Transhumanismus

Scientists Say They’ve Discovered How Cancer Hijacks and Corrupts Immune Cells

Singularity HUB - 24 Leden, 2025 - 00:03

Cancer cells steal from and poison the cells tasked with fighting them off.

Cancers are sneaky infiltrators highly adept at cellular warfare. As they expand, the malignant cells chip away at the body’s immune defenses.

How cancer cells learn to dodge immune attacks has puzzled scientists for decades. A study in Nature this week has a surprising answer: They steal healthy mitochondria—the cell’s energy powerhouses—from the immune cells that hunt them down. In turn, cancers pump their own damaged mitochondria into healthy immune cells, gradually destroying them from the inside.

Scientists have always assumed mitochondria are produced inside cells and live out their lives there. The new findings challenge this dogma, suggesting mitochondria are mobile—at least in cancers and the tumor-infiltrating immune cells working to fight them off.

Analyzing both types of cells from three cancer patients, the Japanese team found that cancer-fighting immune cells poisoned with damaged mitochondria eventually lose their ability to resist. Without a healthy energy source, the cells languish in a state called senescence, where they can no longer function or divide.

Meanwhile, cancer cells pilfer healthy mitochondria from their attackers to satisfy their appetite for energy, allowing them to divide and spread. In tests in petri dishes and mice, the team found that blocking this mitochondria swap slowed cancer growth and made a common immunotherapy more effective.

Stanford’s Holden Maecker, who was not involved in the study, told Nature the finding “sounds crazy, like science fiction,” and that it’s “potentially a totally new biology that we were not looking at.”

This swapping “is a newly discovered mechanism that thwarts anticancer defenses,” wrote Jonathan Brestoff at Washington University School of Medicine, who was also not part of the study.

Energy Mill

Mitochondria are a crucial ingredient of life. These oblong-shaped organelles are loaded with proteins that convert fuel from food into energy. Unlike other organelles, mitochondria stand out because they carry their own genetic material.

Let’s backtrack, for a moment.

Most of our DNA is housed in the cell’s nucleus. But mitochondria also contain their own genes, dubbed mtDNA. These are likely remnants of their past. A common theory is that mitochondria were originally independent cells that were “eaten up” by another early type of cell at the beginning of complex life on Earth. Eventually the two formed an alliance, with mitochondria increasing energy production for the cells, and the cells protecting the mitochondria.

Today, mtDNA mostly operates independently from our cells’ nuclear genetic material. It’s stored in circles of DNA (like in bacteria). Unlike the rest of our DNA, mtDNA never evolved sophisticated repair mechanisms, and it’s prone to accumulating mutations.

As they produce energy, mitochondria also damage themselves by pumping toxic waste into their surroundings. Cells routinely dispose of defunct mitochondria to make space for healthy replacements that can keep the cellular factory—and our bodies—humming along.

This process goes awry in cancer.

Cops and Robbers

Cancer cells grow incessantly. They require a steady stream of energy to keep up with their need to repeatedly copy their DNA to divide, grow, and spread. But mitochondria in cancer cells are often mutated and struggle to supply their demanding hosts with enough energy.

In recent decades, scientists have noticed that some cells can shuttle their mitochondria to others. Mostly, the process seems to help out a struggling neighbor. But early hints also suggested mitochondrial transfers could contribute to cancer growth. One study found that tumor cells connect to healthy immune cells to siphon off mitochondria, depleting their attackers of energy while bolstering their own—at least in petri dishes.

Whether this happens in cancer patients is controversial. The new study paints a clearer picture.

The team took samples of tumors and cancer-fighting immune cells—tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), in this case—from three cancer patients and analyzed their mtDNA makeup. Normally, each type of cell harbors its own mtDNA mutational “barcode.”

For each patient, both cell types shared the same cancerous barcode—suggesting that mitochondria from the tumors might be hopping to, and taking over, their attackers.

