Select Page ::

This Week in Tech: Oct 27 – Nov 2

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

In the future, we’ll be able to escape robot security guards on our hoverbikes. That is, if they won’t drive themselves by then.

Here’s what else fascinated us in the world of tech this week.

Robot Security Guards Will Constantly Nag Spectators at the Tokyo Olympics. Officials have unveiled Perseusbot, one of the robot security guards that will patrol train stations during the Tokyo Olympics.

FBI’s Tesla Criminal Probe Reportedly Centers on Model 3 Production. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the FBI’s Tesla criminal probe centers on whether the company lied about its Model 3 production.

You Can Now Preorder a $150,000 Hoverbike. Hoversurf’s $150,000 Hover One hoverbike is now available for preorder with deliveries expected to occur in the third quarter of 2019.

Ford’s Self-Driving Cars Are About to Chauffeur Your Senator. Ford announced plans to begin testing its autonomous vehicles in Washington D.C., the first such testing in the nation’s capital.

There’s No Way China’s Artificial Moon Will Work, Says Expert. The plan to use an artificial moon to illuminate the Chinese city of Chengdu simply won’t work as stated, according to an aerospace engineer.

Here is the original post:
This Week in Tech: Oct 27 – Nov 2

This Week in Science: Oct 27 – Nov 2

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Does it ever feel like your world is being swallowed by a giant black hole? Turns out you might be on to something.

Here are six stories in the world of science that caught our attention this week.

New Image Confirms a Black Hole is Swallowing Our Galaxy. New evidence confirms the existence of Sagittarius A*, a black hole long assumed to reside at the center of the Milky Way.

A Stem Cell Transplant Let a Wheelchair-Bound Man Dance Again. A man bound to a wheelchair for 10 years by multiple sclerosis (MS) can now walk and dance following an experimental stem cell transplant.

Report Identifies China as the Source of Ozone-Destroying Emissions. A new report narrows down the source of the emissions that continue to destroy the ozone, despite being banned since 2010.

Tech Billionaires Are Pouring Money Into Fusion Research. A slew of tech billionaires, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, are determined to make cost-effective nuclear fusion a reality.

Scientists Want Your Help Crafting a Message to Aliens. Scientists want to craft an updated version of the Arecibo Message, a radio communication that marked humanity’s first attempt to talk to aliens.

NASA Scientists Think They Can Extract Rocket Fuel From Martian Soil. NASA is hard at work on a “factory” that would let future Mars missions — or even colonists — extract rocket fuel from Martian soil.

Read the original post:
This Week in Science: Oct 27 – Nov 2

Watch This Remarkable Robot Transform Itself to Tackle Various Tasks

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Adapt, React, Readapt, Apt

Robots have never been more advanced than they are today, but they aren’t terribly adaptable — most are capable of completing just one or two specific tasks.

In an effort to create a more capable robot, researchers from Cornell University designed one that’s essentially many smaller robots stuck together. This modular formation means the robot can transform into whatever shape best suits the task at hand.

Metabot

What makes this shape-shifting robot remarkable is that it doesn’t need anyone telling it when to change shape — it figures that out on its own using a system of cameras, sensors, and AI software.

The Cornell team describes the shape-shifting robot in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics, but to get a real feel for its capabilities, we suggest checking out the video above.

Like a Boss

Watch it and you’ll see the robot navigate a makeshift office environment that looks like a box fort you might have built as a child. The robot navigates around what seems like whatever crap the Cornell researchers had lying around the lab — a water filter, a stool — to retrieve objects and place them in a designated drop-off zone.

If the bot decides its current shape isn’t ideal for completing a task, it switches it up — various parts detach and reattach themselves to the robot’s main body. This allows it to navigate narrow spaces or even inchworm itself up a set of stairs.

Let’s just hope the researchers building the next generations of these transforming robots model them after the Autobots and not the Decepticons.

READ MORE: Shape-Shifting Modular Robot Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts [Cornell University]

More on adaptable robots: This Floating Robot Dragon Can Change Shape Mid-Flight

See the article here:
Watch This Remarkable Robot Transform Itself to Tackle Various Tasks

Watch the First Knitted Concrete Structure Take Shape

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Concrete and Crafts

Forget scarves and mittens. Soon, we might be able to knit entire buildings.

A team from the Swiss university ETH Zurich has developed a technique that allows them to knit textiles that can then form the scaffolds for large concrete structures. As a proof of concept, they created a 13-foot-tall architectural structure that’s now on display in Mexico City.

Knit Picking

To create this curvaceous knitted concrete structure, the team started by using an industrial knitting machine to produce the textile that serves as its basis. This process produced just four long strips of fabric and took about 36 hours.

After transporting the textile to Mexico City, they fitted it over a steel cable-net and a temporary frame, inserting balloons into pockets in the fabric to give it its desired shape. Then they sprayed the structure with a specially formulated concrete mixture. After that hardened, they applied fiber-reinforced concrete.

While the textile and net weighed a total of just 121 pounds, they were able to support 5.5 tons of concrete.

Fabric’s Future

The Mexico City structure marks the first use of this knitting technique to create a structure on an architectural scale, but it might not be the last.

“Knitting offers a key advantage that we no longer need to create 3D shapes by assembling various parts,” said developer Mariana Popescu in a press release. “With the right knitting pattern, we can produce a flexible formwork for any and all kinds of shell structures, pockets, and channels just by pressing a button.”

READ MORE: 3D-Knitted Shells Save on Construction Materials and Time [ETH Zürich]

More on concrete: Scientists Have Created a Concrete Roof That Generates Solar Power

Here is the original post:
Watch the First Knitted Concrete Structure Take Shape

Fox is Using Machine Learning to Predict Which Movies Will be Hits

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Sum of the Parts

The movie studio 20th Century Fox developed a machine learning algorithm that it’s using to predict who will like new movies. The system, described in a paper published on the preprint server ArXiv in late October, analyzes and categorizes movie trailers based on the objects and people it detects in them.

Other films with similar trailers, according to the algorithm, will likely appeal to similar audiences.

Mix and Match

For instance, a blog post about the algorithm details how it interpreted the X-Men film “Logan.” After watching the trailer, the top four labels picked up by the algorithm were “tree,” “facial hair,” “car,” and “man,” which led the algorithm to recommend the visually-similar film “The Revenant,” perhaps because of all the beards and forests.

But, The Verge highlighted, the algorithm totally missed out on the opportunity to pair “Logan” with “Ant-Man,” and “Deadpool,” both of which are also subversions of a typical superhero story.

Party Trick

Artificial intelligence and robots are rapidly automating Hollywood, with AI recommending scripts to produce and algorithmically generating special effects. But it’s unclear just who Fox’s new system will actually help, especially considering AI’s current limitations.

Maybe this tool could help marketing teams target specific demographics with ads once the trailer has been produced. But it’s difficult to imagine an area where an image-detection algorithm outperforms humans who are capable of making deeper connections.

But hey, it’s still neat!

More on Hollywood: It’s This Woman’s job to Dream up Hollywood’s Sci-Fi Future

Read the original here:
Fox is Using Machine Learning to Predict Which Movies Will be Hits

Quantum Navigation Could be as Accurate as GPS, Without Satellites

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Where in the World

In a few years, GPS systems may get a boost from a new generation of quantum physics navigation tools.

