Transhumanismus
Blue Origin Is Ready to Challenge SpaceX With Its New Glenn Rocket
The company hopes to break SpaceX’s industry stranglehold with New Glenn.
Jeff Bezos’s rocket company Blue Origin hopes to become a major rival to SpaceX in the private space industry. But those ambitions are on hold after the company postponed the test launch of its new rocket earlier today.
Despite increasing investment in the private space industry, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully converted its first-mover advantage into near total dominance of the market—accounting for 45 percent of global space launches in 2023. But Blue Origin is hoping to break that stranglehold with its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, successor to the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that took Bezos to space in 2021.
The vehicle’s first test launch was due to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) this morning, but Blue Origin had to postpone the launch at the last minute due to rough weather at the landing zone in the Atlantic Ocean. It won’t be long until the company gets another crack at launch though—announcing on X it may try again as early as this Sunday.
The rocket—named after the first American to orbit Earth, NASA astronaut John Glenn—is 320 feet tall and designed to carry 45 tons to low Earth orbit. That places it between SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets in terms of payload capacity, at 22 and 64 tons respectively.
New Glenn features two stages. A booster provides most of the thrust to get the vehicle into the upper atmosphere and then detaches, allowing a smaller second stage to deliver the payload to orbit.
Just like SpaceX’s rockets, the first stage is designed to fly up to 25 times. After detaching from the second stage, it will return to Earth and attempt to land on a barge in the ocean. The company is planning a landing attempt on this initial test launch, which is why poor weather at sea prompted today’s cancellation.
Reusability has dramatically reduced SpaceX’s costs compared to competitors. Proving Blue Origin can reuse its rockets too will be crucial if it hopes to muscle in on a share of the launch market.
New Glenn won’t have a commercial payload for the test launch. Instead, it will carry a demonstrator designed to test key technologies for its future Blue Ring spacecraft, including a communications array, power systems, and flight computer.
Blue Ring is designed to carry multiple satellites into orbit and then maneuver to different orbits and locations to deploy them. Blue Origin hopes this will allow the company to provide much more flexible launch services than competitors.
Customers are already lining up.
Originally, the test launch was slated to carry a NASA mission to Mars, though this will now fly on a later New Glenn launch. The US Space Force has also selected the company, alongside SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, to compete for various missions over the next four years.
It is also likely to get a significant amount of business from Bezos’s other venture, Amazon, which is planning to deploy a constellation of internet satellites dubbed Project Kuiper to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
While much of this will depend on the success of the test launch, a positive result could herald a much more competitive era for the private launch industry. That’s likely to reduce barriers to space even further and help spur the burgeoning space economy.
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CRISPR Baby 2.0? Controversial Simulation Touts Benefits of Gene Editing Embryos
Scientists are grappling with the implications of a CRISPR-baby world.
Bring up germline editing, and most scientists cringe. The idea behind the notorious CRISPR-baby scandal, editing reproductive cells or embryos tinkers with DNA far beyond just the patient—any changes, either beneficial or harmful, pass down through generations.
Germline editing is banned in most countries. A Chinese court sentenced He Jiankui, the disgraced scientist first to experiment with editing human embryos, to jail for three years. Now free again, He said in an interview with NPR last year that the CRISPRed twins, Lulu and Nana, are healthy and growing normally as toddlers, although he declined to answer more detailed questions about their wellbeing.
He’s delinquent experiment sparked universal condemnation, but also triggered heavy debate among scientists about the future of germline editing. In theory, if based on solid scientific and clinical foundations, such edits could reduce the chances of inherited diseases down an entire family line. But it’s a slippery slope. When does reducing the risk of inherited breast cancer, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s disease edge into “designer baby” territory?
As scientists grapple with the implications of a CRISPR-baby world, a new analysis took an unusual approach to analyzing the risks and benefits of germline editing. For one, it was completely inside a machine—no potential babies harmed. For another, the authors of the study focused especially on diseases with multiple potential genetic contributors—heart attack, stroke, cancer, depression, and diabetes—all of which haunt many families.
On average, adding only 10 protective gene variants slashed disease risk up to 60-fold. The mathematical model also predicted health benefits such as lowered levels of “bad” cholesterol in people prone to heart disease—an idea which is currently being studied in a gene editing clinical trial led by Verve Therapeutics.
Not everyone is on board.
