NASA scientists have produced the most compelling evidence yet that bacterial life exists on Mars.

It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 years 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. more>>>

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Q: If I am 95 years old, do I have any cells in my body that were present when I was 3 years old? What about at conception? Also, could you expand on your earlier statement, “stem cells live a lifetime?” In a nutshell, I am curious if I am a completely “new” person or if there is anything “in” me that has been with me since birth…or conception.Jonathan, Los Angeles, California, USA

A: Nope, we’re not completely new people. In fact, most of our cells are a good seven-to-ten years old, as biologist Jonas Frisén, professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, reported in July 2005. For example, we grow a new skeleton over about a 10-year period.

Moreover, at 95 we will have three kinds of cells we’ve had since three years of age and, indeed, since before birth. They last a lifetime:

• cerebral cortex neurons

• heart muscle cells

• cells in the inner portion of the crystalline lens of our eyes.

“I wouldn’t necessarily single out cerebral cortex neurons as lasting a lifetime because it’s probably true that most neurons in the entire adult brain were generated during development,” e-mails neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould professor of psychology at Princeton. more>>>

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The Portal simply takes links for websites at CERN and put them into a nice easy way to browse them.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

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“This could exponentially increase the amount of science done across the globe.”

Click here for The New York Times article.

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After four days in a classroom absorbing insights and information from the frontiers of science and technology, the Singularity University Executive Program busts out for a succession of field trips to real, live businesses…

Click here for the full report found on Wired.com.

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Visit U.S. Systems HERE.

US Systems designs and manufactures reliable pneumatic conveying systems and FIBC bulk bag filling machines and bulk bag dischargers for the bulk material handling industry. We compliment these systems with storage silos, dust collectors, blower packages, piping, couplers, elbows, motorized pallet conveyors, sound enclosures, and electrical controls.

We design and manufacture our systems to fit your material handling equipment needs. We provide solid solutions to leading dry bulk solids processing companies across the Plastics, Food, Mineral, and Chemical industries and have done so since 1969. We also offer professional installation, start-up assistance, replacement parts service, support and repair.

Our solutions make all the difference - whether you need standard components or a unique solution designed from the ground up - call USS to put our experience to work for you.

Visit U.S. Systems HERE.

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The SU Executive Program is scheduled for November 7-15, 2009 at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif…

Click here for the details found on the Singularity University website.

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“Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Shimon Peres at the recent Israeli Presidential Conference: Facing Tomorrow 2009, Ray Kurzweil proposed several innovations for dealing with the coming energy shortages and bolstering Israel’s growing economy…”

Click here to get to both a brief write-up plus an hour and 10 minute video. The first half of the video shows Ray giving a speech. The second half of the video consists of questions and answers with President Shimon Peres asking Ray questions which Ray then answers.

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The Film About the Life and Ideas of Ray Kurzweil Makes West Coast U.S. Premiere on November 5th as an Official Documentary Selection of AFI Fest 2009…

Click here for the news article found on the CNBC website.

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The stars of the Singularity Summit 2009 -

Click here for an article found on the Forbes website summing up the recent New York Singularity Summit.

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Dropping a cell phone or laptop can, of course, cause irreparable damage. Now researchers are developing a material that could let a circuit self-repair small but critical damage caused by such an impact.

Capsules, filled with conductive nanotubes, that rip open under mechanical stress could be placed on circuit boards in failure-prone areas. When stress causes a crack in the circuit, some of the capsules would also rupture and release nanotubes to bridge the break. The researchers, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are also working on capsule additives designed to heal failures in lithium-ion battery electrodes, to prevent the short-circuiting that can sometimes cause a fire.

Previous research into self-healing materials has mostly focused on restoring mechanical properties after a damaging event. The University of Illinois researchers have, for example, already made self-healing coatings that can repair scratches and prevent corrosion on boats or car chassis. Now the group has brought the same techniques to the problem of restoring electronic properties. more>>>

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h+ magazine, a quarterly online periodical covering the news and obsessions of fans of radical technological change–a scene sometimes called “transhumanism”–is going into print with its fourth issue. The Fall 2009 edition arrives at newsstands at the end of September…

Click here for the complete press release found on PRWeb.

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Students at a university in Silicon Valley have just finished a course with the lofty aim of helping humanity deal with future technology challenges…

Click here for information found on the Guardian.co.uk website. Note both the article and the Tech Weekly podcast: Studying the Singularity.

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