Monthly Archives: May 2017

Get Your Essay on Cryptocurrency Topics Here – The Merkle

Posted: May 6, 2017 at 3:18 am

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Bitcoin surpasses $1500 milestone – MarketWatch

Posted: at 3:17 am

Bitcoin sailed past the $1,500 mark on Thursday, pushing the total value of the digital-currency market above $40 billion for the first time.

Litecoin, another prominent bitcoin rival, advanced 22% to $25, its highest level in more than three years, after Coinbase, one of the most popular digital-currency exchanges in the U.S., enabled trading in the cryptocurrency.

The top 14 most heavily traded digital currencies have all realized astounding gains over the past month as investors who have booked large profits trading bitcoin and rival Ethereum have sought to diversify and increase their chances of cashing in on the next big cryptocurrency rally, according to Chris Dannen, founder of Iterative Instinct a New York-based cryptocurrency venture fund.

Not only are the smaller coins obscure and cheap, but they represent a chance to get those huge returns all over again, Dannen said.

The price of a single bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.05% has more than tripled since the beginning of 2016, when it traded around $450. It peaked at $1,589 on Thursday, according to the CoinDesk bitcoin price index. One ether token traded at $90.95. Dash, the fifth most popular token, traded at $96.

Bitcoins advance has coincided with its growing acceptance by regulators. A law passed by Japanese lawmakers earlier this year that allows financial institutions to participate in the digital-currency market took effect in April.

Also, regulators in Russia and India have signaled their willingness to legalize bitcoin and its peers.

However, bitcoin trading volume in China, once its largest market, plunged after authorities forced the largest exchanges in the country to institute transaction fees and halt withdrawals until they could upgrade their anti-money-laundering systems. New rules require exchanges based in China to verify customers identities.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two proposals that would have led to the creation of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded funds. But the decision elicited only a brief dip in the bitcoin price.

The SEC has since said it would review its March 10 decision that effectively killed the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. Grayscales proposal to allow its Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchanges ETF platform is currently being reviewed, but a decision isnt imminent.

The value of cryptocurrencies, however, have varied dramatically between exchanges, prompting Charles Hayter, the chief executive officer and founder of Cryptocompare, to worry about a possible pullback.

On Bitfinex, one of the largest digital currency exchanges in the world, customers paid a $100 premium as they scrambled to move their assets off its platform. The exchange announced two weeks ago that it would temporarily suspend dollar withdrawals after it was effectively cut off from the financial system.

Cryptos have hit a period of volatility as the markets have become dislocated. Prices on exchanges are showing huge discrepancies in terms of pricing and arbitrage is rife, Hayter said.

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The Death of Bitcoin – The Daily Reckoning – Daily Reckoning

Posted: at 3:17 am

Warning.

What youre about to read is wildly opinionated.

But hey, its Friday. And its time to get a MASSIVE market forecast in front of you. After all, I want YOU to be ahead of the big story before it shows up on the nightly news.

My publisher, Matt Insley who rarely writes his own articles these days felt that this story was too important not to be heard.

This is a story the mainstream media isnt covering.

And millennials arent going to get the memo either, before its too late.

But, mark my words

This is the death of Bitcoin

Over the weekend we saw a random pop culture/news story hit the wire

The worlds foremost TV/movie streaming company, Netflix, was hacked. And the trail of breadcrumbs leading away from the crime scene leads me to a shocking conclusion.

The hack was simple and deliberate. A hacker by the name of thedarkoverlord gained access to the upcoming season of a popular Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black.

Long story short, the hacker stole TV content and threatened to give it away online before Netflixs intended release date. Unless Netflix paid a modest ransom of around $50,000.

Another ho-hum hacking story, right? Not so fast. This is where the story takes a turn.

Any good movie-watcher knows that when a ransom is demanded, its not the money that matters its the getaway.

After all, how are you supposed to ransom $1 Million (or in this case $50k) pick it up from a gas station trash can and actually GET AWAY with it?

Ah ha! Thats the hard part.

You see, the Netflix ransom was demanded in mysterious and untraceable Bitcoin.

And its becoming more common practice to demand ransom in Bitcoin, too. This from the NYT:

Those threats have increased with the advent of ransomware, malicious software that encrypts victims data and prevents them from accessing it until they pay a ransom, often hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.

