HUMODS.com

Breakthrough Alert Episode 5

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:09:00 +0000

Your weekly Breakthrough Alert podcast begins now.

Research involving 136,474 people who were asked about their use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen has found after six years that regular users of ibuprofen were 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who didn't take ibuprofen.

MIT's Flyfire project uses a swarm of miniature helicopters with LED lights to create a display screen in three dimensional space. With each bot acting as smart mobile pixel flying in close formation with the rest of the swarm. The Flyfire bots can theoretically form complex three dimensional shapes to create a digital display of virtually any size.

The history classes in government-run schools never mention this, but the Federal government once deliberately executed without trial more than 10,000 Americans in order to enforce a law inspired by religious zealotry. During the alcohol prohibition era, frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned in the 1920's and 1930's. Federal officials ordered the random poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States that were regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking by killing some of the lawbreakers, just for enjoying an illegal drink at their local speakeasy. By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, based on counts of the nightly death toll made by hospital doctors, the Feds had poisoned to death over 10,000 people in their failed effort to impose puritanical Christian zealotry on Americans. Nation states and religious zealotry are at the top of the list of the most toxic, lethal and freedom destroying memes ever invented. They are especially destructive when they join forces, as they did to bring about alcohol prohibition and as they did again in the War on Drugs, which is even today adding to the millions of lives it has destroyed.

Dr. Ijad Madisch has created a "Facebook for scientists" called ResearchGATE, which has rapidly grown to include more than 250,000 researchers in over 1,000 discipline subgroups sharing tens of thousands of new research documents annually on the site.

Scientists at the Wingate Institute in Israel have determined that a few minor variations in just one gene, NRF2, appear to make the difference in determining your athletic endurance.

Scientists have found a way to program ordinary oil droplets to function as sophisticated nano-machines that are "smart" enough to navigate through a complex maze just like a trained lab rat. The finding could have a wide range of practical applications in human regenerative therapies, scientists say.

If you'd like to screen a panel discussion on the subject of Is Aging Really Necessary?, a link is embedded in the text version of this podcast at our web site.

In an effort to sidestep the religious Luddites holding back the tremendous medical progress possible through the study of human embryonic stem cells to treat diseases. Scientists are being forced to waste their precious research time developing non-controversial alternatives. In particular, they are seeking chemical compounds that can re-program adult skin cells into the stem cells now obtained from human embryos. The ultimate goal is to be able to reprogram any cell of the body into another by means of a simple molecular kit. Medical research delays caused by the need to get around religious obstructionism has cost millions of lives over the years. It began over 100 years ago, when religious zealots held up the introduction of blood transfusions for decades. Because they thought back then that the soul flowed around in your blood stream. So mixing your blood with another might mix your soul with another. Sadly, the hoodoo of these profoundly ignorant busybodies is still killing thousands every day by holding back stem cell research.

Memories that we have just acquired, a new phone number, or the name of a new acquaintance, are more liable to be forgotten than memories we have held for some time. We know this from experience, but we are just learning about events inside and between nerve cells that account for the loss of short-term memory. Now, a neuroscience team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has discovered that three kinds of forgetting, all involving the erasure of short-term memory, are regulated within neurons by the activity of a protein called Rac.

Life's smallest motor, a protein called kinesin that shuttles cargo within your cells and helps your cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw according to new high-resolution snapshots. The images, taken by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brandeis University, are the closest look yet at the structural changes kinesin proteins undergo as they ferry molecules.

New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

Screen the next generation of fully articulated myo-electric hands. Bebionic prosthetic hands feature naturally compliant grip patterns combining innovative technology with life-like appearance. Functions of the hand such as speed, grip force and grip patterns may be custom programmed to suit individual user requirements through smart software and wireless technology.

A 'metal foam' that has a similar elasticity to bone could mean a new generation of biomedical implants that would avoid bone rejection that often results from more rigid implant materials, such as titanium. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed the metal foam, which is even lighter than solid aluminum and can be made of 100 percent steel or a combination of steel and aluminum.

