Lifeboat Foundation

TUESDAY, Jan. 9, 2018 — In a potential advance for medical research, scientists say they’ve created the first functioning human muscle from skin cells.

The breakthrough could lead to better genetic or cell-based therapies, as well as furthering investigations into the causes and treatment of muscular disorders, the Duke University team said.

“The prospect of studying rare diseases is especially exciting for us,” Nenad Bursac, professor of biomedical engineering, said in a university news release.

Continue reading “Scientists turn skin cells into muscle cells, a potential boon for research” »

We have all heard that exercise is good for our health. However, it can not only keep you healthy, it can also slow down some aspects of aging. Some researchers even think that it might be possible to use this knowledge to develop new therapies against aging. While waiting for that to happen, we need to exercise in order to slow down the effects of aging.

How important is it to keep fit?

So, how beneficial is exercising? Well, one of the best studies conducted on this subject showed that women will live 5.6 years longer and men 6.2 years longer if they exercise between 1 and 2.5 hours per week[1]. This makes exercise a better lifestyle choice than any other, at least as long as you’re not counting avoiding downright dangerous behavior, such as smoking.

Here, $$$$, turn that thing off, you’re making too much cheap power.

New figures show £53m was given to the wind industry last year to keep turbines switched off to regulate electricity supplied to National Grid.

Since wind farms first started receiving constraint payments five years ago, more than £100 million has been handed over in compensation for switching off. Photo: PA

Continue reading “Wind farms paid £1m a week to switch off” »

New story in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/09/how-clo…-afterlife #transhumanism

One of the threads running through the sci-fi series’ latest season concerns digital versions of ourselves who live on after we die … it could happen sooner than we think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsJiZbLPqNQ

Feathers on birds of paradise contain light-trapping nanotechnology that makes some of the deepest blacks in the world.

Furrion’s Prosthesis exo-bionic racing mech is at CES.

Intelligent Machines

Intel’s new chips are more brain-like than ever.

The troubled chipmaker is looking to the future of computing.

Continue reading “Intel wants to move beyond today’s architecture, with brain-inspired and quantum chips” »

Using detailed 3D images, researchers have shown how bacteria have evolved molecular motors of different powers to optimize their swimming.

The discovery, by a team from Imperial College London, provides insights into evolution at the molecular scale.

Bacteria use molecular motors just tens of nanometres wide to spin a tail (or ‘flagellum’) that pushes them through their habitat. Like human-made motors, the structure of these nanoscale machines determines their power and the bacteria’s swimming ability.