Lifeboat Foundation

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic does not affect everyone equally. While anyone can contract COVID-19, accumulating data suggest that older people or those with pre-existing comorbidities are far more likely to have severe complications or die from the disease. While researchers scramble to unravel the mechanisms of action underlying the disease’s wide-ranging effects, news that the disease hits older people hardest has been received without demur: it is widely accepted that to be old is to be fragile. Indeed, even in so-called normal times, everyone expects more things break as people age: bones, hearts, brains. In the context of the pandemic, being old is seen as just one more comorbidity.

It should not be.

We accept growing old and losing our vitality as an inevitability of life. To do so is to overlook the fact that ageing is, fundamentally, a plastic trait—influenced both by our genetic predispositions and many (controllable) environmental factors. Anecdotally we know this to be true: for some, being in their eighties means being confined to a wheelchair whereas for others, like Eileen Noble, who at 84 years old was the oldest runner in 2019’s London Marathon, it decidedly does not. The burgeoning field of biogerontology is now beginning to amass data in support of such observations. Single genetic mutations in evolutionarily conserved pathways across model organisms—ranging from fruit flies to mice—increase lifespan by up to 80%. Crucially, not only do these animals live longer, they also have a longer youthspan—the proportion of their lives in which they retain the trappings of youth such as peak mobility, immunity, and stress resilience.

NASA’s Webb space telescope to peer deep into our solar system’s outermost graveyard of planet formation; a bizarre, frozen zone of freakish objects on strange solar orbits.

Certain cyber-artificial intelligence attacks could pose an existential threat to the US and the West, former US cyber command chief, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Brett Williams said on Tuesday.

Speaking as part of Cybertech’s virtual conference, Williams said, “artificial intelligence is the real thing. It is already in use by attackers. When they learn how to do deepfakes, I would argue this is potentially an existential threat.”

If you think you may have been exposed to COVID-19 but were unable to access testing at the time, you’ll soon be able to get a 15-minute rapid antibody test at Kroger!

But what about nuclear? Are we at risk of cyber-induced meltdowns or releases of radiation?

No.

Fortunately, while the Russians may be able to disrupt electricity transmission in general, and electricity generation from many power plants like natural gas and wind farms, they can’t hack into nuclear power plant operations. Nuclear plants are still mostly analog and not connected to the Internet.

This was the 17th farm closure in South Korea that HSI has facilitated, and the latest indication that the market for dog meat, a traditional delicacy in South Korea, is rapidly declining.

Circa 2018

The world’s first-ever hiking boots to use graphene have been unveiled by The University of Manchester and British brand inov-8.

Building on the international success of their pioneering use of graphene in trail running and fitness shoes last summer, the brand is now bringing the revolutionary technology to a market recently starved of innovation.

Continue reading “World’s first-ever graphene hiking boots unveiled” »

Chief engineer Mark Chapman talks about the lessons gained from last year’s runs of the jet-powered British land speed record contender.