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Mar 26, 2019

Chronic Inflammation Leads to Toxic NET Buildup

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A new review discusses how neutrophils release toxic substances into the body under inflammatory conditions, detailing one of the ways in which chronic inflammation causes long-term damage.

Casting a deadly NET

As we age, we suffer from the ever-increasing chronic inflammation known as inflammaging. This persistent, smoldering background of low-grade inflammation harms wound healing and promotes multiple age-related diseases. Senescent cells, a weakened immune system, and chronic infections are all proposed to contribute to inflammaging.

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Mar 26, 2019

Hacking The Brain: The Future Computer Chips In Your Head

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, mobile phones, neuroscience

Over the past twenty years, neuroscientists have been quietly building a revolutionary technology called BrainGate that wirelessly connects the human mind to computers and it just hit the world stage. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have entered the race with goals of figuring out how to get computer chips into everyone’s brains. The attention of Musk and Zuckerberg means the potential for giant leaps forward. But the question no one seems to be asking is whether our dependence on machines and technology has finally gone too far. Countries annually celebrate their independence from other countries, but it now seems we should start asking deeper questions about our personal independence.

60 Minutes recently ran a piece showing how engineers are using what scientists have learned about the brain to manipulate us into staying perpetually addicted to our smartphones. The anxiety most of us feel when we are away from our phone is real: During the 60 Minutes piece, researchers at California State University Dominguez Hills connected electrodes to reporter Anderson Cooper’s fingers to measure changes in heart rate and perspiration. Then they sent text messages to his phone, which was out of his reach, and watched his anxiety spike with each notification.

The segment revealed that virtually every app on your phone is calibrated to keep you using it as often and as long as possible. The show made an important point: a relatively small number of Silicon Valley engineers are experimenting with, and changing in a significant way, human behavior and brain function. And they’re doing it with little insight into the long-term consequences. It seems the fight for independence has gone digital.

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Mar 26, 2019

Mind-reading tech is here (and more useful than you think!)

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Reading brain waves was useless until A.I. got involved. Now mind reading has real-world, practical applications.

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Mar 26, 2019

Gene Editing Tools Like CRISPR May Help Us Cure Herpes One Day

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Here’s why current vaccines have such a hard time chasing the virus.

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Mar 26, 2019

This ‘mind-reading’ algorithm can decode the pictures in your head

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, neuroscience

New computer program uses brain activity to draw images of airplanes, leopards, and stained-glass windows.

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Mar 26, 2019

The Army’s Bold Plan to Turn Soldiers Into Telepaths

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The U.S. Army wants to allow soldiers to communicate just by thinking. The new science of synthetic telepathy could soon make that happen.

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Mar 26, 2019

Skyscrapers of the Future Will Be Engineered to Copy Nature

Posted by in categories: materials, sustainability

By 2050, two-thirds of us wil be living in cities, so architects are taking inspiration from nature to build more sustainable skylines.

How Eyes Evolved to See the World Differently

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Mar 26, 2019

Physicists discover new class of pentaquarks

Posted by in category: particle physics

Tomasz Skwarnicki, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, has uncovered new information about a class of particles called pentaquarks. His findings could lead to a new understanding of the structure of matter in the universe.

Assisted by Liming Zhang, an associate professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Skwarnicki has analyzed data from the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. The experimental physicist has uncovered evidence of three never-before-seen pentaquarks, each divided into two parts.

“Until now, we had thought that a pentaquark was made up of five [called quarks], stuck together. Our findings prove otherwise,” says Skwarnicki, a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

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Mar 26, 2019

SpaceX’s steel Starship glows during Earth reentry in first high-quality render

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX has silently published the first known detailed render of its new stainless steel Starship’s design on the cover of Popular Mechanic’s April 2019 issue, showing the next-generation orbital spacecraft reentering Earth’s atmosphere in a blaze of glowing metal and plasma.

Despite the fact that the render seems to only be available in print and then only through one particular news outlet, Teslarati has acquired a partial-resolution copy of the image to share the latest official glimpse of SpaceX’s Starship with those who lack the means, access, or interest to purchase a magazine. Matters of accessibility aside, SpaceX’s updated render offers a spectacular view of Starship’s exotic metallic heat shield in action, superheating the atmosphere around it to form a veil of plasma around the spacecraft’s hull. According to CEO Elon Musk, the hottest parts of Starship’s skin will be reinforced with hexagonal tiles of steel and transpiration cooling, a largely unproven technology that SpaceX is already in the process of testing.

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Mar 26, 2019

Robotic Dreams, Robotic Realities: Why Is It So Hard to Build Profitable Robot Companies?

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

It is our common responsibility and interest to disseminate openly and honestly not only our success but also our failures. Together, we can realize our dreams for numerous robotic applications and devise a realistic plan to develop them.


The problem, as Giulio Sandini put it, occurs when one sells (or buys) intentions as results. Overselling is a dangerous strategy that can be counterproductive, even for the whole robotics community. Both companies and researchers publish videos of robots doing tasks, but sometimes they fail to point out the limitations of the technology or that those results were achieved in lab conditions. This makes it much more difficult to explain to non-roboticist industry executives the difference between creating a one-off demo and creating a real product that works reliably.

Deep learning, for example, is at the forefront of the AI revolution, but it is too often viewed as the magic train carrying us into the world of technological wonders. AI researchers are warning about overexcitement and that the next AI winter is coming.

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