Lifeboat Foundation

The Beginnings of a biotechnology revolution in Saudi Arabia?

The Saudi royal family, led by king Salman bin Abdulaziz have announced the formation of a non-profit research foundation which intends to spend $1 billion of the countries considerable annual oil revenue on supporting anti-aging research. If such funding materialises, it will make Saudi Arabia the single greatest financial contributor to longevity research.

The Saudi royal family aims to distribute this funding through a non-profit organisation called the Hevolution Foundation 0, which was founded by Dr Mehmood Khan, formerly of the Mayo Clinic. In a formal introduction to the Hevolution Foundation, Dr Khan had the following to say.

Enovix, based in Fremont, California, is developing 3D silicon lithium-ion batteries with faster charging times and higher energy densities than the current generation of cells.

A new tool can quickly and reliably identify the presence of Ebola virus in blood samples, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues at other institutions.

The technology, which uses so-called optical microring resonators, potentially could be developed into a rapid diagnostic test for the deadly Ebola virus disease, which kills up to 89% of infected people. Since it was discovered in 1976, Ebola virus has caused dozens of outbreaks, mostly in central and west Africa. Most notable was an outbreak that began in 2014 and killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia; in the U.S., the virus caused 11 cases and two deaths. A rapid, early diagnostic could help public health workers track the virus’ spread and implement strategies to limit outbreaks.

Doctors and infectious-disease experts across the continent have worked to contain monkeypox outbreaks for years. Few seemed to care, or even notice, until people in the West started getting sick.

The health authorities of the African nation declared a new outbreak of Ebola after a case was confirmed in Mbandaka, a city in the north-western Equateur Province, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday.

A University of Minnesota research team has made mind-reading possible through the use of electronics and AI.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have created a system that enables amputees to operate a robotic arm using their brain impulses rather than their muscles. This new technology is more precise and less intrusive than previous methods.

Continue reading “Making Mind Reading Possible: Invention Allows Amputees To Control a Robotic Arm With Their Mind” »

Science and technology have advanced incredibly in the 21st Century. It’s easier now than ever to travel to or talk to people who live halfway across the world, and we now are more connected to advanced technology than anyone could have thought possible. Science fiction, in the 20th and 21st Centuries, has strived to anticipate just how far this technological advancement would go, and what the consequences of that would be.

Of course, a lot of old sci-fi movies included tropes about the 21st Century that proved to be wrong. Indeed, it was probably too optimistic, in hindsight, to assume we would get flying cars before the end of the 90s or that the 2000s would have lifelike androids running around. Despite these incorrect predictions, though, there are some movies that were eerily accurate, or even predicted we would have technology later than we eventually got access to. In some cases, sci-fi has even been the inspiration for invention, with people wanting to emulate what they saw on television. These are some predictions, made by older sci-fi movies, that turned out to be on the money.