After a series of high profile GPS hacks and failures, WIRED reported, the U.S. military and several national labs are working on new quantum navigators that could revolutionize global positioning systems by cutting out the need for satellite

Red Light Green Light

The quantum navigator takes the form of a small diamond cube synthesized to have pockets of nitrogen atoms among the usual carbon lattice. As a green laser passes through the cube, these nitrogen pockets emit a red light that varies in intensity depending on the strength and direction of whatever magnetic field is affecting the cube.

When calibrated to the patterns of Earth’s magnetic field, the device can be used as its own global positioning device — one that doesn’t require satellites that can be cracked by hackers. The gyroscope and other quantum tools rely on different physical structures and respond to different stimuli, but their use of quantum mechanics offers similar benefits over today’s technology.

You Won’t Feel a Thing

Government and military researchers hope that their tools will become available within the next decade as quantum tech continues to improve. And contractors including Lockheed Martin are already interested, according to WIRED.

For now, the tools aren’t nearly as precise as GPS tech, so it’s more likely that quantum navigation will serve as an emergency backup or to verify what a GPS is reporting — it most likely won’t replace it, at least for a while.

READ MORE: QUANTUM PHYSICISTS FOUND A NEW, SAFER WAY TO NAVIGATE [WIRED]

More on quantum technology: The World’s First Practical Quantum Computer May Be Just Five Years Away

See the rest here:
Quantum Navigation Could be as Accurate as GPS, Without Satellites

Watch a Missile Smash a Dummy Nuclear Warhead Out of the Sky

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Midair Meeting

The Pentagon just pulled off an extraordinary feat: it shot a dummy nuclear missile out of the sky, using another missile.

On October 26, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency launched a fake medium-range nuclear missile from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii. Moments later, the destroyer USS John Finn fired a specialized “interceptor” called the SM-3 Block IIA — a U.S.-Japanese missile designed to intercept enemy missiles.

Threading the Needle

The SM-3 can launch from land or sea, and was designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles — very much like the ones in Russia and North Korea‘s stockpiles.

According to manufacturer Raytheon, the SM-3 interceptor is designed to slam into the target at a force of a “10-ton truck traveling 600 mph.” It doesn’t explode upon impact — it simply rams the enemy missile at ultra-high speeds to destroy it.

Don’t Press The Red Button

It’s the second successful demonstration of the SM-3 after two failed attempts in June 2017 and January 2018, according to Defense News. The first was a spectacular mission failure when a sailor accidentally caused the SM-3 missile to self-destruct mid-flight.

A recently released video shows the SM-3 colliding with the dummy missile in mid-air:

Shooting Bullets With Bullets

It’s a spectacular feat that essentially amounts to hitting a high-velocity target with another even faster missile — think of it as shooting a bullet out of the sky with another bullet.

Will it save us from nuclear armageddon? Impossible to tell at this early stage. But the enemy is bound to be paying attention as well, meeting U.S. advancements in missile technology with their own.

More on anti-missile technology: Russia Is Building an AI-Powered Missile That Can Think for Itself

View original post here:
Watch a Missile Smash a Dummy Nuclear Warhead Out of the Sky

A Millionaire Is Building a Blockchain Utopia in the Nevada Desert

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Berning Man

Where others might see 67,000 acres of desolate desert, Jeffrey Berns sees a future utopia powered by blockchain.

Earlier this year, Berns’s company, Blockchains LLC, bought a vast plot of land surrounding Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory for $170 million. On it, he plans to build an experimental community that operates on a blockchain, the digital ledger technology developed to support bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

“This will either be the biggest thing ever, or the most spectacular crash and burn in the history of mankind,” Berns told The New York Times. “I don’t know which one. I believe it’s the former, but either way it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”

Sandbox City

According to The Times, Berns’s plan is to populate the land with houses, a business district, a college, and an e-gaming arena, with blockchain serving as the new community’s lifeblood.

Every resident and employee of this blockchain city will have an address on the Ethereum network that they’ll use to vote, store their personal data, record property ownership, and more.

So far Berns has spent $300 million on his blockchain city, but he didn’t earn the money through his career as a lawyer — he made it by selling high on some ether he bought in 2015. Which seems appropriate.

Get Rich Quicksand

For now, Berns will continuing working on the master plan for his community, with construction expected to begin no earlier than late 2019.

No word yet on when residents will be able to move into this city of the future, so for now, the closest you’ll probably be able to get to living on the blockchain is asking your landlord if you can pay your rent in crypto.

Just don’t be too surprised if they decline, though — after all, not everyone shares Berns’s unshakable faith in the blockchain.

READ MORE: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada [The New York Times]

More on the blockchain: Here’s Why the Blockchain Might Change the Future (and Why It May Not Live up to the Hype)

See the rest here:
A Millionaire Is Building a Blockchain Utopia in the Nevada Desert

A Sunscreen Ban Won’t Save the Coral Reefs, but It’s a Good Start

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Extra Crispy

The Republic of Palau, an island nation North of Australia, just announced that it will ban all sunscreens that contain any of ten toxic ingredients by 2020.

The new law, which will hit violating retailers with thousand-dollar fines, comes as part of a push to slow, prevent, and reverse coral bleaching in the area, according to BBC News.

Want a Sticker?

Palau joins Hawai’i among governments that have banned the toxic substances, perhaps the most harmful of which is a common sunscreen component called oxybenzone, repeatedly shown to kill off coral in controlled experiments.

Just like plastic straws make up a minuscule fraction of the plastic found in the oceans, evidence suggests that sunscreen is responsible for just a small portion of coral bleaching. The real culprits, as the BBC reported, are climate change and algal blooms caused by agricultural runoff.

Just Say No

But like banning plastic straws, putting the kaibosh on sunscreens with oxybenzone and other harmful chemicals is an obvious choice.

That’s especially the case given that several coral reef-safe types of sunscreen hit the markets in response to Hawai’i’s ban. Though major pharmaceutical corporations like L’Oreal and Johnson & Johnson are fighting the ban according to BBC, switching to a safer alternative should not at all get in the way of tourists traveling to Palau.

READ MORE: Coral: Palau to ban sunscreen products to protect reefs [BBC News]

More on sunscreen: A Bacteria Is Making Sunscreen Safe for You and the Environment

Your Cell Phone Could Cause Cancer — Under Very Specific Conditions

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

The Finish Line

One of the largest and most expensive studies ever to explore a potential link between cell phones and cancer has finally concluded.

On Thursday, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released the results of a study focused on determining if there’s any evidence of a link between cell phone use and cancer. Its conclusion: yes, but only under very specific circumstances.

“Clear Evidence”

For their study, the NTP researchers exposed rats and mice to high levels of radio frequency radiation for nine hours a day for two years.

Following this exposure, 5 to 7 percent of the male rats developed malignant schwannomas, a type of nerve tumor, in their hearts, while 2 to 3 percent of the male rats developed malignant gliomas, a deadly brain cancer. None of the rodents in the control groups developed these conditions.

The above results led the agency to conclude there is “clear evidence” of a link between cell phone use and heart schwannomas and “some evidence” of a link with brain tumors.

iPhones and Oranges

Now for the caveats.

For one thing, the NTP study has been in the works since 1999, and today’s cell phones no longer utilize the same radio frequency. So unless you’re still rocking a 2G flip-phone, the radio waves emitted by your device are probably the kind that have more trouble penetrating the human body.

