Lifeboat Foundation

“At times, it may seem as if the entire prior history of the Universe led us to this pivotal moment of realization that we are the ‘brain cells’ of a larger planetary superorganism, progressively morphing into one Global Mind.”-Alex Vikoulov.

*My magnum opus The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution (2020), where I share my deepest insights and far-reaching foresights, is now available as eBook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook on Amazon:

#SyntellectHypothesis

Continue reading “The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution: Vikoulov, Alex M., Tuynman PhD, Antonin: 9781733426145: Amazon.com: Books” »

Now, Tejada-Martinez and her colleagues have studied the evolution of 1077 tumour suppressor genes (TSGs). In all, they compared the evolution of the genes in 15 mammalian species, including seven cetacean species.

Genes regulating DNA damage, tumour spread and the immune system were positively selected among the cetaceans. The team also found that cetaceans gained and lost TSGs at a rate 2.4 times higher than in other mammals.

It’s not like we’re gonna be taking whale genes and putting them into humans and making humans cancer resistant, says Lynch. But if you can find the genes that play a role in tumour suppression in other animals, and if you could figure out what they’re doing, maybe you can make a drug that mimics that for human treatment…

Blog — Bundex Film Archives coming to posthuman university.

As editor, sound engineer and roadie with director Bunny Dexter’s “Bundex Films”, the three of us (Eugene Smith was cameraman) travelled to various parts of the world making political, environmental and quirky documentaries during the first age of digital video. Bunny was also a judge at some international film festivals, and we actually won an award in Poland for one of our films. At NY film school, Bunny’s teacher was Marty Scorsese, who would call at Bunny’s flat sometimes when in London. We made two versions of a 3D hologram of Marty, of which he has one and I the other. After Bunny’s passing I inherited the huge shoulder-harnress digital camera which remains in my garage and has less capability than a modern smartphone, digital tape-decks and lots footage together with all rights, except for the lost Orson Welles tapes matter and story of his aristocratic Sicilian producer. More about this and other films later. I have boxes to sort through, and am sure I have forgotten some projects which will come as a surprise when I rediscover them. Will post at posthuman university side when sorted, this footage give unique insights from a period of very rapid evolution and transformation in film-making.

Documentaries include the Homeless and their Dogs, Gipsy persecution in Hungary, a study of Tattoo’s and Tattoo artists, Momento Mori – a film of an elderly lady after her death, and our pursuit of Cocoa plant agricultural sabotage in Brazil. There is unseen footage from these and other films, and interviews with Bunny before her death which I will edit together. She had an interesting life including appearances in Andy Warhol movies, and early success with a short film with Hollywood beckoning. Woody Allen was in her NY film school class, and many of her friends went on to become big stars, but B was too much of a socialite, and was unable to get her screen plays produced. At least one political biography that I have is very good, I might update it for sub-Hollywood production in the future. Anyway, Bunny had an interesting “career” and was close friends with Yoko & John Lennon from her guerrilla art days, Jimmy Hendrix, also Graham Chapman and some of the Pythons.

Julian Huxley was part of the intellectual dynasty started by TH Huxley, and is more influenced by Buddhist ideas than Judeo-Christian. “T. H. Huxley was a paleontologist with a medical background who gained great prominence in the nineteenth century as one of the foremost defenders of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Victorians were often inclined to see him as “the living embodiment of science militant,”(8) for Huxley actually clashed with contemporary defenders of Biblical supernaturalism in the name of science.(9) A very late product of his intellectual career, Evolution and Ethics (1893) shows him in a mellowed, reflective mood. The radical disjunction between the ethical and the cosmic processes such as is frequently highlighted here hardly squares with “orthodox” Darwinism; in fact Irvine has called Huxley’s effort in this context a “somewhat puzzling manoeuvre” that is “full of talk about Indian mysticism and of protest about the cruelties of evolution.”(10) Yet his overall treatment of his theme is not a matter that need concern us now.(11) What must be noted, on the other hand, is that in the course of his professed endeavor to inquire into the origin and the basis of ethical values from an evolutionary standpoint, Huxley indeed undertook a brief survey of the leading philosophies that had helped to form mankind’s conceptions of such values. He emphasized in this connection that India had engendered a distinctive outlook on life, and some of the ideas central to that outlook (as, for example, karman) actually made a notable impression on him. But it is upon a particular religion of Indian origin, namely Buddhism, that he chose to dwell at length and, I think, in a way that merits close attention.” Buddhism is” system which knows no God in the Western sense; which denies a soul to man; which counts the belief in immortality a blunder and hope of it a sin; which refuses any efficacy to prayer and sacrifice; which bids men look to nothing but their own efforts for salvation; which in its original purity, knew nothing of vows of obedience, abhorred intolerance, and never sought the aid of the secular arm; yet spread over a considerable moiety of the Old World with marvellous rapidity, and is still, with whatever base admixure of foreign superstitions, the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind.”

A note on a Victorian evaluation and its “comparativist dimension” By Vijitha Rajapakse Philosophy East and West Volume 35, no. 3 (July 1985)

©by the University of Hawaii Press

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New research helps understand how plate tectonics powers life on Earth. Plate tectonics are responsible for the deep-carbon and deep-water cycles. Arrangement of continents has changed sea level in the past. The evolution of life is modified by tectonics — continents are rafts with evolvi.

New enzyme catalysts are usually engineered by repurposing the active sites of natural proteins. Here we show that design and directed evolution can be used to transform a non-natural, functionally naive zinc-binding protein into a highly active catalyst for an abiological hetero-Diels–Alder reaction. The artificial metalloenzyme achieves 10⁴ turnovers per active site, exerts absolute control over reaction pathway and product stereochemistry, and displays a catalytic proficiency (1/K_TS = 2.9 × 10¹⁰ M⁻¹) that exceeds all previously characterized Diels–Alderases. These properties capitalize on effective Lewis acid catalysis, a chemical strategy for accelerating Diels–Alder reactions common in the laboratory but so far unknown in nature. Extension of this approach to other metal ions and other de novo scaffolds may propel the design field in exciting new directions.

Chair emeritus, SETI institute — the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Dr. Jill Tarter is Chair Emeritus for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research at the SETI Institute, a not-for-profit research organization whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to apply the knowledge gained to inspire and guide present and future generations.

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The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates fast. That’s a concern because these more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are now present in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa and other countries, and many people are wondering whether the current vaccines will protect the recipients from the virus. Furthermore, many question whether we will we be able to keep ahead of future variants of SARS-CoV-2, which will certainly arise.

In my laboratory I study the molecular structure of RNA viruses – like the one that causes COVID-19 – and how they replicate and multiply in the host. As the virus infects more people and the pandemic spreads, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. This process of evolution is constant and it allows the virus to sample its environment and select changes that make it grow more efficiently. Thus, it is important to monitor viruses for such new mutations that could make them more deadly, more transmissible or both.

Fascinating new episode with NASA planetary geophysicist Bruce Banerdt, the principal investigator for the Mars InSight lander which is changing the way scientists now view Mars’ interior dynamics and inner workings. Please have a listen.

I welcome Bruce Banerdt, the principal investigator for NASA’s Mars InSight lander, which has been operating on the Martian surface for two years now. Although it’s had some technical issues, it’s offered a sea change in how geophysicists are interpreting the dynamics and makeup of the Martian core. In this episode, we talk about what we currently understand about Mars’ geophysical makeup and, among other things, whether it ever had plate tectonics which was so crucial for the evolution of sentient life here on Earth.

Continue reading “Episode 36 --- NASA Aims For The Geophysical Heart Of Mars” »