Author: Ben Michaels

Elon Musk’s Supercharging Brain Interface Startup Neuralink is Now Funded

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said society needs to be more concerned about the development of autonomous weapons as it “threatens to become the third revolution in warfare”.  “If you’re not concerned about AI safety, you should be, vastly more risk than North Korea.” Musk recently tweeted.  The high tech billionaire even sent a new letter co-signed by 115 other experts to the United Nations calling for laws to ban the creation and use of killer robots during conflicts.  And it also so happens that one of Musk’s startup projects now is to create a brain-to-machine interface (project name Neuralink) that would allow the human...

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Chronic Marijuana Use Shown to Improve Oxygen and Blood Flow to the Brain

When you watch many of these commercials by the pharmaceutical companies showing some happy healthy looking person that supposedly has used the drug their promoting (notice the “portrayed by actor” in small letters), it is alarming to hear the long list of dangerous side effects read quickly at the end, that comes along for the ride.   If marijuana was discovered in a pharmaceutical lab it would likely be heralded as a miracle drug for treatment of glaucoma, IBD, nausea, and controlling epileptic seizures, among many other possible medical benefits. But because it is natural (making it useless to pharmaceutical companies...

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Algae Blooms Could Explain the Shift to Multicellular Life Like us on Earth

Although simple life forms like viruses and bacteria existed on Earth back at least two billion years, scientists are still not sure how life made the critical leap from microbes to the complex multicellular plants and animals that dominate the planet today.  Scientists at the Australian National University analyzed chemical traces of life in sedimentary rocks that are up to a billion years old, to discover that a dramatic ice age called Sturtian glaciation, occurred approximately 700 million years ago. During this time also referred to as Snowball Earth, huge glaciers pulverized entire mountain ranges and caused rapid erosion of landmasses.  When the...

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3D Metal Puzzle Model Kits

Years ago many kids were gifted with model kits, to pass the time away.  The picture on the outside of the box was always the big inspiration, and one quickly learned it took organization, patience, and a delicate touch to put these models together, let alone paint them.  In this electronic age, some of these life lessons are lost and that is a pity. A company called Amusien has brought ‘modern’ realistic 3D models to the market that are 3-dimensional puzzles, made of metal, can be put together without glue (thank goodness) with a slot and tab design, and are...

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Add Biohacking of DNA as Something to Worry About in the Future

DNA is essentially a software program with coding instructions to enable functionality.  Scientists driven to push boundaries have manipulated DNA and have even used it as a storage area for photos (GIFs).  As these lines have been crossed it is not hard to imagine that DNA might be manipulated in malicious ways eventually too.  Computers run on 0 and 1 bit instructions, while DNA strands are made from four building blocks, represented by the letters A, C, G, and T.  The idea of transforming these letters to bit instructions is a potential way to manipulate DNA to run computer commands. Scientists...

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