China's waste-to-energy plan

             The Chinese city of Shenzhen plans to tackle its serious waste problem by burning 5,000 tonnes of it a day in what will become the largest waste-to-energy plant in the world. Cities have to move towards more recycling and reducing their waste for sure - and of course developing more sources of renewable energy. Expected to be up and running by 2020, the plant is less about generating electricity and more about finding a solution to the existing trash problem - the energy is just a handy bonus.

                The According to Adele Peters at Fast Company, the new incinerator is one of 300 waste-to-energy plans that the Chinese government plans on building over the next one year. What Hardie is referring to there is the fact that the roof of the massive plant - which will stretch about 1.6 km long (1 mile) - will be topped with around 44,000 square metres of solar panels. 

               The idea is that the plant won’t just be about getting rid of trash, it will be providing clean and sustainable electricity to the surrounding city, and inviting members of the public to visit the facility and see it in action.Fast Company points out that by 2020 - the year the plant is expected to be operational - San Francisco plans on being a zero-waste city through some serious composting and recycling efforts. If burning waste is our reality today, let’s hope no waste at all will be our future.

Data-driven healthcare

         The amount of data available in the world is growing exponentially, and analyzing large data sets (so-called big data) is becoming key for market analysis and competition. Analytics will dramatically shift away from reporting and towards predictive and prescriptive practices, dramatically improving the ability of healthcare providers to help the ill and injured. Even more importantly, it will create the possibility for truly personalized healthcare by allowing providers to impact the biggest determinants of health, including behaviours, genetics and environmental factors.

         The emergence of data-driven health care has presented tremendous opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges. Reducing health care costs while improving quality of care, handling complex, ever-changing demographics, and adapting to the rapid increase and globalization of patient data are just a few of the realities facing health care providers, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and government entities today. 

        The need to derive insights from trusted health data has never been greater. The following stories illustrate just a few ways organizations today are using analytics to harness the potential of data, gain new insights, and transform the way we look at health at the individual and global level.

Future of space exploration is red

           The future of manned space exporation is bright, according to some space experts.Humans may one day tread across some of the alien worlds that today can be studied only at a distance. Closer to home, private industries like Mars One seek to establish a permanent settlement on the Red Planet. At the Smithsonian Magazine's "The Future is Here Festival" in Washington, D.C. this month, former astronaut Mae Jemison and NASA engineer Adam Steltzner spoke optimistically about the future of manned space exploration."Exploration and the curiosity that motivate it are fundamentally human," Steltzner said during the conference.

           Steltzner served as the lead engineer for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. He helped to design and test the rover's one-of-a-kind descent system, but he isn't solely focused on robotic exploration of the solar system. Landing a human on the Red Planet would be far trickier than landing a robot. For instance, Curiosity hit the Martian atmosphere at 15 times the acceleration of gravity (15 gs). Traveling at such extreme speeds would be disastrous for humans, who only experience 1g while standing on Earth's surface. At 15gs, the retinas would detach from human eyes, Steltzner said.

      "Humans should be involved in exploration," Steltzner told the audience. That form of exploration could come in a number of ways. In addition to kicking up dust on a moon or planet in the solar system, Steltzner suggested another way to spread humans throughout the galaxy.