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Sep 20, 2021

Eight Diseases That CRISPR Technology Could Cure

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

CRISPR technology offers the promise to cure any human genetic disease with gene editing; which one will be the first?

CRISPR-Cas9 was first used as a gene-editing tool in 2012. In just a few years, the technology has exploded in popularity thanks to its promise of making gene editing much faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before.

CRISPR is short for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.’ The term makes reference to a series of repetitive patterns found in the DNA of bacteria that form the basis of a primitive immune system, defending them from viral invaders by cutting their DNA.

Sep 20, 2021

Salty Diet Helps Gut Bugs Fight Cancer in Mice: Study

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Amit Awasthi, an immunologist with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India and corresponding author of the study, says he and his colleagues pursued this line of inquiry because previous research had linked high salt intake with autoimmune diseases, suggesting that increased salt stimulates immune cells. Meanwhile, tumors are well known to grow in immune-suppressive environments.


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In mice, a diet high in salt suppresses tumor growth—but only when gut microbes are there to stimulate immune cells, a September 10 study in Science Advances reports. The findings raise tantalizing questions about the role of diet and gut microbes in human cancers, and may point to new avenues for therapeutic development.

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Sep 20, 2021

After Inspiration4 triumph, Elon Musk hints at his actual longterm goal

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, engineering, environmental, space travel

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reiterated his support for terraforming Mars, as part of his long-term goal to make humanity into a multi-planetary species.


On Sunday, the day after SpaceX’s all-civilian mission to orbit returned to Earth, the CEO took to Twitter to suggest that he’s still got his sights set on the long-term goal of making Mars a more Earth-like world. In response to a post about Mars temperatures, which claimed the average surface temperature is around minus 63 degrees Celsius (minus 82 degrees Fahrenheit), Musk responded: “Needs a little warming up.”

The comments hint at Musk’s goal, stated multiple times over the years, that he would like to transform the planet’s atmosphere to make it more hospitable to human life. It forms part of his overall goal with SpaceX: reduce spaceflight costs, use it to establish permanent human presences elsewhere in space, and transform humanity into a multi-planetary species.

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Sep 20, 2021

AI Sniper Rifle used by Israel to assassinate nuclear scientist

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

As artificial intelligence grows in intelligence, militaries are incorporating the tech into their arsenal. From Minority Report style predictive AI to anti-aging research, AI is steadily being introduced to everything. In one bizarre example, the Israeli military has created an AI Sniper Rifle.

Reported by The New York Times, Israeli operatives carried out an assassination mission with an AI Sniper Rifle. Conducted in November 2,020 the Israeli military used a “souped-up, remote-controlled” rifle to kill Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The military had been chasing the target “for at least 14 years”.


The Israeli military has reportedly used an AI Sniper Rifle to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh after 14 years of trying.

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Sep 20, 2021

Engineers to develop wireless EV charging concrete highway

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), Purdue University, and German startup Magment GmbH have announced the plans to develop the world’s first contactless wireless-charging concrete pavement highway segment. The project will use innovative magnetizable concrete, enabling wireless charging of electric vehicles as they drive.

The project will progress in three primary stages. The two first phases will feature pavement testing, analysis, and optimization research conducted by the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus. In the third phase, INDOT will construct a quarter-mile-long testbed at a location yet to be determined. There, the engineers will test the innovative concrete’s capacity to charge heavy trucks operation at high power (200 kilowatts and above).

Once the testing of all three phases has been successfully completed, INDOT will use the new technology to electrify a yet-to-be-determined segment of the interstate highway within Indiana.

Sep 20, 2021

Dr. Aubrey de Grey — Changing Priorities in Rejuvenation Technologies — Lifespan.io

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Yes he starts with his personal controversy, emerging challenges, TAME, longevity is moving along well but has a long way to go.


Dr. Aubrey de Grey discusses the changing priorities at the forefront of the field of longevity rejuvenation research at Lifespan.io’s 2021 EARD conference. “The crusade is accelerating”, says Dr. De Grey, “but there’s so much still to do.”
De Grey is the author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999) and co-author of Ending Aging (2007). He is an international adjunct professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the American Aging Association, and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

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Sep 20, 2021

A pocket-size research revolution

Posted by in category: futurism

Pocket sized kidney.


Using a device the size of a credit card that can model a real kidney, researchers at the UW School of Pharmacy are giving new hope to people with kidney conditions.

Sep 20, 2021

7 Human Organs on One Chip

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, engineering

Scientists in the U.S. and U.K. have recently grown seven miniature human organs and housed them together on a chip to create a human-on-a-chip, a whole body biomimetic device. These clusters of assembled cells mimic how organs in the body function, both separately and in tandem.

The chip could take the place of animal and tissue testing for drugs in pharmaceutical development, say its creators. It will have to win regulatory approval in each country looking to use it for tests, and it could allow for insights into how organs interact, says Linda Griffith, professor of biological and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Griffith heads The PhysioMimetics program at MIT, which has collaborated with CN Bio Innovations, a British company that creates live organ-on-a-chip devices. The $26.3-million development program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Sep 20, 2021

The Race for Fusion Power Heats Up as Multiple Projects Hit New Milestones

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

Fusion power could be a silver bullet for the world’s energy and environmental woes, but it’s famously always 30 years away. A recent flurry of announcements is raising hopes that maybe the timeline has started to tighten.

The technology has huge potential because it promises to generate enormous amounts of energy from abundant fuel that can be cheaply extracted from seawater. On top of that, the process doesn’t create any long-lived radioactive waste, unlike conventional nuclear power plants.

The catch is that finding a way to contain the same reaction that powers the sun here on Earth is no easy feat. Now, though, MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has taken a significant step in that direction after carrying out the first tests of a magnet that can reach a field strength of 20 teslas, the highest ever achieved on Earth.

Sep 20, 2021

AI Can Write Code Like Humans —Bugs and All

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, robotics/AI

New tools that help developers write software also generate similar mistakes.