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September 30, 2012 Leave a comment

Transhumanism & The Fate of Human Evolution

Over the years a great amount of funding, manpower, and brainpower has been devoted to answer a single question: “How can humans transcend our current capacities physically, intellectually, and psychologically?” It is a question that humanity has mostly relied upon nature itself to answer, but evidently passivity towards this question is no longer acceptable. Techno-science continues to transform our external world, and its potential to enhance our internal world is hotly debated. Regardless of the ethical dynamics, research is being pursued in many areas that directly relates to the application of technologies into the very fabric of our beings. It is only a matter of time before these technological pursuits become fully fleshed out, in a manner of speaking, and begin to converge. One such project is facilitating just that. It is known as the NBIC project.

The NBIC Project

  • The main objective of this project is to explore the enhancement of human experience and capabilities through the integration of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. This is convergence technology.

Converging Technologies Agenda:

  • A change in agenda after the Cold War due to changing social values, change in academic institutions and a refocusing of science after the Cold War.
  • US plans on using convergence technologies on a more individual level, speaking to the long standing Western interest in individual differences. Europe more concerned with its application on a societal/cultural level. US funds research based in specific research strands (positive feedback loop). Europe guides research along into intended convergences (negative feedback loop). European scientists do not have entrepreneurial tradition of marketing discoveries into the applications.
  • Rockefellar Foundation founding policy: Can we create a new science of Man? Weaver envisioned molecular biology would allow us to get in the middle of the micro level biochemical processes of organisms without disrupting any critical functions; nano-biotechnology. Weaver felt Uncertainty Principle was a microphysical obstacle that could be penetrated eventually.
  • Scientists have taken issue with the notion that nanotechnology is a breakthrough in conducting science at the atomic level, when chemistry has been doing so for decades.
  • Nanotechnology operates at the smallest quantifiable level of matter, just above the point of quantum indeterminacy. US pushing this as the new vehicle to stimulate new research in other disciplines. Europe using it as an economic tool for modifying society.
  • Possible drawbacks of nanotechnology: public openness and ethical issues, it may just infiltrate every sector of the economy and change it fundamentally.
  • CT a form of response to the deterioration of welfare states. Response to 1st fiscal crisis was population control due to overconsumption, but more a shift towards neoliberalism. The second crisis had to do with the burden of the pension system, CT can extend working life to prevent underproduction. Precautionary Principle; nature has limits but knowledge allows us better uses of it (proactionary principle).

Defining Convergence:

  • US more forceful in convergence of disciplines whereas Europe wants collaborative research between disciplines in hopes for the betterment of society.
  • Theory of Convergent Evolution: Lamarck and Chardin; increased interbreeding and interactions would yield hominised substance. Philosophy of science; Pierce’s theory of convergent scientific realism that separate theories align under the same conceptual umbrella to account for all phenomena, different disciplines must acknowledge similar objectives in order to work together.
  • Recent scientific developments influenced by CT agenda; x-ray crystallography, which led to molecular biology revolution as it opened pathways for chemists and physicists to contribute their expertise to the study of bio engineering. Noam Chomsky’s innovations in linguistics. Convergence of bioinformatics and computer simulations.
  • Use of organic structure as basis for synthetic designs, under the precondition that organisms are not defined by their material.
  • Concept of instantiation rooted in biblical literature; threefold manifestation of a single entity that is equally representative of God’s nature.
  • John Duns principle of univocity; difference between man and God is of degree of capabilities not kind.
  • CT has been accused as a Protestant infused movement of “playing God”.
  • Dover v. Kitzmiller case may have indirectly legitimized the instantiation of synthetic life forms by accepting a natural selection computer simulation as evidence for evolution.
  • Commentators on one side argue that CT is a reductionist program aimed at arriving at the smallest components of matter. Holist side argue it is a upward process of arriving at a way to improve human or societal level functioning.
  • CT agenda is neither reductionist or holistic according to Fuller. Is strategic without arbitrary end goal.
  • Biological Citizenship; individuals responsible for knowing their genetic composition
  • Neuro-chemical self; the manipulative capability of pharmacology in influencing our mental states
  • Somatic expertise; genetic counselling
  • Biocapital; commercialization of our bodies

