Sonia Arrison » H+ news

Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday

sonia — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:35:07 +0000

Here’s a worthwhile read on the topic of Singularity University. NYT journalist Ashlee Vance covers a large swath of relevant material about the Singularity and also mentions my upcoming book on longevity issues.

H+ Summit June 12-13 @ Harvard

sonia — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:30:32 +0000

If you are looking for an interesting technology event to shake up your summer, I recommend the H+ Summit. It’s a two day event that explores how humanity will be radically changed by technology. Visionary speakers will explore the potential of technology to modify your body, mind, life, and world. Here’s the link for more info.

Skin patches could deliver genes

sonia — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:56:45 +0000

NewScientist reports that Jon Vogel and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland have come up with a procedure that creates “patches of synthetic skin could deliver gene therapies to patients without the need for injections.”

As someone who doesn’t really love needles, this is a good sign for the future. Read the full story here. Thanks to Elissa for sending this story to me.

Now blogging at H+ as well

sonia — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:11:27 +0000

As many of you know, I am on the board of directors of H+. We re-worked some things with our blog recently, so you will see me posting and cross-posting between here and there more often.

Is the FDA trying to kill adult stem cell medicine?

sonia — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:05:51 +0000

Here’s an informative article from h+ magazine on how the FDA currently argues that culturing adult stem cells amounts to the creation of a new drug. This of course would mean long time lags for getting stem cell procedures approved, which has prompted the creation of at least two groups: the American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA) and Safe Stem Cells NOW! (both focused on adult stem cells).

It doesn’t make sense to me that my own cells would be considered a “drug,” but Dr. Christopher J. Centeno who was interviewed for this article by Stephen Coles says that “The FDA is working to protect the interests of Big Pharma.” Yikes — if that’s the case, it’s a huge setback for personalized medicine.

DARPA making progress on regrowing limbs

sonia — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:57:11 +0000

And of course, once we can re-grow solidier’s limbs, we will also be able to do it for everyone.

From Wired:

“The first phase of the Pentagon’s plan to regrow soldiers’ limbs is complete; scientists managed to turn human skin into the equivalent of a blastema — a mass of undifferentiated cells that can develop into new body parts. Now, researchers are on to phase two: turning that cellular glop into a square inch of honest-to-goodness muscle tissue.

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) just got a one-year, $570,000 grant from Darpa, the Pentagon’s blue-sky research arm, to grow the new tissues. “The goal is to genuinely replace a muscle that’s lost,” biotechnology professor Raymond Page tells Danger Room. “I appreciate that’s a very aggressive goal.” And it’s only one part in a larger, even more ambitious Darpa program, Restorative Injury Repair, that aims to “fully restore the function of complex tissue (muscle, nerves, skin, etc.) after traumatic injury on the battlefield.”

[...]

Artificial muscles

sonia — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:50:08 +0000

From rdmag:

Researchers at the UT Dallas Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute have demonstrated a fundamentally new type of artificial muscle, which can operate at extreme temperatures where no other artificial muscle can be used—from below the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196°C) to above the melting point of iron (1538°C).

The discovery is reported in the March 20 issue of Science under the title “Giant Stroke, Superelastic Carbon Nanotube Aerogel Muscles.”

H+ Magazine website now live — check it out

sonia — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:47:10 +0000

My friend RU Sirius is the editor for this new magazine, and the website just went live. It’s a great collection of tech, science, and cultural trends that are changing humans and the world. And, if you are interested, you can see one of my articles in the inaugural issue.

Thanks to H+ voters and congrats to new board members

sonia — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:01:03 +0000

Thanks to everyone who voted for me! I’m looking forward to working with the entire H+ team to help take the organization to the next level in order to better accomplish the mission of promoting understanding, interest and participation in fields of emerging innovation that can radically benefit the human condition.

Here’s a listing of the candidates that were elected to the five 2009-2010 Board seats:

Sonia Arrison
George Dvorsky
Ben Goertzel
Todd Huffman
Mike LaTorra

Also, these three candidates will serve 2009 terms:

Patri Friedman
Jonas Lamis
Mike Treder

Congratulations to all of you! Congratulations also to Richard Leis who has accepted appointment as the new Executive Director.