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Dec 4, 2018

Valery Novoselov: Investigating Jeanne Calment’s Longevity Record

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, life extension

Questions have been raised recently regarding Jeanne Calment’s record as the oldest recorded human.


If you open an article dedicated to supercentenarians, it is very likely that at its very beginning, you will see the name of Jeanne Calment, the oldest known person in the world, who is believed to have lived for up to 122 years. Jeanne is not merely a unique phenomenon from the point of view of statistics; over the years, she became a symbol of extraordinary human capacities.

For a person who sticks to a healthy lifestyle or even engages in biohacking in order to live longer, Jeanne’s record is a teasing goal to achieve and surpass; however, to the researchers of aging, this extremely rare event is rather a reason for curiosity – and skepticism.

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Dec 4, 2018

Alphabet’s Wing delivery drone service to launch in Finland next year

Posted by in category: drones

Five years ago, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos predicted that by now we would all be getting packages delivered by drones. Despite numerous trials and pilots around the globe, we’re still waiting. Meanwhile other companies have been nipping at Amazon’s heels, including Google’s parent company Alphabet. Its Project X drones started delivering burritos to customers in Australia’s Capital Territory last year, and has now announced that folks in Finland can look forward to package deliveries by air from early 2019.

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Dec 4, 2018

Reverse Brain Death with Stem Cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Who isn’t interested in new ways to apply stem cell therapy these days?

Speaking of, have you heard about the scientists in Philadelphia, PA, who have been injecting stem cells directly into the spinal cords of medically brain-dead people in order to revive them?

In a page taken from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the idea of “bringing people back from the dead” is a little too much like “playing God” for some critics to appreciate.

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Dec 4, 2018

“Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” Goldman Sachs analysts ask

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, business, genetics, sustainability

Analyst Salveen Richter and colleagues laid it out:

The potential to deliver “one shot cures” is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically engineered cell therapy, and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies… While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.

For a real-world example, they pointed to Gilead Sciences, which markets treatments for hepatitis C that have cure rates exceeding 90 percent. In 2015, the company’s hepatitis C treatment sales peaked at $12.5 billion. But as more people were cured and there were fewer infected individuals to spread the disease, sales began to languish. Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that the treatments will bring in less than $4 billion this year.

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Dec 4, 2018

Exclusive: Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species

Posted by in category: futurism

Australian miners uncovered the gem of a find—a dog-size herbivore named Weewarrasaurus pobeni.

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Dec 4, 2018

Hello Mars, Farewell Mars

Posted by in category: space

Not only did NASA’s Insight probe make it down to the surface of Mars, but part of the support system for the mission took their first, and last, close up peek at the red planet. https://bit.ly/2UgwmHY&h=AT1M4EEI8SBcHDGIg7qDLpkauTEHcWZ6QCn…HKZoQvgkWA


As NASA’s InSight mission lands on Mars, its companions sail onward.

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Dec 4, 2018

How China’s ‘social credit score’ will punish and reward citizens

Posted by in categories: business, government

By 2020, China plans to assign each of its 1.4 billion citizens a “social credit score” that will determine what people are allowed to do, and where they rank in society.

It’s part of a broad effort in China to build a so-called reputation system that will measure, in theory, the credibility of government officials and businesses, in addition to citizens. The Chinese government says the system will boost “trust” nationwide and build a culture of “sincerity.”

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Dec 4, 2018

The 2018 Update on The Future of Everything

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, virtual reality

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), Haptics and Holographics, are all in gradual market diffusion stage as of 2018, after having long been the stuff of science fiction content. Even so, even as of 2018, the misconceptions remains overwhelmingly widespread and strong, that these are for gaming, entertainment, leisure and recreation. None of these technologies or interface methods, however, were ever meant to be for just that alone.

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Dec 4, 2018

These Astronaut Photos of a Soyuz Launch from Space Are Just Incredible!

Posted by in category: space

Astronaut Alexander Gerst captured incredible photographs of the launch of his new companions to the International Space Station.

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Dec 4, 2018

Explaining the power of curiosity – to your brain, hunger for knowledge is much the same as hunger for food

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

Always hungry 🙈.


By Christian Jarrett. Researchers provoked curiosity in their volunteers using magic and obscure trivia questions.

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