03.17.09
Posted in Human Enhancement, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:37 am by rheil
USB finger, more details (Jerry Jalava)
„As many of you might have already heard from me or various places on the net after my motorcycle accident last yearI got myself a prosthetic USB finger .
After last night when my friend Bergie blogged about this many have contacted me through email and asking if it is true or how can I work while my finger is in the USB or Is it attached straight to my bone, etc.
So I think it is best I’ll try to explain some of these here now.“ [read original article]
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03.13.09
Posted in biotech, Ethics, Technology, Transhumanism at 8:01 am by rheil
Workplace gene testing fears (The Sydney Mornig Herald)
Deborah Smith, March 11, 2009
„Genetic testing of employees could become more widespread and people need to be better informed of their rights to avoid genetic discrimination, experts have warned.
The director of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania, Margaret Otlowski, said most Australian employers were not using genetic testing or other genetic information to monitor present or future employees.
But her research showed it was likely to become more of a concern. “At least some employers would be interested in using genetic testing in future if it were inexpensive and accessible,” Professor Otlowski said.” [read original article]
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03.03.09
Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Evolution / Genetics, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:35 am by rheil
Durchbruch bei Stammzellenforschung? (Telepolis, Thomas Pany, 02.03.2009)
„Kanadischen und britischen Forschern ist es gelungen, Hautzellen, die Erwachsenen entnommen wurden, zu Stammzellen in der embryonalen Form zurückzuprogrammieren – ohne den bis dato nötigen Einsatz eines Virus.“ [zum Originalartikel]
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02.14.09
Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Transhumanism at 7:05 am by rheil
Doping am Arbeitsplatz: DAK gibt Entwarnung (telepolis, Jörg Auf dem Hövel13.02.2009)
„Seit einigen Jahren diskutiert die Fach- und Medienwelt das Gehirndoping. Gibt es Arzneimittel, so die Frage, die den Geist soweit auf Trab bringen, dass dieser mehr schaffen kann? Die kurze Antwort: Wohl eher nicht. Wie so üblich in der erregungssüchtigen Gesellschaft wird gleichwohl behauptet, dass eine Vielzahl von Menschen bereits zu diesen Mitteln greifen würde, um sich fit für den Arbeitsalltag zu halten. Die DAK wollte es genauer wissen und hat eine Studie vorgelegt, in der sie das Dopingverhalten der Deutschen unter die Lupe genommen hat.
Seit einem Tag titeln die Medien nun: “Hunderttausende dopen sich für den Job” (Tagesspiegel), “Jeder Fünfte ist für Doping am Arbeitsplatz” (Focus Online) oder “Wir sind voll gut drauf!” (TAZ). Eine genauere Analyse entwirft ein anderes Bild der Realität.“ [zum Originalartikel]
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02.04.09
Posted in AI / Singularity, biotech, Cryonic, Future, Nanotechnology, Neuro, Organisations, Politic, Technology, Transhumanism at 6:49 am by rheil
Singularity University to Study Accelerating Technologies, Launches at NASA Ames
KurzweilAI.net, Feb. 3, 2009
„With the support of NASA, Google and a broad range of technology thought leaders and entrepreneurs, a new university will launch in Silicon Valley this summer with the goal of preparing the next generation of leaders to address “humanity’s grand challenges.”
Singularity University (SU) (www.singularityu.org) will open its doors in June 2009 on the NASA Research Park campus with a nine-week graduate-level interdisciplinary curriculum designed to facilitate understanding, collaboration, and innovation across a broad range of carefully chosen scientific and technological disciplines whose developments are exponentially accelerating.“ [read original article]
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01.31.09
Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Future, Technology at 1:11 pm by rheil
Fernsteuerbare Cyborg-Käfer (Florian Rötzer, Telepolis, 31.01.2009)
„Kalifornische Wissenschaftler konnten Hirschhornkäfer mit Funksignalen beim Fliegen steuern.
Wissenschaftlerm der University of California, Berkeley, ist es gelungen, lebendige Cyborg-Insketen fernzusteuern. Auf der Konferenz MEMS 2009, die in Sorrento, Italien, stattfand und gestern endete, führten die Wissenschaftler auf eine Video ein Experiment mit Hirschhornkäfern vor, die sie ferngesteuert in einem Raum fliegen ließen.“ [zum Originalartikel]
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Posted in biotech, Future, Technology, Transhumanism at 12:54 pm by rheil
The Army’s Remote-Controlled Beetle (Technology Review, anuary 29, 2009)
The insect’s flight path can be wirelessly controlled via a neural implant.
