Scientific Advisory Board News
Dr. Gregory M. Fahy, Dr. Seth Shostak, and Dr. Jean-Jacques Slotine have joined the Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Gregory M. Fahy
Dr. Gregory M. Fahy received his B.S. from the University of California
at Irvine in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the Medical College of Georgia in
1977 for work on basic aspects of cryobiology. He spent the next 18
years developing methods for preserving whole organs at cryogenic
temperatures at the American Red Cross in Maryland. In 1980, he
conceived of preserving organs by vitrification. He published the first
proof of principle of this concept in "Nature" in 1985 using mouse
embryos as a model system, an event that led to the wide use of
vitrification in academic and commercial animal husbandry as well as in
human assisted reproduction.
In 1995, he won the Grand Prize for Medicine from INPEX for his
invention of the first effective computer-operated equipment for
perfusing organs with cryoprotective agents. The same year, he left the
Red Cross to become Chief Scientist of two biotechnology companies and
the Head of the Tissue Cryopreservation Section of the Transfusion and
Cryopreservation Research Program at the Naval Medical Research
Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1998 he became the Chief Scientific
Officer and Vice President of 21st Century Medicine, where he invented
several new principles in cryopreservation that have been
extraordinarily effective in practical applications ranging from tissues
to whole organs.
Greg's efforts have recently raised the question of whether human
suspended animation might be an attainable goal that might allow the
human species to survive in deep time as a result of enabling migration
from the earth to other habitats in the cosmos.
Greg is a sought-after speaker and problem-solver. He is on the Board of
Directors of several organizations concerned with cryopreservation or
aging, serves on the Editorial Board of "Cell Preservation Technology"
and of "Rejuvenation Research", and has served as a reviewer for
numerous journals and granting bodies. He has over 20 patents in fields
related to cryopreservation, aging, transplantation, metabolic
protection, and the reversal of autoimmunity and immunosenescence, and
has many publications in the fields of cryobiology, aging, and
nanotechnology.
Dr. Seth Shostak
Dr. Seth Shostak is Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain
View, California. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from
Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the California
Institute of Technology. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio
astronomy research on galaxies and has published approximately fifty
papers in professional journals. During more than a decade, he worked at
the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, in Groningen, The Netherlands, using
the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope.
He has written several hundred popular magazine and web articles on
various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television. He
lectures on astronomy and other subjects at the California Academy of
Sciences, and gives approximately 70 talks annually at both educational
and corporate institutions. For the last five years, Seth has been a
Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics.
Frequently interviewed for radio and TV, Seth has recently been seen
and/or heard on Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, History Channel,
the BBC, Ted Koppel's "Nightline", "The O'Reilly Factor", "Good Morning
America", "Larry King Live", "Coast to Coast AM", NPR, CNN News, and
National Geographic Television. He is the host of a one-hour weekly
radio program on astrobiology "Are We Alone?".
He has edited and contributed to a half dozen books. His first popular
tome, "Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life"
appeared in March, 1998. In 1999, it was chosen as a Book of the Month
Club science selection. He has also co-authored an astrobiology
textbook, "Life in the Universe", and his latest book is "Cosmic
Company". In 2004, he won the Klumpke-Roberts Prize for the
popularization of astronomy.
Seth was the peer expert reader in the fields of SETI, cosmology, and
astronomy for the 2005 Ray Kurzweil book "The Singularity Is Near : When
Humans Transcend Biology".
Dr. Jean-Jacques Slotine
Dr. Jean-Jacques Slotine received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1983. After working at Bell Labs in the
computer research department, in 1984 he joined the faculty at MIT,
where he is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Information
Sciences, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Director of the
Nonlinear Systems Laboratory.
His main research interests are in robotics and systems neuroscience. He
is the author of several textbooks, notably "Applied Nonlinear Control"
which is generally considered a classic in the field and has been
translated in several languages.
From 1996 to 2001 he was the youngest member of the French National
Science Council, the scientific advisory board to the Prime Minister.
Jean-Jacques was the peer expert reader in the fields of brain and
cognitive science for the 2005 Ray Kurzweil book "The Singularity Is
Near : When Humans Transcend Biology".
Miracle Mouse Can Grow Back Lost Limbs
Scientists have created a "miracle mouse" that can regenerate amputated
limbs or badly damaged organs, making it able to recover from injuries
that would kill or permanently disable normal animals.
The experimental animal is unique among mammals in its ability to regrow
its heart, toes, joints and tail.
The researchers have also found that when cells from the test mouse are
injected into ordinary mice, they too acquire the ability to regenerate.
More details can be found at
http://homepage.mac.com/iajukes/blogwav...9203606/
SpaceX Sues Boeing and Lockheed Martin
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is suing Boeing and Lockheed
Martin in federal court for conspiring to violate antitrust laws to
corner the market on U.S. government satellite launches.
"Boeing and Lockheed Martin have engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to
eliminate competition, and ultimately to monopolize, the government
space launch business and prevent SpaceX and other potential new
entrants from competing in that business," SpaceX said.
SpaceX has multiple launch contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense
for the Falcon 1, a small reusable rocket slated to make its launch
debut before the end of the year. Their Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Elon Musk was a cofounder of PayPal.
More details can be found at
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...h=SpaceX
