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Feb 14, 2016

Do not mess with time: Probing faster than light travel and chronology protection with superluminal warp drives

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, space travel, time travel

ABSTRACT

While General Relativity (GR) ranks undoubtedly among the best physics theories ever developed, it is also among those with the most striking implications. In particular, GR admits solutions which allow faster than light motion and consequently time travel. Here we shall consider a “pre-emptive” chronology protection mechanism that destabilises superluminal warp drives via quantum matter back-reaction and hence forbids even the conceptual possibility to use these solutions for building a time machine. This result will be considered both in standard quantum field theory in curved spacetime as well as in the case of a quantum field theory with Lorentz invariance breakdown at high energies. Some lessons and future perspectives will be finally discussed.

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Feb 14, 2016

North Korea Aims For Submarine-Launched Nuclear Missiles

Posted by in categories: military, security, space

This story crosses into the realm of satellite launchers and commercial space, but has troubling implications for international security. I personally am a bit more worried about North Korea’s ability to secure ballistic sub-launched weapons of mass destruction since I think that they offer more stealth than an ICBM silo, which we can fairly easily detect.


North Korea’s potential intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threat may be stealing headlines, but the rogue state’s interest in submarine-launched nuclear weapons is arguably even more worrisome.

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Feb 14, 2016

Hunger Hormone Slows Aging in Mice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension


WIKIPEDIA, AYACOP Boosting levels of ghrelin, a hormone involved in hunger, keeps aging-related declines at bay in mice, according to a study published yesterday (February 2) in Molecular Psychiatry.

The authors gave mice a traditional Japanese medicine called rikkunshito or an extract from rikkunshito to stimulate hormone production. In three different mouse lines—two with shortened lifespans and another with a normal lifespan—the treatment resulted in the animals living longer.

“These findings suggest that the elevated endogenous ghrelin signaling has an important role in preventing aging-related premature death,” Akio Inui of Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences and colleagues wrote in their report.

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Feb 14, 2016

History: I know that we often write about the future, etc

Posted by in categories: education, food, habitats, security, sustainability

However, one also must look at the past for insights and guidance on things that were done wrong to ensure bad history is not repeated.

Therefore, let me share with you a part of history that we need to be aware of and protect our future from ever repeating again.

Many folks have never heard of Poor Farms in the South and Poor Houses in some parts of the Midwest. Before soc. Security and Welfare we had poor farms/ houses. They date from the late 1800s until 1930s.

Poor farms/ houses were often filled with the elderly and others that had no money or anyone to take care them. People often worked the land for 16+ hours days, dressed in rags, and had very little to eat. Once you were there you could not leave ever until you died.

Continue reading “History: I know that we often write about the future, etc” »

Feb 14, 2016

Media are Invited to Talk to Technology Experts, Tour Made In Space, Inc

Posted by in category: space

Press Release From: Ames Research Center Posted: Friday, February 12, 2016.

Reporters are invited to a media day on Friday, Feb. 19, at 10 a.m. PST at Made In Space, Inc. (MIS), located at NASA’s Research Park, at Moffett Field, California, to learn about the startup company’s recent proposal award as part of NASA’s “Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Tipping Point Technologies” solicitation, issued through NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for STMD, will share the importance of the solicitation and give remarks, followed by a tour of the MIS facilities. The two-hour event will include informal briefings with MIS leadership as they discuss their winning proposal.

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Feb 14, 2016

Robots ‘will make majority of humans unemployed within 30 years’

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, computing, drones, employment, robotics/AI, transportation

The pace at which robots and intelligent machines are able to take over the jobs traditionally performed by humans will result in more than half the population being unemployed within 30 years, an expert in computing has predicted.

While some may look forward to a life of leisure, many others face the dismal prospect of long-term unemployment as a result of the rise of smart machines, from self-driving cars and intelligent drones to smart financial-trading machines, said Moshe Vardi, professor of computational engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

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Feb 14, 2016

Scientists Assert That the WHO Should Classify Aging as a Disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health, life extension

https://youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8

A group of scientists are calling on the WHO to classify aging as a disease, asserting that we need to create a better classification for what happens to our bodies as we get older.

A new controversy is brewing, as one group of scientists is recommending that aging be considered a disease.

Continue reading “Scientists Assert That the WHO Should Classify Aging as a Disease” »

Feb 14, 2016

Cotton Candy May be the Key to Creating Artificial Organs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, food

Cotton Candy’s new inspiration.


Scientists are now able to spin a three-dimensional slab of gelatin that contains a microvascular network, something very like our capillaries, using a cotton candy-esque machine.

What do cotton candy and artificial organs have in common? More than you might think.

Continue reading “Cotton Candy May be the Key to Creating Artificial Organs” »

Feb 13, 2016

Nanotech to detect anything from cancer to Ebola virus

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, nanotechnology

Research, innovation, discovery, and evolution that causes amazing science and technology disruptions is a beautiful thing. And, we each have our own story and passion in why and what drives us.

And, occasionally in our drive to make change or disruption happen; reality grounds us back on what is important and why we do what we love. In my own case is to finally see things like cancer eradicated.


A finger prick test for cancer may soon be possible as research have developed a new technology to detect disease biomarkers in the form of nucleic acids, the building blocks of all living organisms.

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Feb 13, 2016

The rise of the romantic robot

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Women will want to design their own robots especially those that would provide any companionship to them or even as a caregiver. Granted we’re still 30+ years off for that level of sophistication. And, the 1st woman owned and ran robot company with women engineers; will make billions because this is a huge void currently.


Whether robots could one day think for themselves and the how this would affect humans’ relationships with them is a common subject in science fiction. However, novelists are increasingly investigating another burning issue: could robots love a human?

Imagine a Venn Diagram with one circle representing the dark steeliness of humanoid robots and the other the flowery soft-focus pink of a Mills & Boon romance.

What would happen where the circles cross?

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