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Aug 15, 2018

How to conserve half the planet without going hungry

Posted by in categories: existential risks, food, habitats

‚Every day there are roughly 386,000 new mouths to feed, and in that same 24 hours, scientists estimate between one and 100 species will go extinct. That’s it. Lost forever.

To deal with the biodiversity crisis we need to find a way to give nature more space—habitat loss is a key factor driving these extinctions. But how would this affect our food supplies?

New research, published in Nature Sustainability, found it could mean we lose a lot of food —but exactly how much really depends on how we choose to give nature that space. Doing it right could mean rethinking how we do agriculture and altogether.

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Aug 15, 2018

An Interview With Didier Coeurnelle

Posted by in category: life extension

An interview with Didier Coeurnelle from the Healthy Life Extension Society.


As you might remember, we have recently posted about the Longevity Film Competition, an initiative by HEALES, ILA, and the SENS Research Foundation that encourages supporters of healthy life extension to produce a short film to popularize the subject.

Didier Coeurnelle is a jurist and the co-chair of HEALES, the Healthy Life Extension Society promoting life extension in Europe, as well as a long-standing member of social and environmental movements.

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Aug 15, 2018

New video from Undoing Aging 2018: Vera Gorbunova, University of Rochester: Mechanisms of longevity in long-lived mammals

Posted by in category: life extension

https://www.undoing-aging.org/videos/vera-gorbunova-presenti…aging-2018

Btw: the facebook event page for Undoing Aging 2019 is already up fb.com/events/2044104465916196/

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Aug 15, 2018

Surfing the internet with your mind seems to be a great step forward

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, internet

The implications are mind-boggling, oh yes.


Check out what MIT media lab does using bone conduction technology.

#technology #future #internet #biotechnology #communication #immersiveleaks

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Aug 14, 2018

SpaceX preparing astronauts to return to space travel

Posted by in category: space travel

“We are not going to fly until we are ready to fly safely,” said SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell at the event Monday. “We need to hit all the boxes and do everything we need to do to take astronauts from U.S. soil as often as NASA will let us.“After SpaceX successfully completes Demo-2, NASA will certify the spacecraft and systems for regular crewed launches to the ISS, with astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover flying the first operational mission.

Even with all the safety precautions and testing, however, the astronauts remain aware that space flight is extremely hazardous.“The only thing I’m afraid of,” said Glover, who is married and has four daughters, “is not coming home to my family.”

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Aug 14, 2018

Amazing New Brain Map of Every Synapse Points to the Roots of Thinking

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, space

“There are more synapses in a human brain than there are stars in the galaxy. The brain is the most complex object we know of and understanding its connections at this level is a major step forward in unravelling its mysteries,” said lead author Dr. Seth Grant at the Center for Clinical Brain Sciences.


Imagine a map of every single star in an entire galaxy. A map so detailed that it lays out what each star looks like, what they’re made of, and how each star is connected to another through the grand physical laws of the cosmos.

While we don’t yet have such an astronomical map of the heavens, thanks to a momentous study published last week in Neuron, there is now one for the brain.

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Aug 14, 2018

Researcher accurately determines energy difference between two quantum states

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

A kiwi physicist has discovered the energy difference between two quantum states in the helium atom with unprecedented accuracy, a ground-breaking discovery that contributes to our understanding of the universe and space-time and rivals the work of the world’s most expensive physics project, the Large Hadron Collider.

Our understanding of the universe and the forces that govern it relies on the Standard Model of particle physics. This model helps us understand space-time and the fundamental forces that hold everything in the universe in place. It is the most accurate scientific theory known to humankind.

But the Standard Model does not fully explain everything, for example it doesn’t explain gravity, dark matter, dark energy, or the fact that there is way more matter than antimatter in the universe.

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Aug 14, 2018

Scientists find way to make mineral which can remove CO2 from atmosphere

Posted by in categories: economics, sustainability

Scientists have found a rapid way of producing magnesite, a mineral which stores carbon dioxide. If this can be developed to an industrial scale, it opens the door to removing CO2 from the atmosphere for long-term storage, thus countering the global warming effect of atmospheric CO2. This work is presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Boston.

Scientists are already working to slow by removing dioxide from the atmosphere, but there are serious practical and economic limits on developing the technology. Now, for the first time, researchers have explained how magnesite forms at low temperature, and offered a route to dramatically accelerating its crystallization. A tonne of naturally-occurring magnesite can remove around half a tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere, but the rate of formation is very slow.

Project leader, Professor Ian Power (Trent University, Ontario, Canada) said:

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Aug 14, 2018

Einstein’s equivalence principle updated with a dash of quantum

Posted by in category: quantum physics

New, highly sensitive experiments required to find potential violations.

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Aug 14, 2018

The Perfect Can Wait: Good Solutions to the ‘Drone Swarm’ Problem

Posted by in categories: drones, military

The nearly successful drone assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month highlighted yet again a persistent worry for U.S. defense planners: the possibility that a swarm of cheap drone-borne bombs might overwhelm the sophisticated defenses a U.S. base or ship. While the defense industry has seized upon this concern and is currently at work developing new high-tech solutions to this problem, the Department of Defense can’t rely on those alone. It makes sense to develop such solutions, but the Department of Defense procurement process is long and the threat is now. With a little ingenuity, there is much that can be done with existing technology to defend effectively against drone threats. Accordingly, this article focuses on the measures the Department of Defense can employ now, with existing technology, to mitigate the threat of drone swarms.

The Current Problem

The drone swarm threat to U.S. naval installations and ships is already quite serious. Only a small amount of explosives and shrapnel would be required to cause significant damage to many of the most important radars, cameras, and important flight systems on ships, missiles, and aircraft. Damaging critical equipment would put military platforms out of action for several weeks or even months and put intense pressure on naval logistics chains and maintenance organizations at a time when they are already hard pressed to keep up with current demands. Even more importantly, such an attack orchestrated on a grand scale could leave U.S. forces unable to respond to critical events around the world in sufficient time to fulfill U.S. defense commitments to allies and friends.

Continue reading “The Perfect Can Wait: Good Solutions to the ‘Drone Swarm’ Problem” »