Page 2,066«..10 20..2,0652,0662,067 2,068..2,080 2,090..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

NEW: Three face human-trafficking charges; Boynton woman, 19, targeted – Palm Beach Post

Posted: February 14, 2017 at 11:41 pm

BOYNTON BEACH

Three South Florida menremained in custody early Tuesday after their arrests last week on human-trafficking charges after police alleged a 19-year-old woman was kidnapped from a Boynton Beach home.

Authorities say Jackson Poinvil, 21, of West Palm Beach and Jimmy Edmond, 26, and Christopher Thomas, 22, of Port St. Lucie intended to put an ad on a social-media site for the womans sexual services.

I was in fear of my life, city police said the woman told them during a taped interview.

All three men are facing charges of kidnapping with the intent of human trafficking. In addition, Edmond faces burglary with assault and heroin and cocaine possession charges and is being held on $462,000 bail. Thomas also faces burglary with assault charges, and his bail is set at $450,000. Poinvil also is charged with carrying a concealed and unlicensed firearm and is being held on $350,000 bail.

The alleged kidnapping took place just before 12:30 a.m. Thursday at a home onNorthwest Fourth Street, north of Boynton Beach Boulevard and west of Seacrest Boulevard near Sara Sims Park. A witness told police that two of the men pulled out guns upon entering the home. One pointed a light-colored revolver at the womans stomach, grabbed her by the back of the head and forced her to leave, police said.

The woman later appeared on the Backpage.com website advertising sexual relationship.

An undercover detective spoke to the woman by telephone and arranged to meet her at a Boynton Beach motel, offering to pay $200. Police monitored the suspects vehicle as a detective met the woman in the lobby of the hotel.

She had bruising and appeared to have been crying, police said.

Edmond, Thomas and Poinvil were taking into custody without incident. Poinvil allegedly told officers he and the other men had gone to the Boynton Beach home to pimp the woman out.

Edmond were later found to have crack cocaine and heroin in his possession, the police report said.

Posted in Post Human | Comments Off

Ethicists advise caution in applying CRISPR gene editing to humans – Washington Post

Posted: at 11:40 pm

Ethicists have been working overtime to figure out how to handle CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing technique that could potentially prevent congenital diseases but could also be used for cosmetic enhancements and lead to permanent, heritable changes in the human species.

The latest iteration of this ongoing CRISPR debate is a report published Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. The report, a series of guidelines written by 22 experts from multiple countries and a variety of academic specialties, presents a kind of flashing red light for CRISPR.

The report did not recommend an absolute prohibition of gene editing on the human germline if such interventions can be proved safe. This would involve genetic changes to eggs, sperm or embryos that would persist in an adult and could be inherited by future generations.

For some ethicists, that represents a slippery slope. At the conclusion of a gene-editing summit in Washington at the National Academy of Sciences in December 2015, scientists said that although some basic research could proceed, it would be irresponsible to use genetically modified germline cells for the purpose of establishing a pregnancy.

But the new report takes a slightly more permissive, forward-thinking position, saying that, if and when such interventions are proved safe which could be in the near future and if numerous criteria are met to ensure that such gene editing is regulated and limited, it could potentially be used to treat rare, serious diseases.

We say proceed with all due caution, but we dont prohibit germline, after considerable discussion and debate, said Richard Hynes, an MIT biologist and one of the leaders of the new study. Were talking only about fixing diseases.

The list of criteria for going down that road is a long one, said Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Washington. For example: The intervention would have to replace the defective, disease-causing gene with a gene already common in the human species. There would also have to be no simpler alternative for parents wishing to have a healthy child. And first and foremost, there needs to be more research to show that such modifications are safe and target well-understood genes, she said.

We are not even close to the amount of research that we need before you can move forward, Charo said.

What is less controversial, and already happening, is gene therapy that targets somatic cells, in which the changes are not heritable. Such interventions can help an individual patient but would not affect his or her offspring. However, some therapies that can be used to treat a disease could potentially be used for purely cosmetic or competitive purposes.

For example, gene therapy developed as a treatment for muscular dystrophy could potentially be exploited to make a healthy person more muscular. The committee came out strongly against any use of CRISPR for cosmetic enhancements. And the report argues that gene editing in humans should come only after broad public discussion.

