They Are The Borg

In the TV series Star Trek, the Borg are cybernetic aliens that assimilate humans and other creatures as a means of achieving perfection. So when Jill Banfield, a geomicrobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, sifted through DNA in the mud of her backyard and discovered a strange linear chromosome that included genes from a variety of microbes, her Trekkie son proposed naming it after the sci-fi aliens. 

The new type of genetic material was a mystery. Maybe it was part of a viral genome. Maybe it was a strange bacterium. Or maybe it was just an independent piece of DNA existing outside of cells. Whatever it is, it's "pretty exciting," says W. Ford Doolittle, an evolutionary biologist at Dalhousie University who was not involved with the work.

Researchers have found many examples of DNA floating independently outside the chromosome or chromosomes that make up an organism's standard genome. Small loops called plasmids, for example, exist inside microbes and ferry genes for thwarting antibiotics among different kinds of bacteria.

But Banfield wasn't looking for DNA that could move between organisms. Instead, she and graduate student Basem Al-Shayeb were searching for viruses that infect archaea, a type of microbe often found in places devoid of oxygen. 

They would dig 1 meter or more below the surface and collect mud samples that might harbor archaea and their viruses. Next, they would sequence every stretch of DNA in the samples and use sophisticated computer programs to scan for sequences that signified a virus, rather than any other organism.

"We started off with a piece of mud and 10 trillion pieces of DNA," Banfield says. One sample, taken from the mud on her property, contained a gene-filled stretch of DNA almost 1 million bases long—and more than half the genes were novel. 

This linear stretch of DNA also had a particular pattern of bases at its beginning and end, distinct stretches of repetitive DNA between its genes, and two places along the sequence where DNA duplication could begin—which indicated the Borg could make copies of itself. Together, this suggested it was not just a random concoction of genes.

After they identified the first Borg sequence, the researchers began to scan microbial DNA in public databases to see whether they could find anything similar. They found a few variations in groundwater from Colorado—there, the first purported Borg showed up about 1 meter deep and got more abundant deeper down. 

Other versions showed up in DNA from the discharge of an abandoned mercury mine in Napa, California, and from a shallow riverbed of the East River in Colorado.

Altogether, the researchers isolated 23 sequences they think may be Borgs—and 19 they have identified as having all the characteristics of the first Borg they discovered, they write this week on the preprint server bioRxiv. 

Some are almost 1 million bases long. "I don't think anything else that's been discovered is as big as these guys are," among previously known extrachromosomal DNA elements, Doolittle says.  READ MORE...

Aircraft Without Moving Parts

As a kid, steven barrett, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, would watch the movie and tv series ‘star trek’ during his free time. his young eyes would gaze upon the shuttle crafts, so futuristic and dystopian that they would glide through the horizon at a lightning speed. barrett noticed how these space crafts seemed frameless, bare of their moving parts such as the propellers, and noiseless. such an observation still influences him today to the extent that he thinks, in the long-term future, planes should be stripped of their turbines and propellers to be more like the shuttle crafts of ‘star trek’ in their glowing light. at MIT, the professor did just that.

MIT engineers, led by barrett, have introduced the world’s first plan without moving parts, bare from any propellers and turbines. the lightweight aircraft relies on an ‘ionic wind’, or the abundant flow of ions produced aboard the plane that generates enough force to thrust the plane over a steady and sustained flight. through this concept and design, the plane ditches the use of fossil fuels, an element that adds to its silent glide.

As the professor spoke to the university’s official news site, he describes how the plane is the first-ever sustained flight with no moving parts in the propulsion system. ‘this has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions.’ the design weighs about five pounds and has a five-meter wingspan attached to thin wires resembling fences. these wires act as positively charged electrodes, while similarly arranged thicker wires, running along the back end of the plane’s wing, serve as negative electrodes.

The fuselage of the plane holds a stack of lithium-polymer batteries. barrett’s ion plane team included members of professor david perreault’s power electronics research group in the research laboratory of electronics, who designed a power supply that would convert the batteries’ output to a sufficiently high voltage to propel the plane. in this way, the batteries supply electricity at 40,000 volts to positively charge the wires via a lightweight power converter.  READ MORE...

Quantum Immortalilty Theory

In another universe, Russian Doll never would have been made. Thankfully, we live in the universe where it did.  

The quirky, time-twisting, death-looping comedy series landed on Netflix back in 2019, and was so odd and out there that it was hard to firmly define its genre. It’s a comedy, yes, and clearly sci-fi – with inspiration from the world of game mechanics as well as quantum theory – but the wisecracking cocaine enthusiast found in lead character Nadia (played by Natasha Lyonne) means Russian Doll feels nothing like the likes of Star Trek.

However, the mind-bending show rests on some notable assumptions about the nature of the universe, or rather multiverse, and how our lives are tied up with it – and with a second season expected in the near future, it feels like a good time to revisit Russian Doll, and the scientific concepts underpinning it.

In Russian Doll, game developer Nadia Vulvokov finds herself in a classic Groundhog Day scenario – forced to repeat the same day over and over. Except, much like quantum mechanics breaking the mold of classical physics, Russian Doll gives this scenario a twist, killing off its main character again and again in various and very sudden ways – be they by car crashes, deep rivers, or deadly staircases – and always returning her to the same moment in her bathroom, looking at the mirror and realizing she has to relive her 36th birthday all over again.  READ MORE...

