Circa 2017
A superbright type of supernova can form in “heavy metal” areas, using elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, new research suggests.
Chip Walter discusses his book, “Immortality, Inc”, at Politics and Prose.
Living forever has always been a dream, but with today’s science, technology, and visionary billionaires, it may be a distinct possibility. At the very least, as Walter reports in this compelling investigation, immortality researchers are changing the way we view aging and death. Looking at the science, business, and culture of this radical endeavor, Walter, a science journalist, author of Last Ape Standing, and former CNN bureau chief, lays out the latest research into stem cell rejuvenation, advanced genomics, and artificial intelligence; talks to key thinkers such as Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey; and takes us into the Silicon Valley labs of human genomics trailblazer Craig Venter and molecular biologist and Apple chairman Arthur Levinson. Walter is in conversation with Hilary Black, executive editor at National Geographic Books.
At least 29 killed and 195 cases of the disease confirmed in the latest outbreak to hit the country, government says.
The X tractor is being presented in commemoration of Kubota’s 130th year in business.
According to agricultural machinery manufacturer Kubota, there are now fewer farmers in Japan, trying to manage increasingly large amounts of land. With that problem in mind, the company recently unveiled a concept for helping those farmers out – a driverless tractor.
Known as the X tractor (a play on “cross tractor”), the vehicle was designed as part of Kubota’s Agrirobo automated technology program. It made its public debut earlier this month, at an exhibition in the city of Kyoto.
Continue reading “Kubota unveils autonomous electric tractor in Japan” »
55 Australian towns will run out of water very soon…
Red: < 3 months.
Yellow: < 6 months.
Beige: < 12 months.
A Japanese group of researchers says it has conducted heart surgery using sheets of heart muscle cells made from iPS cells.
Induced pluripotent stem cells are created from reprogrammed human cells and can develop into various kinds of body tissue.
The Osaka University team, led by Professor Yoshiki Sawa, aims to establish a treatment for patients with serious heart disease by restoring the organ’s function. The team’s surgery involves putting sheets of heart muscle cells derived from iPS in a patient’s heart.
Analyses of the viral genome are already providing clues to the origins of the outbreak and even possible ways to treat the infection, a need that is becoming more urgent by the day: Early on Saturday in China, health officials reported 15 new fatalities in a single day, bringing the death toll to 41. There are now nearly 1,100 confirmed cases there.
Reading the genome (which is made of RNA, not DNA) also allows researchers to monitor how 2019-nCoV is changing and provides a roadmap for developing a diagnostic test and a vaccine.
“The genetics can tell us the true timing of the first cases” and whether they occurred earlier than officials realized, said molecular biologist Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, an expert on viral genomes. “It can also tell us how the outbreak started — from a single event of a virus jumping from an infected animal to a person or from a lot of animals being infected. And the genetics can tell us what’s sustaining the outbreak — new introductions from animals or human-to-human transmission.”
To understand how much thinking a brain can do, look at how much blood — and therefore how much energy — it uses.
The coronavirus currently sweeping across China has all these characteristics. It can pass directly from one human to another. It takes up to 14 days to fully incubate. And, according to Chinese authorities, long before an individual becomes symptomatic, he or she is contagious.
There are also other facts concerning this virus that should give us pause. The only bio lab in China at which work can be done on viruses of this type is located just outside the city of Wuhan – the epicenter of the growing epidemic. The coronavirus is also known to be of interest to Chinese bio-researchers, and, in fact, last year Chinese intelligence personnel were implicated in the theft of coronavirus from a Canadian lab and the transport of the organism to China.
None of that is conclusive. None of that tells us definitively that the virus is manmade or even that humans had any part in its release. The leading theory is that the virus entered the human population from a market in Wuhan where animals known to carry the coronavirus are sold as food. That remains, as of this writing, the most likely explanation for what is now happening.
The US Air Force’s (USAF) XQ-58A Valkyrie low-cost unmanned air vehicle (UAV) demonstrator has completed its fourth flight at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has partnered with Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to develop the demonstrator.
It is part of the research laboratory’s Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology portfolio.