As the team watched the cells—now growing together in the lab—they found cancer mtDNA almost completely replaced native DNA in some of the immune cells. The team also found the cancer cells were stealing healthy mitochondria from their immune attackers by sending out nanotubes that burrowed into them. Meanwhile, the cancer cells spewed their own damaged mitochondria, encapsulated in fatty bubbles, towards the immune cells. 

“These findings establish the first clear evidence of bidirectional exchange of mitochondria between two cell types,” wrote Brestoff.

Damaged mitochondria don’t often linger inside healthy cells. They’re rapidly shuttled to the cellular “trash bin.” Those inherited from cancer cells, however, were dotted with a protein that hid them from the cells. Like leaking chemical plants, the mutated mitochondria silently festered inside without detection.

Over time, the hijacked immune cells slowly degraded. No longer able to divide, they entered “senescence”—a zombie-like state where they excreted a toxic protein soup that further lowered their cancer-battling abilities. In short, by robbing these cells of healthy mitochondria, cancer cells turned the body’s first-line defense into an ally that helped them grow.

Cutting the Line

The team next dotted tumor mitochondria in tumors with a glow-in-the-dark protein to track them and implanted them into mice.

They found that immune cells in the mice containing cancer-derived mitochondria were far less effective at fighting off cancer cells. They were “exhausted,” explained the team. The contaminated cells struggled to maintain enough energy to ward off cancers and could no longer replicate. However, drugs that blocked mitochondrial transfer revitalized the exhausted cells and made treatment with a common cancer immunotherapy more effective.

Though the results are in mice, mitochondrial transfer could also play a previously unrecognized role in human cancers. Analyzing clinical data from roughly 200 people with two types of cancer, the team found that increased mtDNA mutation was associated with worse outcomes, even when the patients were receiving immunotherapy treatments.

Mitochondrial health has often been studied in the context of aging. These results could spur new interest in how it impacts cancer and other diseases. We still don’t know how exactly mitochondria from cancers damage immune cells. But further study could potentially inspire new treatments to block mitochondrial swaps. Myriad tools already exist to track mitochondria. Expanding research into cancer biology would be a relatively easy next step.

Although “it remains to be determined how prevalent such mitochondrial exchange is” between other cell types, Brestoff wrote, the research raises new questions about its role in other diseases.

The post Scientists Say They’ve Discovered How Cancer Hijacks and Corrupts Immune Cells appeared first on SingularityHub.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

Logging off Life but Living on: How AI Is Redefining Death, Memory, and Immortality

Singularity HUB - 21 Leden, 2025 - 21:26

Our digital legacies don’t just preserve memories; they can continue to influence the world, long after we’re gone.

Imagine attending a funeral where the person who has died speaks directly to you, answering your questions and sharing memories. This happened at the funeral of Marina Smith, a Holocaust educator who died in 2022.

Thanks to an AI technology company called StoryFile, Smith seemed to interact naturally with her family and friends.

The system used prerecorded answers combined with artificial intelligence to create a realistic, interactive experience. This wasn’t just a video; it was something closer to a real conversation, giving people a new way to feel connected to a loved one after they’re gone.

Virtual Life After Death

Technology has already begun to change how people think about life after death. Several technology companies are helping people manage their digital lives after they’re gone. For example, Apple, Google, and Meta offer tools to allow someone you trust to access your online accounts when you die.

Microsoft has patented a system that can take someone’s digital data—such as texts, emails and social media posts—and use it to create a chatbot. This chatbot can respond in ways that sound like the original person.

In South Korea, a group of media companies took this idea even further. A documentary called “Meeting You” showed a mother reunited with her daughter through virtual reality. Using advanced digital imaging and voice technology, the mother was able to see and talk to her dead daughter as if she were really there.

These examples may seem like science fiction, but they’re real tools available today. As AI continues to improve, the possibility of creating digital versions of people after they die feels closer than ever.

Who Owns Your Digital Afterlife?

While the idea of a digital afterlife is fascinating, it raises some big questions. For example, who owns your online accounts after you die?

This issue is already being discussed in courts and by governments around the world. In the United States, nearly all states have passed laws allowing people to include digital accounts in their wills.

