Clipmarks | Silkweaver's clips

Bot Bartenders Sling Drinks at Roboexotica USA

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:04:45 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

SAN FRANCISCO -- Aficionados of alcohol and androids alike celebrated the first stateside gathering of cocktail-serving robots this weekend at Roboexotica.

Patrons delighted in drink-making droids that ranged from a fire-spewing drink warmer, a fully automated mind-reading mixologist and a shot-pouring conveyor belt built entirely from Legos.

"You have liquor, fire and robots," said Johannes Grentfurthner, Roboexotica organizer and member of art collective monochrom in Austria. "How could we go wrong?"

Tags: robotics, spirits, bars

New Mars Lander Looks for Water, Old Signs of Life

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:01:54 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.wired.com

On Sunday, May 25, the Mars Phoenix Lander will plunge through the red planet's atmosphere in search of water -- and possibly look for evidence of life on Mars.

In less than two weeks, the Mars Phoenix Lander could realize scientists' long-delayed dream of directly finding Martian ice for the first time. To date, the evidence for water on Mars has been indirect.

"If we're successful, this mission will be remembered for being the first to do direct analysis of ice or water on the surface of Mars," said Mike Gross of NASA, who engineered the mission's scientific instrumentation.

The $420 million Phoenix mission is also the first to have its own Twitter feed, which has been sending out updates as the Phoenix approaches Mars.

The lander has traveled nearly 120 million miles since its August 2007 launch. On May 25, it will attempt a landing inside an area about twice the size of Hong Kong, a mere 2,000 square kilometers.

Tags: space, mars landing

Telephonic Sheep — by Jean Luc Cornec

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:17:45 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.bookofjoe.com

10 High-Tech Health Breakthroughs Coming Soon to Your Body

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:15:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Health care has come a long way since whole-body bloodletting. But medicine of the future will make even today’s broad-based therapies obsolete. Breakthroughs such as cancer-hunting nanoparticles, virus-busting lasers and featherweight heart monitors have begun to usher in a new era of targeted treatment—one in which drugs go directly where they’re needed, leaving healthy body tissues intact, and the slightest sign of illness is detected in real time.

Magnetic Brain Stimulation

Stem-Cell Scaffold

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Instant Diagnosis

Pre-emptive Strike Against Cancer

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Implantable Nanowire

Superbug Zapper

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

Targeted Delivery

Bloodstream Bot

Nowadays, procedures like removing tumors or Roto-Rootering plaque-filled arteries can require long hospital stints. But a mosquito-size robot developed by Oded Salomon, an engineer at Israel’s Technion Institute, may be able to pull off these surgical feats without making large incisions—so recuperation is much faster.

Clip Source: www.popularmechanics.com

EKG Untethered

Nano Cancer Fighters

Tags: medicine, biotechnology

Transhumanism vs. Trans-Systemism

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:04:31 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: What exactly is this “human” that we are supposed to extrapolate into the future? Is it an individual animal? A member of a species? A self-aware “software” that resides in the fore brain of an advanced mammal? Several combined pieces of software? Software combined with external knowledge and information? Does it depend on nature? Can it be distinguished form the system in which it resides? Can it exist without the broader system?

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Perhaps the most critical challenge of transhumanist philosophy is exactly this: To offer a vision of the future human, the human of beyond. Transhumanism will not grow into a mature philosophy without defining and describing the possible favorable directions of human evolution, both as individuals and as a specie.

Clip Source: memebox.com

Fueled by accelerating change, transhumanism (H+), the belief that humans can and should consciously evolve past our current limitations, is on the rise. It’s a safe bet that over the coming years this budding philosophy, or memeplex, will make its way into the minds of millions of humans, maybe more. However it lines up with reality, transhumanism will exert a big impact on our future (barring a near-term cataclysmic event, of course).

However, when attempting to simulate the future, particularly a hyper-fast Kurzweilian future or Ted Modis’ moderately slower future , I’ve found that I cannot embrace a wholly transhumanist-compatible view of the years to come because transhumanism, unsurprisingly, fails to provide an adequate definition of the term “human”. (cont.)

Tags: transhumanism, transhumanist philosophy

Nanoworms Find, Treat Cancer Tumors Much Better

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:54:26 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.engineeringservicesoutsourcing.com

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can travel through the bloodstream and — like tiny anti-cancer missiles — zero in on tumors. These can circulate in the body for hours since they do not trigger the immune system.

These nanoworms, composed of magnetic iron oxide and coated with a polymer, are able to find and attach to tumors. The nanoworms are superparamagnetic and show up very well on MRIs.

Using these nanoworms, doctors could eventually be able to target and reveal the location of developing tumors that are too small to detect by conventional methods.

With the use of this nanoworms concept, researchers are developing chemical attachments that will help to reach specific targets in the body, and are adding drugs that would be released when these targets are reached.

The nanoworms concept was inspired by the discovery of a scientist

Tags: medicine, nanotechnology, cancer

Genetically modified human embryo stirs criticism

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:50:29 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: It is definitely unacceptable to try it when it is unsafe. It is definitely worth trying when it will be safe. It will be safe eventually, our job meanwhile is to create an adequate ethical framework that will allow the harnessing of this future technology to the benefit of all humans and other beings.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

AP) -- News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies."

The idea of designer babies is that someday, scientists may insert particular genes into embryos to produce babies with desired traits like intelligence or athletic ability. Some people find that notion repugnant, saying it turns children into designed objects, and would create an unequal society where some people are genetically enriched while others would be considered inferior.

The study appears to be the first report of genetically modifying a human embryo. It was presented last fall at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, but didn't draw widespread public attention then.

"We're not even close to having that technology in hand to be able to do it right," she said, and it would be ethically unacceptable to try it when it's unsafe.

Tags: biotechnology, bioethics