Lifeboat Foundation

It turns out that it is now pretty standard to have no external stitches for spaying, and in fact, if I had to do it over again, I would have picked one port keyhole surgery which would have been even easier to heal from. (That would have required switching vets.) So for only $400, Kaia not only had advanced surgery with no outside stitches, but she was made into a cyborg with a microchip being implanted. Pretty impressive!

This is just one example of us rushing headlong into a science fiction-type future. The biggest such example being ChatGPT which feels way more intelligent than previous chatbots. It used to be that Ray Kurzweil would say that we would have AGI in 2029 and everyone else predicted dates such as 2070 or never. Now many people pick 2029 and I could definitely see the tech behind ChatGPT being part of the recipe for AGI. For me, the first example that AGI was coming, was Content-Aware Fill being added to Photoshop. That feature allows you to erase a person from a beach scene in one quick step. Very impressive!

One more example of tech advancing is that a few years ago my right eye’s retina partially detached. My doctor did surgery with cryotherapy in his office, and inserted a sulfur hexafluoride bubble to stabilize everything. He followed up the next day with laser therapy, again in his office. No hospital needed. Eye fixed!

Continue reading “Our doggie Kaia just had some organs removed (spayed) and I was surprised that she didn’t get the standard cone of shame” »

Bryan Johnson is 45 years old but, according to a new report, his test results show he has the heart of a 37-year-old and the lungs of a young adult.

Johnson is a biotech entrepreneur who hopes to game nature’s course of aging and have the organs and health of an 18-year-old by going through an intense data-driven experimental program he’s called Project Blueprint.

According to a recent Bloomberg profile of the CEO, Johnson could spend up to $2 million on his body this year and there are early glimpses that show he may be on track to unlocking the secret to age reversal.

Continue reading “A CEO who sold his company for $800 million has helped build 4 $1 billion companies — here’s why he thinks investors should get in early on one of tech’s unsexy, neglected markets” »

Professors complain that some students are turning in papers written by ChatGPT and other AI’s. This means the whole paradigm of how we teach students has got to change. And fast.

The potential of our brains is being wasted by the old paradigm of education and how we’ve been mechanized by The Industrial Age.

The qualia it takes to do what tradesmen like welders and mechanics and plummer’s do cannot be easily automated or coded and will soon be at a premium. Professionals like doctors and attorneys and professors, for that matter can easily be replaced by AI.

Continue reading “The Enemy of my Enemy is AI” »

Researchers in the US have made progress on a ‘universal’ influenza vaccine, which would cover all strains and help reduce deaths in future flu pandemics.

Scientists at the University of Connecticut Health, Yale University, and Johns Hopkins University have discovered that certain cancer cells possess the ability to evade limitations caused by oxygen deprivation, enabling the cancer cells to continue to grow.

The findings were recently published in the journal Cell Systems. The research was led by Kshitiz, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, in collaboration with scientists Chi V. Dang from Johns Hopkins and Andre Levchenko from Yale.

Nearly a decade ago, the researchers observed a strange phenomenon while looking at cancer cells under hypoxia—or a lack of oxygen.

Just when we are getting accustomed to artificial intelligence in our daily lives, get ready for a new disruptor: synthetic biology, or syn-bio, the design and engineering of biological systems to create and improve processes and products. It promises to become a manufacturing paradigm of the future.

Recent advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology have enabled scientists to shift their focus from research of syn-bio to design and engineering, creating some truly mind blowing applications. By using microorganisms, for example, companies can now manufacture an infinite number of things, cell by cell, from scratch. This offers new ways of producing almost everything that humans consume, from flavors and fabrics to foods and fuels.

By the end of the decade, syn-bio may be used extensively in manufacturing industries that account for more than a third of global output, according to BCG Henderson Institute, Boston Consulting Group’s strategy think tank. Various sources estimate that the syn-bio market today is about $10 billion and is expected to reach $30 billion in the next five years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have achieved promising results on numerous tasks and could soon assist professionals in various settings. In recent years, computer scientists have been exploring the potential of these tools for detecting signs of different physical and psychiatric conditions.

Depression is one of the most widespread psychiatric disorders, affecting approximately 9.5% of American adults every year. Tools that can automatically detect signs of depression might help to reduce suicide rates, as they would allow doctors to promptly identify people in need of psychological support.

Researchers at Jinhua Advanced Research Institute and Harbin University of Science and Technology have recently developed a deep learning algorithm that could detect depression from a person’s speech. This model, introduced in a paper published in Mobile Networks and Applications, was trained to recognize emotions in human speech by analyzing different relevant features.

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬.

During a research trial, the results of which are published in the journal Biology, healthy volunteers were given a functional MRI (fMRI) scan immediately after bathing in cold water. These scans revealed changes in the connectivity between the parts of the brain that process emotions.

For the first time, a team of researchers has observed changes in how different parts of the brain interact with each other after a person’s body is immersed in cold water. The findings explain why people often feel more upbeat and alert after swimming outside or taking cold baths.

Continue reading “MRI scans reveal changes in brains wiring after cold water shock” »

An excellent overview of the story of how the U.S. responded to the COVID-19 pandemic along with suggestions for ways to continue making strides in combatting SARS-CoV-2 as well as how we may prepare for future emerging pathogens. The article provides an interesting case study on mechanisms of large-scale human organization, examines ways that we have succeeded in managing so many moving pieces, and explores ways that we could do better in the future. #nih #health #medicine #government #biotechnology

Investment, collaboration, and coordination have been key.

Francis Collins francis.collins@nih.gov, Stacey Adam, […], Christine Colvis, Elizabeth Desrosiers, […], Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, Anthony Fauci, Maria Freire, Gary Gibbons, Matthew Hall, […], Eric Hughes, Kathrin Jansen, Michael Kurilla, H. Clifford Lane, Douglas Lowy, Peter Marks, Joseph Menetski, William Pao, Eliseo Pérez-Stable, Lisa Purcell, Sarah Read, Joni Rutter, Michael Santos, Tara Schwetz, Jeffrey Shuren, Timothy Stenzel, Paul Stoffels, Lawrence Tabak, Karen Tountas, Bruce Tromberg, David Wholley, Janet Woodcock, and John Young +29 authors +27 authors +22 authors fewer Authors Info & Affiliations

Continue reading “The NIH-led research response to COVID-19” »