Lifeboat Foundation

I’m Caleb Harper, principal investigator and director of the Open Agriculture initiative at the MIT Media Lab. Kent Larson courtesy of MIT Media Lab.

In his book Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook details how grocery store tomatoes are both less nutritious and delicious than those grown decades ago. Industrial farming now grows crops for yield, sacrificing taste and vitamins for an easy-to-harvest, shippable product. It’s why apples at your local supermarket are probably about a year old. Caleb Harper, a principal research scientist at MIT and director of the OpenAg Initiative, wants to use technology to grow food that’s healthier, tastier, and more sustainable.

“Growing for nutrition and growing for flavor, it’s not really something anyone does,” he told Digital Trends at the recent ReThink Food conference in Napa, California.

Continue reading “With Personal Food Computers, nerd farmers are finding the best way to grow” »

A ‘signalling issue’ in the cells that form hair was found by New York scientists. This pathway can be stimulated in matured or wounded skin, the study on mice found.

Sure but it makes more sense that there’s not a “lake” or ring of water, rather, a bubbly inferno.

The discovery of a rare gem shows that there an enormous water reservoir in the Earth’s mantle.

Mountains and volcanoes are some of the most fascinating geological formations on Earth — and scientists and adventurers alike can’t get enough of them. Not a lot of us will get a first-hand look at what the planet’s tallest peaks and ranges look like from their summits, but thanks to the photos taken by NASA satellites in orbit and camera-wielding astronauts in space, they are visible as they never would be to the naked eye — hundreds of miles above the Earth.

Click through the slideshow to see stunning images of the Earth’s mountains and volcanoes — from Mount Everest and the Himalayas to the volcanoes of Hawaii and the snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains — captured from space.

The probe will seek out the details on super-Earths.

HIV treatments have come a long way in the more than 30 years since the virus was first identified.

Powerful antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can now keep the virus controlled at levels that current tests cannot detect in the blood. Perhaps just as important, people who take these drugs diligently soon after they’re infected are unlikely to pass the virus to others. But the treatment isn’t perfect. Those with HIV need to take a pill every day for the rest of their lives, and even if they do, the virus can easily morph to become resistant to the drugs. That’s why patients on ARV treatment should faithfully monitor their virus and cycle between different combinations of drugs.

Finding new, easier ways to more effectively treat HIV and stop its spread is therefore an urgent priority, and researchers are now looking beyond daily drugs to therapies that might provide people with more lasting protection.

The trio are the first to fly on the Soyuz after it broke apart with two astronauts on board.

BLACK holes are the most mysterious objects in the universe, but scientists have come one small step closer to understanding the impossibly powerful phenomena.

But while screening can be extremely helpful, it also carries some risks. Here’s what you need to know about lung cancer screenings.

How does lung cancer screening work?

Currently, there’s only one recommended screening test for lung cancer: low-dose computer tomography (low-dose CT scan). This test creates images of the inside of the body — or in this case, the lungs — using low doses of radiation.