Fixation on Nanotechnology

  • Need to establish most basic level of reality that can be redesigned by humans.
  • Brad Cox critique defined nanotechnology as faith; “whatever evolution can do design can do better”.
  • Likened economics to an ecosystem
  • George Gilder critique in Quantum Economics made the case for NT as the future of capitalism
  • Nanotechnology’s functionalist emphasis is anthropocentric
  • Physics vs Science differing worldviews: physics more concerned with the acquiring materialistic knowledge, chemistry more concerned with functional knowledge and manipulative capacity of matter.
  • synthetic and organic only differ in components; they are metaphysically similar as they are made up of same material, just different order (Bhasker, & Hacking)
  • Ethical concerns about human enhancements are about whether it is really necessary, why hasn’t evolution already accounted for such capabilities. Would it be counterproductive for normal human function if we enhance ourselves beyond what is needed?

Biology as a Vehicle for Human Enhancement

  • EU and US differ in realization of it not whether to actually engage in it
  • Plato’s theory of the heritability of achievement was modified by Galton into eugenics.
  • Serves as background for application of biological interventions for benefits in human function
  • Today’s CT agenda can be traced back to “The Reorganization of European Society” proposed by French socialist Saint Simon. Ownership of one’s body is the key to individual productivity. CT is a revival of a period in time where moral sciences aspired to intervene with brain functions to improve society.
  • CT’s ability to control gene expression may avert Wiesmann’s doctrine (the flow of DNA is one way only).
  • In Germany there was attempts at converging medicine and law

If the Cognitive Scientists can think it,

the Nano people can build it,

the Bio people can implement it,

and the IT people can monitor and control it.

 

  • Anticipatory measures from science geared toward getting a feel for public response on developments and application of nanotech. This is an attempt to expose the public in hopes of easing the acceptance of future applications. Drawbacks that expectations may cause backlash. However the ability of early exposure garners interest and will only help push the project along.
  • Transhumanists make the category mistake by assuming their interventions can potentially have a social level impact when they haven’t even mastered the biological aspect of it.

Enhancing Evolution

  • John Harris vs Peter Singer; Harris is a Neo-Darwinian and utilitarian who has liberalist-individualist view, as in each individual has right to decide for themselves what aims to pursue as long as they don’t intervene with other’ rights. Singer views utilitarianism as the maximisation of benefits for the whole society.
  • May lead to a scenario where negative eugenics is applied to allocate species within an ecosystem.
  • Harris deems transhumanism as a natural progression without considering whether it would cause humans to lose more basic capabilities borne from external factors (global warming)
  • Darwin’s followers are more aligned with the precautionary principle because natural selection always trumps artificial selection, Harris does not take this into account.
  • For Ableism to follow we must believe “Mendel trumps Darwin”, it is the only way to ensure adaptability to changes in external conditions
  • An ethical concern that those without biological “upgrades” will be perceived as disabled as they will be unable to perform up to raised standards of productivity and cognition.
  • Enhancement technology will give rise to “problem of universals”; can life be equally evident in two materialistically different forms?
  • Habermas argued “designer babies” undermine moral autonomy. Enhancement research may also allow us to modify our experiential process.
  • Harris urged public contribution to enhancement research as it is moral duty to explore possible benefits of it.

Conclusion

  • Overlap in client base interest ultimately shapes CT agenda, rather than it being prematurely set.
  • Two obstacles in policy formation; religious objection to redefining the “human being” and risks associated with individuals participating in research.

Sources:

Knowledge NBIC D1

Image Credit: http://www.theupwardcall.net/

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Cybernetic Immortality for Humans Within the Next 33 Years

A Russian mogul wants to achieve cybernetic immortality for humans within the next 33 years. He’s pulled together a team intent on creating fully functional holographic human avatars that house our artificial brains. Now he’s asking billionaires to help fund the advancements needed along the way.

