Daily Archives: February 8, 2020

But it gets more interesting. Alcor has two options. The first is a whole-body process that preserves the entire body in a cryo-protectant. The second is the brain and brain stem only.

Why would someone only want their brain and brain stem preserved? Presumably, if we have the technology to bring someone back by repairing the damage from whatever killed them, by that time we might also have the technology to clone a new body using the deceased persons DNA.

Again, weve already made tremendous advances in cloning. While therapeutic cloning is still in its infancy, there is no theoretical reason why we couldnt create a new body without a brain and simply implant the new brain into the cloned body. And with advances with CRISPR, its conceivable the body could come with some sophisticated upgrades.

Those upgrades would come in handy if we plan on going to a new planet like the one in Avatar 2. Imagine having the ability to create a fully customizable body using yourDNAto meet the requirements of any planet you visit. Its the ultimate in life extension.

While there are still technological hurdles to overcome like repairing the aging brain, imagine being able to grow your customizable avatar in transit while your current body is in suspended animation headed towards a different planet a hundred light years away.

I must say, the futures looking bright.

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'Freezing' our bodies is the key to long-distance space travel but can we do it? - The Next Web

Will mankind, who is attempting to travel between systems in the universe, find a precaution to prevent the passengers from traveling on the ship from getting old? Lets discuss a little bit about this issue.

One of humanitys biggest dreams is to travel between star systems in the depths of space. But, as you know, star systems are very far apart, and when compared to the life span of a person, the duration of this journey can make a huge difference.

Thanks to the time dilation when high speeds are reached, someone who goes fast is getting slower than others. Still, even if a spaceship with humans reaches 90% of the speed of light, human life still looks like a grain of sand compared to the duration of that journey.

Is the solution to this situation to put people to sleep?Today, it is not possible to reach the speed of light with its technologies. So scientists have to find a solution to prevent the aging of those who travel on the spaceship. This solution is none other than the sleep solution that we often see in science fiction movies.

There is enough technology available today to create a solution that passivates the human body and prevents aging. A technique called bio-vitrification has been used in organ transplantation for some time. This technology, which has been used for decades, has the opportunity to facilitate space travel in the future.

Biovirtification reduces the aging of human tissue to a minimum by using a liquid that protects it from freezing effect, to almost 0. The liquid used serves to prevent the formation of ice crystals that cause cells to break down.

Although this technique is used in organ transplantation, it has not been tested in humans yet. But some companies, such as the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, offer services that protect the human body so that one day it can bring back dead people. Although these companies have not yet brought back any people, they have returned several simple organisms from death.

Protecting the brain or protecting the body?Some hospitals can also take patients to cool down to extend the time required in emergencies. Although this process is not the same as bioventilation, it is almost similar. As a result, if all known are combined one day, healthy and long-lived individuals may emerge.

So would you like to sail to even more interesting points? The company Alcor, which we just mentioned, offers people two options: First, to cover the whole body with a liquid that protects it from freezing and to protect the whole body; secondly, only protect the brain and brain stem.

So why does a person only want to protect his brain and brain stem? Because if one day manages to fix a harm that ends their life, a new clone body can be created with the use of DNA of a person who died until then. Of course, there is a very long way to go until humanity reaches this point. Although the cloning technology we are talking about is being developed today, humanity may not yet be ready for cloning a human body. By the way, we strongly recommend the 1997 movie Abre Los Ojos

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Will It Be Possible to Sleep People in Space Travel? - Somag News

I know that Elon Musk does many questionable and sometimes outrageous things, but remember that one time when he launched a Tesla Roadster into space using SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket?

Yep, that outrageous thing. The launch was a year ago, on 6 February 2019. That Roadster with his its lone occupant a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named Starman is probably still out there.

According to the experts, the sporty red car is still cruising through our solar system. And theres a simple way for you to keep track of the Roadster and Starman too.

