"The world is rapidly running out of computing capacity", Satya Nadella said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The head of tech giant Microsoft warned that superfast quantum computers were needed to solve some of the most difficult problems.

Mr. Nadella cited the quest to create a catalyst that can absorb carbon, in order to help tackle climate change.

This, he cautioned, would likely not be achieved without an increase in computer processing power.

"Moore's Law is kinda running out of steam," Mr. Nadella told assembled delegates, referring to the maxim that the power of computer chips doubles every two years.

The Microsoft chief executive also took aim at so-called "re-skilling programs", calling them "one of the greatest wastes of money".

Such schemes, which are designed to retrain those whose professions have been lost to globalization or automation, are often "done without a true understanding of where the labor market is going," Mr. Nadella argued.

Instead, the India-born chief executive, who took over at the helm of Microsoft in 2014, said that reforming school curriculums was of paramount importance.

"We can, with some certainty, say that we will need more people graduating from our schools who will need to be comfortable with these augmented realities," he predicted.

"The fact that most curricula in schools still don't recognize computer science like they do math or physics is just crazy."

Mr. Nadella added: "We need middle school teachers of computer science of the highest quality."
He also emphasized that artificial intelligence, on which Microsoft is increasingly focused, could be a part of the solution to joblessness, rather than merely its cause.

Earlier, Klaus Schwab, the man behind the World Economic Forum, called for leading tech executives to consider the disruption that their products may cause to economic, political and social life.
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"If we act now," Mr. Schwab said, "we have the opportunity to ensure that technologies - such as artificial intelligence - sustainably and meaningfully improve the lives and prospects of as many people as possible."

Scientists at the University of Maryland have devised a way to make wood up to 12 times stronger in a bid to replace steel with a cheaper, lighter and more renewable alternative.
They claim the robust material, which can stop bullets, could be used in cars, airplanes, buildings and even body armor.

“This could be a competitor to steel or even titanium alloys; it is so strong and durable. It’s also comparable to carbon fiber, but much less expensive,” said lead researcher Liangbing Hu. The research was recently published in Nature.

And it sounds like Hu and his research team had a blast testing out their creation in the lab.

One of the experiments they ran involved firing bullet-like projectiles at the material, alongside regular wood. While they ripped through the latter, the “super wood” managed to block them halfway through.

The breakthrough itself concerns a new treatment that can be applied to all types of wood (including softer wood) to make them denser.

The simple, two-step method begins with boiling the wood in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfite, a chemical treatment akin to the first step in creating the wood pulp used to make paper.

The second step is almost as straightforward as the first: compressing the treated wood until its cell walls collapse, then maintaining that compression as it’s gently heated.

The pressure kick-starts a chemical bond between the different forms of atoms that make up the wood’s cellular structure, significantly strengthening the material in the process.

The researchers say that the treatment can be applied to bulk amounts of wood at once and allows them to bend and mold the material into the desired shape at the start.

Scientists have long tried to enhance the strength of wood, so it’s no surprise that they’re hailing the potential benefits of the latest breakthrough.

And with wood being abundant and relatively cheap – as it literally grows on trees – the results could be beneficial for us all.
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One day we might be seated on furniture made of super wood, living in houses built of the material and have affordable cars made of densified timber rather than the more expensive steel and titanium alloy vehicles we own now.

Goodbye passport, so long boarding pass. And get ready for this – your means of entry at airports could soon just be your face.

Dan Tanciar, a deputy executive director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, said that biometrics for international travelers, which allow passengers to board a flight or clear passport control via a photo, is right around the corner.

 “Our goal is to have this in place over the next four years,” said Tanciar. “The plan is, to begin with international flights then expand to domestic. On inbound international travel, you’ll be able to leave the passport in your pocket,” he added.

Using biometric technology for domestic flights will take longer to implement, he says because the TSA doesn’t have the same kind of national database of photos as the U.S. government does with passports. Each state would have to come together to merge their driver’s license IDs.

Three airlines are currently testing limited biometric entry: JetBlue, British Airways, and Delta at airports in Boston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, but passports are still involved.

At Los Angeles International Airport, British Airways is offering biometric entry for some international flights, instead of a boarding pass. Lufthansa, Qantas, and Korean Airlines plan to install similar offerings at LAX this month, according to a recent report by KABC-TV.

The San Jose airport hopes to go 100% biometric for international travels this year. "We intend to be the first airport in the United States" to feature the service for all international flights, says Rebecca Baer, the deputy director of Innovation and business development at SJC.

For domestic flights, she sees a way around waiting for the TSA to join Customs in adding the services by using an opt-in system, similar to how fliers sign up (and pay) with the TSA for preauthorized clearances at airports.

“I could voluntarily give the airline or government my pictures and verify my ID the same way we do with a passport like we do with a precheck,” she says.
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The advantage Customs has over the TSA in getting the program moving is that international travel is a smaller volume, she says, and there are different requirements for international travelers.

5G wireless networks, a segment of the wireless infrastructure that Trump's National Security Council may seek to nationalize, are expected to deliver data up to 100 times faster than any mobile technology available today.

Why it matters. 5G (shorthand for the fifth generation of wireless networks) will enable a wide range of products, including self-driving cars, virtual reality and other parts of the growing Internet of Things that all rely on super-fast connectivity.

How it works. Data moves quickly along high-frequency airwaves, but those airwaves get stopped by objects in their path. That means that providers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile would have to use collections of smaller transmitters to deliver those revolutionary speeds to phones and other devices rather than the classic cell towers, which have a more extended range.

The wireless industry forecasts that building nationwide 5G networks will require 300,000 new cell cites (the size of pizza boxes) to be erected by 2020. For comparison, there are currently 150,000 cell towers in existence today.

Providers could also build 5G networks using more reliable, but lower-frequency, airwaves. This is the chunk of spectrum that the Trump administration is talking about nationalizing.

What it does. The promise of 5G is not just that consumers will have faster data speeds, but it also offers two other key benefits:

1. Less lag as data moves across the network. That makes it more feasible, for example, to control an industrial machine remotely or to communicate information in real time to a self-driving car.

2. While 4G was aimed primarily at smartphones, 5G is designed to handle phones plus all manner of Internet-of-things devices. Some of these devices need high-speed connections, while others are tiny sensors that require only a trickle of communication.

Carriers in the US are targeting 2020 for widespread launch. That seems like a long wait, but it's still an ambitious timeline—5G brings with it new antennas, new devices, and new applications for wireless data.
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"Where you saw a growth in 4G was around data-centric, smartphone-centric use cases," says Rob Topol, a general manager for Intel's 5G business. "We're looking beyond the smartphone for 5G." In particular, that means categories like automotive, virtual reality, drones, and more should reap its benefits first.
There is an excellent YouTube Video on 5G that will give you even more information.