Secondly, the rodents’ exposure to the radiation wasn’t entirely comparable to that of a human cell phone user.

“In our studies, rats and mice received radio frequency radiation across their whole bodies,” said NTP senior scientist John Bucher in a press release. “By contrast, people are mostly exposed in specific local tissues close to where they hold the phone. In addition, the exposure levels and durations in our studies were greater than what people experience.”

So, $30 million and nearly two decades later, it looks like this NTP study is leaving us right where we were before it started: almost completely unsure whether the phones in our pockets could be harming our health.

More on cancer and cell phones: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About California’s New Guidelines for Cell Phone Usage

A Major Automaker Is Trying to Stop AVs From Making People Sick

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Sick AV, Dude

Once your car can drive itself, you’ll be able to use your daily commute to catch up on work or read the latest headlines — at least, unless riding in an autonomous car makes you sick.

Motion sickness occurs due to a disconnect between what we see and what we feel. If your body is moving in a car, but you’re looking at something stationary — a book or your smartphone, for example — your brain sometimes interprets this to mean you’re hallucinating due to some poison, and it’ll force you to vomit to get the toxin out of your system.

Keeping your eyes on the road, which is also moving, can help you avoid losing your lunch. But what’s the point of riding in an AV if you can’t ignore the road (other than, you know, increased safety)?

To get ahead of the motion sickness issue, Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest car manufacturer, is developing a system it claims will identify when a rider in an AV is likely to experience a bout of motion sickness and take action to prevent it.

Vague but Encouraging

First, Jaguar’s algorithm produces a “wellness score” for each passenger in a vehicle based on data from biometric sensors. How these sensors work is something of a mystery, though. Does the car connect to the rider’s FitBit to check their heart rate? Do cameras inside the cabin monitor their features for signs of nausea?

The press release doesn’t say, but it does claim the system can use the wellness score to “automatically personalise a vehicle’s driving and cabin settings to reduce the effects of feeling car sick by up to 60%.”

Although Jaguar Land Rover is pretty light on specifics, it‘s encouraging to see at least one automaker trying to get ahead of AV-caused motion sickness. After all, it’s going to be hard enough to convince people to accept the vehicles without adding literal vomit to the mix.

READ MORE: Future Jaguar and Land Rover Vehicles Will Help Cure Motion Sickness [Jaguar Land Rover]

More on AV adoption: Poll: Cool Teens Think Self-Driving Cars Are Totally Lame

Read the original here:
A Major Automaker Is Trying to Stop AVs From Making People Sick

History of genetic engineering – Wikipedia

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Genetic recombination caused by human activity has been occurring since around 12,000 BC, when humans first began to domesticate organisms. Genetic engineering as the direct transfer of DNA from one organism to another was first accomplished by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1972. It was the result of a series of advancements in techniques that allowed the direct modification of the genome. Important advances included the discovery of restriction enzymes and DNA ligases, the ability to design plasmids and technologies like polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Transformation of the DNA into a host organism was accomplished with the invention of biolistics, Agrobacterium-mediated recombination and microinjection.

The first genetically modified animal was a mouse created in 1974 by Rudolf Jaenisch. In 1976 the technology was commercialised, with the advent of genetically modified bacteria that produced somatostatin, followed by insulin in 1978. In 1983 an antibiotic resistant gene was inserted into tobacco, leading to the first genetically engineered plant. Advances followed that allowed scientists to manipulate and add genes to a variety of different organisms and induce a range of different effects. Plants were first commercialized with virus resistant tobacco released in China in 1992. The first genetically modified food was the Flavr Savr tomato marketed in 1994. By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialized biotech crops. In 2000 a paper published in Science introduced golden rice, the first food developed with increased nutrient value.

Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organism's genome using certain biotechnology techniques that have only existed since the 1970s.[2] Human directed genetic manipulation was occurring much earlier, beginning with the domestication of plants and animals through artificial selection. The dog is believed to be the first animal domesticated, possibly arising from a common ancestor of the grey wolf,[1] with archeological evidence dating to about 12,000 BC.[3] Other carnivores domesticated in prehistoric times include the cat, which cohabited with human 9,500 years ago.[4] Archeological evidence suggests sheep, cattle, pigs and goats were domesticated between 9 000 BC and 8 000 BC in the Fertile Crescent.[5]

The first evidence of plant domestication comes from emmer and einkorn wheat found in pre-Pottery Neolithic A villages in Southwest Asia dated about 10,500 to 10,100 BC. The Fertile Crescent of Western Asia, Egypt, and India were sites of the earliest planned sowing and harvesting of plants that had previously been gathered in the wild. Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa's Sahel, New Guinea and several regions of the Americas.[7] The eight Neolithic founder crops (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax) had all appeared by about 7000 BC.[8] Horticulture first appears in the Levant during the Chalcolithic period about 6 800 to 6,300 BC. Due to the soft tissues, archeological evidence for early vegetables is scarce. The earliest vegetable remains have been found in Egyptian caves that date back to the 2nd millennium BC.

Selective breeding of domesticated plants was once the main way early farmers shaped organisms to suit their needs. Charles Darwin described three types of selection: methodical selection, wherein humans deliberately select for particular characteristics; unconscious selection, wherein a characteristic is selected simply because it is desirable; and natural selection, wherein a trait that helps an organism survive better is passed on.[11]:25 Early breeding relied on unconscious and natural selection. The introduction of methodical selection is unknown.[11]:25 Common characteristics that were bred into domesticated plants include grains that did not shatter to allow easier harvesting, uniform ripening, shorter lifespans that translate to faster growing, loss of toxic compounds, and productivity.[11]:2730 Some plants, like the Banana, were able to be propagated by vegetative cloning. Offspring often did not contain seeds, and therefore sterile. However, these offspring were usually juicier and larger. Propagation through cloning allows these mutant varieties to be cultivated despite their lack of seeds.[11]:31

Hybridization was another way that rapid changes in plant's makeup were introduced. It often increased vigor in plants, and combined desirable traits together. Hybridization most likely first occurred when humans first grew similar, yet slightly different plants in close proximity.[11]:32 Triticum aestivum, wheat used in baking bread, is an allopolyploid. Its creation is the result of two separate hybridization events.[12]

Grafting can transfer chloroplasts (specialised DNA in plants that can conduct photosynthesis), mitichondrial DNA and the entire cell nucleus containing the genome to potentially make a new species making grafting a form of natural genetic engineering.[13]

X-rays were first used to deliberately mutate plants in 1927. Between 1927 and 2007, more than 2,540 genetically mutated plant varieties had been produced using x-rays.[14]

Various genetic discoveries have been essential in the development of genetic engineering. Genetic inheritance was first discovered by Gregor Mendel in 1865 following experiments crossing peas. Although largely ignored for 34 years he provided the first evidence of hereditary segregation and independent assortment.[15] In 1889 Hugo de Vries came up with the name "(pan)gene" after postulating that particles are responsible for inheritance of characteristics[16] and the term "genetics" was coined by William Bateson in 1905.[17] In 1928 Frederick Griffith proved the existence of a "transforming principle" involved in inheritance, which Avery, MacLeod and McCarty later (1944) identified as DNA. Edward Lawrie Tatum and George Wells Beadle developed the central dogma that genes code for proteins in 1941. The double helix structure of DNA was identified by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953.

