[FEATURED ARTICLE] Cryonics, May-June 2012 by Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. [The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Alcor or its Board.] Abstract Cryopreserved patients must be cared for for at least decades and some anticipate centuries. During this time, some caretaker organization must look after the patients. This involves paying the… Read more »
[FEATURED ARTICLE] Cryonics, May-June 2012 The End of Illnessby David B. Agus, MD. Free Press, 2011. Reviewed by Steve Bridge So, here’s one of those choice games that young people play – We have a new medication. 75% of those who take it will become ageless and immortal; 25% die immediately. The only way to know which is which is… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Scientists have caught tiny amounts of a strangely shaped protein — a relative of a well-known suspect in Alzheimer’s disease — spreading destruction throughout the brains of mice. If a similar process happens in the human brain, it could help explain how Alzheimer’s starts, and even suggest new ways to stop the dangerous molecule’s spread. Many Alzheimer’s researchers… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have opened up a new chapter in optics: in experiments with gamma rays at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble they have proven that these extremely high-energy electromagnetic waves can be focused by lenses like conventional light—the researchers have thus refuted a fundamental… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Research by a collaborative group of scientists from UC San Diego School of Medicine, UC San Francisco and Wake Forest School of Medicine has led to identification of an existing drug that is effective against Entamoeba histolytica. This parasite causes amebic dysentery and liver abscesses and results in the death of more than 70,000 people worldwide each year. Using… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Gaining access to the inner workings of a neuron in the living brain offers a wealth of useful information: its patterns of electrical activity, its shape, even a profile of which genes are turned on at a given moment. However, achieving this entry is such a painstaking task that it is considered an art form; it is so… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] “It took us three years and 750 tries to make it work, but we finally did it,” said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, of his latest research, a method for repeatedly encoding, storing and erasing digital data within the DNA of living cells. Bonnet, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, worked with graduate student Pakpoom Subsoontorn and assistant professor Drew… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found the tiny crystals to be safe over a one-year period, a hopeful outcome for doctors and scientists seeking new ways to battle diseases like cancer through nanomedicine. The research, which will appear on May 20 in Nature Nanotechnology online, is likely the first to test the… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Two patients who lost the use of their limbs (and the ability to speak) following brainstem strokes successfully reached out and touched a foam ball, thanks to a small array of electrodes implanted on their motor cortexes and a robotic arm that followed the command of their neurons, according to a Nature paper published today (May 16). “These results are… Read more »
[TECH NEWS] Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by its director Maria Blasco, have proved that mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal’s genes using the enzyme telomerase. It appears to be the first successful use of gene therapy to combat aging. The… Read more »