The man behind the 2045 Initiative, described as a nonprofit organization, is a Russian named Dmitry Itskov. The ambitious timeline he’s laid out involves creating different avatars. First a robotic copy that’s controlled remotely through a brain interface. Then one in which a human brain can be transplanted at the end of life. The next could house an artificial human brain, and finally we’d have holographic avatars containing our intelligence much like the movie “Surrogates.”

Recently Itskov published an open letter to the Forbes world’s billionaires list telling them that they have the ability to finance the extension of their own lives up to immortality. He writes that he can prove the concept’s viability to anyone who’s skeptical and will coordinate their personal immortality projects for free. PopSci’s Clay Dillow describe Dmitry in March as a 31-year-old media mogul, but I couldn’t find a detailed biography for him.

The project’s ultimate goal is to save people from suffering and death.

Future prospects of “2045″ Initiative for society

2015-2020

The emergence and widespread use of affordable android “avatars” controlled by a “brain-computer” interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.

2020-2025

Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning  bodily life. Such technologies will  greatly enlarge  the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make  all  kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.

2030-2035

Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness  with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness  onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of  cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence,  expand human capabilities  and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times.  The final result  at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.

2045

This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive!  Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.

Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots  will become affordable  and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however:  humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover,  prerequisites for a large-scale  expansion into outer space will be created as well.

Yearly plan 

– creation of the first version of a human-like robot with a remote control and a telepresence effect

– launch of a laboratory for research and development  of  Micro-Neuro-Interfaces

– completion of the preliminary stage of  designing the human brain life support system

– the preliminary stage of the human brain reverse engineering (Rebrain)

– create infrastructure for a charitable foundation in Russia and the United States

– creation of a social online network Immortal.me

 – organize and carry out  Congress’ Global Future 2045 “-2013 in New York City

– organize and carry out  ‘2045’  master classes, workshops and courses on neuroscience, robotics, artificial intelligence theory, etc.

– competition for student  theses  in the context of ‘Avatar’ project at the leading universities in Russia

– creation of an analytical center for monitoring and analysis of advanced projects in the areas of NBIC convergence

– creation of an international ranking of countries and  projects, either directly or indirectly related to the  the development of cybernetic immortality technologies

– filming a documentary about  ”2045″ strategy.

Key elements of the project in the future

• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation “Global Future 2045″ (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre “Immortality”
• business incubator
• University of “Immortality”
• annual award for contribution to the realization of  the project of “Immortality”.

Visit 2045.com for more in-depth info.

Sources:

1) 2045.com

2) Immortality for Humans by 2045 by Alyssa Danigelis @ http://news.discovery.com/tech/human-immortality-2045-120727.html

3) Image Credit: 2045 Initiative Group

Electromagnetic Biostimulation

September 12, 2012 Leave a comment

This is an E.I.R.S. group research on Electromagnetic Biostimulation led by Abid Azim.

Electromagnetic Biostimulation

What is it?

Study of electromagnetic fields produced by cells, tissues, and organisms

An approach for stimulating growth and metabolic behavior entails the use of electromagnetic fields

Bioelectromagnetic stimulation of living cultures is a focus of research for the purposes of developing biotechnology and bioenergy applications

Findings

Growth – magnetically treated bacterial cultures compared to untreated cultures (in liquid environment) showed rapid growth of bacterium in 3 hour period. Dry environment elicited even more of an increased response, implicating composition of culture as factor.

Cellular metabolism – while studying the effects of two styles of oscillating magnetic fields on ethanol fermentation, cell metabolism was found to be stimulated

Cell Membrane – magnetic field oscillations may increase membrane permeability

Increased permeability and selective enhancement may affect rate and types of biochemical reactions

Nucleus/DNA – magnetic fields affect expression of specific genes

DNA sequences may function as antennae

DNA sequences may become activated under influence of field intensity

Enzyme activity may be affected

Whole Cells – may stimulate biophotonic emission and interactions with nearby cells

What it Means

In a world where energy needs continues to grow and energy sources continue to dwindle, research into Bioelectromagnetics promises new methodology for production of biofuels and bioenergy.

