From: Max M (maxmcorp@worldonline.dk)
Date: Mon Feb 10 2003 - 02:09:54 MST
http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-02-10 (30 articles)
[Aging]
Boom Time for Longevity
=======================
http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Transitory_Human/column.aspx?articleID=2003-02-02-5
Betterhumans - Facing their mortality, Baby Boomers are set to launch an
assault on aging. March 27, 1998 was a historical day for Baby Boomers.
It marked the epochal day when the American Food and Drug Administration
approved Viagra, the first pill shown to effectively treat impotence.
Five years later, Viagra has come to be used by nearly 16 million men
worldwide, with six pills dispensed every second.
[Aging]
Called a "Medical Pioneer," Second Artificial Heart Recipient Dies
============================================================================
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-08-3
Betterhumans - After becoming just the second person to have an
implanted artificial heart
which allowed him to celebrate his 55th wedding anniversary, enjoy
holidays and watch his son compete in a NASCAR race -- Tom Christerson
died yesterday after 17 months of using the device.
[Aging]
The war against anti-aging medicine
===================================
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/tgso-twa020403.php
EurekAlert - Campaign against unproven products might have unintended
consequences. Why are research scientists speaking out against
anti-aging medicine, and what are the potential consequences?
[Aging]
Why Physical Immortality?
=========================
http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Guests/column.aspx?articleID=2003-02-02-2
Betterhumans - It's probably impossible to prove there's no life after
death, but thanks to technological interventions immortalists aren't
taking chances. "I'm a peripheral visionary. I can see into the future,
just way off to the side." The audience erupts into laughter as funnyman
Steven Wright walks across the stage, stops, looks up, and dryly
delivers another off-the-wall remark. "I intend to live forever," he
says. "So far, so good."
[Health]
Brain Images Reveal Effects Of Antidepressants
==============================================
http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/2003/02/030206075641.htm
Science Daily - Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and
UW Medical School recently added important new information to the
growing body of knowledge. For the first time, they used functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)--technology that provides a view of
the brain as it is working--to see what changes occur over time during
antidepressant treatment while patients experience negative and positive
emotions...
[Health]
Cancer drug discovery made
==========================
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/Health/story_42294.asp
ninemsn - Australian scientists have reportedly beaten the world to a
breakthrough that will lead to a new generation of cancer drugs. The
Sunday Herald Sun said the Victorian discovery has created such
excitement overseas that 15 top researchers will arrive in Melbourne
next month for a conference on the treatment.Researchers at federally
funded Co-operative Research Centre found a way to "turn off" a molecule
that causes cells to become cancerous...
[Health]
Doctors tackle cancer at a genetic level
========================================
http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=qw1044431641581B252&set_id=1
IOL - British and Dutch scientists launched an international initiative
on Tuesday to uncover the function of genes and to determine how new
drugs can be designed to fight cancer. The ambitious project will use
data from the human genome project, which mapped the estimated 35 000
genes in humans, to try to pinpoint those linked to cancer. "This is the
first time such an undertaking has been made," said Dr Julian Downward
from the British charity called Cancer Research UK...
[Health]
Laser and drug together blast cancer cells
==========================================
http://www.navakal.com/news/health/200302083004.asp
Navakal - US researchers have for the first time demonstrated how laser
light, when used in combination with a light-sensitive drug,
successfully breaks down and destroys cancerous tissue. Researchers at
the Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case
Western Reserve University School of Medicine are, for the first time in
human clinical trials, using a new drug designed to sensitize cancer
cells for destruction. The drug, called Pc 4, was developed in
laboratories at CWRU and UHC...
[Health]
Scientists Gene-Engineer First Human Stem Cells
===============================================
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/reuters20030209_211.html
ABC - Scientists said on Sunday they had, for the first time,
genetically manipulated human stem cells
a step toward making the body's so-called master cells into a
useful tool. Using the method that made the laboratory mouse so valuable
to genetic researchers, the team at the University of Wisconsin deleted
a disease gene from human embryonic stem cells.
[Health]
Stem cells can mend human hearts
================================
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993367
New Scientist - A damaged heart can be repaired with a dose of stem
cells, French researchers have shown. Their study provides the first
direct evidence that stem cells injected into an injured heart do
develop to take on some of the workload...
