Lifeboat Foundation

Most people don’t realize that all human beings have two sets of DNA in their bodies, the DNA inside our chromosomes, and a foreign DNA inside our mitochondria, that our ancestors stole from bacteria over a billion years ago.

Look into any of your cells, and you’ll see mysterious foreign DNA lurking inside your mitochondria, the tiny organelles that litter your cells. Recently, mitochondria have come under a growing scientific spotlight; scientists increasingly believe they play a central role in many, if not most, human illnesses. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, and when they falter, our cells lose power, just as a flashlight dims when its batteries weaken. Recently, researchers have linked mitochondria to an array of metabolic and age-related maladies, including autism, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and cardiovascular disease.

While our mitochondria did not come from another planet, they might as well have. Peer through a microscope, and you’ll swear that tiny aliens have invaded your cells. You are partially correct. Mitochondria appear out of place compared to the other structures within the cell. Something ‘alien’ has invaded our cells, eons ago, but it came from primordial bacteria, a distinctly terrestrial source.

Continue reading “Thanks to Gene Thieves We Have ‘Alien DNA’ in Our Mitochondria” »

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer in the world. It is the primary compound in the cell walls of green plants, and is typically used to make paper and cardboard.

At the VTT Technical Centre of Finland, a state owned research and development non-profit, scientists have used nano-structured cellulose to make a 3D printable material.

The nanocellulose paste is now in development to make smart-dressings that heal and monitor skin wounds.

Continue reading “VTT Finland develops 3D printed device for advanced wound care” »

For much of human history, living up to a ripe old age was seen as a gift from the gods, an aberration, or just the product of sheer luck. Given that up to the beginning of the twentieth century many of us succumbed to disease at an early age, being extremely fortunate to live anywhere past the age of forty, it should be no surprise that living a long life is still beatified today as something akin to winning the lottery.

Even when confronted with the galloping pace of scientific advances in human longevity, our historical sensibilities have led us to take a defeatist stance towards the subject: “Even if longevity interventions become available during my lifetime, I am already too late to take advantage of them, so why bother?”

Indeed, this hesitation to see human life extension as a real possibility in our lifetime, dismissing it as a dream belonging to the realms of science fiction[1] and futuristic utopias[2] is not an uncommon one, and as long as tangible rejuvenation therapies do not become available, we will feel validated in our pragmatism.

Continue reading “The ‘Science Will Not Defeat Aging in my Lifetime so Why Bother?’ Argument, and Why We Should be More Optimistic” »

My new story for my #transhumanism column at Psychology Today on Direct Neurofeedback:

Transhumanism—the movement of using science and technology to improve the human being—covers many different fields of research. There are exoskeleton suits to help the disabled; there are stem cell treatments to cure disease; there are robots and AI to perform human chores. The field is wide open and booming as humanity uses more and more tech in its world.

It’s not that often I get to participate directly in these radical technologies, but I did so recently when Grant Rudolph, Clinical Director at Echo Rock Neurotherapy in Mill Valley, California invited me to try his Direct Neurofeedback techniques. Via his computer and EEG wire hookups, Mr. Rudolph echoed my brainwave information back into my head at an imperceptible level. I did two sessions of Direct Neurofeedback.

Continue reading “I Tried Direct Neurofeedback and the Results Surprised Me” »

At well over $150,000 per appliance, the Volta GPU based DGX appliances from Nvidia, which take aim at deep learning with framework integration and 8 Volta-accelerated nodes linked with NVlink, is set to appeal to the most bleeding edge of machine learning shops.

Nvidia has built its own clusters by stringing several of these together, just as researchers at Tokyo Tech have done with the Pascal generation systems. But one of the first commercial customers for the Volta based boxes is the Center for Clinical Data Science, which is part of the first wave of hospitals set to use deep learning for MR and CT image analysis.

The center, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has secured a whopping four DGX-1 Volta appliances, which sport the latest GPUs with eight per node with the NVlink interconnect. The Next Platform talked with Neil Tenenholtz, senior data scientist at the center, about where deep learning will yield results for hospitals and medical research and about their early experiences with the four machines.

Continue reading “Hospital Captures First Commercial Volta GPU Based DGX-1 Systems” »

The new self-propelled, cancer-seeking bacteriobot swims right into the tumor and zaps it with a deadly payload of cancer drugs.

The recently perfected #bacteriobot holds ‘a lot of promise’ in treating #cancer says a physician. Cancer patients at a hospital in Montreal may be the first to be treated with these #nanorobots built out of bacteria.

Summary: The recently perfected bacteriobot holds ‘a lot of promise’ in treating cancer says a physician. Cancer patients at a hospital in Montreal may be the first to be treated with nanorobots built out of bacteria. The new self-propelled, cancer-seeking bacteriobot swims right into the tumor and zaps it with a deadly payload of cancer drugs. [Cover image: Getty Images/iStock.]

Continue reading “Bacteriobot Holds ‘A Lot Of Promise’ To Treat Cancer, Says Doctor” »

Full Interview ► https://goo.gl/PvUjjU

Michael B. Fossel, M.D., Ph.D. (born 1950, Greenwich, Connecticut) was a professor of clinical medicine at Michigan State University and is the author of several books on aging, who is best known for his views on telomerase therapy as a possible treatment for cellular senescence. Fossel has appeared on many major news programs to discuss aging and has appeared regularly on National Public Radio (NPR). He is also a respected lecturer, author, and the founder and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine (now known as Rejuvenation Research).

Continue reading “M. Fossel — How to Reverse Aging” »

Shai Ben-David, Professor at the University of Waterloo, gave Machine Learning Course composed of 23 Lectures (CS 485/685) at the University of Waterloo on Jan 14, 2015…

Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed. In the past decade, machine learning has given us self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, and a vastly improved understanding of the human genome. Machine learning is so pervasive today that you probably use it dozens of times a day without knowing it. Many researchers also think it is the best way to make progress towards human-level AI.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence and Magnificent Brain” »

The US is in a opioid addiction crisis that has been described as a national epidemic by health officials. Each day 91 people die after overdosing on the drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More Americans now die from drug overdoses than in car accidents or from gun violence put together, and more than 2.6m are addicted to opioids, according to CDC figures.

Health insurance system is partly to blame for the epidemic that is costing companies $18bn a year.