Lifeboat Foundation

My first article for TechCrunch. The story is on disability & transhumanism:

Radical technologies around the world may soon overhaul the field of disability and immobility, which affects in some way more than a billion people around the world.

MIT bionics designer Hugh Herr, who lost both his legs in a mountain climbing accident, recently said in a TED Talk on disability, “A person can never be broken. Our built environment, our technologies, are broken and disabled. We the people need not accept our limitation, but can transcend disability through technological innovation.”

Continue reading “Future Transhumanist Tech May Soon Change The Definition Of Disability” »

A 28 year old man who has been paralysed has been given a new sense of touch following a new breakthrough that saw electrodes places directly into the man’s brain.

The research and clinical trial has been carried out by DARPA, the US Military’s research agency. Essentially, the man (who has not been named) is now able to control his new hand and feel people touching it because of two sets of electrodes: one array on the motor cortex, the part of the brain which directs body movement, and one on the sensory cortex, which is the part of the brain which feels touch.

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Everything starts to go downhill as we get older and muscle is no exception; even simple tasks become challenging as we lose bone and muscle. Now research has identified a protein behind this age-related decline and therapeutic molecules that can fight it, helping individuals stay healthy and strong for longer.

A team at the Univesity of Iowa has discovered that a protein called ATF4 might be behind muscular decline. ATF 4 is a transcription factor, which means it tells the body to activate or regulate certain genes. ATF4 seems to change skeletal muscle with age, reducing protein synthesis and overall mass.

”Many of us know from our own experiences that muscle weakness and atrophy are big problems as we become older”

Continue reading “Aging Causes Muscle Weakness And Atrophy, But Can We Treat It?” »

DARPA promised prosthetic limbs that produce realistic sensations, and it’s making good on its word. The agency’s researchers have successfully tested an artificial hand that gave a man a “near-natural” level of touch. The patient could tell when scientists were pressing against specific fingers, even when they tried to ‘trick’ the man by touching two digits at once. The key was to augment the thought-controlled hand with a set of pressure-sensitive torque motors wired directly to the brain — any time the hand touched something, it sent electrical signals that felt much like flesh-and-bone contact.

There’s still a lot of work left to go before this hardware is truly realistic, of course. The sensors don’t cover the entire hand, and they don’t account for temperature or other factors you’ll likely worry about when grabbing objects. Still, this should represent a big step forward. Provided the technology takes off, both amputees and paralysis victims could regain some of the tactility they once had.

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The man-made “plant” can create endless oxygen using light and water!

Pioneers have been dreaming about living in outer space for eons, but there’s always been one major roadblock: securing a long-term oxygen supply. Toting around an indefinite supply of O₂ isn’t feasible, and obtaining oxygen from plants in space is difficult, as green vegetation does not thrive in zero gravity environments.

But thanks to graduate student Julian Melchiorri, long-term space travel could soon be a reality. Melchiorri worked with Dezeen and MINI Frontiers to produce the Silk Leaf, an invention capable of sustaining life.

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Solar power has been gaining more and more popularity worldwide since the efficiency of solar panels has significantly increased during the recent years, along with the dramatic decrease in the costs. However, its popularity is not only due its affordability to a wider audience but also to the growing awareness about the benefits of clean sources of energy. Yet, the costs of transportation and production often make it extremely difficult to implement solar technology in developing countries. Printed solar cells could offer a solution to this problem.

Thanks to the advances in printed solar cell technology during the past few years, its energy efficiency has increased from 3% to 20%.

“Its success is due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity. A 10×10 cm solar cell film is enough to generate as much as 10–50 watts per square meter,” said Scott Watkins from the Korean company Kyung-In Synthetic.

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The facade works with no power at all—not even solar panels—and keeps the temperature comfortable and light bright inside.

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Cool story:

Believe it or not, it happened at a presidential campaign event.

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Why is cancer so deadly? It spreads and consumes in a process called metastasis. If it stayed put we’d have an easier fight on our hands. Researchers hope this sponge-like implant could offer an intriguing solution, sucking up circulating cancer cells and warning you of their presence early on.

9 out of 10 cancer deaths are caused by spreading to other organs

Time is often cited as ‘our most precious resource’. Beating cancer is no exception to this; if we caught every cancer early success rates would be vastly improved. Curing cancer therefore requires more than simply destroying these cells. It also means improving diagnosis.

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