Lifeboat Foundation

Ready for the strange? Here you go.

If you aren’t already purchasing organic or GMO-free rice, you should be. Rice that has been engineered with actual human genes is on its way to a supermarket near you. In Junction City, Kansas, this human gene-tainted rice is being grown on 3,200 acres by the biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience.

Ventria began cultivating this rather horrifying product in 2006 with human liver genes. What exactly was the purpose of this, you ask? Their intention was to harvest the artificial enzymes produced by the rice and use them in pharmaceuticals. Ventria has taken one of the most widely grown and consumed crops and turned it into the base for new prescription drugs — all with USDA approval, of course.

Continue reading “Human genes engineered into GMO rice have being grown in Kansas” »

The SV trend.

Employees at San Francisco startup Nootrobox don’t eat on Tuesdays.

The weekly fast isn’t an extreme money-saving move by a scrappy, bootstrapping company. Instead, Nootrobox team members swear withholding food for 36 hours — they stop eating Monday night — improves their workplace focus and concentration.

Continue reading “Brain ‘hacking’: Entrepreneurs turn to fasting and ‘smart drugs’” »

Is it time for rehab for junk food junkies?

Apparently, all the burgers and smoothies you’re consuming cause your brain to forget to stop eating even when you’re full.

Can you relate to midnight cravings and the feeling of perpetual hunger? Do you resort to grabbing fast food on the fly or eating out of a tub of ice cream while you’re bored around the house?

Continue reading “Eating Sugar And Fatty Foods Is As Bad As Doing Drugs” »

3D printers can churn out toys, clothing and even food. But the technology also shows potential for use in industrial sabotage, researchers warn.

Imagine a car maker using 3D printers to manufacture components, only to have the parts contain defects that are undetectable until it’s too late.

A hacker with access to the 3D printers could make that happen, a team of researchers wrote in a recent paper. This could result in a “devastating impact” for users and lead to product recalls and lawsuits, said New York University professor Nikhil Gupta, the lead author of the paper.

Continue reading “Hacked 3D printers could commit industrial sabotage” »

In part 2 of our plant synthetic biology series we teamed up with Cameron Tout of the Legume Laboratory blog to introduce some of the tools of plant synbio and how these are being applied to agriculture.

Over 9000 years ago the first domesticated varieties of wheat were created in South West Asia. What was remarkable about these plants is that they were selected by humans to retain their seeds rather than dispersing them by wind. This meant that wheat became dependent on farmers for propagation, but allowed people to harvest grain without the pods shattering in their hands.

Since then, humans have been modifying plants in ever more sophisticated ways, the 20th century saw the introduction of mutation breeding and hybrid technology, resulting in massive gains in crop yields.

Continue reading “From Plough to Pipette” »

An article on transhumanism and food in Extra Crispy, Time Inc’s new food site about breakfast:

Zoltan Istvan, presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party, believes in anti-doughnut legislation and immortality.

Want a gourmet cook; 3D printing is giving that to you.

Dutch 3D printed food innovators byFlow are ready to take their Food Ink pop-up restaurant to London, where they will be setting up a gastropub to serve nine-course 3D printed dinners from 25 to 27 July.

Continue reading “Food Ink. the first 3D printing restaurant to serve nine-course 3D printed dinner in London” »

Caleb Harper turned his career of designing data centers into a quest to help the next generation of farmers.

Space and technology have collided in a recent design challenge hosted by Star Trek and NASA. Future Engineers has once again called upon students to push their creative boundaries. Since February 2016, they have been working hard to engineer 3D printable design concepts aimed at food sustainability in space. More than 400 students from 30 US states created amazing solutions that would aid astronauts in harvesting, preparing, eating and disposing of food while on long-duration space missions. A panel of judges from NASA, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Foundation, and Made In Space, Inc. selected Kyle Corrette from Phoenix, Arizona and Sreyash Sola from Asburn, Virginia as winners of their respective Teen Group and Junior Group. Judges also selected three finalists from each group, who were each awarded a MakerBot Replicator Mini Compact 3D printer for their school and a PancakeBot for their household. Winners Corrette and Sola received a grand prize trip to New York City for a private viewing of the Space Shuttle Enterprise with astronaut Mike Massimino at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, as well as a VIP tour of MakerBot’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

Read more about each finalist’s innovative design concept below: