products to keep an eye on in 2021.

Where does a wandering, curious mind go in the increasingly cluttered world of streaming services? Platforms like Disney+, Netflix, and HBO Max certainly have hundreds of new original series to entertain audiences, but leave a lot to be desired in their informative entertainment options - thankfully, new services like CuriosityStream, Criterion, and MagellenTV are here to pick up the inquisitive slack of the other, major platforms.

From researching dinosaurs to exploring aliens and studying mathematical theories, these particular platforms offer thousands of hours of content for parents and children alike to explore. CuriosityStream, for example, has something for everyone; whether your interests lie in factual historical accounts or speculative exploration, CuriosityStream offers everything from detailed observations on the Bronze Age to thoughtful commentary on the concept of reality itself in their library of engaging, award-winning documentaries. 

Thanks to new digital aerospace engineering processes - including computer modeling, simulations, and VR - the Air Force is developing and building aircraft faster than ever.  Its new fighter jet was designed, developed, and flying in only a year.  That’s 90% faster than previous jets!

All across the nation, parents, teachers, and kids are gearing up for the beginning of a new school year.  This doesn’t mean that they are all going back to school though.  Some school districts are choosing to start the year completely virtual.  This puts working parents, or parents who have been overwhelmed by homeschooling, in a difficult position.  To help out, the community is stepping in.  Different museums and YMCAs are transforming themselves into virtual learning environments so that kids have a place to go where they can get help with virtual schoolwork, and their parents can get to the office.

You’ve probably never asked yourself why anyone would want to put a camera on a beetle’s back.  In fact, you’ve likely never even thought about cameras on beetles’ backs.  Scientists at the University of Washington have though, and they’ve done more than think.  They’ve successfully created a wireless camera so miniature that it’s perfect for the insect kingdom.  Why? Well, according to the team, it’s an important step to take in miniaturizing robots.  While we have small cameras in our phones, those camera chips are connected to fairly large batteries and processors.  The beetle-cam isn’t.

Check out the link above to read more about the process and real-world applications.

A lot of us are looking for a break from news about masks, gloves, and articles comparing the coronavirus and the flu.  We decided to get our break by zooming away from Earth - about 520 lightyears away to be precise.  That’s the location of a potential new planet.  Scientists using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) observed a “dense disc of dust and gas” with a twisting spiral structure.  It’s that twist that scientists believe indicates the beginning of a new planet.  Getting a front row seat to the formation of an entire planet seems pretty amazing, but it’s a seat we’ll have to share with our great-great-great-great-etc grandchildren: the process can take a few million years.

No matter what country you live in, whether you are in the cities or the suburbs, on a farm or in an apartment, the world is different now.  These are challenging times, and sometimes, all we need is a bit of positivity.  To that end, here are a few articles from the Good News Network to help you smile and maybe even make you amazed at how the best of people can shine during our hardest moments.

• Dogs are learning to sniff out the coronavirus
• Hospitals are using #CodeRocky to cheer patients’ recoveries
• 7 spectacular photos of nature being awesome
• An anonymous veteran steps in to save a community restaurant while this anonymous donor steps in to help all 549 households in a small town
• Teens looking out for isolated seniors with hotline

With messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics, mRNA molecules are used to instruct the body to produce its own immune response to fight different diseases.  This technology is making headlines right now as people wonder if it holds the answer to making a COVID-19 vaccine available more quickly. A few biotech companies are working on creating a mRNA vaccine, but medical professionals remind everyone that no vaccine will be available until next year at the earliest - mRNA or otherwise.

How often do you engage in conversation with a new person?  Once a day? Once a month? Is it something you look forward to, or something that makes you cringe?  For many of us, it can be difficult to find ways to connect with strangers, whether at a cocktail party or at a networking event.  This article from Inc. suggests that that’s because our focus is always on ourselves and what we want to gain from a conversation.  So how would things change if we made it our focus to make the conversation meaningful for the other person instead?  Check out the article to see why it recommends starting every new conversation with, “What’s your story?”