The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Geneticists Close to Cracking Code for Common Cold

"We still can't cure the common cold", the rallying cry of anyone trying to belittle progress.  You'll notice that these people don't live in caves, walk to work, die of smallpox or eat anything they caught themselves, but it makes them feel better to complain.  And it makes us feel better to know they may soon be wrong, as a team of genetics researchers target the entire common cold genome.

Photographic Memory In A Pill? New Research Finds Way to Boost Visual Memory

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

MIT Team Discovers 'Superspeed' Human Brain Programming

The human brain can react and rewire itself to adapt to new situations.  "No duh," you might say, "That's kind of it's job."  But now scientists have recorded the brain adapting far faster than it's physically possible to make new connections, hinting at hidden wiring or some other automatic-interaction system that allows for rapid reprogramming.

Hacking the Most Amazing, Sophisticated System Ever: Us -A Galaxy Classic

Scientists are using lasers to directly control parts of primate brains - and not just the crude Ming the Merciless "Point a laser gun and tell them what to do" method, where initial apparent successes are overshadowed by the way your entire base blows up.

Instead, MIT scientists direct a tightly focused laser pulse onto neurons in primate brains, which is a wonderful way of phrasing it without actually saying "Sawed open monkey skulls."  You can't just poke any old neuron with coherent light to make it dance, though, unless you're prepared to turn up the power and count "burning to death" as a very specific tango.

“Longevity Genes” -Research Reveals Why Some Live Longer

Scientists have long been baffled as to why some people live so much longer than others. Diet and exercise account for some of it, but researchers have found that genetics also factor heavily into the equation, and that long life is somewhat hereditary as it is with living bristlecone pine that were alive when Caesar ruled Rome.

Photographic Memory In A Pill? New Study Finds Way to Boost Visual Memory

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

Mystery of the 1918 "Spanish Flu" Pandemic: Solved!

 

MIT researchers have explained why two mutations in the H1N1 avian flu virus were critical for viral transmission in humans during the 1918 pandemic outbreak that killed at least 50 million people -believed more than that taken by the Black Death, and higher than the number killed in World War I.

Stanford Team Re-Engineering Brain Cells to be Controlled by Lasers

Scientists are working on genetically engineered laser-controlled brain cells.  You could take the adjectives from five scifi books, roll them into a ball and shoot them through a hyperbole gun and STILL not come up with something so incredible sounding.  The work could utterly revolutionize neurotherapy, psychology, and the goopy goo of "you" inside that bone basket you carry around on top of your neck.

Memories! Is Sleep Key To What We Remember (and Forget)? Harvard Team Says "Yes"

“Sleep is a smart, sophisticated process. You might say that sleep is actually working at night to decide what memories to hold on to and what to let go of."

Jessica Payne, Harvard University

We all have memories of the the way we were. What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. Or do we?

Is Aging Optional? -A Galaxy Insight

"It's a repair and maintenance approach to extending the functional life span of a human body. It's just like maintaining the functional life span of a classic car, or a house. We know -- because people do it -- that there is no limit to how long you can do that. Once you have a sufficiently comprehensive panel of interventions to get rid of damage and maintain these things, then, they can last indefinitely. The only reason we don't see that in the human body now is that the panel of interventions we have available to us today is not sufficiently comprehensive."

~ Aubrey de Grey, molecular biologist and author of End of Aging

Geneticists Close to Cracking Code for Common Cold

"We still can't cure the common cold", the rallying cry of anyone trying to belittle progress.  You'll notice that these people don't live in caves, walk to work, die of smallpox or eat anything they caught themselves, but it makes them feel better to complain.  And it makes us feel better to know they may soon be wrong, as a team of genetics researchers target the entire common cold genome.

Photographic Memory In A Pill? New Research Finds Way to Boost Visual Memory

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

MIT Team Discovers 'Superspeed' Human Brain Programming

The human brain can react and rewire itself to adapt to new situations.  "No duh," you might say, "That's kind of it's job."  But now scientists have recorded the brain adapting far faster than it's physically possible to make new connections, hinting at hidden wiring or some other automatic-interaction system that allows for rapid reprogramming.

Hacking the Most Amazing, Sophisticated System Ever: Us -A Galaxy Classic

Scientists are using lasers to directly control parts of primate brains - and not just the crude Ming the Merciless "Point a laser gun and tell them what to do" method, where initial apparent successes are overshadowed by the way your entire base blows up.

Instead, MIT scientists direct a tightly focused laser pulse onto neurons in primate brains, which is a wonderful way of phrasing it without actually saying "Sawed open monkey skulls."  You can't just poke any old neuron with coherent light to make it dance, though, unless you're prepared to turn up the power and count "burning to death" as a very specific tango.

“Longevity Genes” -Research Reveals Why Some Live Longer

Scientists have long been baffled as to why some people live so much longer than others. Diet and exercise account for some of it, but researchers have found that genetics also factor heavily into the equation, and that long life is somewhat hereditary as it is with living bristlecone pine that were alive when Caesar ruled Rome.

Photographic Memory In A Pill? New Study Finds Way to Boost Visual Memory

The most interesting upgrades aren't for your computer, your car, or even the internet - they're for you.  We've always tinkered with our own thought processes (using crude equipment like "alcohol" and "regular exercise") but now mankind has the tools and time to tune the system directly, and one team of scientists may make yellow sticky notes obsolete: they've found a way to boost visual memory.

Mystery of the 1918 "Spanish Flu" Pandemic: Solved!

 

MIT researchers have explained why two mutations in the H1N1 avian flu virus were critical for viral transmission in humans during the 1918 pandemic outbreak that killed at least 50 million people -believed more than that taken by the Black Death, and higher than the number killed in World War I.

Stanford Team Re-Engineering Brain Cells to be Controlled by Lasers

Scientists are working on genetically engineered laser-controlled brain cells.  You could take the adjectives from five scifi books, roll them into a ball and shoot them through a hyperbole gun and STILL not come up with something so incredible sounding.  The work could utterly revolutionize neurotherapy, psychology, and the goopy goo of "you" inside that bone basket you carry around on top of your neck.

Memories! Is Sleep Key To What We Remember (and Forget)? Harvard Team Says "Yes"

“Sleep is a smart, sophisticated process. You might say that sleep is actually working at night to decide what memories to hold on to and what to let go of."

Jessica Payne, Harvard University

We all have memories of the the way we were. What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. Or do we?

Is Aging Optional? -A Galaxy Insight

"It's a repair and maintenance approach to extending the functional life span of a human body. It's just like maintaining the functional life span of a classic car, or a house. We know -- because people do it -- that there is no limit to how long you can do that. Once you have a sufficiently comprehensive panel of interventions to get rid of damage and maintain these things, then, they can last indefinitely. The only reason we don't see that in the human body now is that the panel of interventions we have available to us today is not sufficiently comprehensive."

~ Aubrey de Grey, molecular biologist and author of End of Aging