Lifeboat Foundation

Nice.

Interesting approach.

If you’re at all interested in your health, it’s likely you’ve joined the 20 percent of Americans who’ve incorporated fitness trackers into their daily ensemble. From monitoring steps and daily activity to sleep, an ever-growing number of devices are tracking and analyzing our body’s data in an effort to make us better.

But how good is this tracking? Despite noble intentions, the scientific reality is that much of the data these trackers provide is insufficient and inaccurate — and in turn, are not as effective as they promise.

Continue reading “Use Your Brain. Ditch Your Fitness Tracker” »

Left hemisphere of J. Piłsudski’s brain, lateral view.

A new study has found that a faster metabolism is the main reason that humans were able to evolve bigger brains than other closely related apes. Humans burned 635 more calories per day than gorillas, and a whopping 820 more calories per day than the orangutans in the study.

Although the study findings seem promising, more research on the issue is required since the research was performed only on adults.

Continue reading “Humans Are Fatter Than Primates, But It Fuels Our Bigger Brains” »

New cure for SMA?!

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a disease that causes progressive degeneration in the nerve cells that control muscles, thereby causing muscle weakness and eventually death. SMA affects approximately 200,000 people in the U.S., often children. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are studying a subtype of SMA, spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress type 1 (SMARD1), and have developed a gene replacement therapy that can be used to treat and control the disease in the future.

SMARD1 is a rare genetic condition with high mortality rate that develops primarily between the ages of six weeks and six months. The condition targets the spinal cord and leads to atrophy of body muscles and paralysis of the diaphragm, which is responsible for breathing. As the disease progresses, children with a SMARD1 diagnosis become paralyzed and require continuous artificial ventilation. The average life expectancy of a child diagnosed with SMARD1 is 13 months. Currently, there is no cure or effective treatment for this disease.

“Monogenic diseases like SMARD1, a disease that is caused by one gene, are ideal for gene therapy since the goal of the therapy is to replace the missing or defective gene,” said Chris Lorson, an investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center and a professor of veterinary pathobiology. “Our goals for this study were to develop a vector that would improve the outcomes of the disease and for the vector to be effective in a single dose.”

New tech from Carnegie Mellon makes it much easier to play ‘Angry Birds’ on your wrist.

Smartwatches walk a fine line between functionality and fashion, but new SkinTrack technology from Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group makes the size of the screen a moot point. The SkinTrack system consists of a ring that emits a continuous high-frequency AC signal and a sensing wristband that goes under the watch. The wristband tracks the finger wearing the ring and senses whether the digit is hovering or actually making contact with your arm or hand, turning your skin into an extension of the touchscreen.

Continue reading “Navigate your smartwatch” »

Your immune system holds the key to making tattoos permanent — and also to erasing them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-OTbRoY1ao&feature=share

“Black holes could be interdimentional portals to other universes” — Stephen Hawking.

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Links:
1) VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJEbzZi2Fs

Continue reading “‘Black Holes could be Portals to Other Universes’ — Stephen Hawking” »

If aliens sent you an encrypted binary message, could you answer? René Heller, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, wants to hear from you.

Last month, Heller posed a hypothetical question as part of the #SETIDecryptChallenge: “Suppose a telescope on Earth receives a series of pulses from a fixed, unresolved source beyond the solar system,” he wrote. “It turns out the pulses carry a message.”

The encrypted message is a vast sea of 0’s and 1’s. You can see it here, but here’s a GIF for your convenience.

Continue reading “This Astrophysicist Posed an Alien Challenge and the Internet Is Racing to Solve It” »

Deep Space Industries, the asteroid mining company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Luxembourg Government to co-fund the development and launch of DSI’s first spacecraft. Known as Prospector-X, the small spacecraft will test key technologies in Low Earth Orbit that will be necessary for future asteroid prospecting.