If you dont know the story about Bitcoin Ill get you caught up.

With my opinion of course

The cryptocurrency holds a lot of technology. And to really understand it, you need to know about blockchain. (Keep up here. Times are changing and knowing about things like blockchain matter in todays market, as youll see)

Blockchain is a distributed database that continuously evolves. Think of it as a growing list of records that cant be tampered with. Or for a real world example, pretend for a second that every single U.S. dollar bill in America was catalogued electronically in an online database by serial number. From the second it comes off the printing press the bills history is on record. Every transaction, continuously updated.

Importantly, blockchain doesnt require anyones legal name or actual address, either in that sense its anonymous.

Okay. So thats what blockchain brings to the table solid technology that can track transactions and keep tabs on digital currency.

And over the years the popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has gone through the roof

All said, Bitcoin is impressively-encrypted, money-transferring technology. From my perch, calling it a currency is a little generous.

Looking through the lens of a technology, thats where things get interesting with this Netflix/Bitcoin story.

History shows that with great technology comes great responsibility.

The revolver and semi-automatic weapons

Automobiles

Military weaponry

Even the advent of the internet

With each of these impressive technologies came a sinister downside

Bitcoin is no different. If you look under the hood youll see that what really makes Bitcoin tick is less-talked-about, more sinister transaction record. Oh if that blockchain could talk!

Money laundering. Illegal transfers. Moving money outside of U.S. sanctions. Funding offshore accounts. Funding illegal online gambling are just a few of the HUGE black-market forces that underpin bitcoin.

So, the Silicon Valley logic that bitcoin is free market technology and you can use it to protect against inflation invest pay friends shop etc is NOT the whole picture. Its also why Im all puffed-up about Bitcoin.

And mark my words, coming soon the script on Bitcoin is going to flip

Similar to the disruptive technologies I listed above, Bitcoin will undergo the standard lifecycle of development and I believe that will include swift, sweeping government regulation. Similar to gun control, car insurance, cyber regulation and more

However, unlike most of those other technologies, I dont think Bitcoin will survive this deathblow of regulation.

Heres an example of what I mean

The Netflix example above was, for all intents and purposes, harmless. Yes, hacking and demanding a ransom is illegal. But, the large scale ramifications arent that big.

Thats all going to change when the bad guys up the game.

For instance, what if someone hacks a more important/vital piece of U.S. infrastructure? Instead of the latest season of Orange Is The New Black?

Or, worse

What if American lives are at stake. What if ransoms for high-value kidnappings come tethered to one nasty little reoccurring detail pay us in Bitcoin.

Thats when the encrypted emperor will be stripped naked. Bitcoin will bear the full brunt of a media and government onslaught. It wont be pretty.

Mind you, this could happen overnight. Just like the Netflix news a few days ago.

All it takes is large-scale ransom disaster and swift action by congress. And that $30B in crypto-cash market cap could be wiped out.

After all, weve seen this exact type of action before. Much like the sanctions against countries like Russia or Iran or the financial regulation changes for say, online gambling.

You see, right now you can transfer money directly from U.S. bank accounts, through a third party, into Bitcoin.

But, like a sock puppet, the U.S. Government controls the banking system as well as the credit system.

Add it all up and one single emotional, urgent, media-driven government regulation could destroy the financial transaction that funds cryptocurrency.

Itll be the death blow to Bitcoin. And its not just me saying it either

I just heard an interview from Agora Financials Chief Technology Officer, Ray Blanco, who shares my same concerns about Bitcoin:

I look at bitcoin right now, I see huge risk. Blockchain advances all get figured out in the years ahead regardless. Bitcoin itself, its doomed. The end is near. Soon as Congress has a reason, they figure out how to shut it down. You mark my words. Too many banks have too much to lose. And if we know one thing, its that big banks and Congress are part of the same beast.

Just wait until the next hack comes to light and the victim is a bit more important than a Netflix series.

This is a story you wont find in the mainstream. And if you or any loved ones are playing around with Bitcoin accounts, this is your fair warning. This Bitcoin disaster could happen overnight. Any day.

I bet its only a matter of time.

