8/31/2009 PERMALINK
Research shows upping levels of PYCR1 protein reverses skin aging and wrinkly skin & offers insight into youthful skin maintaining gene mods Singapore's Institute of Medical Biology

8/31/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists show that a 200 mg dose of DHA omega-3 fatty acid per day is sufficient to help prevent cardiovascular disease Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

8/31/2009 PERMALINK
Tweaking a single gene (IRF-8) to produce less of a single protein causes arthritis, gum and bone disease Hospital for Special Surgery

8/31/2009 PERMALINK
Neuroscientists discover the brain region that is responsible for your sense of personal space California Institute of Technology

8/31/2009 PERMALINK
Bot uses accelerometer, compass & new 3.1 OS camera capabilities for the iPhone 3GS to create augmented reality using Bing's localized listing Robotvision-augmented reality

8/28/2009 PERMALINK
Using sound to create tweezers that are small enough to manipulate nano-sized beads and individual cells Pennsylvania State University

8/28/2009 PERMALINK
Modded virus infects cancer cells with fluorescence gene, so that tumors glow to make them easy to find and removed University of California, San Diego

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
They will bring 'life without limits' promises Ossur of its new neurosensing, artificially intelligent, bionic legs Ossur bionics

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
As you age your skin loses its ability to attract T-cells where and when they are needed - if true of entire body - could be major cause of aging University College London

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
HLA-Cw*0602 gene variation = high risk for psoriasis ~ such 1st steps towards genetic repair mods coming ever faster now University of Utah Health Sciences

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
KIAA0319 gene on Chromosome 6 is associated with variability in language, speech and reading abilities in children University of Kansas

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
You are a mutant! First direct measure of general rate of human genetic mutations finds that each of us have 100-200 new mutations Beijing Genomics Institute

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers mod siRNA so it can be injected to block harmful activity in cells, like tumor growth, without the usual risk of side effects University of Iowa

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
Can living pods be made smart enough to care for an elderly person with a failing memory? University of Granada

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
In an exciting breakthrough, researchers have succeeded in using gene therapy to prevent inherited diseases Oregon Health & Science University

8/27/2009 PERMALINK
MCPIP (Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 Induced Protein) gene controls fat cell development - could ultimately bring genetic obesity prevention University of Central Florida

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Sentiment analysis - tapping into the collective unconsciousness of net users Scout Labs

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Engineer designs light-absorbing nano-materials that can fab solar cells for around 1/10th of today's solar cell manufacturing costs University of Texas

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Bio-engineered patch capable of repairing damaged heart tissue is grown in the stomach, then transplanted into the heart University of the Negev

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Brain scans reveal that overweight people's brains are 6 to 8% smaller than normal by the time they reach their 70's University of California - Los Angeles

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers show definitively that mutations associated with prion diseases do cause a transmissible neurodegenerative disease Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists preparing to mod chicken embryos into dinosaurs McGill University

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Coming soon: pocket, wearware & implant devices that charge themselves cord free - never untangle an electric cord again WiTricity

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists discover a way to get healthy cells to take charge of cancerous cells and stop them from developing into tumors University of Manchester

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
SHOX gene mutation not necessary for short stature, flaw in certain genetic sequences that regulate SHOX can cause it University Hospital Heidelberg

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Your brain predicts the consequences of eye movement even before your eyes can actually take in the new scene University of Aberdeen's School of Psychology

8/26/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers are discovering MicroRNA markers for many different diseases in saliva. Is a smart toothbrush early warning system ahead? University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists engineer a tiny protein called a peptide that can carry and deliver a nano or cellular "cargo" into your cells University of California - Santa Barbara

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Dire new White House report warns that 50% of the US population could get swine flu this season with up to 90,000 deaths President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology News Summary ~ Full Report (pdf)

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
20,000 person study links high blood pressure to memory problems in people over 45 University of Alabama at Birmingham

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
A team of scientists has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Preventing and repairing the misfolding of proteins, a fundamental cause of aging Northwestern University

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Twelve longevity enhancement methods that have been shown to work in mice FightAging.org

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Human stem cells modded into 'glow in the dark' red blood cells Monash University

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Microsoft augments its Bing.com "decision" bot with Wolfram Alpha's "computational knowledge" bot Bing.com ~ Wolfram Alpha

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
Low-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis and impaired heart vessel growth Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

8/25/2009 PERMALINK
An interview with Dr. Henry Markram, director of an effort to create a human level brain simulation The Blue Brain Project

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers discover that your body's immune cells play a role in aging bone loss University of California - Los Angeles

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
Prohibition of drugs/alcohol brings increases in crime, corruption & police state tactics whenever imposed - Mexico quietly ends the insanity Mexico City

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
ARound offers reality enhancement using Nokia's N86 & N97 devices ARound Project

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
Bot surrogates living our lives for us in the new Bruce Willis movie inspire engineer to hack one together Surrogates, the movie ~ Surrogates, the DIY hack

