Junk DNA can occasionally spit out useful genes. Randomly?
Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA.
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Aug 31, 2015
Scientists ‘delete’ HIV virus from human DNA for the first time
Posted by Lily Graca in category: biotech/medical
smile
A team at Temple University in Philadelphia used a combination of a DNA-snipping enzyme to eradicate the viral genome from the human cell.
Aug 31, 2015
Hacking Aging
Posted by Maria Konovalenko in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
What would you say if I told you that aging happens not because of accumulation of stresses, but rather because of the intrinsic properties of the gene network of the organism? I’m guessing you’d be like: surprised .
So, here’s the deal. My biohacker friends led by Peter Fedichev and Sergey Filonov in collaboration with my old friend and the longevity record holder Robert Shmookler Reis published a very cool paper. They proposed a way to quantitatively describe the two types of aging – negligible senescence and normal aging. We all know that some animals just don’t care about time passing by. Their mortality doesn’t increase with age. Such negligibly senescent species include the notorious naked mole rat and a bunch of other critters like certain turtles and clams to name a few. So the paper explains what it is exactly that makes these animals age so slowly – it’s the stability of their gene networks.
What does network stability mean then? Well, it’s actually pretty straightforward – if the DNA repair mechanisms are very efficient and the connectivity of the network is low enough, then this network is stable. So, normally aging species, such as ourselves, have unstable networks. This is a major bummer by all means. But! There is a way to overcome this problem, according to the proposed math model.
Aug 31, 2015
Here’s why Elon Musk fears the ‘robocalypse’ — By Shawn Langlois/ Marketwatch
Posted by Seb in category: Elon Musk
The comment seems to have been made at least partly in jest, but Elon Musk has been very clear in the past that the dangers posed by artificial intelligence are no laughing matter.
So why not killer robots?
“And people wonder why I’m worried about the robocalypse…” Musk wrote in this Instagram post over the weekend. As you can see by the caption, he’s talking about a Tesla TSLA, +0.23% production line comprised of 542 robots, with 15 operating at the same time. Read more
Aug 31, 2015
5G, one wireless technology to rule them all?
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: internet
The progress from 2G to 3G, and from 3G to 4G LTE has been primarily about improvements to the standards related to cellular technology. However the move from 4G to 5G could be quite different. …But, there is more to 5G than just super fast cellular tech. There is an active and open discussion going on to see if 5G can in fact become the de facto for all wireless standards. No more Wi-Fi, no more Bluetooth, no more 4G LTE, just 5G, one wireless technology to rule them all.
There is an active discussion going on to see if 5G can become the de facto for all wireless standards. No more Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or 4G LTE, just 5G.
Aug 31, 2015
Double black hole is powering quasar, astronomers find
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: cosmology, space
Astronomers have discovered a galaxy is being powered by a quasar that contains two black holes whirling about each other.
Aug 31, 2015
Life Might Spread Across Universe Like an ‘Epidemic’ in New Math Theory
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: alien life
As astronomers get closer to finding potential signatures of life on faraway planets, a new mathematical description shows how to understand life’s spread — and to determine if it’s jumping from star to star. “Life could spread from host star to host star in a pattern similar to the outbreak of an epidemic,” study co-author Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said in a statement.
Aug 31, 2015
‘Decorated’ graphene is a superconductor
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: materials
Lithium-doped graphene turns out to be a conventional superconductor with a transition temperature of 5.9 K.
Depositing lithium on 2D material generates Cooper pairs.
Aug 31, 2015
Quantum revolution: China set to launch ‘hack proof’ quantum communications network
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: cybercrime/malcode, particle physics, security
China is set to complete the installation of the world’s longest quantum communication network stretching 2,000km (1,240miles) from Beijing to Shanghai by 2016, say scientists leading the project. Quantum communications technology is considered to be “unhackable” and allows data to be transferred at the speed of light.
By 2030, the Chinese network would be extended worldwide, the South China Morning Post reported. It would make the country the first major power to publish a detailed schedule to put the technology into extensive, large-scale use.
The development of quantum communications technology has accelerated in the last five years. The technology works by two people sharing a message which is encrypted by a secret key made up of quantum particles, such as polarized photons. If a third person tries to intercept the photons by copying the secret key as it travels through the network, then the eavesdropper will be revealed by virtue of the laws of quantum mechanics – which dictate that the act of interfering with the network affects the behaviour of the key in an unpredictable manner.
Aug 31, 2015
Let’s End Incarceration and Just Have Drones Supervise Criminals
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: computing, drones, law enforcement, robotics/AI
New article on how tech can help achieve free education while also shrinking the prison system:
Micro drones, robot guards, and tracking chips will turn convicts into tax-paying, law-abiding citizens.
