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Nov 8, 2023

Nuclear Disarmament and UN Reforms

Posted by in categories: ethics, existential risks, geopolitics, military, nuclear weapons, policy, treaties

Although essentially the United Nations are now making nuclear weapons illegal with new treaties like nuclear disarmament. Russia currently has taken another route for globalization and possibly nuclear escalation. As currently the doomsday clock seems closer to midnight which could mean the end of the world scenarios due to Russias escalation and the possibility of all out nuclear war globally and then nuclear annihilation of the planet. Even with current wars are actually seemingly always going on but this global escalation of nuclear war is a zero sum game as no one would be the winner due to radiation levels circulating the planet. I do think that the us and china are in a treaty but so far Russia is still escalating which now holds the world now ransom.


This is a summary of Policy Brief 139 which is available with full references on the Toda Peace Institute’s website.

In January 2021, a global treaty came into force outlawing the bomb. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW or Ban Treaty) is the most significant multilateral development in nuclear arms control since the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s (NPT) entry into force in 1970. It establishes a new normative settling point on the ethics, legality and legitimacy of the bomb.

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Nov 8, 2023

Putin criticised as he withdraws Russia’s ratification of nuclear test ban treaty

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, nuclear weapons, treaties

US says move will undermine confidence in international arms control, amid concerns Moscow’s nuclear threats are designed to deter Ukraine’s allies.

Nov 8, 2023

This bionic hand is fused to a woman’s bones, muscles, and nerves

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, transhumanism

Link :- Watch a video of Karin using her new bionic hand: https://www.freethink.com/hard-tech/bionic-hand-phantom-limb


A new way of merging the body with a bionic hand provided a woman with more control over her prosthetic and less phantom limb pain.

Nov 8, 2023

PET scans may predict Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia in at-risk individuals

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

In a small study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found that positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the heart may identify people who will go on to develop Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia among those at-risk for these diseases.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and led by scientists at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of NIH, may advance efforts to detect the earliest changes that years later lead to Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

In 34 people with Parkinson’s disease risk factors, researchers conducted PET scans of the heart to gain insight into levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. They found that the scans could distinguish individuals who would later be diagnosed with Parkinson’s or Lewy body dementia—both are brain diseases caused by abnormal deposits of the protein alpha-synuclein that form clumps known as Lewy bodies. The research was conducted at the NIH Clinical Center, currently the only location for 18 F-dopamine PET scanning.

Nov 8, 2023

Lung cancer researchers identify specific genetic change that predicts whether patients can respond to targeted therapy

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Squamous cell lung cancer is a lung cancer subtype that is particularly difficult to treat. A new study now has revealed a novel genetic alteration that occurs in some cases in this type of tumor and that may expose a weakness of the tumor for therapeutic intervention.

The University of Cologne researchers led by Professor Roman Thomas, director of the Department of Translational Genomics, was able to show that a certain genetic change occurs during tumor formation and that a previously unknown oncogene is produced. Oncogenes are genes that promote the growth of tumors. In some cases, they can be inhibited by targeted drug treatments.

This approach is often accompanied by a higher success rate and lower side effects compared to conventional chemotherapy. The scientists’ discovery could therefore be a first step toward a more successful therapy of this particular type of cancer.

Nov 8, 2023

An AI just negotiated a contract for the first time ever — and no human was involved

Posted by in categories: information science, law, robotics/AI

In a world first, artificial intelligence demonstrated the ability to negotiate a contract autonomously with another artificial intelligence without any human involvement.

British AI firm Luminance developed an AI system based on its own proprietary large language model (LLM) to automatically analyze and make changes to contracts. LLMs are a type of AI algorithm that can achieve general-purpose language processing and generation.

Jaeger Glucina, chief of staff and managing director of Luminance, said the company’s new AI aimed to eliminate much of the paperwork that lawyers typically need to complete on a day-to-day basis.

Nov 7, 2023

New Study on US-Russia nuclear war: 91.5 million casualties in first few hours

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military

34.1 million people could die, and another 57.4 million could be injured, within the first few hours of the start of a nuclear war between Russia and the United States triggered by one low-yield nuclear weapon, according to a new simulation by researcher’s at Princeton‘s Science and Global Security programme.

Nov 7, 2023

Stay in the know on the topics that inform the Doomsday Clock

Posted by in category: existential risks

Some people may think that nuclear war has defined winners but everyone would be gone simply. The doomsday clock nears even closer. Only negotiations will fair in such hostile times.


It is 90 seconds to midnight.

Nov 7, 2023

Blocking an aging-related enzyme may restore muscle strength

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

Stem cell biologist Helen Blau of Stanford University School of Medicine and colleagues previously found that blocking 15-PGDH in old mice restored their withered muscles and improved their strength after a month of treatment. On the flip side, young mice lost muscle and became weaker after their levels of this enzyme were increased for a month.

Blau’s team has now found that 15-PGDH accumulates in the muscles of old mice as the connections that allow communication between muscles and nerves are lost, another consequence of aging. Treating old mice for one month with a drug that inhibits 15-PGDH restored these connections, called synapses, between muscle fibers and motor nerve cells, and boosted the animals’ strength, the team reports in the Oct. 11 Science Translational Medicine. Those synapses are how the brain directs muscles to move.

The findings suggest that blocking the gerozyme 15-PGDH may be a way to help recover strength that has diminished due to nerve injuries, motor nerve cell diseases or aging.

Nov 7, 2023

Patients immersed in virtual reality during surgery may need less anesthetic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, virtual reality

Minimizing the use of sedatives during operations could shorten hospital stays and reduce the risk of complications.