As well as discovering how DNA works, tools had to be developed that allowed it to be manipulated. In 1970 Hamilton Smiths lab discovered restriction enzymes that allowed DNA to be cut at specific places and separated out on an electrophoresis gel. This enabled scientists to isolate genes from an organism's genome.[18] DNA ligases, that join broken DNA together, had been discovered earlier in 1967[19] and by combining the two enzymes it was possible to "cut and paste" DNA sequences to create recombinant DNA. Plasmids, discovered in 1952,[20] became important tools for transferring information between cells and replicating DNA sequences. Frederick Sanger developed a method for sequencing DNA in 1977, greatly increasing the genetic information available to researchers. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), developed by Kary Mullis in 1983, allowed small sections of DNA to be amplified and aided identification and isolation of genetic material.

As well as manipulating the DNA, techniques had to be developed for its insertion (known as transformation) into an organism's genome. Griffiths experiment had already shown that some bacteria had the ability to naturally take up and express foreign DNA. Artificial competence was induced in Escherichia coli in 1970 when Morton Mandel and Akiko Higa showed that it could take up bacteriophage after treatment with calcium chloride solution (CaCl2).[21] Two years later, Stanley Cohen showed that CaCl2 treatment was also effective for uptake of plasmid DNA.[22] Transformation using electroporation was developed in the late 1980s, increasing the efficiency and bacterial range.[23] In 1907 a bacterium that caused plant tumors, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, was discovered and in the early 1970s the tumor inducing agent was found to be a DNA plasmid called the Ti plasmid.[24] By removing the genes in the plasmid that caused the tumor and adding in novel genes researchers were able to infect plants with A. tumefaciens and let the bacteria insert their chosen DNA into the genomes of the plants.[25]

In 1972 Paul Berg used restriction enzymes and DNA ligases to create the first recombinant DNA molecules. He combined DNA from the monkey virus SV40 with that of the lambda virus.[26] Herbert Boyer and Stanley Norman Cohen took Berg's work a step further and introduced recombinant DNA into a bacterial cell. Cohen was researching plasmids, while Boyers work involved restriction enzymes. They recognised the complementary nature of their work and teamed up in 1972. Together they found a restriction enzyme that cut the pSC101 plasmid at a single point and were able to insert and ligate a gene that conferred resistance to the kanamycin antibiotic into the gap. Cohen had previously devised a method where bacteria could be induced to take up a plasmid and using this they were able to create a bacteria that survived in the presence of the kanamycin. This represented the first genetically modified organism. They repeated experiments showing that other genes could be expressed in bacteria, including one from the toad Xenopus laevis, the first cross kingdom transformation.[27][28][29]

In 1974 Rudolf Jaenisch created a transgenic mouse by introducing foreign DNA into its embryo, making it the worlds first transgenic animal.[30][31] Jaenisch was studying mammalian cells infected with simian virus 40 (SV40) when he happened to read a paper from Beatrice Mintz describing the generation of chimera mice. He took his SV40 samples to Mintz's lab and injected them into early mouse embryos expecting tumours to develop. The mice appeared normal, but after using radioactive probes he discovered that the virus had integrated itself into the mice genome.[32] However the mice did not pass the transgene to their offspring. In 1981 the laboratories of Frank Ruddle, Frank Constantini and Elizabeth Lacy injected purified DNA into a single-cell mouse embryo and showed transmission of the genetic material to subsequent generations.[33][34]

The first genetically engineered plant was tobacco, reported in 1983.[35] It was developed by Michael W. Bevan, Richard B. Flavell and Mary-Dell Chilton by creating a chimeric gene that joined an antibiotic resistant gene to the T1 plasmid from Agrobacterium. The tobacco was infected with Agrobacterium transformed with this plasmid resulting in the chimeric gene being inserted into the plant. Through tissue culture techniques a single tobacco cell was selected that contained the gene and a new plant grown from it.[36]

The development of genetic engineering technology led to concerns in the scientific community about potential risks. The development of a regulatory framework concerning genetic engineering began in 1975, at Asilomar, California. The Asilomar meeting recommended a set of guidelines regarding the cautious use of recombinant technology and any products resulting from that technology.[37] The Asilomar recommendations were voluntary, but in 1976 the US National Institute of Health (NIH) formed a recombinant DNA advisory committee.[38] This was followed by other regulatory offices (the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), effectively making all recombinant DNA research tightly regulated in the USA.[39]

In 1982 the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report into the potential hazards of releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment as the first transgenic plants were being developed.[40] As the technology improved and genetically organisms moved from model organisms to potential commercial products the USA established a committee at the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) to develop mechanisms to regulate the developing technology.[39] In 1986 the OSTP assigned regulatory approval of genetically modified plants in the US to the USDA, FDA and EPA.[41] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, guidance on assessing the safety of genetically engineered plants and food emerged from organizations including the FAO and WHO.[42][43][44][45]

The European Union first introduced laws requiring GMO's to be labelled in 1997.[46] In 2013 Connecticut became the first state to enact a labeling law in the USA, although it would not take effect until other states followed suit.[47]

The ability to insert, alter or remove genes in model organisms allowed scientists to study the genetic elements of human diseases.[48] Genetically modified mice were created in 1984 that carried cloned oncogenes that predisposed them to developing cancer.[49] The technology has also been used to generate mice with genes knocked out. The first recorded knockout mouse was created by Mario R. Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies in 1989. In 1992 oncomice with tumor suppressor genes knocked out were generated.[49] Creating Knockout rats is much harder and only became possible in 2003.[50][51]

After the discovery of microRNA in 1993,[52] RNA interference (RNAi) has been used to silence an organism's genes.[53] By modifying an organism to express microRNA targeted to its endogenous genes, researchers have been able to knockout or partially reduce gene function in a range of species. The ability to partially reduce gene function has allowed the study of genes that are lethal when completely knocked out. Other advantages of using RNAi include the availability of inducible and tissue specific knockout.[54] In 2007 microRNA targeted to insect and nematode genes was expressed in plants, leading to suppression when they fed on the transgenic plant, potentially creating a new way to control pests.[55] Targeting endogenous microRNA expression has allowed further fine tuning of gene expression, supplementing the more traditional gene knock out approach.[56]

Genetic engineering has been used to produce proteins derived from humans and other sources in organisms that normally cannot synthesize these proteins. Human insulin-synthesising bacteria were developed in 1979 and were first used as a treatment in 1982.[57] In 1988 the first human antibodies were produced in plants.[58] In 2000 Vitamin A-enriched golden rice, was the first food with increased nutrient value.[59]

As not all plant cells were susceptible to infection by A. tumefaciens other methods were developed, including electroporation, micro-injection[60] and particle bombardment with a gene gun (invented in 1987).[61][62] In the 1980s techniques were developed to introduce isolated chloroplasts back into a plant cell that had its cell wall removed. With the introduction of the gene gun in 1987 it became possible to integrate foreign genes into a chloroplast.[63]

Genetic transformation has become very efficient in some model organisms. In 2008 genetically modified seeds were produced in Arabidopsis thaliana by simply dipping the flowers in an Agrobacterium solution.[64] The range of plants that can be transformed has increased as tissue culture techniques have been developed for different species.

