Lifeboat Foundation

Neuralink, a company co-founded by Elon Musk, has been working on an implantable brain-machine interface since 2016. While it previously demonstrated its progress by showing a Macaque monkey controlling the cursor.

It’s unclear what kind of deal Musk has offered — whether it’s a collaboration or a financial investment —since none of the players responded or confirmed the report with the news organization.

Elon Musk’s last update on Neuralink — his company that is working on technology that will connect the human brain directly to a computer — featured a pig with one of its chips implanted in its brain. Now Neuralink is demonstrating its progress by showing a Macaque with one of the Link chips playing Pong. At first using “Pager” is shown using a joystick, and then eventually, according to the narration, using only its mind via the wireless connection.

Continue reading “Neuralink’s brain-computer interface demo shows a monkey playing Pong” »

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

I have been thinking about death lately. Not a lot — a little. Possibly because I recently had a month-long bout of Covid-19. And, I read a recent story about the passing of the actor Ed Asner, famous for his role as Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” More specifically, the story of his memorial service where mourners were invited to “talk” with Asner through an interactive display that featured video and audio that he recorded before he died. The experience was created by StoryFile, a company with the mission to make AI more human. According to the company, their proprietary technology and AI can match pre-recorded answers with future questions, allowing for a real-time yet asynchronous conversation.

Continue reading “Death, resurrection and digital immortality in an AI world” »

Hui Li, PhD, a Department of Pathology researcher, along with his team discovered that a gene responsible for the deadliest type of brain tumor is also found to be responsible for two forms of childhood cancer. The new discovery may open the door to the first targeted treatments for two types of rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue that primarily strikes young children. Research also suggests the gene may play an important role in other cancers that form in muscle, fat, nerves and other connective tissues in both children and adults. Hui Li, PhD, and team published their findings in the scientific journal PNAS.

Christian Angermayer, founder of talks longevity investment, optimism on SPAC deal and light at the end of the tunnel for the biotech market.
One of the speakers at October’s Rejuvenation Startup Summit in Berlin is the entrepreneur and investor, Christian Angermayer.

With more than $3 billion under management through his Apeiron Investment Group, Angermayer is a major figure in the longevity sector through his platform biotech companies Cambrian and Rejuveron – building on his belief that everyone wants to live healthier, happier and longer lives.

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New research shows that we might be able to revive bodies we once thought beyond repair. That could increase medical inequities, but it’s still worth pursuing.

Google AI announced the launch of the Google Research YouTube channel today. The channel is set to focus on a wide range of subjects like AI/ML, robotics, theory and algorithms, quantum computing, health and bioscience.

By scientists from Inserm, CNRS, and Université de Montpellier at the Structural Biology Center in Montpellier. The nano-robot could lead to a closer study of the mechanical forces applied at microscopic levels, which are important for various biological and pathological processes.

The study was published in Nature Communications.

Cellular Mechanosensitivity

Summary: Increasing neurogenesis by deleting the Bax gene in mouse models of Alzheimer’s improved the animals’ performance in tests measuring spatial recognition and contextual memory.

Source: Rockefeller University.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered that increasing the production of new neurons in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rescues the animals’ memory defects.

Summary: Researchers have developed a new sensor that allows scientists to image the brain without missing signals for an extended period of time and deeper in the brain than current technology allows.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine.

As you are reading these words, certain regions of your brain are displaying a flurry of millisecond-fast electrical activity. Visualizing and measuring this electrical activity is crucial to understand how the brain enables us to see, move, behave or read these words.