This animation depicts the CRISPR-Cas9 method for genome editing a powerful new technology with many applications in biomedical research, including the potential to treat human genetic disease or provide cosmetic enhancements. (Feng Zhang/McGovern Institute for Brain Research/MIT)

Josephine Johnston, director of research at the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute, said the only thing potentially controversial in this new report is the openness to germline modification. Some bioethicists believe that's a bright line that should not be crossed, she said.

Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said of the report, Its a very careful, conservative position thats just a little bit beyond an absolute bar. And I think thats the right place to go for now. They say you cannot do this unless you put double-stick tape on the slippery slope so that nothing can slip. Thats a pretty strong set of restrictions.

Neither Johnston nor Lander were part of the National Academy of Sciences committee that issued the report.

The report drew immediate criticism from a California-based non-profit organization called the Center for Genetics and Society.

This report is a dramatic departure from the widespread global agreement that human germline modification should remain off limits, said Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the center. It acknowledges many of the widely recognized risks, including stigmatizing people with disabilities, exacerbating existing inequalities, and introducing new eugenic abuses. Strangely, theres no apparent connection between those dire risks and the recommendation to move ahead.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. CRISPR-Cas9, as it is more precisely called, is a natural system developed bybacteria over the course of their long evolutionary history. The bacteria use their own gene-editing system to identify foreign genetic material that has been inserted into the bacterial genome by viruses. These invasive genetic passages are snipped away, and the genome repaired.

Early in this decade, a series of scientific papers described how this system could be exploited in the laboratory for genetic engineering. CRISPR quickly became the go-to method for gene editing, because it's easier and cheaper than previous methods. It can be used to modify the genomes of plants, animals and potentially humans, though experiments with human embryos have been limited so far because of ethical concerns and, in the United States, legal prohibitions.

This story has been updated.

Elon Musk: Automation Will Force Governments to Introduce Universal Basic Income – Futurism

Posted: at 11:40 pm

In Brief

Recently, Elon Musk had the chance to share his thoughts onuniversal basic income (UBI)at the World Government Summit in Dubai. At the Summit,Musk had the opportunity to talk about the future, and the challenges the world will face in the next hundred years including artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and the job displacement expected to come with it.

When asked about the challenges civilization is set to face in the near future,Musk began,deep artificial intelligence, or artificial general intelligence, where you can have artificial intelligence that is much smarter than the smartest human on Earth. This is a dangerous situation.

I think we need to be very careful in how we adopt artificial intelligence and that we make sure that researchers dont get carried away. Sometimes what will happen is a scientist will get so engrossed in their work that they dont really realize the ramifications of what theyre doing.

Musk also relayed concerns thatautonomous technology will impact jobs. Twenty years is a short period of time to have something like 12-15 percent of the workforce be unemployed, he said, pointing out the extent of how automation will disrupt car-based transportation.

Displacement due to automation isnt just limited to transportation. Musk argues that the government must introduce a UBI program in order to compensate for this. I dont think were going to have a choice, he said. I think its going to be necessary. There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.

Musk believes, however, that the issue goes deeper:

As the UBI discussion continues, various nations and institutions have already begun their own pilot programs to test the model. In a couple of years or less, there might be enough data from these experiments for us to consider just how effective a solution to unemployment UBI is.

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

President Trump Wants to Send Humans Back to the Moon by 2020 – Futurism

Posted: at 11:40 pm

The Economic Development of Space

Former President, Barack Obama is a big advocate of science. During his term, he was a vocal supporter of the burgeoning commercial space industry and supportedprivate and government efforts to send humans to Mars by 2030.

We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of Americas story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time, Obama said in an open letter he wrote last year.

Under Obama, the future of space exploration was bright. So where do all these new policies and initiatives supporting distant space exploration stand under Donald Trumps presidency? Based on a report by Politico, it looks like its back to low-Earth orbit.

In the report, Trump advisers expressed support for sending humans back to the Moon, almost five decades after the US managed to achieve this great feat. The focus, they said, should be the large-scale economic development of space, which means limiting space exploration to the area betweenour planet and the Moon, called the cislunar region.

The direction the administration follows is a more entrepreneurial approach to space, and theyre pretty aggressive about it. Theres a strong focus on leveraging space to create new industries and jobs, with the goal of creating a lucrative space economy, and staking what Trump calls a de-facto claim on the moon.