Have a good weekend,

Matt Insley

Publisher, The Daily Edge EdgeFeedback@AgoraFinancial.com

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Louisville’s Jack Fischer activates Centaurus experiment on space station – Boulder Daily Camera

Posted: at 3:16 am

An image of Centaurus High School's flag and experiment aboard the International Space Station that was transmitted to Earth on Friday by astronaut Jack Fischer. (Courtesy Jack Fischer / NASA)

Astronaut Jack Fischer on Friday emailed a network of those following his progress at the International Space Station to say that he had just performed some work on an experiment sent to the spacecraft from his Lafayette alma mater, Centaurus High School.

Fischer, a 43-year-old Louisville native, said in a short note he thought people would "like to know that an alum worked on an experiment of his high school today that's pretty rare, and a pretty awesome testament for Centaurus."

Fischer launched with a Russian crew member on April 20, and his arrival at the ISS and entry through its hatch was celebrated by a big crowd of students at teachers at Centaurus that day courtesy of a live feed over NASA TV.

The experiment, three years in being brought to fruition, is designed to study the effects of simulated gravity on bacterial lag phase in a micro-gravitational environment.

"Jack got a chance to power it on," said Centaurus engineering teacher Brian Thomas. "I think there was some sort of issue with it last week when they first tried to plug it in. Whatever it was, it was a non-issue. It's working like a charm."

Fischer's bulletin from 250 miles above the Earth was accompanied by a picture of the Centaurus payload, emblazoned with a Centaurus flag. He also sent an audio clip to his heavily invested fan base at his old school.

"Two years ago we had that flag in the Centaurus (attendance) office, and I remember handing Jack the flag," Thomas said. "He stopped by my house last summer, and I got a chance to pass it on to him.

"He said, 'I can only take a few things, but I'm definitely bringing the Centaurus flag.' It's cool to see it up there, and have him and the support for the project."

The first iteration of the experiment was destroyed when the SpaceX CRS-7 unmanned supply mission that was originally to take it to the ISS was lost to an explosion about 2 minutes after its June 28, 2015, launch.

In rebuilding the experiment, Thomas and the students working on the project did some tweaking of its functioning,

"Since we weren't doing it from scratch, it got put together a little faster," Thomas said last month, prior to Fischer's launch "There were new design constraints. ... They were concerned that the spinning of the gears was too loud. They have to deal with that noise 24/7. They gave us a waiver on that the first time, but after the explosion they said, 'You've got time to rebuild this, let's make it quieter.' They gave us a sound meter and we had to get it under a certain sound level."

The rebuilding of the experiment took place during the 2015-16 school year. Thomas explained its purpose.

"Bacteria grows at a certain rate on Earth, and when it's in space, research has shown it grows a little bit faster, because of a number of different reasons. As it eats the bacteria food, we wanted to see if the gravitational forces were a big key player in that, or if there is something else involved. We're basically tricking it, to make it think it's on Earth," Thomas said.

"We're spinning it so that it feels 1-G; we want it to grow as if it were feeling the same gravitational forces on Earth, and compare the growth rate."

While Fischer and crew partner cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin launched April 20 and arrived at the ISS about six hours later, the experiment was part of a 7,600-pound payload that launched in an unmanned cargo spacecraft April 18 and reached the ISS on April 22.

"We're excited," Thomas said Friday. "We're ready to start collecting data."

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan

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Learning to farm on Mars could actually save agriculture on Earth – Popular Science

Posted: at 3:16 am

When I first spoke with Gene Giacomelli, he was overlooking an earthbound vineyard.

Wine tasting that afternoon in Californias Napa Valley, Giacomellis first mission was to visit his son, a viticulturist. But the plant scientist claimed his weekend would also be spent conducting important scientific research. "Of course, some day, were going to be bottling wine on another planet," he said from his perch in the back of a pickup truck.

For more than a decade, Giacomelli has overseen a project with the National Science Foundation to grow food on Antarctica, which NASA and others see as a fitting facsimile of what life might be like on the moon and Mars. While the public goal of the project is to better understand how farming would work in outer space, Giacomelli also hopes to improve farming here on Earth. Turns out, these goals may soon converge. If humankind can be convinced its too soon to abandon this planet for the next, developments in farming for Mars could come home to roost in Napa Valleyand around the country.