Where it Converges

With the NBIC project, exploration of various technologies and discipline for the purpose of human enhancement

Nanotechnology

Biotechnology

Information Technology

Cognitive Sciences

E.I.R.S. would like to thank Abid for the time and effort he put into this research, in which will also be used for further research and additional research assignments.

Please see also “Knowledge NBIC D1” and “NBIC” which are both files he submitted as well to supplement Objective 3 of the assignment.

Knowledge NBIC: http://independent.academia.edu/EarthsInternationalResearchSociety/Papers/1929607/KNOWLEDGE_NBIC

Russian and Ukranian Pyramid Researchers:
Dr. Volodymyr Krasnoholovets (Dr. K) – Institute of Physics, Ukraine (Considered the top military research institute of the former Soviet Union — Dr. K is a senior scientist at that institute.)
Professor Klimenko and Dr. Nosik of the Ivanovskii Institute of Virology
 
Research was co-ordinated and conducted by:
  • Russian Academy of Medical Sciences
  • Ivanovskii Institute of Virology
  • Mechnikov Vaccine Research Institute
  • Russian Institute of Pediatrics, OB/GYN
  • Institute of Physics in the Ukraine
  • Graphite Scientific Research Institute
  • Scientific Institute of Transcription, Translation and Replication
  • Gubkin Moscow Academy of Oil and Gas
  • Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics
 
 
The Russian/Ukranian research started in 1991. Seventeen large fiberglass pyramids in 8 different locations in Russia and the Ukraine, the largest being 144’ high and weighing over 55 tons.
 
The experiments documented changes in both biological and nonbiological materials that occur as a result of being placed in the pyramids. 
 
The man who had these pyramids built with support from the Russian government, Alexander Golod, a scientist and director of a state defense enterprise in Moscow, said when asked why he built them, “These pyramids are an instrument to make the world a better place to live and benefit mankind.”
 
RUSSIAN/UKRANIAN PYRAMID SIZES
The Russian/Ukranian pyramids have a sharper slope, a different angulation as compared to the slope of the Great Pyramid.
 
The largest pyramid is 144‘ high, 2nd largest 72’ high, 3rd largest 36’ high, all built using The Golden Section measurements used by ancient architects which dictates that the pyramid sizes must be built in ratios.
 
 
PYRAMID PHEMONENA
  • Soon after the construction of a pyramid near Moscow, botanists noted extinct flowers starting to grow near it. It is unknown why this happened.
  • Russian Air Force radar picked up what they called an “ion column” coming off the pyramid, very large and over a mile high. This was when the largest pyramid was in the process of being built, at the completion of the 11th/30th section, and remained after the pyramid was completed.
  • Food-preserving effects.
  • Have a significant relaxing effect, promoting restful sleep, productive dreaming and enhanced mental acuity when awake.
  • Enhance psychic abilities.
  • Remove harmful toxins from water (biological life consists mostly of water), as well as nuclear waste.
 

Pyramidal Energy Biostimulation:

