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Apr 30, 2019

How Animals Code Their Kids for Survival

Posted by in category: genetics

It turns out the capacity for offspring to benefit from their parents’ experiences doesn’t just happen with fish. Munday tells me about Daphnia, often called water fleas, that are found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and puddles. The tiny crustacean can hatch with either a round head or a pointed head. If it shares the water with predators such as fish or midges or other insects, spikes and spines help lessen the likelihood of being eaten. For many species of juvenile water flea…


Insights into epigenetics and inheritance show that some organisms can adapt to a changing world.

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Apr 30, 2019

NMN Improves Cognitive Function in Aged Mice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Researchers have tested nicotinamide mononucleotide on aged mice to see if it can help reverse age-related cognitive decline by improving blood flow in the brain.

The brain is a hungry organ

Healthy brain function relies on efficient cerebral blood flow (CBF) to wash away harmful waste products for disposal and supply the brain with an adequate supply of oxygen and sufficient nutrients.

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Apr 30, 2019

Tesla to slash prices of solar panels in attempt to revive sales

Posted by in categories: business, sustainability

Some very good news.


Tesla plans to sell its solar panels at a price that’s 38 percent lower than the national average in an attempt to halt the decline of its solar business. The New York Times notes that the head of Tesla’s solar department, Sanjay Shah, wants to sell panels for between $1.75 and $1.99 a watt, compared to the national average of $2.85.

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Apr 30, 2019

Ryugu Proves Perilous Target in Asteroid-Mining Thriller ‘Delta-v’

Posted by in category: space

If they make it back, they’ll all be rich — but at what cost?

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Apr 30, 2019

Asteroid Mining: Getting the first mission off the ground

Posted by in categories: business, engineering, space travel

A fully-contained near-Earth asteroid retrieved to cislunar space can be used as a Research and Development destination for resource extraction and engineering tests as space-native material, unaltered by a radical change in environment, in industrial quantity, and in an accessible orbit.

As a geologist and data manager working in petroleum exploration, I’m not qualified to analyze an all-encompassing view of asteroid mining…but maybe I’m qualified to share what I see from my perspective. Rather than looking at all the reasons why asteroid mining is not currently happening, I’d like to dive deep into how changing decision-making perspectives may make a mission possible.

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Apr 30, 2019

In 50 years we’ll have ‘robot angels’ and will be able to merge our brains with AI, according to technology experts

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Business Insider spoke to six technology experts at the Mobile World Congress 2018. They spoke about the future we could experience within the next 50 years.

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Apr 30, 2019

Why Space Aliens Might Message Us With Encoded DNA

Posted by in category: alien life

It sounds like bad science fiction, but there are good reasons to think that E.T. may be trying to communicate with us via encoded bacterial DNA.

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Apr 30, 2019

How Big Tech is struggling with the ethics of AI

Posted by in categories: ethics, military, robotics/AI, surveillance

The companies that are leading research into AI in the US and China, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, SenseTime and Tencent, have taken very different approaches to AI and whether to develop technology that can ultimately be used for military and surveillance purposes.


Companies criticised for overruling and even dissolving ethics boards.

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Apr 29, 2019

Doctors used a drone to deliver a vital kidney transplant in historic flight

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, drones

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

Drones might be a favorite toy among adults with significant disposable income, but they’ve also proven to be incredibly useful as tools, and sometimes life-saving ones at that. The latest example of this growing trend comes to us from the University of Maryland Medical Center, where a medical drone delivered a kidney that was subsequently successfully transplanted into a patient.

The delivery, which was documented in a brief YouTube video published by UMMC, is just a small first step in a larger effort to enhance the delivery systems used for vital items like organs and other medical materials.

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Apr 29, 2019

Astronomers Spot Distant Black Hole Spinning So Fast That It Warps Space-Time

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Last observed in 2015, the black hole is spewing out ‘wobbly’ plasma jets that move so fast they change orientation within minutes.

Some 8,000 light-years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation (“The Swan”), a small black hole weighing just nine times the mass of Earth’s sun is gobbling up a sun-like star. The black hole and its stellar victim are locked together in what astronomers call a binary system and orbit each other once every 6.5 days – with spectacular effects, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is reporting.

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