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Listen to the TED Radio Hour podcast on the topic of predicting the future. You can listen to the full 1 hour or choose individual stories.

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In this hour, TED speakers make bold predictions about our future and what our future lives might look like.

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LISTEN & READ: "The 3D printing revolution"

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LISTEN & READ: "The 3D printing revolution"

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Dr Karl explains the technology of 3D printing and its future potential.

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3D printers have come a long way from their bubble-jet beginnings, but Dr Karl reckons we ain't seen nothin' yet!

A few animals, such as apes and otters, do use sticks and stones as tools. But even so, we humans do classify ourselves as the "tool-making animal".

Well, a little while ago, we humans invented a new tool, and it seems that this new tool will revolutionise our manufacturing industries over the new few decades. It can make anything - a working clock, jewellery, vaccines, a metal axle for your car, a tooth, a human body organ, a violin, a hand gun, or even a copy of itself.

This new tool is called, rather confusingly, a "3D printer". But it does not print 3D pictures, the kind that spring to life when you look at them with the special 3D glasses. No, it makes or fabricates actual 3D objects, one thin layer at a time - and then builds up hundreds or thousands of these layers (on top of each other) until the final object is completed.

So why did the process get called "3D printing"? Well, one popular type of printer is the ink jet printer. It prints onto paper by squirting out tiny balls of ink from tiny nozzles - and these tiny balls of ink are so little that it would take thousands of trillions of them to make up a litre.

Some 3D printers make their fabrications by squirting out tiny volumes of liquid from tiny nozzles. And, just like a regular printer, the 3D printers are controlled by a computer which follows instructions from a file.

One website that you can download files from is called Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects, and there are many others.

The engineers call this process 'additive layer manufacturing', but the more popular name is 3D printing, and we'll probably be stuck with it for ages.

The first 3D printers were used in the late 1980s to make plastic prototypes of complex designs, so that the engineers could see and hold a full-size model of what the final device would look like. They would deposit a thin layer of liquid resin, and run a tiny ultraviolet beam over the surface in a specific pattern. The ultraviolet light would harden the resin. Then they would put down another very thin layer, harden part of that, and keep on building it up. The unhardened resin would just drain away or be washed away. After several hours or days, the final object, perhaps the size of a loaf of bread would be ready. But it would be made of a plastic resin, not metal or wood or leather that the final manufactured object would be made of.

Since then, the field of 3D printing, or additive layer manufacturing, has advanced enormously. First, the technology has gone far beyond making plastic prototypes to making production runs of actual objects. For example, the giant aerospace company Boeing has printed some 22,000 parts for their jet planes, both military and civilian. Second, the field has split. At one end are the huge professional-grade printers that fill a warehouse. At the other end you can buy, for a few thousand dollars, an amateur-grade printer that will sit on a desktop.

Today, there are many different types of these 3D printers. The raw materials that go into them can be plastics (either solid, liquid or granular), metals, ceramic powders, metal or plastic film, chocolate, simple chemicals, concrete and even paper. There are many different technologies to harden the raw material into the physical object - ultraviolet stereolithography, selective laser sintering, electron beam freeform fabrication, direct metal layer sintering, and so on.

The technology is still young. The process can take a long time, the surface finish can be variable, and it's still difficult to build objects from many different kinds of materials.

But the potential is enormous. You could print off a metal gear to replace the broken one in your car's gearbox, or some of that extra-good lubricant for your bike chain. In a sudden killer flu epidemic, you could print off enough anti-viral drugs for your whole family. You could use one 3D printer to make another identical 3D printer, and so on, and so on.

We could send these machines to an asteroid, and they could use the raw materials of the asteroid to build a home for us, when we eventually get there.

Maybe the 3D printer will be like the printing press in 1450, the steam engine in 1750 or the transistor in 1950. Whether there'll be one in every home by 2050 remains to be seen...

Tags: science-and-technology, nanotechnology
© 2018 Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd

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great moments in science dr karl podcasts 3d printer

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3D printers have come a long way from their bubble-jet beginnings, but Dr Karl reckons we ain't seen nothin' yet! A few animals, such as apes and otters, do use sticks and stones as tools. But even so, we humans do classify ourselves as the "tool-making animal".

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LISTEN & READ: "Destination 2050: the Mediocre Barrier Reef?"

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LISTEN & READ: "Destination 2050: the Mediocre Barrier Reef?"

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Listen and read along to a podcast on the future of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

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The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral since the mid-80s. Dr Karl explains why rising temperatures, storms and starfish take their toll on this fragile environment.