Researchers at the University of Washington have found that watching a cursor respond to one's thoughts prompts brain signals to become stronger than those generated in day-to-day life. "Bodybuilders get muscles that are larger than normal by lifting weights," said lead author Kai Miller. "We get brain activity that's larger than normal by interacting with brain-computer interfaces. By using these interfaces, patients create super-active populations of brain cells."

Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Brigham & Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School have discovered a molecular pathway that works through the immune system to regenerate damaged kidney tissues and may lead to new therapies for repairing injury in a number of organs systems.

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have identified a mechanism used by the tuberculosis bacterium to evade the body's immune system and have identified a compound that blocks the bacterium's ability to survive in the host.

A new study from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa suggests that stem cells intentionally break their own DNA as a way of regulating tissue development. The study could dramatically change how researchers think about tissue development, stem cells and cancer.

A new study reveals that a common underlying mechanism is shared by a group of previously unrelated disorders which all cause complex defects in brain development and function.

A new way of using the genetic code has been created by researchers at the University of Cambridge, which allows proteins to be made with properties that have never been seen in the natural world. The breakthrough could eventually lead to the creation of new or "improved" life forms incorporating these new materials into their tissue.

Thanks for listening. Links to source material are embedded in the text version on our web site.

Be seeing you.

Breakthrough Alert Episode 4

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:22:00 +0000

Your weekly podcast briefing on the latest advances in genetic and cyborg mods for human regeneration and enhancement begins now.

Counsyl is offering a $349 genetic test kit that by analyzing a parent's saliva can determine their future children's risks for developing any of over 100 debilitating genetic diseases.

In a big step towards personalized genetic medicine, Arizona State University scientists have found a way to much more quickly discriminate between DNA's four core chemical components for faster, cheaper, ubiquitous gene sequencing.

Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have discovered a molecule that binds to a molecular 'switch' found in cancer cells and cancer-associated blood vessels to keep it in the 'off' position preventing tumor growth.

Aquaculture, a process that combines hydroponic vegetable growth with fish farming to create a resilient and robust food production system, is an essential technology for preventing mass human starvation in the years ahead finds research done at the University of California, Davis.

UCLA chemists have created synthetic 'gene-like' crystals capable of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

MIT researchers makes more progress on powering your implants and wearware using only the differences in temperature between your body (or any other warm object) and the surrounding air.

Google is testing and developing a bot that can give your cell phone real-time spoken language translation abilities. Researchers expect the universal translator bot to become available sometime in the next two years.

Telomeres are caps at the end of your chromosome that prevent errors in replication that grow shorter and more failure prone as you age. In a major breakthrough in life extension science, researchers at the University of Leicester have discovered the genes that determine your telomere length.

According to Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, it is our moral obligation to propagate life throughout the cosmos. Certainly our cosmos is a dangerous place and if we do not work to spread our species across multiple star system, humanity's extinction will arrive millions of generations sooner than necessary.

Neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology have discovered the specific structure in your brain's amygdala that gives you an aversion to losing money.

IBM scientists have developed a method for creating solar cells that are just as efficient as today's cells but use an inexpensive ink-based fab process that utilizes much cheaper materials than any existing solar cell manufacturing techniques.

Star Wars research finally spins off something useful. A laser system that can keep your picnics mosquito free by zapping up to 100 of those flying disease-filled syringes out of the air each minute.

The Pentagon's research arm, Darpa, is looking to re-write the laws of evolution by creating "synthetic organisms" with the ability to live forever unless killed with the flick of a programmed molecular switch.

New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that blueberries can alleviate and protect against intestinal inflammations such as ulcerative colitis.

Researchers at Arizona State University's Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Biodesign Institute have demonstrated a method using carbon nanotubes to sequence DNA bases as they pass through the tube the can sequence your DNA a thousand times faster than existing methods.