By Emily Singer
„A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week. Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig that receives control signals from a nearby computer. Electrical signals delivered via the electrodes command the insect to take off, turn left or right, or hover in midflight. The research, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), could one day be used for surveillance purposes or for search-and-rescue missions.“ [read original article]
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01.28.09
Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Evolution / Genetics, Technology at 6:58 am by rheil
Wachsende Zweifel am Wert von persönlichen Genanalysen (heisenews, 27.01.09)
„Genomanalysen werden immer schneller und billiger: 2013 soll ein Sequenzierer auf den Markt kommen, der ein komplettes Genom in 15 Minuten entziffert – für weniger als 1000 Dollar. Doch die Datenflut sagt wenig aus“ [zum Originalartikel]
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01.23.09
Posted in Deutschsprachige Seiten, Neuro, Technology at 7:24 am by rheil
Dem Affen ins Hirn geschaut (Telepolis, Andrea Naica-Loebell 22.01.2009)
„Funktionelle Magnetresonanztomografie (fMRT): Das Leuchten ist nicht immer, was es zu sein scheint
Die bildgebenden Verfahren haben die Diagnostik in der Medizin revolutioniert. Sie erlauben auch einen Einblick in die Aktivitäten menschlicher Gehirne. Es leuchtet in den grauen Zellen, wenn das Hirn arbeitet. Was aber genau auf den schönen Bildern zu sehen ist, sollte immer wieder hinterfragt werden. Eine neue Studie verdeutlicht, dass Affenhirne offensichtlich komplizierter funktionieren, als es die bunten Abbildungen suggerieren.“ [zum Artikel]
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01.22.09
Posted in Technology at 8:40 am by rheil
Clinical trials: Unfavorable results often go unpublished (Jennifer Beal, Eurek Alert, 01/20/09)
„Trials showing a positive treatment effect, or those with important or striking findings, were much more likely to be published in scientific journals than those with negative findings, a new review from The Cochrane Library has found.
“This publication bias has important implications for healthcare. Unless both positive and negative findings from clinical trials are made available, it is impossible to make a fair assessment of a drug’s safety and efficacy,” says lead researcher, Sally Hopewell of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford, UK.“ [read original article]
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01.21.09
Posted in Anti-Aging, Online Publications, Technology, Transhumanism at 12:27 pm by rheil
Welcome to the online edition of “Living Healthier and Longer – What Works and What Doesn’t”.
by Carl Bartecchi, M.D. and Robert W. Schrier, M.D.
„This is book is part of an innovative public health initiative to disseminate timely, accurate, and undestandable health information on a wide scale.“ [download location]
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Posted in Anti-Aging, Technology, Transhumanism at 12:22 pm by rheil
Science-based Longevity Medicine (Harriet Hall, Science-Based Medicine, 01/20/09)
„Much nonsense has been written in the guise of longevity medicine. In Fantastic Voyage, Ray Kurzweil explains why he takes 250 pills every day and spends one day a week at a clinic getting IV vitamins, chelation, and acupuncture. He is convinced this regimen will keep him alive long enough for science to figure out how to keep him alive forever. In Healthy Aging, Andrew Weil chips in with his own mixture of science and magic. I pointed out the flaws in their reasoning in a review for Skeptic magazine – available online. There are many other popular books that promise to tell you how to live longer. Most of them amount to little more than speculation based on extrapolations from animal studies, in vitro studies, and odd non-clinical facts.“ [read original article]
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Posted in Deutschsprachige Seiten, Ethics, Evolution / Genetics, Human Enhancement, Technology, Transhumanism at 12:12 pm by rheil
Wie Maschinen uns eines Tages versklaven könnten (Susan Blackmore, spiegelonline, 21.01.2009)
„Früher streuten wir nur Gene – dann begannen menschliche Gehirne, Meme zu verbreiten: Ideen, Gedanken, Wörter. Die Evolutionstheoretikerin Susan Blackmore glaubt, dass wir mit Computern und Internet eine neue Evolution in Gang gesetzt haben, die wir eines Tages bereuen könnten.“ [zum Artikel]
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01.20.09
Posted in biotech, Ethics, Future, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:20 am by rheil
Stem cell stroke therapy assessed (Pallab Ghosh, BBC News, 18.01.09)
A Glasgow team is to launch a major trial to assess whether stem cells can be used to treat stroke patients, the BBC has learned.
They hope it will put the UK at the forefront of developing stem cell therapy for incurable disease. Cells made from a human foetus will be injected into patients’ brains.It is hoped the cells will regenerate areas damaged by stroke, and increase patients’ movements and mental abilities.