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
More slow progress in the move from mere structures to smart living pods that nurture mind and body itHouse

8/24/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers find a way to make printable organic circuits that use only a single polymer University of Washington

8/23/2009 PERMALINK
Microbiologists find cellular defense molecule (NOD2) that senses flu viruses and sends your immune system into action University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

8/23/2009 PERMALINK
More amazing clips of bot dexterity skills from Ishikawa Komuro Lab - imagine a prosthetic smart hand using this awesome technology YouTube

8/23/2009 PERMALINK
When your nose encounters two scents, your brain processes them separately, alternating back and forth between nostrils Rice University

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Progress understanding cancer at the cellular level & engineering better ways to disrupt it Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research ~ University of Toronto

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
HPRT gene sets primitive (precursor) cells to become the normal nerve cells in your brain Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers learning how proteins are made by capturing elusive nanoscale movements of ribosomes at work University of California, Berkley

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers engineer first 3D nanostructures - the variety of shapes is really amazing - major nano breakthrough Johns Hopkins University

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Mouse brain rewires its neural circuits to recuperate from damaged neural function after stroke National Institute for Physiological Sciences

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Discovery of a deafness-causing gene defect has helped identify a new protein that protects sensory cells in the ear Public Library of Science (paper) ~ Summary in press release

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Research breakthrough identifies the two key circuits that control a cell's ability to adapt to changes in its environment University of California, San Francisco

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Cost of biofuels dropping fast: company breeds new algae strain that doubles production Aurora Biofuels

8/22/2009 PERMALINK
Nokia has produced a concept animation showing the type of device they would like to give you in a few years using nanotechnology Nokia Research

8/21/2009 PERMALINK
Craig Venter's team is one step away from putting engineered genome into bacterial cells to create the first entirely artificial lifeforms New Scientist ~ Technology Review

8/21/2009 PERMALINK
If spectrum shifiting radios can open the airwaves to all, why is Congress still giving spectrum monopolies to big corporate donors - ohh, nevermind Wall Street Journal

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
For the first time, scientists use a genetically engineered "friendly" bacterium to deliver a therapy Norwich BioScience Institutes

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
Ten pound wearware artificial kidneys about to put an end to clunky old dialysis machines American Society of Nephrology

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
Minor decrease in levels of just one gene (CD45) can protect against pathogens as radically different as the ebola virus & anthrax bacterium US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
Nanog protein is a key factor in switching on the pluripotency with which stem cells can reverse effects of aging and disease University of Cambridge

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
A touch screen that can morph its surface to form actual buttons you can press and feel to match any buttons displayed Demo on YouTube

8/20/2009 PERMALINK
Gene mods & caloric restriction mimics boost lifespans in animals, now tests are beginning to see if these can work on humans New York Times (sorry, clueless old media requiring registration)

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers testing new anti-aging gene called klotho find that a single injection reduced high blood pressure for months and reversed kidney damage University of Oklahoma

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
A protective polymer jacket can allow engineered proteins to survive longer to kill targeted pathogens or make needed repairs within your body Duke University

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
You may soon be watching stem cells at work on a screen, as they go about repairing the age-related damage to your brain Tel Aviv University

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Microsoft's new Zune HD (iPod Touch killer?) puts WiFi access in your hand for less Engadget

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
"Hello, I'm your new digital assistant. To be a good partner to you, I need to get to know you as a person. Can we talk?" Oregon State University

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers learn how to herd your cells around by illuminating each cell's movement-control protein using a laser University of North Carolina School of Medicine

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
FDA bureaucrats kill tens of thousands more Americans by delaying stem cell clinical trials yet again Technology Review

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Computational biologists have shown that the proteins in your body have an intrinsic ability to shape-shift that is necessary for proper functioning University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Beneficial bacteria in your stomach help initiate your body's defense mechanisms against parasite infections UT Southwestern Medical Center

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
In just 50 generations, individual bots in a swarm running genetic software, evolved to lie to other bots about the location of 'food' EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems

8/19/2009 PERMALINK
Yet another gun toting, silent, night vision equipped little bot for spying, warfare, anti-terror or police activities in urban settings?? EyeDrive Mini-bots ~ Watch EyeDrive in action on YouTube

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Welcome to the world's first bot-driven bus, enjoy the ride, nothing can possible go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ... ICT Results

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Dead historian's lecture on dead empire's final days gives more insight into current events than a year's worth of NY Times & Fox News lecture by the late history professor, Joseph Peden

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Tone deaf people found to have missing brain circuit Technology Review

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
A biomedical engineer explains how she was able to create working micro-fluidics chips on a shoestring without any expensive fabrication equipment Technology Review

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Old TV spectrum could soon bring you cheap, much longer range WiFI, unless the cable companies manage to bribe enough politicos to block it Technology Review

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
See demo of a unique new browser for surfing your own genome and hear what you can learn from your genome Technology Review