Because cartilage cannot regenerate after the body has stopped growing, defects caused by injuries or wear and tear from aging are a problem. But now genetic engineers and molecular biologists at the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS) of the University of Freiburg have made it possible to remove healthy cartilage cells and grow these outside the body. This tissue can then be attached to the defective cartilage where it attaches and grows, repairing any damage in only three weeks.

Eating chocolates may help lower their risk of stroke says a preliminary study from researchers at St. Michael's Hospital.

In research that gives literal meaning to the term "power suit," University of California, Berkeley, engineers have created energy-scavenging nanofibers that will one day be woven into your clothing to power all your personal gear.

A new bot allows your computer to listen and intelligently summarize a boring meeting for you, while you snooze or think about more important things right through it.

In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos how new augmented-reality and tele-presence mapping technology from Microsoft that maps crowd-sourced photos onto a 3-D representation of the world can dramatically enhance your reality.

Bruce Dunn, Professor of Materials Science at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, appears in a short clip explaining how tiny 3-dimensional batteries and fuel cells powered by sugar will soon be able to power your implants off the sugar in your blood stream.

Consuming two or more soft drinks per week nearly doubles your risk of developing pancreatic cancer say researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

By exploiting a system that let's government employees retire at age 50 with 90% of their pay. Then take another job with the government. San Luis Obispo County Under Sheriff Steve Bolts will take home between $640,000 and $772,000 this year in taxpayer money. Public employee contracts like these are one reason why America is sinking into a quagmire.

Volunteer firefighters are complaining that professional firefighters are using their control of state regulatory boards to eliminate volunteers from their profession by creating more and more hoops for the volunteers to jump through. The goal is convert all volunteer firefighter jobs into highly paid public employee union jobs. Requiring struggling rural communities to spend many billions more annually.

That completes your Breakthrough Alert briefing for this week. Links to more information on any item covered can be found at our web site.

Be seeing you.

Breakthrough Alert Episode 3

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Your briefing on the latest advances in the ultimate personal technology - human genetic & cyborg mods for regeneration and enhancement of your mind and body.

Download the podcast.

Scientists at the University of Leicester have announced that they have identified for the first time definitive variants associated with biological ageing in humans. The team analyzed more than 500,000 genetic variations across the entire human genome to identify the variants which are located near a gene called TERC.

Biofab is putting bioengineers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University to work characterizing the thousands of control elements critical to the engineering of microbes, so that eventually researchers can mix and match these "DNA parts" in synthetic organisms to produce new drugs, fuels or chemicals.

The Parallellepipeda project at the new M museum in Leuven, Belgium is creating some amazing looking 3D art using a 3D printer.

ReWalk is a wearable, motorized quasi robotic suit. Partially concealable under clothing, ReWalk provides user-initiated mobility - leveraging advanced motion sensors, sophisticated bot control algorithms, on-board computers, real-time software, actuation motors, tailored rechargeable batteries and composite materials.

Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this.

Siri is actually a really useful virtual personal assistant bot for your phone. Here's a link to a clip demonstrating some of its many capabilities.

The era of gene doping is arriving in sports according to Dr Theodore Friedmann, chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency's Gene Doping Expert Group.

A patient in a vegetative state (persistent lack of awareness following brain injury) has been able to correctly answer a series of yes or no questions with his responses interpreted via brain imaging by researchers at University of Liege, in Belgium.

Peptides that target blood vessels in fat and cause them to go into programmed cell death (termed apoptosis) could become a model for future weight-loss therapies, say University of Cincinnati researchers.

Teams from the National Cancer Institute, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of Toronto have discovered that the protein MRG15, which previously had been known to affect cell growth and aging, also directs human gene-splicing machinery.

University of Michigan researchers have shown that tension on DNA molecules can affect gene expression - the process at the heart of biological function that tells a cell what to do.