In Germany, courts ruled that Facebook had to give a deceased person’s family access to their account, saying that digital accounts should be treated as inheritable property, like a bank account or house.

But there are still plenty of challenges. For example, what if a digital clone of you says or does something online that you would never have said or done in real life? Who is responsible for what your AI version does?

When a deepfake of actor Bruce Willis appeared in an ad without his permission, it sparked a debate about how people’s digital likenesses can be controlled, or even exploited, for profit.

Cost is another issue. While some basic tools for managing digital accounts after death are free, more advanced services can be expensive. For example, creating an AI version of yourself might cost thousands of dollars, meaning that only wealthy people could afford to “live on” digitally. This cost barrier raises important questions about whether digital immortality could create new forms of inequality.

Grieving in a Digital World

Losing someone is often painful, and in today’s world, many people turn to social media to feel connected to those they’ve lost. Research shows that a significant proportion of people maintain their social media connections with deceased loved ones.

But this new way of grieving comes with challenges. Unlike physical memories such as photos or keepsakes that fade over time, digital memories remain fresh and easily accessible. They can even appear unexpectedly in your social media feeds, bringing back emotions when you least expect them.

Some psychologists worry that staying connected to someone’s digital presence could make it harder for people to move on. This is especially true as AI technology becomes more advanced. Imagine being able to chat with a digital version of a loved one that feels almost real. While this might seem comforting, it could make it even harder for someone to accept their loss and let go.

Cultural and Religious Views on Digital Afterlife

Different cultures and religions have their own unique perspectives on digital immortality. For example:

• The Vatican, the center of the Catholic Church, has said that digital legacies should always respect human dignity.

• In Islamic traditions, scholars are discussing how digital remains fit into religious laws.

• In Japan, some Buddhist temples are offering digital graveyards where families can preserve and interact with digital traces of their loved ones.

These examples show how technology is being shaped by different beliefs about life, death, and remembrance. They also highlight the challenges of blending new innovations with long-standing cultural and religious traditions.

Planning Your Digital Legacy

When you think about the future, you probably imagine what you want to achieve in life, not what will happen to your online accounts when you’re gone. But experts say it’s important to plan for your digital assets: everything from social media profiles and email accounts to digital photos, online bank accounts and even cryptocurrencies.

Adding digital assets to your will can help you decide how your accounts should be managed after you’re gone. You might want to leave instructions about who can access your accounts, what should be deleted, and whether you’d like to create a digital version of yourself.

You can even decide if your digital self should “die” after a certain amount of time. These are questions that more and more people will need to think about in the future.

Here are steps you can take to control your digital afterlife:

• Decide on a digital legacy. Reflect on whether creating a digital self aligns with your personal, cultural or spiritual beliefs. Discuss your preferences with loved ones.

• Inventory and plan for digital assets. Make a list of all digital accounts, content, and tools representing your digital self. Decide how these should be managed, preserved, or deleted.

• Choose a digital executor. Appoint a trustworthy, tech-savvy person to oversee your digital assets and carry out your wishes. Clearly communicate your intentions with them.

• Ensure that your will covers your digital identity and assets. Specify how they should be handled, including storage, usage and ethical considerations. Include legal and financial aspects in your plan.

• Prepare for ethical and emotional impacts. Consider how your digital legacy might affect loved ones. Plan to avoid misuse, ensure funding for long-term needs, and align your decisions with your values.

Digital Pyramids

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptian pharaohs had pyramids built to preserve their legacy. Today, our “digital pyramids” are much more advanced and broadly available. They don’t just preserve memories; they can continue to influence the world, long after we’re gone.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Logging off Life but Living on: How AI Is Redefining Death, Memory, and Immortality appeared first on SingularityHub.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

A Paralyzed Man Just Piloted a Virtual Drone With His Mind Alone

Singularity HUB - 21 Leden, 2025 - 00:19

Linking brains to machines has gone from science fiction to reality in the past two decades.

When patient T5 suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed, his dream of flying a drone seemed forever out of reach.