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists show that someone with access to a database of your DNA can manufacture forensic evidence to frame you for murder New York Times (warning: clueless old media news site that requires registration)

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Coding server bots that give the internet immunity from the bot-net attacks that spread destructive worms, take down sites & send spam New Scientist

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Toss to launch aerial surveillance bot autonomously flies to surveillance target and boomerangs back to launch point for recovery IATech

8/18/2009 PERMALINK
Engineers create bot fingers and hands that function exactly like human fingers and hands YouTube

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
New Ug99 wheat rust spreading like wildfire, world's worst famine ahead, old order dithers, while civilization 2.0 acts Fast Company + New more resilient memes & institution vital to our survival

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Nano-magnets can guide stem cells to heart tissues damaged by age or disease, greatly increasing their capacity to repair damage University College London

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Alcohol prohibition corrupted our cops, our politicos and spread gangsterism everywhere - massive fail - repeat same mistake with drugs Washington Post + Tired old dogmas repeat the same mistakes - replace them with resilient memes

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Common variations in the 'junk DNA' surrounding the MECP2 gene cause significant changes to brain structure University of California - San Diego

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Even though they are stored differently in your brain, a single gene may determine the quality of both your short and long term memory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers generate fractal microchannels offering the ideal 3-D vasculature (sturcture) for building human replacement organs Texas A&M University

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
New organic semiconductor offers solution for design of faster, smarter, less power hungry wearware and implantable devices University of Washington

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Pocket communicators with projectors are about to make it really easy to share your images and ideas with friends and co-workers Singularity Hub

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
The mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) that regulates your sensitivity to physical pain, also determines your discomfort level over social rejection University of California, Los Angeles

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers invent a faster, cheaper way to uncover human gene-disease links University of Washington

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Using DNA to build smaller, faster, better computer chips Next Big Future

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers develop nano-scale quantum dots able to scan DNA for attachments that give early warning signs of cancer Johns Hopkins University

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Sony has filed patents for a code bot able to recognize laughter, sadness, joy, anger and boredom Gamesindustry.biz

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Turning around dying cities by offering quality, energy efficient, sustainable and affordable urban living pods The 100K Project

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough anthropomimetic bots don't just copy the appearance of a human, they replicate the whole shebang YouTube

8/17/2009 PERMALINK
The dopamine switch in your brain hard-wires you to love Google, Twitter and texting Slate

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers build two tiny bots that can automatically pick up and install carbon nanotubes thousands of times thinner than a human hair ICT Results

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers create the tiniest laser ever, paving the way for super-fast computers that use light instead of electrons Purdue University

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Generals see bots as the perfect warriors that never sleep, bleed, complain or erode support for wars by returning home in a flag-draped box Physorg.com

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Electrodes made of carbon-silicon nanowires can boost the energy storage of lithium-ion batteries by six times Technology Review

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Gene therapy creates new fovea in blind woman's eyes, allowing her to see for the first time ever Technology Review

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
Relax at the beach, while your beachcomber bot makes a living for you finding lost change YouTube

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
New bot promises to significantly improve computer recognition and processing of speech by imitating how your brain listens Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
2nd research team reports success in new approach that could cure ALL viruses by inhibiting human cellular proteins that viruses use to replicate University Hospital Heidelberg

8/16/2009 PERMALINK
The denser, faster, cheaper new memory tech researchers are developing to replace flash in your pocket/wearware devices Next Big Future

8/15/2009 PERMALINK
Nick Bostrom, the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University discusses what lies ahead for humankind Singularity & Futurism

8/15/2009 PERMALINK
The components are becoming available for engineering tiny, nano-scale assembly lines Next Big Future

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers have demonstrated a high-performance micro fuel cell that operates at lower temperatures and seems perfect for powering wearware Technology Review

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers find a way to convert other pancreas cells into the critical insulin-producing beta cells using a single transcription factor Cell

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers have found a way to reprogram exhausted immune system cells to make them effective again The Wistar Institute

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Mutation of sleep regulator gene that lets some humans thrive on much less sleep found - this one's on my gene mod wish list University of California, San Francisco

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Genes pinpointed that can prevent a type of genetic rearrangement that causes cancer and many other diseases University of California - San Diego

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
Artificial bone implants made from wood - seems red oak, rattan and sipo reduced to carbon provide perfect bone-like lattices to form implants over Discovery News

8/14/2009 PERMALINK
MIT's efforts to design formidable and autonomous bot armies that generals can control with their iPhones Next Big Future

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers pin down underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages and say they can predict future ice age events Oregon State University

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Goodbye democracy, computer scientists show how to steal elections when electronic voting machines are used University of California - San Diego

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough technique allows for precise, efficient gene editing into the genomes of human embryonic stem cells Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Compound called 'salinomycin' selectively kills the cancer stem cells that seed new tumors Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Advance for powering tomorrow's self-sufficient, smart living pods that don't just house, but actually take care of you Utah's Daily Herald