Trump is bent on dominating space, but his teams approach is centered on privatizing the whole endeavor, calling it the biggest and most public privatization effort America has ever conducted. Following this, theyre targeting private rockets to shuttle civilian astronauts to the Moon by 2020.

While this plan doesnt completely shut down efforts for commercial space flight (in fact, theyre likely to benefit from it), the feasibility of the timeline raises concerns. Two of the biggest private spaceflight companies are barely ready to achieve this goal. Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rockets, scheduled to bring astronauts into space next year, are far from perfect and are already suffering delays. And Elon Musks SpaceX is still reeling from two consecutive rocket explosions. Theres also the matter of the administration wanting to claim property rights on the Moon, which would violate the UN Outer Space Treaty.

All things considered, one glaringly absent element in this whole effort to make America great again in space is the science. This kind of approach to space exploration will be counterintuitive for a scientific field that thrives on continued innovation and discovery. This could ultimately put missions for long term space exploration to a disappointing halt, and put important exploratory initiatives like the James Webb Space Telescope (scheduled for 2018), the next Mars rover (slated for 2020), or sending a lander to Jupiters Europa on the back burner.

Read the original post:
President Trump Wants to Send Humans Back to the Moon by 2020 - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off

Turbine-driven Robot to Navigate Inside Space Station – Hackaday

Posted: at 10:54 am

It may look more like a Companion Cube than R2-D2, but the ISS is getting an astromechdroid of sorts.

According to [Trey Smith] of the NASA Ames Research Center, Astrobee is an autonomous robot that will be able to maneuver inside the ISS in three dimensions using vectored thrust from a pair of turbines. The floating droid will navigate visually, using a camera to pick out landmarks aboard the station, including docking ports that let it interface with power and data. A simple arm allows Astrobee to grab onto any of the hand rails inside the ISS to provide a stable point for viewing astronaut activities or helping out with the science.

As cool as Astrobee is, were intrigued by how the team at Ames is testing it. The droid is mounted on a stand that floats over an enormous and perfectly flat granite slab using low-friction CO gas bearings, giving it freedom to move in two dimensions. We cant help but wonder why they didnt suspend the Astrobee from a gantry using a counterweight to add that third dimension in. Maybe thats next.

From the sound of it, Astrobee is slated to be flight ready by the end of 2017, so well be watching to see how it does. But if they find themselves with a little free time in the schedule, perhaps adding a few 3D-printed cosmetics would allow them to enter the Hackaday Sci-Fi Contest.

Read the original:
Turbine-driven Robot to Navigate Inside Space Station - Hackaday

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off

Algae survive 16 months on space station exterior – The Space Reporter

Posted: at 10:54 am

A batch of algae has survived 16 months of direct exposure to outer space.

Quartz reports that a type of green algae and photosynthesizing bacteria remained alive while dwelling on the exterior of the International Space Station. Only one of the algae samples failed to resume growth after being brought back to Earth.

The experiment took place under the auspices of the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX) to learn more about the successes and limitations found when terrestrial life is exposed to conditions in outer space.

The terrestrial samples, which included algae, fungi, lichens, bacteria, and mosses, were positioned in pockets on the outside of the space station. There the samples were exposed to ultraviolet radiation, a near vacuum, and temperatures ranging from -4 F to 116 F.

The algae that survived belonged to species found in Norway and Antarctica. The polar algae are able to protect itself from extreme cold by forming a protective layer of thick walls and cysts while entering a dormant state.

The two algae species join the growing list of known organisms that can survive in space. The list includes bacteria, lichens, and tardigrades (better known aswater bears.)

Space survival studies may help inform future attempts to grow food in hostile conditions, such as on the surface of Mars. Algae could also prove useful to space explorers because it produces proteins and oxygen.

BIOMEX studies can also add information to the debate regarding how life began on Earth. The leading hypothesis is that life formed from a serendipitous mix of chemicals under just the right environmental conditions. Another idea is that life was delivered to Earth via asteroids and/or comets, and proving that some forms of life could survive space travel is another finding in favor of that hypothesis.

Kathy Fey is a freelance writer with a creative writing degree from Mount Holyoke College. She is an active blogger and erstwhile facilitator of science and engineering programs for children.