Simply head over to Where is Roadster, a website created by programmer Ben Pearson to keep track of the vehicles location. According to the site, the vehicle is currently near Mars.

That means its roughly 298m kilometres from Earth, travelling at a speed of approximately 2985 kilometres per hour.

Starman is on a trajectory to pass through the Red Planets orbit, but it will never actually reach the Red Planet or enter its atmosphere, as intended.

The Tesla and its driver is expected to continue orbiting the sun as part experiment and part art project. There may even be a Musk Museum of Crazy Things by then.

Two years in space wouldnt have been kind to the Tesla Roadster, because well, the car was designed for Earths atmosphere, and the vast expanse of space.

The vehicle was initially launched by SpaceX to demonstrate the Falcon Heavy rockets capabilities. The Tesla Roadster launch was its maiden voyage.

Musk wanted to prove that the rocket could propel something in space which would be capable of reaching Mars. Well done, Super Heavy, mission accomplished.

If all is going according to plan if space hasnt destroyed it yet, or Starman wasnt abducted by aliens that sporty red car is still out there and will continue orbiting the Sun.

Probably. Researchers calculated that the Roadster will have a fairly close encounter with Earth in 2091. If Starman is ever to set foot on Earth again, that would be the perfect time to send out a recovery craft.

According to Pearsons data, the Roadster has clocked more than 1.6 billion kilometres of space travel and is well into its second orbit around our Sun.

Back in 2019, anorbit modelling study predicted a 6% chance of the Roadster crashing into Earth in the next 1m years. The same study found that theres a 2.5% chance the car will crash into Venus.

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Elon Musks Roadster is probably still cruising through space, two years on - The South African

Dr. Jayan Nagendran, co-founder and chief medical officer of Tevosol, at the Mazankowski Heart Institute with an organ perfusion machine prototype on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020.Shaughn Butts / Postmedia

Two Edmonton-based tech companies are hoping to prove their inventions are out of this world and ready for lift-off into space with NASA.

Local startups Tevosol and ez enRoute were shortlisted by the space technology giant in an international search to find the next great innovation to make life easier in space. They will pitch their ideas at NASA iTechs Ignite the Night event on Feb. 11, the only two Canadian companies selected, for a shot at advancing to a final round of competition in May.

Neither Edmonton-made company started with a quest to travel outside Earth. Rather, both were founded off issues and needs that kept appearing in day-to-day life.

For Dr. Jayan Nagendran, the surgical director of lung transplantation at the University of Alberta Hospital, Tevosol was formed in an effort to increase the number of successful organ donations by providing a lifelike machine to store the organs in an environment as if they were still inside a human, as they are being transported for transplantation.

More than three-quarters of organs that get offered arent being utilized for transplantation despite having large waitlists, said Nagendran, co-founder and chief medical officer of Tevosol. The goal was to develop medical devices to replicate a normal environment for the organ, like a robot chest for the organ.

The company was formed in 2015 out of a garage before finding a home with TEC Edmonton.

Starting with lungs and then finding solutions for hearts, livers, kidneys and limbs, Tevosol has created a portable warm perfusion machine about the size of an ice cooler that has completed a successful clinical trial with plans to pilot commercially in Canada toward the end of 2020.

But its not an organ shortage in outer space prompting Tevosol to pitch its device to NASA. Areas of their research, such as on hibernation and radiation, can be of use in space, Nagendran said.

Space scientists are studying the idea of hibernation for astronauts during deep space travel and Tevosols research for long-term hibernation of organs could be a way forward. Astronauts are also exposed to high levels of radiation and the technology can be used to store limbs or live tissue.

This opportunity for a company like us being based out of Edmonton is significant, said Nagendran, with Tevosol also now having opened an office in Houston, Texas. The exposure itself is really the victory at this point.

Similar to Tevosol, ez enRoute was created by Edmontonian Amit Anand trying to solve an issue he noticed around safety. Using his technology background, he began developing an autonomous security platform that can track movement or incidents such as falling without GPS or Internet.

