In 1998 I was exposed to the term “disruptive innovation” for the first time. I read a wonderful book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen, where I learned the difference between incremental innovation and disruptive innovation. He analyzed the hard drive industry and showed that while many companies were trying to increase the capacity of the drives, other companies changed the form factor and made the drives smaller. This resulted in disruptive progress in the industry. We also recently witnessed dramatic advances in artificial intelligence (AI), where in 2013/2014 AI systems started outperforming humans in image recognition.
Identifying novel targets and designing novel molecules is not the only way to innovate in the biopharmaceutical industry. Sometimes, innovation in delivery systems for well-know and established therapeutics may be just as disruptive as the new targeted medicine.
After selling his company, Braintree/Venmo, for $800 million and battling chronic depression for 10 years, Bryan Johnson is now on a mission to help us measure and gather more data about the organ that makes us oh-so human: our brain.
In this episode, Ryan Tanaka and Omar Olivares share an exclusive, behind the scenes look of Kernel’s headquarters near Los Angeles, California. Ryan interviews Bryan Johnson, tries on Kernel’s wearable brain-interface, ‘Flow,’ and learns about the engineering and technology developments needed to make it all happen. CTO, Ryan Field and Director of Applied Neuroscience, Katherine Perdue also share insights about Kernel’s wearable Flow headset.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Kernel for opening their office for us to film in and for supporting our travel and accommodation.
Neura Pod is a series covering topics related to Neuralink, Inc. Topics such as brain-machine interfaces, brain injuries, and artificial intelligence will be explored. Host Ryan Tanaka synthesizes informationopinions, and conducts interviews to easily learn about Neuralink and its future.
GlucoRx and Cardiff University are set to bring out the world’s first non-invasive continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in what they say will herald a new era of needle-free monitoring for people with diabetes.
A fundamental discovery concerning a driver of healthy development in embryos might rewrite our understanding of what we can inherit from our parents and how their life experiences shape us. The new study reveals that epigenetic information, which sits on top of DNA
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).
Before the first clinical symptoms appear, Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that attacks the brain, causing a decline in mental ability that worsens over time. It is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. There is no current cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but there are medications that can help ease the symptoms.
The findings also point to possible directions for treatment of the disease.
The results are published Sept. 6 in the journal Neuron.
Almost half the human genome is comprised of transposable elements, long and short stretches of DNA called “jumping genes” for their ability to move from one location of the genome to others. Once called “junk” DNA, these transposable sequences have been shown to play crucial regulatory roles in many biological functions. Once they fulfill these myriad roles, molecular regulators usually silence their expression.
Along the way, they discuss the early days of David’s HedWeb, the Abolitionist Project, the Three Supers of Transhumanism (Superhappiness, Superintelligence, and Superlongevity), philosophy and history of science, the nature of intelligence, field theories of consciousness, anesthesia, empathogens, anti-tolerance drugs, and much more.
Some of the key essays discussed:
Utopian Pharmacology — “Mental Health in the Third Millennium — MDMA and Beyond” — https://mdma.net/
The Biointelligence Explosion — “How recursively self-improving organic robots will modify their own source code and bootstrap our way to full-spectrum superintelligence” — https://www.biointelligence-explosion.com/
Research into how the blood protein vitronectin changes when under pressure – such as when it passes through the blood vessels at the back of the eye – could unlock the mechanism of macular degeneration.
