Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 12362

By –SingularityHUB

http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1000_genome_dna-1.jpg

“No, no it’s not science fiction; it’s already happening,” said Ido Bachelet to a somewhat incredulous audience member at a London event late last year. Bachelet, previously of Harvard’s Wyss Institute and faculty member at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, is a leading figure in the field of DNA nanotechnology.

In a brief talk, Bachelet said DNA nanobots will soon be tried in a critically ill leukemia patient. The patient, who has been given roughly six months to live, will receive an injection of DNA nanobots designed to interact with and destroy leukemia cells—while causing virtually zero collateral damage in healthy tissue.

According to Bachelet, his team have successfully tested their method in cell cultures and animals and written two papers on the subject, one in Science and one in Nature.

Read more

Voxel8

Voxel8 has created the world’s first 3D electronics printer from the ground-up. Novel conductive materials and 3D printing technology from the Lewis Research Group at Harvard University. New software crafted for the Voxel8 printer called Project Wire by Autodesk.

The Voxel8 printer truly allows you to combine electronics with novel mechanical forms. Visit voxel8.co for more information. What would you print?

http://www.voxel8.co/

By –SingularityHUB

http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/thought-controlled-robotic-arm-1000x400.jpg

In 2012, University of Pittsburgh researchers released a video of Jan Scheuermann feeding herself a bite of chocolate. This, of course, wouldn’t be noteworthy but for one thing: Scheuermann is paralyzed from the neck down. She fed herself that chocolate using a brain implant and thought-controlled robotic arm—and got a taste of freedom once unthinkable.

Scheuermann’s spinocerebellar degeneration left her unable to move her limbs over a decade ago. She leapt at the chance to take part in the University of Pittsburgh study investigating brain-computer interfaces. The study’s researchers are developing a system that reads and decodes brain activity, translating it into physical action in a robotic arm and hand.

Read more

By Jacob Kastrenakes — The Verge

Elon Musk is worried that AI will destroy humanity, and so he’s decided to donate $10 million toward research into how we can keep artificial intelligence safe. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has previously expressed concern that something like what happens in The Terminator could happen in real life. He’s also said that AI is “potentially more dangerous than nukes.” The purpose of this donation is to both prevent that from happening and to ensure that AI is used for good and to benefit humanity.

Read more

By — SingularityHUB

2015—that just sounds like the future, right. But does it look like the future? Because, that’s the thing, right—we all know technology is advancing at exponential rates. We are making soaring progress in a host of whiz-bang fields. But other than Tokyo, Times Square and, sometimes, Las Vegas from the right angle, the future doesn’t yet look like we thought the future would look.

But that is starting to change. Over the past few months, we’ve started to get clearer and clearer looks at the world that’s coming. Here are five of my favorites sights of tomorrow already here today:

Read more

You need a pocket mirror, a laser pointer and a counter. Then measure both the up-down time (or distance) and the down-up time (or distance). The two are different.

This means, taking light-radar as a reliable measuring device, that the two measured heights are different. As far as I know, the experiment has never been done in spite of its simplicity.

Why is it worth doing? This “V-Lambda” experiment can also be called “WM” experiment, with the two letters printed on top of each other. You then get XXXX. Very regularly, no shifts. That is, upper and lower time intervals interlock even though being different.

You can do the same experiment between earth and a neutron star (provided a mirror can be deposited on its surface). Then the two time intervals that interlock differ by a factor of about 2.

So while the tip of the Eiffel tower is only minimally closer to the bottom (upwards distance shorter than downwards distance), the distance of earth from a neutron star is half as large as the distance of the neutron star from earth.

I find that cute.

By Singularity University

Learn about the Singularity University Labs Startup Accelerator here, and submit your application by January 23rd. Selected teams will be notified of their participation by February 14th. The inaugural class will convene March 23rd.

To change the world, it helps to have a good idea—but good ideas are a dime a dozen. The hard part is sharpening your idea and executing on it. It’s a long road from idea to execution, but how much time the trip takes depends on your speed.

This March, Singularity University Labs is launching the first accelerator program for startups tackling the world’s grand challenges with exponential technology.

Read more

Motherboard

“We’re descending toward Hill Valley, California, at 4:29 PM, on Wednesday, October 21st, 2015,” Doc Brown announces in the opening scenes of Back to the Future II.

“2015? You mean we’re in the future?” exclaims Marty, apparently having forgotten that madcap time-distorting adventures are hardly out of character for the Doc.

What follows is one of the most influential depictions of the future ever conceived, in which flying cars, automated clothes, hydrated pizzas, and hoverboards are all entrenched staples. Since the arrival of the new year, a lot of people have expressed excitement that we have finally reached this benchmark age in science fiction. And it’s well-deserved press, because Back to the Future II is not only the most famous depiction of 2015, it’s also among the most widely known portrayals of the 21st century full stop.

Read more

by Stephen Clark — Spaceflight Now

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flew nine times in 2014, more than any other U.S. launcher. Credit: ULA

There were more successful space launches in 2014 than in any year since 1992, with Russia, the United States and China responsible for more than 80 percent of global launch activity.

Russia had the most liftoffs with 36 orbital launch attempts — 34 were deemed complete successes — and the United States came in second with 23 space launches, with all but one reaching its intended target.

Chinese rockets were 16-for-16 in satellite launches last year.

There were 92 space launches worldwide in 2014, and 90 of the missions at least reached orbit. One of those flights — a Russian-made Soyuz rocket launched from French Guiana — failed to put its payload in the correct orbit.

That figure marks the highest number of launch attempts since 1994, when there were 93 launches with spacecraft passengers heading for Earth orbit or beyond.

Read more