As just about everyone already knows, this planet is currently experiencing some pretty unprecedented challenges. So much so that Stephen Hawking claimed this week that we only have 100 years to get humans set up elsewhere in the galaxy or our entire species will face extinction. His statement is rather dubious, but it's true that our future looks pretty bleak.

Take California. Until this winter, the state had been suffocated by drought for years. The lack of rainwater led to an overuse of groundwater reservoirs on agricultural lands. Now, the states fertile inland valley is actually sinkingas fast 2 feet per yearas the water table deflates like a perforated balloon beneath the surface. And while the drought was temporarily abated by a recent snowstorm, by most estimates it's soon to return. Quite frankly, the state's future looks a lot like modern Mars.

The fourth planet has no known sources of ready water, and regular dust storms engulf large swaths of the planet. To terraform it, we'd need nuclear weapons or artificially-stimulated global warming. Even then, these processes could take as long as 100,000 years to make the planet even close to habitable. California may be drying up, but it still provides our nation with everything from almonds and avocados, while growing even the sturdiest cactusa plant known for being the exact opposite of high maintenanceis difficult to imagine in Mar's Borealis basin.

And yet, many seem to have given up on Californias pernicious problems, while holding onto Mars as an innovators playground. With the right guy and a good plan, the narrative seems to go, our nearest neighbor will be habitable shortly. Self-appointed space colonization poster boy Elon Musk is actively testing space radiation-resistant jumpsuits and rockets meant to take us to Mars. NASA and the European Space Agency have joined him in the craze, running their own lunar greenhouses and new rovers through the ringer.

Amidst the horror and hoopla, a question is begging to be asked: If we believe we can feed a small colony of human beings with food grown on an inhospitable, waterless, and oxygen-free wasteland, why can't we find ways to keep farming going on the planet we already know? Put more glibly, what's really the difference between living sustainably on Mars today or in California in 100 years?

Its not exactly a technological barrier. If someone says getting to Mars is, at the present moment, easier than improving the planet we're already on, they're probably lying. Besides, the lofty goals of off-Earthers like Musk have only been bolstered by real and relatively recent technological breakthroughs on this planet. When you do look outward you come up with a lot of innovations, as we have in the space program, says NASAs former historian Steven Dick. In the 1990s, LED lights were patented for plant growth and have allowed farmers to grow more and larger plants in less space and time. The development of hydroponic techniqueswhere plants are grown without soilis allowing astronauts on the International Space Station to grow their own salad mix in zero gravity.

Giacomelli and his team have incorporated these and other innovations into their design of a proposed closed loop lunar greenhouse. In theory, astronauts could grow half of the food they need each day and generate all of the water they need to drink and oxygen they need to breathe while living on Mars. Think of it as a biological robot, Giacomelli says of his system, which he imagines would be an 18 by 8 foot cylinder, about the size of a backyard swimming pool. An astronauts urine would be cleaned and processed and fed to plants. The plants would grow hydroponically and be fed by LED lights powered by solar panels, or even a portable nuclear reactor. As the plants grow, they would produce humidity, which would be extracted and condensed into drinking water. The cycle would repeat over and over. Youll keep the plants alive and theyll keep you alive, Giacomelli says.

But after years spent refining the idea, Giacomellis prototype remains just thata proof of concept, not a real, mean green-making machine. Though we could use the system here and now, the will to implement the technology on Earth seems limited to Giacomelli himself. He says the system will likely remain a figment until NASA or some other agency pens its charter to Mars.

Other space-y farm ventures have experienced similar skepticism from earthlings. When Dickson Despommier first proposed the idea of a vertical farm, people were certainly intrigued. But they considered it more of a science project than a viable agricultural revolution. They thought farming was such a natural thing to do that, How could you put that into a building? Despommier says. They dont think about the Dust Bowl, they dont think about crop failure, about drought in California, about pests and locusts and birds eating the seeds. We neglect to think of all of the unnatural things weve already done, he argues, and the great challenges nature continues to pose.

In the intervening decades, vertical farmingwhich involves densely stacking crops in enclosed spaces and using hydroponic and LED techniques to grow themhas failed to revolutionize farming. But it is an increasingly important part of a slowly diversifying agricultural sector. There are about 100 farms in operation in the United States today, Despommier says, and many more dotting the globe. Simple greenhouses that rely on sunlight and traditional fertilizers have been adopted more widely, with more than 230 million square feet of greenhouse production domestically. Though still dependent on natural forces like light, greenhouses are a necessary link in the evolution of farming, allowing once-seasonal crops like tomatoes to be grown year round.

