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Aug 4, 2015

Scientists reveal secret to longer lives

Posted by in categories: health, life extension

Once again telomeres are shown to be key players in aging.


The secret to living long, healthy lives and ageing beyond 100 has finally been cracked, according to a new study.

Scientists at Newcastle University say they have identified the key to longevity and good health amongst centenarians and how they pass that gift onto their offspring.

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Aug 4, 2015

Supercomputer simulates one second of human brain activity in 40 minutes

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, supercomputing

The K supercomputer in Japan. The human brain is arguably the most complex structure in the Universe. To unlock its secrets, scientists all over the world are mapping and simulating parts of the human brain. The latest breakthrough comes from Japan where scientists using the K supercomputer, the fourth most powerful in world, accurately mapped one second’s worth of brain activity. It took the computer 40 minutes to undertake this task, for one percent of the brain activity!

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Aug 4, 2015

Stop Worrying About Whether Machines Are “Intelligent”

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, singularity

We’re thinking about AI all wrong.

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Aug 4, 2015

From the Earth to the Moon: 1865/1968

Posted by in categories: alien life, astronomy, space, space travel

How does science fiction become science fact? Often the link between art and science can be hard to pin down. It can be unclear if science fiction is actually influencing science or merely observing it, giving the public sneak peaks into the implications of scientist’s work.

But some work of science fiction create direct links to the future. As a young man in Russia, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky read a translation of Jules Verne’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon.” And although Verne’s plan to get to the moon wouldn’t have worked, the novel had just enough science mixed in with its romance to make the central idea seem plausible. Tsiolkovsky became obsessed with the idea of spaceflight, and his life’s work created the foundations of modern rocketry.

One hundred years after Verne wrote his novel, a group of individuals who had been inspired by Verne’s fantasy as children launched a voyage to the moon.

Aug 4, 2015

A (Very) Brief History of Death

Posted by in categories: bionic, biotech/medical, cryonics, cyborgs, education, evolution, futurism, health, information science, life extension, science, transhumanism

“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Winston Churchill

Death still enjoys a steady paycheck, but being the Grim Reaper isn’t the cushy job that it used to be.

Aug 4, 2015

This new aluminium battery can charge your phone in 60 seconds

Posted by in category: energy

A new rechargeable aluminium battery has been produced by researchers in the US, and according to them the prototype can charge a smartphone in 60 seconds and it’s more environmentally friendly, heavy-duty, and inexpensive than anything presently on the market. And it won’t suddenly burst into flames like certain generally used lithium-ion batteries are capable of… This new technology has done something researchers around the world have been pursuing for decades — it puts aluminium to better use in the high-demand battery market. The benefits of aluminium are many, counting its cheapness, accessibility, low-flammability, and high-charge storage capability. But the challenge in producing a sustainable aluminium battery has been in finding a material for the cathode — the device through which the entire electrical current passes — that can yield enough voltage to withstand it across a whole lot of charges.

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Aug 3, 2015

World’s first “aqueous solar flow battery” outperforms traditional lithium-iodine batteries

Posted by in categories: energy, solar power, sustainability

The scientists who last year revealed the world’s first solar battery that essentially combines a battery and solar cell, are now reporting its first significant performance milestone. Tested against traditional lithium-iodine batteries, the researchers are claiming energy savings of 20 percent.

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Aug 3, 2015

Quantum batteries could allow for super-fast charging thanks to entanglement

Posted by in category: particle physics

Entangled particles could one day allow your phone to charge at warp speed.

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Aug 3, 2015

Microsoft Works Out How to Upgrade Online Encryption to Protect Against Quantum Computers

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, encryption, energy

Call it an abundance of caution. A Microsoft research project has upgraded the encryption protocol that secures the Web to resist attacks from quantum computers—machines that are expected to have stupendous power but have never been built.

Governments and computing giants like IBM, Microsoft, and Google are working on quantum computers because tapping subtle effects of quantum physics should let them solve in seconds some problems that a conventional machine couldn’t solve in billions of years (see “Microsoft’s Quantum Mechanics”). That might allow breakthroughs in areas such as medicine or energy. But such machines would also be able to easily break the encryption used to secure information online.

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Aug 3, 2015

Time for technology in international policy processes? — By Adrian Ely | The Our Common Future under Climate Change conference

Posted by in categories: innovation, science

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As everyone is pointing out, 2015 is a crucial year for sustainable development, with three critical international meetings in the calendar starting this month. But what role do science, technology and innovation play in these processes?

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