Now, thanks to a brain implant, he’s experienced the thrill in a simulation. By picturing finger movements in his mind, the 69-year-old flew a virtual drone in a video game, with the quadcopter dodging obstacles and whizzing through randomly appearing rings in real time.

T5 is part of the BrainGate2 Neural Interface System clinical trial, which launched in 2009 to help paralyzed people control computer cursors, robotic arms, and other devices by decoding electrical activity in their brains. It’s not just for gaming. Having the ability to move and click a cursor gets them back online. Googling, emailing, streaming shows, scrolling though social media posts—what able-bodied people spend hours on every day—are now again part of their lives.

But cursors can only do so much. Popular gaming consoles—PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch—require you to precisely move your fingers, especially thumbs, fast and in multiple directions.

Current brain implants often take a bird’s-eye-view of the entire hand. The new study, published in Nature Medicine, separated the fingers into three groups—thumb, pointer and middle finger, and ring finger and pinky. After training, T5 could move each finger group independently with unprecedented finesse. His brain implant also picked up intentions to stretch, curl, or move his thumb side to side, letting him pilot the drone as if using a video game controller.

Calling his gaming sessions “stick time,” T5 enthusiastically said that piloting the drone allowed him to mentally “rise up” from his bed or chair for the first time since his injury. Like other gamers, he asked the research team to record his best runs and share the videos with friends.

Brain-computer mind-melds are “expanding from functional to recreational applications,” wrote Nick Ramsey and Mariska Vansteensel at the University Medical Center Utrecht, who were not involved in the study.

Mind Control

Linking brains to machines has gone from science fiction to reality in the past two decades, and it’s been life-changing for people paralyzed from spinal cord injuries.

These injuries, either due to accident or degeneration, sever nerve highways between the brain and muscles. Scientists have long sought to restore these connections. Some have worked to regenerate broken nerve endings inside the body, with mixed results. Others are building artificial “bridges” over the gap. These implants, often placed in the spinal cord above the injury site, record signals from the brain, decode intention for movement, and stimulate muscles to contract or relax. Thanks to such systems, paralyzed people have been able to walk again—often with assistance—for long distances and minimal training.

Other efforts have done without muscles altogether, instead tapping directly into the brain’s electrical signals to hook the mind to a digital universe. Previous studies have found that watching or imagining movements—like, say, asking a patient to picture moving a cursor around a browser—generates similar brain patterns to physically performing the movements. Recording these “brain signatures” from individual people can then decode their intention to move.

Noland Arbaugh, the first person to receive a brain implant from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, is perhaps the most well-known success. Late last year, the young man livestreamed his life for three days, sharing his view while moving a cursor and playing a video game in bed.

Decoding individual finger movements, however, is a bigger challenge. Our hands are especially dexterous and flexible, making it easy to type, play musical instruments, grab a cup of coffee, or twiddle our thumbs. Each finger is controlled by intricate networks of brain activity working together under the hood to generate complex movements.

Fingers curl, wiggle, and stretch apart. Deciphering the brain patterns that allow them to individually and collectively work together has stymied researchers. “In humans, finger decoding has only been demonstrated in prediction in offline analyses or classification from recorded neural activity,” wrote the authors. Brain signal control hasn’t been used to control fingers in real-time. Even in monkeys, brain implants have only been able to separate fingers into two groups that move independently, limiting their paws’ overall flexibility.

A Virtual Flex

In 2016, T5 had two tiny implants inserted into the hand “knob” of his brain—one for each side that controls hand and finger movements. Each implant, the size of a baby aspirin, had 96 microelectrode channels that quietly captured his brain activity as he went through a series of training tasks. At the time of surgery, T5 could only twitch his hands and feet randomly.

The team first designed a hand avatar. It didn’t fully capture the dexterity of a human hand. The index and middle finger moved together as a group, as did the ring and pinkie. Meanwhile, the thumbs could stretch, curl, and move side to side.

