Lifeboat Foundation

We looked into whether these for-profit clinics will really help you.

CRISPR looks set to be the future of gene editing. But experts are cautioning that this revolutionary technique needs to be developed carefully. So what do the next few years hold?

A new Tel Aviv University study describes a process to make bioplastic polymers that don’t require land or fresh water—resources that are scarce in much of the world. The polymer is derived from microorganisms that feed on seaweed. It is biodegradable, produces zero toxic waste and recycles into organic waste.

The invention was the fruit of a multidisciplinary collaboration between Dr. Alexander Golberg of TAU’s Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences and Prof. Michael Gozin of TAU’s School of Chemistry. Their research was recently published in the journal Bioresource Technology.

According to the United Nations, plastic accounts for up to 90 percent of all the pollutants in our oceans, yet there are few comparable, environmentally friendly alternatives to the material.

Continue reading “Sustainable ‘plastics’ are on the horizon” »

Although it’s impossible (at least for now) to travel back in time to see the Big Bang, The New York Times has provided its readers the closest simulation of the experience via its latest augmented reality feature.

On Friday, the Times published “It’s Intermission for the Large Hadron Collider,” an interactive story that gives readers a virtual tour of the Large Hadron Collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland and explores its most famous discovery, the Higgs boson.

Merry Christmas

Is the Fountain of Youth still just a dream, or does hope spring eternal when it comes to beating the curse of aging? Having haunted us for centuries, is a solution finally within our grasp? We spoke to Dr Aubrey de Grey, anti-aging pioneer, chief science officer, and co-founder of SENS Research Foundation.

Follow @SophieCo_RT

Continue reading “There will be no old people – anti-aging SophieCo” »

Astronomers have spotted a monstrous stellar flare coming from a baby star 685 light-years away that’s estimated to be 10,000 times larger than any such event emitted by our sun.

Experts say the stellar ‘tantrum’ could provide a window into the birth of potentially habitable exoplanets, revealing how huge events shake up the material orbiting distant stars.

Continue reading “Astronomers spot baby star emitting huge flare in a stellar ‘tantrum’” »

Companies use different algorithms based on different sets of data. Most of that data comes from people of recent European ancestry.

The problem, obviously, is that a lot of people don’t have grandparents or great-great-great-grandparents from England or Italy or Denmark. Most people on Earth, actually! That means if you’re from, say, Asia or Africa, you might not get as detailed a profile as you’d like.

My mother, who was born in the Philippines, actually got an update from 23andMe with new information about her heritage. Her history didn’t change. But as the company gets more DNA kits from people of Asian descent, the algorithm churns out modified results. Which is great … but that does mean right now, if you’re not white, you might have to wait a bit longer for more accurate results.

Continue reading “5 things to know about DNA tests before you send your spit” »

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted on Monday, sending a huge column of ash into the sky and causing the closure of Catania airport on Sicily’s eastern coast.

A chain of around 130 earth tremors have rocked the volcano since around 0800 GMT on Monday, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said, with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0.

There were no reports of any injuries.

Continue reading “Authorities close airport as Italy’s Mount Etna erupts” »

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” »