Lifeboat Foundation

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.

Continue reading “Transhumanism and Libertarianism Are Entirely Compatible” »

Announcement of CRISPR technology, which allows precise editing of the human genome, has been heralded as the future of individualized medicine, and a decried as a slippery slope to engineering individual human qualities. Of course, humans already know how to manipulate animal genomes through selective breeding, but there has been no appetite to try on humans what is the norm for dogs. That’s a good thing, says Dawkins. The results could well be dangerous. Does technology as a whole represent a threat to human welfare if it continues to evolve at its current rate? Not so fast, warns Dawkins. Comparing biological evolution to technological progress is an analogy at best. His newest book is Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist.

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Continue reading “The Dangers of CRISPR, Designer Babies, and Artificial Genetic Mutation” »

A Stanford team has launched a new challenge on the Eterna computer game. Players will design a CRISPR-controlling molecule, and with it open the possibility of new research and therapies.

A team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has launched a new challenge for the online computer game Eterna in which players are being asked to design an RNA molecule capable of acting as an on/off switch for the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9.

Continue reading “Online game challenges players to design on/off switch for CRISPR” »

How do we make it in today’s crazy, alternative facts, almost alternative world–we get creative, we get INNOVATIVE. Here on ScIQ, we’re talking to two incredible innovators in medical sciences and human health.

Just in her 20s, Kathrine Jin was part of the team of Columbia University students who developed a low-cost, technology-driven solution to meet the urgent challenges posed by the Ebola crisis. She has been honored the United Nations in celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science for her part in the creation of Highlight, a patent-pending disinfectant solution.
Learn more about Kinnos here: https://www.kinnos.us/about-us/

Continue reading “Katherine Jin and Keith Comito, Challenges In American Innovation” »

New Pneumonia In Chinese Hospitals Is Drug-Resistant, Deadly And Contagious : Goats and Soda When microbiologist Sheng Chen and his team sequenced the microbes found in the pneumonia infections, they were shocked at what they saw.

Nanomachines which can drill into cancer cells, killing them in just 60 seconds, have been developed by scientists.

The tiny spinning molecules are driven by light, and spin so quickly that they can burrow their way through cell linings when activated.

In one test conducted at Durham University the nanomachines took between one and three minutes to break through the outer membrane of prostate cancer cell, killing it instantly.

Continue reading “Nanomachines that drill into cancer cells killing them in just 60 seconds developed by scientists” »

It could give you amazing capabilities, like being able to see your own cells.

If there was a poster child of aging diseases, it would be Alzheimer’s disease. The brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have deposits of amyloids resulting from the loss of proteostasis. Alzheimer’s disease is accompanied by the presence of amyloid beta protein and tau protein as well as large numbers of activated pro-inflammatory immune cells.

The debate about which is primary has raged for many years in the research world, and it is still not clear how these three elements combine to cause disease progression. A new study has attempted to untangle the mystery and suggests the order is beta amyloid, inflammation, then tau, and this study identifies new targets for therapies[1].

The smallest chip the team has developed so far measures 22 microns (about a fifth the thickness of a human hair), which they plan to test reading with a specialized RFID interrogator.

By Claire Swedberg

Tags: Health Care, Innovation, Sensors