Thats partly because the produce from a greenhouse is equal to outdoor agriculture in cost, but vertical farming and other space-age techniques are still priceythough no longer prohibitively so. Daniel Schubert, a space farm expert with the German Space Agency, has conducted two studies to analyze this persistent economic gap. Five years ago, he found that growing organic matter with hydroponics and LED lights cost $12.80 more per kilo than traditional farming in the German countryside. This was disappointing, but he predictedand has come to provethe price would even out as the tools of the trade became more widely available and farmers became more efficient in this new medium. Last fall, a new study revealed the current cost is just $3.20 more per kilo, and likely to continue to drop. He thinks this shows technology designed for the far reaches of space can be implemented in our own neighborhood.

In addition to these breakthroughs, there are a million other earthbound farming innovations currently underway. In Italy, researchers are testing the watersliterallyto see if underwater farming is actually viable. Monsanto and other researchers are working on developing salt and drought resistant seeds.

Despite this upward trend for alternative agricultural methods, things still seem to be moving faster on Musks drafting table for Mars than they are on the ground in California. Dangerous disruptions to Earths ancient equilibriums, meanwhile, are occurring at a faster pace than ever. In the next century, California is likely to become even more resistant to our current practices unless past carbon emissions are reabsorbed and future footprints reduced. And Mars is likely to remain inhospitable, even if a manned mission finally breaches its thin and dusty atmosphere.

Dick, the space historian, is right that we are pushed to innovate when we think about whats new and next. But I can't be the only one who feels a little dry and deflatedlike the chalky space ice cream we sampled as kidswhen faced with the prospect of giving up on this planet in pursuit of another one. Maybe we should reflect on what colonizing almost every inch of Earth has done to the planet before we head off to next one. And maybe what we need to discover isn't the promise of a new planet, but the resolve to rectify the mistakes weve already made.

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Space colonization then and now – Santa Ynez Valley News

Posted: at 3:16 am

Many years ago, when I first went to college, I joined two off-campus organizations, both of which were dedicated to getting people living and working in outer space.

I saw expansion into space as the solution to many of the worlds biggest problems, including energy shortages, overpopulation and world hunger to name a few, and I could see myself actually doing it, going off and living or working in a space colony somewhere between Earth and the moon more specifically at L5, a point in space that is always in the same spot relative to Earth and the moon.

I became somewhat of a disciple of physicist Gerard ONeill, and his cylinder design, to the point I could explain its key features and concepts to others, including mirrors, farming pods, dimensions, rotation and scenery, and the use of an electromagnetic mass driver to mine materials from the moon and asteroids, so the colony could be constructed entirely on-site, in space.

Now, with space travel finally becoming a reality thanks to billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and their privately funded space race, I no longer have any interest in moving away from our home planet. Not that I could even if I wanted to, given the hefty price tag for a seat on any of these expeditions.

Bezos and Branson are each selling a five-minute thrill ride to suborbital space, which is about 62 miles from Earths surface, for around $250,000 a seat, while Musk is selling a one-week trip around the moon, 300,000 miles, for an undisclosed amount that is estimated to be between $35 million to $100 million a ticket.

I dont remember when it was I first stopped wanting to go into space, but my guess is it was after I moved to a place where I could live, each and every day, in close contact with the Earth and its beauty. Not that I didnt have an appreciation for such beauty before that, or I hadnt experienced its transformative effect on the heart and the senses, or I wasnt already in love with life and people, but growing up in a flat personality-less suburb, my natural impulse and inevitability was to move away and go somewhere else, and I guess a space colony was one possible place to move to, even though I knew California was the much greater likelihood.

As my love for and connection to Earth increased, my desire to leave it behind diminished.

Add to that my growing sense of self-awareness, which included the realization that I am extremely uncomfortable riding in fast cars, boats on the ocean, small airplanes performing trick maneuvers or any size plane during moments of turbulence and roller coasters and drop towers and pendulum rides and gravity rides and other such horrors at carnivals and amusement parks, and it all added up to, why would I want to ride in a spaceship of any sort?

