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Archive for the ‘bioengineering’ category: Page 157

Sep 24, 2017

He Hacked a Way to Talk to Plants — and They Talk Back

Posted by in category: bioengineering

Bioengineer Keenan Pinto designed an application that helps hydroponic farmers “talk” to their plants.

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Sep 21, 2017

Scientists discover ‘master gene’ crucial for successful pregnancy

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, government

S cientists have edited human embryos for the first time in the UK to discover a “master gene” that underpins successful pregnancies. The “game-changing” research promises improved IVF outcomes and a breakthrough in understanding why so many pregnancies fail.

The Government-funded investigation, undertaken by the Francis Crick Institute, is the first to prove that gene editing can be used to study the genetic behaviour of human embryos in their first few days of life.

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Sep 16, 2017

Dangerous Things

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, evolution

We believe our bodies are our own, to do with what we want. Biohacking is leading the next phase of human evolution, and we’re excited to be a part of it.

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Sep 14, 2017

A DNA nanorobot is programmed to pick up and sort molecules into predefined regions

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Imagine a robot that could help you tidy your home: roving about, sorting stray socks into the laundry and dirty dishes into the dishwasher. While such a practical helper may still be the stuff of science fiction, Caltech scientists have developed an autonomous molecular machine that can perform similar tasks—at the nanoscale. This “robot,” made of a single strand of DNA, can autonomously “walk” around a surface, pick up certain molecules and drop them off in designated locations.

The work was done in the laboratory of Lulu Qian, assistant professor of bioengineering. It appears in a paper in the September 15 issue of Science.

Why Nanobots?

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Sep 13, 2017

The Libertarian Futurist’s Case for Avoiding War and Military Entanglements

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, genetics, military, policy, robotics/AI

My new policy article for the HuffPost on why more than ever we need to avoid war and armed conflict:


Some of the early years of my adult life were in conflict zones as a journalist—which included covering the Pakistan/Indian Kashmir conflict for the National Geographic Channel and The New York Times Syndicate. War zones are terrifying. One always is worried about bullying soldiers, speeding armed military vehicles, stray bullets, and whether there’s a roadside bomb on your path. Anyone that approaches you is suspect and could be carrying ready-to-detonate explosives.

One thing conflict zones teach you is that freedom is precious. The nearly 70-year Kashmir conflict has approximately a half million soldiers involved, so even if they’re supposedly on your side (depending on what country you’re in), you still feel under siege. My time in certain parts of Sudan, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Eritrea, Mali, and Yemen left me with the same feeling.

Continue reading “The Libertarian Futurist’s Case for Avoiding War and Military Entanglements” »

Sep 12, 2017

Is Human Genetic Modification Possible?

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

Short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, CRISPR is a revolutionary gene editing technique that’s taken the scientific world by storm. Both ultra-precise and easy to access, CRISPR could be the next step towards wiping out genetically inherited diseases and even curing cancers. A host of exciting CRISPR concepts are currently undergoing clinical trials and proof-of-concept experiments, with one particularly controversial focus — human embryos.

A “cut and paste” concept

While there have been rumours coming out of China for years, US scientists have now confirmed that the first attempts to create genetically modified human embryos have been a success. Led by researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, the study used CRISPR to change the DNA of multiple one-cell human embryos. Basically, this allowed them to “snip” out segments of a particular genome and switch them with customised replacements. As in previous cases, the embryos were terminated several days after creation to prevent them from developing into foetuses.

Continue reading “Is Human Genetic Modification Possible?” »

Sep 10, 2017

Scientists use CRISPR technology to change flower colour

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

I was thinking about this the other day. How far off is using CRISPR for cosmetic changes? permanently changing of eye color, hair color, skin (although that one is gonna be a lightning rod), etc…


In a world-first, Japanese scientists have used the revolutionary CRISPR, or CRISPR/Cas9, genome- editing tool to change flower colour in an ornamental plant. Researchers from the University of Tsukuba, the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and Yokohama City University, Japan, altered the flower colour of the traditional Japanese garden plant, Japanese morning glory (Ipomoea nil or Pharbitis nil), from violet to white, by disrupting a single gene. This research highlights the huge potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to the study and manipulation of genes in horticultural plants.

Japanese morning glory, or Asagao, was chosen for this study as it is one of two traditional horticultural model plants in the National BioResource Project in Japan (NBRP). Extensive genetic studies of this plant have already been performed, its genome sequenced and DNA transfer methods established. In addition, as public concern with genetic technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 is currently a social issue in Japan, studies using this popular and widely-grown plant may help to educate the public on this topic.

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Sep 7, 2017

End of humanity as we know it’s ‘coming in 2045’ and Google is preparing for it

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI, singularity

‘In my lifetime, the singularity will happen,’ Alison Lowndes, head of AI developer relations at technology company Nvidia, tells Metro.co.uk at the AI Summit.

‘But why does everyone think they’d be hostile?


Robots ‘will reach human intelligence by 2029 and life as we know it will end in 2045’.

Continue reading “End of humanity as we know it’s ‘coming in 2045’ and Google is preparing for it” »

Sep 4, 2017

Two-thirds of Americans approve of editing human DNA to treat disease

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

About two-thirds of Americans support the use of gene editing to treat diseases, according to a new survey. But opinions vary a lot based on people’s religious beliefs and how much they know about gene editing in general.

The research, published earlier this month in Science, shows that across the board, people want to be involved in a public discussion about editing the human genome. And that conversation with scientists and public officials needs to happen now, as the technology is still developing, says study co-author Dietram Scheufele, a science communication scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The results are based on a survey of 1,600 US adults conducted in December 2016 and January 2017.

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Sep 3, 2017

Transhumanism and Libertarianism Are Entirely Compatible

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, cyborgs, economics, government, robotics/AI, sex, transhumanism, virtual reality

Article out by Ron Bailey at Reason Magazine that discusses #transhumanism and #libertarianism:


Kai Weiss, a researcher at the Austrian Economics Center and Hayek Institute in Vienna, Austria, swiftly denounced the piece. “Transhumanism should be rejected by libertarians as an abomination of human evolution,” he wrote.

Clearly there is some disagreement.

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