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Transhuman week: exploring the frontiers of human enhancement

September 5, 2012

Ekso exoskeleton

Wired U.K.‘s Transhuman Week seeks to navigate transhumanist issues through a series of features, galleries and expert guest posts from September 3 to 7.

Transhumanism explores the application of technology and science to enhance human bodies and minds regardless of whether they are perceived to have any disabilities, and extending human life. It  may include low-level biohacking, physical augmentation, performance-enhancing drugs and even genetic modification.

The London 2012… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Silicon chip enables mass-manufacture of quantum technologies

September 5, 2012

mmi

Scientists from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics have developed a silicon chip that may pave the way to the mass-manufacture of miniature quantum chips, described in open-access articles.

The leap from using glass-based circuits to silicon-based circuits is significant because fabricating quantum circuits in silicon has the major advantage of being compatible with modern microelectronics.

Ultimately this technology could be integrated with conventional… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Quantum

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Realizing the promise of RNA nanotechnology for new drug development

September 5, 2012

rna_nanoparticles_therapeutics

The use of RNA in nanotechnology applications is highly promising for many applications, including the development of new therapeutic compounds, but keh technical challenges remain, presented in a an open-access review article in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics.

In “Uniqueness, Advantages, Challenges, Solutions, and Perspectives in Therapeutics Applying RNA Nanotechnology,” Peixuan Guo and colleagues, University of Kentucky, Lexington, highlight the ability of RNA to self-assemble into nanoparticles with diverse structures.… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A virus that kills cancer: the cure that’s waiting in the cold

September 5, 2012

oncolytic_virus

Professor Magnus Essand has developed a virus that may kill cancer cells, The Telegraph reports.

Cheap to produce, the virus is exquisitely precise, with only mild, flu-like side-effects in humans. But Ad5[CgA-E1A-miR122]PTD is never going to be tested to see if it might also save humans, due to lack of funding.

Contact info.

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Morality for robots?

September 5, 2012

machine-question-book

In new book, NIU Northern Illinois University Professor David Gunkel examines ethical questions raised by 21st century computers, robots and artificial intelligence.

On the topic of computers, artificial intelligence and robots,  he says science fiction is fast becoming “science fact.”

Fictional depictions of artificial intelligence have run the gamut from the loyal Robot in “Lost in Space” to the killer computer HAL in “2001:… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Singularity/Futures | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Blocking the sun: study looks at costs of 6 geoengineering schemes

September 5, 2012

599px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17

As the planet warms and the world continues to emit greenhouse gases at a searing pace, some argue that geoengineering ideas are rapidly becoming attractive, if not downright necessary, IEEE Spectrum reports.

In other words, hack the planet.

One of the two main categories of geoengineering is solar radiation management, or SRM. (The other is the direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.)… read more

Topics: Environment/Climate

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Experts declare ‘cyber war’ on cancer’s ‘social networking’

Researchers at Rice, Tel Aviv and Johns Hopkins universities aim to break cancer’s command-and-control codes
September 5, 2012

cyber_war_on_cancer

In the face of mounting evidence that cancer cells communicate, cooperate and even engage in collective decision-making, biophysicists and cancer researchers at Rice University, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University are suggesting a new strategy for outsmarting cancer through its own social intelligence.

“We need to get beyond the notion that cancer is a random collection of cells running amok —  these cells lead… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech | Social Networking/Web/Education

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Making stretchable electronics

Electronics conform to skin, arteries, and organs, allowing new surgical and measuring methods
September 5, 2012

stretchable_electronics_mc10

MC10, a startup, is getting ready to commercialize high-performance electronics that can stretch, allowing for innovations such as skin patches that monitor whether the wearer is sufficiently hydrated, or inflatable balloon catheters equipped with sensors that measure electrical misfiring caused by cardiac arrhythmias, Technology Review reports

To make both the hydration-­sensing patch and the catheter, gold electrodes and wires just a few hundred nanometers thick are deposited on silicon… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics | Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Wireless power system replaces batteries in implants

A breakthrough for miniaturizing implanted devices
September 5, 2012

High-frequency wireless power transmission to a device in the human heart. Red indicates greatest power; blue is least. (Credit: John Ho, Stanford Engineering)

Stanford University engineers have demonstrated the feasibility of a super-small, implantable cardiac device that gets its power from radio waves transmitted from a small transmitter on the surface of the body.

This is an impressive achievement that may lead to replacing bulky batteries in implants. That means the implants can be further miniaturized, while eliminating surgery to replace or charge batteries (or require a wired connection outside the body).… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics

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The future of work in America

September 4, 2012

800px-Cubicle_land

Technology and the Web are destroying far more jobs than they create. We will need to develop a “Third Way” based on community rather than the Market or the State to adapt to this reality, novelist and economic commentator Charles Hugh Smith writes on Business Insider.

“The Internet is destroying vast income streams that once supported tens of thousands of jobs in industries from finance to music.… read more

Topics: Social/Ethical/Legal

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Harnessing the power of wave motion

September 4, 2012

opt-power-buoy

The first commercially licensed grid-connected wave-energy device in the nation, designed by Ocean Power Technologies, is in its final weeks of testing before a planned launch in October, The New York Times reports.

Last month, the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center in Oregon — financed by the United States Department of Energy in collaboration with Oregon State University and the… read more

Topics: Energy | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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Visual Strategies

September 4, 2012

visual-strategies-book

A new book, Visual Strategies, by Felice C. Frankel and Angela H. DePace is “a guide to graphics for scientists and engineers, but it will be useful for anyone who wants to make clear presentations of data of any kind, The New York Times reports.

The book offers general guidelines, with illustrative graphics, and many real-life case studies. The authors show how they… read more

Topics: Social Networking/Web/Education | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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Tweets used as earthquake warning system

September 4, 2012

twitter_earthquake_detection

Seismologists using Twitter to detect tremors say the social network beat their own advanced equipment in spotting a 7.6 earthquake on Friday off the Philippines, Sky News reports.

The system, called Twitter Earthquake Detection (Ted), which gathers real-time, earthquake-related Twitter messages, is being used as an early-warning system by the US Geological Survey (USGS) to quickly gather information about earthquakes around the globe.

It takes into account place and time,… read more

Topics: Environment/Climate | Social Networking/Web/Education | Survival/Defense

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Crowdsourcing the psych lab

'Mechanical turk' for psychologists?
September 4, 2012

Comparing lab and web data. Bars show + or - 1 standard deviation (credit: Laura Germine et al.)

Can we trust data from anonymous, unpaid volunteers on the Web as a source of data for psychology experiments? Yes, according to new research conducted by Harvard scientists

By conducting experiments online, researchers have been able to enlist as many as 65,000 volunteers to take part in studies of cognition, a number far larger than they could bring into the lab.

Despite the cost and time advantages,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Social Networking/Web/Education

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All of a sudden I could see a little flash of light. It was amazing.

First implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes
September 3, 2012

Early bionic eye prototype drawing (credit: Bionics Institute)

Bionic Vision Australia researchers have successfully performed the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes.

Dianne Ashworth has profound vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition. She has now received what she calls a “pre-bionic eye” implant that enables her to experience some vision.

Her implant was switched on last month at the Bionics Institute, while researchers held their breaths in… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics | Human Enhancement

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