Lifeboat Foundation

I always enjoy the perspective of David Wood, and in this session of the London Futurists there is a panel discussion about genetic engineering in the future.

Our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. The resulting genetic revolution is poised to transform our healthcare, our choices for the characteristics of the next generation, and our evolution as a species. The future could bring breathtaking advances in human well-being, but it could also descend into a dangerous genetic arms race.

Continue reading “Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity” »

Circa 2019

The OBSBOT Tail is an AI camera that has the ability to track and record a subject without you having to do anything. A self-tracking camera can be used for a wide variety of applications. It’s important to note that the unit I am reviewing is not the shipping version, but a lot of the features are still working. The OBSBOT Tail is expected to start shipping in April.

Continue reading “OBSBOT Tail Self-Tracking AI Camera Review” »

They stranded Christopher Columbus in Jamaica. They brought down the Spanish Armada. They sent San Francisco’s piers crumbling into the sea.

Maryland reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday—just four days after the state began easing public health restrictions aimed at thwarting the spread of disease.

Though state officials note that an increase in testing and a backlog of test results may partly explain the spike, the case counts overall suggest that disease transmission has not declined in the lead-up to re-opening—and transmission could very easily increase as residents begin venturing into public spaces more frequently.

Maryland’s outcome may hold lessons for other states attempting their own reopening. As of today, May 20, all 50 states have begun easing restrictions at some level, according to The Washington Post.

Scientists who were melting permafrost ice to look for ancient microbes were surprised to see a pile of 41,000 year-old worms wake up and wiggle around.

This is amazing.

The high-tech device boasts a field of view and reaction time similar to that of real eyes.

(WHDH) — Scientists at NASA have reportedly uncovered evidence of a bizarre parallel universe where the rules of physics and time appear to be operating in reverse.

Researchers conducting an experiment in Antarctica discovered particles from a universe that was born during the same Big Bang the created the one we live in, according to NewScientist.

A NASA team was using a giant balloon to carry electronic antennas into the sky above the frozen wastes of Antarctica when they encountered a “wind” of particles from outer space that were “a million times more powerful” than anything they had seen before, the news outlet reported.

Before there were animals, bacteria or even DNA on Earth, self-replicating molecules were slowly evolving their way from simple matter to life beneath a constant shower of energetic particles from space.

In a new paper, a Stanford professor and a former post-doctoral scholar speculate that this interaction between ancient proto-organisms and cosmic rays may be responsible for a crucial structural preference, called chirality, in biological molecules. If their idea is correct, it suggests that all life throughout the universe could share the same chiral preference.

Chirality, also known as handedness, is the existence of mirror-image versions of molecules. Like the left and right hand, two chiral forms of a single molecule reflect each other in shape but don’t line up if stacked. In every major biomolecule—amino acids, DNA, RNA—life only uses one form of molecular handedness. If the mirror version of a molecule is substituted for the regular version within a biological system, the system will often malfunction or stop functioning entirely. In the case of DNA, a single wrong handed sugar would disrupt the stable helical structure of the molecule.

From testing drugs to developing vaccines, the close study of the immune system is key to improving real-world health outcomes. T-cells are integral to this research, as these white blood cells help tailor the body’s immune response to specific pathogens.

With lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM), scientists have been able to closely examine individual cells, such as T-cells, in 4D. But with limited data points, there wasn’t an effective way to analyze the LLSM data.

A new paper by researchers from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago, published May 20 in the journal Cell Systems, introduces a solution—a pipeline for lattice light-sheet microscopy multi-dimensional analyses (LaMDA).