Back in 1842, Charles Darwin (Mr Evolution himself) wondered about coral reefs. They grew in tropical waters that contained very few nutrients, and yet they flourished like an oasis in the desert. How could they do this? We now know that they form an incredibly efficient food web and ecosystem that extracts the maximum energy from the environment.

Coral reefs cover less than one-tenth of one per cent of the area of the world's oceans - but they support more than 25 per cent of all creatures that live in the oceans.

They are the 'rainforests' of the seas. Unfortunately, coral reefs worldwide are in trouble. The Great Barrier Reef lost half of its coral cover in the 27 years between 1985 and 2012. If the trend continues, it will lose half of what is left by the year 2022.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches some 2600 km off the coast of Queensland, with over 2900 individual reefs and some 900 islands.

This enormous structure is made of, and was built by, trillions of tiny animals known as 'coral polyps'. Each polyp is a cylindrical animal usually only a few millimetres in diameter and a few centimetres long. They sit on rock, or on the remains of previous coral, and excrete a carbonate exoskeleton at their base. At the other end they have a set of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. This is how they get their food.

But they cannot survive by themselves. They live in a very cosy mutually beneficial relationship with some microscopic algae known as 'zooxanthella' or more commonly as 'Symbiodinium'.

The relationship is so close that the Symbiodinium actually live inside the flesh of the host coral polyp. The polyps give them carbon dioxide and ammonium, and in return the Symbiodinium give the polyps essential carbohydrates and nutrients so they can grow. Indeed, the Symbiodinium provide more than 95 per cent of the metabolic needs of the coral polyps inside which they live.

The Symbiodinium are really quite weird and unlike any other lifeform. They have 100 times more DNA than we humans have - and we have no idea why. They do photosynthesis, but by a completely different process from all other light harvesting organisms. They are also one of the sources of colour of coral, thanks to their inherent brown-yellow colouration.

When coral is under stress, for example due to abnormally high temperatures in the water, the polyps actually expel their friends (the Symbiodinium) from their body. The polyps lose the colouration - and this event is called 'coral bleaching'. If they don't take up some Symbiodinium within a few days, the happy marriage is doomed and the coral dies.

Worldwide coral bleaching began happening in the late 1970s when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached around 320 parts per million. Since then we have seen them become distressingly more frequent.

As I said, recent research has shown the Great Barrier Reef lost half of its coral, in a 27-year window. About 10 per cent of that was directly due to coral bleaching. About 48 per cent was caused by storm damage, and about 42 per cent was due to attack by the infamous crown of thorns starfish.

Certainly with global warming raising the temperature of both the atmosphere and the oceans, there's more energy in those systems and we would expect more storm damage. And as the environment along the Great Barrier Reef has changed, the crown of thorns starfish has increased in numbers. They sit on top of the coral polyps, turn their stomach inside out and then liquefy and absorb the flesh of the coral.

According to Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, if we don't do something about it, then: "Reefs will become rapidly eroding rubble banks such as those seen in some inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef, where dense populations of corals have vanished over the past 50 to 100 years."

We need our coral reefs. On one hand they are a major source of protein for over one billion people in Asia, via the food chain. On the other hand, diving tourism in the Caribbean alone generates over $100 billion each year. In Australia, the income from international tourism to the Great Barrier Reef is around $7 billion each year.

Unfortunately, the coral polyp has exactly the wrong characteristics to deal with a rapidly changing environment. It has a very long life cycle, and often reproduces asexually by cloning so that the babies have exactly the same properties as the parents. In sexual reproduction, the babies are different from the parents and have a better chance of dealing with changes.

So if the coral polyps can't change their ways in a hurry, maybe we have to - so that the Great Barrier Reef doesn't become the Mediocre Barrier Reef.

Tags: climate-change, oceans-and-reefs, marine-biology
© 2018 Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd

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Destination 2050: the Mediocre Barrier Reef?

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The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral since the mid-80s. Dr Karl explains why rising temperatures, storms and starfish take their toll on this fragile environment. Back in 1842, Charles Darwin (Mr Evolution himself) wondered about coral reefs. They grew in tropical waters that contained very few nutrients, and yet they flourished like an oasis in the desert.

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READ: "Future fashion: 10 wearable tech trends to watch 

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READ: "Future fashion: 10 wearable tech trends to watch 

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An overview of 10 trends in the world of wearable tech. From dresses that react to sound, to air purifying jewellery, to "smart socks". What will the fashion of the future bring us???

