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Feb 4, 2016

Scientists have extended the lifespan of mice

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

A new study has shown that the lifespans of mice can be extended by up to 35 percent by simply clearing out senescent cells — defunct cells that stop dividing, accumulate in old age, and trigger inflammation in fat, muscle, and kidney tissues.

Not only did the mice experience significantly longer lifespans thanks to removal of these cells, but the treatment also delayed the onset of age-related disorders such as heart and kidney deterioration, and the development of cataracts and tumours.

“It’s not just that we’re making these mice live longer; they actually stay healthier longer too. That’s important, because if you were going to equate this to people, well, you don’t want to just extend the years of life that people are miserable or hospitalised,” one of the team, cell biologist Darren Barker from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, told William Herkewitz at Popular Mechanics.

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Feb 4, 2016

The Race To Mine Asteroids Gains International Support

Posted by in categories: law, space

Welcome to the future, folks.

There is more mineral wealth just floating around our solar system than a million times the amount Earth EVER contained. As these asteroids are mined, tunnels will be built, forming the basis for a space station and/or colony. This fact more than doubling the usefulness of the entire operation, AND it’s return on investment. I think THIS is going to be the way in which we’ll begin to colonize our Solar System. Also, a lot of the hazardous (to the environment, human beings, and/or both) that are an inevitable byproduct of heavy industry on our planet could be exported to stations like these, tripling the value of the entire operation.

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Feb 4, 2016

Nootropic Drug Can Reverse And Prevent Cognitive Decline In Rats

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Ampakines are known mental stimulants, but in rats they can also shelter the brain from age-related decline and even reverse deterioriation

A number of changes happen in the aging brain and one of these is a dendritic loss which onsets around middle age. In a new study, researchers have shown a particular drug belonging to the ampakine class of compounds, has significant neuroprotective properties.

Shielding the brain

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Feb 4, 2016

NSA Plans to ‘Act Now’ to Ensure Quantum Computers Can’t Break Encryption

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, information science, privacy, quantum physics, security

Another article just came out today providing additional content on the Quantum Computing threat and it did reference the article that I had published. Glad that folks are working on this.


The NSA is worried about quantum computers. It warns that it “must act now” to ensure that encryption systems can’t be broken wide open by the new super-fast hardware.

In a document outlining common concerns about the effects that quantum computing may have on national security and encryption of sensitive data, the NSA warns that “public-key algorithms… are all vulnerable to attack by a sufficiently large quantum computer.”

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Feb 4, 2016

Do Computer Scientists Hold the Key to Treating Cancer?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

2016-01-29-1454078214-8291223-Patterson_cancer.jpg
By David Patterson Professor of Computer Science University of California, Berkeley This ancient assassin, first identified by a pharaoh’s physician, has been killing people for more than 4,600 years. As scientists found therapies for other lethal diseases–such as measles, influenza, and heart disease–cancer moved up this deadly list and will soon be #1; 40% of Americans will face cancer during their lifetimes, with half dying from it. Most of us ignore cancer until someone close is diagnosed, but instead society could zero in on this killer by recording massive data to discover better treatments before a loved one is in its crosshairs.

Cancer is unlimited cell growth caused by problems in DNA. Some people are born with precarious DNA, and others acquire it later. When a cell divides, sometimes it miscopies a small amount of its DNA, and these errors can overwhelm a cell’s defenses to cause cancer. Thus, you can get it without exposure to carcinogens. Cigarettes, radiation, asbestos, and so on simply increase the copy error rate. Speaking figuratively, every time a cell reproduces, we roll the dice on cancer, with such mutagens loading the dice to raise cancer’s chances.

Most cancer studies today use partial genomic information and have fewer than 1,000 patients. One wonders whether their conclusions would still hold if they used complete genomes and increased the number of patients by factors of 10–100.

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Feb 4, 2016

A new budget exoskeleton could help paraplegics walk at a drastically lower price

Posted by in category: cyborgs

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

A new type of powered exoskeleton aims to extend the benefits of the technology to people at a much lower price tag.

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Feb 3, 2016

NSA Says it “Must Act Now” Against the Quantum Computing Threat

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, privacy, quantum physics, security

NSA states it must act now against the “Quantum Computing Threat” due to hackers can possess the technology. I wrote about this on Jan 10th. Glad someone finally is taking action.


The National Security Agency is worried that quantum computers will neutralize our best encryption – but doesn’t yet know what to do about that problem.

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Feb 3, 2016

NASA: Earth may be buzzed by an asteroid in March

Posted by in category: asteroid/comet impacts

There’s little data on asteroid 2013 TX68, leaving doomsayers predicting a cataclysmic collision. But the space agency is far less concerned.

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Feb 3, 2016

First test-tube meatball revealed and tester confirms ‘it tastes good’

Posted by in category: food

Memphis Meats, which grows meat from animal cells, will make its debut this week and plans to have its animal-free products on the market in three to four years. To show just how busy they’ve been in the lab, they unveiled the first meatball grown from beef cells.

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Feb 3, 2016

Germany is getting closer to nuclear fusion—the long-held dream of unlimited clean energy

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics

German scientists today will set about the first steps towards what has become the Holy Grail of energy—nuclear fusion, which has the potential for unlimited amounts of clean power. There are a number of challenges to harnessing this power —researchers need to build a device that can heat atoms to temperatures of more than 100 million °C (180 million °F).

After almost nine years of construction work and more than a million assembly hours, researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald are set to do just that by heating a tiny amount of hydrogen until it becomes as hot, hopefully, as the center of the Sun.

Researchers are keen to tap into the incredible amount of energy released when atoms join together at extremely high temperatures in the super-hot gas known as plasma. Today’s test will not produce any energy, just the plasma—a different state of matter created at extremely high temperatures. German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has a doctorate in physics, will reportedly attend.

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