The Obtain: the dream of cryonics, and enhanced rats

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The Obtain: the dream of cryonics, and enhanced rats

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That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the planet of expertise.

Why the sci-fi dream of cryonics by no means died

When Aaron Drake flew from Arizona to the Yinfeng Organic Group in China in 2016, he was touring there to information China’s first forays into cryonics, or freezing corpses for reanimation.Drake had spent the earlier seven years because the medical response director of the Alcor Life Extension Basis, a small nonprofit that had managed to develop into the longtime chief in cryonics, freezing the our bodies and brains of its members, with the concept of someday bringing them again to life, since 1976.

The muse, and cryonics generally, had lengthy survived outdoors of mainstream acceptance. But it surely’s the latest involvement of Yinfeng that indicators one thing of a brand new period for cryonics.

With spectacular monetary assets, authorities assist, and scientific workers, it’s one among a handful of recent labs targeted on increasing the buyer attraction of cryonics and making an attempt anew to convey credibility to the long-disputed principle of human reanimation. Nonetheless, the sphere stays rooted in religion moderately than any actual proof that it really works. Learn the total story.

—Laurie Clarke

This piece is from our forthcoming mortality-themed problem, obtainable from 26 October. If you wish to learn it when it comes out, you’ll be able to subscribe to MIT Expertise Overview for as little as $80 a 12 months.

Are rats with human mind cells nonetheless simply rats?

This week, my colleague Jessica Hamzelou wrote about an enchanting experiment that concerned implanting human mind cells into rats’ brains. The mind cells from each species had been in a position to type connections and work collectively. The human cells turned a part of the rats’ brains.

A number of months after they’d been implanted, the human cells made up round a sixth of the rats’ brains and appeared to have a job in controlling the animals’ conduct. Which invitations the difficult query: Are these animals nonetheless 100% rat? Learn the total story.

Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly publication exploring all issues biotech and well being. Signal as much as obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.

ClimateTech 2022

This week MIT Expertise Overview held its inaugural ClimateTech convention on expertise options for local weather change—an enormous thanks to everybody who attended in-person or on-line! When you missed it, you’ll be able to meet up with all the largest information and bulletins by way of our reside weblog masking day one and day two of the convention.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.1 China is getting ready for its historic Communist get together congress A 3rd time period for president Xi Jinping is a near-certainty. (Economist $)+ The congress is a chance for Xi to reassert his management. (FT $)+ All 2,3000 senior get together members will attend the assembly. (The Guardian)+ Douying, Tiktok’s Chinese language sister app, is silencing Cantonese audio system. (Remainder of World)

2 Not everybody in California can afford electrical vehiclesThey’re costly, and the state’s push in the direction of EVs dangers overlooking decrease earners. (The Guardian)+ Even the US secretary of transportation acknowledges the obstacles. (Recode)+ The US solely has 6,000 quick charging stations for EVs. (MIT Expertise Overview)3 Turkey has handed a flawed “disinformation invoice” forward of its electionsWhich, handily sufficient, restricts criticisms of its President Erdoğan. (FT $) + The European Parliament has accused Massive Tech of secretive lobbying. (Bloomberg $)4 Meals is getting dearer Provide points and better fuel costs are simply a few of the explanation why. (Vox)+ The rising price of meals has contributed to these sky-high inflation figures. (New Yorker $)5 An AI is planning to run for election in DenmarkThe Artificial Get together, which is led by an AI, claims to characterize the values of “non-voting Danes.” (Motherboard)6 Avid gamers are the right goal for cybercriminalsYounger gamers are notably susceptible to fraudsters’ advances. (NYT $)7 Adverts on Netflix are arriving subsequent monthThe firm desperately desires to draw new prospects, following months of customers canceling their subscriptions. (WSJ $)8 Intense warmth remedy isn’t only for elite athletes Fastidiously managed publicity to warmth might forestall cardiovascular and metabolic ailments, too. (Neo.Life)9 Your restaurant server hates your menu hacks And apps are making it simpler than ever to order elaborate concoctions anonymously. (Eater)10 There aren’t legs within the metaverse in spite of everything Exhausting to consider, I do know, however Meta misled us. (Kotaku)+ Meta is desperately making an attempt to make the metaverse occur. (MIT Expertise Overview)

Quote of the day

“There’ll typically be one or two folks operating round like loopy, or doing one thing like creating an enormous cartoon of a cat.”

—Antti Innanen, chief government of Dot, a Finnish authorized design consultancy, explains the pitfalls of making an attempt to carry folks’s consideration whereas giving seminars within the metaverse to the Monetary Instances.

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Hey, that’s not how the subsequent line of the music goes!+ The one and solely Patti Smith is releasing a e-book subsequent month—and it’s impressed by, err, Instagram.+ This sunlit waterfall is straight out of Home of the Dragon.+ When you ever end up in London, it’s solely proper you bask in a little bit of pub grub.+ We are inclined to gravitate in the direction of the acquainted when one thing’s coming to an finish, and that’s okay.

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