Suppose, for instance, that the global financial system collapses, or a new virus kills most of the world's population, or a solar storm destroys the power grid in North America. Restarting an industrial civilization might be a lot harder the second time around, because we have used up most of the easily available resources, from oil to high-grade ores. Read Digital doomsday: the end of knowledge.

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, UCLA, Harvard University, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Cornell University have teamed up to develop and test a broad-spectrum antiviral compound capable of stopping a wide range of highly dangerous viruses, including Ebola, HIV, hepatitis C virus, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever virus and yellow fever virus, among others.

Investigators at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have demonstrated in mouse models that transplanted stems cells, when in direct contact with diseased neurons, send signals through specialized channels that rescue the neurons from death.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are calling their new artificial pancreas a "Holy Grail" breakthrough in the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes. The artificial pancreas system is controlled by a bot that makes possible continuous real-time monitoring and adjustment of blood sugar levels.

Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell's genome.

Scientists at Georgia Tech and the Ovarian Cancer Institute have further developed a potential new treatment against cancer that uses magnetic nanoparticles to attach to cancer cells, removing them from the body. The treatment, tested in mice in 2008, has now been tested using samples from human cancer patients.

An investigational drug that inhibits serotonin synthesis in the gut, administered orally once daily, effectively cured osteoporosis in mice and rats reports an international team led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center. Serotonin in the gut has been shown in recent research to stall bone formation. This new therapy can not only prevent more bone deterioration, it can actually build new bone.

Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), report that a genetic molecule, called Tbx3, which is crucial for many aspects of early developmental processes in mammals, significantly improves the quality of stem cells that have been reprogrammed from differentiated cells.

Kotura has announces a breakthrough in very low voltage, high speed silicon photonic modulation. This brings us closer to light computing wearware, pocket and implantable devices that can be powered by your body's heat or motion.

Your cells missegregate a chromosome approximately once every hundred divisions. Don't be too alarmed, new research from Dartmouth Medical School shows that your p53 tumor suppressor is able to limit the growth of cells with incorrect numbers of chromosomes and prevents them from progressing toward cancer.

New research from Johns Hopkins University has for the first time shown that your ability to orient yourself to the world around you and navigate through it is genetic in origin.

Add magnesium to your diet and get increased cognitive skills, or at least that is how it works in rats say researcher at Tsinghua University.

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything say researchers at Nanopool. The nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface of most anything, due to the quantum forces involved.

Scientists have long known that high blood sugar levels from diabetes damage blood vessels in the eye, but they didn't know why or how. Now a Michigan State University scientist has discovered the actual process that causes retinal cells to die, which promises new treatments to halt the damage.

Penn State researchers have created a new bot with the ability to contain self-propagating worms, the malicious computer programs that can spread throughout networks, stealing or erasing hard drive data, interfering with pre-installed programs and slowing, even crashing, home and work computers.

Scientists at the University of Manchester have discovered and enzyme that 'cleans' cancer cells. The protease HtrA2 can 'clean' your cells of the oncogene WT1, which is found at high levels in many forms of cancer.

Neurobiologists at the University of Maryland have found that your brain is a lot more chaotic than previously thought, and that this might be a good thing. Their work challenges previous understandings of the auditory cortex, which had suggested an organization based on precise neuronal maps. In the first study of the auditory cortex conducted using advanced imaging techniques, a much more complex picture of neuronal activity has been observed.

Be sure to listen to the NPR segment on the science of why time seems to go by faster as you age.

That's your Breakthrough Alert for this week. Check the text version for links to any brief about which you wish to know more. Be seeing you.

Breakthrough Alert Show Number 2

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Your briefing on the latest advances in the ultimate personal technology - human genetic & cyborg mods for regeneration and enhancement of your mind and body. The podcast version is ready for download now.

Bots controlled by neural networks evolve complex predator-prey behaviors at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Federale.

