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Apr 29, 2017

Parkinson’s linked to gut bacteria

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, neuroscience

For the first time, researchers have found a functional link between the bacteria in the gut and the onset of Parkinson’s disease, one of the world’s most common debilitating brain disorders.

A team of scientists from several institutions in the United States and Europe showed how changing the bacteria in the guts of mice affected the manifestation of Parkinson’s symptoms — even including bacteria taken from the guts of humans with the disease.

The findings suggest a new way of treating the disease: The best target for treatment may be the gut, rather than the brain. The researchers hope the new information can be used to develop “next generation” probiotics, more sophisticated than the sort of probiotics found on the shelves of health food stores today.

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Apr 29, 2017

Russian combat robot can shoot guns, train at the gym and drive a car

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Not sure why he’d want to go to the gym though;

Oh, and in seriousness, i hope the Russians actually deploy this thing in the field so that Google gets a well deserved kick in the ass for what they’ve done to Boston Dynamics.


Russian ‘combat robot’ can shoot guns, lift weights in training at the gym and even drive a car The Kremlin are planning on launching the robot into space and are working on technology that would allow even it to make its own decisions.

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Apr 28, 2017

This Skyscraper Concept Would Heal Icebergs and Eat Carbon Dioxide

Posted by in categories: climatology, food, sustainability

The “reverse climate change machine” is an honorable mention in the Evolo Skyscraper Design Competition.

A one-stop skyscraping shop for urbane living and fighting climate change called the HEAL-BERG is among the selected entries in eVolo’s annual Skyscraper Competition, which invites the world’s designers to “challenge the way we understand vertical architecture.” The mammoth pearlescent structure would simultaneously cool Antarctic ocean water, scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and generate electricity with saltwater and wind turbines, creating what the designers call, a “reverse climate change machine.”

Luca Beltrame and Saba Nabavi Tafreshi created HEAL-BERG as a response to a potential future in which, “climate was changing at a rate exceeding most scientific forecasts; oceans warming, air pollution and climate change were caught in a discernible self-boosting loop. In the speculative world they’ve created, it’s 2039, 21.5 million people are being displaced annually due to climate change and, “the complex patterns representing the world were doomed to collapse.”

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Apr 28, 2017

Scientists Discover Extinct Human DNA in Cave Dirt

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

A group of German scientists have found the DNA of extinct humans — without finding any skeletal remains.

The researchers, who are currently excavating even dig sites in Belgium, Croatia, France, Russia and Spain, have found genetic remains of ancient humans like the Neanderthals and their cousins, the Denisovans, in sediment samples, the New York Times reports.


Ancient human DNA has been found in cave dirt in Croatia, but without any skeletal remains, scientists say.

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Apr 28, 2017

This doctor plans to perform a human head transplant this year

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Sergio Canavero, a controversial professor and neurosurgeon, wants to perform the first human head transplant in December.

He told German magazine OOOM that the procedure will take place in China. According to the Observer, it will take 80 surgeons, 36 hours and $10 million to execute.

Like a sci-fi tale come to life, Canavero, who’s also the former director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, claims that people whose brains have been cryogenically frozen could be revived within three years.

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Apr 28, 2017

A Russian tycoon’s $100 million effort to listen for aliens has published its first results

Posted by in category: alien life

Breakthrough Listen’s radio telescopes heard millions of possible signals, but only 11 rose to significance.

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Apr 28, 2017

America’s Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Replaced by Robots

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

America’s working class is falling further behind.

The rich-poor gap — the difference in annual income between households in the top 20 percent and those in the bottom 20 percent — ballooned by $29,200 to $189,600 between 2010 and 2015, based on Bloomberg calculations using U.S. Census Bureau data.

Computers and robots are taking over many types of tasks, shoving aside some workers while boosting the productivity of specialized employees, contributing to the gap.

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Apr 28, 2017

Elon Musk teases Tesla electric semi truck, up to 4 new Gigafactory locations

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Elon Musk was on stage at the 2017 TED Conference in Vancouver on Friday, and he revealed some of his tunnel work and aspirations, but he also talked about a few ongoing Tesla projects he’s referenced before. The multi-CEO showed a shadowy image that gives us our first look at what his forthcoming electric Semi Truck will look like, and also let drop the suggestion that Tesla will likely announce four new global Gigafactory locations sometime this year.

Elon Musk teased semi-truck at TED talk. pic.twitter.com/sY0w7KSsTx

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Apr 28, 2017

Here’s the first look at how Elon Musk’s ‘boring’ car tunnels will work

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, transportation

Cars will be lowered into the tunnel from the roads on what Musk calls a car “skate.”

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Apr 28, 2017

Hindsight and foresight together more accurately ‘predict’ a quantum system’s state

Posted by in category: quantum physics

We’re so used to murder mysteries that we don’t even notice how mystery authors play with time. Typically the murder occurs well before the midpoint of the book, but there is an information blackout at that point and the reader learns what happened then only on the last page.

If the last page were ripped out of the book, physicist Kater Murch, PhD, said, would the reader be better off guessing what happened by reading only up to the fatal incident or by reading the entire book?

The answer, so obvious in the case of the murder mystery, is less so in world of quantum mechanics, where indeterminacy is fundamental rather than contrived for our reading pleasure.

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