The first transgenic livestock were produced in 1985,[65] by micro-injecting foreign DNA into rabbit, sheep and pig eggs.[66] The first animal to synthesise transgenic proteins in their milk were mice,[67] engineered to produce human tissue plasminogen activator.[68] This technology was applied to sheep, pigs, cows and other livestock.[67]

In 2010 scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they had created the first synthetic bacterial genome. The researchers added the new genome to bacterial cells and selected for cells that contained the new genome. To do this the cells undergoes a process called resolution, where during bacterial cell division one new cell receives the original DNA genome of the bacteria, whilst the other receives the new synthetic genome. When this cell replicates it uses the synthetic genome as its template. The resulting bacterium the researchers developed, named Synthia, was the world's first synthetic life form.[69][70]

In 2014 a bacteria was developed that replicated a plasmid containing an unnatural base pair. This required altering the bacterium so it could import the unnatural nucleotides and then efficiently replicate them. The plasmid retained the unnatural base pairs when it doubled an estimated 99.4% of the time.[71] This is the first organism engineered to use an expanded genetic alphabet.[72]

In 2015 CRISPR and TALENs was used to modify plant genomes. Chinese labs used it to create a fungus-resistant wheat and boost rice yields, while a U.K. group used it to tweak a barley gene that could help produce drought-resistant varieties. When used to precisely remove material from DNA without adding genes from other species, the result is not subject the lengthy and expensive regulatory process associated with GMOs. While CRISPR may use foreign DNA to aid the editing process, the second generation of edited plants contain none of that DNA. Researchers celebrated the acceleration because it may allow them to "keep up" with rapidly evolving pathogens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture stated that some examples of gene-edited corn, potatoes and soybeans are not subject to existing regulations. As of 2016 other review bodies had yet to make statements.[73]

In 1976 Genentech, the first genetic engineering company was founded by Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson and a year later the company produced a human protein (somatostatin) in E.coli. Genentech announced the production of genetically engineered human insulin in 1978.[74] In 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court in the Diamond v. Chakrabarty case ruled that genetically altered life could be patented.[75] The insulin produced by bacteria, branded humulin, was approved for release by the Food and Drug Administration in 1982.[76]

In 1983 a biotech company, Advanced Genetic Sciences (AGS) applied for U.S. government authorization to perform field tests with the ice-minus strain of P. syringae to protect crops from frost, but environmental groups and protestors delayed the field tests for four years with legal challenges.[77] In 1987 the ice-minus strain of P. syringae became the first genetically modified organism (GMO) to be released into the environment[78] when a strawberry field and a potato field in California were sprayed with it.[79] Both test fields were attacked by activist groups the night before the tests occurred: "The world's first trial site attracted the world's first field trasher".[78]

The first genetically modified crop plant was produced in 1982, an antibiotic-resistant tobacco plant.[80] The first field trials of genetically engineered plants occurred in France and the USA in 1986, tobacco plants were engineered to be resistant to herbicides.[81] In 1987 Plant Genetic Systems, founded by Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell, was the first company to genetically engineer insect-resistant plants by incorporating genes that produced insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into tobacco.[82]

Genetically modified microbial enzymes were the first application of genetically modified organisms in food production and were approved in 1988 by the US Food and Drug Administration.[83] In the early 1990s, recombinant chymosin was approved for use in several countries.[83][84] Cheese had typically been made using the enzyme complex rennet that had been extracted from cows' stomach lining. Scientists modified bacteria to produce chymosin, which was also able to clot milk, resulting in cheese curds.[85]The Peoples Republic of China was the first country to commercialize transgenic plants, introducing a virus-resistant tobacco in 1992.[86] In 1994 Calgene attained approval to commercially release the Flavr Savr tomato, a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life.[87] Also in 1994, the European Union approved tobacco engineered to be resistant to the herbicide bromoxynil, making it the first genetically engineered crop commercialized in Europe.[88] In 1995 Bt Potato was approved safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, after having been approved by the FDA, making it the first pesticide producing crop to be approved in the USA.[89] In 1996 a total of 35 approvals had been granted to commercially grow 8 transgenic crops and one flower crop (carnation), with 8 different traits in 6 countries plus the EU.[81]

By 2010, 29 countries had planted commercialized biotech crops and a further 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crops to be imported.[90] In 2013 Robert Fraley (Monsantos executive vice president and chief technology officer), Marc Van Montagu and Mary-Dell Chilton were awarded the World Food Prize for improving the "quality, quantity or availability" of food in the world.[91]

The first genetically modified animal to be commercialised was the GloFish, a Zebra fish with a fluorescent gene added that allows it to glow in the dark under ultraviolet light.[92] The first genetically modified animal to be approved for food use was AquAdvantage salmon in 2015.[93] The salmon were transformed with a growth hormone-regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter from an ocean pout enabling it to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer.[94]

Opposition and support for the use of genetic engineering has existed since the technology was developed.[78] After Arpad Pusztai went public with research he was conducting in 1998 the public opposition to genetically modified food increased.[95] Opposition continued following controversial and publicly debated papers published in 1999 and 2013 that claimed negative environmental and health impacts from genetically modified crops.[96][97]

Originally posted here:

History of genetic engineering - Wikipedia

Aerospace – Schafer Corporation

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

For four decades, Schafer has been a dominant leader in advanced concept development, system design, analysis and prototyping of aerospace capabilities for the military and civilian communities. We bring innovative and agile expertise with global presence, unique capabilities, and hands-on experience to support the most complex aerospace applications. Our capabilities include laser system design and development for both space-based communications and advanced weapons, Space Situational Awareness systems to detect, track and identify space objects, integrated network architectures for integrated Missile Defense command andcontrol, design and development of kinetic kill systems, and launch and range support for NASAs space exploration mission. We are proud to be part of Government, Industry, and Commercial teams that are delivering essential capabilities satisfying critical national security and civilian needs.

We provide a wide variety of engineering and technical services to our Government, prime contractor customers and teammates, and maintain a highly skilled subject matter staff. We pride ourselves in our ability to couple academic principles with engineering applications to support the design, analyses, and development of complex aerospace systems. Our experience includes support to NASA and to Commercial Space Companies.

Schafers Military Aerospace Team integrates a strong technical foundation with new innovations for todays need for flexible, interoperable defense capabilities. The Military Aerospace sector is comprised of the Advanced Concepts and Technology Team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Systems Engineering and Integration Team in Huntsville, Alabama and distributed Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Schafers Civil and Commercial Aerospace Team is a new and developing area for the company. The team has integrated a strong technical foundation with key areas required by our customers including systems engineering, scheduling, earned value management, and project planning and control. The Civil and Commercial Space sector currently has work at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida as well as support to Commercial aerospace companies in Huntsville, Alabama. This includes subject matter experts in:

Visit link:

