Archive for the ‘biological’ category: Page 186
Jul 2, 2018
Why Space Warfare is Inevitable
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biological, cybercrime/malcode, geopolitics, military, space, treaties
There is increasing chatter among the world’s major military powers about how space is fast becoming the next battleground. China, Russia, and the United States are all taking steps that will ultimately result in the weaponisation of space. Any satellite that can change orbit can be considered a space weapon, but since many of the possible space-based scenarios have yet to occur, cybersecurity experts, military commanders, and policymakers do not fully understand the range of potential consequences that could result.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was interested in paralysing America’s strategic forces, strategic command, and control and communications, so that its military command could not communicate with its forces. They would do so by first causing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to sever communication and operational capabilities, and then launch a mass attack across the North Pole to blow up US Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).
In 1967, the US, UK and Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty, which was either ratified by or acceded to 105 countries (including China). It set in place laws regarding the use of outer space and banned any nation from stationing nuclear warheads, chemical or biological weapons in space. However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit, so such weapons as kinetic bombardment (i.e. attacking Earth with a projectile) are not strictly prohibited.
Jul 2, 2018
Becoming a Cyborg: From Disabled to More-Than-Able
Posted by B.J. Murphy in categories: biological, cyborgs
In the famous sci-fi TV show Battlestar Galactica, John Cavil, a Cylon that appeared human, went on an epic rant that forever changed my perception of biology and my own biological substrate.
MIT rockstar Hugh Herr delivers another TED talk, only this time revealing a major breakthrough that’ll unleash a brave new future of cyborgs!
Continue reading “Becoming a Cyborg: From Disabled to More-Than-Able” »
Jun 20, 2018
The Limits of Neuroplasticity in the Brain
Posted by Nicholi Avery in categories: biological, neuroscience, science
New research shows that the brain‘s neuroplasticity isn’t as flexible as previously thought.
One of the brain’s mysteries is how exactly it reorganizes new #information as you learn new tasks. The standard to date was to test how neurons learned new behavior one #neuron at a time.
Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh decided to try a different approach. They looked at the population of neurons to see how they worked together while #learning a new behavior. Studying the intracortical population activity in the primary motor cortex of rhesus macaques during short-term learning in a brain–computer interface (BCI) task, they were able to study the reorganization of population during learning.
Continue reading “The Limits of Neuroplasticity in the Brain” »
Jun 19, 2018
US military wants to know what synthetic-biology weapons could look like
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biological, military
Jun 17, 2018
Harvard Rewinds the Biological Clock of Time
Posted by Nicholi Avery in categories: bioengineering, biological, DNA, health, life extension, science, transhumanism
Investigators at Harvard Medical School have identified the key cellular mechanisms behind vascular aging and its effects on muscle health, and they have successfully reversed the process in animals.
The scientists used a chemical compound that’s an NAD+ booster called NMN which plays a critical role in repairing cellular DNA as well as maintaining cell vitality to test what would happen.
Could reversing the aging of blood vessels hold the key to restoring youthful vitality? If the old adage “you are as old as your arteries” reigns true then the answer is yes, at least in mice.
Continue reading “Harvard Rewinds the Biological Clock of Time” »
Jun 10, 2018
‘Til Deletion Do Us Part’: Discovering Love in a Virtual Future
Posted by B.J. Murphy in categories: biological, robotics/AI, virtual reality
What does it mean to fall in love in the 21st century? Originally, the number of people you could fall in love with were limited to the amount that lived within relative close proximity of you (a few miles, at best). In today’s world, however, it isn’t that uncommon for people to fall in love online.
As we move forward into a future of VR and AI, how might our abilities to fall in love change in a world where non-biological life is teeming just as much as biological life?
Continue reading “‘Til Deletion Do Us Part’: Discovering Love in a Virtual Future” »
Jun 10, 2018
Using microbes to track down criminals
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: biological
Jun 7, 2018
The Neurogenesis Debate
Posted by Nicholi Avery in categories: biological, futurism, neuroscience
The Neurogenesis Debate
Written by Nicholi Avery
On March 7 2018, a study was published in the highly esteemed journal Nature by an international team of scientists claiming that #neurogenesis starts to rapidly decline in the #human brain as early as 13 years old and becomes undetectable in adults. This rocked the scientific community as there has been a long-established theory that neurogenesis takes place throughout the course of life in the mammalian #brain. Until the 1990s, neurologists were practicing their profession under the doctrine established in the late 19th to early 20th century by the prominent histologist Ramon y Cajal, often referred to as a god of neuroscience;
Jun 4, 2018
Best of last week: Flux capacitor invented, a better 3D printer and the true benefits of vitamins
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: 3D printing, biological, cosmology, genetics, health, quantum physics, space travel
It was a good week for physics as a team with members from Australia and Switzerland invented a flux capacitor able to break time-reversal symmetry. They proposed a device based on quantum tunneling of magnetic flux around a capacitor. And another team with members from across the U.S. reported on a gravitational wave event that likely signaled the creation of a black hole—the merger of two neutron stars.
In biology news, a team of engineers led by Sinisa Vukelic invented a noninvasive technique to correct vision. Like LASIK, it uses lasers but is non-surgical and has few side-effects. And an international team of researchers found what they describe as the mother of all lizards in the Italian Alps, the oldest known lizard fossil, from approximately 240 million years ago. Also, a team at the University of Sydney found that walking faster could make you live longer. People do not even need to walk more, the team reported, they just need to pick up the pace of their normal stride to see an improvement in several health factors. And a team from Cal Poly Pomona discovered how microbes survive clean rooms and contaminate spacecraft—and it involved the cleaning agents themselves.
In other news, a team of researchers from the University of California and the University of Southern Queensland announced that they had identified 121 giant planets that may have habitable moons. And a team at Stanford University found that wars and clan structure might explain a strange biological event that occurred 7,000 years ago—male genetic diversity appeared to collapse for a time. Also, a team of researchers from MIT and Harvard University report the development of a 3D printer that can print data sets as physical objects—offering far more realistic, nearly true-color renderings.
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