An accompanying article put it plainly: “Embryo editing for disease is unsafe and unproven.” Penned by Shai Carmi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Henry Greely at Stanford Law School, and Kevin Mitchell at Trinity College Dublin, the piece raised a multitude of questions on the ethical and societal impacts of tweaking our DNA with inheritable gene edits—even assuming all goes well technologically.
“Given the broad interest in this topic, the work will probably be discussed widely and might ultimately affect policy,” they wrote.
Tweaking Our Genetic BlueprintEver since mapping the human genome at the turn of the century, scientists have dreamed of correcting mutated genes to prevent disease. Two decades later, thanks to massive improvements in gene sequencing and synthesis technologies alongside the rise of gene editing multitool CRISPR, gene therapy is no longer science fiction.
In late 2023, the UK approved the world’s first CRISPR-based gene therapy for two previously untreatable inherited blood disorders—sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. The US soon followed. Meanwhile, a promising clinical trial that disables a gene in people susceptible to high cholesterol showed the approach slashes the dangerous buildup of artery-clogging clumps.
Here’s the crux: These gene therapies only alter somatic cells—that is, cells that make up the body. The changes only affect the treated person. Germline editing, on the other hand, opens an entirely new Pandora’s box. Editing reproductive cells or embryos doesn’t just alter the resulting baby’s genetics—the edits could also pass on to their offspring.
Most gene editing trials to date, including He’s, have focused on altering one gene. But most common diseases that plague us today—heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes—are polygenic, in that they are influenced by hundreds to thousands of gene variants. These are the same genes, just a tad different in their genetic makeup.
On its own, each variant has very little influence on health. But if negative variants build up across the genome, together they increase a person’s risk of these complex diseases. Doctors already use technologies that screen people’s genes to monitor for breast cancer, in which multiple gene mutations increase risk.
Reproductive scientists have also taken note. Research is underway to screen embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Those with low polygenic risk are then selected for further development. The method has been available since 2019, explained Carmi, Greely, and Mitchell, “but the expected reductions in disease risk are modest, at best.”
A more radical idea is to change genes directly inside embryos, often by giving them a dose of , protective gene variants. It was He’s original idea—CRISPRing genes that potentially protect against HIV, but with very little evidence. But if successful—and that is a very large if—the treatment could protect generations of people from inherited diseases.
Broader ScopeRather than just a single gene, the new study focused on diseases with multiple genetic contributions in a simulation. Using previous data that associated genetic variants with diseases, the team analyzed a myriad of health troubles, including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, diabetes, heart disease, and depression. They asked: What if we edited “protective” genes into the embryos?
To be clear, the team only gauged outcomes based on mathematical simulations. However, multiple simulations for different diseases suggested that adding just a small number of protective genes—roughly 10—would boost the protective effects up to 60-fold.
They built the model based on a few assumptions.
First, they assumed perfect accuracy, in that the gene editor will modify only targeted DNA without harming other non-targeted genetic letters. That’s not entirely possible now: Although CRISPR-based therapeutics are more precise than their predecessors, they still sometimes snip and alter unexpected genetic sequences.
Another assumption is that we know which genes cause what disease. Protective genetic variants are rare, and scientists mostly find them through large genome-wide screenings followed by vigorously testing in cells and animals. These results unveil helpful or harmful variants—for example, APOE4 as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s—for gene editing. But for complex diseases, thousands of gene variants are at play.
“Mapping causal [gene] variants has been a slow process so far,” wrote Carmi, Greely, and Mitchell.
The protective effects of gene variants may not add up. If two “savior” genes are added at the same time, but they trigger the same pathway in cells, when combined they may reach a ceiling for beneficial effects. It’s like working out and drinking too many protein shakes—there’s only so much the body can handle.
Also, such simulations note but sidestep societal consequences. A slight misstep in germline engineering could alter the DNA makeup of multiple generations. “In embryo editing, the stakes are extremely high,” wrote Carmi, Greely, and Mitchell. “Any errors will affect every cell and organ in the future child.”
Still, editing embryos at a large scale remains roughly 30 years away according to the authors. Meanwhile, scientists are already tinkering with other reproductive genetic technologies. Some include sequencing the whole genome of embryos, fetuses, and newborns to tackle potential health troubles.
For now, the authors wrote, “there is good reason to start exploring the challenges and opportunities” of editing multiple disease-related genes that can pass to future generations, “well before it becomes a practical possibility.”
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Donald J. Robertson on How to Think Like Socrates in the Age of AI
Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit
Tired: Listening to music.
