Lifeboat Foundation

Microscopic spaceships powered by Earth-based lasers are being developed to hunt for extra-terrestrial life in Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to ours.

The £70m Breakthrough Starshot concept involves creating a tiny robotic spacecraft, no larger than a mobile phone chip, which would carry cameras, thrusters, a power supply and navigation and communication equipment.

Physicist Stephen Hawking, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Russian internet billionaire Yuri Milner have all joined the project’s board giving it major backing.

Researchers hope the stammering rodents help find a cure for the speech problem.

CRISPR to improve shelf life of vegetables and fruits. I magine what this would mean for populations in remote locations with horrible climates or in disaster zones that need fresh foods.

Yinong Yang, a Penn State University researcher, has used a famous gene editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 for cutting out a small piece of DNA from one specific gene in a white button mushroom. With this, Yang was able to stop the gene, which in turn cuts the production of an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase in mushroom. With this gene editing of white mushrooms, the mushroom doesn’t get spoiled as natural mushrooms.

You might have heard something like this earlier as scientists have also developed non-browning versions of apples and potatoes. However, those crops were called GMOs as scientists had put in new, slightly altered genes within those plants to ‘silence’ the natural gene.

Continue reading “Penn Researcher uses CRISPR/Cas9 to snip out tiny piece of DNA from gene in white button mushroom” »

Hmmm; I want to see a real humanoid truly interact and move seamlessly like folks rushing to catch the tram, or BART/ Marta and hustle in rushing to meetings and multi-tasking in a high pressure office or trading floor. Until we see this level of fluid responsiveness; humanoid is only a pale imitation at best.

You might to do a double take when you see this new interactive robot, as it ‘looks very much like a real woman’.

Dubbed ‘robot goddess’, Jia Jia has the long flowing locks and rosy red cheeks as a human, but is being taught deep learning abilities.

Continue reading “Chinese inventor claims AI humanoid is the most realistic ever made” »

Another gene editing triumph.

Genetic engineering may emerge as an important tool to avert extinctions. But ecosystems are complex, and this tinkering might not unfold as planned.

I was asked recently if I had money given to me to invest in anything that would result in the betterment of people what would that be. I quickly shared “Gene Editing” such as CRISPR and Quantum. These 2 areas is changing our lives over the next 7 to 10 years in ways that we have only dreamed about. I love this article.

TENS of thousands of blind people could have their sight restored after scientists discovered how to manipulate genes at the back of the eyes.

The researchers took T cells from the tumour, removed PD-1, multiplied the T cells and put them back into the mice and found that the tumours shrank.

They then inserted the enzyme and found that these T cells were able to keep up the fight at the tumour site.

The team is preparing for clinical trials and has started a company, PanTher Therapeutics, to develop the implant for patient use.

Continue reading “New implantable device may help shrink pancreatic tumours” »

Nice

Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) identified a gene that suppresses memory in the brain cells of fruit flies, and the findings could provide targets for potential new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The team, led by Ron Davis, chair of TSRI’s Department of Neuroscience scanned about 3,500 Drosophila genes, and found multiple dozen memory suppressor genes that help the brain prioritize information and keep certain important memories.

Continue reading “Memory Suppressor Gene Identified” »

Yes; we have. BMIs are here; and only going to advance from here.

It’s a huge breathrough.