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May 31, 2018

Cometh the cyborg: Improved integration of living muscles into robots

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, robotics/AI

The new field of biohybrid robotics involves the use of living tissue within robots, rather than just metal and plastic.


Researchers have developed a novel method of growing whole muscles from hydrogel sheets impregnated with myoblasts. They then incorporated these muscles as antagonistic pairs into a biohybrid robot, which successfully performed manipulations of objects. This approach overcame earlier limitations of a short functional life of the muscles and their ability to exert only a weak force, paving the way for more advanced biohybrid robots.

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May 31, 2018

Heroes of Innovation: Zoltan Istvan

Posted by in categories: biological, geopolitics, transhumanism

I’ll be speaking at the exciting Future Flux Festival on the Heroes of Innovation program section on June 15 in the Netherlands. Come join me! https://www.futurefluxfestival.nl/…/heroes-of-innovation-z…/ #transhumanism


Transhumanism is the field of merging human beings with machines and radical science. The field has grown from fringe to a nearly mainstream social movement. Today, there are tens of millions of transhumanists around the world, many who are scientists and technologists focusing on overcoming biological death with innovation. The movement got a major push when Zoltan Istvan, a former journalist for National Geographic, published his bestselling philosophical novel The Transhumanist Wager. In 2016 Zoltan ran for the Presidency of the United States as the nominee of the Transhumanist Party. His campaign was broadly covered in major media for nearly two years, and it helped spearhead the transformation of transhumanism into a thriving worldwide phenomenon. Always wanted to know more about transhumanism? See you at the Future Flux Festival!

Zoltan Istvan is also part of our Heroes of Innovation panel. After their presentations you can ask our panel anything. Take a deep dive into the minds of these great innovators!

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May 31, 2018

“Antipodes Map — Tunnel to the other side of the world”

Posted by in category: futurism

Antípodas.


Antipodes map helps you find the other side of the world, the antipodes of any place on Earth. This map shows diametrically opposite location named antipode or antipodal point.

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May 31, 2018

Chronic Supplementation With a Mitochondrial Antioxidant (MitoQ) Improves Vascular Function in Healthy Older Adults

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Earlier this month, there was a human clinical trial of the supplement MitoQ, which showed some interesting results. We thought that we would take a look at the data, and discuss the findings.


Excess reactive oxygen species production by mitochondria is a key mechanism of age-related vascular dysfunction. Our laboratory has shown that supplementation with the mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant MitoQ improves vascular endothelial function by reducing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and ameliorates arterial stiffening in old mice, but the effects in humans are unknown. Here, we sought to translate our preclinical findings to humans and determine the safety and efficacy of MitoQ. Twenty healthy older adults (60–79 years) with impaired endothelial function (brachial artery flow–mediated dilation 6%) underwent 6 weeks of oral supplementation with MitoQ (20 mg/d) or placebo in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover design study.

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May 31, 2018

Pig brains kept alive without a body

Posted by in categories: innovation, neuroscience

A new wonderful breakthrough of our time.


Scientists raise ethical concerns as the brain cells of decapitated pigs are kept alive for 36 hours.

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May 31, 2018

‘Memory transplant’ achieved in snails

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Sounds neat.


Memories are transferred from one snail to another in a laboratory.

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May 31, 2018

Mike West, CEO AgeX, at

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

New video from Undoing Aging 2018: Mike West, Founder, and CEO of AgeX, presenting their work on induced tissue regeneration: Leveraging the unique regenerative potential of pluripotent stem-cell-derived therapeutics.


Accelerating rejuvenation therapies to repair the damage of aging. Berlin, March, 15 — 17.

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May 31, 2018

John Lewis, CSO of Oisin Biotechnologies, presenting at

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

New video from Undoing Aging 2018: John Lewis, CTO of Oisín Biotechnologies presenting their work developing very selective therapies to kill senescence cells.


Accelerating rejuvenation therapies to repair the damage of aging. Berlin, March, 15 — 17.

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May 31, 2018

Testing deflection

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space, transportation

In 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collides with the smaller body of the Didymos binary asteroid system in an attempt to measurably shift its orbit.

ESA’s Hera mission, now under study, will examine the aftermath of this impact to help determine whether humans can deflect threatening asteroids.

Hera will also demonstrate the ability to operate at close proximity around a low-gravity asteroid with some on-board autonomy similar in scope to a self-driving car, going on to deploy Europe’s first deep-space CubeSats, and potentially also a micro-lander, to test out a new multi-point intersatellite link technology.

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May 31, 2018

Europe is building more wind and solar — without any subsidies

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

In the United States, the energy market dynamics are quite different. There is less top-down pressure to deploy renewables in the US, and the main support comes in the form of tax credits on the back end rather than feed-in tariffs or other subsidies on the customer-facing side. These subsidies are applied across the industry and not through a competitive bidding process. As a result, there isn’t as strong a push to get the industry off the incentives that are available.

But one element of the American renewable energy experience is gaining ground in Europe, namely the use of power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with utilities to buy electricity at a fixed price for years at a time.

PPAs are far less common in Europe than in the United States, but some of these new unsubsidized renewable energy projects are counting on them.

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