[Health]
University Of Missouri Physicist Creating Vascular Tissue; Could Lead To
'Natural' Human Organs
=========================================================================================================
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030207071910.htm
ScienceDaily - Gabor Forgacs’ work with organ engineering is an
excellent example of how current interdisciplinary research in the life
sciences may have a profound impact on future generations. Forgacs, a
biological physicist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is an
integral part of a research team that ultimately plans to build organs
in laboratories for the purpose of human transplantation.
[Health]
Zebrafish clue to cancer
========================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2732215.stm
BBC - Scientists hope that the zebrafish may help them to develop new
treatments for cancer. At first sight the tiny fish may seem to have
nothing in common with humans. But in fact its genome is thought to
contain about 30,000 genes, roughly the same number as humans. Many of
its genes appear to play the same function as their equivalents in humans.
[Nanotech]
Artificial atoms illluminate biotechnology and other fields
===========================================================
http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-9/iss-1/p14.html
The Industrial Physicist - Nearly 20 years after their discovery,
semiconductor quantum dots are emerging as a bona fide industry with a
few start-up companies poised to introduce products this year. Initially
targeted at biotechnology applications, such as biological reagents and
cellular imaging, quantum dots are being eyed by producers for eventual
use in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, and telecommunication
devices such as optical amplifiers and waveguides...
[Nanotech]
Nanotech Research a Catalyst for Cleaner Transportation
=======================================================
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-09-2
Betterhumans - Thanks to powerful microscopes and the promise of
molecular engineering, scientists are a step closer to making cleaner
transportation by improving catalysts that remove harmful sulphur from
fossil fuels. "Throughout the last century most catalysts have been
developed by costly time-consuming trial-and-error methods," says Jeppe
Lauritsen, a researcher from the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
"Nanotechnology is about to change this, since we can now build and view
matter directly on the nanoscale."<br />(I was at a lecture by Jeppe
Lauritsen a few days ago, and he had some very interresting pictures and
movies of the surfaces of these catalysts. Pretty amazing to watch
movies of single atoms moving around on a surface. - Max M)
[Nanotech]
Researchers Announce World's Smallest Switch
=================================================
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20697.html
NewsFactor - Technology continues its incredible shrinking act with a
new single-molecule switch that researchers in New York and British
Columbia contend may be the smallest ever devised. Sandwiched between
two gold surfaces, a single molecule of a sulfur-containing organic
compound known as benzene-dithiolate (BDT) can morph from a stable "off"
configuration that resists electrical current to a stable "on"
configuration that conducts electrical current and allows it to pass.
[Nanotech]
Sticky DNA Crystals Promise New Way To Process Information
==========================================================
http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/2003/02/030207070412.htm
Science Daily - Imagine information stored on something only a hundredth
the size of the next generation computer chip--and made from nature's
own storage molecule, DNA...
[Politics]
Bush Signs Directive on Cyber Attacks
=====================================
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/ap20030207_1238.html
President Bush has signed a secret order allowing the government to
develop guidelines under which the United States could launch
cyber-attacks against foreign computer systems, administration officials
said Friday. The United States has never conducted a large-scale
cyber-attack, but officials said last month that the unfolding
cyber-stategy plan made it more clear than ever that the Defense
Department can wage cyber warfare if the nation is attacked.
[Sci-fi]
Rucker reviews Gibson
=====================
http://boingboing.net/2003_02_01_archive.html#90290907
BoingBoing - Wired News has posted Rudy Rucker's excellent review of
William Gibson's new novel, "Pattern Recognition," originally published
in last month's Wired...
[Science]
Cloneable Mammoth Cells Discovered in Russia
============================================
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030203/mammoth.html
Discovery Channel - Russian scientists said Wednesday that they've found
living cells in a frozen ice-age mammoth that could provide the DNA
needed to resurrect the long-extinct tuskers.
[Science]
Computers to analyze language evolution
=======================================
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/030206/niyogi.shtml
Chicago Chronicle - If a computer could master language as well as a
child does, the feat would rank as one of the greatest technological
achievements of our time. But so far, computers fall far short of the
capability...