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Panel of scientists give lifespan extension advice for the entire human species: fix the gaps in Earth's asteroid detection system NewScientist

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Honda's versatile ASIMO robot was able to find its way through moving obstacles and simulated terrain Singularity Hub

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists make multiple types of white blood cells directly from embryonic and adult stem cells University of Wisconsin-Madison

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
The Cyborg revolution takes lots of steps forward as three Cyberdyne employees strut the streets of Tokyo on cybernetically enhanced legs Singularity Hub

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Pacific Biosciences says new gear will be able to sequence your entire genome in real time for only $100 ScienceDaily

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers show that light energy can be used to guide and change the orientation of living cells University of Central Florida

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Eating a Mediterranean diet and getting some physical activity cuts your risk of dementia in half Journal of the American Medical Association

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Nanobee devices deliver real bee toxin melittin to tumor cells, killing them while avoiding any damage to surrounding normal cells Washington University in St. Louis

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists figure out trigger for schizophrenia - it's a low level of a brain protein necessary for neurons to talk to one another Northwestern University

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Now, just like the Terminator, you can have a view of the world tagged with rich, location-relevant information as your gaze flickers here & there BBC

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers have identified a basic cellular mechanism that enables networks of neurons to efficiently decode speech in changing conditions The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Just 10 days of eating a high-fat diet causes decreased ability to exercise and significant short-term memory loss Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging scientists have determined that sounds and images are processed in the same 'black box' in your brain University of Montreal

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers use Diffusion Imaging MRI to see how the human brain reshapes itself to store new knowledge Tel Aviv University

8/13/2009 PERMALINK
Three young adults who received gene therapy for a blinding eye condition remained healthy and maintained previous visual gains one year later National Eye Institute

8/12/2009 PERMALINK
Modded protein completely reverses multiple sclerosis in animals A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal. MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability. The new treatment, appropriately named GIFT15, puts MS into remission by suppressing the immune response. GIFT15 is composed of two proteins, GSM-CSF and interleukin-15, fused together artificially in the lab.

8/11/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough moves researchers closer to assembly of complex nanobot or nanofab devices
Researchers at Duke University have created a unique new nano-particle, dubbed a "dot-Janus" particle, the movement of which can be precisely controlled. Optical traps on the dot-Janus particles allow researchers to precisely control three degrees of movement - up and down, left and right, forward and backward, while constraining one degree of rotation - side-to-side tilting. Using magnetic fields, they controlled the remaining two degrees of rotation - forward and backward tilting, and left and right turning.

8/11/2009 PERMALINK
One molecule that can block the spread of ALL viruses "If you look at the viruses that are the biggest threats of modern times, most of them were unknown through human history: HIV, SARS, Ebola. You don't know where the next one is coming from. How do you develop therapeutics for the unknown and unknowable, given that you won't have time to develop a vaccine for a new agent after it appears?" asks Michael Goldblatt, who once led the bio-defense program for the Pentagon's research arm, DARPA, and now heads Functional Genetics. He and a few other researchers think they have the answer. They are working on an entirely new class of antiviral drugs that should do something seemingly impossible: work against a wide range of existing viruses and also be effective against viruses that have not even evolved yet. What's more, it should be extremely difficult for any virus to become resistant to these drugs. The molecule they have engineered, called FGI-104, is designed to bind to a cellular protein called FGI-101, which viruses use to infect more cells, killing infected cells and preventing the virus from spreading.

8/11/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers create cell-like nanowires for neural implants Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have sealed silicon-nanowire transistors in a membrane similar to those that surround biological cells. These hybrid devices, which operate similarly to nerve cells, might be used to make better interfaces for prosthetic limbs and cochlear implants. They might also work well as biosensors for medical diagnostics.

8/11/2009 PERMALINK
Making cells immortal makes them easier to reprogram Specialized adult cells made 'immortal' through the blockade of an anti-tumor pathway can be turned into stem-like cells quickly and efficiently. The findings, which should make it easier to generate patient-specific cells from any tissue type, including certain diseased cells that have proved difficult to transform, suggest that cellular reprogramming and cancer formation are inextricably linked.

8/11/2009 PERMALINK
First implant with WiFi connection to doctor approved St. Jude Medical's Accent and Anthem pacemakers now feature RF telemetry that enables secure, wireless communication between the implanted device and the programmer used by the clinician or a home monitor. Many implants must be monitored regularly to insure they are working properly, especially pacemakers. Now that monitoring can be done by a wireless system via remote monitoring from the patient's home. The implant can even call a physician at home if an emergency situation arises. So how long before a bot-net has someone's pacemaker sending out spam?

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
There is only one way to survive all the new challenges we face -- get a lot smarter A super volcano eruption 74,000 years ago plunged the world into a period of glaciation and very nearly wiped out human kind. Human mating pairs declined to only a few thousand. What saved our ancestors was getting smarter. Now we face challenges that come at us far faster than ever before. There is only one way out of the mess, making ourselves a lot smarter.

