With everything that's currently happening, the US National Academy  of Engineering was able to identify three of the greatest challenges that were challenging humanity. These were the quality of life, clean water, and computer intelligence. More information in the full article.

It looks like inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen (same guy who came up with the Segway PT) is all set to make more stuff again. This time his latest project focuses on soldiers wounded in the war.

Details are still scarce, but apparently, Kamen is currently working on developing a next gen prosthetic arm for soldiers who'd lost limbs to improvised explosive devices and such. News trickled out last month that Kamen had been approached by the Department of Defense last year regarding this project.

Kamen presented an early video of the prosthetic limb in action at TED, and the arm does indeed show promise, performing such precise actions as picking up stuff (a pen, a pad of paper, a water bottle) and scratching a nose. Word is that prototypes of the new six-pound prosthetic limb have already been fabricated, but that's pretty much it. No news yet on how far along the project Kamen is.