I was stunned last week when I saw many prominent tech VCs and CEOs from Silicon Valley sign letters endorsing the FCC’s move towards Net Neutrality, since, if the rule making goes ahead, it will mean regulating the Internet. I happen to know a bunch of these folks, so I decided to call them [...]

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This is a fabulous demonstration of how stem cells were used to grow cheek bones for a boy born without them due to a genetic condition.
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As with many stem cell procedures, the stem cells were injected into a scaffold (in this case donated dead bone) and the cells brought the bone back to life. [...]

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This is an interesting piece in the NYT on caloric restriction research in humans. The researchers are studying biomarkers in humans who commit to caloric restriction for two years. It would take too long to do a longitudinal study on humans, so this is the next best thing. Surprisingly, the participants actually [...]

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From Rockefeller University via Kurzweil AI.Net:
“The human brain is made up of 100 billion neurons — live wires that must be kept in delicate balance to stabilize the world’s most magnificent computing organ. Too much excitement and the network will slip into an apoplectic, uncomprehending chaos. Too much inhibition and it will flatline. A new [...]

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This is one way.
Dr. Samuel Preston (after whom the Preston curve is named) says that the US health care system isn’t the reason for the longevity divide between the US (78 years) and countries like Japan (83 years). Instead, he says, other factors like obesity and the formerly heavy smoking rate among [...]

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That’s a headline one doesn’t expect to see, yet that’s the conclusion some are reaching from a recent OECD and FAO report.

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I am on the board of H+ and we are currently looking for a new ED. If you’re interested in science, technology, and its impact on human beings, this would be a good position for you. More details can be found here.

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Here’s an interesting story at CNN on why Andorrans live longer than anyone else in the world. It’s basically what you’d expect: exercise, low stress, lots of friends, healthy food. The piece didn’t mention the elevation, but anyone who has been there knows it is incredibly high in the mountains (and they grow [...]

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My colleague Jim Harper over at the Technology Liberation Front discusses the RealAge.com controversy and why the current petition to Oprah is a better way of dealing with the issue than running to the FTC for privacy help. In March, a NYT article exposed how website RealAge.com sells the data it gathers to pharma companies. [...]

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From Cnet:
“A new machine dubbed the “Black Phantom” can turn biomass into manmade coal.
Carbonscape, a New Zealand-based start-up, describes its invention as an industrial-sized microwave that can cook plant waste, wood waste, and “even sewage” into coal.
Carbonscape also claims that the machine captures and stores more carbon than the amount of carbon generated by the [...]

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Here’s the new Japanese humanoid robot HRP-4C:

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A new Kaiser Permanente study says that “Drinking a glass of wine a day may lower the risk of Barrett’s esophagus, a condition that precedes esophageal cancer.” Apparently drinking beer or liquor didn’t help prevent cancer. Maybe it’s the resveratrol in wine that is the difference? This news must make GlaxoSmithKline happy.

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From Fox News:
“Here’s another sign of the tough economic times: Some clinics are reporting a surge in the number of women applying to donate eggs or serve as surrogate mothers for infertile couples.”

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If you are a member of the WTA (paid member), you can vote in the upcoming H+ elections. The people I *personally* know who are running (and I would suggest voting for) include:
Me
Ben Goertzel
Todd Huffman
Many of the others are qualified as well, but I don’t know them as well. These are the other [...]

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This is nice to see, especially given his recent comments about Internet use…

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The Methuselah Foundation is hosting a conference on aging in LA this weekend. Most of it is scientific, but they will have one small session on policy issues. I’ll be there, and will report back on developments as they happen.

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Here is an interesting post from my friend Auren Hoffman on Coke’s inability to do math.

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This is a summary of a survey conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Useful information that’s not surprising.

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University of Minnesota researchers created a beating heart in the laboratory by injecting fresh heart cells into a non-living rat heart matrix. Amazing stuff.
“In the United States alone, about 5 million people live with heart failure, 550,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, and 50,000 die waiting for a donor heart. The work is [...]

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Are you fed up with Match.com? If so, there’s a new service out there that will help you find your “perfect chemistry” mate. The Scientist this week reports that a new site called ScientificMatch.com “uses DNA samples from customers to match them with others who have different alleles for major histocompatibility complex [...]

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