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Aug 6, 2015

Why Are Tech Billionaires Investing In Aging Research?

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

Peter Thiel, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Bill Maris, Mark Zuckerberg…investment in biotech by leading figures in the world of technology is reaching new heights, with the regenerative medicine market projected to reach $20 billion by 2025 and the overall anti-aging market $345.8 billion by 2018.

These forecasts combined with a recent biotech boom mean that the economic reasons for investing are becoming clear and rising demand is virtually inevitable as the proportion of older individuals continues to grow to unparalleled levels. Bill Gates may have labelled anti-aging efforts as ‘egocentric’, but the investment doesn’t appear to be due to economic reasons alone; there is also a strong humanitarian and aspirational aspect that links some of these individuals together — the desire to utilise technology to create a better society.

‘With all being from a scientific background, Page, Brin and Maris particularly are clear in their belief that science holds the key to radically improving both the human condition and the world we live in — the pinnacle of this being radically prolonging human lifespan. In a recent Bloomberg interview Maris points out we live in an era where science can make all the tools available for any audacious vision out there…To these tech billionaires, evolution is meant to be transcended, and the resources put into organ regeneration, drugs that control ageing, or reprogramming DNA reflects their conviction that people have the right to lead better lives.’

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Aug 5, 2015

More Evidence That Faulty Protein Formation Contributes To Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Misfolding proteins and aggregates are a serious problem for a cell; a great range of research has been able to link poor protein ‘quality control’ with a whole range of diseases, perhaps most famously Alzheimer’s disease. Recent work also suggests that the ‘heat shock’ response, a mechanism that protects against misfolding and corrects badly made proteins, may also become impaired with aging. This gradual deterioration could turn out to be one of the most significant drivers of both aging and age-related disease.

In research that support this theory, a recent paper provides evidence that the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular compartment which is responsible for creating and correctly forming protein structures, loses its oxidative power with age. This means that it loses the ability to form a type of bond called a disulphide bridge, a strong chemical bond which normally stabilises protein structures and holds them in particular shapes. The chemical environment within the ER was shown to change with age, disrupting the delicate equilibrium in the cell and leading to increased oxidative damage in other areas. Proteins moving through the ER on a production line often require disulphide linkages to mature correctly and stabilise their structure, but without this step they’re unable to do so and remain unstable.

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Aug 5, 2015

The First Vegan Burger that ‘Bleeds’ like Meat

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

This is the product that Google wanted to buy for $300 million and just got denied…

The first vegan burger that ‘bleeds’ like meat.

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Aug 5, 2015

Sleeping on your side may clear waste from your brain most effectively

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

The brain’s glymphatic pathway clears harmful wastes, especially during sleep. This lateral position could prove to be the best position for the brain-waste clearance process (credit: Stony Brook University)

Sleeping in the lateral, or side position, as compared to sleeping on one’s back or stomach, may more effectively remove brain waste, and could reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, according to researchers at Stony Brook University.

Stony Brook University researchers discovered this in experiments with rodents by using dynamic contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image the brain’s glymphatic pathway, a complex system that clears wastes and other harmful chemical solutes from the brain. They also used kinetic modeling to quantify the CSF-ISF exchange rates in anesthetized rodents’ brains in lateral, prone, and supine positions.

Continue reading “Sleeping on your side may clear waste from your brain most effectively” »

Aug 5, 2015

Watch the Moon cross in front of the Earth, as seen from a million miles away

Posted by in category: space

A thing of beauty!


We all need a little cosmic perspective from time to time, and this is as good as it gets. NASA has released this truly stunning GIF of the Moon passing in front of the Earth. The image sequence offers an unprecedented look at the relationship between the two planetary objects, and also gives a detailed look at the rarely seen far side of the Moon.

The resulting GIF is so amazing that it’s almost unbelievable, but the images are completely real. The whole sequence was taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (or “EPIC,” a wonderfully appropriate acronym) on the DSCOVR satellite that was launched in February.

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Aug 5, 2015

Warforged are robots right?? Who cares, sharing is caring.

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Due to recent issues with Hitchbot, the Asimov’s rules of robotics have been updated.


Warforged are robots right?? Who cares, sharing is caring.

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Aug 5, 2015

These scientists have engineered a new, lightweight bionic hand

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, transhumanism

VIDEO: Nickel-titanium wires mimic muscles.

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Aug 5, 2015

A psychologist thinks it’ll be normal to have sex with robots

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI, sex, virtual reality

In the next half of this century, humans will be regularly engaging in sexual activity with robots, and maybe even falling in love with them, according to Helen Driscoll, a psychologist who specialises in sex and mate choices at the University of Sunderland in the UK.

Her comments came while discussing the technological advances that are making sex dolls more interactive than ever before, and they present a future eerily similar to that of the Joaquin Phoenix film Her, where the main character falls in love with an operating system on his computer (voiced by Scarlett Johansson no less, who could blame him?)

“As virtual reality becomes more realistic and immersive and is able to mimic and even improve on the experience of sex with a human partner; it is conceivable that some will choose this in preference to sex with a less than perfect human being,” Driscoll told David Watkinson from the Daily Mirror.

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Aug 5, 2015

If every woman has a smartphone imagine all the empowered people — By Melinda Gates | The Economist

Posted by in categories: ethics, innovation

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““Who is Sabita?” I was looking right at Sabita Devi when she said these words. She was describing her life as a wife and mother in Jharkhand, one of the poorest states in India, where she has spent most of her days inside the four walls of her home. “No one in my village knew my name,” Sabita told me. Her contact with the outside world was mediated entirely by her husband: who she could talk to, what she could buy, when (and if) she could see a doctor. She was isolated from everyone and everything but her children.”

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Aug 5, 2015

China is building its first large-scale solar plant in the Gobi Desert

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

In a move that once again proves its commitment to renewable energy, China has begun construction on its first large-scale commercial solar plant out in the sun-dreched expanse of the Gobi Desert. Called Delingha, the colossal facility will spread out across 25 km² (6,300 acres) of vacant land in the country’s Qinghai province, and will feature six huge solar towers hooked up to an array of solar mirrors.

When complete, the plant will have a capacity of 200 megawatts, which means it will be able to supply electricity to 1 million households in Qinghai year-round. “Its designed heat storage is 15 hours, thus, it can guarantee stable, continual power generation,” Qinghai Solar-Thermal Power Group board chair, Wu Longyi, told the press.

The facility is the first solar plant to be run as a commercial entity, and according to Svati Kirsten Narula at Quartz, it’s being jointly developed by BrightSource Energy, based in Oakland, California, and the Shanghai Electric Group in China. The first phase of construction will look at completing two solar towers so they can generate 135 megawatts each to cover more than 452,000 homes, and then the remaining four will be completed to cover at least 1 million.

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