Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

Experts Warn of Amazon’s Accent-Detecting Technology

Nov 25
2018

Amazon designed the tech to improve customer service, but it could end up violating your civil rights.

The Largest Meteorite Ever Found in the United States

Posted by Victoria Generao in climatology

Nov 24
2018

The Willamette Meteorite weighs 15.5 tons. This iron meteorite, which was found in Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in North America.

The Willamette Meteorite is an iron-nickel meteorite discovered in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in North America and the sixth largest in the world.

There was no impact crater at the discovery site; researchers believe the meteorite landed in what is now Canada or Montana, and was transported as a glacial erratic to the Willamette Valley during the Missoula Floods at the end of the last Ice Age (~13,000 years ago).

See the 3D Images Produced by the First Full-Body Medical Scanner

Posted by Victoria Generao in biotech/medical, electronics

Nov 24
2018

Even the device’s creators were impressed by the clarity of the images.

Six women working at the busiest border port in the US developed cancer within 30 months

Posted by Genevieve Klien in biotech/medical

Nov 24
2018

Researchers from the University of Stirling found women working at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Ontario are 16 times more likely than average to get breast cancer.

Scientists find elephant-sized creature that lived with dinosaurs

Posted by Genevieve Klien in food, space

Nov 24
2018

Dinosaurs weren’t the only colossal creatures roaming Earth 200 million years ago. A new fossil discovery suggests they shared the planet with a plant-eating beast that resembled a rhinoceros with a turtle’s beak.

Mars InSight: The silence of space

Posted by Genevieve Klien in space

Nov 24
2018

NASA’s latest probe is carrying super-sensitive UK seismometers to the Red Planet.

Human images from world’s first total-body scanner unveiled

Posted by Nicholi Avery in biotech/medical, entertainment

Nov 24
2018

EXPLORER, the world’s first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans.

The brainchild of UC Davis scientists Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi, EXPLORER is a combined positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner that can image the entire body at the same time. Because the machine captures radiation far more efficiently than other scanners, EXPLORER can produce an image in as little as one second and, over time, produce movies that can track specially tagged drugs as they move around the entire body.

The developers expect the technology will have countless applications, from improving diagnostics to tracking disease progression to researching new drug therapies.

Next generation of biotech food heading for grocery stores

Posted by Genevieve Klien in bioengineering, biotech/medical, food, genetics, sustainability

Nov 24
2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — The next generation of biotech food is headed for the grocery aisles, and first up may be salad dressings or granola bars made with soybean oil genetically tweaked to be good for your heart.

By early next year, the first foods from plants or animals that had their DNA “edited” are expected to begin selling. It’s a different technology than today’s controversial “genetically modified” foods, more like faster breeding that promises to boost nutrition, spur crop growth, and make farm animals hardier and fruits and vegetables last longer.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has declared gene editing one of the breakthroughs needed to improve food production so the world can feed billions more people amid a changing climate. Yet governments are wrestling with how to regulate this powerful new tool. And after years of confusion and rancor, will shoppers accept gene-edited foods or view them as GMOs in disguise?