I believe the ongoing survival of our species will necessarily involve and require space colonization. Then again, dont the Hopis say humanity already started and ended, then started again seven other times in our history, so in the big picture is it really that big of a deal? Throw in some Einstein and Mayer to remind us that energy and mass are neither created nor destroyed, but transformed, converted, redistributed, reassembled and re-expressed.

Im a fan of science, and of ever expanding our horizons, so I support space colonization efforts. But it is no less difficult or palatable for me to try and conceive of our extinction, transformation, evolution than it is to imagine us spreading our greed and war, fear and violence and prejudice and pollution to the rest of the universe.

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You are part owner of the Moon and stars, by law. No joke. – Quartz

Posted: at 3:16 am

About 100 years ago, when countries began considering the whole cosmos legal territory, the rules seemed simple. In 1919, an international law provision extended state air rights vertically, all the way to outer space, and that sufficed for a while.

Today, international space law is much more developed. But its preoccupied with state actors, so rules mostly address national governments. Commercial space enterprise and its regulation are not at all sorted, and companies may start exploiting cosmic resources that belong to all before a global agreement is reached.

Whats more, the line between state and private space interests could become fine. For example, the US space agency NASA announced on May 1 that its seeking information from American commercial space transportation companies for travel to the lunar surface in 2018 and the decade to come.

On April 27, the US Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness held a hearing attended by space company chiefs, including Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, maker of space habitations. He urged lawmakers to limit regulation so as to speed up commercialization and colonization. Meanwhile, Texas senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the subcommittee on space, advised attendees that America must expand commerce and ultimately settlement into space. And we must do it first.

When the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik I into low Earth orbit in 1957, it crossed US air territory, violating the 1919 law, but Americans accepted the transgression, intending to commit similar violations soon enough. So began the Space Race and global hustle to codify a law worth following.

A decade later, the founding principles of space law, still elaborated upon today, were created. The 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (aka the Outer Space Treaty) is a heartening read for any citizen of the Planet Earth.

It provides that space is open to all states and may be used and explored solely for the benefit and interest of all humanity. Its not subject to national appropriation. Also niceno weapons of mass destruction are permitted in space. The Moon and other celestial bodies must be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, and nations are to avoid harmful contamination of the cosmic environment.

Under the accord, each state is responsible for national activities in outer space, whether carried on by governmental or non-governmental entities. States retain jurisdiction and control over their space objects and personnel on them, and are liable for damages they cause. Each must supervise and authorize anyone acting in outer space.

Commercial space activity is easy to regulate in theory, based on the 1967 treaty. Each state is responsible for its people and anything it places in space, which arguably extends to any corporations it authorizes to operate there. Sounds simple enough. But remember 1919 and the extension of air rights; its not going to be simple and laws may be broken before suitable agreements are reached.

Humans traditionally move around in pursuit of profit, which drives much exploration. Yet space belongs to all, according to 1967 international law, and its exploitation for private gain isnt sanctioned even if the likelihood thats going to happen is widely recognized.

There have been many attempts to reach agreement on cosmic resources, among them, the 1979 Moon Agreement. It is international law and reiterates that space is common property, attempting to further address exploitation of natural resources, the environment, and scientific exploration in recognition of future commercialization efforts. But it was rejected by some nations, including the US, as too restrictive. Unlike the 1967 treaty, the small group of signatories struggled long and hard (pdf) over terms that ultimately read like benign reminders to keep the common good in mind.

Not a party to the 1979 treaty, the US may pull a Sputnik of sorts and just go for it, sanctioning space exploitation in violation of that international agreement. In 2015, US president Barack Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which allows Americans to own and sell space resources, including minerals and water. How the law is implemented will determine whether American companies end up violating international accords, and many details have yet to be addressed. The US can argue that its law doesnt violate the definition of use of space in the 1967 treaty and others will argue otherwise. These matters arent finally decided for now.

Alexander Soucek, head of legal services at the 22-nation European Space Agency, says the act is at the very least very controversial. It may even be an outright violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treatys prohibition on national appropriation. In any case, it sets precedent and perhaps encourages other countries to go rogue.

Of course, companies banking on making money in the multiverse someday are pleased by these developments. One of them is Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining concern whose motto is, Our vision is to expand the economy into space. Co-founder, Eric Anderson told Tech World News that US plans to allow citizens to exploit space is the single greatest recognition of property rights in history.

