http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-03-07 (11 articles)

From: Max M (maxmcorp@worldonline.dk)
Date: Fri Mar 07 2003 - 11:39:46 MST

  • Next message: Adrian Tymes: "RE: Rulers and Famine in Poor Countries (was Obesity)"

      *http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-03-07 (11 articles)*

    [AI]
    Robots are getting more sociable
    ================================
    http://www.msnbc.com/news/874039.asp?0q1=c8p

    MSNBC - You can't help but smile when a good-looking robot makes
    goo-goo eyes at you even though you know it's simply a matter of
    24 mechanical actuators pulling a foam-rubber face in just the right
    way. That's the trick that robotics experts will be trying to perfect
    as they develop new strains of companion contraptions.

    [Aging]
    Scientists Developing Drugs To Extend Life
    ==========================================
    http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20884.html

    Newsfactor - "We definitely are not trying to find a miracle drug that
    you start taking when you're 20 and you live longer," said McGill
    University geneticist Siegfried Hekimi. Instead, the drugs he envisions
    would be used to prevent or cure age-dependent diseases. Scientists
    reported new research Wednesday showing that limiting caloric intake and
    certain genetic mutations can extend the lifespan of animals and could
    lead the way to drugs that mimic this effect in humans. Such techniques
    could extend the human lifespan by 20 years or more, they said.

    [Health]
    Drug-resistant superbug now hitting the healthy
    ===============================================
    http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_757444.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery

    Ananova - Scientists have warned a drug-resistant superbug that has
    swept through US hospitals infecting patients is now hitting healthy
    people. MRSA normally enters the wounds of patients weakened by disease
    or injury, and is especially dangerous after surgery. But a new strain,
    which can be transmitted simply by skin contact and poses a risk to
    healthy people, has emerged. [Most people don't realize the possibility,
    that some sort of superbug can develop which can have enormous death
    tolls on world wide basis. Setting us all back by decades. - Max M]

    [Health]
    Self-Mended Heart
    =================
    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Living/GMA030306Stem_cell_heart.html

    ABC - Boy’s Own Blood Used for First-of-Its-Kind Stem Cell Transplant.
    In the first operation of its kind, doctors used stem cells from a
    16-year-old Almont, Mich., boy's own blood to repair his heart after he
    was accidentally shot in the heart with a nail gun and subsequently
    suffered a heart attack. [Repairing heart muscle with stem cells is good
    research into building entire replacement organs, which is one route to
    a longer lasting body. It also raises the publics positive awareness of
    the technology - Max M]

    [Politics]
    Reeve: Reduce Limitations on Stem Cell Research
    ===============================================
    http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20893.html

    Newsfactor - Reeve faulted Bush for having "no consistent moral view" of
    stem cell research, and expressed his frustration with the president's
    2001 bioethics panel, which he said was "stacked" with theologians at
    the expense of scientists."Superman" star Christopher Reeve yesterday
    urged scientific elites at Harvard and MIT to exercise some political
    muscle and protect their ability to conduct embryonic stem cell research
    in the face of increasing federal restrictions. A guest of the MIT and
    Harvard Hippocratic Societies' joint 2003 Conference on Neuroscience,
    Reeve, who was paralyzed in a 1995 equestrian event, addressed a crowd
    of about 150 students and faculty in Cambridge.

    [Robotics]
    Robots are getting more sociable
    ================================
    http://www.msnbc.com/news/874039.asp?0q1=c8p

    MSNBC - You can’t help but smile when a good-looking robot makes
    goo-goo eyes at you — even though you know it’s simply a matter of
    24 mechanical actuators pulling a foam-rubber face in just the right
    way. That’s the trick that robotics experts will be trying to perfect
    as they develop new strains of companion contraptions. Another good link
    is: http://www.androidworld.com/prod04.htm

    [Self transformation]
    Building a Bridge to the Brain
    ==============================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Reports/report.aspx?articleID=2003-03-02-3

    Betterhumans - Researchers are close to breakthroughs in neural
    interfaces, meaning we could soon mesh our minds with machines. If
    you're like most people, you've fantasized about downloading Spanish 101
    directly into your skull. That dream may become reality sooner than you
    think. The prosthetic cochlear implant, for example, is now a commonly
    used treatment for deafness. Doctors routinely implant electrode arrays
    into the cochlea, which stimulate nerve fibers to restore hearing.

    [Self transformation]
    Neural Interfaces
    =================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Technologies/technology.aspx?articleID=2003-03-02-2

    Betterhumans - A neural interface is any type of data link between the
    human nervous system and an external device, such as a computer or a
    remote-controlled machine. Such a link can allow information
    transmission to the nervous system, from the nervous system or in both
    directions. Neural interfaces promise to improve the link between humans
    and machines, empowering people in the process. The devices extend human
    abilities by allowing people to benefit from what machines are good at
        such as brute computation -- without sacrificing human control.

    [Self transformation]
    Study links Smart Start, child-care quality and children's outcomes
    ========================================================================
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-03/uonc-sls030403.php

    EurekAlert - North Carolina preschoolers participating in high-quality
    child-care programs are ahead of their peers who attend low-quality
    programs, according to a new study of the state program known as Smart
    Start. Researchers at the FPG Child Development Institute at the
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released their results today
    at a news conference in Raleigh.

    [Self transformation]
    Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer
    ==============================================
    http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993451

    New Scientist - Fifty years to the day from the discovery of the
    structure of DNA, one of its co-discoverers has caused a storm by
    suggesting that stupidity is a genetic disease that should be cured. On
    28 February 1953 biologists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered
    the structure of DNA - the chemical code for all life. The breakthrough
    revealed how genetic information is passed from one generation to the
    next and revolutionised biology and medicine. But in a documentary
    series to be screened in the UK on Channel 4, Watson says that low
    intelligence is an inherited disorder and that molecular biologists have
    a duty to devise gene therapies or screening tests to tackle stupidity.

    [Transhumanism]
    The Hazards of Transhumanist Living
    ===================================
    http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Transitory_Human/column.aspx?articleID=2003-03-02-5

    Betterhumans - It's not easy being a Transhumanist, but somebody has to
    do it. Late last year the Toronto Transhumanist Association was asked to
    set up a booth at the Ontario Skeptics Society's Psychic Unfair, an
    annual gathering of skeptics, rationalists and scientifically oriented
    groups and individuals. Simon Smith and I, the founding members of the
    TTA, figured that we would be right at home in this environment.
    Moreover, it marked our first opportunity to present Transhumanist ideas
    to the public. [A good personal account of what it is like advocating
    transhumanism to the general public, friends and families. - Max M]

    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
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Mar 07 2003 - 11:42:31 MST