time travel, parallel universes, and other useful illusions
Imagine a future in which many of the electrical devices we take for granted today are replaced by plant nanobionics, a natural form of technology that can power itself, as plants do. MIT engineers recently created nanobionic light-emitting plants that may prove such a future awaits us.
Something strange is going down in Cambodia, where reports have surfaced of genetically altered “mutant” pigs with abnormally large muscles. Images of the pigs were posted on Facebook, originating from a farm in Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia. This prompted PETA to respond. “Hulk-like pigs are the stuff of nightmares, not meals,” they wrote in a statement …
Continue reading “Claims of Muscular, “Mutant” Pigs In Cambodia”
How would you feel about resurrecting a lost species? Say, the woolly mammoth? This large, hairy beast went extinct about 4,000 years ago, fairly recently in the grand scheme of things. It coexisted with humans before its final population died out in the Arctic Ocean, on Wrangel Island.
Scientists have announced a breakthrough that may someday (hopefully) render the movie Gattaca redundant. According to The Independent, the process involves a “revolutionary genome-editing technique” that they’ve already used to cure an inherited liver disease in adult laboratory mice.
So here’s a question: Would you agree to be shrunken down to the size of a doll if it meant preserving the environment?
All this talk about genetic engineering and cloning has got me thinking about Jurassic Park. And what do you know? A group of fans are hard at work on a new game (well, a Half-Life 2 mod) called Jurassic Life, rendering Isla Nublar in Valve’s Source Engine. You can see their progress in the above video. …
Geneticist George Church wants to clone a Neanderthal. It’s not an easy process, and we’re not quite there yet (maybe within 50 years). But that isn’t stopping him from getting the word out. Namely, he’s looking for an “adventurous female human” to act as the cloned Neanderthal’s surrogate mother. Any takers?