Lifeboat Foundation

Organovo is one of the most fascinating companies that we follow–and quite continually–as the dynamic company has kept the momentum rolling with one scientific breakthrough after another.

Famous for the design and creation of functional human tissues for medical applications, we’ve recently also been following Organovo and other partnerships in researching human tissue as well as offering the first 3D bioprinted liver product.

It’s just been recently announced that Uniquest signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Organovo to patent kidney cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Professor Melissa Little and her team at Uniquest have actually been able to grow kidney tissue which should prove to be helpful in not only drug screening but also disease modeling and cell therapy.

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Fear of scientists “playing god” is at the centre of many a plot line in science fiction stories. Perhaps the latest popular iteration of the story we all love is Jurassic World (2015), a film I find interesting only for the tribute it paid to the original Michael Crichton novel and movie Jurassic Park.

Full op-ed from h+ Magazine on 7 October 2015 http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/10/07/opinion-synthetic-biolog…f-mankind/

In Jurassic Park, a novel devoted to the scare of genetic engineering when biotech was new in the 1990s, the character of John Hammond says:

Continue reading “h+ Magazine: Synthetic Biology — The True Savior of Mankind” »

Scientists in the UK and Australia have identified three biomarkers, which when they attached to T-cells (part of the immune system) in high numbers prior to anti-retroviral therapy, increase the chance of early rebound.

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Treating cancer by boosting the immune system has been hailed as a major breakthrough in cancer treatment. It may melt away tumours in some patients but it isn’t always effective, and can even be dangerous.

The FDA approved two new immunotherapy drugs in 2015, and over half current cancer trials now involve immunotherapy. The field has the potential to completely change cancer treatment, but it’s still early days.

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You’ll now be able to use them to create your own marketable inventions.

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IBM scientists take a big step toward their quest to bring us speedy, low-power chips. The secret: carbon nanotubes.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeCpHugyI80

Published on YouTube in April 2015.

“As part of the BBC’s Intelligent Machines season, Google’s Eric Schmidt has penned an exclusive article on how he sees artificial intelligence developing, why it is experiencing such a renaissance and where it will go next.”

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Have you hugged or told someone that you love them today? Maybe it wasn’t someone — maybe it was your smartphone that you gave an extra squeeze or gave an extra pat as you slipped it into your pocket. Humans have become increasingly invested in their devices, and a new era of emotional attachment to our devices and other AI seems to be upon us. But how does this work itself out on the other end — will or could AI ever respond to humans in an emotional fashion?

Communication Sparks Emotional Response

AI is broad, and clearly not all AI are meant to give and receive in an emotional capacity. Humans seem prone to respond to features that are similar to its own species, or to those to which it can relate to in some sort of communicative way. Most “emotional” or responsive algorithm-based capabilities have been programmed into robots that are in a humanoid – or at least a mammal-like – form.

Think androids in customer-service, entertainment, or companion-type roles. There are also robots like PARO, the baby harbor seal used for therapeutic interaction with those in assisted living and hospital environments.

In a 2003 paper published through the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Cynthia Breazeal quotes a study by Reeves and Nass (1996), whose research shows humans (whether computer experts, lay people, or computer critics) generally treat computers as they might treat other people.

Continue reading “The Emotional Era of Artificial Intelligence” »