Lifeboat Foundation

Professor John Donoghue, director of Switzerland’s Wyss Centre for Bio and Neuro Engineering, predicts that in about 20 years time patients will have movement restored to all four limbs.

All true and good points. Until the under pinning technology and net infrastructures are update; all things connected will mean all things hackable.

Medical devices like pacemakers and insulin pumps will save many lives, but they also represent an opportunity to computer hackers who would use the Internet to cause havoc. Former futurist-in-residence at the FBI, Marc Goodman says it is easy to take for granted how connected we’ve already become to the Internet. Most American adults keep their phones within arm’s reach all day, and keep their devices on their nightstand while they sleep — and forget about actually remembering people’s phone numbers. That is a job we have outsourced to machines.

In this sense, says Goodman, we are already cyborgs. But digital devices connected to the Internet will continue to move inside our bodies, just as pacemakers and insulin pumps have. In his interview, Goodman discusses cases of computer hackers taking advantage of these devices’ connectivity to show how vulnerable we could soon become to their potentially destructive wishes. In one case, a hacker demonstrated he could release several weeks of insulin into a diabetic’s body, certain to cause a diabetic coma and death. In another, hackers induced epileptic seizures by hacking the Epilepsy Foundation’s webpage.

Continue reading “Implanted Medical Devices Save Our Lives And Tempt Computer Hackers” »

Nice

Laser would propel precise protons to kill cancer.

Interesting and will be important in brain/ neuro replicating and enhancements.

Memories formed in one part of the brain are replayed and transferred to a different area of the brain during rest, according to a new UCL study in rats.

The finding suggests that replay of previous experiences during rest is important for memory consolidation, a process whereby the brain stabilises and preserves memories for quick recall in the future. Understanding the physiological mechanism of this is essential for tackling amnesiac conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, where memory consolidation is affected.

Continue reading “Brain caught ‘filing’ memories during rest” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TFErQ3XM__c

My new story for The Huffington Post on the virtue of reason and asking: Why?.

Image of the future — By Smart Gadget Technology

Continue reading “Transhumanism is Being Guided by Reason and the Word ‘Why’” »

Researchers hope the stammering rodents help find a cure for the speech problem.

CRISPR to improve shelf life of vegetables and fruits. I magine what this would mean for populations in remote locations with horrible climates or in disaster zones that need fresh foods.

Yinong Yang, a Penn State University researcher, has used a famous gene editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 for cutting out a small piece of DNA from one specific gene in a white button mushroom. With this, Yang was able to stop the gene, which in turn cuts the production of an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase in mushroom. With this gene editing of white mushrooms, the mushroom doesn’t get spoiled as natural mushrooms.

You might have heard something like this earlier as scientists have also developed non-browning versions of apples and potatoes. However, those crops were called GMOs as scientists had put in new, slightly altered genes within those plants to ‘silence’ the natural gene.

Continue reading “Penn Researcher uses CRISPR/Cas9 to snip out tiny piece of DNA from gene in white button mushroom” »

Another gene editing triumph.

Genetic engineering may emerge as an important tool to avert extinctions. But ecosystems are complex, and this tinkering might not unfold as planned.

The researchers took T cells from the tumour, removed PD-1, multiplied the T cells and put them back into the mice and found that the tumours shrank.

They then inserted the enzyme and found that these T cells were able to keep up the fight at the tumour site.

The team is preparing for clinical trials and has started a company, PanTher Therapeutics, to develop the implant for patient use.

Continue reading “New implantable device may help shrink pancreatic tumours” »