Aerospace - Schafer Corporation

Aerospace Trade Shows, Aerospace Trade Fairs, Expos …

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Tue, 06 - Thu, 08 Nov 2018starting tomorrow Singapore Industrial Engineering Business ServicesWed, 07 - Sat, 10 Nov 20182 days to go Jakarta, IndonesiaInternational Aero Exhibition Auto & Automotive Science & Research AerospaceTue, 06 - Sun, 11 Nov 2018starting tomorrow Zhuhai, ChinaInternational Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition Auto & Automotive Aerospace Wed, 07 - Sun, 11 Nov 20182 days to go Taichung, Taiwan Auto & Automotive Industrial Engineering Automation & Robotics AerospaceSat, 10 - Sun, 11 Nov 20185 days to go Monroe, USA Science & Research AerospaceWed, 14 - Fri, 16 Nov 2018 BahrainThe fastest growing airshow in the Middle East Business Services Security & Defense Aerospace Thu, 15 - Sun, 18 Nov 2018 Cairo, Egyptinternational exhibition for compressed air technology & accessories Industrial Engineering Science & Research AerospaceTue, 20 - Thu, 22 Nov 2018 Munich, GermanyInternational Aerospace Supply Fair Science & Research AerospaceWed, 28 - Fri, 30 Nov 2018 Koto, Japan Science & Research Aerospace Tue, 11 Dec 2018 Hampton, USALangley Air Force Base Tech Expo connects government and industry to collaborate on mission requirements and technology solutions. This event, which is open and free to all Langley AFB personnel, provides... Aerospace IT & TechnologyWed, 19 - Thu, 20 Dec 2018 Mumbai, India Auto & Automotive Business Services Fabrications AerospaceTue, 05 - Thu, 07 Feb 2019 Farnborough, UKThe aviation industry trade fair Auto & Automotive Electric & Electronics Automation & Robotics Aerospace Wed, 06 - Thu, 07 Feb 2019 Labge, FranceDeciElec Embedded Systems Reference event for electronics, connected & embedded systems, participants will beneficiate from the Business Convention unique concept:Business meetings dedicated to electronics,... Electric & Electronics AerospaceSat, 09 - Sun, 10 Feb 2019 Buckeye, USABuckeye Air Fair is a vital event that will focus on not only one event but also some other secondary programs which will make this field a must attend for all. The time of this event is for one day and... Security & Defense Aerospace Air, Aviation & AirportsFri, 22 - Sun, 24 Feb 2019 Secaucus, USA Science & Research Aerospace Wed, 27 - Thu, 28 Feb 2019 SingaporeThe Air Retail Show Asia provides the attendees with the opportunity to meet and interact with senior executives in the Asian Aviation industry. It focuses on ancillary strategies, price management & distribution... Logistics & Transportation Aerospace IT & TechnologyWed, 27 Feb - Fri, 01 Mar 2019 Orlando, USAThe Air Force Associations Annual Air Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition provides the attendees with insights on Air Force Update, Precision in AFCENT, Technology: Today and on the Horizon, Close... Science & Research AerospaceTue, 26 Feb - Sun, 03 Mar 2019 Lara, AustraliaOne of the most exciting events ever staged at Avalon Science & Research Aerospace Tue, 26 Feb - Sun, 03 Mar 2019 Avalon, AustraliaAustralian International Airshow and Aerospace & Defence Exposition features a display of military fighter jets to the snarl of warbirds, a unique mix of military, commercial, antique, airsport, rotor... Auto & Automotive Logistics & Transportation AerospaceTue, 26 Feb - Sun, 03 Mar 2019 Avalon, Australia Logistics & Transportation Security & DefenseTue, 12 - Wed, 13 Mar 2019 Munich, GermanyBringing together the best aspects for aerospace technology, Connected Aircraft Europe delivers a great complementary addition to Avionics Expo and Aero Testing Expo, offering greater connectivity between... Logistics & Transportation Security & Defense Wed, 13 - Thu, 14 Mar 201912th edition Mexico City, MexicoThe leading logistics event in Mexico. Auto & Automotive Logistics & Transportation Aerospace Shipping & PortsFri, 15 - Sun, 17 Mar 2019 Titusville, USAThe airshow will have a little something for everyone. Auto & Automotive AerospaceFri, 15 - Sun, 17 Mar 2019 Brussels, Belgium Business Services Aerospace Tue, 19 - Wed, 20 Mar 2019 Tacoma, USAThe Manufacturing, Fabrication, Repair & Maintenance Services Industry trade fair. Electric & Electronics Industrial Engineering Plastic & Polymers AerospaceFri, 22 - Sat, 23 Mar 20192nd edition Katy, USA Science & Research AerospaceSat, 06 - Sun, 07 Apr 2019 Waco, USAAirshow excitement for the entire family! Proud to honor our military and inspire our youth. Travel & Tourism Business Services Aerospace Air, Aviation & Airports Tue, 09 - Thu, 11 Apr 2019 SingaporeBest of Rotorcraft in One Great Lift Off Security & Defense AerospaceWed, 10 - Fri, 12 Apr 2019 Split, CroatiaExhibition is all about sea defense and aerospace. Security & Defense AerospaceWed, 10 - Sat, 13 Apr 2019 Friedrichshafen, GermanyThe global show for general aviation Science & Research Logistics & Transportation Aerospace Sat, 13 Apr 2019 Louisville, USAThunder Over Louisville Air Show features illustrations of homebuilt aircraft supplies, avionics plug-n-play instrument panels, ultralight powered paraglider sales, service and instruction, engine monitoring... Logistics & Transportation AerospaceTue, 16 - Thu, 18 Apr 2019 Montreal, CanadaThe Railway, Shipping & Aviation Products, Spares & Equipment trade fair. Science & Research AerospaceFri, 19 - Sun, 21 Apr 2019 Beijing, ChinaThe leading trade fair for model industry in Asia. Education & Training Aerospace Air, Aviation & Airports Mon, 29 Apr - Thu, 02 May 2019 Long Beach, USAAerospace & Defense Manufacturing Conference & Expo Industrial Engineering Security & Defense AerospaceSat, 04 - Sun, 05 May 2019 Fort Lauderdale, USAFocus on the aviation industry Science & Research AerospaceSat, 04 - Sun, 05 May 2019 Chino, USAVoted One of the Top 10 Air Shows in the Country! Auto & Automotive Logistics & Transportation Aerospace Air, Aviation & Airports Sat, 04 - Sun, 05 May 2019 Albion Park Rail, Australia Telecommunication Science & Research AerospaceSun, 05 May 2019 Abingdon, UK Science & Research AerospaceMon, 06 - Wed, 08 May 2019 Washington DC, USAFocus on the navy industry. Railway & Roadways Science & Research Security & Defense Aerospace Wed, 08 - Thu, 09 May 2019 Madrid, SpainGlobal Robot Expo event is just based on robotics related technologies and innovation. This conference will cover topics like latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0, Service Robotics,... Industrial Engineering Automation & Robotics Aerospace

Aerospace Trade Shows, Aerospace Trade Fairs, Expos ...

Aerospace – SC Council on Competitiveness

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

In 2012, South Carolinas Secretary of Commerce Robert M. Hitt, III appointed the Aerospace Task Force to develop a strategic plan to grow the states aerospace cluster. With input from Regional Advisory Councils and led by Charlie Farrell, the group of public and private leaders recommended priorities for action.

In late 2013, the SC Council on Competitiveness received an Investing in Manufacturing Community Partnerships (IMCP) planning grant from the United States Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration. The Council worked closely with the SC Department of Commerce and other partners around the state to compete for these funds that enabled additional activities to occur to support the aerospace cluster. The first ever aerospace economic impact study was conducted to provide a baseline to understand the growth patterns of this important industry to the states economy. The economic impact studys findings clearly show that South Carolina does indeed have an aerospace industry cluster and that there are opportunities to strengthen and grow the cluster. With continued, targeted efforts by the SC Council on Competitiveness and the SC Department of Commerce, South Carolina will be positioned to compete nationally and globally as a destination for the aerospace industry.