Wired: Feeling the music.
A mind-bending new suit straps onto your torso, ankles and wrists, then uses actuators to translate audio into vivid vibration. The result: a new way for everyone to experience music, according to its creators. That’s especially exciting for people who have trouble hearing.
THE FEELIESThe Music: Not Impossible suit was created by design firm Not Impossible Labs and electronics manufacturing company Avnet. The suit can create sensations to go with pre-recorded music, or a “Vibrotactile DJ” can adjust the sensations in real time during a live music event.”
Billboard writer Andy Hermann tried the suit out, and it sounds like a trip.
“Sure enough, a pulse timed to a kickdrum throbs into my ankles and up through my legs,” he wrote. “Gradually, [the DJ] brings in other elements: the tap of a woodblock in my wrists, a bass line massaging my lower back, a harp tickling a melody across my chest.”
MORE ACCESSIBLETo show the suit off, Not Impossible and Avnet organized a performance this past weekend by the band Greta Van Fleet at the Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas. The company allowed attendees to don the suits. Mandy Harvey, a deaf musician who stole the show on America’s Got Talent last year, talked about what the performance meant to her in a video Avnet posted to Facebook.
“It was an unbelievable experience to have an entire audience group who are all experiencing the same thing at the same time,” she said. “For being a deaf person, showing up at a concert, that never happens. You’re always excluded.”
READ MORE: Not Impossible Labs, Zappos Hope to Make Concerts More Accessible for the Deaf — and Cooler for Everyone [Billboard]
More on accessible design: New Tech Allows Deaf People To Sense Sounds
The post Make Music A Full Body Experience With A “Vibro-Tactile” Suit appeared first on Futurism.
“Synthetic Skin” Could Give Prosthesis Users a Superhuman Sense of Touch
Today’s prosthetics can give people with missing limbs the ability to do almost anything — run marathons, climb mountains, you name it. But when it comes to letting those people feel what they could with a natural limb, the devices, however mechanically sophisticated, invariably fall short.
Now researchers have created a “synthetic skin” with a sense of touch that not only matches the sensitivity of natural skin, but in some cases even exceeds it. Now the only challenge is getting that information back into the wearer’s nervous system.
UNDER PRESSUREWhen something presses against your skin, your nerves receive and transmit that pressure to the brain in the form of electrical signals.
To mimic that biological process, the researchers suspended a flexible polymer, dusted with magnetic particles, over a magnetic sensor. The effect is like a drum: Applying even the tiniest amount of pressure to the membrane causes the magnetic particles to move closer to the sensors, and they transmit this movement electronically.
The research, which could open the door to super-sensitive prosthetics, was published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.
SPIDEY SENSE TINGLINGTests shows that the skin can sense extremely subtle pressure, such as a blowing breeze, dripping water, or crawling ants. In some cases, the synthetic skin responded to pressures so gentle that natural human skin wouldn’t be able to detect them.
While the sensing ability of this synthetic skin is remarkable, the team’s research doesn’t address how to transmit the signals to the human brain. Other scientists are working on that, though, so eventually this synthetic skin could give prosthetic wearers the ability to feel forces even their biological-limbed friends can’t detect.
READ MORE: A Skin-Inspired Tactile Sensor for Smart Prosthetics [Science Robotics]
More on synthetic skin: Electronic Skin Lets Amputees Feel Pain Through Their Prosthetics
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People Are Zapping Their Brains to Boost Creativity. Experts Have Concerns.
There’s a gadget that some say can help alleviate depression and enhance creativity. All you have to do is place a pair of electrodes on your scalp and the device will deliver electrical current to your brain. It’s readily available on Amazon or you can even make your own.
But in a new paper published this week in the Creativity Research Journal, psychologists at Georgetown University warned that the practice is spreading before we have a good understanding of its health effects, especially since consumers are already buying and building unregulated devices to shock them. They also cautioned that the technique, which scientists call transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), could have adverse effects on the brains of young people.
“There are multiple potential concerns with DIY-ers self-administering electric current to their brains, but this use of tES may be inevitable,” said co-author Adam Green in a press release. “And, certainly, anytime there is risk of harm with a technology, the scariest risks are those associated with kids and the developing brain”
SHOCK JOCKYes, there’s evidence that tES can help patients with depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, and other serious conditions, the Georgetown researchers acknowledge.
