Archive for the ‘government’ category: Page 184
Aug 30, 2017
Edited embryos mean U.S. scientists have passed a major milestone
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, government
It is important to note that none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days, and that the team never had any intention of implanting them into a womb. However, it seems that this is largely due to ongoing regulatory issues, as opposed to issues with the technology itself.
In the United States, all efforts to turn edited embryos into a baby — to bring the embryo to full term — have been blocked by Congress, which added language to the Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that forbids it from approving any such clinical trials.
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Aug 26, 2017
Duke Robotics Inc
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: government, robotics/AI, terrorism
Duke Robotics Inc. announces, TIKAD, a dramatic step forward in protecting our troops by developing the resources needed to fight terrorism effectively today.
Governments are spending more than ever before on Defense budgets today, which provides an enormous incentive to solve problems that troops currently face.
Aug 25, 2017
Inside the Ring: Report: AI threatens humanity
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: cybercrime/malcode, drones, government, military, robotics/AI
Rooting for the AI’s.
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing warfare and espionage in ways similar to the invention of nuclear arms and ultimately could destroy humanity, according to a new government-sponsored study.
Advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, and a subset called machine learning are occurring much faster than expected and will provide U.S. military and intelligence services with powerful new high-technology warfare and spying capabilities, says a report by two AI experts produced for Harvard’s Belfer Center.
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Aug 24, 2017
‘Self-driving’ lorries to be tested on UK roads
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: government, robotics/AI, transportation
Small convoys of partially driverless lorries will be tried out on major British roads by the end of next year, the government has announced.
A contract has been awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to carry out the tests of vehicle “platoons”.
Up to three lorries will travel in formation, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle.
Read more
Aug 24, 2017
Government Warns North Korean Cyber Attacks Continue
Posted by John Gallagher in categories: cybercrime/malcode, finance, government
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a new warning on Wednesday that North Korean government hackers are continuing to target critical U.S. infrastructure for cyber attacks.
A technical report by DHS’ National Cyber Awareness System reveals details of the tools and cyber methods being used by North Korean government hackers.
The alert said the North Korean government is using the cyber tools to “target the media, aerospace, financial, and critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and globally.”
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Aug 20, 2017
China rushes into embryo selection
Posted by Mark Larkento in categories: biotech/medical, economics, genetics, government
China’s five year plan to eliminate birth defects by preimplantation genetic diagnosis of embryos.
Gene-editing with CRISPR has been in the headlines over the past month and touted as a way of eliminating genetic diseases. But the cruder and cheaper technique of preimplantation genetic diagnosis does the same. And it is exploding in China. According to a feature in Nature, fertility doctors there “have been pursuing a more aggressive, comprehensive and systematic path towards its use there than anywhere else”.
The government’s current five-year plan for economic development has made reproductive medicine, including PGD, a priority. In 2004, only four clinics in the whole country were licensed to perform PGD; now there are 40.
Aug 19, 2017
The U.S. Military Wants to Inject People’s Brains With Painkilling Nanobots That Could Replace Medicine
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, government, military, nanotechnology, neuroscience
Aug 15, 2017
Scientists Have Had Enough. They’re Starting to Run for Office
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: government
Aug 15, 2017
The Government Must Review What Bioresearch Journals Publish
Posted by John Gallagher in categories: biotech/medical, government, health, internet, security, terrorism
It’s getting too easy to create dangerous viruses. The upcoming national biodefense strategy should ensure that scientific journals don’t help terrorists learn how.
The news that researchers have recreated an extinct cousin to the smallpox virus using only commercially available technology and items purchased over the Internet renews concerns that bioterrorists could do the same if detailed information about the methods were published. Here’s the problem: scientific journals are geared toward publication, often without sufficient understanding of the public-security risks. We need a better system to ensure that information that could help bad actors stays unpublished.
It took David Evans’ team of scientists at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, about six months and $100,000 to recreate the horsepox virus, a close relative of the smallpox virus that killed perhaps 300 million people in the 20th century before it was eradicated in 1980. In a summary of the research, the World Health Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research wrote that “recreation of such viral genomes did not require exceptional biochemical knowledge or skills, significant funds, or significant time.”
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