Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: food

The things we need to know for the 2016 robotic experience — robot clusters, manufacturing & logistics, food & healthcare, A3 Mexico Coming Soon and robotics integration.

Bold predictions for Collaboration, Connectivity and Convergence rang in 2015. One industry insider even called them prescient. Looking back a year later, we see the five-year forecast materializing faster than expected.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is more than a buzzword. With drones taking to the skies and autonomous robots navigating our warehouses, local eateries, hotels, hospitals, and stores, and soon our roadways – the differences between industrial, collaborative, and service robots continue to blur. No longer are robots reserved for multinational conglomerates or the rich eccentric with a sweet tooth for high-tech toys. SMEs and your average homeowner can now join the party. Sensors, software, and hardware are getting smarter and cheaper. We’re democratizing robotics for the masses.

It’s taken longer than some had hoped. But we’re approaching the tipping point for many automation technologies. We’re envisioning a world where robots will help the elderly and infirm with everyday tasks, so they can live independently longer. We’re moving closer to Asimov’s robots and to the “mobile, sensate robot” Engelberger anticipated. It’s the paradigm shift foretold by visionaries past and present.

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Interesting; no more rotten fruit. Researchers may actually found a new way to preserve perishable foods. Can you imagine the cost savings to consumers, plus being able to supply more people with fresh fruits and vegetables. World Bank and Health Organizations should be interested in this as well.

It does make me wonder how the research on life extension, etc. can learn from the findings of this experiment.

Researchers have managed to “pluck” a single photon – one particle of light – out of a pulse of light.”

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Stanford used modified messenger RNA to extend the telomeres so the whole process if it translates effectively into humans — and the evidence is suggesting it will — would be pretty straightforward especially when you consider the degree of extension which is 1000 nucleotides and the fact that the telomerase which lengthens the telomeres is only active in the body for 48 hours which means there is no significant risk of cancer due to the limited time during which proliferation of the cells could take place.

It’s true that Lobsters defy the normal aging process which in humans increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes in humans but not only that they actually become stronger and bigger with age each time they shed their shell whereas humans and other mammals are completely the opposite suffering muscle loss, stiffness and elevated risk of fractures etc. Lobsters just keep growing and can grow to a colossal size over the years there is information on a 95 year old 23 pounder (10.5kg) here http://www.cbsnews.com/news/95-year-old-lobster-featured-at-long-island-new-york-restaurant/

Normally a lobster dies because it is eaten by a predator I.e us!, suffers an injury or gets a disease. we know the reason they remain fit and strong and it lies in their use of telomerase to protect their DNA and prevent their telomeres shortening and as a result protecting their cells from dying they also have a vast supply of stem cells which can turn into any into any type body of tissue and this will be one of our main tools for biomedical repairs in the future along with telomere lengthening as explained below because if we can extend our telomeres we will also hold one of the keys to life extension.

Based on current research it is technically possible and highly probable work on telomere lengthening at Stanford university will translate into humans giving us the health benefits currently confined to lobsters and the hydra. The primary concern with the lengthening of telomeres used to lie in the theoretically elevated risk of cancer but this problem does not apply based on the current research which you can see on the Stanford University website here https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/01/telomere-extension-turns-back-aging-clock-in-cultured-cells.html as a researcher in aging I consider this research and some supporting and complementary research which has taken place at Harvard coupled with a additional research relating to a compounds that is related to Rapamycin tends to indicate that we are finally making significant progress in addressing the diseases of aging. Interestingly shortening of telomeres was until recently perceived by many as being a result of aging and not causal but the research at Stanford clearly repudiates this and suggests that Dr Bill Andrews the leading researcher into telomeres was correct all the way along.

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In August 2015, astronauts on the International Space Station ate the first vegetables grown in space; earlier this month, they coaxed the first zinnias to bloom.

Though space agricultural technology hasn’t quite reached the level of that seen in The Martian, overcoming the challenges presented by zero-gravity to grow plants was a feat in itself.