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The craze goes beyond eyewear (Google Glass) and timepieces (Apple's rumored iWatch). Designers are creating apparel, accessories and fitness wear that can do everything from monitor your heart rate to charge your smartphone.

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WATCH: "Clothing of the future - Clothing in the year 2000"

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WATCH: "Clothing of the future - Clothing in the year 2000"

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A video from the 1930s showing how some designers imagined the fashion of the year 2000 would look like. So, did they get it right?...

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Clothing Of The Future - Clothing in The Year 2000

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A hilarious clip depicting what designers sometime around the 1930's thought fashion in 2000 would look like. Watch for the headlight hair accessory.

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WATCH: "Flying dresses and the future of fashion"

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WATCH: "Flying dresses and the future of fashion"

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A short video about the future of technology in shaping fashion.

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Flying Dresses And The Future Of Fashion

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From Lady Gaga to Azealia Banks, fashion tech lab Studio XO discuss bringing couture to life through technology, the future of digital skins and smart textil...

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An opinion article on the future of Australia to 2050. From the website www.theconversation.com.

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Australia's future depends on decisions we make today - what's coming towards us? Johnny Ross

Australians want a future of sustainable self-sufficiency and a healthy environment supporting a robust democracy - free of poverty and inequity. That was one of our projections, as part of the Australia 2050 project for the Australian Academy of Science.

Equally, Australians fear a future in which the stability of day-to-day life has been eroded by a degraded environment, depleted resources, lawlessness or warfare, limited access to health-care and education, extreme (or even increased) economic or political inequity and the fragmentation of social cohesion.

The question "What will Australia in 2050 look like?" will not be answered for sure for another four decades. But that future depends on decisions made today, and that means it is important to get some early insights into what the alternatives really are.

Of course, the future is uncertain and the projections discussed here may change as the different components are finally linked together. But some of them run contrary to current expectation and desires. They require careful thought in any personal, community, regional or national planning exercises.

Population, society and the economy

The human aspects of Australia's future have received a good deal of attention over the last few years. Australia's population will increase by 50-100% by 2050. The proportion of the population living in the north and west is projected to increase at the expense of smaller southern states.

Median age will increase from the 36.8 years of 2007 to between 41.9 and 45.2 years. The proportion of the population over 65 is projected to increase by 60%, or more in the southern states.

Economic growth is forecast to continue over 2011-2050 at around 2.5% per year (a little slower than over past decades), and to shift towards services and away from primary and secondary industries (like agriculture and manufacturing).

This is despite an expected 13% increase in trade as Australia's trade partnerships restructure - with the proportion of Australia's total exports going to China, India and Indonesia projected to rise from 14% to 40% by 2100.

Even this rate of productivity is dependent on increasing labour force participation, facilitated by education and health programs and increased participation by people aged over 65. Despite this rising participation it is projected that the tax base will nearly halve, meaning the fiscal burden of the ageing population would lead to an accumulating and growing fiscal gap (where spending exceeds revenue) of up to 2.75% of GDP annually, with deficits reaching 20% of GDP by 2050.

Resources and industries

Australia's resource sector has been one of the defining shapers of economic growth through the late 20th and early 21st century. Major fossil fuels (black coal, natural gas) and minerals (iron ore, bauxite, copper) are forecast to be exhausted in 60-80 years at current rates of extraction, much sooner for other resources (gold, lead, zinc, crude oil). The physical trade balance (including mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors) is forecast to show continued growth in exports to the mid 21st century, but then to collapse rapidly to around neutral.

While Australia will be food secure, agricultural trade is projected to drop by 10-80% due to a drop in output. In the absence of any climate change adaptation in agricultural practices or mitigation, by 2050 Australian wheat, sugar, beef and sheep production is projected to drop by roughly 14-20%; with production in Queensland and the Northern Territory hardest hit.

Energy consumption will increase. Electricity generation and transport sectors remain the dominant uses. Fossil fuels are likely to continue supplying the bulk of this, despite 3.4-3.5% growth per year in renewables.

The trajectory of emissions is heavily dependent on the specific adaptation behaviour, mitigation policies and technology scenarios.

Climate, the environment and ecosystems

Air temperature will probably rise by less than 4°C by 2050, with the greatest warming in the northwest and away from the coasts. This has adverse consequences for heat stress on agriculture and urban systems, water availability in Southern Australia, the incidence of drought and fire.