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
Drinking beetroot juice boosts your stamina by 16%
Drinking beetroot juice boosts your stamina and could help you exercise for up to 16 percent longer. A University of Exeter led-study, published Aug. 6, shows for the first time how the nitrate contained in beetroot juice leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake, making exercise less tiring.The study reveals that drinking beetroot juice reduces oxygen uptake to an extent that cannot be achieved by any other known means, including training.

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
A step towards the ultimate vision enhancement system
TruFocals are glasses that let you choose the exact correction that works best for you at any distance and under any lighting conditions for undistorted vision over a wide field of view without the zones and lines of progressive or bifocal glasses. Each "lens" is actually a set of two lenses, one flexible and one firm. The flexible lens (near the eye) has a transparent distensible membrane attached to a clear rigid surface. The pocket between them holds a small quantity of crystal clear fluid. As you move the slider on the bridge of the glasses, it pushes the fluid and alters the shape of the flexible lens. Changing the shape changes the correction. This mimics the way the lenses in your eyes used to perform when you were younger. Now all that is needed is a cognobot capable of reading the direction of your gaze and adjusting the lenses automatically.

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
Are quantum computers and memristors about to give us brilliant cognobots?
NIST's quantum artithmetic-logic unit demonstrated sustained operations that proved the feasibility of large-scale quantum computers. Memristors can be combined into devices called crossbar latches, which could replace transistors in future computers, taking up a much smaller area. They can also be fashioned into non-volatile solid-state memory, which would allow greater data density than hard drives with access times potentially similar to DRAM, replacing both components. Quantum computers and memristors could blow past the performance of conventional transistors.

And to harness all that increased computational power to create the smartest possible cognobots, researchers say a new operating system, designed specifically for bots is essential.

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
Can lasers be used to removed wastes that cause aging from inside your cells? Abstract: Lipofuscin is membrane-bound cellular waste that can be neither degraded nor ejected from the cell but can only be diluted through cell division and subsequent growth. The fate of postmitotic cells is to accumulate lipofuscin, which as an "aging pigment" has been considered a reliable biomarker for the age of cells such as neurons and, by extension, their hosts.

The goal of this research is to tune the use of laser pulses in order to remove lipofuscin from aged cells, to hopefully cure or reduce aging.

8/10/2009 PERMALINK
The future of telepresence, cognobots, avatars and virtual reality
The upcoming new Bruce Willis movie called Surrogates postulates a 2054 world where no one ever leaves home and all human interact takes place through android telepresence remotes. The movie's trailer can be found here. Jim Cameron also has a telepresence movie in the works call Avatar (a misuse of this term, which normally only refers to virtual representations of ourselves, not telepresence real world remotes).

Already, it is possible to extend the capabilities of your mind by using cognobots to do research and communication across the Mesh. By 2054, a typical human will probably be in command of a small army of remote and virtual cognobots, each with sufficient intelligence to operate semi-autonomously. We will do most of what we do through the use of cognobots, but virtual avatars are a much more likely tool for direct interaction than android remotes. Since why would we confine ourselves to telepresence in a physical reality, when we can interact more easily and cheaply in intricate and fascinating world's of our own design?

8/09/2009 PERMALINK
Lack of money, no problem, but lack of spouse can accelerate cognitive decline New UCLA research suggests that for seniors age 70 and older, socioeconomic status does not play a major role in the brain's continued ability to function. However, seniors who have never been married and widowers seem to perform more poorly as they age.

8/09/2009 PERMALINK
Long term research shows physical inactivity doubles disease risk, drastically shortens lifespan About 50 million Americans have sedentary jobs, no regular physical activity program and are generally inactive at home. "These individuals are doubling their risk of developing numerous health conditions compared with those who are even moderately active and fit," said Steven Blair, who has extensively analyzed the results of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, an ongoing study began in 1970 that includes more than 80,000 patients.

8/09/2009 PERMALINK
What would America's Founding Fathers do today to protect their individual liberties? Regardless of whether the ruling political party calls itself liberal or conservative, in western nations since World War II the trend has consistently been transferring more money and power formerly held by citizens into the hands of political elites. Might 20,000 floating nations above the sea offer a way to preserve freedom for individual citizens?

North America and Europe are rapidly becoming Africa-lite, following in the footsteps of the countries of Africa, the poster-continent for massive political corruption and systems that massively under-deliver on the potential of the people and societies.

Are smallish city states of 100,000-200,000 people on islands or floating seasteads the only way to maintain an acceptable level of individual liberties? Are larger nations states just inevitably fated to be ruled by a corrupt political elite and sink into a sea of inefficiency, massive government debt, money debasement, crony capitalism, outright corruption, and eventually, inevitably, massive exploitation of their citizens?

With each passing year it looks more likely, those who value individual liberty are going to be required to find a better alternative for the preservation of those liberties than the failed nation state model.

