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SCIENCE
NEWS 1-5
FESTIVAL FOCUS 14-21
COMMENT FEATURES 10-11 8-9
SCIENCE
SCREEN 22-23
GAMES+TECH SCIENCE 24-25 28-29
31 MAY 2016 |
SPORT 31-32
Exeposé Science
SCIENCE EDITORS Victoria Bos Beth Honey
EXEPOSÉ
@ExeposeScience
sciandtech@exepose.com
Disturbing or genius? Preserving consciouness through technology Alina Ivan explores the various attempts to preserve human life through nanotechnology and gene therapy, whilst examining possible ways of downloading our consciouness into computers
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ILICON Valley, hedge fund manager Joon Yun is currently offering a prize of $1m to those who manage to crack “the code of life”. The reward is awaiting anyone who manages to extend the human lifespan beyond its known maximum of 122 years. Biotech companies such as Googlebased Calico, aka ‘California Life Company’, are spending long hours getting their heads round how to reverse-engineer the human genome. Cynthia Kenyon, molecular biologist, sent her fellow evolutionary biologists back to the drawing board when she developed a drug that pushed a worm’s lifespan six times past its average. In less than two years since they’ve been established, they have had considerable progress interfering with the aging process. There is reason for optimism.
Beyond body freezing and gene therapy, other conventional ideas of how to cheat death exist In the meantime, psychologist James Bedford celebrates almost 50 years since he’s been lying refrigerated at -120 degrees Celsius, awaiting resurrection. He was the first man to undergo ‘cryonic suspension’. Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona aims to preserve one’s body at sub-zero temperatures until future medical technology can restore the person to full functioning. Or, more specifically, until nano-technology evolves to
the point that they can restore individual cells and molecules. The rationale is that adding substances such as cryoprotectants to cells allows them to stay cool at low temperatures without forming ice. One can join the more than one hundred people who have already undergone fullbody cryopreservation for $200,000.
Join the more than one hundred people who have already undergone fullbody cryopreservation for $200,000 Beyond body freezing and gene therapy, other unconventional ideas of how to cheat death exist. Some thrive at the prospect of uploading our mind into a digital computer. Before even considering the philosophical, legal, and ethical facets of this problem, let’s dig into whether such an approach is possible at all. A very large part of our brain is dedicated to processing sensory information. We have receptors for sight, pain, touch and other external stimuli, as well as for our internal organs. When the brain is not involved in gathering sensory information, it is involved in higher-order functions that depend upon the sensory information received. It is busy storing the experience into memories for future recall or organising our thoughts to meet short or long-term goals. Sensation and cognition are intimately intertwined. If we upload the mind into a com-
puter, what happens to our sensory receptors? Leaving us senseless in the dark is far from desirable. In a series of CIAfunded experiments, Donald Hebb and his team studied how sensory deprivation affects the brain. They kept perception to a minimum, fitting participants with cotton gloves, helmets and so on. After only two days, participants suffered hallucinations and were unable to express coherent thoughts. Surely this doesn’t match anyone’s immortality dream. If we want to download our brains into a computer without going insane, computational neuroscientist Nicolas Rougier suggests that we have to connect our sensors to the external world, as well as our internal body parts. Robotics may be able to provide artificial stimulation to sensors – we have seen multiple examples of this, including prosthetic limbs and artificial eyes. If we replace the self with artificial sensory receptors, will we be the same? Probably not. The external environment to which we are exposed makes up a big part of who we are.
We are in the early stages of mimicking a hand’s function, or reproducing a retina Rougier is one of the pessimists. We are in the early stages of mimicking a hand’s function, or reproducing a retina. Even if we were to overcome such problems, should we deem it realistic to expect
such technological progress? The human Considering the future, it is hard to brain is made of 86 billion neurons, each ignore the implications of such a transneuron communicating to approximately formation. Who would be the gatekeeper 10,000 other neurons. The hitch here is of such technology? Who should have that it is not known what exactly makes priority to benefit from it? No doubt, such us who we are - and it is unlikely that a advancements will contribute to inequalicomputer will reach the power to manipties in society. Still, if given the chance to ulate such a big number. Some have arbe part of these on-going experiments, gued that Moore’s Law, which states that would you rather be in the experimental the power of a computer doubles every group, or in the control group? 18 months, is likely to reach its limits soon. With this in mind, some scientists deem it unlikely that we will ever develop the necessary technology. Considerable financial efforts have been put into extending the human lifespan. Still, except for a species of jellyfish called Turritopsis dohrnii – which casuImage: thisisnthappiness.com ally runs the clock forwards and backwards between larvae and adulthood – immortality remains confined to the realm of science fiction. Despite the progress, eternal life is still a Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons long way off.
Biweekly Breakthroughs by Beth Honey Sixth sense
World’s strongest man
Sodium: friend or foe?
An error correction module in the brain, known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), acts as a “sixth sense”, protecting absentminded drivers. For example, veering to the left would be counterbalanced, controlled by the ACC. It does not, however, protect you from the consequences of texting whilst driving. Texting disrupts this coordination loop between the brain and eye movements.
Game of Thrones actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who plays “The Mountain”, consumes over 12,000 calories per day in his attempt to become the Worlds Strongest Man. This includes more than 14 eggs, a kilo of meat, and supplements. Dr Lee Hamilton examined how this can be translated into the diets of ordinary physiques, suggesting that a large glass of milk would be efficient.
New research has found that implementing a low salt diet may actually contribute to cardiovascular disease and death. More than 130,000 people were involved in the study conducted by the Population Health Research Institute, from 49 countries. Only those who already have high blood pressure or high sodium intake should consider changing their diet.