A new technique for turning human embryonic and pluripotent stem cells into plentiful, functional endothelial cells, critical to the formation of blood vessels, has been developed by a team of scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College.

A new study in human cells has singled out a molecule that specifically directs immune cells to develop the capability to produce an allergic response. The signaling molecule, called thymic stromal lymphopoietin, is key to the development of allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis (eczema) and food allergy. The study team was from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

A group of proteins called chaperonins insure that proteins fold properly to carry out their assigned roles in the cells. Mis-folding can result in disease like Mad Cow. Now researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Stanford University have discovered how Group II chaperonins close and open folding chambers to initate the folding event and to release the functional protein to the cell.

Scientists are reporting the first evidence from human research that blueberries, one of the richest sources of healthful antioxidants and other so-called phytochemicals, improve memory. The research was by scientists at the University of Cincinnati.

Your performance on a video game can be predicted simply by measuring the volume of specific structures in your brain find researchers at University of Illinois.

Researchers have reported a development that could allow old immune systems to be rejuvenated to function like they were young again. The technique involves treating aged mice with a macrophage-specific growth factor. It was developed by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

Transplanted neurons grown from embryonic stem cells can fully integrate into the brains of young animals, according to new research by a team of neuroscientists st Stanford Medical School.

Human growth hormone may not be a life extender after all. People profoundly deficient in human growth hormone (HGH) due to a genetic mutation appear to live just as long as people who make normal amounts of the hormone, finds a new study finds by researchers at the Department of Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Researchers report development of a new magnesium diet supplement called magnesium-L-threonate (MgT), which is more effective than conventional oral supplements at boosting magnesium in the brain. When tested MgT led to significant enhancement of spatial and associative memory in both the young and aging rats. Neuroscientists at MIT and Tsinghua University in Beijing preformed the research.

In an acute viral infection, most of your T cells die in the fight, but a few become memory cells, allowing your immune system to respond better the next time. Now the molecule that defines which cells remember has been found by scientists at Emory University.

Power-generating rubber films that can harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power implants, wearware or pocket devices are being developed by engineers at Princeton University.

Adults aged over 70 years who are classified as overweight are less likely to die over a ten year period than adults who are in the 'normal' weight range, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Western Australia.

The world's largest laser system has uniformly compressed and superheated a fuel capsule, a major breakthrough on the road to practical fusion power -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Progresses is being made towards developing the technologies necessary to map all the connectomes in your brain -- MIT.

By fusing bone marrow cells to embryonic stem cells to create hybrid cells with DNA from both the donor and recipient, immune rejection of embryonic stem cell therapies can be avoided without drugs say researchers from the University of Iowa and Department of Medical Genetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

If you would like a new computer that locks you into a voluntary servitude where you are made to pay premium prices for your music, movies, shows, books and magazines. Where you lose your choice of web browser and media player and have to look at big holes in web pages, instead of being able to play the flash videos that normally are available there. Then Steve Jobs has an iPad for you. Once Apple was a path to escape exploitation, now it's out of the frying pan and into the fire.

A researcher from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has invented a novel way to halt and even reverse rheumatoid arthritis. He developed an imitation of a suicide molecule that floats undetected into overactive immune cells responsible for the disease.

Be sure to check out the latest promo video for the HULC exoskeleton from Lockheed Martin. Run, crawl, leap, while easily carrying the Terminator's favorite monster gun.

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in the ultimate switch: transforming mouse skin cells in a laboratory dish directly into functional nerve cells with the application of just three genes.

HRS-I is a small, lightweight device that adheres to your chest and relays all your vital signs to a computer or mobile phone via wireless connection. The device was developed at the University of Tokyo's Advanced Institute of Wearable Environmental Information Networks.

What if a jury could decide a man's guilt through mind reading? What if reading a defendant's memory could betray their guilt? And what constitutes 'intent' to commit murder? The thought police are coming as new advances make them possible.