See also: Seasteading Institute announces winners of this year's design contest

8/08/2009 PERMALINK
A bioengineered tooth germ mod regenerates lost teeth in 49 days
A Japanese group, led by cell biologist Takashi Tsuji of Tokyo University of Science in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, focused on tooth germs, the embryonic tissues that develop into teeth. After obtaining such germs from mouse embryos, they separated out two types of cells--epithelial cells and mesenchymal cells--and then recombined them into a new bioengineered tooth germ. The team then grew the bioengineered germs in a special culture for 5 to 7 days and transplanted them into the upper jaws of adult mice in the place of an extracted molar. New teeth poked through the gums after about 36 days and reached the proper size and alignment with opposing teeth for proper chewing after 49 days.

8/08/2009 PERMALINK
Rating the performance of the world's nation states The path to a brighter future is to spend less than you take in and save or invest your surplus. The way to have no future at all is to spend more than you make and run up debt to cover you deficit. The CIA's World Fact Book has just rated how each of the world's nations performed on this in 2008. The #1 performer in 2008 was China. Dead last was the USA.

8/08/2009 PERMALINK
Does World of Warcraft represent the next phase in human social evolution? Those people who spend their (virtual) lives dressed up like trolls are creating the new sovereignty, establishing a nation-state that transcends borders, that challenges traditional ideas of governance, that threatens economic structures and upsets power hierarchies. People, the future is in the hands of a bunch of trolls.

8/07/2009 PERMALINK
Neural mod blocks annoying, useless itch response without loss of pain sensing ability Historically, many scientists have regarded itching as just a less intense version of pain. They have spent decades searching for itch-specific nerve cells to explain how the brain perceives itch differently from pain, but none have previously been found. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that those itch-specific neurons do exist in mice, and their studies suggest that itch and pain signals are transmitted along different pathways in the spinal cord. Moreover, the researchers say they can knock out an animal's itch response without affecting its ability to sense and attempt to avoid pain.

8/07/2009 PERMALINK
Synapse Project to Make a Artificial Human Brain Gets $16 million more from DARPA Things must be going well, since IBM just got an additional $16.1 million from DARPA for its Synapse project to make a computer hardware version of a human brain. SyNAPSE stands for Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics. The stated purpose is to "investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in neuromorphic electronic devices that are scalable to biological levels."

8/07/2009 PERMALINK
Noninsulin-producing alpha cells in pancreas modded into insulin-producing beta cells In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The researchers, led by Patrick Collombat of the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany and Ahmed Mansouri of the University of Gottingen in Germany, discovered in mice that new insulin-producing beta cells can be generated from alpha cells in the islets of the pancreas by modifying the expression of a specific gene (Pax4) in alpha cells.

8/07/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough method for detecting genetic causes of complex diseases Computational biologists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an analytical technique to detect the multiple genetic variations that contribute to complex disease syndromes of many types. Rather than searching one at a time for genetic alterations that cause a particular symptom or trait, as in most conventional approaches, the Carnegie Mellon scientists use a statistical method that enables them to uncover genome variations underlying an entire regulatory network of genes or traits that are responsible for complex diseases.

8/06/2009 PERMALINK
Monoclonal antibody mod that neutralizes the hepatitis C virus installed in first human The University of Massachusetts Medical School has begun a Phase 1 clinical trial of a human monoclonal antibody it developed that neutralizes the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The trial, which follows successful preclinical studies, will include 30 healthy volunteers and will test the safety and activity of the monoclonal antibody. More than 3.2 million Americans are chronically infected with HCV, which attacks the liver and can lead to liver failure, killing 10,000 annually.

8/06/2009 PERMALINK
First 3D printing in stainless steel offered
There have been a sites around the Mesh offering 3D printing for any design in plastic for some time, but now Shapeways.com is offering 3D printing in stainless steel. That Trek-like nanofab in your home, which can fabricate most anything you desire, has come another step closer.

8/06/2009 PERMALINK
Tough design problem - ask nature how to solve it
Nature's elegant solutions to design challenges include the Scots pine's adaptive growth, the thorny devil's passive water collection, and a leaf's on-site energy production. AskNature.org is an open science collaboration site for compiling data that can help you solve your design challenges using nature's methods. Here scientists are compiling a database about the methods nature uses to solve all sorts of thorny design problems in order to make bio-mimic design solutions more readily available.

8/06/2009 PERMALINK
Premature aging is caused by point mutations in your mtDNA The normal aging process has long been linked to problems with cell respiration, the process through which the cells extract energy from nutrients. Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now shown how certain proteins that are synthesized in the cellular mitochondria - popularly known as the cells' power plants - become unstable and disintegrate, which in turn can impair cell respiration and cause premature ageing. "Our results show that premature aging is caused by point mutations in the mtDNA, which cause the mitochondrial proteins to become unstable and disintegrate," says Aleksandra Trifunovic, one of the scientists involved in the study.

