IT Retrospectives

NASA Finds New Life Form | Wired Science | Wired.com

Not sure how much press this will receive but this is an incredible discovery. No, it's not life on another planet, but it's pretty "alien" in terms of what we consider normal biology for an organisims on Earth.

- Mark

 

"Hours before their special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn’t share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. This changes everything... 

By Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo

via www.wired.com

 

 

Making computer memory work like the human brain - CNN.com

(CNN) -- How do computers remember things?

It's something most of us never think about. But you may start to take notice if HP Labs is successful in commercializing a new version of computer memory, which would make our electronics dramatically faster and more energy efficient.

The technology is called memristor, and it is designed to work more like our brains and less like the electronic on and off switches that run computer memory now.

Fossilized Bacteria May Point to Life on Mars - FOXNews.com

It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 year

Image via Wikipedia

s ago are almost certainly fossilized bacteria. The so-called bio-morphs are embedded beneath the surface layers of the rock, suggesting that they were already present when the meteorite arrived, rather than being the result of subsequent contamination by Earthly bacteria.

via www.foxnews.com

Ok, I know this isn't IT related but still pretty cool so I thought it worth posting.  Personally, I believe the evidence is starting to really pile up in favor of life on Mars at some point in the distant past. Is there life on Mars today? On on the fence when it comes to that question.  The current environment on Mars is pretty inhospitable.

Technology Review: A Step Forward for Microbial Machines

In a deft act of genomic manipulation, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute, in Rockville, MD, transplanted a bacterial genome into yeast, altered it, and then transplanted it back into a hollowed bacterial shell, producing a viable new microbe. The technique may provide a way to more easily genetically engineer organisms not commonly studied in the lab and could aid in the expanding effort to create microbes that can produce fugenome e

Image by jurvetson via Flickr

ngineering and opens new applications," says Jim Collins, a bioengineer at Boston University, who was not involved in the research. "I see this asels or clean up toxic chemicals. "This research enhances our capabilities in an important advance relevant to the bioenergy and biomaterials industries."

via www.technologyreview.com

Is immortality just around the corner?

When people think of Nano Machines, they typically picture tiny cell-sized robots made of metal, plastics, etc. I think the reality is that the first truly useful Nano Machines are likely to be biologically engineered. It's pretty clear that this field of science is accelerating at a dramatic pace. What does it mean? I believe we're going to see stunning leaps in our ability to treat diseases, internal injuries, and other health problems in the next two to three decades.

For good or bad, practical immortality could be just around the corner. You're starting to hear terms like "escape velocity" applied to human longevity. The theory is that, at some point, the acceleration in medical science will exceed our current life spans. So, no matter how old you get, there will be new medical breakthroughs that will keep you alive a bit longer. I wonder what the quality of life will be on a planet with 15 or 20 billion people? Will this type of medical care be accessible to everyone or just the rich? Are we going to be hiring armies of bio-software engineers in the future?