Lifeboat Foundation

“Herzog tells Inverse he’s less concerned than ever that a meteorite will destroy the Earth, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be worried about our own extinction. “It may be 100 million years to go until then,” Herzog says, before adding, “within the next thousand years, we may have done such stupid things that we are not around anymore to contemplate it.” The German filmmaker also explains what asteroids reveal about the universe, why he’s never watched Rick and Morty, even though it’s a “fiendishly intelligent show,” and lists the many things that could wipe out humanity before a meteorite ever arrives.”

The legendary director discusses his new film, ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,’ along with Star Wars, ‘Rick and Morty,’ and working with a co-director.

What if with the new wave of technologies, such as nanotechnology which would enable us to reprogram matter at a molecular level, we can overcome scarcity once and for all? Design would then become the most important part from start to end product which can be freely shared or have a premium in the marketplace. At any rate, this will dismantle the current social, economic, and political system, because it will become irrelevant; every institution, every value system, every aspect of our lives have been governed by scarcity: the problem of distributing a finite amount of “stuff.” There will be no need for any of today’s social institutions. In other words, when nanotech and ultra-realistic VR are commonplace, the system built on scarcity will crumble and that would herald the forthcoming “economic singularity.” #EconomicSiingularity

The current faltering economic model is suboptimal, hinders economic growth, and is not sustainable going forward.

O,.o I believe the fungi kingdom is sentient based on this similar to other insects. Basically if exists in space aswell I believe it has a hive mind like similar species like the bee. But there are good fungi also that keep these invasive species of fungi at bay which we see in rainforests. It could be much more powerful than imagined because it is everywhere in the air on earth and also in space.

Mind-controlling fungus that infects the brains of cicadas can make them kill each other. These mutant critters, dubbed as zombie cicadas, are forced to infect other insects.

Continue reading “Zombie cicadas infected with mind-controlling fungus” »

O,.o Circa 2019

CRISPR/Cas9 is now a household name associated with genetic engineering studies. Through cutting-edge research described in their paper published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from Tokyo University of Science, Meiji University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, led by Dr Takayuki Arazoe and Prof Shigeru Kuwata, has recently established a series of novel strategies to increase the efficiency of targeted gene disruption and new gene “introduction” using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae. These strategies include quicker (single-step) gene introduction, use of small homologous sequences, and bypassing of certain prerequisite host DNA “patterns” and host component modification.

The team led by Dr Arazoe and Prof Kuwata has devised simple and quick techniques for gene editing (target gene disruption, sequence substitution, and re-introduction of desired genes) using CRISPR/Cas9 in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae, a type of filamentous fungus. Spurred on by encouraging results, the researchers surmise, “Plants and their pathogens are still coevolving in nature. Exploiting the mutation mechanisms of model pathogenic fungi as a genome editing technique might lead to the development of further novel techniques in genetic engineering.”

The working component of the CRISPR/Cas9 system binds to the target gene region (DNA) and causes a site-specific double-stranded break (DSB) in the DNA. Effective binding of this component requires a certain “motif” or “pattern” called the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM), which follows downstream of the target gene region.

Watch a strange, sprouting mushroom reach out like an octopus … or the devil’s fingers.
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Scientists have developed a new system using the CRISPR genome-editing system to attack and kill cancer cells. The system targets cancel cells directly and, like “scissors,” cuts their DNA, killing them.

Circa 2014

Forget blue whales and giant redwood trees. The biggest living organism is over 2 miles across, and you’ll hardly ever see it.

After a decade, National Ignition Facility nears a self-heated, sustained reaction, though net energy gain is still elusive.

A public dispute between a 17-year-old transgender woman and her family has shone a spotlight on the existence of ‘schools’ that exist to ‘regulate’ the behaviour of the country’s teenagers.