Menu

Blog

Page 7839

Jun 17, 2019

Cosmologists Clash Over the Beginning of the Universe

Posted by in category: cosmology

What happened before the Big Bang? And what happened before that? Stephen Hawking’s answer—there was no beginning—is now the subject of intense debate.


A recent challenge to Stephen Hawking’s biggest idea — about how the universe might have come from nothing — has cosmologists choosing sides.

Jun 17, 2019

How China Is Creating the Factory of the Future

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

By comparison, the next biggest market, Japan, will be responsible for 11% of all shipments over that same period and the U.S. for 7%. Developing-world markets Mexico, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil will collectively buy just 5% of industrial robots.


China is setting the pace in automation to create the factory of the future.

Jun 17, 2019

Anti-aging compound from pomegranates proves promising in human clinical trials

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Since aging is a key driver of many diseases, targeting that process could be a handy catch-all for treating a range of diseases and improving quality of life for pretty much everybody. Researchers at EPFL have now reported a new step towards that goal, with human clinical trials of a fruit-derived compound showing promise in slowing mitochondrial aging in elderly patients, with no side effects found.

Jun 17, 2019

Aston Martin will race a detuned Valkyrie at Le Mans in the new Hypercar class

Posted by in category: transportation

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest has announced a new top class for the Le Mans endurance race – a “hypercar” class that will begin in 2020–21, designed to entice some of the world’s most extreme streetcars to throw down and prove themselves. And one we’ll definitely see on track is the awesome Aston Martin Valkyrie.

Jun 17, 2019

A genetic mutation could help us understand how to stop pain

Posted by in category: genetics

People like Jo Cameron, who can’t feel any pain, could help us find the on-off switch for suffering.

Jun 17, 2019

5 Things You Likely Never Knew About Apollo 11

Posted by in category: futurism

On the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the technological history surrounding this one giant leap is full of surprises.

Jun 16, 2019

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Common at Horse Farms, Study Shows

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, sustainability

Scientists found 200 E. coli strains, about half of which were resistant to at least one microbial agent, in manure, air, and horse nostrils at Polish riding centers. Here’s what that means for you.

Jun 16, 2019

GSK partners with CRISPR pioneer Doudna to find new drugs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, robotics/AI

GSK forms CRISPR alliance with UC Berkeley and UCSF to create functional genomics insitute. The main one, technologywise, is this about using CRISPR as a gene function screen. One can do a gazillion experiments at once, fleshing out connections, sketching the biology, finding drug targets. http://bit.do/eU942


S AN FRANCISCO — The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline announced Thursday that it would team up with some of the nation’s most prominent CRISPR researchers to use the gene-editing technology in a search for new medicines, establishing a new lab in San Francisco and spending up to $67 million over five years.

Jennifer Doudna, the University of California, Berkeley, researcher who co-invented the CRISPR enzyme technology, will help lead the effort, along with Jonathan Weissman, a UC San Francisco researcher who has been using CRISPR to understand the function of individual human genes and how they work together. Both are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators.

Continue reading “GSK partners with CRISPR pioneer Doudna to find new drugs” »

Jun 16, 2019

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Will Launch NASA Probe to Study Space Radiation

Posted by in category: satellites

SET aims to study effects of radiation on satellites.

Jun 16, 2019

Aubrey de Grey, PhD, Co-founder of SENS Research Foundation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of SENS Research Foundation, delivers an overview of aging and the many health problems that develop in our advanced years.

Dr. de Grey is a respected member of the science community; he is the noted biomedical gerontologist who devised the innovative SENS platform and co-founded the SENS Research Foundation to further it. Dr. de Grey has written about his work and as an established researcher, he has been appointed to the editorial and scientific advisory boards of many journals, organizations, etc. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America as well as the American Aging Association. He holds a BA in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Biology from the prestigious University of Cambridge.

Dr. de Grey discusses his research in aging and the motivations for tackling the career. As he states, aging is the number one medical problem as it causes more suffering. He was motivated to research in this area because he found that not enough was being done to focus on aging and the myriad of problems that come with it. He talks about the many excuses that are given as reasons to simply accept aging as it is, or not focus on it at all, such as “it’s inevitable…everything ages,” or the philosophical—“death gives meaning to life,” or social—“maybe we could do this, but it would create new problems worse than the problem we are solving.” And as the Ph.D. states, none of these excuses stand up to even the faintest scrutiny, however, they still remain quite popular.