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Feb 24, 2020

Ancient DNA from Sardinia reveals 6,000 years of genetic history

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

A new study of the genetic history of Sardinia, a Mediterranean island off the western coast of Italy, tells how genetic ancestry on the island was relatively stable through the end of the Bronze Age, even as mainland Europe saw new ancestries arrive. The study further details how the island’s genetic ancestry became more diverse and interconnected with the Mediterranean starting in the Iron Age, as Phoenician, Punic, and eventually Roman peoples began arriving to the island.

The research, published in Nature Communications, analyzed genome-wide DNA data for 70 individuals from more than 20 Sardinian archaeological sites spanning roughly 6,000 years from the Middle Neolithic through the Medieval period. No previous study has used genome-wide DNA extracted from ancient remains to look at the population history of Sardinia.

“Geneticists have been studying the people of Sardinia for a long time, but we haven’t known much about their past,” said the senior author John Novembre, Ph.D., a leading computational biologist at the Univeristy of Chicago who studies genetic diversity in natural populations. “There have been clues that Sardinia has a particularly interesting genetic history, and understanding this history could also have relevance to larger questions about the peopling of the Mediterranean.”

Feb 24, 2020

What you can take to boost resistance to coronavirus, freshly published, hot out of the oven

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0033062020300372?…923A265B74‬

Feb 24, 2020

BREAKING: Strong Earthquake (4.8R) rockes South Italy

Posted by in category: futurism

A relatively intense earthquake was recorded today at 17.02, on central Calabria on the Sila massif. The earthquake was clearly felt over much of the region.

Feb 24, 2020

Lockheed to obtain Vector satellite assets

Posted by in categories: law, satellites

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin will acquire the satellite technology assets of Vector by default after a bankruptcy court received no qualified bids by a deadline last week.

In a Feb. 24 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Vector said that they received no qualifying bids for the company’s GalacticSky software-defined spacecraft technology by a Feb. 21 deadline.

As a result, Lockheed Martin, which provided debtor-in-possession financing when Vector filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, will obtain the assets with a “stalking horse” bid of $4.25 million, according to the terms of a Jan. 24 filing. That deal will be finalized at a Feb. 28 court hearing.

Feb 24, 2020

3,000-year-old Canaanite temple discovered in buried city in Israel

Posted by in category: futurism

A 3,000-year-old temple, built by the Canaanites around the time of the ancient Israelite invasion, has been unearthed in southern Israel.

Feb 24, 2020

Patents Secured for Revolutionary Nuclear Fusion Technology

Posted by in categories: materials, nuclear energy

Scientists in Australia are making some astonishing claims about a new nuclear reactor technology. Startup HB11, which spun out of the University of New South Wales, has applied for and received patents in the U.S., Japan, and China so far. The company’s technology uses lasers to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction in hydrogen and boron—purportedly with no radioactive fuel required. The secret is a cutting-edge laser and, well, an element of luck.

The laser doesn’t heat the materials. Instead, it speeds up the hydrogen to the point where it (hopefully) collides with the boron to begin a reaction.

Feb 24, 2020

Scientists Jump-Started Consciousness in Monkeys

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Built on decades of previous research, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison teased out a tiny chunk of brain tissue within the thalamus, a nub above the brain stem, as a critical part of NCC. As proof of concept, they gave it several bouts of electrical shocks, and restored awareness in unconscious monkeys under heavy anesthesia.

The crux? As soon as the electrical stimulation stopped, the monkeys’ awareness also slipped away.

Although the thalamus has long been thought of as somehow involved in supporting consciousness, the study is one of the first to pinpoint exact neural circuits—highways between the thalamus and parts of the cortex—as “switches” for consciousness that we can control using brain stimulation. And that’s wonderful news for comatose patients.

Feb 24, 2020

The ultra-rich are investing in companies trying to reverse aging. Is it going to work?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

If you can’t defeat death, what if you could postpone it, or at least postpone the diseases commonly associated with getting old?

Many people, especially the ultra-wealthy in Silicon Valley, are investing money into companies trying to answer exactly those questions.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel have both invested in South San Francisco-based Unity Biotechnology, a company whose mission is to “extend human healthspan, the period in one’s life unburdened by the disease of aging.”

Feb 24, 2020

Kike Santillana added a new photo

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Super Market of Italy Empty fear of coronavirus.


La gente en milan Italia esta vaciando los supermercados después del brote de coronavirus al norte de italia.

Feb 24, 2020

Automation vs. Jobs: The Long and the Short of It

Posted by in categories: employment, robotics/AI

This chapter appears concurrently in Age of Robots and includes content and quotes garnered from interviews with James J. Hughes, Jerome Glenn, Ian Pearson, Richard Yonck, John C. Havens and Alexandra Whittington on the Seeking Delphi™ podcast between April of 2017 and November of 2018. **.