However, the idea has in the past been described by anti-abortion groups as a “sick proposal”.[read original article]
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Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Evolution / Genetics, Future, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:16 am by rheil
Injektion von embryonalen Stammzellen in das Gehirn von Schlaganfallpatienten - In Großbritannen wurde der erste klinische Versuch genehmigt. (Florian Rötzer, Telepolis, 20.01.09)
„In Großbritannien könnte die Stammzellforschung einen Schritt weiter kommen. Genehmigt wurde von der Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency erstmals ein klinischer Versuch, bei dem vier Gruppen von jeweils drei Schlaganfallpatienten mit Hirnschädigungen über zwei Jahre embryonale Stammzellen injiziert werden.“ [zum Originalartikel]
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01.15.09
Posted in biotech, Ethics, Human Enhancement, Nootropics, Transhumanism at 7:48 am by rheil
My Genome, My Self (Steven Pinker, New York Times, Published: January 7, 2009)
„ONE OF THE PERKS of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself. I have been tested for vocational interest (closest match: psychologist), intelligence (above average), personality (open, conscientious, agreeable, average in extraversion, not too neurotic) and political orientation (neither leftist nor rightist, more libertarian than authoritarian). I have M.R.I. pictures of my brain (no obvious holes or bulges) and soon will undergo the ultimate test of marital love: my brain will be scanned while my wife’s name is subliminally flashed before my eyes. [...]“ [read original article]
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01.08.09
Posted in Neuro at 7:56 am by rheil
How the city hurts your brain …And what you can do about it (bostom.com)
„Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it’s long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.“ [read original article]
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Posted in Anti-Aging, Cryonic, Transhumanism at 7:51 am by rheil
Interview: Jason Silva on How Science Will Make You Live Forever (Brave New Traveler)
„Will science finally be able to fix the “problem” of death? In a provocative interview, Jason Silva explains how very soon you may live forever.“ [read original article]
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01.04.09
Posted in biotech, Neuro, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:32 am by rheil
Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience (Edward Vul, Christine Harris, Piotr Winkielman, Harold Pashler)
„The newly emerging field of Social Neuroscience has drawn much attention in recent years, with high-profile studies frequently reporting extremely high (e.g., >.8) correlations between behavioral and self-report measures of personality or emotion and measures of brain activation obtained using fMRI. We show that these correlations often exceed what is statistically possible assuming the (evidently rather limited) reliability of both fMRI and personality/emotion measures. The implausibly high correlations are all the more puzzling because social-neuroscience method sections rarely contain sufficient detail to ascertain how these correlations were obtained. We surveyed authors of 54 articles that reported findings of this kind to determine the details of their analyses. More than half acknowledged using a strategy that computes separate correlations for individual voxels, and reports means of just the subset of voxels exceeding chosen thresholds. We show how this non-independent analysis grossly inflates correlations, while yielding reassuring-looking scattergrams. This analysis technique was used to obtain the vast majority of the implausibly high correlations in our survey sample. In addition, we argue that other analysis problems likely created entirely spurious correlations in some cases. We outline how the data from these studies could be reanalyzed with unbiased methods to provide the field with accurate estimates of the correlations in question. We urge authors to perform such reanalyses and to correct the scientific record. [...]“
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Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:24 am by rheil
Voodoo-Korrelationen in den Neurowissenschaften? (Jörg Auf dem Hövel, Telepolis, 03.01.09)
Eine Forschergruppe zweifelt die diversen Studien an, die starke Zusammenhänge zwischen menschlichen Verhalten und Aktivitätsmustern im Gehirn nachgewiesen haben wollen
„Seit einigen Jahren ist es möglich, dem Menschen mittels bildgebender Verfahren quasi beim Denken zuzusehen. Es entstand das Feld der sozialen Neurowissenschaften: Wissenschaftler bringen sichtbare Vorgänge im Gehirn in Zusammenhang mit Verhalten, Entscheidungen und Emotionen. Eine Forschergruppe um Edward Vul vom MIT und Harold Pashler von der Universität von Kalifornien in San Diego hat nun 54 der wichtigsten solcher Studien aus den vergangenen Jahren untersucht und behauptet in einem Aufsatz für die Perspectives on Psychological Science, der vorab online veröffentlicht wurde: Eine Vielzahl dieser Leitstudien beinhaltet statistisch unmögliche oder falsche Korrelationen, die Autoren sollten nachbessern. [...]“
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Posted in biotech, Deutschsprachige Seiten, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:19 am by rheil
Freigabe von “smart drugs” für Schüler und Studenten? (Florain Rötzer, Telepolis, 03.01.09)
„Es gebe genügend Beweise, dass Medikamente wie Ritalin oder Provigil Konzentration und Leistung verbessern können, sagt der Bioethiker Harris. [...]“
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Posted in biotech, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Nootropics, Technology, Transhumanism at 7:14 am by rheil
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor, from Times Online, January 1, 2009
Let students take drugs to boost brainpower, says leading academic
„Students should be allowed to take “smart drugs”, such as Ritalin, to help boost their academic performance, a leading academic has suggested.
John Harris, professor of bioethics and director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester, said the government and medical profession should “seriously consider” making cognition-enhancing drugs available to students without prescription, or allowing them to be prescribed for non-therapeutic purposes, such as studying. [...]“
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01.01.09
Posted in biotech, Future, Human Enhancement, Neuro, Technology, Transhumanism at 6:59 am by rheil
Researchers’ vision: restoring sight through artificial retinas
December 30th, 2008 By Robert S. Boyd in Technology / Engineering (PhysOrg.com)
„Scientists are testing artificial retinas that they hope can restore partial sight to people who’ve lost their vision to the most common causes of blindness. [...]“
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