See original here:
Algae survive 16 months on space station exterior - The Space Reporter

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off

Photographer explains how he captured rare space station moon … – FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

Posted: at 10:54 am

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Last week, you probably heard a lot about the full 'snow moon,' the lunar eclipse, and even the faint green comet passing close to Earth. But the most stunning photo of the week involved none of those things.

Florida photographer James Boone captured a series of photos Thursday night showing the International Space Station passing in front of the bright nearly-full moon, which is known as a lunar transit. It's an incredibly difficult feat to achieve -- many photographers plan and practice for years to be ready for such an occasion.

That was indeed the case for James, who's a regular contributor of stunning weather photos to FOX 13 (see his other photos above or click over to his website). We asked him to elaborate a little on how he managed to get the shot, and if he had any advice for other astrophotographers out there.

Here are his answers:

When and where did you shoot this photo?

I shot this from near the Orlando Airport [Thursday night] around 10pm. Exact time was 10:05:38...the ISS takes less than a second to transit the Moon.

How long have you been trying to get a shot like this?

I've wanted this shot as soon as I saw similar photos online of ISS transits. I've probably planned this photo around a dozen times over the past four years...mostly missed my chances due to the weather not cooperating or because I wasn't able to drive to the location the day of the transit.

What inspired you to try for this shot?

There are a few photographers / amateur astronomers who do some incredible work and post their techniques online. Thierry Legault, a French astronomer, is probably the most inspiring. He has captured lunar and solar transits with the ISS and even the space shuttle.

Let's talk about the technical details: What kind of camera, how many exposures? How did you determine what settings to use?

For last night's transit, I had two camera setups -- one with a traditional DSLR lens and the other hooked up with a telescope. The traditional setup was a Nikon D500, Nikkor 300mm f/4 lens and a Nikkor TC-20e Teleconverter (which gives the lens two times the reach). This setup is equivalent to a 900mm lens on a 35mm camera. I also used a polar aligned tracking mount - SkyWatcher Star Adventurer on a tripod. This moves the camera at the same speed as the Earth's rotation so that the Moon stayed center of the frame during the time I was shooting.

My telescope setup was a Nikon D750 and Orion 10" Dobsonian DSE telescope with an adapter to hook the camera up to the eyepiece. The telescope setup was the most difficult one to get as you're only working with a section of the moon so you have to hope that the ISS will cross where you have the telescoped pointed. Also the D750's memory buffer fills up at around 5 seconds so I can't start shooting until the last moment.

I fired off around 20 seconds worth of exposures with my D500, so that ended up being around 200 exposures total...only six of those frames ended up showing the transit. The telescope setup I probably shot 30 exposures and it only showed up in one (and it was the first shot I took...so I was cutting it close).

And the logistics: How did you know where and when to shoot from in order to get the station lined up with the moon?

I use two sites in order to prepare for shots like this. Calsky is the standard as it's been around for years but it's also somewhat tricky to use. Thankfully they've made it a little easier to find these transits within the last couple of years. Also, Transit-Finder.com is a relatively new site but uses the same basic data as Calsky but is more focused and way more user-friendly to use. I'll probably use that one from now on. Also there are a few apps out there, like ISS Finder and SkyView, that I use for tracking the ISS that are handy when I'm shooting. I've attached one of the screenshots from the SkyView app I use.

A little about you: How long have you been shooting? Do you have a 'day job'?

I've been taking photos since I was a kid but didn't pick up a DSLR until 2008. Outside of shooting astronomical objects, I'm a motorsports shooter for races like the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and St. Pete Grand Prix. I also take photos of lightning during our storm season. And yes, I have a day job. I'm not good enough to earn a living as a full-time photographer.

What are some of your other favorite shots through the years?

Probably my most popular photos are some of my moonrise photos, storm shots and some motorsports stuff. Not everyone is into racecars, which I understand, but it is some of the toughest, most demanding photography out there. Plus I love how technically difficult it is when shooting fast cars at slow shutter speeds. Also shooting some astrophotography objects can be really rewarding once you get the image fully processed, which is a lot of work. See attached.

Any advice for aspiring photographers on getting this photo or any other tough shot?

Planning is key. For most of these transit shots, you can't actually see the ISS moving across the sky as it's either too late in the evening for the lunar transits or during the day for the solar transits. You really have to trust the data from the websites. Having a long lens or telescope is definitely a plus but this shot can be done relatively inexpensively. Also, don't give up if you don't get it the first trying to get a difficult shot. I miss plenty of shots but I also love the challenge of a truly difficult photo.