The birth of new neurons, a process called neurogenesis, needs to continuously keep occurring in your brain for it to function properly. A team of researchers at the European Centre for Brain Research has now demonstrating that the gene PC3/Tis21 (also known as BTG2) is essential to the process of neurogenesis.

Autophagy sequesters and digests aged organelles, damaged proteins and other components, which, if not disintegrated would threaten cell viability. Autophagy is an important process in keeping your cells young and researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona have identify a new gene involved in controlling it.

Police plan to use military-style spy drones. If researchers keep developing WOMO (Weapons of Mass Oppression) that will allow a tiny elite to control a city. Then that is the sort of future we will all be forced to live in.

DARPA believes that replicating the semiconductor industry manufacturing model will enable other manufacturing sectors to experience similar economic booms. This kind of research can create a better future, unfortunately DARPA also funds a lot of WOMO.

Researchers discover a non-viral vector for gene therapy that works in post-mitotic tissues such as the retina and brain. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences.

If you are losing sleep, you are losing brain function, report researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam.

The vampire stories are true, an unspecified factor in the blood of young mice can reverse signs of aging in the circulatory system of older ones reports researchers at Harvard University.

When your brain looks for something common, it will often think it see it even when it isn't there, report researchers at Harvard Medical School.

Cancer stem cells have the ability to suppress your immune response against brain tumors say researchers at University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The future of American manufacturing is moving into a brand new cloud, crowd, garage-fab paradigm, proclaims a fascinating article by Chris Anderson at Wired.

An international research consortium has found 13 new genetic variants that influence your blood glucose regulation, insulin resistance, and the function of insulin-secreting beta cells report researchers from the National Institutes of Health.

An impressive iPhone augmented reality bot called True City has launched that provides hyper-local, real-time information for 6 European cities. The bot was developed by Nike.

To understand how damaging to a civilization a bad meme can be, read this article to learn how the "War on Drugs" meme has brought about the destruction of the rule of laws in America.

That's all for this week. Check the text version for links to any story you want to learn more about. Be seeing you.

Welcome to Breakthrough Alert...

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:51:00 +0000

...your weekly briefing on the ultimate in personal technology, hu-mods tech, human genetic & cyborg modifications to regenerate and enhance your mind and body.

Download MP3.

Here are this week's breakthroughs:

Researchers find that giving someone a small dose of chlorophyll (Chla) or chlorophyllin (CHL), found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and kale, appears to reverse the effects of aflatoxin poisoning. Aflatoxin is a potent, naturally occurring carcinogenic mycotoxi. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Several new developments toward moving microelectronics into nexus phase of permanent implantable human/machine interfaces include:

Graduate student Cary Pint has come up with a way to transfer patterns of strongly aligned, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from a substrate to another surface - any surface - in a matter of minutes. The process uses the same principal that lets a gecko walk up a wall, defying gravity with electrical attraction, the van der Waals force, between millions of microscopic hairs on its feet and the surface. The same substrate, with its catalyst particles still intact, can repeatedly be used to grow more nanotubes, almost like inking a rubber stamp. Rice University.

And researchers have produced 100 mm diameter graphene wafers, a key milestone in the development of graphene for next generation high-power, high-frequency electronic devices. Electro-Optics Center (EOC) Materials Division at Penn State.

In the cyborg realm, prosthetics maker iWalk will soon be offering the world's first actively powered human foot and ankle replacement part, called Powerfoot One. Their ultimate goal is to offer replace parts that are MORE capable than the originals.

NASA's Puffin concept for a low noise, electric Vertical Take Off & Landing (VTOL) Personal Air Vehicle seems the ultimate motion pod. More like putting on a flying suit than climbing into a vehicle. Were it not for our bad legal system memes that serve to drive personal aviation companies out of business, we could soon have these available.

In other breakthroughs this week:

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have used a natural communication system used by bacteria called quorum sensing to engineer bacteria that can flash in sync.

