Topic: technological and scientific developments so far this year.

Examples include: a breathalyzer-style test can now detect stomach cancer; caffeine reduces the probability of suicide; a new form of lithium-ion battery is thousands of times more powerful than current battery technology; a tiny exoplanet is discovered about the size of the Earth's moon; the US Supreme Court decides that naturally occurring genes can not be patented by medical companies; and, for the first time, a robotic aircraft lands on an aircraft carrier on the high seas.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 11, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 18 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science as well as A Brief History of Predicting the Future.