Leaving NASA

Warp Drive Inc
Traveling at faster than the speed of light has been the subject of countless works of science fiction. Most notably, the “warp drive” in “Star Trek” allowed cosmic travelers to break the lightspeed barrier to traverse vast galactic distances.

In the real world, research into potential warp drive technologies has been slow, but significant enough to attract the interest of NASA and even a handful of independent ventures.


Take Harold “Sonny” White, a big name in warp drive research who left NASA in 2019 to work at a Houston-based nonprofit called the Limitless Space Institute — where, he says, he was allowed by NASA to continue his work and even take his lab equipment with him.

“Yeah, I have a lab here full of all my goodies from NASA,” White told The Debrief in a fascinating new interview. But the engineer didn’t burn any bridges in the process, adding that “we have a Space Act agreement with the agency.”


Leaving NASA
It sounds like NASA is pretty chill with White continuing his work elsewhere.

Sonny said that “when I was working in NASA, we really didn’t try to go through and patent anything.”

“Probably a little too early to try and really work towards patenting anything,” he told The Debrief. “I mean, there may be a time it’s right to do that, but there wasn’t at NASA.”

Where the transition leaves White’s progress on realizing a new form of propulsion that could allow humans to travel past the speed of light remains somewhat murky (although The Debrief says it’s going to publish two more installments of its interview with White, so stay tuned.)  READ MORE

The Metaverse

Silicon Valley has been anticipating virtual reality for more than three decades, and keeps running into the same problem: people mostly like actual reality

Maybe this will be my Paul Krugman moment. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist was famously the winner of a study to establish which op-ed commentator was most consistently correct. 

In 1998, he also famously claimed, “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” 

I am not nearly so storied in accomplishments as Krugman. But I do make my living offering predictions and forecasts. 

So I might as well say it: I predict that the metaverse won’t happen.

The “metaverse,” for those who don’t know, is a still-mostly-hypothetical virtual world accessed by special virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology. 

The idea is to create a sort of next-level Internet overlaid on our physical world. People plugged into the metaverse exist in our physical world like everyone else but can see and interact with things that others can’t. 

Think The Matrix or the Star Trek Holodeck or the Fortnite-esque brandscapes of Ready Player One.  READ MORE

Living in a Utopia

A utopia is an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.  The term was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South America. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia, which dominates the fictional literature from the 1950s onwards, chiefly because of the impact of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). 

However, the term can also denote actual experiments in what participants regard as a vastly superior manner of living, generally in what are termed intentional communities. In common parlance it is synonymous with "impossible", "far-fetched", and "deluded".

Literary utopias focus on, amongst other things, equality, in such categories as economics, government and justice, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology.  

 Lyman Tower Sargent argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are not homogeneous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. SOURCE:  Wikipedia

The television series Star Trek was based upon a Utopia under the control of a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT:   The United Federation of Planets.  And, it was this Federation that operated much like our United Nations but with a hell of a lot more power.  

People did not have to work unless they wanted to and if they did work they were paid according to their level of skill, not necessarily education but some form of formalized training in order to acquire those skills.  They were paid in credits but everything was provided for them:  housing, clothes, transportation, medical, etc.

And, no one bitched about it costing too much money or that one's taxes would be increasing...  it was just an accepted lifestyle.  However, there were some that rejected this space-age lifestyle and preferred to live "off the grid" so to speak but they were non violent and wanted to be left alone.

Star Trek was an instant success because of this ideal lifestyle and living conditions and complete acceptance without concerns or regret...

BUT, that will never happen today because most people do not want to be controlled by the government...  which is one of the main reasons why we wanted our independence from Great Britain.  We wanted to be free of government but we also wanted religious freedom as well...  and, the freedom to be able to say whatever without fear of going to jail.

Utopia's are nice concepts but they are impractical because of man's desire to be different...  no body agrees with everyone else ALL THE TIME...  and, this is exactly why Utopias will always FAIL...  except in Star Trek.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER...

Bad People Among Us

 

America has plenty of bad people and some to spare if they ever wanted to relocate to other countries...  I remember the Watergate Hearings and Senator Sam Ervin from North Carolina who made a statement that few remember I suspect that...  "everyone is a little bit oily."

At my age and physical conditioning, I am suspicious of everyone and am glad that my life experiences have proven that to be a good direction to take.

GREED  --  CONTROL  --  POWER

These are the single most important motivational foundation of most all Americans regardless of their positions, rank, wealth, or political affiliations...  it is a mental disorder that afflicts everyone and is inherent in everyone at the moment of their birth, manifesting itself in various stages as we get older and older...  until there is no need to possess it further as it has possessed you...

Those Who Are Afflicted:

1. Parents
2. Clergy
3. Bosses
4. Supervisors
5. Siblings
6. Politicians
7. Spouses
8. Military
9. Law Enforcement
10. Coaches
11. Lawyers
12. Physicians
13. Athletes
14. Actors
15. Musicians
16. Thieves
17. Criminals
18. Chefs
19. Writers
20. Artists

No one escapes the clutches of these 3 words...  its like the holy trinity of existence...  especially here in America where, for a while, our Democracy and Freedoms flourish...  and, as long as we are in possession of our Democracy and Freedoms, so too will we be possessed by:

GREED  --  CONTROL  --  POWER