Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 10,319

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

Log in for authorized contributors

The High-Tech Vertical Farmer

In the kale-filled facility at vertical farm startup Bowery Farming, it’s a piece of proprietary software that makes most of the critical decisions — like when to harvest and how much to water each plant. But it still takes humans to carry out many tasks around the farm. Katie Morich, 25, loves the work. But as roboticists make gains, will her employer need her forever? This is the fourth episode of Next Jobs, a series about careers of the future hosted by Bloomberg Technology’s Aki Ito.

Host, Producer: Aki Ito
Camera: Alan Jeffries, Brian Schildhorn
Co-Producer: David Nicholson
Editor: Victoria Daniell
Writers: Aki Ito and Victoria Daniell.

Can We Really Live Forever? | Unveiled

Subscribe: https://goo.gl/GmtyPv

We’ve been raised with the belief that death is inevitable, and so during our lives we consider the legacy of what each of us leaves behind. But what if you had unlimited time to pursue your life’s work, your hobbies, and your dreams.

What if you didn’t have to die? As science and medicine advances, the average human lifespan continues to increase from better care and medicines that treat diseases. Some scientists say that in the near future, perhaps within the next 50 years, immortality might be within our grasp.

To begin to understand the aging process, we have to look at the laws of physics. There are four laws of thermodynamics, and the second law of thermodynamics basically implies that everything made up of atoms rusts, falls apart and disintegrates. We are all made of atoms, and those atoms must obey the second law of thermodynamics.

Currently there are drugs based on small molecules called senolytics which are designed to eliminate these zombie cells which refuse to die. This is a good thing, because such defective senescent cells persist to emit harmful chemicals that damage other healthy cells, and cause inflammation; a process that is one of the basic mechanisms of aging. But this is only a small part of the process.

This Stingray-Shaped Spacecraft Could Be Perfect For Exploring Venus’ Dark Side

Researchers are designing a stingray-shaped spacecraft to explore the dark side of Venus.

(Image: © CRASH Lab, University at Buffalo)

Could a stingray-shaped spacecraft get to the dark side of Venus by flapping its wings?

Researchers at the University of Buffalo (UB) are designing a spacecraft shaped like a stingray that could explore Venus in ways never before possible. The craft, designed as part of the Bio-inspired Ray for Extreme Environments and Zonal Explorations (BREEZE) project, is one of 12 selected by NASA for the agency’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which supports new, innovative technologies.

Can we live forever? | Death Land

What if you could cheat death and live forever? To people in the radical life extension movement, immortality is a real possibility. Leah Green spends a long weekend at RAADfest, a meeting of scientists, activists and ordinary people who want to extend the human lifespan. So is reversing your age a real possibility? And what’s behind this wish to live forever?
This is the first episode in our Death Land series, with a new episode every Thursday at 12pm. Subscribe here so you don’t miss the next installment ► http://is.gd/subscribeguardian

Support the Guardian ► https://support.theguardian.com/contribute

Today in Focus podcast ► https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/todayinfocus

Sign up for the Guardian documentaries newsletter ► https://www.theguardian.com/info/2016/sep/02/sign-up-for-the…ies-update

The Guardian ► https://www.theguardian.com

The Guardian YouTube network:

Continue reading “Can we live forever? | Death Land” | >

Who shrank the drug factory? Briefcase-sized labs could transform medicine

Historically, the pharmaceutical industry has relied on economies of scale, mixing hundreds of litres of reagents in massive reaction chambers to make millions of doses of a single drug. Bio-MOD and related systems, however, cycle small amounts of chemicals through a series of thumb-sized chambers that can produce hundreds or thousands of doses of multiple drugs, all in less than 24 hours. Several teams have won support for this vision from the US military: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has handed out more than US$15 million to support these do-it-yourself drug-makers.

Engineers are miniaturizing pharmaceutical production in the hope of making it portable and inexpensive.

/* */