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Sep 2, 2021

Solar Domes Could Desalinate Seawater at a Commercial Scale

Posted by in categories: government, sustainability

71 percent of the Earth is covered in water, but only 3 percent of that is freshwater. The effective desalination of seawater at a mass scale would clearly be a world-changing achievement, celebrated the world over.

With that goal in mind, London-based Solar Water PLC recently signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian government as part of the country’s clean future $500 billion “NEOM” project. The company is building the “first desalination plant with solar dome technology”, a CNN Arabia report (translated on Solar Water PLC’s website) explains.

Sep 2, 2021

What is Consciousness? A New Documentary Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind, Part I

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, education, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Life is an integrated flow of quantum computational processes giving rise to our conscious experience. Based on the ontological model, the Cybernetic Theory of Mind by evolutionary cyberneticist Alex Vikoulov that he expands on in his magnum opus The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution, comes a new documentary ― Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind.

This film, hosted by the author of the book from which the narrative is derived, is now available for viewing on demand on Vimeo, Plex, Tubi, Social Club TV and other global networks with its worldwide premiere aired on June 8 2021. This is a futurist’s take on the nature of consciousness and reverse engineering of our thinking in order to implement it in cybernetics and AI systems.

Continue reading “What is Consciousness? A New Documentary Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind, Part I” »

Sep 2, 2021

The Era of Genetically Modified Superhumans

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, ethics, evolution, genetics, life extension

The late 21st century belongs to Superhumans. Technological progress in the field of medicine through gene editing tools like CRISPR is going to revolutionize what it means to be human. The age of Superhumans is portrayed in many science fiction movies, but for the first time in our species history, radically altering our genome is going to be possible through the methods and tools of science.

The gene-editing tool CRISPR, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, could help us to reprogram life. It gives scientists more power and precision than they have ever had to alter human DNA.

Continue reading “The Era of Genetically Modified Superhumans” »

Sep 2, 2021

Blood Will Be Collected From SpaceX Space Tourists Next Month

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, space travel

For science.

Sep 2, 2021

CRISPR just proved genes can self-heal in space for the first time ever

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

If in space, no one can hear you scream, then what happens when DNA silently breaks in microgravity? Spoiler alert: it heals itself.

This is what a CRISPR experiment that won the Genes in Space 6 contest — SYFY WIRE was at the recent launch of the Genes in Space 8 experiment to the ISS — found out. DNA damage or breakage can mean the potential for degenerative diseases such as cancer, but the fact that it can also self-repair (and in microgravity!) has enormous implications for medical treatments above and below Earth’s atmosphere.

Sep 2, 2021

People Look Alike if We Think They Have Similar Personalities

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The authors add that the research informs fundamental scientific understanding of how face recognition works in the brain, suggesting that not only a face’s visual cues but also prior social knowledge plays an active role in perceiving faces.


Summary: Knowledge of an individual’s personality can influence the perception of a face’s identity and bias it toward unrelated people or identities, researchers report.

Source: NYU

Continue reading “People Look Alike if We Think They Have Similar Personalities” »

Sep 2, 2021

China wants to build a mega spaceship that’s nearly a mile long

Posted by in category: space

The Chinese proposal plans to study how to build a giant spacecraft.


A Chinese science proposal plans to study how to get a giant spacecraft into space.

Sep 2, 2021

Ancient woman’s DNA challenges scientists’ long-held theories about early humans

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Archaeologists have analysed DNA found in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia — challenging previous theories around the migration of early humans.

The remains of the teenager, nicknamed Besse, were discovered in the Leang Panninge cave on Sulawesi in 2015.

It is believed to be the first time ancient human DNA has been discovered in Wallacea, a group of islands between mainland Asia and Australia.

Sep 2, 2021

Strange brown dwarf ‘The Accident’ hints at possible treasure trove of cosmic anomalies

Posted by in category: space

A brown dwarf discovered “accidentally” by a citizen scientist appears to be somewhat of an anomaly, suggesting there might be even more lurking in our galaxy than scientists previously thought.

Sep 2, 2021

New Molecular Computing Device Has Unprecedented Reconfigurability Reminiscent of Brain Plasticity

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

In a discovery published in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers has described a novel molecular device with exceptional computing prowess.

Reminiscent of the plasticity of connections in the human brain, the device can be reconfigured on the fly for different computational tasks by simply changing applied voltages. Furthermore, like nerve cells can store memories, the same device can also retain information for future retrieval and processing.

“The brain has the remarkable ability to change its wiring around by making and breaking connections between nerve cells. Achieving something comparable in a physical system has been extremely challenging,” said Dr. R. Stanley Williams, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. “We have now created a molecular device with dramatic reconfigurability, which is achieved not by changing physical connections like in the brain, but by reprogramming its logic.”