Technology helps blind kids 'see' stars

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ARTURO PELAYO: "It proves that, regardless of where you are and who you are, you can be enabled by technology to make your life experience better."

An innovative Kiwi is about to teach astronomy to blind students with the help of 3D printer technology. It will be a first for New Zealand's education system with a pilot programme set to launch next year.

Designer and entrepreneur Arturo Pelayo is the brains behind Tactile Astronomy, a programme that aims to use technology to help teach blind students.

He says there is potential to improve the quality of what can be achieved from 3D printing.

At the moment things such as toys and hearing aids are printed using the technology.

But, as costs decrease and printers become more accessible, there are greater options for serving those at a disadvantage when it comes to learning.

The pilot programme will be carried out at the Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand (BLENNZ) Homai Campus in south Auckland.

The project has backing from the Blind Foundation and Auckland-based 3D printing business Vivenda.

Pelayo says Tactile Astronomy will give teachers and students a new way of learning. "It's about equality as much as possibility . . . It proves that, regardless of where you are and who you are, you can be enabled by technology to make your life experience better."

The technology is already being used in places like museums to print replicas of fragile and precious exhibits and there is further opportunity for 3D printing to be used in the education system, he says.

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Technology helps blind kids 'see' stars

AirAsia Airbus Missing Over Java Sea

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An Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320-200, with 162 onboard, lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea early Sunday morning local time, Indonesian officials report. Flight QZ8501, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, had requested a flight deviation to avoid foul weather, say officials.

The plane was flying at a normal cruising altitude of 32,000 ft and roughly between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo when it went missing, Reuters reports. According to a statement released by AirAsia, the aircraft was on its submitted flight plan and about an hour from its scheduled landing at 8.30 AM when contact was lost at 7:24 AM local time, while still under Indonesian Air Traffic Control.

AirAsia also noted in a statement that search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and that the airline is fully cooperating with and assisting the investigation in every possible way. The single-aisle Airbus aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance in mid-November of this year and the Associated Press reports that the airline, a dominant regional low-cost carrier, had heretofore never lost a plane.

An AirAsia Airbus A320. Credit: Wikipedia

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AirAsia Airbus Missing Over Java Sea

How paperclips could kill us all

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Greg Scoblete is the technology editor of PDN Magazine. Follow him on @GregScoblete. The views expressed are his own. For more on the future of technology, watch the upcoming GPS "Moonshots" special on December 28 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.

(CNN) -- Imagine you're the kind of person who worries about a future when robots become smart enough to threaten the very existence of the human race. For years you've been dismissed as a crackpot, consigned to the same category of people who see Elvis lurking in their waffles.

Greg Scoblete

In 2014, you found yourself in good company.

This year, arguably the world's greatest living scientific mind, Stephen Hawking, and its leading techno-industrialist, Elon Musk, voiced their fears about the potentially lethal rise of artificial intelligence (AI). They were joined by philosophers, physicists and computer scientists, all of whom spoke out about the serious risks posed by the development of greater-than-human machine intelligence.

Imagining artificial intelligence

Imagining artificial intelligence

Imagining artificial intelligence

Imagining artificial intelligence

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How paperclips could kill us all

Researchers Take 'First Baby Step' Toward Anti-Aging Drug

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By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Latest Senior Health News

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 24, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers could be closing in on a "fountain of youth" drug that can delay the effects of aging and improve the health of older adults, a new study suggests.

Seniors received a significant boost to their immune systems when given a drug that targets a genetic signaling pathway linked to aging and immune function, researchers with the drug maker Novartis report.

The experimental medication, a version of the drug rapamycin, improved the seniors' immune response to a flu vaccine by 20 percent, researchers said in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine.

The study is a "watershed" moment for research into the health effects of aging, said Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Rapamycin belongs to a class of drugs known as mTOR inhibitors, which have been shown to counteract aging and aging-related diseases in mice and other animals.

Barzilai, who wasn't involved in the study, said this is one of the first studies to show that these drugs also can delay the effects of aging in humans.

"It sets the stage for using this drug to target aging, to improve everything about aging," Barzilai said. "That's really going to be for us a turning point in research, and we are very excited."

The mTOR genetic pathway promotes healthy growth in the young. But it appears to have a negative effect on mammals as they grow older, said study lead author Dr. Joan Mannick, executive director of the New Indications Discovery Unit at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.

When drugs like rapamycin are used to inhibit the effects of the mTOR pathway in mice, they "seem to extend lifespan and delay the onset of aging-related illnesses," Mannick said.

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Researchers Take 'First Baby Step' Toward Anti-Aging Drug

Ukraine to seek NATO membership and step up military presence in war-torn east – Video

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Ukraine to seek NATO membership and step up military presence in war-torn east
Ukraine #39;s parliament has voted to drop its official neutrality in international relations. President Petro Poroshenko pledged on Tuesday to seek NATO membership although it is not clear how...

By: euronews (in English)

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Ukraine to seek NATO membership and step up military presence in war-torn east - Video

Kremlin Slams Ukraine NATO Move: Ukraine parliament votes to drop non-bloc status – Video

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Kremlin Slams Ukraine NATO Move: Ukraine parliament votes to drop non-bloc status
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called Ukraine #39;s renunciation of its neutral military and political status a "counterproductive" step that would o...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Kremlin Slams Ukraine NATO Move: Ukraine parliament votes to drop non-bloc status - Video

Russia Slams Ukraine NATO Plans: Ukrainian parliament votes to drop non-bloc status – Video

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Russia Slams Ukraine NATO Plans: Ukrainian parliament votes to drop non-bloc status
In today #39;s press review, Ukraine Today correspondent Peter Byrne will take a look at several articles examinging the fall-out from the decision of Ukraine #39;s ...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Russia Slams Ukraine NATO Plans: Ukrainian parliament votes to drop non-bloc status - Video

Ukraine’s NATO Choice: Stoltenberg says Ukraine has a lot of work to do to join NATO – Video

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Ukraine #39;s NATO Choice: Stoltenberg says Ukraine has a lot of work to do to join NATO
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has said that the Brussels-based military bloc has no plans to admit Ukraine as a member in the near future. In an interview...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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Ukraine's NATO Choice: Stoltenberg says Ukraine has a lot of work to do to join NATO - Video