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Jul 16, 2019
A Thin Layer of Aerogel Could Make Martian Farming Possible
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: alien life, engineering, environmental
Scientists think they’ve found a way to terraform Mars — and all it takes is a thin blanket of insulation over future space gardens.
A layer of aerogel just two to three centimeters thick may be enough to protect plants from the harshest aspects of life on Mars and create viable greenhouses in the process, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. While there are a host of other problems to solve before anyone can settle Mars, this terraforming plan is far more feasible than other ideas that scientists have proposed.
Two of the biggest challenges facing Martian settlers are the Red Planet’s deadly temperatures and unfiltered solar radiation, which is able to pass through Mars’ weak atmosphere and reach the surface, New Scientist reports. At night, it can reach −100 degrees Celsius, which is far too cold for any Earthly crops to survive.
The Sun is the reason behind our existence. Here are some burning facts about our only star.
Jul 16, 2019
Images: Right now Chandra is studying Jupiter’s X-ray auroras!
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
Unlike Earth’s northern & southern auroras, Jupiter’s auroras appear to behave independently of each other. Combining data from Chandra, NASA’s Juno mission, & ESA’s XMM-Newton observatory could help explain why!
Jul 16, 2019
AI Drug Hunters Could Give Big Pharma a Run for Its Money
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: biotech/medical, economics, health, robotics/AI
But a less-noticed win for DeepMind, the artificial-intelligence arm of Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., at a biennial biology conference could upend how drugmakers find and develop new medicines. It could also dial up pressure on the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to prepare for a technological arms race. Already, a new breed of upstarts are jumping into the fray.
Alphabet’s DeepMind cracked a problem that long vexed biologists, heating up a technological arms race in health care.
Jul 15, 2019
Study gives insight into sun-induced DNA damage and cell repair
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, innovation
A team led by a Baylor University researcher has published a breakthrough article that provides a better understanding of the dynamic process by which sunlight-induced DNA damage is recognized by the molecular repair machinery in cells as needing repair.
Ultraviolet light from the sun is a ubiquitous carcinogen that can inflict structural damage to the cellular DNAs DNA carries important blueprints for cellular functions, failure in removing and restoring damaged parts of DNA in a timely fashion can have detrimental outcomes and lead to skin cancers in humans, said lead author Jung-Hyun Min, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.
Min and her team showed how the repair protein Rad4/XPC would bind to one such UV-induced DNA damage—6–4 photoproduct—to mark the damaged site along the DNA in preparation for the rest of the nucleotide excision repair (NER) process in cells.
Jul 15, 2019
The Forgotten Astronaut: Michael Collins and Apollo 11
Posted by Alberto Lao in categories: education, space
A short documentary revolving around Michael Collins and his experience during the Apollo 11 moon landing mission.
Compiled from archival footage and interviews.
Jul 15, 2019
Bolonkin Explores Ultimate Uploading and Technology
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, nanotechnology, nuclear energy
One of the main speculations about future technology is uploading. This is where our minds are copied in exact detail from our biological physical bodies and then created in artificial bodies. Alexander Bolonkin has posited many kinds of technology over the decades. He has a recent work which is summarized here where he considers that future uploading will mean that we can then use super-technology (nanotechnology, nuclear fusion etc…) to make people into literal gods and supermen. We can use control of matter, energy and information to make what he calls the E-man. Bolonkin then indicates that uploading and creation of minds could be used for the resurrection of long-dead people. This would be where we create the very close approximation of dead people. This would be like using gene editing to turn an African Elephant into a Whooly Mammoth. The vast technological capability would let us actualize what would be a simulation into living entities.
Bolonkin’s Case for E-Man and Resurrection
Alexander Bolonkin looks at methods and possibilities for electronic resurrection of long-dead outstanding personalities. He also considers the principles and organization of the new E-society, its goals and conditions of existence.