RUSSIAN PYRAMID RESEARCH FINDINGS
Virology:
• Research done with immunoglobulins – molecules involved with immunity – and encephalomyocarditis specimens were cultured. Research showed that the immunoglobulin that was placed in the pyramid inhibited the viral growth by more than 3x. (Professor Klimenko and Dr. Nosik of the Ivanovskii Institute of Virology)
• A followup experiment was done by injecting mice with a fatal bacteria, Salmonella typhimurium. Mice were placed in a pyramid for different amounts of time, the control group was not placed in a pyramid. The mice not placed in a pyramid were mostly dead at the end of 25 days. Among the different groups of mice exposed to the pyramids, 35-40% survived.  
• The same result was observed with mice exposed to different carcinogens and given pyramid-treated and non-pyramid-treated water.  
Pediatrics:
A study done by a Professor Anatov and his team from the Russain R&D Institute of Pediatrics involved studies done on newborns with low indexes (a measurement of the infant’s health). They injected glucose and gave distilled water orally after the solutions had been treated in a pyramid. All the infants given these solutions increased their indexes to normal, as opposed to the control group.
Psychiatry and Behavioral Science:
Alcoholism and Drug Addiction: A group was given pyramid-treated glucose intravenously and/or distilled water orally. This group made significant improvement in combating their addictions. The results show the effects pyramids have on mental processes.
Agriculture:
  • Over 20 different varieties of seeds were placed in a pyramid for 1-5 days. Thousands of seeds were sown. The results show an increase in crop yield of 20-400%, depending on the type of seeds. The crops were all healthy and when drought occurred it did not affect the crops. The amount of toxiferous matter in the plants was also measured and shown to be decreased sharply.
  • A field near the 12-meter pyramid in the Moscow region increased crop yield by 4x after the pyramid was built.  
  • Oil Production:
  • A group of pyramids was built on an oil well complex. After a short period of time, it was observed that the viscosity (thickness) of the oil decreased by 30% and the production rate increased. Chemical analysis also showed that the petroleum composition was altered. (Gubkin Academy of Oil and Gas)
Environment:
  • Using radar, the Scientific and Technological Institute of Transcription, Translation and Replication in Kharkiv, Ukraine, confirmed what they called an “ionic formation” up to 2000 meters above the pyramid (the largest,144-foot one) with a width of 500 meters. They described this field as an ionization of air. An upward flow of the air over the pyramid was also noted.  
  • Several months after building this pyramid, Russian environmentalists noticed that a large hole in the ozone layer in the atmosphere above this pyramid was starting to repair itself. (**Alexander Golod predicted this would happen before he built this pyramid.)
  • Statistics have shown that seismic activity diminishes in the areas where pyramids are built – instead of one powerful earthquake, 100’s of tiny ones occur instead. 
  • The level of toxicity in materials, including poisons, after being placed in a pyramid decreases. Also, waste radioactive materials show a decrease in radioactivity after being placed in a pyramid.
Misc:
  • The water/ice phenomenon:  The human physical body is made up of mostly water. Water is the only substance known which exists as a fluid, a solid, and a gas. Scientists have determined that solid water, ice, is most beneficially absorbed by the human body. The Russian pyramid experiments have discovered a new quality of waterliquid ice. Under sub-freezing conditions, water inside a pyramid does not freeze unless disrupted by force; the example presented being a bottle of water exposed to freezing temperatures inside a pyramid did not freeze until the bottle was hit or dropped. For a better and more complete explanation of this phenomenon, please visit www.pyramidoflife.comThe conclusion from this experiment is that pyramid energy changes the molecular structure of water and the use of this energized water enhances biological life.
  • After exposure to the pyramids, the half-life of carbon was altered, the structure of salt patterns changed, the strength properties of concrete varied and the optical behavior of crystals was altered. 
  • The effect of a pyramid on an electrical field – rocks that had been placed in a pyramid reduced an electrical discharge – reduced the electrical discharge and restricted its area, suggesting powerful defensive properties against electrical discharges, like lightening. (All-Russian Electrotechnical Institute, Moscow).
 
RAZOR BLADES:
Although a patent was taken out in the eariy 1900s for a razor blade-sharpening pyramid, tests were done of the pyramid capacity to sharpen razor blades.  The conclusion was that the blade appeared to have been sharpened by the pyramid …. Also added was that the blade has to be in a specific orientation for the sharpening to occur – perpendicular to magnetic North.
 
WHAT IS THIS FIELD OF ENERGY THAT CAUSES ALL THESE RESULTS IN BIOLOGICAL AND NON-BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS?
 
A device was developed by a Ukranian researcher to measure and map out these fields in the Russian Pyramids. They concluded:
• The energy is very strong at the center of the pyramid – 9 decibels.
• Over the top – the strongest and radiates upward.
• Beyond the pyramid – Energy radiates all around a pyramid structure.  Along the east-west line, the radiation is about 3x more intense than along the north-south line.
• Below the pyramid – Radiates downward and is over 5 decibels (largest pyramid).
• The size, angulation and orientation of the pyramid determine its effects. 
• According to the Russian researchers, there have been no detrimental effects of the pyramid energy fields.  
 
