Daily Archives: August 3, 2017

The Quest For Another Earth

Humankind is eager to step out into the cosmos and wander across the deserted plains of the Red Planet. According to most reports, Elon Musk is leading the way with SpaceX; however, a number of other orginizationsNASA, Chinas Space Agency, The Mars Societyare training, deploying prototypes, and working on the plethora of questions and challenges that we will face when attempting to bring the first human beings to Mars.

But, as much as it might seem natural to get entrenched in the details of how we will actually get humans off of planet Earth (and keep them mentally and physically healthy throughout the duration), it is critical that we remember why were going in the first place.

In a recent interview, Buzz Aldrinthe renowned astronaut, engineer, and (of course) the second human to ever step foot on the Moonexplained why exploration and discovery are so important, touching upon why we should (and why we will) have humans on Mars in 20 years

Aldrin begins by stating that, from both a scientific and technological perspective, we are at the perfect juncture to push the boundaries of exploration. He asserts that, thanks to recent advancements, for the first time in human history, voyaging to other worlds is truly within our reach: Now is the time to start thinking seriously about what life on Mars might look like. We have never been closer to knowing and exploring another planet.

When asked just how close we really are to achieving this feat, Aldrin was quick to respond with his timeline, saying that we could have the first Human Martians at Mars by 2040.

Aldrin continued by segueing into a discussion of why venturing to other worlds is important, noting that, in many ways, our planet is ancient and familiar and the other bodies in our solar system are, for all intents and purposes, virgin territory: Space travel and exploration represents the final frontier weve now surveyed and scrutinized almost every inch of this planet, but there is so much we have yet to learn.

However, Aldrin states that the most notable aspects of this quest are about far more than just acquiring knowledge for the sake of knowledge or conquering new worlds. The journey to Mars will bring with it reignited excitement for science and innovation,creating a generation of young people who have ingrained within them a thirst for understanding and exploration.

When Buzz stepped onto the Moon in 1969, countless youth were captivated by the story and went on to pursue careers in STEM fields, hoping to achieve monumental feats of similar proportions.

Indeed, Aldrin is very aware of the impact that action in science has on the youth, stressing that, we can only get there [to Mars] if we start investing in future generations. Ultimately, as previously noted, he says that this investment is the key to long-term success: In 1903, man learned to fly airplanes. Only 66 years later, we walked on the Moon. In order to help the next generation to make giant leaps like these, we must educate, enable and inspire them to be passionate about subjects like science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Aldrin notes that he has devoted himself to helping foster such a desire in young people, saying, Thats the mission of the SpaceShare Foundation, and its one I wholeheartedly support.

Aldrins Space Share Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to inspiring childrens passions for science and technology by providing educational tools to educators across the country at no cost. The goal of this work is to ensure that all young people are given the resources that they need to live up to their potential. After all, one never knows who the next Carl Sagan could be.

As Former President Barack Obama noted in a speech at the Frontiers Conference, America is about Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothersbut were also the place you can grow up to be a Grace Hopper, or George Washington Carver, or a Katherine Johnson, or an Ida B. Wells. We dont want somebody with a brilliant idea not in the room because theyre a woman. We dont want some budding genius unavailable to cure cancer or come up with a new energy source because they were languishing in a sub-standard school as a child. Because were going to be a better team if we got the whole team.

Aldrin echoes these ideas, noting that, while reaching Mars in the next 20 years is extremely likely, it will only happen if we ensure that young people are given every opportunity to be the best that they can be: Sometimes I cant believe this lucky kid from New Jersey got to land and walk on the Moonwork hard and keep reaching for the stars.

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Buzz Aldrin: We Will Have Humans on Mars in the Next 20 Years - Futurism

In Brief Apple CEO Tim Cook just confirmed that the company has a "large project" involving autonomous systems, but it's not limited to self-driving cars. Cook declined to elaborate any further on what other applications he had in mind during the company's earnings call on Tuesday,

The rumors that Apple may be building an autonomous systemreceived an update yesterday. During a conference call with investors on Tuesday afternoon, CEO Tim Cook hinted at the work Apple is doing with such systems as well as with artificial intelligence (AI).

[Autonomous] systems can be used in a variety of ways, Cook said. A vehicle is only one, but there are many different areas of it. And I dont want to go any further with that.

There you have it, folks. While it seems thatApple may be building a vehicle and even receivedapproval to test one in Californian roads whats clear is that its developing an autonomous system that could be used in more than just cars. This shouldnt come as a surprise, especially now that Apple has been actively pursuing AI development.

We are very focused on autonomous systems, Cook added. We do have a large project going, and are making a big investment in this. From our point of view, autonomy is sort of the mother of all AI projects.

Much of the focus to this point has been the application of autonomous systems in cars, and for good reason. Autonomous vehicles are heralded as the future of safer driving. By eliminating the cause of most major accidents human error self-driving cars could save some 40,000 lives each year in the U.S.

