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Jan 5, 2019

High Blood Pressure Implicated in Cognitive Impairment

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A new study has discovered that patients with high blood pressure and abnormalities in the periventricular white matter in the brain showed signs of cognitive impairment despite taking medication to lower their blood pressure.

High blood pressure has been linked to an increased risk for dementia, but what’s unclear is what kinds of subtle negative changes take place in the brain that may affect cognitive function, according to researchers. Finding new ways to detect minor types of cognitive impairment may help determine who is at risk for early-stage dementia, they noted.

In the study, researchers looked at 345 men and women with a median age of 65 who had high blood pressure.

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Jan 5, 2019

A 14-Year-Old California Engineer Transformed Paper and Cotton Into Plastic

Posted by in category: materials

“I remember that, right when the first judge asked me their first question, everything just sort of clicked,” Prawira tells Inverse. “Everything rolled off my tongue to the point where I was talking and not really conscious of what I was saying. Everything was coming out of me, like I was born to say it.”

That science fair was one of many competitions that eventually took Prawira to the nation-wide 2018 BROADCOM Masters tournament in Washington, D.C., where she showed off her work in creating biofiber plastics, created from paper, cotton, and corn husks. About 4,000 student scientists competed in science fairs around the United States to reach that level, and this year Prawira won one of the top awards the competition has to offer.

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Jan 5, 2019

Aussie scientists make groundbreaking ‘melanoma-stopping’ discovery

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers at the University of Queensland claim to be able to stop the spread and growth of the deadly ca…


Jan 5, 2019

Crude SpaceX Starhopper is 70 to 120 Days From First Test Flight

Posted by in category: space travel

The SpaceX Starhopper seems like the fastest development of a prototype rocket outside of a wartime rocket program. The purpose of the inexpensive testing is to have the first flight tests of the new Raptor engine. Three of the engines have been placed in a row and the tests will allow control software to be tested and the throttling of the engines to be tested.

The Starhopper rocket should be stacked and welded into one piece within a few days or weeks. The Texas launch pad is still being built and is still piled dirt.

The work on the rocket and the launch pad will come together over the next 60 days and then the rocket will be moved to the launch pad for a first flight in March or April 2019.

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Jan 5, 2019

7 Early Warning Signs of ‘Brain Attack’ That Appear Almost 1 Month Before Stroke

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

A stroke or a “brain attack” can have life-threatening consequences just like a heart attack. However, there are some early signs of a stroke that start showing up as early as a month before it actually happens. Here are seven such symptoms—knowing them might save someone’s life.

Strokes happen when a blood vessel transporting oxygen to the brain bursts or gets obstructed by a clot. As a result, the brain doesn’t receive much oxygen and the brain cells start to die off. The functions controlled by the affected part of the brain will not be performed normally, and this will have a huge impact on health.

A stroke can manifest differently in every individual, but one thing in common is that it initiates suddenly. Read below the most common symptoms that manifest one month before a stroke, and if you are experiencing any of these, think about consulting your doctor.

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Jan 5, 2019

Synthetic organisms are about to challenge what ‘alive’ really means

Posted by in categories: evolution, space

And there will be increasing pressures to continue this research. We may need to accelerate the evolution of terrestrial life forms, for example, including homo sapiens, so that they carry traits and capabilities needed for life in space or even on our own changing planet.

All of this will bring up serious issues as to how we see ourselves – and behave – as a species. While the creation of multicellular organisms that are capable of sexual reproduction is still a long way off, in 2019 we will need to begin a serious debate about whether artificially evolved humans are our future, and if we should put an end to these experiments before it is too late.

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Jan 5, 2019

Getting serious about plant intelligence

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Plant cognitive ecologist Monica Gagliano talks about the challenges facing serious scientific research into plant intelligence.

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Jan 5, 2019

Military-industrial complex finds a growth market in hypersonic weaponry

Posted by in categories: business, military

Analysts say there are just four companies with sufficient resources and know-how to produce hypersonic weapons: Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.


Defense Department officials say they want to start fielding advanced hypersonic weapons systems “in the thousands.” Defense contractors see a business opportunity.

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Jan 4, 2019

Becoming the First Transhuman: A Call For The Right Stuff

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, genetics, life extension, neuroscience, space, transhumanism

Many scientists research the practical and immediate applications of bio molecular technology but it seems most fail to study our most important, and largest organ, our skin.


Who will officially be the first transhuman? Will it be you? Why wait decades? This article explains one approach to speeding up the process and also the challenge involved.

Defining the Object of the Goal:

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Jan 4, 2019

MIT Envisions ‘Guide Star’ Satellites to Stabilize Giant Telescopes

Posted by in categories: innovation, satellites

Missions like the Kepler Space Telescope and the newer Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have revealed thousands of exoplanets out there among the stars, but we know surprisingly little about them. To get up close and personal, we’re going to need extremely precise space telescopes. MIT scientists have proposed an innovative way to make sure those instruments remain calibrated and capable of peering at distant exoplanets. They suggest designers incorporate a smaller secondary satellite that can act as a “guide star” for the telescope.

Space researchers are anxious to get new super-sized telescopes in space because the equipment we have right now is only adept at finding planets and relaying basic information. Most exoplanets in the database were discovered via the transit method, which watches for dips in brightness as planets pass in front of their home stars. From this, we can often discern a planet’s size, orbit, and approximate temperature. To get detailed data about its atmosphere and composition, we need telescopes like the upcoming (and chronically delayed) James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb will offer much greater imaging prowess than Hubble because its primary mirror is larger, composed of 18 hexagonal segments with a total diameter of 6.5 meters. In the coming decades, space telescopes could reach 15 meters with as many as 100 mirror segments. Such telescopes would have a coronagraph, an instrument capable of separating the intense light of a star from the faint light of an exoplanet. If this measurement isn’t perfect, the telescope would be unable to resolve the details on a planet.

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