Using the IMCP grant, Deborah Cameron was hired as the Director of Aerospace Initiatives and Wayne Fritz was hired as Senior Project Manager. Charlie Farrell remained as an adviser to the effort for the first year. Staff traveled the state meeting companies and organizations related to the aerospace cluster. Regional and local economic development alliances were also engaged in outreach to companies in their respective locations. Information gathered from these consultations was utilized to develop programming helpful to the industry.

SC Council on Competitiveness partners withUSCs McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research, theSouth Carolina Department of Commerce, the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, and the South Carolina Aviation Associationto host the Aerospace Industry Day event which attracts over 500 attendees.

SC Aerospace is a collaborative effort to advance and market South Carolinas aerospace industry cluster on the global stage. We are a partnership of the public, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors connecting the industrys assets and securing future growth.

We work to:

We host quarterly events to connect aerospace industry leaders and expose them to state assets relevant to the industry, convene aerospace organizations to promote collaboration and alignment, publish monthly newsletters to communicate industry news, partner to host an annual aerospace conference, conduct relevant industry research, host a web site and GIS asset map, represent South Carolina on a broader stage, and much more.

South Carolinas aerospace cluster consists of over 400 civilian companies, as well as four major military aviation facilities:

While The Boeing Company is the dominant face of aerospace in the state, there are numerous other recognizable firms located in South Carolina. These include Lockheed Martin Corporation, TIGHITCO, Stevens Aviation, GKN Aerospace, Labinal, Champion Aerospace, and Ranger Aerospace. Yet, most companies in the aerospace cluster report having five or fewer employees. These small businesses comprise 95% of aerospace firm growth over the five-year period from 2007 2012.There are over 53,000 workers directly employed by civilian aerospace companies and military aviation facilities in South Carolina. The average total compensation of a civilian aerospace employee is about $71,000 far greater than the state average compensation of about $41,000.

Read this article:

Aerospace - SC Council on Competitiveness

Aerospace engineering | Britannica.com

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Danzig

Aerospace engineering, also called aeronautical engineering, or astronautical engineering, field of engineering concerned with the design, development, construction, testing, and operation of vehicles operating in the Earths atmosphere or in outer space. In 1958 the first definition of aerospace engineering appeared, considering the Earths atmosphere and the space above it as a single realm for development of flight vehicles. Today the more encompassing aerospace definition has commonly replaced the terms aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering.

The design of a flight vehicle demands a knowledge of many engineering disciplines. It is rare that one person takes on the entire task; instead, most companies have design teams specialized in the sciences of aerodynamics, propulsion systems, structural design, materials, avionics, and stability and control systems. No single design can optimize all of these sciences, but rather there exist compromised designs that incorporate the vehicle specifications, available technology, and economic feasibility.

Offshore – United States Sailing Association

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Danzig

World Sailing

Serving as the creators and managers of sailing events, race organizers are charged with overseeing the registration process and constructing the Notice of Race (NOR) per the Racing Rules of Sailing. This Notice includes valuable information for all competitors including registration guidelines, safety training requirements, applicable class rules, eligibility requirements, governing rules, a description of the course, rating/handicap certification, and scoring. In all of these areas, the organizers endeavor to serve the interests of their entrants and promote participation. Race Organizers are the primary resource for local sailors.

Developed out of a need to isolate the skill of the crew from the performance of the boat, rating and handicap rules endeavor to assign allowances to correct fleet finishing times. To ensure these allowances are assessed fairly, the rating rule developer prescribes a set of rules beyond the Racing Rules of Sailing that specifies the configurations to which these allowances apply. Generally, ratings are either derived directly from empirical analysis of race data and observed performance or generated by sophisticated software packages. Deciding which rule is right for their fleet is a chief consideration of race organizers.

With safety a paramount concern in offshore racing, a number of different authorities have brought recommendations to the sport. The US Sailing Safety at Sea Committee developed Safety at Sea training programs and Safety Equipment Requirements (SER) to consolidate these opinions. Ultimately, it is up to race organizers to stipulate which guidelines to follow and training standards to mandate.

Offshore - United States Sailing Association

Singularitarianism? Pharyngula

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Danzig

Ray Kurzweil is a genius. One of the greatest hucksters of the age. Thats the only way I can explain how his nonsense gets so much press and has such a following. Now he has the cover of Time magazine, and an article called 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal. It certainly couldnt be taken seriously anywhere else; once again, Kurzweil wiggles his fingers and mumbles a few catchphrases and upchucks a remarkable prediction, that in 35 years (a number dredged out of his compendium of biased estimates), Man (one, a few, many? How? He doesnt know) will finally achieve immortality (seems to me youd need to wait a few years beyond that goal to know if it was true). Now weve even got a name for the Kurzweil delusion: Singularitarianism.

Theres room inside Singularitarianism for considerable diversity of opinion about what the Singularity means and when and how it will or wont happen. But Singularitarians share a worldview. They think in terms of deep time, they believe in the power of technology to shape history, they have little interest in the conventional wisdom about anything, and they cannot believe youre walking around living your life and watching TV as if the artificial-intelligence revolution were not about to erupt and change absolutely everything. They have no fear of sounding ridiculous; your ordinary citizens distaste for apparently absurd ideas is just an example of irrational bias, and Singularitarians have no truck with irrationality. When you enter their mind-space you pass through an extreme gradient in worldview, a hard ontological shear that separates Singularitarians from the common run of humanity. Expect turbulence.

Wow. Sounds just like the Raelians, or Hercolubians, or Scientologists, or any of the modern New Age pseudosciences that appropriate a bit of jargon and blow it up into a huge mythology. Nice hyperbole there, though. Too bad the whole movement is empty of evidence.

One of the things I do really despise about the Kurzweil approach is their dishonest management of critics, and Kurzweil is the master. He loves to tell everyone whats wrong with his critics, but he doesnt actually address the criticisms.

Take the question of whether computers can replicate the biochemical complexity of an organic brain. Kurzweil yields no ground there whatsoever. He does not see any fundamental difference between flesh and silicon that would prevent the latter from thinking. He defies biologists to come up with a neurological mechanism that could not be modeled or at least matched in power and flexibility by software running on a computer. He refuses to fall on his knees before the mystery of the human brain. Generally speaking, he says, the core of a disagreement Ill have with a critic is, theyll say, Oh, Kurzweil is underestimating the complexity of reverse-engineering of the human brain or the complexity of biology. But I dont believe Im underestimating the challenge. I think theyre underestimating the power of exponential growth.

This is wrong. For instance, I think reverse-engineering the general principles of a human brain might well be doable in a few or several decades, and I do suspect that well be able to do things in ten years, 20 years, a century that I cant even imagine. I dont find Kurzweil silly because Im blind to the power of exponential growth, but because:

Kurzweil hasnt demonstrated that there is exponential growth at play here. Ive read his absurd book, and his data is phony and fudged to fit his conclusion. He cheerfully makes stuff up or drops data that goes against his desires to invent these ridiculous charts.