The International Space Station is growing massively with tons of equipment. This can help access equipment faster and all asset monitoring in outer space, he said.

Anand said they were supported by Edmonton company Aris MD in pitching their idea to NASA and hope to experience the same success Aris MD won the top overall prize last year.

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Two Edmonton-based startups selected by NASA to showcase their space-ready innovations - Edmonton Journal

SERGEI SUPINSKYGetty Images

Scientists have discovered that a longtime fungal resident of the Chernobyl complex could actually eat radiation. In an upcoming paper, scientists will share the results of growing the fungus on the International Space Station.

Scientists have known about this fungus, and similar extremophile organisms that can thrive on radiation, since at least 2007. The variety found in Chernobyl can decompose radioactive material such as the hot graphite in the remains of the Chernobyl reactor, Nature said in 2007. The fungus grows toward the hottest and most radioactive places, like phototropism but for deadly toxins.

How can this fungus process radiation in this way? Because it has tons of very dark melanin pigment that absorbs radiation and processes it in a harmless way to produce energy. Scientists believe this mechanism could be used to make biomimicking substances that both block radiation from penetrating and turn it into a renewable energy source.

Chernobyl is a special case where extreme ambient radiation is a huge danger to anyone who enters, and having a radiation blocker to treat protective suits or even the entire inside of the plant to reduce ambient radiation could be a huge boon. Besides reducing danger, though, the world is filled with machinery and devices that safely use radiation, from medicine to manufacturing. Even low levels of contained radiation could be used to make energy that could reduce the energy burden of those devices.

Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a NASA biotechnologists with over 40 years of research experience, has helmed NASAs research on the radiation extremophile fungus. His publications from over the years include dozens of papers about organisms aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and thats where he plans to take the radiation-eating fungus next.

The ambient radiation aboard the space station is low compared to other parts of space, but its high compared to the Earths surface. Growing the fungus there could reveal new sides of its nature, and may confirm that the fungus can still absorb and process radiation in the much more immersed environment of space. This has great potential for future space travel, where deadly amounts of cosmic radiation are one of the big obstacles scientists must navigate in order to safely send people into outer space.

Its not just fungus that eats radiation in this way. The overall family of extremophiles that live on or despite radiation includes both fungi and bacteria, and different species have different mechanisms for absorbing or tolerating radiation. The NIH explains, [S]ome populations of microorganisms thrive under different types of radiation due to defensive mechanisms provided by primary and secondary metabolic products, i.e., extremolytes and extremozymes.

Each different metabolic product has potential uses in medicine, safety, and manufacturing. Indeed, the general ability of these organisms to thrive in conditions where most organisms break down, mutate, or develop cancers warrants further study across a variety of disciplines.

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You Should Know About This Chernobyl Fungus That Eats Radiation - Popular Mechanics

As the remote workforce becomes the norm, workers are now able to travel and work from virtually wherever they want as long as there is internet access. Now, much of the workforce is choosing to take business trips, without a client visit or meeting.

Remote workers are able to continue working while traveling, meaning they can stay at their destination longer than expected. Extended stays have led travel agents like AirBnB and Expedia to take notice of remote workers and cater to their demands.

This also means that retirement age is extending because workers are able to enjoy traveling to new destinations and continue working.

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Furthermore, some nomadic travel programs will pay for workers to go on trips in order to prevent burnout and provide access to virtual skill training. Its a win-win situation for both employers and employees because offerings like this boost workers retention rates as well as productivity.

Additionally, traveling as a group can not only combat isolation, it can provide professionals the opportunity to build culture and collaborate in new ways. For example, lifestyle brand Unsettled recently acquired digital nomad platform Wanderbrief in order to combine corporate offsite experiences with remote working.

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Remote Working's Impact On The Travel Industry - Allwork.Space