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featured 07.08.09

Farthest supernova ever detected

PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday said they had found the farthest supernova ever detected, a giant star that ripped... more

InformedTexan
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Will Google's New Operating System Replace Windows?

Image: Sundar Pichai, vice president for product management, said that Google’s free Chrome operating system would be fast... more

wayseeker
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Fountain of Youth Pill?

Some stories seem too good to be true. Like this one. It starts like this: "A miraculous 'fountain of youth'... more

xiola
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The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain?

Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain.

In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair, or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.

“Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future,” said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington. “But if we don’t start paying attention to security, we’re worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we’ve made a big mistake.”

Hackers tap into personal computers all the time — but what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep brain stimulators currently used to treat Parkinson’s and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs? According to Kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns July 1 in Neurosurgical Focus, most current devices carry few security risks. But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom.

For example, the next generation of implantable devices to control prosthetic limbs will likely include wireless controls that allow physicians to remotely adjust settings on the machine. If neural engineers don’t build in security features such as encryption and access control, an attacker could hijack the device and take over the robotic limb.

“It’s very hard to design complex systems that don’t have bugs,” Kohno said. “As these medical devices start to become more and more complicated, it gets easier and easier for people to overlook a bug that could become a very serious risk. It might border on science fiction today, but so did going to the moon 50 years ago.”

Some might question why anyone would want to hack into someone else’s brain, but the researchers say there’s a precedent for using computers to cause neurological harm. In November 2007 and March 2008, malicious programmers vandalized epilepsy support websites by putting up flashing animations, which caused seizures in some photo-sensitive patients.

“It happened on two separate occasions,” said computer science graduate student Tamara Denning, a co-author on the paper. “It’s evidence that people will be malicious and try to compromise peoples’ health using computers, especially if neural devices become more widespread.”

In some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device. Unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals. Hacking into these devices could enable patients to “self-prescribe” elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain’s reward centers.Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain.... more

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2 hours ago

H2-WHOA! Australian town bans bottled water

Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water,... more

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2 hours ago

Obama's new NIH chief links God, science

President Barack Obama is choosing an influential scientist who helped unravel the human genetic code — and is known for... more

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5 hours ago

Third-World Wind Power: First Look

Here is an interesting non turbine wind power generator. I saw the idea for this in the TerraPass Blog; another one of the Blogs... more

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3 hours ago

15 things women would miss about men

After the news this week that scientists have basically signed men's death certificate by creating sperm without a man's... more

richjm
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1 day ago

Urine turned into hydrogen fuel

US researchers have developed an efficient way of producing hydrogen from urine - a feat that could not only fuel the cars of the... more

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4 hours ago

Peeling bananas: you're doing it all wrong!

Monkeys peel bananas in a different way to humans and seeing as they eat twice as many as us and they invented the computer,... more

richjm
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4 hours ago

What Does a Drug That Extends Life in Mice Mean for Humans?

A natural compound, used as an immunosuppressant in organ-transplant patients, has been found to extend life in mice, according to a study published Wednesday by the journal Nature. Aging mice that were given the substance, rapamycin, lived significantly longer than mice that didn't get the drug: females that received rapamycin were 13% older at death, and males 9% older.
The research, conducted as part of the National Institute of Aging Interventions Testing Program, took place at three separate test sites and involved nearly 2,000 genetically similar mice. Trials began when mice were about 600 days old — well into middle age, at a stage roughly equivalent to 60-year-old humans.
Because of their late start (researchers had intended to study mice from early ages, but were stymied by technical difficulties), scientists weren't sure they could expect clear results. However, even administered late in life, rapamycin delayed death of the longest-lived male mice by 101 days and 151 days in the longest-lived females — the equivalent of about 13 years on average in humans — compared with mice with no treatment. In terms of life expectancy when treatment began (or average remaining lifespan when the mice were 600 days old), that translates to an increase of 38% in female mice and 28% in males compared with mice that received no treatment at all.

Although the results are totally untested in humans, they do suggest that aging could be slowed by drugs. Exactly how rapamycin works is "still an open question," says Randy Strong, a pharmacology professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and one of three lead authors on the study. But he and his colleagues were prompted to test the aging effects of rapamycin, which was discovered in Easter Island soil samples about 40 years ago, after noting that the compound appeared to affect cell growth in lab animals in much the same way as calorie-restricted diets, which also appear to extend life.
Scientists think rapamycin's cellular target — called mTOR for "mammalian target of rapamycin" — helps regulate the body's response to nutrients and may also, according to Strong, "gear up responses to stress," such as the oxidative stress that damages proteins and DNA and contributes to disease development. "What we're doing with rapamycin," Strong says, "is we're actually tricking the cells into thinking that they're depleted of nutrients. Rather than the animals losing weight — we haven't noticed any weight loss — they may be just using their proteins more efficiently, and then repairing proteins more efficiently.

It's this cellular efficiency, perhaps, that delays aging and helps preserve animals' good health. The findings suggest that rapamycin does not affect or prevent any one disease specifically — the mice in the study died of various causes, with no real difference between mice that received rapamycin and those that didn't — but rather that it slows aging overall.
Rapamycin's life-extending effect has been demonstrated by other researchers in past studies of worms, fruit flies and yeast; the drug appears to interfere with a similar cellular process in those species too. "I think this is a big leap from those invertebrate species to mammals," says Strong, who is also a senior research scientist for Veteran Affairs. "This gives us a good idea that perhaps it would work in humans too."

Earlier human trials have shown, however, that rapamycin can have serious side effects. Because it is an immune suppressant, it can make users susceptible to opportunistic infections. It has also been linked to hyperlipidemia, or high levels of triglycerides in the blood, which can lead to heart disease. It's unclear whether these problems would counteract any longevity benefit that rapamycin might provide in humans. Says Strong, "I think more immediately, people are starting to look at [rapamycin] for age-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or kidney disease."A natural compound, used as an immunosuppressant in organ-transplant patients, has been found to extend life in mice, according to... more