Science Update September 2014

Graphene is a single sheet of connected carbon atoms. When things like this are discovered it usually isn’t long before uses are found for them. In this case a revolutionary light detector is being developed which will push sensing and night vision decades ahead. One of the advantages of this detector is it can detect light over an incredibly broad range of wavelengths. It can even detect terahertz waves. These waves fall between infrared and microwaves and are the most difficult to detect. It seems to me one use for this will have to be in astronomy where we can use this detector to see more than ever before. This detector is smaller, lighter and one million times faster than current detectors and it has been predicted it will lead to inexpensive night vision devices and cameras.

We are still waiting for the results of the test which is supposed to tell us if we are living in a 2D hologram. I was very surprised to see scientists conducting this experiment. They actually must believe there is a chance this is true if they tried this. It would take a lot of bullet proof evidence to convince me we do and even if the results indicate we are, I would have to be shown no other conclusion could have come from the experiment and there were no errors in the data which was used. It does make one wonder though if the test comes back positive if we will be allowed to be told the truth. So how does this experiment work? Two powerful lasers are aimed at targets in space and the light is split then reassembled and split again. The scientists say if there is a certain type of movement in the second splitting of the image it will show space is vibrating using a 2D wave.

An Oxford professor has come out with a statement, but truthfully it is nothing new. He has said Artificial Intelligence may doom the human race within one century. Every time we hear something like this the range of time before doomsday is different. I have heard as little as two decades to as much as a century. The truth is machines may never become sentient. Just because data can get processed at a faster speed than we can do it at doesn’t mean machines will actually be smart. It will take the equivalent of a copy of a brain to do this and we may never be able to create LIVING machines which can make rational decisions, because they WANT TO. It is true however even if this is not possible we can certainly program machines to kill people and this has been done already in places. There are robots on the border between the Koreas built by the South Koreans which will fire on anyone trying to cross the DMZ.

An article was published on the BBC website which states there is a new procedure which might be able to bring the dead back to life. To accomplish this several things are necessary. You must replace the patient’s blood with cold salt water. A doctor said at the point everyone agrees you are dead and your temperature is at 10C, there is no brain activity or heartbeat, no blood pumping, he can still bring you back. Doctors have figured out how to keep bodies in suspended animation for hours at a time and this makes it all possible. You blood is drained and cooled down to more than 20C below normal, your injury is fixed and the blood is pumped back into you. So far this has been accomplished successfully with animals.

Scientists are now collecting lots of data on how proteins perform their jobs regulating cells. When a protein is damaged a motor molecule then eats and excretes damaged proteins and they become harmless peptides and are disposed of. When you put things this way it certainly seems we might be able to mimic this with tiny molecular sized machines.

Bacteria have been discovered that can survive just taking in electricity. The bacteria are incredible, they eat electrons and excrete them. To make matters even more incredible some of these bacteria have the ability to form into nanowires which conduct electricity and they are centimeters long. I think this has an incredible bearing on our search for alien life. Who knows what they might be like? They could even be giant creatures that live by digesting lightning bolts or tiny creatures which sustain themselves on nothing more than sunlight. We might not even recognize alien life if we are standing right next to it.

A new study published in the peer reviewed Public Library of Science known as PLOS shows when genetically modified food is eaten there is sufficient evidence suggesting meal-derived DNA fragments which carry complete genes can enter into the human circulation system. In one blood sample which was examined, it was said the findings showed there were more plant DNA than human DNA. Can you blame people for being up in arms about the way GMO is being handled in the U.S.? First some companies planted these crops and they spread to other crops and even though it was obvious this would happen, no one was punished. Secondly no laws were passed which would have made it mandatory to note on the contents of a package when GMO were used. Lastly the stalks contain a deadly pesticide and there has been some talk it might be getting into the fruit of the crops. Β It is just another case of anything goes if money is made. It is like the tobacco companies all over again only worse.