Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

The ambitious plan to decode every complex species on Earth

Posted by Genevieve Klien in biotech/medical, genetics

Nov 2
2018

An ambitious effort to sequence the genome of every complex organism on Earth was officially launched on 1 November in London.

“Variation is the fount of all genetic knowledge,” says project member and evolutionary geneticist Jenny Graves of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. “The more variation you have the better — so why not sequence everything?”

The Earth BioGenome Project aims to sequence the genomes of the roughly 1.5 million known animal, plant, protozoan and fungal species — collectively known as eukaryotes — worldwide over the next decade. The initiative is estimated to cost US$4.7 billion, although only a small proportion of that money has been committed so far.

The Island Nation Malta Created a Citizenship Test for Robots

Posted by Genevieve Klien in robotics/AI

Nov 2
2018

One part publicity stunt, one part solid planning ahead.

Mass dig of 60,000 skeletons from 230-year-old cemetery set to expose London’s secrets

Posted by Genevieve Klien in futurism

Nov 2
2018

A mammoth dig is underway that is expected to unearth 60,000 skeletons from a 230-year-old cemetery in London.

The bones of 1,200 people have so far been exhumed from the burial ground near Euston Station to make way for the new high-speed railway between the capital and Birmingham.

Recently released photos of the major dig show archaeologists clearing thick clay from coffins and brushing dirt from remains.