LINK: http://www.JamesBoonePhoto.com

Follow this link:
Photographer explains how he captured rare space station moon ... - FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off

What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet – Forbes

Posted: at 10:54 am

Forbes

What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet
Forbes
I read on Quora that ISS has a slow Internet connection (slow as a dial-up). How do they manage to stream live HD videos from ISS to YouTube? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others ...

Continue reading here:
What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet - Forbes

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off

Mars was just slammed by a ‘cosmic shotgun blast’ – RedOrbit

Posted: at 10:54 am

February 13, 2017

by John Hopton

Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but the discovery of a cluster of recent meteorite impacts on Mars has highlighted a major reason why future colonization of the Red Planet will be an almighty challenge.

Among myriad other obstacles, Mars has lower gravity, lower temperatures, and lower atmospheric pressure compared to Earth. A new observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has also reminded us that while Earth's thicker atmosphere keeps out almost all space rocks, the thinner atmosphere on Mars gives less such protection.

The impact is thought to have occurred between 2008 and 2014, but NASA's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera revealed in 2016 that two large impact craters were surrounded by up to 30 smaller craters.

A meteorite had broken up in the atmosphere and then rained down rock onto the surface.

This is by no means the first observation of impacts of this nature. Regular examination of impact sites on Mars help scientists to study what minerals sit beneath the surface, and to track how surface winds affect fine particles of material. The regularity of impacts is also of great interest.

Human expeditions to Mars are expected within two or three decades, and Elon Musk of Space X previously said he wants to help the human race to establish a permanent, self-sustaining colony on Mars within the next 50 to 100 years. Whoever does make it up there, though, will have to find a way to deal with what amounts to celestial carpet bombing.

-----

Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Read the original:
Mars was just slammed by a 'cosmic shotgun blast' - RedOrbit

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off

Biohacker crackdown? Germany threatens gene-editing hobbyists with fines, jail – Genetic Literacy Project

Posted: at 10:51 am

The German governmentis none too pleased with [how easily people can conduct gene editing experiments outside of labs thanks to advances in science][Its] consumer protection office [recently]issued a statement: Any science enthusiast doing genetic engineering outside of a licensed facility, it wrote, might face a fine of 50,000 or up to three years in prison.

The statement sent a wave of shock through the DIY bio community.

The law behind the German DIY bio crackdown isnt new. The government was simply reminding so-called biohackers of a long-existing law that forbids genetic engineering experiments outside of laboratories supervised and licensed by the state.

Im pretty sure that laws will prohibit me from continuing my research at a later state, said Bruno Lederer, a German biohacker who hopes that loopholes in the law will allow his work to continue for now. I think its a shame that Id have to do illegal things in order to do independent research.

Community biology labsshouldnt have an issue getting licensed. But not every DIY scientist lives near or has the resources to join a community lab. If the DIY bio movement is about making science accessible to those outside the Ivory Tower of academia, the German governments statement represents a serious roadblock.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Germany Is Threatening Biohackers With Prison

Read the original here:
Biohacker crackdown? Germany threatens gene-editing hobbyists with fines, jail - Genetic Literacy Project

Posted in Genetic Engineering | Comments Off

Page 2,066«..10 20..2,0652,0662,067 2,068..2,080 2,090..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

NEW: Three face human-trafficking charges; Boynton woman, 19, targeted – Palm Beach Post

Ethicists advise caution in applying CRISPR gene editing to humans – Washington Post

Elon Musk: Automation Will Force Governments to Introduce Universal Basic Income – Futurism

President Trump Wants to Send Humans Back to the Moon by 2020 – Futurism

Turbine-driven Robot to Navigate Inside Space Station – Hackaday

Algae survive 16 months on space station exterior – The Space Reporter

Photographer explains how he captured rare space station moon … – FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet – Forbes

Mars was just slammed by a ‘cosmic shotgun blast’ – RedOrbit

Biohacker crackdown? Germany threatens gene-editing hobbyists with fines, jail – Genetic Literacy Project

The Prometheus League

Breaking News and Updates

Prometheism

Forbidden Fruit

The Evolutionary Perspective

Transtopia Menu

Library Updates

Library Books

Future Euvolution

Lucid Dreams from Childhood

Genetic Revolution

Speciation + Self-Directed Evolution