Lifeboat Foundation

“I was wrong,” Church now admits.

A startup he cofounded, eGenesis, had made news for its ambitious plans to use CRISPR gene-editing technology to modify pigs so their organs could be safely transplanted into humans without being rejected. That could solve a critical shortage of human organs available for transplant.

But no human test has yet been carried out. Instead, the company is currently testing organs from its pigs in monkeys at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The experiments are being led by the hospital’s chief of transplant surgery, James Markmann.

The Vintage Patterns Wiki released 83,500 sewing patterns of pre-1992. You can find pretty much everything from the Dynasty-inspired suits and Betty Draper’s frocks and white gloves. There’s also an 1985 boys’ Reefer Suit and short trousers.

The search can be narrowed to particular pieces, designed and decades. There are patterns from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Fans went crazy for the movie star collection, and women adore Katharine Hepburn’s pants. If you sort the patterns by garment type, you will find some nice lingerie and raincoats. There are some great wedding dresses and maternity wear.

Humans have proven themselves remarkably adept at learning to do what other animals can do naturally. We have taught ourselves to fly like birds, climb like monkeys and burrow like moles. But the one animal that has always proven beyond our reach is the fish.

The invention of scuba diving has allowed us to breathe underwater but only at very shallow depths.

Thanks to our inability to conquer the bends, diving below 70m still remains astonishingly dangerous to anyone but a handful of experts. Ultra-deep diving is so lethal that more people have walked on the moon than descended below 240m using scuba gear.

The X3 is made possible thanks to a collaboration among NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Michigan.

It’s a new type of propulsion engine that smashed records during test firings. This engine and other electric propulsion systems will help us reach distant planets faster than ever before.

Continue reading “The X3 Ion Thruster Is Here, This Is How It’ll Get Us to Mars” »

Astrophysicists think they know how to destroy a black hole. The puzzle is what such destruction would leave behind.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake was reported Thursday evening at 5:42 p.m. Pacific time 16 miles from Ridgecrest, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquake occurred 44 miles from California City, 66 miles from Tehachapi, 68 miles from Bakersfield, and 70 miles from Porterville.

In the last 10 days, there have been 68 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the area July 4 and a 7.1 hit the next day, with thousands of small aftershocks following.

NASA has vowed to “use all means necessary” to ensure the success of the mission, and that could include technology developed by StemRad, a Tel Aviv-based company behind the AstroRad radiation protection vest.

Developed in partnership with aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin, the AstroRad vest is personal protective equipment for astronauts to wear beyond Low Earth Orbit, mitigating space radiation exposure outside the Earth’s magnetosphere.

Boasting the Israeli flag, the AstroRad uses a proprietary smart shielding design to selectively protect organs and tissues which are most sensitive to radiation exposure. The company has developed an adapted suit for women, who are particularly vulnerable to space radiation.

Meet Henk B. Rogers, a successful entrepreneur who lives in Hawaii and wants to build an underground settlement on the Moon. This is his vision.

Being forever young has long been a dream for many. Now there are new ways to slow down the aging process. Switzerland is jumping on the trend, with a growing hub of science and economic activity around staying young. Harvard Medical School’s David Sinclair says the “fountain of youth pill” could soon become a reality.