8/06/2009 PERMALINK
The first RES (Reality Enhancement System) toys coming soon
Check out this demo of an upcoming RES toy based on James Cameron's Avatar movie. Some time in the next decade you'll start wearing a RES display. And when you look at any product, shop, restaurant or person's face a little thumb overlay will appear with a percentage inside. 85% of customers liked this restaurant, 45% of customers were satisfied with this product, 0% of the women that went out with this guy enjoyed the experience. Close your eyes for slightly longer than a normal blink to bring up more details, like the full menu for a restaurant with each individual entree priced and rated by previous diners. RES, or augmented reality as the scientists like to call it, is going to upgrade your life more than any other computer technology.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Hungary arrests four for offering stem cell treatments In all but a few nation states worldwide, bureaucrats are busy causing millions of unnecessary deaths, by holding back the most revolutionary advance in medicine in the last hundred years, stem cell therapies. The latest innovators to fall victim to a nation's medical gestapo are in Hungary. America's FDA probably kills at least 50 people by delaying promising medical innovations for every person they save from a dangerous form of treatment. They kill more American's every week than Osama Bin Laden could manage in a lifetime.

The Bureaucrat's Code: If it moves, tax it. If it doesn't move, subsidize it. If it moves more quickly than average, regulate it down to a crawl.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists create first virtual scientific association
Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA) is the first virtual scientific association. The organization conducts professional seminars and popular lectures, among other events, for its growing membership entirely in the virtual world of Second Life.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
One moribund nation or hundreds of dynamic city-states? How can a struggling country break free of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: "charter cities," city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. Could Guantanamo Bay become the next Hong Kong? Only if ways can be found to get around the stifling rules of nation-states to allow wealth creation. Romer proposes a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones.

I'll go one step beyond Romer and suggest that we would all be better off if governance throughout the world were right-sized into city-scale zones. Nation-scale governance will always devolve over time into regulation that is grossly inefficient, ineffective and indeed harmful to those under its control. One size can never fit all situations across a large region. A hundred city states tied together with an open trade agreement will always be able to produce more prosperity than if those same cities are forced to labor under the thumb of a nation-state's armies of politicos and bureaucrats.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Chip microfluidics fab mimics ability of cells to mod proteins
Researchers at RPI have developing the first working artificial prototype of an "organ" of a human cell that modifies biomolecules and packages them for delivery around the cell. The organelle, akin to a miniature organ in a cell, made up of a network of sacs piled together like a stack of pancakes they have replicated is called a Golgi apparatus. The role it plays in chemically modifying proteins is crucial for their stability and function, and it also helps manufacture complex sugars.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Highly connected social networks inhibit 'outside the box' thinking Working within highly connected social networks "keeps radical ideas from taking hold," says social scientist Viktor Mayer-Schönberger of the National University of Singapore. Actual or virtual village-like cultures, where everyone knows way too much about each others business aren't promoters of outside the box thinking.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Promising candidate protein for cancer prevention vaccines Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have learned that some healthy people naturally developed an immune response against a protein that is made in excess levels in many cancers, including breast, lung, and head and neck cancers. The finding suggests that a vaccine against the protein might prevent malignancies.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Psychopaths found to have clear structural deficits in their brains
Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The research investigated the brain biology of psychopaths with convictions that included attempted murder, manslaughter, multiple rape with strangulation and false imprisonment. Using a powerful imaging technique (DT-MRI) the researchers have highlighted biological differences in the brain which may underpin these types of behavior and provide a more comprehensive understanding of criminal psychopathy. Dr Michael Craig said: "If replicated by larger studies the significance of these findings cannot be underestimated. The suggestion of a clear structural deficit in the brains of psychopaths has profound implications for clinicians, research scientists and the criminal justice system."

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Taser's Shockwave is latest WOMO (Weapon Of Mass Oppression)
In the latest example of WOMO at its finest, the TASER company and the military are working together on a TASER Shockwave Weapon of Mass Oppression, which combines a lot of TASER stun devices together so a whole crowd of restive citizens fed up with their corrupt, incompetent elites can be shocked into submission at once. Note to engineers: building stuff like this is evil.

8/05/2009 PERMALINK
Five futuristic interfaces on display at SIGGRAPH The annual meeting of the ACM's Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH 2009, takes place in New Orleans this week. The event brings together some of the world's best digital artists and computer researchers and is a showcase for some interesting new interfaces.

8/04/2009 PERMALINK
High Cholesterol in midlife raises risk of late-life dementia The four-decade study of 9,844 men and women by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland found that having high cholesterol in midlife (240 or higher milligrams per deciliter of blood) increases, by 66 percent, the risk for Alzheimer's disease later in life. Even borderline cholesterol levels (200 - 239 mg/dL) in midlife raised risk for late-life vascular dementia by nearly the same amount: 52 percent. Vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, is a group of dementia syndromes caused by conditions affecting the blood supply to the brain.