But that’s only when it’s administered by a trained health care provider. When administering tES at home, people might ignore safety directions, they wrote, or their home-brewed devices could deliver unsafe amounts of current. And because it’s not yet clear what effects of tES might be on the still-developing brains of young people, the psychologists advise teachers and parents to resist the temptation to use the devices to encourage creativity among children.
The takeaway: tES is likely here to stay, and it may provide real benefits. But for everyone’s sake, consumer-oriented tES devices should be regulated to protect users.
READ MORE: Use of electrical brain stimulation to foster creativity has sweeping implications [Eurekalert]
More on transcranial electrical stimulation: DARPA’s New Brain Device Increases Learning Speed by 40%
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Military Pilots Can Control Three Jets at Once via a Neural Implant
The military is making it easier than ever for soldiers to distance themselves from the consequences of war. When drone warfare emerged, pilots could, for the first time, sit in an office in the U.S. and drop bombs in the Middle East.
Now, one pilot can do it all, just using their mind — no hands required.
Earlier this month, DARPA, the military’s research division, unveiled a project that it had been working on since 2015: technology that grants one person the ability to pilot multiple planes and drones with their mind.
“As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control … not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” Justin Sanchez, director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, said, according to Defense One.
THE SINGULARITYSanchez may have unveiled this research effort at a “Trajectory of Neurotechnology” session at DARPA’s 60th anniversary event, but his team has been making steady progress for years. Back in 2016, a volunteer equipped with a brain-computer interface (BCI) was able to pilot an aircraft in a flight simulator while keeping two other planes in formation — all using just his thoughts, a spokesperson from DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office told Futurism.
In 2017, Copeland was able to steer a plane through another simulation, this time receiving haptic feedback — if the plane needed to be steered in a certain direction, Copeland’s neural implant would create a tingling sensation in his hands.
NOT QUITE MAGNETOThere’s a catch. The DARPA spokesperson told Futurism that because this BCI makes use of electrodes implanted in and on the brain’s sensory and motor cortices, experimentation has been limited to volunteers with varying degrees of paralysis. That is: the people steering these simulated planes already had brain electrodes, or at least already had reason to undergo surgery.
To try and figure out how to make this technology more accessible and not require surgical placement of a metal probe into people’s brains, DARPA recently launched the NExt-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program. The plan is to make a device with similar capabilities, but it’ll look more like an EEG cap that the pilot can take off once a mission is done.
“The envisioned N3 system would be a tool that the user could wield for the duration of a task or mission, then put aside,” said Al Emondi, head of N3, according to the spokesperson. “I don’t like comparisons to a joystick or keyboard because they don’t reflect the full potential of N3 technology, but they’re useful for conveying the basic notion of an interface with computers.”
READ MORE: It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm [Defense One]
More on DARPA research: DARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”
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Lab-Grown Bladders Can Save People From a Lifetime of Dialysis
Today, about 10 people on Earth have bladders they weren’t born with. No, they didn’t receive bladder transplants — doctors grew these folks new bladders using the recipients’ own cells.
On Tuesday, the BBC published a report on the still-nascent procedure of transplanting lab-grown bladders. In it, the publication talks to Luke Massella, who underwent the procedure more than a decade ago. Massella was born with spina bifida, which carries with it a risk of damage to the bladder and urinary tract. Now, he lives a normal life, he told the BBC.
“I was kind of facing the possibility I might have to do dialysis [blood purification via machine] for the rest of my life,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to play sports, and have the normal kid life with my brother.”
All that changed after Anthony Atala, a surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, decided he was going to grow a new bladder for Massella.
ONE NEW BLADDER, COMING UP!To do that, Atala first removed a small piece of Massella’s own bladder. He then removed cells from this portion of bladder and multiplied them in a petri dish. Once he had enough cells, he coated a scaffold with the cells and placed the whole thing in a temperature controlled, high oxygen environment. After a few weeks, the lab-created bladder was ready for transplantation into Massella.
“So it was pretty much like getting a bladder transplant, but from my own cells, so you don’t have to deal with rejection,” said Massella.
The number of people with lab-grown bladders might still be low enough to count on your fingers, but researchers are making huge advances in growing everything from organs to skin in the lab. Eventually, we might reach a point when we can replace any body part we need to with a perfect biological match that we built ourselves.
READ MORE: “A New Bladder Made From My Cells Gave Me My Life Back” [BBC]
More on growing organs: The FDA Wants to Expedite Approval of Regenerative Organ Therapies
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