Lifeboat Foundation

One of the best places to test what it will actually be like to fly in Mars’ thin atmosphere is at 90,000 feet in our own. Ironically, this summer, Airbus and partners are testing the Perlan 2 glider in part to help determine among other things just what we need to do to actually aviate through the red planet’s atmosphere. Maybe Andy Weir has a sequel in him.

By pushing the atmospheric envelope at the edge of Earth’s stratosphere, the Airbus Perlan 2 glider’s next tests should pave the way for both future aviation on Mars and Earth-based commercial hypersonic aircraft, Allan McArtor, the Chairman and CEO of Airbus Group, Inc… told me.

The Perlan 2 sailplane/glider, which had its first test flight last September in Oregon, will attempt to reach its optimal cruising altitude of 90,000 feet as early as this coming June in Argentina, says McArtor. When it does, it will be the highest that any winged vehicle, powered or otherwise has gone.

Continue reading “Aviation on Mars? Airbus Perlan 2 Glider To Help Test Its Limits” »

Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Tesla Motors, Inc, was at Startmeup Hong Kong and talked about what he thought were areas of technological opportunity.

At 37 minutes into this video Elon Musk talks about high potential technology like Hyperloop which he currently does not have time to address electric aircraftgenetics is thorny but is our best shot at many tough diseasesbrain computer interfaces at the neuron level has potential for intelligence augmentationNeural Lace was mentioned.

Scientists from China and the US have found a pioneering way to inject a tiny electronic mesh sensor into the brain that fully integrates with cerebral matter and enables computers to monitor brain activity.

Continue reading “Elon Musk identifies electric aircraft, genetics and neuron scale brain computer interfaces as high potential technologies” »

Hyperloop Technologie

South Summit is one of the leading startup conferences in Europe aimed to prove to the world the talent, the innovation and the opportunities from the South.

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“The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don’t have a space program, it’ll serve us right!”

Larry Niven, quoted by Arthur Clarke in interview at space.com, 2001.

Quotations collected by Sylvia Engdahl about why expansion into space is vital to the future survival of humankind, many of them from well-known people.

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Talk about streamlining and improved efficiencies in clinicals.

Livonia, MI — January 25, 2016 — McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation (MPS&A) announced the release of the McKesson Clinical Programs Solution™, a new platform that allows pharmacists to build customized wellness programs and maintain vendor programs for patients with specific medical conditions. The Clinical Programs Solution™ also saves pharmacists time and labor costs by automatically synchronizing the data of patients enrolled in a clinical program with McKesson’s EnterpriseRx® pharmacy management system.

“In today’s increasingly competitive healthcare reimbursement environment, pharmacies are under more pressure than ever to create and manage clinical programs that address patient wellness,” said Emilie Ray, president, McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation. “Our Clinical Programs Solution can help meet this challenge by providing pharmacists with a flexible, easy-to-use tool to build and manage clinical services that best suit their patients’ needs and positively impact their pharmacy’s bottom line.”

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Good luck with that.

GRAUBUNDEN, SWITZERLAND – The world must act quickly to avert a future in which autonomous robots with artificial intelligence roam the battlefields killing humans, scientists and arms experts warned at an elite gathering in the Swiss Alps.

Rules must be agreed to prevent the development of such weapons, they said at a January 19–23 meeting of billionaires, scientists and political leaders in the snow-covered ski resort of Davos.

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This is huge: “An important mystery has been why some cells in the body already have mutations seen in cancer, but do not yet fully behave like the cancer” Could we finally have a consistent way to identify and treat gene mutations tied to cancer?

For the first time, researchers have visualized the origins of cancer from the first affected cell and watched its spread in a live animal. This work could change the way scientists understand melanoma and other cancers and could lead to new, early treatments before the cancer has taken hold.

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Nice — definitely need this focus.

CELEBRITIES are coming together and signing up to support World Cancer Day.

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One key question can it help control Glioblastoma.

A new “wearable” device being tested to suppress brain-cancer cell growth in patients ended its clinical trials early with positive results. Optune is a battery powered device researchers claim will extend the life of a patient with “newly diagnosed glioblastoma” when it is paired with traditional temozolomide chemotherapy. Researches were confident enough in its effectiveness to end the clinical trials (which ran from July 2009 to November 2014) of the device early. The device is likely not “the cure for cancer,” but it is a step forward in extending the life expectancy of brain-cancer patients and more research will be needed to see if it may be effective on other forms of cancer.

“With this new data, it appears the tumor-treating fields should be used upfront and become a standard of care. We should add this modality to what we’re currently doing for our patients,” said Dr. Maciej Mrugala, a brain-cancer specialist who led UW Medicine’s participation in the clinical trial.

Continue reading “Research: Device Claims To Suppress Brain-Cancer Cell Growth” »