Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: life extension – Page 443

Space docking first gives commercial satellites a new lease of life

Two unmanned commercial satellites have docked in orbit for the first time. On February 25, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) linked up with the Intelsat 901 (IS-901) communication satellite at an altitude of 22,416 mi (36,076 km) above the Earth as part of a project to extend the service life of satellites that are running low on propellants.

The building and launching of satellites is extremely expensive, so it’s more than just frustrating when a perfectly good spacecraft has to be disposed of or abandoned simply because it has run out of the propellants needed to keep it in its proper orbit and pointed at Earth. There have been a number of solutions proposed for this problem – in this case Northrop’s MEV-1 is designed to match orbits with aging satellites, dock, and take over the job of maintaining orbit and attitude.

MEV-1 was launched on October 9, 2019, and then executed a series of orbital maneuvers to rendezvous with IS-901, 180 mi (290 km) above geosynchronous orbit. Northrop says the target communication satellite was removed from service last December after over 19 years of service and its customers transferred to other Intelsats.

Can humans defeat ageing? Aubrey de Grey interview

I interviewed Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation about the fight to eliminate ageing in humans, why he believes the first 1,500 year old human has probably been born and the transhumanist movement. Trying to grow the channel (on futurism/transhumanism) so please do sub if this is of interest.

I interview biologist Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, about whether humans can overcome ageing (and therefore theoretically live for thousands of years). We discuss the obstacles to ending ageing, whether the first 1,500 year old human is currently alive and the transhumanist movement. Oh and I say longitudinal rather than longevity escape velocity which was a little embarrassing!

Aubrey is also VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics and author of ‘Ending Aging’.

Scientists discover new clue behind age-related diseases and food spoilage

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have made a surprising discovery that could help explain our risk for developing chronic diseases or cancers as we get older, and how our food decomposes over time.

What’s more, their findings, which were reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), point to an unexpected link between the ozone chemistry in our atmosphere and our cells’ hardwired ability to ward off disease.

“The beauty of nature is that it often decides to use similar chemistries throughout a system, but we never thought that we would find a common link between atmospheric chemistry, and the chemistry of our bodies and food,” said Kevin Wilson, the deputy director of Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division who led the study. “Our study is the first to explore another chemical pathway that might affect how well the cells in our bodies — and even our food — can respond to oxidative stress, such as pollution, over time.”

Aubrey de Grey on the Joe Rogan Experience

They don’t waste much time getting right into it. He is 57 but has been told he is physically 47.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey of SENS Research Foundation was interviewed by the extremely popular Joe Rogan, and they discussed the damage repair approach to aging. Dr. de Grey talked about the current state of aging research, including stem cell therapies, and explained the role of SENS in developing next-generation rejuvenation biotechnology therapies. He also brought up the role of funding, a key bottleneck in research and development, and gave his prognosis on how quickly these therapies will be developed.

Supreme Court

Are American Federal and Supreme Court Justices lifetime appointments? If so, what’s going to happen if radical life extension becomes a reality? :

“Like all Federal judges, Supreme Court Justices serve lifetime appointments on the Court”

Dr. David Sinclair on aging and age reversal (compilation II on D. Sinclair by A. Grases)

Excerpts from Dr. David Sinclair appearances during 2019 and early 2020. The focus I highlight in this compilation is around the research in progress on aging, age-related diseases and biological age reversal.

Dr. Sinclair is a well-known geneticist, researcher and professor, first at MIT and since more than two decades ago, at Harvard University.

Links of original sources:

Joe Rogan Experience (Sep 2019): https://youtu.be/ZGLL77wYxe8

Rhonda Patrick interview (Nov 2019): https://youtu.be/5DtWqzalEnc

EdMylett interview (Dec 2019): https://youtu.be/-wApz_zqQIQ

Continue reading “Dr. David Sinclair on aging and age reversal (compilation II on D. Sinclair by A. Grases)” | >

KLOTHO, new Intelligence Quotient boosting gene found

WASHINGTON: Scientists have found that people who have a variant of a longevity gene have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory. Researchers found that increasing levels of the gene, called KLOTHO, in mice made them smarter, possibly by increasing the strength of connections between nerve cells in the brain.

“This could be a major step toward helping millions around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,” said Dena Dubal, an assistant professor of neurology, the David A Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neurodegeneration at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the lead author of the study published in Cell Reports. “If we could boost the brain’s ability to function, we may be able to counter dementias,” Dubal said.

People who have one copy of a variant, or form, of the KLOTHO gene, called KL-VS, tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke whereas people who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke. In the study, researchers found that people who had one copy of the KL-VS variant performed better on a battery of cognitive tests than subjects who did not have it, regardless of age, sex or the presence of the apolipoprotein 4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

The ultra-rich are investing in companies trying to reverse aging. Is it going to work?

If you can’t defeat death, what if you could postpone it, or at least postpone the diseases commonly associated with getting old?

Many people, especially the ultra-wealthy in Silicon Valley, are investing money into companies trying to answer exactly those questions.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel have both invested in South San Francisco-based Unity Biotechnology, a company whose mission is to “extend human healthspan, the period in one’s life unburdened by the disease of aging.”

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