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May 30, 2017

Dark Energy May Lurk in the Nothingness of Space

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

The new work addresses not only what dark energy is but why the rate of universal expansion has the value it does.

“Everybody wants to know what dark energy is,” Wang told Live Science. “I reconsidered this question more carefully,” from the perspective of the universe’s energy density.

Wang and his colleagues assumed that modern quantum field theory was correct about the energy density being very large, but that the vacuum fluctuations, or the movements of empty space, were very large on tiny scales, near what is called the Planck length, or 1.62 × 10 ^ minus 35 meters. That’s so small that a proton is 100 million trillion times bigger.

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May 30, 2017

Is China Outsmarting America in A.I.?

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

HONG KONG — Sören Schwertfeger finished his postdoctorate research on autonomous robots in Germany, and seemed set to go to Europe or the United States, where artificial intelligence was pioneered and established.

Instead, he went to China.

“You couldn’t have started a lab like mine elsewhere,” Mr. Schwertfeger said.

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May 29, 2017

Spy shots reveal Tesla Model 3’s radical single screen dashboard

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Anticipation is growing for the July release of Tesla’s ‘affordable’ $35,000 Model 3.

Now, the latest shots of Telsa testing the car may have revealed one of its final secrets — what the interior will look like.

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May 29, 2017

ROBOT ARMIES: End of western soldiers in war zones ‘within a DECADE’ as MACHINES take over

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

Peace and love on this Memorial Day to those who served and gave their lives for freedom. My interview a while back with Express is still right on.track about the future of military and how most human soldier casualties will be a thing of the past.


THERE will be no longer be human casualties of war from wealthy countries within 10 years as advanced militaries will begin sending MACHINES to warzones, an expert has claimed.

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May 29, 2017

The Need for Better Aging Biomarkers

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

There is an urgent need to develop better biomarkers and to use the in cost effective packages for accurate measurement of aging.


As human life expectancy has increased throughout the 20th and 21st centuries this has led to a steady increase in the population of older people. With that increase has come the rise of age-related diseases and disabilities. As a result it is becoming ever more important to develop preventative strategies to monitor and maintain health as well as therapies that directly address the various aging processes to delay or prevent the onset of age-related diseases.

One of the ways we can do this is by developing more effective ways to measure how someone is aging, this means developing high quality aging biomarkers. The challenge in creating such biomarkers has always been the fundamental question – what do we measure?

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May 29, 2017

Bioelectricity is a new weapon to fight dangerous infection

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, neuroscience

By Kim Thurler, Tufts University

(MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass.) — Changing the natural electrical signaling that exists in cells outside the nervous system can improve resistance to life-threatening bacterial infections, according to new research from Tufts University biologists. The researchers found that administering drugs, including those already used in humans for other purposes, to make the cell interior more negatively charged strengthens tadpoles’ innate immune response to E. coli infection and injury. This reveals a novel aspect of the immune system – regulation by non-neural bioelectricity – and suggests a new approach for clinical applications in human medicine. The study is published online May 26, 2017, in npj Regenerative Medicine, a Nature Research journal.

“All cells, not just nerve cells, naturally generate and receive electrical signals. Being able to regulate such non-neural bioelectricity with the many ion channel and neurotransmitter drugs that are already human-approved gives us an amazing new toolkit to augment the immune system’s ability to resist infections,” said the paper’s corresponding author Michael Levin, Ph.D., Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology and Director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences. Levin is also an Associate Faculty member of the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

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May 29, 2017

Here’s how to launch a satellite for less than $1M

Posted by in category: satellites

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May 29, 2017

For The First Time Ever, CRISPR Gene Editing Was Used in Humans. So What’s Next?

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, space

  • With Chinese scientists announcing that they have tested CRISPR on a human for the first time, the U.S. must decide soon whether it will be a leader or a follower in advancing the tech.
  • While gene editing technology could be used in nefarious ways, it could also cure diseases and improve millions of lives, but we won’t know how effective it is until we begin human trials.

While the middle part of the 20th century saw the world’s superpowers racing to explore space, the first global competition of this century is being set in a much smaller arena: our DNA.

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May 28, 2017

How to Realize Autonomous Vehicle Safety and Mobility Benefits

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Self-driving vehicles could improve public safety. They could also improve mobility for older Americans, people with disabilities, and others. How can policymakers help ensure that these benefits are realized?

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May 28, 2017

Russia thinks microorganisms may be living outside the space station

Posted by in category: space

May 26 (UPI) — Officials with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, say their scientists have identified plankton and other microorganisms among dust samples collected from the outside of the International Space Station.

“The micrometeorites and comet dust that settle on the ISS surface may contain biogenic substance of extra-terrestrial origin in its natural form,” Roscosmos officials said in a news release. “The ISS surface is possibly a unique and easily available collector and keeper of comet substance and, possibly, of biomaterial of extra-terrestrial origin.”

NASA officials said they couldn’t confirm the story.

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