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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 399

Aug 14, 2015

Universal plaque-busting drug could treat various brain diseases — New Scientist

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, life extension, neuroscience

A universal therapy that targets mis-folded proteins is a very significant step forward if clinical trials in humans translate from animals. Obviously there is more work to be done but it this is the kind of technology we need in order to intervene against biological aging.

It is not hard to see that a therapy like this followed up by another that regenerates the brain eg, the Conboy Lab work by promoting neurogenesis could be a way to repair and restore the brain to healthy function.


A drug that breaks up different types of brain plaque shows promising results in animals and could prevent Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

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Aug 13, 2015

Brain-to-brain communication has arrived. How we did it

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, neuroscience

You may remember neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis — he built the brain-controlled exoskeleton that allowed a paralyzed man to kick the first ball of the 2014 World Cup. What’s he working on now? Building ways for two minds (rats and monkeys, for now) to send messages brain to brain. Watch to the end for an experiment that, as he says, will go to “the limit of your imagination.”

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Aug 12, 2015

Quantum 3D Printing on the Horizon, According to UBC Researcher Jennifer Hoffman

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, neuroscience, quantum physics

I’m a firm believer that technology can take us to unimaginable places, from both a physical and a mental standpoint. Technological progress is oftentimes cha.

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Aug 11, 2015

How to create a genius mouse

Posted by in categories: genetics, neuroscience

The left-brain hemisphere of a normal mouse shows the normal level and cellular distribution of the Pax6 gene expression in the developing neocortex. The right-brain hemisphere shows a sustained, primate-like Pax6 expression pattern in the neocortex of a double transgenic mouse embryo. These animals have more Pax6-positive progenitor cells and a higher Pax6 expression level in the germinal layer close to the ventricle in the right hemisphere. (credit: © MPI of Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics)

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics have created a transgenic mouse in which a gene called Pax6, during embryonic development, is highly expressed in a specific group of brain cortical cells called neural progenitor stem cells (the cells that generate all cells that make up the brain).

The resulting mouse brain generated more neurons than normal and exhibited primate-like features — notably those in the top layer, a characteristic feature of an expanded neocortex.

Continue reading “How to create a genius mouse” »

Aug 10, 2015

Why I Advocate for Becoming a Machine

Posted by in categories: energy, geopolitics, neuroscience, transhumanism

My new story for Vice Motherboard exploring the human journey into eventually becoming a machine: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-i-advocate-for-becoming-a-machine And also if you haven’t donated to the Immortality Bus Indiegogo campaign, there are only a few hours left to do so: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/immortality-bus-with-pres…406#/story


Biology is simply not the best system out there for our species’ evolution. It’s frail, terminal, and needs to be upgraded. In fact, even machines may be upgraded in the future too, and rendered as junk as our intelligences figure out ways to become beings of pure organized energy. “Onward” is the classic transhumanist mantra.

No matter what happens, to move forward in the transhumanist age, we need to let go of our egos and our shallow sense of identity; in short, we need to get over ourselves. The permanence of our species lies in our ability to reason, think, and remember who we are and where we’ve been. The rest is just an impermanent shell that changes—and it has already been changing for tens of millions of years in the form of sentient evolution.

Continue reading “Why I Advocate for Becoming a Machine” »

Aug 10, 2015

DARPA Deploys Programmable Nanoscale Switches for Next-Generation Electronics

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, nanotechnology, neuroscience

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) website reports that two of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award (YFA) recipients have developed nanoscale electronic switches with reprogrammable features, similar to those at play in inter-neuron communication in the brain, which could find uses in next-generation reconfigurable electronic devices and brain-inspired computing.

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Aug 10, 2015

Zoltan Istvan — Transhumanist — PART 1/2

Posted by in categories: entertainment, geopolitics, neuroscience, transhumanism

An interview on transhumanism done by London Real:


Zoltan Istvan — Transhumanist — PART 1/2. FREE FULL EPISODE: http://londonreal.tv/zoltan-istvan This week’s guest on London Real is Zoltan Istvan, US Presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party. Istvan’s stated aim is to “change the conversation” on transhumanism.

Transhumanism could be described as the use of technology to enhance human capabilities, both mental and physical.

Continue reading “Zoltan Istvan — Transhumanist — PART 1/2” »

Aug 8, 2015

The MIND diet may slow brain aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil

Eating a group of specific foods — known as the MIND diet — may slow cognitive decline among aging adults, even when the person is not at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

This finding supplements a previous study by the research team, reported by KurzweiliAI in March, that found that the MIND diet may reduce a person’s risk in developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers’ new study shows that older adults who followed the MIND diet more rigorously showed an equivalent of being 7.5 years younger cognitively than those who followed the diet least. Results of the study were recently published online in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Aug 8, 2015

Neuroscientist shows how to control someone else’s arm with your brain

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The neuroscientist and engineer Greg Gage is trying to change that and make neuroscience more accessible to all.

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Aug 8, 2015

MIT Scientists Discover A Universal ‘Link’ Between All Languages

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Of the roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world, not one commonality has been found connecting them all together — until now.

Researchers at MIT have found what they’re calling a “language universal,” which focuses on sentence structure as a link among languages.

Edward Gibson, a professor of cognitive sciences at MIT and an author of the study, joined HuffPost Live on Friday to discuss his findings.

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