Menu

Blog

Page 9445

May 31, 2018

When I am Eighty-Five

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, life extension

I will be 85 somewhere in the mid 2050s. It seems like a mirage, an impossible thing, but the future eventually arrives regardless of whatever you or I might think about it. We all have a vision of what it is to be 85 today, informed by our interactions with elder family members, if nothing else. People at that age are greatly impacted by aging. They falter, their minds are often slowed. They are physically weak, in need of aid. Perhaps that is why we find it hard to put ourselves into that position; it isn’t a pleasant topic to think about. Four decades out into the future may as well be a science fiction novel, a far away land, a tale told to children, for all the influence it has on our present considerations. There is no weight to it.

When I am 85, there will have been next to no senescent cells in my body for going on thirty years. I bear only a small fraction of the inflammatory burden of older people of past generations. I paid for the products of companies descended from Oisin Biotechnologies and Unity Biotechnology, every few years wiping away the accumulation of senescent cells, each new approach more effective than the last. Eventually, I took one of the permanent gene therapy options, made possible by biochemical discrimination between short-term beneficial senescence and long-term harmful senescence, and then there was little need for ongoing treatments. Artificial DNA machinery floats in every cell, a backup for the normal mechanisms of apoptosis, triggered by lingering senescence.

When I am 85, the senolytic DNA machinery will be far from the only addition to my cells. I underwent a half dozen gene therapies over the years. I picked the most useful of the many more that were available, starting once the price fell into the affordable-but-painful range, after the initial frenzy of high-cost treatments subsided into business as usual. My cholesterol transport system is enhanced to attack atherosclerotic lesions, my muscle maintenance and neurogenesis operate at levels far above what was once a normal range for my age, and my mitochondria are both enhanced in operation and well-protected against damage by additional copies of mitochondrial genes backed up elsewhere in the cell. Some of these additions were rendered moot by later advances in medicine, but they get the job done.

Read more

May 31, 2018

Cometh the cyborg: Improved integration of living muscles into robots

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, robotics/AI

The new field of biohybrid robotics involves the use of living tissue within robots, rather than just metal and plastic.


Researchers have developed a novel method of growing whole muscles from hydrogel sheets impregnated with myoblasts. They then incorporated these muscles as antagonistic pairs into a biohybrid robot, which successfully performed manipulations of objects. This approach overcame earlier limitations of a short functional life of the muscles and their ability to exert only a weak force, paving the way for more advanced biohybrid robots.

Read more

May 31, 2018

Heroes of Innovation: Zoltan Istvan

Posted by in categories: biological, geopolitics, transhumanism

I’ll be speaking at the exciting Future Flux Festival on the Heroes of Innovation program section on June 15 in the Netherlands. Come join me! https://www.futurefluxfestival.nl/…/heroes-of-innovation-z…/ #transhumanism


Transhumanism is the field of merging human beings with machines and radical science. The field has grown from fringe to a nearly mainstream social movement. Today, there are tens of millions of transhumanists around the world, many who are scientists and technologists focusing on overcoming biological death with innovation. The movement got a major push when Zoltan Istvan, a former journalist for National Geographic, published his bestselling philosophical novel The Transhumanist Wager. In 2016 Zoltan ran for the Presidency of the United States as the nominee of the Transhumanist Party. His campaign was broadly covered in major media for nearly two years, and it helped spearhead the transformation of transhumanism into a thriving worldwide phenomenon. Always wanted to know more about transhumanism? See you at the Future Flux Festival!

Zoltan Istvan is also part of our Heroes of Innovation panel. After their presentations you can ask our panel anything. Take a deep dive into the minds of these great innovators!

Continue reading “Heroes of Innovation: Zoltan Istvan” »

May 31, 2018

“Antipodes Map — Tunnel to the other side of the world”

Posted by in category: futurism

Antípodas.


Antipodes map helps you find the other side of the world, the antipodes of any place on Earth. This map shows diametrically opposite location named antipode or antipodal point.

Read more

May 31, 2018

Chronic Supplementation With a Mitochondrial Antioxidant (MitoQ) Improves Vascular Function in Healthy Older Adults

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Earlier this month, there was a human clinical trial of the supplement MitoQ, which showed some interesting results. We thought that we would take a look at the data, and discuss the findings.


Excess reactive oxygen species production by mitochondria is a key mechanism of age-related vascular dysfunction. Our laboratory has shown that supplementation with the mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant MitoQ improves vascular endothelial function by reducing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and ameliorates arterial stiffening in old mice, but the effects in humans are unknown. Here, we sought to translate our preclinical findings to humans and determine the safety and efficacy of MitoQ. Twenty healthy older adults (60–79 years) with impaired endothelial function (brachial artery flow–mediated dilation 6%) underwent 6 weeks of oral supplementation with MitoQ (20 mg/d) or placebo in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover design study.

Read more

May 31, 2018

Pig brains kept alive without a body

Posted by in categories: innovation, neuroscience

A new wonderful breakthrough of our time.


Scientists raise ethical concerns as the brain cells of decapitated pigs are kept alive for 36 hours.

Read more

May 31, 2018

‘Memory transplant’ achieved in snails

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Sounds neat.


Memories are transferred from one snail to another in a laboratory.

Read more

May 31, 2018

Mike West, CEO AgeX, at

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

New video from Undoing Aging 2018: Mike West, Founder, and CEO of AgeX, presenting their work on induced tissue regeneration: Leveraging the unique regenerative potential of pluripotent stem-cell-derived therapeutics.


Accelerating rejuvenation therapies to repair the damage of aging. Berlin, March, 15 — 17.

Continue reading “Mike West, CEO AgeX, at” »

May 31, 2018

John Lewis, CSO of Oisin Biotechnologies, presenting at

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

New video from Undoing Aging 2018: John Lewis, CTO of Oisín Biotechnologies presenting their work developing very selective therapies to kill senescence cells.


Accelerating rejuvenation therapies to repair the damage of aging. Berlin, March, 15 — 17.

Continue reading “John Lewis, CSO of Oisin Biotechnologies, presenting at” »

May 31, 2018

Testing deflection

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space, transportation

In 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collides with the smaller body of the Didymos binary asteroid system in an attempt to measurably shift its orbit.

ESA’s Hera mission, now under study, will examine the aftermath of this impact to help determine whether humans can deflect threatening asteroids.

Hera will also demonstrate the ability to operate at close proximity around a low-gravity asteroid with some on-board autonomy similar in scope to a self-driving car, going on to deploy Europe’s first deep-space CubeSats, and potentially also a micro-lander, to test out a new multi-point intersatellite link technology.

Read more