Im not claiming he underestimates the complexity of the brain, Im saying he doesnt understand biology, period. Handwaving is not enough if hes going to make fairly specific claims of immortality in 35 years, there had better be some understanding of the path that will be taken.

There is a vast difference between grasping a principle and implementing the specifics. If we understand how the brain works, if we can create a computer simulation that replicates and improves upon the function of our brain, that does not in any way imply that my identity and experiences can be translated into the digital realm. Again, Kurzweil doesnt have even a hint of a path that can be taken to do that, so he has no basis for making the prediction.

Smooth curves that climb upward into infinity can exist in mathematics (although Kurzweils predictions dont live in state of rigor that would justify calling them mathematical), but they dont work in the real world. There are limits. Weve been building better and more powerful power plants for aircraft for a century, but they havent gotten to a size and efficiency to allow me to fly off with a personal jetpack. I have no reason to expect that they will, either.

While I dont doubt that science will advance rapidly, I also expect that the directions it takes will be unpredictable. Kurzweil confuses engineering, where you build something to fit a predetermined set of specifications, with science, in which you follow the evidence wherever it leads. Look at the so-called war on cancer: it isnt won, no one expects that it will be, but what it has accomplished is to provide limited success in improving health and quality of life, extending survival times, and developing new tools for earlier diagnosis thats reality, and understanding reality is achieved incrementally, not by sudden surges in technology independent of human effort. It also generates unexpected spinoffs in deeper knowledge about cell cycles, signaling, gene regulation, etc. The problems get more interesting and diverse, and its awfully silly of one non-biologist in 2011 to try to predict what surprises will pop out.

Kurzweil is a typical technocrat with limited breadth of knowledge. Imagine what happens IF we actually converge on some kind of immortality. Who gets it? If its restricted, what makes Kurzweil think he, and not Senator Dumbbum who controls federal spending on health, or Tycoon Greedo the trillionaire, gets it? How would the world react if such a capability were available, and they (or their dying mother, or their sick child) dont have access? What if its cheap and easy, and everyone gets it? Kurzweil is talking about a technology that would almost certainly destroy every human society on the planet, and he treats it as blithely as the prospect of getting new options for his cell phone. In case he hadnt noticed, human sociology and politics shows no sign of being on an exponential trend towards greater wisdom. Yeah, expect turbulence.

Hes guilty of a very weird form of reductionism that considers a human life can be reduced to patterns in a computer. I have no stock in spiritualism or dualism, but we are very much a product of our crude and messy biology we percieve the world through imprecise chemical reactions, our brains send signals by shuffling ions in salt water, our attitudes and reactions are shaped by chemicals secreted by glands in our guts. Replicating the lightning while ignoring the clouds and rain and pressure changes will not give you a copy of the storm. It will give you something different, which would be interesting still, but its not the same.

Kurzweil shows other signs of kookery. Two hundred pills a day? Weekly intravenous transfusions? Drinking alkalized water because hes afraid of acidosis? The man is an intelligent engineer, but hes also an obsessive crackpot.

Oh, well. Ill make my own predictions. Magazines will continue to praise Kurzweils techno-religion in sporadic bursts, and followers will continue to gullibly accept what he says because it is what they wish would happen. Kurzweil will die while brain-uploading and immortality are still vague dreams; he will be frozen in liquid nitrogen, which will so thoroughly disrupt his cells that even if we discover how to cure whatever kills him, there will be no hope of recovering the mind and personality of Kurzweil from the scrambled chaos of his dead brain. 2045 will come, and those of us who are alive to see it, will look back and realize it is very, very different from what life was like in 2011, and also very different from what we expected life to be like. At some point, I expect artificial intelligences to be part of our culture, if we persist; theyll work in radically different ways than human brains, and they will revolutionize society, but I have no way of guessing how. Ray Kurzweil will be forgotten, mostly, but records of the existence of a strange shaman of the circuitry from the late 20th and early 21st century will be tucked away in whatever the future databases are like, and people and machines will sometimes stumble across them and laugh or zotigrate and say, How quaint and amusing!, or whatever the equivalent in the frangitwidian language of the trans-entity circumsolar ansible network might be.

And thatll be kinda cool. I wish I could live to see it.

Here is the original post:

Singularitarianism? Pharyngula

Beaches – Cape Coral, Florida

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Danzig

There are many beaches in the state of Florida for people to enjoy, two of which can be found in the City of Cape Coral. The main beach is located within theYacht Club Community Parkon the southeast corner of Cape Coral at the end of Driftwood Pkwy. In addition to the Yacht Club public beach, visitors to the Yacht Club Community Park canenjoy a covered playground with equipment for children ages 2-12 that can accommodate persons with disabilities, as well as picnic tables and BBQ grills, the adjacent Yacht Club Pier, a public boat ramp and free vehicle parking (there is a small fee for boat trailers).

Cape Coral's newest beach is located atFour Freedoms Parkon the banks of Bimini Basin just south of Cape Coral Pkwy. Visitors to four Freedoms Park can enjoy fenced in playground equipment for children ages 2-12, picnic tables and BBQ grills. Alcohol is not permitted in either of the parks and animals are not allowed on the beach. Both the Yacht Club public beach and Four Freedoms beach are open from dawn todusk daily; however, there are no lifeguards on duty. Those who wish to go in the water should understand that they are both non-swimming beaches so going in the water is at their own risk.

For people who wish to swim, theYacht Club Community Poolis located just a few feet from the Yacht club beach and features a heated Olympic Size pool and a kiddy pool with interactive Dewdrop fountain and underwater bubblers. A daily fee is required to use the Yacht Club Pool, but fully trained lifeguards are on duty at the pool during all operating hours.

Additional Waterfront Parks

All of the above parks have picnic tables that are available on a first come, first serve basis, and sunbathing is permitted (swim suits are required).

For general information about Cape Coral Parks and Recreation, call (239) 573-3128. Or if you encounter an issue in one of the Cape Coral parks, please contact the Cape Coral Police Department's non-emergency line at (239) 574-3223.

Follow this link:

Beaches - Cape Coral, Florida

Sanibel Island Beaches | Captiva Island Beaches | Sanibel …

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Danzig

Sanibel Island Beaches are someof the most unique barrier islands of the world, having an east-west orientation when most islands are north-south. Hence, the island is gifted with great sandy beaches and an abundance of shells, winning awards for being the best shelling beach and one of the best beaches in Florida. USA Today has ranked shelling on Sanibel Island is ranked 7th for Best Florida Attractions and Sanibel Island as One of the Ten Top Places to Escape the Snow.

Basic restrooms are located at all public beach accesses. Some have picnic tables and showers, all have free handicap parking. Parking at Sanibel Island public beaches costs $5.00 an hour, and Captiva Island public beaches costs $5.00 an hour, Cash and credit cards are accepted. Paid parking tickets are not interchangeable between Sanibel and Captiva.

The Sanibel Island beaches are a great place to relax by enjoying shelling, fishing or bird watching. The Sanibel Island beaches can also be a romantic place to hold your wedding or another special event with a beautiful landscape. Visit the marinas to see the many boats that are docked there. Find a hotel or resort on either Captiva or Sanibel Island so you can spend time enjoying the sun on these well-known beaches.

Continue reading here:

Sanibel Island Beaches | Captiva Island Beaches | Sanibel ...

Select Page ::