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, in Germany, has managed to obtain 3D images of the vesicles and filaments involved in communication between neurons. The method is based on a novel technique in electron microscopy, which cools cells so quickly that their biological structures can be frozen while fully active.

Anthony Atala lecture at TEDMED on the state-of-the-art in engineering organs (now up on YouTube) is well worth watching. Podcast listeners, remember there are links to everything in the text version.

Scientists have determined the critical variable that has limited human running speed to the current 28 mph record held by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. Offering an enticing insight into how humans might be modded to push up running speed to as high as 45 miles per hour, the theoretical maximum for a human-shaped creature. Southern Methodist University.

The Video Scout is a camera for examining the inside of your body. It features Quad LED illumination, superb image quality and easy product integration, all at a price that enables development of disposable medical imaging bots. Oh, and it is only about the size of an ant, making it also potentially useful for those bug-sized spy bots that the Air Force is working on. Researchers, don't work on WOMO, Weapons of Mass Oppression.

And in our effort to look for better civilization 2.0 memes, consider this story.

With the program shutting down, NASA has been trying to sell their clunky old space shuttle fleet to museums, but no museum has been willing to pay their $40 million price. So NASA is putting their shuttles fleet on sale. Sad isn't it.

I once found myself with a group of NASA engineers at a party and was bold enough to ask them how the shuttle became such a kludge. Their story is a sobering lesson in the bad memes found in government funded research.

The original NASA design for the shuttle, they informed me, was rather elegant. Calling for a smaller crew vehicle that took off at a high altitude from a 747-sized launch plane. Both shuttle and launch plane were completely reusable and this cut the cost of each launch drastically from rockets.

Congress, however, found the initial development cost for such a revolutionary system too much to swallow, so the launch plane got replaced by a strap-on rocket booster rocket.

Then the politicos decided that the shuttle should be able to carry military satellites into orbit, so part of program could be charged to the Pentagon's space budget.

NASA engineers were appalled to learn that the military sates were far too big for the existing shuttle design. Requiring that two larger and much more dangerous solid-fuel rocket boosters be strapped on to get the new pregnant shuttle into orbit.

Engineers had hoped to use only liquid fuel motors, which can be shut off or throttled back by the shuttle pilot if a problem occurred. In contrast, once the solid fuel boosters were lit. They could not be shut off no matter what happened until they burned out.

This Congressional change eliminated the ability of the astronauts to always make a safe landing in an emergency. Once again, astronauts were 'spam in a can' as Chuck Yeager described the early rocket launches that left pilots inside the capsules helpless if anything went wrong.

With two airplane-like vehicles, the original design was both far safer than a rocket and much less expensive per pound launched than disposable rockets. But after Congress got through 'helping' with the design, each launch was far more expensive than with a rocket and turned the shuttle system had been made into the deathtrap that would eventually kill a lot of brave Americans.

While we are on the subject of space, check out the link in the text to a clip of three small robots in space testing a system that will let many small satellites coordinate their activities. Developed by the MIT Spheres project, the system has me imagining a cheap, open source global Internet using tiny low-cost satellites put into orbit with a hydrogen space gun.

Rich people everywhere, want to be the most loved person on the planet? The one who gave humanity true freedom to communicate, impervious to all corporate filters and government censors. A half billion dollars could make such a system happen.

And here is a little more bad news on how research and politics don't mix so well.

Following the net leak of numerous conspiratorial emails from scientists
involved in trying to prove a human-cause for global warming. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now admitted another claim made by their group was a false piece of propaganda. This time it is their claim that the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035.

Here's a meme to remember:

Whenever a particular scientific finding might serve to justify a power grab by politicos, governments will pour money into the labs of scientists willing to work on this issue. And junk science is often the result as scientist seek to get the results politicos desire to keep the millions flowing into their labs.

The tragedy here is that researchers do need to develop ways to control climate.