Water yield from the Murray-Darling potentially drops by 55%, but the greatest increase in drought months (of 80%) is in the southwest. Substantial increases in the number of extremely hot days (>35°C) Australia wide are associated with increases in extreme fire days and area burnt. Northern settlements are particularly strongly impacted.

The impact of these changes on native terrestrial ecosystems becomes progressively worse as temperature rises. If temperatures increases are small (<1°C by 2050) only mountain and tropical ecosystems should be impacted; habitat for vertebrates in the northern tropics is projected to decrease by 50%.

If temperatures rise by 3°C or more the projected loss of core habitats is much more extensive: 30-70% or more of many habitat types, with the majority of rainforest birds becoming threatened and many species of flora and fauna projected to go extinct. Iconic freshwater wetlands, like Kakadu, are also projected to shrink by 80%. These changes are also associated with extensive compositional change and increased penetration of invading species.

The ocean is projected to change as much as the land, though with much more consistency across emissions scenarios. Most ocean warming is in the tropics and down the east coast. Sea-level will rise, potentially doubling the areal extent of flooding due to storm tides; ocean stratification is likely to strengthen, affecting mixing, nutrient supplies and productivity; hypoxic "dead zones" are likely to spread; and the rising levels of CO ₂ dissolved in the ocean will continue to cause acidity to increase.

While a range of species will adapt, future ecosystems may have very different composition to today. Differential capacity to adapt will lead to species mixes never before recorded.

Economically and ecologically sustainable marine industries are still possible despite the projected environmental changes. However, this is only possible if regulations, markets and social attitudes allow the industry to shift with the new ecosystem structures.
Beth Fulton was lead author for a group exploring modelling perspectives as part of the Australian Academy of Science project "Australia 2050: Towards an environmentally and economically sustainable and socially equitable ways of living". The Australia 2050 project for the Australian Academy of Science has just published Phase 1 Negotiating our future: Living scenarios for Australia to 2050 which emerged from 35 scientists working together to explore social perspectives, resilience, scenarios and modelling as pathways towards environmentally and economically sustainable and socially equitable ways of living. Phase 2 of this project on creating living scenarios for Australia is underway.

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Where is Australia headed? Some future projections

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Australians want a future of sustainable self-sufficiency and a healthy environment supporting a robust democracy - free of poverty and inequity. That was one of our projections, as part of the Australia 2050 project for the Australian Academy of Science.

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A short video exploring what the cities of the future might look and function like.

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WATCH: "Future Learning" mini documentary

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WATCH: "Future Learning" mini documentary

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A 12 minute documentary focusing on the future of education.

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Future Learning | Mini Documentary | GOOD

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Play this grammar game to test your knowledge of the different future forms.

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Game to practice using the future tense in English with 'will' , 'going to' and the present progressive form. Learns will review the distinction between various future forms.

This game replaces the previous game which is now phased out. The old game had the following description:

Future forms review spin

future tenses - will, going to, doing: Practice future tenses - will, going to, doing using this ESL fun Game.

Games are great for motivating students to learn. By playing our fun educational games, students can practice and review key English vocabulary, grammar and sentences without the boredom which is usually encountered when doing paper-based gap-fill exercises. Play the game below and do not hesitate to share these resources with other learners. This is the philosophy behind our site - www.eslgamesplus.com.

This game is also excellent for classroom teaching. Teachers can engage students in a classroom vocabulary or grammar review. It is suitable for intermediate and advanced esl learners. It can be used to energize a dull class, to review work that was done or simply as a reward for good classroom work. Have fun teaching and learning English!

More Games

Welcome to the Future Tenses ESL Grammar Game - Monkey Game! Are you ready to practice using the future tense in English? This game is a fun way to review the different forms of the future tense, including 'will', 'going to', and the present progressive form.

In this game, you'll meet some silly monkeys who are planning a big party. Your job is to help them decide how they will prepare for the party by selecting the correct future tense form. As you progress through the game, you'll encounter different scenarios and practice using different forms of the future tense.

Using the correct form of the future tense can be tricky, but this game will help you master it in no time. You'll learn how to use 'will' for predictions and spontaneous decisions, 'going to' for plans and intentions, and the present progressive form for fixed arrangements in the future.

This game is perfect for anyone learning English as a second language or anyone looking to brush up on their grammar skills. So, let's get started and have some fun while we learn about the future tense!

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future tenses - will, going to, doing game

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Practice future tenses - will, going to, doing using this ESL fun Game.This game is also excellent for classroom teaching. Teachers can engage students in a classroom vocabulary or grammar review. It is suitable for intermediate and advanced esl learners.