He must have just spaced on those other agreements granting humanity the Moon and all celestial bodies.

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Genetic Engineering: We Can, But Should We? – Veritas News

Posted: at 3:15 am

by Gretchen Bird, Cody Cook and Garrett Edinger

If you had the ability and unlimited resources, would you prevent Down syndrome among the worlds population? What about if your child had Down syndromewould you then take the initiative to turn off the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome? Even further, if given the choice, would you select a particular eye color for your child? Hair color? Height? Athletic ability? Natural intelligence? With new technologies, the ability to select for these attributes is a possibility.

Recent advancements in biomedical technologies have brought us new ways of treating disease and improving human lives, some of which are described above. New technologies called CRISPR/Cas9 have made it possible for scientists to edit a humans genetic information in a precise and targeted way; however, these technologies have also raised many ethical concerns.

Matt Atherton explains CRISPR in the International Business Times, CRISPR is a gene-editing tool. It allows scientists to not only examine every single strand of DNA in an embryo, but also adapt them. It is an incredibly efficient and precise mechanism for targeting genes. The basis for the practice comes from bacteria.

With this new biomedical technology, it is possible for us to change the genetic information of a human. The question of whether or not we can edit DNA has been answered. Now we need to ask ourselves, examining our hearts and our motives, to see if we should. Proponents of human gene editing say that it can be used to remove heritable diseases from human genes and prevent congenital disease. Nevertheless, many people feel that editing heritable genes, or the human germline, would be unethical and potentially dangerous.

X-linked hypophosphatemia, or XLH, which results in a form of dwarfism, is one example of a genetic disease that scientists believe could be treated using CRISPR technologies. This would be accomplished by editing the DNA in the sperm and egg cells of parents who carry the genes for the disease. By removing the DNA that codes for the disease using CRISPR, sperm and egg cells from the parents could be produced that no longer code for the disease; these cells could then be used to accomplish in vitro fertilization. The parents would then have an XLH-free baby. Huntingtons disease, azoospermia, and certain inherited forms of cancer are just a few of the many genetic diseases that have been mentioned as potential applications of CRISPR. Theoretically, CRISPR could be used to treat any number of genetic and inherited diseases.

While many people feel that it would be irresponsible for us neglect a technology that has such great power to cure life-altering disease, others feel that it would be dangerous, and might result in a world where gene editing is used for more than treating disease. While many scientists agree that CRISPR could be used to treat disease, it also raises concerns of its less admirable uses. CRISPR could also be used to change aesthetic appearance. Everything from height, to hair color, to eye color, to body size, could be selected for using CRISPR. Moreover, these changes would most likely only be available to the very rich. CRISPR also presents the possibility that genes could be changed in unintended ways that doctors and scientists did not intend, especially if the changes are heritable.

Public opinion about the uses of new genetic modification tools is still much divided. According to an article by Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, 50% of U.S. adults believe that changing a babys genetic characteristics to reduce the risk of serious disease is taking medical advances too far. Eighty-three percentsay it is taking medical advancements too far if it is used to increase a babys intelligence.

Although this technology is still in its infancy, it already presents us with many questions going forward. While it can improve lives, CRISPR could also change the world in ways that would alter society at the most fundamental level. It could create a world in which everyone is genetically modified for inconsequential aesthetic purposes, rather than for the sake of their health. Its effects would be felt far beyond any lab. Real people and real families are at the heart of what CRISPR can do, and we need to remember that it is their lives that would be affected most by this technology. We cannot forget that human dignity and value are defined independently of ones intellect, athleticism, or any other surface quality. As one mother of a child with Down syndrome stated to one of the scientists who helped develop CRISPR, Theres something about him [her child with Down syndrome] thats so special. Hes so loving in a way thats unique to him. I wouldnt change it.

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Genetic Engineering: We Can, But Should We? - Veritas News

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Scientists discover genetic mutation that causes rare skin disease … – Medical Xpress

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May 5, 2017 Credit: Wits University

Scientists have discovered the genetic mutation that causes the rare skin disease, keratolytic winter erythema (KWE), or 'Oudtshoorn skin', in Afrikaners.