Over the last billion years researchers have found solid evidence that the existence of New York City was probably only possible about 5% of the time. Most of the time, due to completely natural climate fluctuations, Manhattan Island was either under many meters of water or under many meters of glacial ice.

So now bad political memes have pushed scientists into proving human-causation, when human-causation simply doesn't matter. Climate mods will be necessary even if human-causation of global warming is completely bogus. Either we learn how to control the Earth's climate or natural fluctuation will eventually destroy most of the world's largest cities.

Subscribe to receive both the MP3 podcast and text version with links to source material for more details on any of our stories that you want to know more about.

New insights into T cells, your body's immune surveillance system, paves the way to making purified T cells for regenerative medicine.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:23:00 +0000

Babraham Institute.

Open access drug discovery database of properties of drugs and drug-like small molecules & their targets launches with 500,000 compounds listed.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:16:00 +0000

ChEMBLdb.

Fish oil given intravenously to patients in intensive care found to improve gas exchange, cut inflammatory chemicals and the length of hospital stay.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:11:00 +0000

University of Southampton.

New functions can develop in an enzyme if a single building block is deleted or replaced to let your body adapt to toxins without gene alterations.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:26:00 +0000

Uppsala University.

Researchers design new 'nanoburrs' able to cling to your damaged artery walls and slowly release compounds to fix the damage.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:43:00 +0000

MIT.

Bruce Sterling warns again about buying into the 'Rapture of the Geeks' transhumanism scam..

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:27:00 +0000

...people who are into transhumanism are emotionally committed. They're
not gonna be rationally argued out of their heartfelt desires, any more
than Creationists are gonna go kiss a chimpanzee on the lips and say
"Mom." ... Uploading's about as credible as going to heaven.

As Bruce suggests, we should keep things in perspective and avoid joining a cult. If you have ten or more years of natural lifespan left, the new gene hacking tools are likely to boost your life expectancy somewhat. But it is extremely doubtful you will be downloading your consciousness into a computer and living forever by 2030, as some have claiming. Don't wait for an AI to come along to solve all your problems for you, solve them yourself.

Scientists find burst of neural activity at transition between not seeing and seeing, revealing existence of a 'perception threshold.'

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:19:00 +0000

Weizmann Institute.

Making bacon from pig stem cells in the lab to create the future of agriculture.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:11:00 +0000

Maastricht University.

Dumping legacy systems and crowd sourcing the best ideas.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:07:00 +0000

Unilever.

Researchers find new method of fixing broken proteins to treat genetic diseases.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

Fox Chase Cancer Center.

First successful use of expanded umbilical-cord blood units to treat leukemia.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:55:00 +0000

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"Applications of antiviral RNA interference (RNAi)" symposium, May 30 - June 4, 2010 in Sant Feliu de Guixols at the Costa Brava in Spain.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:51:00 +0000

European Science Foundation.

Gene variant that influences vitamin B6 metabolism identified identified as genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:46:00 +0000

Neurological Clinic of LMU and Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.

Using a mechanism called "chaos control" a small, simple network with just a few connections can give a robot very diverse movement patterns.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:42:00 +0000

Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization.

New theory maintains that the properties of the Universe can be derived by thinking about the origin of complexity.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:38:00 +0000

University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University.

A nanotech contact lens that lets a diabetic see when her or she has a glucose problem by changing color.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:08:00 +0000

University of Western Ontario.

A cannon that puts payloads in orbit for 5% of the cost of a rocket, makes space colonization practical and cuts the extinction risk for our species.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:55:00 +0000

Quicklaunch.

Researchers identify three kinases, or proteins, that dismantle connections within brain cells causing memory loss.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0000

The Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Dark matter could make the Earth uninhabitable billions of years sooner than scientists previously thought.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:37:00 +0000

National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Pisa, Italy.

Startup at university tech incubator beginning clinical trials for wireless body-monitoring system.

noreply@blogger.com (Editor) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:50:00 +0000

University of California, Los Angeles.