Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Jul 10
2019

Physicists Capture Atomic Motion in 4D

A process called nucleation plays a critical role in many physical and biological phenomena that range from crystallization, melting and evaporation to the formation of clouds and the initiation of neurodegenerative diseases. However, nucleation is a challenging process to study experimentally, especially in its early stages, when several atoms or molecules start to form a new phase from a parent phase. Now, a team of physicists led by the University of California, Los Angeles has used a method called atomic electron tomography to study early-stage nucleation in four dimensions (that is, in three dimensions of space and across time) at atomic resolution.

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Jul 10
2019

Could Manipulating the Microbiome Treat Food Allergies?

As evidence grows that gut bacteria play roles in the development and persistence of food allergies, researchers begin to explore microbe-based interventions.

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Jul 10
2019

25 Million Android Devices Infected

Malware researchers discovered a new malicious campaign for Android devices that replaces legitimate apps with tainted copies built to push advertisements or hijack valid ad events.

Around 25 million devices have already been infected with what researchers have dubbed “Agent Smith,” after users installed an app from an unofficial Android store.

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Jul 10
2019

The Rise of Transhumanism: Emerging Worldviews 11

https://paper.li/e-1437691924#/

Forms of Transhumanism

Transhumanism takes a variety of overlapping forms united around a common commitment to use science and technology to improve human intellect and/or physiology. Many, though not all, are committed to Posthumanism; others focus on artificial intelligence and its implications for human life. All of them raise important worldview questions, though not always the same ones.

One early form of Transhumanism was Extropianism. The name comes from the neologism extropy, a word intended to convey the reversal of entropy. Its focus is on using science, technology, and reason to take control of human evolution through life extension technologies, uploading our minds into computers, etc. An optimistic philosophy, Extropianism expected to extend human lifespans indefinitely and to recover and heal people frozen cryogenically.

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Jul 10
2019

Carbon dioxide could be converted into graphene

Carbon dioxide is kind of painted as the villain of the 21st century, and it’s not enough to just reduce our emissions now – we need to remove some of what’s already in the atmosphere. Now, researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a simple way to turn the troublesome gas into a useful resource by converting it into the “wonder” material graphene.

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Jul 10
2019

Microsoft Confirms Windows ‘Great Duke Of Hell’ Malware Attack

Astaroth is, as demonologists will tell you, the Great Duke of Hell and part of the evil trinity. Microsoft, however, is warning that Astaroth malware is attacking Windows users with a fileless “invisible man” methodology. Here’s what you need to know.

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Jul 10
2019

Blasting Rich People Into Space Is Better Business Than Uber, Somehow

Virgin Galactic is preparing to become the first publicly traded spaceflight company, and the venture is setting a course to be profitable by August 2021, which would put it lightyears ahead of the profitability projections of another transportation-based company that simply moves people around on Earth: Uber.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Virgin Galactic is merging with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings (SCH), which will take a 49 percent stake and invest about $800 million into the space tourism endeavor.

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Jul 10
2019

The Cryptocurrency Rush Transforming Old Swiss Gold Mines

In 2016, Alpine Tech started a digital currency mining operation in Gondo, on the Italian border.

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Jul 10
2019

This Robot Arm Can Help Wheelchair Users Drink Coffee, Open Doors

A new robot arm can help people who use wheelchairs better handle the day-to-day tasks that might otherwise be too challenging or awkward.

The Jaco, a robotic arm made by the tech company Kinova Robotics, can attach to a wheelchair and operate as a sort of third arm, according to Digital Trends — helping people with limited mobility go about their lives with a greater degree of independence.

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Jul 10
2019

Self-destructing mosquitoes and sterilized rodents: the promise of gene drives

The technical challenges are not as daunting as the social and diplomatic ones, says bioengineer Kevin Esvelt at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, who was among the first to build a CRISPR-based gene drive. “Technologies like this have real-world consequences for people’s lives that can be nearly immediate.”

Altering the genomes of entire animal populations could help to defeat disease and control pests, but researchers worry about the consequences of unleashing this new technology.

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