For training, T5 watched the hand avatar move and imagined moving his fingers in sync. Using an artificial neural network that specializes in decoding signals across time, the team next built an AI to decipher T5’s brain activity and correlate each pattern with different types of finger movements. The “decoder” was then used to translate his intentions into actual movements of the hand avatar on the computer screen.

In an initial test that only allowed the thumb to extend and curl—what the researchers call “2D”—the participant was able to extend his finger groups onto a virtual target with over 98 percent accuracy. Each attempt took only a bit more than a second.

Adding side-to-side movement of the thumb had a similar success rate, but doubled the amount of time (though he got faster as he became familiar with the task). Overall, T5 could mind-control his virtual hand to reach around 76 targets a minute, far faster than previous attempts. The training “wasn’t tedious,” he said.

Each finger group movement was then mapped onto a virtual drone. Like moving joysticks and pressing buttons on a video game controller, the finger movements moved the quadcopter at will. The system kept the virtual hand in a relaxed, neutral pose unless T5 decided to move any of the finger groups.

In a day of testing, he flew the drone a dozen times across multiple obstacle courses. Each course required him to use one of the finger group movements to successfully navigate randomly appearing rings and other hurdles. One challenge, for example, had him fly figure eights across multiple rings without hitting them. The system was roughly six times better than prior systems.

Although his virtual fingers and their movements were shown on the computer screen while playing, the visuals weren’t necessary.

“When the drone is moving and the fingers are moving, it’s easier and faster to just look at the drone,” he said. Piloting it was intuitive, “like riding your bicycle on your way to work, [thinking] ‘what am I going to do at work today’, and you’re still shifting gears on your bike and moving right along.”

Adapting from simple training exercises to more complicated movements was also easy. “It’s like if you’re a clarinet player, and you pick up someone else’s clarinet. You know the difference instantly, and there is a little learning curve involved, but that’s based on you [having] an implied competency with your clarinet,” he said. To control the drone, you just have to “tickle it a direction,” he added.

The system is still far from commercial use, and it will have to be tested on more people. New brain implant hardware with more channels could further boost performance. But it’s a first step that opens up multiplayer online gaming—and potentially, better control of other computer programs and sophisticated robotic hands—to people with paralysis, enriching their social lives and overall wellbeing.

The post A Paralyzed Man Just Piloted a Virtual Drone With His Mind Alone appeared first on SingularityHub.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit

Futurism - Enhanced Humans - 27 Září, 2018 - 16:09
SYNESTHETES

Tired: Listening to music.
Wired: Feeling the music.

A mind-bending new suit straps onto your torso, ankles and wrists, then uses actuators to translate audio into vivid vibration. The result: a new way for everyone to experience music, according to its creators. That’s especially exciting for people who have trouble hearing.

THE FEELIES

The Music: Not Impossible suit was created by design firm Not Impossible Labs and electronics manufacturing company Avnet. The suit can create sensations to go with pre-recorded music, or a “Vibrotactile DJ” can adjust the sensations in real time during a live music event.”

Billboard writer Andy Hermann tried the suit out, and it sounds like a trip.

“Sure enough, a pulse timed to a kickdrum throbs into my ankles and up through my legs,” he wrote. “Gradually, [the DJ] brings in other elements: the tap of a woodblock in my wrists, a bass line massaging my lower back, a harp tickling a melody across my chest.”

MORE ACCESSIBLE

To show the suit off, Not Impossible and Avnet organized a performance this past weekend by the band Greta Van Fleet at the Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas. The company allowed attendees to don the suits. Mandy Harvey, a deaf musician who stole the show on America’s Got Talent last year, talked about what the performance meant to her in a video Avnet posted to Facebook.

“It was an unbelievable experience to have an entire audience group who are all experiencing the same thing at the same time,” she said. “For being a deaf person, showing up at a concert, that never happens. You’re always excluded.”