Dr. K explains that the Great Pyramid was built to intentionally amplify basic energy fields on a subatomic, quantum level. He calls these fields “inertion fields” (also known as torsion fields, hyperdimensional energy) or waves and has measured them in model pyramids. It would be a newly discovered physical field, like magnetism or gravity. He proposes that the Great Pyramid is a resonator of these fields which are produced by the Earth. 
 
It is hypothesized that atoms of the Earth vibrate and interact with ether, generating inertion waves. The reason why the pyramid shape captures this energy field is unknown, but the field can be measured which verifies its existence.


 

DNA molecules can ‘teleport’, Nobel Prize winner claims

Experiment spots spooky quantum imprinting effect

 

A Nobel Prize winning biologist has ignited controversy after publishing details of an experiment in which a fragment of DNA appeared to ‘teleport’ or imprint itself between test tubes.

According to a team headed by Luc Montagnier, previously known for his work on HIV and AIDS, two test tubes, one of which contained a tiny piece of bacterial DNA, the other pure water, were surrounded by a weak electromagnetic field of 7Hz.

Eighteen hours later, after DNA amplification using a polymerase chain reaction, as if by magic the DNA was detectable in the test tube containing pure water.

Oddly, the original DNA sample had to be diluted many times over for the experiment to work, which might explain why the phenomenon has not been detected before, assuming that this is what has happened.

The phenomenon might be very loosely described as ‘teleportation’ except that the bases project or imprint themselves across space rather than simply moving from one place to another.

To be on the safe side, Montagnier then compared the results with controls in which the time limit was lowered, no electromagnetic field was present or was present but at lower frequencies, and in which both tubes contained pure water. On every one of these, he drew a blank.

The possible quantum effect – the apparent imprinting of the DNA on the water – is not in itself the most contentious element of the experiment, so much as the relatively long timescales over which it appears to manifest itself. Quantum phenomena are assumed to show their faces in imperceptible fractions of a second and not seconds minutes and hours, and usually at very low temperatures approaching absolute zero.

Revealing a process through which biology might display the underlying ‘quantumness’ of nature at room temperature would be startling.

Montagnier’s experiment will have to be repeated by others to have any hope of being taken seriously. So far, some scientists have been publically incredulous.

“It is hard to understand how the information can be stored within water over a timescale longer than picoseconds,” said the Ruhr University in Bochum’s Klaus Gerwert, quoted by New Scientist magazine, which broke the story (requires registration).

What does all of this mean? It could be that the propagation of life is able to make use of the quantum nature of reality to project itself in subtle ways, as has been hinted at in previous experiments. Alternatively, it could be that life itself is a complex projection of these quantum phenomena and utterly depends on them in ways not yet understood because they are incredibly hard to detect.

Speculatively, (and Montagnier doesn’t directly suggest anything so unsubstantiated), it could also be the little-understood quantum properties of the water molecule and not just its more obvious chemical bonding properties that gives it such a central role in the bio-engineering of life-forms. Water might be a good medium in which DNA can copy itself using processes that hint at quantum entanglement and ‘teleportation’ (our term).

Montagnier’s paper goes on to discuss the phenomenon he claims to have uncovered using ‘quantum field theory’ within the context of his personal interest, disease propagation.

source: http://news.techworld.com/personal-tech/3256631/dna-molecules-can-teleport-nobel-prize-winner-claims/

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Electromagnetic Biostimulation in Theoretical Medical Practice

New research suggests that electromagnetic stimulation may reverse the damage done by Alzheimer’s disease.

New Scientist reports on the research, which was undertaken by Andres Lozano in Toronto, Canada. His research involved implanting electrodes deep into the brain, and then sent pulses of electricity 130 times per second into the hippocampus. A year’s study later showed significant increases in the use of glucose; this is significant because reduced glucose usage is a notable sign of the brain shinking as parts of it are no longer used, especially those parts concerned with memory retention. The process didn’t change the shrinkage in four out of six participants, but the other two recorded growth in their hippocampuses over time — which means it’s time to continue the research. [New Scientist]

source: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/11/alzheimers-damage-may-be-reversible/

Image credit for top photo: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304885306001909

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