Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: neuroscience

“Suppose you had access to every person’s brain,” asks Dr. Michael Persinger, “and they had access to yours?” Dr. Persinger, cognitive neuroscientist and professor at Laurentian University in Ontario, is convinced that this is not only possible but is immanent in the coming future. Why? How? In short, his pioneering research shows a strong correlation between the Earth’s magnetic field and the human brain.

If Dr. Persinger is correct, the Earth’s magnetic field is constantly interfacing with our own brains in such a manner as to influence our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. This interface, however, seems to have another effect: Dr. Persinger’s research seems to indicate that the geomagnetic field can store and transmit all the information of every human brain in history. And if we can tap into this informational reservoir, there will be no more secrets. In such a scenario, for example, we can know the true intentions of large corporations, regardless of what they may say through the media. We’d be able to feel and experience the pain of starving people in Africa. This is huge! Pay attention and enjoy!

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In Brief.

  • Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke.
  • A team of scientists has discovered a common mechanism chain leading to brain cell death which involves proteins eating away at a cell’s DNA.

A team of scientists has discovered that, despite having varied causes and symptoms, most brain diseases all share a common mechanism chain leading to brain cell death. The process, aptly named parthanatos after an enzyme called PARP and the Greek god of death, involves proteins eating away at the cell’s DNA.

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Rapamycin could lead to the development of drugs to delay some aspects of aging in particular the immune systems decline with age.

Nearly a decade of research showing that Rapamycin makes mice live up to 60% longer, scientists are trying it out as an anti-aging drug in dogs and humans.

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Dog Aging Project gave rapamycin to 16 dogs and imaged their hearts.

“It started to function better. It started to look like a more youthful heart,” said Matt Kaeberlein, co-director of the Dog Aging Project, who has presented this research at conferences but hasn’t yet published it.

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Imagine a cow being branded on a farm. Now imagine your family dog being micro-chipped so he can be returned to his owners if lost. The next logical step from these commonly accepted practices include the tagging and observation of you. The only question is who is doing the tagging?

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Summary: Researchers have identified a set of heat sensing neurons that prompt both nervous system and behavioral changes that help cool the body.

Source: NIH.

The body’s temperature is closely regulated. We sense temperature changes in the environment through specialized nerve cells in the outer layers of the skin. If we are too hot or too cold, our nervous system activates responses to help change our temperature. We can sweat to cool down or shiver to generate heat. Our blood vessels can constrict to conserve heat or expand to release heat. To avoid discomfort, we sometimes seek out different environments―choosing to go into an air conditioned room or sit by a heater.

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Computation is stuck in a rut. The integrated circuits that powered the past 50 years of technological revolution are reaching their physical limits.

This predicament has computer scientists scrambling for new ideas: new devices built using novel physics, new ways of organizing units within computers and even algorithms that use new or existing systems more efficiently. To help coordinate new ideas, Sandia National Laboratories has assisted organizing the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Rebooting Computing held Oct. 17–19.

Researchers from Sandia’s Data-driven and Neural Computing Dept. will present three papers at the conference, highlighting the breadth of potential non-traditional neural computing applications.

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Classifying aging as a disease, the debate is hotting up as ICD11 at WHO draws near.

What is considered to be normal and what is considered to be diseased is strongly influenced by historical context (Moody, ). Matters once considered to be diseases are no longer classified as such. For example, when black slaves ran away from plantations they were labeled to suffer from drapetomania and medical treatment was used to try to “cure” them (Reznek, ). Similarly, masturbation was seen as a disease and treated with treatments such as cutting away the clitoris or cauterizing it (Reznek, ). Finally, homosexuality was considered a disease as recently as 1974 (Reznek, ). In addition to the social and cultural influence on disease definition, new scientific and medical discoveries lead to the revision of what is a disease and what is not (Butler, ). For example, fever was once seen as a disease in its own right but the realization that different underlying causes would lead to the appearance of fever changed its status from disease to symptom (Reznek, ). Conversely, several currently recognized diseases, such as osteoporosis, isolated systolic hypertension, and senile Alzheimer’s disease, were in the past ascribed to normal aging (Izaks and Westendorp, ; Gems, ). Osteoporosis was only officially recognized as a disease in 1994 by the World Health Organization (WHO, ).

Disease is a complex phenomenon and a current definition must consider both a biological and social explanation. The medical definition of disease is any abnormality of bodily structure or function, other than those arising directly from physical injury; the latter, however, may open the way for disease (Marcovitch, ). The disorder has a specific cause and recognizable signs and symptoms, and can affect humans, other animals, and plants (Martin, ). The social aspect of disease is significant when trying to divide a line between a healthy and a pathological state. This is a highly context and value driven process and, considering the WHO definition of health as a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” it is not as simple as classifying disease as the opposite of health (WHO, ). “Someone starving to death is not taken to have a disease, but is still not considered healthy” (Reznek, ).

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