But what is the potentialof such systems beyond the automotive example? If anyone could think of exciting new ways to use AI and autonomous systems, its the creative minds at Apple. Hopefully they wont keep us waiting too long to learn what new tech they are cooking up.

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Tim Cook Hints That Apple Is Working on Autonomous Systems But Not Just for Cars - Futurism

In Brief A study by a team from the Houston Methodist Research Institute showed the potential of a treatment that targets telomeres in chromosomes to reverse cellular aging. Lab tests using cells from patients with genetic disease causing accelerated aging proved to be promising. The Mechanisms of Aging

For a phenomenon that affects all living beings, theres nothing simple about aging. Experimentsthat focus on understanding aging are as numerous and varied as the aspects of the subject itself. Some look at the roles that the brain or the mitochondria have on aging, while others examine some protein or another. A study from the Houston Methodist Research Institute(HMRI) is focusing on chromosomes.

Specifically, the team led by cardiovascular sciences department chair John Cooke, looked at telomeres the region located at the tip of every chromosome, thelength of which supposedly corresponds to age. Cookes team studied the cells of children with a fatalgenetic disease called progeria that causes rapid aging.

In their study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers discovered that extending the shortened telomeres effectively halted aging in the isolated sample cells taken from the patients with progeria. What weve shown is that when we reverse the process of the telomere shortening in the cells from these children and lengthen them, it can reverse a lot of the problems associated with aging, Cooke said in an HMRI press release.

Cookes team isnt the first to associate telomeres with aging. The field, however, isnt considered that precise yet. Medical genetics professor Peter Lansdorp at the University of British Columbia told Motherboardthat theres still a lot to learn in this area. It is not hard to find a 70-year-old with longer telomeres than a teenager, he said, noting that the decline in telomeres works as a tumor suppression mechanism for the body.

Furthermore, since the study was limited to cell samples taken from just 17 patients on a lab dish, the researchers still need to see if it could work in cells functioning inside the body. The next step is to deliver the same treatment directly into patients, beginning with children suffering from progeria.

Still, Cooke is hopeful. We can at least stall or slow down accelerated aging, and thats what were working toward, he said in the press release. I want to develop a therapy for these children. Its an unmet need.

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New Research Suggests We Can Stop Human Cells From Aging - Futurism

In BriefBiophysicist Jeremy England has published support for histheory of adaptation driven by dissipation, and its relationship toabiogenesis. If his idea is right, thermodynamics infar-from-equilibrium systems dictate the creation of life. Rocks Rolling Downhill

How did life first originate from nothing? This has been the focus of biologists, specifically astrobiologists, and popular theories have included everything from meteorites to seemingly random chemicals to luck. In 1859, Charles Darwin posited that All organic beings that have lived on Earth could be descended from some primordial form, in The Origin of Species. His basic idea was that chemical components and energy sources somehow spontaneously generated life in the primordial soup.

However, in 2013, MIT biophysicist Jeremy England proposed a new theory that substituted thermodynamics in place of luck. He derived a mathematical formula to explain how atoms, driven by external energy (such as that found in primordial soup) and heat (like youd find in an atmosphere), will gradually restructure themselves to dissipate more and more energy. In other words, under the right conditions, matter naturally acquires the basic physical quality the tendency to capture energy from the environment and dissipate it as heat associated with life, based on the law of increasing entropy or the second law of thermodynamics, also called the arrow of time.

England has since been testing his formula and his idea more generally using computer simulations. He published two studies in July, and both experiments appear to support his basic theory about adaptation driven by dissipation. However, what these results ultimately mean for the origins of life remain unclear.

In the simulation, a soup of 25 chemicals reacted together in multiple ways as environmental sources of energy force certain chemical reactions, just like ATP provides the chemical fuel for cellular metabolism. In some cases, the system reaches an equilibrium state, the most familiar outcome produced by the second law of thermodynamics. However, in other cases, the chemical reaction network evolves as reactions harvest as much energy from the environment as possible, ending at fixed points far away from equilibrium.

These rare states of extremal thermodynamic forcing are similar to the extreme forcing that living creatures engage in as we burn up chemical energy. England believes that atoms acquire the very specific form and function designed for optimal chemical energy consumption and become a bacterium because thermodynamics dictates this natural outcome in far-from-equilibrium systems. Many biophysicists agree with England, but since there is still disagreement about what the essence of life is, its difficult to nail down how explanatory this theory is in terms of lifes origins.

So,whats next? Perhaps physically simulating primordial soup outside of a computer environment is the next step, but this does involve some guesswork. And, while England sees his theory as underlying Darwinian evolution, some disagree that this dissipation-driven adaptation theory could distinguish between things that are simply structured in a certain way and things that are alive. For example, the ability to perceive, process, and pass on information in the form of reproduction may not be fully explained by Englands theory. In any case, this work provides fascinating insights into one possible explanation of how our planet made something out of nothing.

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New Theory for Life Suggests It Was Not an Accident of Biology. It Was Physics. - Futurism