Yesterday (Jan. 20), NASA released a video describing the “historic vegetable moment” and explaining the growing process more in-depth. You can watch it here:

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Although the recent article and announcement of Josiah Zayner (CA scientist) new do it yourself gene editing kit for $120 sent shock waves across industry as well as further raised the question “how do we best put controls in place to ensure ethics and prevent disaster or a crisis?”; this genie truly is out of the bottle. Because Josiah created this easily in his own kitchen, it can be replicated by many others in their own homes. What we have to decide is how to best mitigate it’s impact. Black markets & exotic animal, etc. collectors around the world will pay handsomely for this capability and raise the stakes of the most bizarre animals (deadly and non-deadly) to be created for their own profits and amusements.

BURLINGAME, Calif. — On the kitchen table of his cramped apartment, Josiah Zayner is performing the feat that is transforming biology. In tiny vials, he’s cutting, pasting and stirring genes, as simply as mixing a vodka tonic. Next, he slides his new hybrid creations, living in petri dishes, onto a refrigerator shelf next to the vegetables. And he’s packaging and selling his DIY gene-editing technique for $120 so that everyone else can do it, too.

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This is an interesting conjecture.

We may be able to keep our gut in check after all. That’s the tantalizing finding from a new study published today that reveals a way that mice—and potentially humans—can control the makeup and behavior of their gut microbiome. Such a prospect upends the popular notion that the complex ecosystem of germs residing in our guts essentially acts as our puppet master, altering brain biochemistry even as it tends to our immune system, wards off infection and helps us break down our supersized burger and fries.

In a series of elaborate experiments researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital discovered that mouse poop is chock full of tiny, noncoding RNAs called microRNAs from their gastrointestinal (GI) tracts and that these biomolecules appear to shape and regulate the microbiome. “We’ve known about how microbes can influence your health for a few years now and in a way we’ve always suspected it’s a two-way process, but never really pinned it down that well,” says Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, not involved with the new study. “This [new work] explains quite nicely the two-way interaction between microbes and us, and it shows the relationship going the other way—which is fascinating,” says Spector, author of The Diet Myth: Why the Secret to Health and Weight Loss Is Already in Your Gut.

What’s more, human feces share 17 types of microRNAs with the mice, which may portend similar mechanisms in humans, the researchers found. It could also potentially open new treatment approaches involving microRNA transplantations. “Obviously that raises the immediate question: ‘Where do the microRNAs come from and why are they there?,’” says senior author Howard Weiner, a neurologist at both Harvard and Brigham. The work was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

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It’s not always talked about in polite company, but your body produces a lot of gases scientists know little about.

A new smart pill, designed at Melbourne’s RMIT University, could help us learn more and may eventually assist in customising what we eat to suit our bodies.

Researchers from the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors have developed the pill, which can measure intestinal gases, and they have now undertaken the first animal tests using the technology to examine the impact of fibre on the gut.

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The Wi-Fi Alliance branded its next-generation 802.11ah wireless protocol as Wi-Fi HaLow. It is targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes the smart home, connected car, and digital healthcare, as well as industrial, retail, agriculture, and smart-city environments. Unlike the older and more familiar 802.11 protocols, which mostly use the 2.4 or 5GHz bands, 802.11ah is a sub-gigahertz protocol that uses the 900MHz band. It has an enviable combination of characteristics.

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Andrew Ng hands me a tiny device that wraps around my ear and connects to a smartphone via a small cable. It looks like a throwback—a smartphone earpiece without a Bluetooth connection. But it’s really a glimpse of the future. In a way, this tiny device allows the blind to see.

Ng is the chief scientist at Chinese tech giant Baidu, and this is one of the company’s latest prototypes. It’s called DuLight. The device contains a tiny camera that captures whatever is in front of you—a person’s face, a street sign, a package of food—and sends the images to an app on your smartphone. The app analyzes the images, determines what they depict, and generates an audio description that’s heard through to your earpiece. If you can’t see, you can at least get an idea of what’s in front of you.

Artificial intelligence is changing not only the way we use our computers and smartphones but the way we interact with the real world.

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