READ MORE: Not Impossible Labs, Zappos Hope to Make Concerts More Accessible for the Deaf — and Cooler for Everyone [Billboard]

More on accessible design: New Tech Allows Deaf People To Sense Sounds

The post Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit appeared first on Futurism.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

“Synthetic Skin” Could Give Prosthesis Users a Superhuman Sense of Touch

Futurism - Enhanced Humans - 20 Září, 2018 - 20:37
IN THE FEELS

Today’s prosthetics can give people with missing limbs the ability to do almost anything — run marathons, climb mountains, you name it. But when it comes to letting those people feel what they could with a natural limb, the devices, however mechanically sophisticated, invariably fall short.

Now researchers have created a “synthetic skin” with a sense of touch that not only matches the sensitivity of natural skin, but in some cases even exceeds it. Now the only challenge is getting that information back into the wearer’s nervous system.

UNDER PRESSURE

When something presses against your skin, your nerves receive and transmit that pressure to the brain in the form of electrical signals.

To mimic that biological process, the researchers suspended a flexible polymer, dusted with magnetic particles, over a magnetic sensor. The effect is like a drum: Applying even the tiniest amount of pressure to the membrane causes the magnetic particles to move closer to the sensors, and they transmit this movement electronically.

The research, which could open the door to super-sensitive prosthetics, was published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.

SPIDEY SENSE TINGLING

Tests shows that the skin can sense extremely subtle pressure, such as a blowing breeze, dripping water, or crawling ants. In some cases, the synthetic skin responded to pressures so gentle that natural human skin wouldn’t be able to detect them.

While the sensing ability of this synthetic skin is remarkable, the team’s research doesn’t address how to transmit the signals to the human brain. Other scientists are working on that, though, so eventually this synthetic skin could give prosthetic wearers the ability to feel forces even their biological-limbed friends can’t detect.

READ MORE: A Skin-Inspired Tactile Sensor for Smart Prosthetics [Science Robotics]

More on synthetic skin: Electronic Skin Lets Amputees Feel Pain Through Their Prosthetics

The post “Synthetic Skin” Could Give Prosthesis Users a Superhuman Sense of Touch appeared first on Futurism.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

People Are Zapping Their Brains to Boost Creativity. Experts Have Concerns.

Futurism - Enhanced Humans - 19 Září, 2018 - 20:56
BRAIN BOOST

There’s a gadget that some say can help alleviate depression and enhance creativity. All you have to do is place a pair of electrodes on your scalp and the device will deliver electrical current to your brain. It’s readily available on Amazon or you can even make your own.

But in a new paper published this week in the Creativity Research Journal, psychologists at Georgetown University warned that the practice is spreading before we have a good understanding of its health effects, especially since consumers are already buying and building unregulated devices to shock them. They also cautioned that the technique, which scientists call transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), could have adverse effects on the brains of young people.

“There are multiple potential concerns with DIY-ers self-administering electric current to their brains, but this use of tES may be inevitable,” said co-author Adam Green in a press release. “And, certainly, anytime there is risk of harm with a technology, the scariest risks are those associated with kids and the developing brain”

SHOCK JOCK

Yes, there’s evidence that tES can help patients with depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, and other serious conditions, the Georgetown researchers acknowledge.

But that’s only when it’s administered by a trained health care provider. When administering tES at home, people might ignore safety directions, they wrote, or their home-brewed devices could deliver unsafe amounts of current. And because it’s not yet clear what effects of tES might be on the still-developing brains of young people, the psychologists advise teachers and parents to resist the temptation to use the devices to encourage creativity among children.

The takeaway: tES is likely here to stay, and it may provide real benefits. But for everyone’s sake, consumer-oriented tES devices should be regulated to protect users.

READ MORE: Use of electrical brain stimulation to foster creativity has sweeping implications [Eurekalert]

More on transcranial electrical stimulation: DARPA’s New Brain Device Increases Learning Speed by 40%

The post People Are Zapping Their Brains to Boost Creativity. Experts Have Concerns. appeared first on Futurism.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

Military Pilots Can Control Three Jets at Once via a Neural Implant

Futurism - Enhanced Humans - 19 Září, 2018 - 15:25
MIND CONTROL

The military is making it easier than ever for soldiers to distance themselves from the consequences of war. When drone warfare emerged, pilots could, for the first time, sit in an office in the U.S. and drop bombs in the Middle East.

