Sci-Tech: The future of human aging is looking up

With yet another New Years celebration upon us, a Baby Boomer’s thoughts may turn to mortality. To brighten up the melancholy of oldsters still surprised the 1960s are long gone, here are some reports on understanding aging and what can be done about the diseases of aging:

** The Future of Human Aging, by Michael D. West, Ph.D,.CEO of BioTime  – An excellent review for the non-expert of the fundamental causes of aging and the prospects for doing something about them.

** Changing the future with stem cells | Crystal Ruff | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool – A nice explanation for a general audience of what exactly stem cells are and how they can be used to treat diseases.

** All The Basics – Stem Cells as the Engine of Regenerative Medicine – More about stem cells and how they can be used to treat the effects of aging – 

** Everything You Need to Know About Gene Therapy’s Most Promising Year – Technology Review  – Gene therapy for a wide range of diseases is making real progress and the field is accelerating.

Video: Images of earth from astronaut Jeff Williams

Astronaut Jeff Williams narrates a collection of beautiful pictures of earth that he took while on the International Space Station:

The first time you see Planet Earth from space, it’s stunning; when you’ve spent 534 days in space—more than any other American—it still is! On his most recent trip the International Space Station NASA astronaut Jeff Williams used an Ultra High Definition video camera that he pointed at the planet 250 miles below; here he shares some of those images, and talks about the beauty of the planet, the variety of things to see, and the value of sharing that perspective with everyone who can’t go to orbit in person.

Video: Planetary Post with Robert Picardo – “2016: A Magnificent Year for Space Exploration”

The latest Planetary Post with Robert Picardo and the Planetary Society looks back at the past year in space exploration: 2016: A Magnificent Year for Space Exploration

Space exploration had a very exciting year, from Scott Kelly’s record-breaking Year in Space aboard the ISS to a launch to an asteroid and much more in between. Robert Picardo takes a look back at some of the space science highlights of 2016.

 

Videos: SETI for very non-human-like ETs + SETI at Harvard + SETI in optical wavelengths

** In this video, British science writer Philip Ball advocates a search for extraterrestrials based on the assumption that they share extremely little with humans in terms of biology, ways of thinking, etc (via Leonard David)

** Here is a Google talk by Paul Horowitz of Harvard about, “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence“:

Paul Horowitz visited Google’s office in Cambridge, MA to discuss the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project at Harvard University.

Establishing an electromagnetic communications link across a thousand light-years presents unique technological challenges. In his talk, Prof. Horowitz visits some highlights of the science and technology of SETI — Do THEY exist? Is communication possible? What is the best way? Is this just completely insane? — and describes interesting searches his project and others have been doing.

Paul Horowitz is a Research Professor of Physics and of Electrical Engineering at Harvard, and is co-author of The Art of Electronics.

**  The SETI Institute takes many approaches to the search for ET. Here is a talk by Eliot Gillium about looking for optical rather than radio signals from ET – A Novel Approach to OSETI:

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a blind search across many dimensions—space and time being the most obvious. Every good SETI researcher does their very best to make the minimal reasonable assumptions, but time and resources are always limited, so various strategic optimizations have been adopted. A potentially more efficacious approach is to simply cover as much of the search space as possible. The SETI Institute has made this the starting point of their ambitious and groundbreaking idea to survey the entire night sky, all night, every night at optical wavelengths. This talk will further detail the motivation and planned operation of this new instrument, a panoptic eye for interstellar laser pulses.

====

The Space Show this week – Dec.26.2016

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

SPECIAL TIME: 1. Monday, Dec. 26 2016: 10 am PST (1 pm EST, 12 pm CST): No show today as part of the Christmas holiday weekend..

2. Tuesday, December 20, 2016: 2016: 7-8:30 pm PST, 10-11:30 pm EST, 9-10:30 pm CST: Welcome to our last OPEN LINES show for 2016. This is your show so call in with the topics of your choice. .

3. Friday, Dec.30, 2016: 9:30-11 am PST; (12:30-2 pm EST; 11:30 am – 1 pm CST) We welcome back TOM OLSON for his annual space year in review for 2016. Don’t mis it!

4. Sunday, January 1, 2017: 12-1:30 pm PST (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 5 pm CST): HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. No show today for New Years.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston