Menu

Blog

Page 8527

Jun 21, 2019

An Anti-Aging Pill? Think Twice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

The diabetes drug metformin, sometimes taken to slow aging, may blunt the health benefits of exercise.

Jun 21, 2019

Architecturing The Global Brain with a New Digital Currency: Facebook Unveils Its Libra Cryptocoin

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, neuroscience

Crypto news: Facebook” s Libra, a new cryptocurrency is announced as a peer-to-peer payment within messenger apps. Cross-border transactions near zero fees is a major step towards the Global Brain.

Jun 21, 2019

Technology is a Magnifying Mirror, Not a Crystal Ball

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the smartest species of them all?”

“You, oh Homo Sapiens, are smart, it is true. But AI will be smarter even than you.”

***

Continue reading “Technology is a Magnifying Mirror, Not a Crystal Ball” »

Jun 21, 2019

Scientists map huge undersea fresh-water aquifer off US Northeast

Posted by in category: innovation

In a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the U.S. Northeast coast, scientists have made a surprising discovery: a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying below the salty ocean. It appears to be the largest such formation yet found in the world. The aquifer stretches from the shore at least from Massachusetts to New Jersey, extending more or less continuously out about 50 miles to the edge of the continental shelf. If found on the surface, it would create a lake covering some 15,000 square miles. The study suggests that such aquifers probably lie off many other coasts worldwide, and could provide desperately needed water for arid areas that are now in danger of running out.

The researchers employed innovative measurements of electromagnetic waves to map the , which remained invisible to other technologies. “We knew there was fresh water down there in isolated places, but we did not know the extent or geometry,” said lead author Chloe Gustafson, a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “It could turn out to be an important resource in other parts of the world.” The study appears this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

The first hints of the aquifer came in the 1970s, when companies drilled off the coastline for oil, but sometimes instead hit fresh water. Drill holes are just pinpricks in the seafloor, and scientists debated whether the water deposits were just isolated pockets or something bigger. Starting about 20 years ago, study coauthor Kerry Key, now a Lamont-Doherty geophysicist, helped oil companies develop techniques to use electromagnetic imaging of the sub-seafloor to look for oil. More recently, Key decided to see if some form of the technology could also be used also to find fresh-water deposits. In 2015, he and Rob L. Evans of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution spent 10 days on the Lamont-Doherty research vessel Marcus G. Langseth making measurements off southern New Jersey and the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard, where scattered drill holes had hit fresh-water-rich sediments.

Jun 21, 2019

Why the age of electric flight is finally upon us

Posted by in category: futurism

Air travel accounts for 2%-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Are electric engines an answer?

Jun 21, 2019

Amazon patents ‘surveillance as a service’ tech for its delivery drones

Posted by in categories: drones, habitats, surveillance

Including technology that cuts out footage of your neighbor’s house.

Jun 21, 2019

McDonald’s Tests Robot Fryers and Voice-Activated Drive-Throughs

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

McDonald’s Corp. is designing voice-activated drive-throughs and robotic deep-fryers as the burger giant works to streamline its menu and operations to speed up service.

The company is testing voice-recognition software at a drive-through in suburban Chicago. Inside the restaurant, a robot also tosses chicken, fish and fries into vats of oil. Both technologies are meant to shorten customer wait times that executives acknowledge have grown in recent years. McDonald’s also has stopped serving some burgers and given franchisees…

To Read the Full Story.

Jun 21, 2019

Gensight Biologics Releases Data, CFO Responds to LEAF Inquiry

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Gensight Biologics, a company researching – among other things – the movement of mitochondrial genetic information to the nucleus to treat hereditary genetic diseases (a strategy that could also have an impact on aging according to the SENS Research Foundation), has recently released data for its latest trial of GS010, a therapy against the blindness-causing genetic disease LHON.


Note: Patrick Deane holds shares in Gensight Biologics (EPA: SIGHT).

Jun 21, 2019

Airborne racer Airspeeder MK4 to debut at FOS 2019

Posted by in category: futurism

Would you be brave enough to climb into the cockpit…?

Jun 21, 2019

Algae ‘Bioreactor’ on Space Station Could Make Oxygen, Food for Astronauts

Posted by in categories: food, space

An algae-powered bioreactor, called the Photobioreactor, arrived at the International Space Station on May 6 and represents a major step toward so-called closed-loop life-support systems, which could one day sustain space crews during long-duration missions to the moon and Mars.