8/03/2009 PERMALINK
Mounting evidence of fish oil's heart health benefits "This isn't just hype; we now have tremendous and compelling evidence from very large studies, some dating back 20 and 30 years, that demonstrate the protective benefits of omega-3 fish oil in multiple aspects of preventive cardiology," said Carl Lavie, M.D., medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans. "The strongest evidence of a cardioprotective effect of omega-3s appears in patients with established cardiovascular disease and following a heart attack with up to a 30 percent reduction in CV-related death."

Dietary intake of fish oil can also decrease the risk of atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, heart attack, sudden cardiac death and even health failure. Most of the evidence for the cardioprotective benefits supports the use of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), the long-chain fatty acids in the omega-3 family.

8/03/2009 PERMALINK
Viral mimic causes cancer cells to self-destruct Melanoma cells responded to administration of the dsRNA mimic polyinosine-polycytidylic acid (pIC) by inducing an immune response that led to autophagy. The method of delivering the pIC to the melanoma cells was critical and required a carrier called polyethyleneimine (PEI) to ensure delivery of pIC to the cell cytoplasm. The researchers went on to show that pIC links autophagy to apoptosis, a well studied cell death pathway. Significantly, the cell autonomous anti-tumor activity of pIC was observed even in animals with a suppressed immune system, a condition common to melanoma patients. "Altogether, our results provide the proof of principle for dsRNA sensors as therapeutic targets to overcome the inherent resistance of melanoma cells to current anticancer treatments," says Dr. Maria S. Soengas from the Melanoma Laboratory at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, Spain.

8/03/2009 PERMALINK
Making DNA computers more user friendly Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, but researchers at the Weizmann Institute are already working on making them 'user friendly' enough for regular computer users. Researchers in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro have devised an advanced program for biomolecular computers that enables them to 'think' logically. The device is able to correctly answer logic questions like: 'All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.'

8/03/2009 PERMALINK
Watching iCub learning about objects
Watch as iCub, a bot designed to learn like a human child learns, notices new objects presented to it and adds the concept of that new object to its existent low-level attention system. See also: iCub bot is designed to think like a 2-year-old

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
The long awaited spinal cord injury regeneration breakthrough has arrived
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated that axons can be regenerated and guided to their correct targets and caused to re-form synapse connections after spinal cord injury. The image shows a target cell in the brain (green) contacted by an axon (red) regenerating into the brain from the spinal cord.

In the last few years, researchers have shown that the severed wires of the spinal cord, called axons, can be induced to regenerate, but guiding the regenerating axons to the correct cell target when faced with millions of potential targets and causing them to form connections called synapses, remained beyond reach.

Now, UC San Diego scientists have been able to both regenerate sensory axons and guide them to the appropriate target causing synaptic formation by utilized a nervous system growth factor called neurotrophin-3 (NT-3). Spinal connection regeneration required two other treatments at the same time: placing a cell bridge in the spinal cord injury site to support axon growth, and a "conditioning" stimulus to the injured neuron that turned on regeneration genes for new growth. When the growth factor was placed in the correct target as a guidance cue, axons regenerated into it and formed synapses, but when as a test, the growth factor was placed in the wrong target, axons still followed the growth factor and grew into the wrong region.

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
Up RES your reality with an augmentation overlay
Metaio is a leader in what scientists call augmented reality or as we like to call it, RES, short for Reality Enhancement Systems. Metaio working on RESing up your reality, with true augmented vision featuring 3D optical tracking, stable overlay, high accuracy and an elaborate infrastructure. More demos can be found here.

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
How can you image fragile proteins and viruses without destroying their structure?
Ultrafast, ultrabright x-rays can image proteins or viruses, but explains John Spence, a physicist at Arizona State University, "so as not to scatter, the x-ray beam has to be in a high vacuum, but a protein or virus in its natural state is usually wet. As in T. S. Eliot's Wasteland, water is life. How do we maintain the protein or virus in an aqueous environment inside the vacuum?" The solution is a particle gun, like an ink-jet printer, designed to inject a beam of water droplets across the tightly focused x-ray beam in single file, each droplet so small it contains only a single protein or virus, can solve the problem of imaging complex organic structures.

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
100 free cutting-edge courses that didn't exist when you were in school A lot has happened since you left college. Fortunately, we now live in a meshed world where top universities are making their courses available for free.

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
The coming merger of the physical world with the virtual world A game changing technology called haptics is removing the traditional barrier between the physical and virtual worlds. It is a way of giving virtual objects the illusion of substance in the real world.

8/02/2009 PERMALINK
Are we really in danger of running out of energy? Earth has abundant energy available, providing we develop the technologies necessary to put it to use. Space-based solar power stations could capture and beam down to Earth using microwaves or lasers sufficient energy from the Sun to handle all of our civilization's energy needs indefinitely. And lasers might also be able to let us put those solar power stations in orbit much more cheaply. Then there are the energy sources right here on Earth. Sea water contains 3.3 parts per billion of uranium, enough to supply all of the world's present annual electricity usage for 1.98 million years without strip mining another ounce of CO2 spewing coal.