Researchers at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the Division of Human Genetics at Wits, in collaboration with peers in Europe, the US and Canada published this research in the May issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

KWE causes a redness of the palms and soles with consecutive cycles of peeling of large sections of thick skin, often exacerbated during winter months. Oudtshoorn is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa where the disorder was present in large families.

Afrikaners are Afrikaans-language speakers descended from predominantly Dutch, German and French settlers, who arrived in South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Afrikaners have a high risk for several genetic disorders, the best known being familial hypercholesterolaemia (inherited high cholesterol leading to heart attacks early in life) and porphyria (sensitivity of the skin to ultra-violet exposure and adverse reactions to specific drugs).

These disorders are common because of founder mutations brought to South Africa by small groups of immigrants who settled in the Cape of Good Hope and whose descendants are now spread throughout the country. KWE is one of these less well-known founder genetic disorders.

KWE was first described as a unique and discrete skin disorder in 1977 by Wits dermatologist, Professor George Findlay. He noticed that it occurred in families and had a dominant mode of inheritance i.e., on average, if a parent has the condition about half the children inherit it in every generation.

In addition to identifying the genetic mutation for scientific purposes, this research now enables dermatologists to make a definitive diagnosis of KWE in patients. It further enables researchers to understand similar skin disorders and is a starting point for developing possible treatments.

Gene mutations

Since the late 1980s, three MSc and three PhD students at Wits researched the disorder, firstly under the supervision of Professor Trefor Jenkins and from about 1990 guided by Professor Michle Ramsay, Director and Research Chair in the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience. In 1997, Wits MSc student Michelle Starfield and a group in German mapped the KWE trait to a region on the short arm of chromosome 8. The researchers showed that it was likely that the South African families all had the same mutation, but that the German family had a different mutation.

In 1997, Wits MSc student Michelle Starfield and a group in Germany mapped the KWE trait to a region on the short arm of chromosome 8. The researchers showed that it was likely that the South African families all had the same mutation but that the German family had a different mutation. This research preceded the sequencing of the human genome and subsequent research focused on characterising this region of the genome and examining good candidate genes. The KWE mutation remained elusive.

In 2012 Thandiswa Ngcungcu, then a Wits MSc student in Human Genetics whom Ramsay supervised, chose KWE as a topic for her PhD. Ngcungu's research involved large-scale DNA sequencing during an internship on the Next Generation Scientist Programme in Novartis, Basel. The mutation was not detected by conventional data analysis so copy number variants (genetic changes) where regions of the genome are duplicated or deleted were investigated. Ngcungcu and the researchers then discovered a mutation in a region between genes that was present in all South African KWE-affected individuals studied.

During this time Dr Torunn Fiskerstrand, University of Bergen, Norway, independently discovered the genetic cause of KWE in Norwegians. Ramsay and Fiskerstrand collaborated. The different DNA duplications in the South African and Norwegian families overlapped at a critical genomic region called an enhancer (which 'switches on' the gene) providing strong evidence that this was, in fact, the KWE mutation.

For over a year the scientists researched how this duplicated enhancer caused KWE. They demonstrated that the mutation causes a nearby gene to produce more protein than normal and that this abnormal expression was the likely cause of the skin peeling. Exactly twenty years after determining that the KWE mutation lies on chromosome 8, the mutation that causes KWE was identified and published.

Solving the mystery of KWE was a journey of data analysis, ancestry mapping, genomic comparison and global collaboration. Ngcungcu continues her work as a postdoctoral fellow examining the genetics of another skin disorder, albinism, and as a lecturer in the Division of Human Genetics at Wits from July 2017.

Explore further: Gene ABL1 implicated in both cancer and a developmental disorder

More information: Thandiswa Ngcungcu et al. Duplicated Enhancer Region Increases Expression ofCTSBand Segregates with Keratolytic Winter Erythema in South African and Norwegian Families, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.03.012

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Dr. John Walley Littlefield, Groundbreaking Geneticist – Patch.com

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Dr. John Walley Littlefield, Groundbreaking Geneticist
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John Walley Littlefield, M.D., a renowned physician-scientist whose work dramatically advanced the field of genetics and touched countless human lives, died peacefully on Thursday, April 20, surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was 91. A former ...

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Dr. John Walley Littlefield, Groundbreaking Geneticist - Patch.com

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