Lifeboat Foundation

Carnegie Mellon University is embarking on a five-year, $12 million research effort to reverse-engineer the brain and “make computers think more like humans,” funded by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). The research is led by Tai Sing Lee, a professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).

The research effort, through IARPA’s Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) research program, is part of the U.S. BRAIN Initiative to revolutionize the understanding of the human brain.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=evbPZlUoNXA

A new thriller starring Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds explores the idea of transferring consciousness from one body to another. Unlike Freaky Friday, or the myriad of other family movies and comedies that have explored the idea, this one actually explores the science of the process.

In the movie Self/less, a rich business man (Kingsley) is dying of cancer. However, he is able to prolong his “self” by transferring his consciousness from one body to another using a medical procedure called “shedding.”

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Researchers at the University of Bristol have created ‘Mogrify’ — an algorithm that can predict how to reprogram virtually any type of cell

One way of creating new cells is with stem cells. The most famous of these are embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, the latter made from your own cells. While these cells have immense potential, the process of creating them is complicated and not without error. Coaxing these cells into a new type once you’ve made them is also easier said than done.

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We can just imagine the scenario that spawned this paper: a bunch of microbiologists sitting around the lab coffee machine, looking for a way to procrastinate, and voila…coffee machine microbiome! Here, the researchers not only sampled bacteria from 10 different Nespresso machines, but they also “conducted a dynamic monitoring of the colonization process in a new machine” (charge new lab coffee machine to grant: check). They found that bacteria rapidly colonized the sludge that sits inside the machines, and many of these species were adapted to the high levels of caffeine and other compounds found in coffee. We’d suggest that they study what lives in the office fridge next, but really–not even a microbiologist wants to go there!

The coffee-machine bacteriome: biodiversity and colonisation of the wasted coffee tray leach

“Microbial communities are ubiquitous in both natural and artificial environments. However, microbial diversity is usually reduced under strong selection pressures, such as those present in habitats rich in recalcitrant or toxic compounds displaying antimicrobial properties. Caffeine is a natural alkaloid present in coffee, tea and soft drinks with well-known antibacterial properties. Here we present the first systematic analysis of coffee machine-associated bacteria. We sampled the coffee waste reservoir of ten different Nespresso machines and conducted a dynamic monitoring of the colonization process in a new machine. Our results reveal the existence of a varied bacterial community in all the machines sampled, and a rapid colonisation process of the coffee leach. The community developed from a pioneering pool of enterobacteria and other opportunistic taxa to a mature but still highly variable microbiome rich in coffee-adapted bacteria. The bacterial communities described here, for the first time, are potential drivers of biotechnologically relevant processes including decaffeination and bioremediation.”

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Good article and perspective. And, I believe areas like Finance and Legal will be addressed over the next 5 to 7 years with AI. However, much of our critical needs are in healthcare particularly medical technology and Infrastructure (including security); and these need to get upgraded and improved now.

I recently read a thought provoking article by Klaus Schwab, called ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond’. At the beginning of the article Schwab describes the first three industrial revolutions, which I think we’re all fairly familiar with:

1784 – steam, water and mechanical production equipment.

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I have nothing against the idea of designer babies. Why not better ourselves through science? There will always be a baseline version of humanity kicking around, even if it’s in cold storage,thus ensuring that any mistakes made early on don’t destroy the species. Besides, the same technology that allows us to make ourselves better could just as easily be used to repair us if we do make a mistake of some kind. TOO much red-tape, as always.

Room: B-3245.

Recent discoveries and advances in medicine are setting the bioethical world on fire. Some technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9 and fast DNA sequencing techniques, have tremendously increased our control over our own genome. GMOs, Gene Therapy and life extension are examples of applications of our new gained knowledge in genetics. For more than a few, the thought of scientists playing with the fundamental building blocks of life brings an uneasy feeling. Yet, what are the scientists really doing?

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Photochemical tissue bonding (PTB) is a light-based method to repair tissues and is an alternative to traditional sutures and staples used to close wounds. Unlike the latter, PTB does not cause inflammation and scarring at the repair site. PTB works by applying light-sensitive Rose Bengal dye to the exposed tissue. When the dye is exposed to green light, the dye absorbs the light, thereby causing the tissue to crosslink and form a water-tight seal. While PTB can seal incisions sans inflammation, the technique is limited by how deep the light can penetrate the tissue. Researchers from the University of St Andrews and Harvard Medical School have developed a bioabsorable optical waveguide, which can deliver light deep into tissues before being absorbed.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers fabricated optical waveguides from a variety of polymers, but ultimately tested the degradation times of the polymers PVP and PLGA (50:50) in vivo. They inserted 1 × 5 mm x 500 µm pieces of bulk polymer subcutaneously in mice and examined the implant at different time points. The PVP waveguide dissolved within one hour of implantation, whereas the PLGA polymer began to lose shape after 17 days, illustrating that researchers can tune the degradation time (ranging from hours to days) of the optical waveguide for a specific application.

After establishing the biodegradability of the polymer waveguides, the team showed how the waveguides could extend the penetration depth in PTB. Light was coupled to the device via pigtail fiber, which was trimmed off after light was applied, thus leaving only the bioabsorable polymer within the wound. Immediately after a pig was killed, they made a “full-thickness incision” (1 cm) on the dorsal skin and applied Rose Bengal dye. In the control, they applied 532-nm light (1 W) for 15 minutes at the surface of the wound. In waveguide assisted PTB, they inserted the polymer waveguide and applied light through the waveguide, effectively increasing the penetration depth of the light. The shear tensile strength of the control PTB was 0.33 kPa compared to 1.94 kPa in the waveguide assisted PTB, illustrating that the optical waveguide enabled tissue crosslinking and wound healing at greater depths.

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What would be really cool is have a “Computer Screen in a Can”; take your polymer spray and instantly create a screen on a table, a window, suitcase, etc. with your “Computer Screen in a Can”; U Can! I can just imagine the infomercials. On a more serious note — NW Univ has developed a new Hybrid Polymer which is going to expand the capabilities of polymer into so many areas in medicine, to manufacturing, electronics, self reparing material & devices, etc.

http://www.compositesworld.com/news/northwestern-university-…id-polymer

A completely new hybrid polymer has been developed by Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) researchers.

“We have created a surprising new polymer with nano-sized compartments that can be removed and chemically regenerated multiple times,” said materials scientist Samuel Stupp, the senior author of the study and director of Northwestern’s Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology. The study was published in the Jan. 29 issue of Science.

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