Many people are at the very least iffy about the idea of extending human healthy lifespan through medical biotechnologies that prevent age-related diseases essentially by rejuvenating the body. Even people who accept the possibility that such therapies can be developed are not convinced that developing them is a good idea, and there are only a few arguments that most people use. These arguments can actually be easily adapted to make a case against the medicine that already exists, which the vast majority of people on the planet currently benefit from—and the consensus is virtually universal that people who do not yet benefit from it should be given this opportunity as soon as possible.
The question is: would people who accept these arguments as valid objections to rejuvenation accept them also as valid objections against “normal” medicine? For example, how many present-day people would agree with what these two people from the 1600s are talking about?
A – Did you hear about John’s son?
Posted in futurism, robotics/AI
Countries are rolling out ambitious plans to gain a competitive edge in AI. What principles will ensure that AI is deployed safely and ethically?
To investigate this, the research group launched experiment to try to bind a kaon to a nucleus. To do the experiment, the researchers decided to use a helium-3 target—a nucleus made up of two protons and a single neutron. By knocking out a neutron from the helium-3 target they were able to greatly reduce the energy of the kaon by using the recoil from the ejection and replacing the neutron with a kaon, forming a tightly bound nucleus with two protons and a single kaon.
“What is important about this research,” says Masahiko Iwasaki, the leader of the team, “is that we have shown that mesons can exist in nuclear matter as a real particle—like sugar that is not dissolved in water. This opens up a whole new way to look at and understand nuclei. Understanding such exotic nuclei will give us insights into the origin of the mass of nuclei, as well as to how matter forms in the core of neutron stars. We intend to continue experiments with heavier nuclei to further our understanding of the binding behavior of kaons.”
Both genes and the environment shape a person’s risk of disease, but while genes are frequently cataloged, perturbed, activated, turned off and systematically tested in the lab, environmental exposures are often studied as one-offs. Now Harvard Medical School investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed an approach to systematically and simultaneously evaluate the effects of hundreds of environmental factors on the development of neurological diseases.
Through a series of investigations, the team has identified environmental factors that boost neurological inflammation, including an herbicide used in the United States but currently banned in Europe. Details of the team’s approach and findings are published Jan. 17 in Cell.
Life-producing elements came to Earth from another planet — study.
The elemental building-blocks of life arrived on Earth when it collided with a “Mars-sized planet” 4.4 billion years ago – an impact that also created the Moon, a new study has found.
Carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other volatile elements integral to life were transferred to Earth’s outer layers through collision with a slightly smaller planet rich in these elements at the beginning of its existence. This impact produced the moon and, eventually, gave rise to carbon-based life, according to a new model of Earth’s development devised by petrologists at Rice University.
Posted in space