Now, one pilot can do it all, just using their mind — no hands required.

Earlier this month, DARPA, the military’s research division, unveiled a project that it had been working on since 2015: technology that grants one person the ability to pilot multiple planes and drones with their mind.

“As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control … not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” Justin Sanchez, director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, said, according to Defense One.

THE SINGULARITY

Sanchez may have unveiled this research effort at a “Trajectory of Neurotechnology” session at DARPA’s 60th anniversary event, but his team has been making steady progress for years. Back in 2016, a volunteer equipped with a brain-computer interface (BCI) was able to pilot an aircraft in a flight simulator while keeping two other planes in formation — all using just his thoughts, a spokesperson from DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office told Futurism.

In 2017, Copeland was able to steer a plane through another simulation, this time receiving haptic feedback — if the plane needed to be steered in a certain direction, Copeland’s neural implant would create a tingling sensation in his hands.

NOT QUITE MAGNETO

There’s a catch. The DARPA spokesperson told Futurism that because this BCI makes use of electrodes implanted in and on the brain’s sensory and motor cortices, experimentation has been limited to volunteers with varying degrees of paralysis. That is: the people steering these simulated planes already had brain electrodes, or at least already had reason to undergo surgery.

To try and figure out how to make this technology more accessible and not require surgical placement of a metal probe into people’s brains, DARPA recently launched the NExt-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program. The plan is to make a device with similar capabilities, but it’ll look more like an EEG cap that the pilot can take off once a mission is done.

“The envisioned N3 system would be a tool that the user could wield for the duration of a task or mission, then put aside,” said Al Emondi, head of N3, according to the spokesperson. “I don’t like comparisons to a joystick or keyboard because they don’t reflect the full potential of N3 technology, but they’re useful for conveying the basic notion of an interface with computers.”

READ MORE: It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm [Defense One]

More on DARPA research: DARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”

The post Military Pilots Can Control Three Jets at Once via a Neural Implant appeared first on Futurism.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

Lab-Grown Bladders Can Save People From a Lifetime of Dialysis

Futurism - Enhanced Humans - 12 Září, 2018 - 21:54
ONE IN A MILLION TEN

Today, about 10 people on Earth have bladders they weren’t born with. No, they didn’t receive bladder transplants — doctors grew these folks new bladders using the recipients’ own cells.

On Tuesday, the BBC published a report on the still-nascent procedure of transplanting lab-grown bladders. In it, the publication talks to Luke Massella, who underwent the procedure more than a decade ago. Massella was born with spina bifida, which carries with it a risk of damage to the bladder and urinary tract. Now, he lives a normal life, he told the BBC.

“I was kind of facing the possibility I might have to do dialysis [blood purification via machine] for the rest of my life,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to play sports, and have the normal kid life with my brother.”

All that changed after Anthony Atala, a surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, decided he was going to grow a new bladder for Massella.

ONE NEW BLADDER, COMING UP!

To do that, Atala first removed a small piece of Massella’s own bladder. He then removed cells from this portion of bladder and multiplied them in a petri dish. Once he had enough cells, he coated a scaffold with the cells and placed the whole thing in a temperature controlled, high oxygen environment. After a few weeks, the lab-created bladder was ready for transplantation into Massella.

“So it was pretty much like getting a bladder transplant, but from my own cells, so you don’t have to deal with rejection,” said Massella.

The number of people with lab-grown bladders might still be low enough to count on your fingers, but researchers are making huge advances in growing everything from organs to skin in the lab. Eventually, we might reach a point when we can replace any body part we need to with a perfect biological match that we built ourselves.

READ MORE: “A New Bladder Made From My Cells Gave Me My Life Back” [BBC]

More on growing organs: The FDA Wants to Expedite Approval of Regenerative Organ Therapies

The post Lab-Grown Bladders Can Save People From a Lifetime of Dialysis appeared first on Futurism.

Kategorie: Transhumanismus
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