Lifeboat Foundation

(Hoboken, N.J. — Nov. 7, 2018) — In their latest feat of engineering, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have taken an ordinary white button mushroom from a grocery store and made it bionic, supercharging it with 3D-printed clusters of cyanobacteria that generate electricity and swirls of graphene nanoribbons that can collect the current.

The work, reported in the Nov. 7 issue of Nano Letters, may sound like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland, but the hybrids are part of a broader effort to better improve our understanding of cells biological machinery and how to use those intricate molecular gears and levers to fabricate new technologies and useful systems for defense, healthcare and the environment.

“In this case, our system – this bionic mushroom — produces electricity,” said Manu Mannoor, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens. “By integrating cyanobacteria that can produce electricity, with nanoscale materials capable of collecting the current, we were able to better access the unique properties of both, augment them, and create an entirely new functional bionic system.”

Continue reading “‘Bionic Mushrooms’ Fuse Nanotech, Bacteria and Fungi” »

Researchers are tearing up the biology rule books by trying to construct cells from scratch. A special issue explores the lessons being learnt about life. Researchers are tearing up the biology rule books by trying to construct cells from scratch. A special issue explores the lessons being learnt about life.

Scientists have uncovered the mechanisms between the world’s first known invertebrate endosymbiotic relationship between an algae and a type of salamander.

Thanks to Authority Magazine and Fotis Georgiadis for the interview — Bioquark inc. (http://www.bioquark.com) — Regeneration, Disease Reversion, Age Rejuvenation — https://medium.com/authority-magazine/the-future-is-now-we-a…cc6dc8ebf1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdsF3P8bjw

I was in a really interesting 1-hour debate yesterday with Jean-Francois Gariépy who runs a well-known YouTube channel The Public Space, sometimes associated with the Alt-Right. We discussed #transhumanism. I think the debate caught a lot of people by surprise. While I believe in and embrace total diversity, I despise the oppression of human biology and death, and advocate for any means possible to overcome it—including genetic modification and merging with machines. The debate makes me look like the aggressor. But it only proves what I’ve always said, that issues of race and traditional cultural bigotry are minor compared to the issues of humanity battling aging and death itself. All of us are currently in a war to not die:

An important debate on whether or not humanity should play with their own genes. Guest: Zoltan Istvan, transhumanist.

Continue reading “Should We Replace Ourselves? | Zoltan Istvan vs. JFG, TPS #257” »

New program coming on-line at Bioquark Inc. (www.bioquark.com) — Ectocrine interactions (the“Ectocrinome”) represents a completely unexplored area related to human health

https://www.prweb.com/releases/bioquark_inc_and_ectocrine_te…004155.htm

Scientists say the underground ecosystems are a “subterranean Galapagos” just waiting to be studied.

This unidentified nematode from the Kopanang gold mine in South Africa lives 1.4 kilometers below the surface. Gaetan Borgonie / Extreme Life Isyensya, Belgium.

A bug’s life doesn’t seem half bad, if you can overlook the super-short lifespan or the threat of getting eaten by lizards or swatted at by humans. Flying is nice, as is being able to walk on ceilings. The versatility is enviable, which is why roboticists are on a quest to imbue machines with the power of the bug.

But to harness the powers of nature, roboticists are resorting to very un-biological means. The latest insect-inspired robot tackles the problem of walking upside down using not glue, or a material that mimics the pad of a gecko’s foot as past bot builders have done, but electricity. Specifically, electroadhesion.

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Continue reading “A Bug-Like Robot Uses Electricity to Walk Upside Down” »

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The effort is part of a $45 million program across all the branches of the armed forces to figure out military applications for genetic engineering.