FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe

Is this the most important gene therapy in the world? At the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine , a cutting-edge facility at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Kiran Musunuru is developing something truly extraordinary, a ‘one and done’ gene therapy to prevent heart disease, which happens to be the number one killer on our planet today. Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and...

Insurance companies must deal with the financial realities of climate change. They must make quantitative decisions and translate risks into dollars. They must do it for today’s impacts as well as making quantified predictions about future impacts. And behind the insurance companies are the reinsurance companies, who must act as shock absorbers to the industry and do all of the above on a global s...

I’m calling neuromorphic computing the most important computer engineering research in the world. That’s right, more important than quantum computing (you heard it here first!)  So what is neuromorphic computing? How is it inspired by biology? Where is it taking us? Why are the opportunities so vast? How is it fundamental to future directions in artifical intelligence? And why does it matter SO mu...

Innovation is a deeply, deeply social phenomenon that requires many people to come along for the ride. It’s not easy! So, where to start? What are the principles? How to think about it? If you want to make the world a better place by building new products or services, or simply by creating better ways of doing things inside your organization, then this episode is for you! Welcome to FutureBites wi...

Has Martin Green done more than any other human to safeguard our future? For fifty years – yes fifty – he’s dedicated his life to pushing the boundaries of photovoltaics so they convert more sunlight to electricity and produce more electricity for less money. He and his team have held the world record for solar cell efficiencies for 30 of the past 39 years, and his technology is now imbedded in –...

Designer babies, agricultural mishaps, extinction via gene-drive. Now CRISPR has placed into our hands the awesome power to "edit life" in all its forms, how to keep the good while preventing the bad? How to safeguard our future?  Is this even possible? Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and keynote speaker, where we interview scientists and explore pathways to a bett...

What comes after Lithium-ion? It’s only one of the most important technology questions in the world! Everything in the future of electronics, road vehicles, renewables, the electricity grid and even commercial aviation hinges on the answer.  So I went looking for a true expert, a realist, a deep thinker and someone working at the absolute global cutting-edge of energy storage science and engineeri...

Rejuvenation and regeneration, hope versus hyperbole, healthspans and lifespans. Such is the frenzied focus on the potential for new drugs to extend our lifespans right now, I cannot deliver a keynote on the future of healthcare or even the future of the world in general without addressing the possibility of ‘age reversal’ therapies. But it’s a complex field, with more than a few charlatans and op...

What does it mean for a robot to be conscious? Can a robot have feelings? Will we make robots that take care of one another, upgrade themselves, and reproduce? I discussed these and other mind-bending questions about the future of robots with Hod Lipson, the brilliant founder of Columbia University’s Creative Machines Lab. Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and keynote speaker....

Can lawyers save the planet? I asked the world’s foremost climate lawyer. Welcome to FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe, futurist and keynote speaker. In this episode, instead of examining science and technology pathways to a better future, we're looking at the role of litigation.  Michael Gerrard is a globally-recognised leader in environmental law and a passionate lifelong advocate for susta...

Welcome to the second episode of FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe. In this episode, Dr Aykut Demirkol of the Harkness Eye Institute joins Bruce to talk about CRISPR gene-editing and the future of ophthalmology! CRISPR is short for CRISPR-Cas9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system and a family of related tools have brought faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient methods to genome editing.  They are u...

Welcome to the first episode of FutureBites with Dr. Bruce McCabe. In this episode, Prof. Rodolphe Barrangou of North Carolina State University joins Bruce to talk about CRISPR and gene-editing and the future of food! CRISPR is short for CRISPR-Cas9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system and a family of related tools have brought faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient methods to genome editing.  They...