Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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A look back at the most popular life extension articles of 2017. Here is the report Can We Live to 120 on the Fasting Mimicking Diet or Calorie Restriction?

Summary: The Fasting Mimicking Diet, also called the Valter Longo diet, and the spartan practice of calorie restriction are the twin subjects of two recent research reports. Both research reports show that the fasting regimens offer potential health benefits. This article includes commentary by the inventor of the Fasting Mimicking Diet, Valter Longo. [Cover Photo: Ryan McGuire.]

The idea that animals can live longer, healthier lives by drastically reducing their calorie intake is not exactly new. Scientists have repeatedly demonstrated the life-extending value of calorie restriction (CR) in animals from worms to monkeys—with the implication that the same might be true for humans.

In fact, geroscientists consider CR as one of the most effective ways to extend lifespan. Our metabolism slows down as we age, due to a phenomenon called deregulated nutrient sensing. This metabolic change contributes to a host of age-related diseases.

Continue reading “Can We Live to 120 on the Fasting Mimicking Diet or Calorie Restriction?” | >

Pancreas in a box is currently in first clinical trial in patients with type 1 diabetes and contains beta cells grown from stem cells.

The pancreas in a box contains beta cells grown from stem cells and is currently in its first-ever clinical trial in patients with type 1 diabetes. Geroscientists are hopeful that a replacement pancreas grown from stem cells will be much healthier than insulin injections, and are working on pure stem cell-based treatments. [Editor’s note: the article has been updated on 10/19/2017 and the title changed.]

Experts once thought that developing and testing an effective stem cell treatment for diabetes would take years.

Due to a recent discovery, a cure may closer than we think.

Continue reading “Can We Cure Diabetes With a ‘Pancreas in a Box’ Grown from Stem Cells?” | >

AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products) are in the spotlight again as scientists implicate these toxins in inflammaging, cancer, and diabetes.

Summary: AGEs (advanced glycation end-products) are in the spotlight again as geroscientists implicate this toxic waste of our bodies in a multitude of health conditions, including inflammaging, cancer, and diabetes. Some scientists go as far as to link AGEs to an increase in the chronic inflammation which leads to heart attacks. [Cover photo: Getty Images.]. Follow us on Google+ | Facebook | Reddit. See more articles by the author at Google+.

Executive Summary

Are advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) a villain that causes chronic diseases or are they merely an innocent bystander?

Continue reading “AGEs DamAGE Our Bodies” | >

Alibaba said it’s the first time a machine has out-done a real person in such a contest. Microsoft achieved a similar feat, scoring 82.650 on the same test, but those results were finalized a day after Alibaba’s, the company said.

Alibaba has developed an artificial intelligence model that scored better than humans in a Stanford University reading and comprehension test.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. put its deep neural network model through its paces last week, asking the AI to provide exact answers to more than 100,000 questions comprising a quiz that’s considered one of the world’s most authoritative machine-reading gauges. The model developed by Alibaba’s Institute of Data Science of Technologies scored 82.44, edging past the 82.304 that rival humans achieved.

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My article with Jeff Sommers (see “The emerging field of space economics: theoretical and practical considerations”, The Space Review, December 18, 2017) raised considerable criticism regarding the Moon Treaty, particularly, the inclusion of the Common Heritage of Mankind (CHM) doctrine. Leigh Ratiner, L5 attorney during the 1980 Senate ratification hearings, had identified CHM as the reason for rejecting ratification:

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In the process outlined in the paper, a robotic implant about ten centimetres long is attached to the outside of the organ with two steel ‘O’ rings fixed around the tubular sections of the oesophagus. The unit containing the motor, sensors and electronics is sheathed in a biocompatible waterproof skin and connected by cable to a wearable control unit outside the body, and mechanostimulation encourages cell growth in the area between the rings.

The results were encouraging. Over nine days the implant extended the test pigs’ oesophageal length by 77% between the two rings, not by stretching the organ but by stimulating cellular growth within it. During this period the organ also experienced normal blood flow and functionality.

It sounds like something out of Star Trek, but an international team report success with a cell-regenerating robot implant. Andrew P Street reports.

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Dennis Kowalski, the president of Cryonics Institute in the United States, has made the incredible announcement that cryonics is advancing so fast that he is unable to keep up with the demand for it. The institute spearheads the process of freezing human beings by cryogenics.

Dennis spoke exclusively and said that technology is making huge advances and went on to talk about CPR and said that it would have seemed not possible only 100 years ago. He said that today people take technology for granted. Dennis used to work as a paramedic and said that the reason he got into cryogenics was thanks to a book with the title of Engines of Creation by J Robert Freitas which has the focus on nanotechnology.

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