The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Jaden

I'm worried it might cause cancer because like most growth factors, it is elevated in tumors, and many "elixirs of youth" have the same curse. Aged individuals typically have mutant cell populations that just need 1-2 more mutations to become cancerous, but those don't usually happen because they have ceased dividing. So whatever you do to breathe life to them increases your lifespan but also your cancer risks.

"Given a long enough life, cancer will eventually kill you". So in one corner you have cancer, on the other you have old age, both of them have high mortality rates but ATM only cancer can be made to go into recess. Seems to me that on the long run the only logical choice is to lengthen our lifespan in hopes that if we get cancer it can be killed in its first stages. It is a balance act, but it is frightening only because (if GDF11 performs as we hope) for the first time in history there is something we can do besides passively just accepting that our bodies weaken as old hard disks and one day simply cease to work as our forefathers did.

[Ithekro]

If we could find a way to expand our species availible habitable spaces we can afford to have people live longer and longer as viable condition humans (as oppose to walker, wheelchair, or bedriden in old age).

200 year old humans.

[Se7enSword]

Scientists create first living organism that transmits added letters in DNA 'alphabet'

Spoiler for Size:

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have engineered a bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA "letters," or bases, not found in nature. The cells of this unique bacterium can replicate the unnatural DNA bases more or less normally, for as long as the molecular building blocks are supplied.

"Life on Earth in all its diversity is encoded by only two pairs of DNA bases, A-T and C-G, and what we've made is an organism that stably contains those two plus a third, unnatural pair of bases," said TSRI Associate Professor Floyd E. Romesberg, who led the research team. "This shows that other solutions to storing information are possible and, of course, takes us closer to an expanded-DNA biology that will have many exciting applications—from new medicines to new kinds of nanotechnology."

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-scienti...tters-dna.html

[JokerD]

Norwegian army trials Oculus Rift to drive tanks

VR goggles in tanks!!

[Se7enSword]

Human 'suspended animation' trials to start this month

The world's first humans trials will start at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, with 10 patients whose injuries would otherwise be fatal to operate on. A team of surgeons will remove the patient's blood, replacing it with a chilled saline solution that would cool the body, slowing down bodily functions and delaying death from blood loss. According to Dr. Samuel Tisherman, talking to New Scientist: "We are suspending life, but we don't like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction... we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation."

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/26/h...=rss_truncated

[Se7enSword]

MIT scientists have developed a camouflage generator
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNlE_hzqdss

Designed to hide urban eyesores like electrical boxes in lush green parks, or an air conditioner sitting outside a historic building, the algorithm uses a series of images—taken at various angles around the object—to generate a camouflage pattern that can be turned into a covering.

The goal is to make the object less noticeable at a glance, because unlike a soldier, an air conditioner can't adjust its position and hunker low to the ground, or slip behind a tree to help further disguise itself. In other words, it may not be a perfect invisibility cloak just yet, but as a way to improve aesthetics, there's a good chance Voldemort won't notice that hideous breaker box on the wall.

http://gizmodo.com/mit-developed-a-c...lmo-1580057671

[Se7enSword]

German scientists make it possible to fly a plane with your brain

Mind control technology gives you the capability to do things you didn't think possible -- like piloting a plane even if you have zero flying experience. A team of researchers from the Technische Universität München and the TU Berlin in Germany have not only developed the technology to fly planes with thoughts alone, but also demonstrated how precise it is. The scientists, led by Professor Florian Holzapfel, had seven subjects (one with no cockpit experience at all) use a flight simulator, and apparently, they all navigated the virtual skies with enough accuracy to pass a flying license test. To make the brain-to-plane communication possible, the group outfitted the subjects with a cap connected to EEG electrodes. Signals from the subjects' brains were then translated into commands using an algorithm developed by the TU Berlin scientists.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/28/m...=rss_truncated

[LoweGear]

Now they only need to develop Variable Fighters and a psychotic singing AI idol...

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Now they only need to develop Variable Fighters and a psychotic singing AI idol...

we do have a singing AI idol who knows if she is psychotic

[AnimeFan188]

Dragon V2 Unveil:

"Dragon V2 – SpaceX’s next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to
space."

See:

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/


============================================


Look How Much Nicer The Interior Of Elon Musk's Space Capsule Is Compared
To The Soyuz:

"The Dragon V2, unveiled at SpaceX headquarters Thursday, can carry seven
astronauts to the International Space Station.

SpaceX revealed on Thursday an updated version of its cargo-only-carrying
Dragon spacecraft, showing off the new capsule's sleek interior with room to
seat seven astronauts.

The Dragon V2 is much more spacious than the Russia Soyuz spacecraft, which
fits three crew members and has been NASA's only way of sending American
astronauts to space since the agency shut down its shuttle program in 2011."


"Other upgrades on the Dragon V2 include a control panel that swings down and
locks into position after the crew is seated and super thrusters that will enable the
crew to escape if there's a problem at any point during flight. The Dragon capsule
is also designed to be reusable, which will reduce the cost of sending people into
space."

See:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/check-...180251721.html

[Se7enSword]

Scientists have managed to selectively erase and restore memories

Scientists use supercomputers to show, for the first time, that climate change will cause more intense summer storms in Britain. Intense rainfall with the potential to cause serious flash flooding will become a common occurrence.

Scientists begin to reveal the profound changes in conscious experience that take place while we fall asleep. They have just discovered that drowsiness alters awareness in much the same way as a common form of brain damage.

Lasers create table-top supernova: Laser beams 60,000 billion times more powerful than a laser pointer have been used to recreate scaled supernova explosions in the laboratory as a way of investigating one of the most energetic events in the Universe.

Stronger than steel: Scientists spin ultra-strong cellulose fibers

New Chip to Bring Holograms to Smartphones: Ostendo's Tiny Projectors Are Designed to Display Crisp Video, Glasses-Free 3-D Images

Tool can plug gunshot wounds in seconds

Wrist-mounted flamethrower

ARM developing processors to make wearables 'invisible'

[Fireminer]

Platinum Pen to release mechanical pencil 15 time stronger than lead

Philips Home Noodle Maker

[Ithekro]

Wasn't there news over the weekend about some scientist developing a transporter of some kind? Only enough to teleport maybe an atom or so, but it was something. Quite a ways from Star Trek levels thought.

[erneiz_hyde]

Wasn't atom level teleportation several years old news already?

[AnimeFan188]

Teleporting information sets stage for ‘cyber secure’ communications:

"As the military continues to reconsider the security of the electromagnetic spectrum
for battlefield data sharing, researchers at Army Research Laboratory have been
experimenting with a new way to communicate information: teleportation.

ARL investigators recently demonstrated information teleportation through the use
of entangled photons at their facilities in Adelphi, Md., according to an ARL press
release.

While the idea of teleportation conveys a connotation of the Star Trek transporter,
quantum information teleportation could more accurately be described as a type of
communication. Through quantum entanglement, a quantum bit, a unit of quantum
information, can be moved between two separate locations without an actual
physical particle."

See:

http://defensesystems.com/articles/2...portation.aspx

[Ithekro]

That was it I think.

[AnimeFan188]

Scientists Invent a Laser That Fires Electrical Charge, Not Light:

"Researchers at the University of Michigan have just stumbled upon the most
important development in laser research since the invention of the semiconductor
diode in the 1950s. It promises to create a new class of lasers that use 250 times
less energy than today's, and that's not even the craziest part.

Semiconductor diodes convert electricity into coherent light by charging a material
known as a gain medium. As energy is transferred from the system into the
medium, the electrons within it absorb the energy and move to a higher charge
state. Once enough of the electrons are charged, any additional current into the
medium instead causes them to jump back down to their original charge state,
releasing its extra energy as coherent light. The problem is that this process
requires a large amount of energy to first excite then trigger these gain medium
electrons.

However, the University of Michigan's laser doesn't rely on conventional gain
mediums. Instead, it leverages a unique charge particle, known as a polaritron,
that exhibits the behaviors of both matter and light."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-invent...rge-1586783382

[AnimeFan188]

NASA's real life Enterprise may take us to other star systems one day:

"Dr. Harold "Sonny" White is still working on a warp drive at NASA's Johnson Space
Center. Their work is still in the experimental stages but that doesn't mean they
can't imagine already what the real life Enterprise ship should look like according to
their math."

"Concept 3D artist Mark Rademaker told io9 that "he worked with White to create
the updated model, which includes a sleek ship nestled at the center of two
enormous rings, which create the warp bubble.""

See:

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/holy-crap-...939/+jesusdiaz

[SaintessHeart]

14-Year-Old Kids "Hack" Into ATM Using Default Security Code

A couple of crafty 14-year-old kids from Winnipeg figured out how to get past the security on a a Bank of Montreal ATM. Crazy as it might sound, the "hack" didn't require any advanced computer hacking at all—these kids just looked up the ATM manual on the internet.

The Edmonton Journal reports that Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon went online to look up the operator's manual for the BMO ATM sitting at their local grocery store, and were able to switch the cash machine over to administrator mode by simply entering one of the default system passwords.

Luckily for the bank, the teens weren't trying to rob the ATM or install malicious card skimming software. Instead, they reported the compromised ATM to employees at a local BMO branch. The extent of the damage they did was changing the ATM's welcome screen to read "Go away. This ATM has been hacked." According to the Edmonton Journal, Hewlett and Turon cooperated with the bank, but BMO hasn't responded more broadly to inquiries about security.

The conclusion of this story makes it more amusing than terrifying, but it could have easily ended in lots of people getting ripped off. This kind of passcode idiocy persists not just in ATMs but for security systems of all kinds. If you're using a default password anywhere, you're basically asking for a rough time down the line. [Edmonton Journal]

[Ithekro]

We had a security door at a school were the preschool kids had learned how to get in and told everyone because it was the preset code. The maintenance staff (us) didn't know about it because we had come in after they installed the door. After having to change the code every year and then finding out the students knew a way around the security, we decided to erase the default code for our own.

After than the parents and teachers had to actually learn the new codes rather than just punching in 1, 2, 3, 4.