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Sep 7, 2017
UCLA Team Genetically Manipulates Mitochondria to Extend Fruit Flies’ Lifespan
Posted by Paul Gonçalves in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension, neuroscience
UCLA scientists working with middle-aged fruit flies say they were able to improve the insects’ health while markedly slowing down their aging process. The team thinks its technique could eventually help delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and other age-related diseases in humans.
The researchers zeroed in on mitochondria, which often become damaged with age. When cells can’t eliminate the damaged mitochondria, they can become toxic and contribute to a wide range of age-related diseases, said David Walker, Ph.D., a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology, and the study’s senior author.
Dr. Walker and his colleagues found that as fruit flies reach middle age—about one month into their two-month lifespan—their mitochondria change from their original small, round shape.
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Sep 7, 2017
Should We be Cautious about Envisioning Dystopias?
Posted by Johnny Boston in categories: entertainment, ethics, existential risks, futurism, human trajectories, media & arts, philosophy, transhumanism
How will our relationship to technology evolve in the future? Will we regard it as something apart from ourselves, part of ourselves, or as a new area of evolution? In this new video from the Galactic Public Archives, Futurist Gray Scott explains that we are a part of a technological cosmos. Do you agree with Scott that technology is built into the universe, waiting to be discovered?
Sep 7, 2017
Unexpected Futurist: Ben Franklin envisions 2776 — and Cryonics
Posted by Johnny Boston in categories: aging, cryonics, education, entertainment, futurism, health, human trajectories, innovation, media & arts, science, time travel
In Unexpected Futurist, we profile the lesser known futurist side of influential individuals. This episode’s unexpected time-traveler: Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin was an inventor, observer, electricity pioneer, and serial experimenter, so it’s not entirely surprising he looked to the future. But it turns out he was looking to the far, far future. In 1780 he wrote a letter to a friend in which he lamented that he was born during the dawn of science.