[Science]
Study: Biotech cotton a boom crop
=================================
http://www.msnbc.com/news/869504.asp
MSNBC - Farmers in India produced 80 percent more cotton than other
fields when they planted a type genetically engineered to resist bugs,
according to new research that suggests the impact biotech crops could
have in poor countries.
[Self transformation]
New insights into how the nerve connection machinery remodels itself
====================================================================
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/du-nii020603.php
EurekAlert - A Duke University Medical Center neurobiologist has
identified key mechanisms by which the intricate "protein machines" that
govern the strength of connections among neurons build and remodel
themselves to adjust those connections. Such remodeling of the
connections, called synapses, is central to the establishment of brain
pathways during learning and memory, said the scientists. Also,
malfunction of the synaptic machinery might well play a fundamental role
in the pathology of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's
and Alzheimer's diseases.
[Self transformation]
Pop a Gene Pill
===============
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-09-1
Betterhumans - Imagine that you could cure a genetically based disease
the way you now cure an infection: By taking a pill. Instead of using
complicated and uncomfortable delivery methods, you could get a
prescription, pop open a child-safe bottle and give yourself gene therapy.
[Self transformation]
Preview of interesting brain interfaces
=======================================
http://dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7140
Daily Wireless - In the 1983 movie, Brainstorm, memories and experiences
could be recorded on tape. Perhaps, in the next 50 years, new
technologies will be developed to do just that. Why talk or write when
you can just telepathize? In honor of Brain Awareness Week, here's a
preview of interesting brain interfaces...
[Space]
Benford on Space Exploration
============================
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/07/2131241
Slashdot - Gregory Benford looks at what we should do in the aftermath
of the Columbia accident. Is the shuttle, or the International Space
Station for that matter, useful? Or just payola to aerospace interests
and a means for keeping Russian rocket scientists employed? Benford's
comments about the necessity of a closed biosphere and of some way for
astronauts to stop muscle and bone loss are far more insightful than the
usual discussions about where our space exploration priorities should lie...
[Space]
NASA?S Nuclear Prometheus Project Viewed as Major Paradigm Shift
================================================================
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/prometheus_030207.html
Space.com - Enthusiasm towards Project Prometheus, a major new
initiative to reactivate nuclear space power and propulsion work under
NASA, has been muted due to the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. NASA is
undertaking Prometheus in partnership with the Department of Energy. At
stake is moving forward nuclear technology in the hope of enabling an
unprecedented science data return from future robotic missions, making
use of high-power science instruments and advanced communications
technology...
[Space]
Our Future in Space Is History
==============================
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/weekinreview/09WILF.html
NY Times - Last week, President Bush and many Congressional leaders
vowed to push forward, and public opinion polls have shown consistent
approval of space flight as a national pursuit. "Despite the dangers,
human space flight is here to stay," says Brian J. Cantwell, a professor
of astronautics at Stanford...
[Technology]
Community WiFi + digital cameras = video samizdata
==================================================
http://boingboing.net/2003_02_01_archive.html#90293909
BoingBoing - The most important result is that the concept is valid: the
current consumer-level technology, coupled with broad-band Internet,
offers viable framework for distributed TV production and distribution
via the Internet. Connectivity and bandwidth found in Bryant Park was
sufficient enough for the Internet broadcast to the MNN headquarters.
While we stayed in the range of 500-800 kbps range, we did not fined any
significant bandwidth congestion...
[Technology]
Defining Disruption
===================
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20680.html
NewsFactor - If the inability to have the right information has a
negative impact on business decisions and ultimately a company's
survival, then those who use technology to improve the flow of
information, and therefore the decision-making process, will be the winners.
[Technology]
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold
==========================================================
http://www.smartmobs.com/
Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify
human talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology
already appear to be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of
its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate
terrorist attacks.The technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs
possible are mobile communication devices and pervasive computing -
inexpensive microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments...
Made in cooperation with Transhumanity at:
http://transhumanism.com/news.shtml
-- hilsen/regards Max M Rasmussen, Denmark http://www.futureport.dk/ Fremtiden, videnskab, skeptiscisme og transhumanisme
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