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Category Archives: Futurism

Startup Working on Space Babies, But the Risks Are Grim – Futurism

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If humans intend to conquer the stars and spread civilization beyond Earth, we really need to figure out sex: can humans conceive and have babies in places such as Mars, where factors like high amounts of radiation and lower gravitycould wreck the adult body, nevermind potentially hindering natural conception and deforming growing fetuses?

A growing number of researchers and entrepreneurs want to tackle those questions. Take this startup called Spaceborn United, which we've blogged about previously.

The company is still hard at work, according to new reporting from AFP, with the aim of having a baby naturally conceived and born on Mars in the future.

"If you want to have independent human settlements beyond Earth, and if you really want them to be independent, you also need to address the reproductive challenge," Dutch entrepreneur and Spaceborn head Egbert Edelbroek told the news agency. "It's important that the Earth and humanity can become a multiplanetary species."

As a start, Spaceborn has developed a miniature IVF-like device that fertilizes the ovum and grows the resultant embryo while the device spins in order to replicate gravity on Earth. Right now, it's busy experimenting with mouse gametes and plans to eventually tackle human reproduction.

The Spaceborn team have been experimenting with these devices in a laboratory setting that replicates low gravity conditions. They aim to send mouse specimens in these devices into space at the end of 2024, and then send human embryos into space in several years.

Back in September, Edelbroek told the BBC that it was unethical and medically not sound to achieve natural conception in space, though the most recent article from AFP seems to imply that thinking is shifting.

The scientists had 720 fertilized mice embryos shipped to the space station back in August 2021. They were frozen at the two-cell stage and the aim was to grow them abroad the space station until they reached blastocyst stage, when they have grown to multiple cells.

But there was a problem with the experiment that shows the pitfalls of reproduction in space. Of the embryos incubated on the space station, 23.6 percent reached the blastocyst stage. Embryos incubated in an artificial gravity scenario had a 29.5 percent chance. And back on Earth, a control group of mouse embryos had a 61.2 percent rate of reaching blastocyst stage.

While the results show it's technically feasible to grow embryos in space, in other words, the conditions are clearly not ideal.

So if you set aside these results, which the Japanese researchers spun as positive, and the optimism of people like Edelbroek, and you drill into the particulars of having sex in space and reproducing, it just seems like a really bad idea.

Any potential colony on the Moon or Mars will be a harsh, unforgiving place due to cosmic radiation unfiltered by a protective atmosphere, and the lack of an Earth-like gravity that would harm our bodies. Not to mention being cooped up in a rabbit warren-like habitable pods with a small group of people that you may grow to detest over time.

At the end of the day, imagine conceiving a child in this kind of environment, like Mars, and they grow up with space-related medical issues because you and your kid live in a place that human bodies are not meant to inhabit.

That's the conclusion some are reaching. Besides the monetary and environmental cost to develop ships and colonies off planet, the cost on the human body is high from ruined vision and a faltering immune system to increased chances of cancer and brittle bones.

Maybe we're meant to stay on the ground and just peer at the stars from the safety of our beautiful home planet.

More on space embryos: Startup Planning to Launch IVF and Embryo Incubator Into Space

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Elon Musk Says There’s a "Large Graveyard Filled With My Enemies" – Futurism

Is he... Cringe Alert

It's another week, and that means it's time for another weird online outburst from cars-and-rockets-and-social-media guy Elon Musk, who continues to make headlines on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, for all the wrong reasons.

Just a few days ago, Musk caused a crisis when he endorsed an incendiary and antisemitic post on the site. Lest you thought he'd calm down after that garbage fire, he then posted this week that there's a "large graveyard filled with my enemies. I do not wish to add to it, but will if given no choice."

"Those who pick fights with me do so at their own peril, but maybe this is their lucky day" he added ominously.

If you haven't cut yourself on all that edge yet, the middle-aged Musk was replying to a picture of himself brandishing a samurai sword in front of an American flag with a Musk quote as a caption: "I try not to pick fights, but I do finish them."

X users chimed in with questionsabout whether his cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still on, as well as with cheers and of course jeers.

True crime podcaster and writer Thomas Kennedy had a particularly cringe zinger: "The only graveyard is the value of Twitter since you took over the company."

Ouch.

And in any case, what graveyard of enemies?! It seems most of Musk's big-name adversaries, such as Peter Thiel, are doing pretty well. In his much-vaunted feud with Zuckerberg, that rivalry seems lopsided because Zuck is in clearly better shape than Musk, despite a knee injury that required surgery, and X seems to be hemorrhaging money, with news that Apple and IBM are pulling their advertising coming on the heels of Musk's antisemitic outburst.

If anything, his legion of enemies seems to have grown over the years among them the Tesla customers who are pissed at him over his awful posts on X, and X users themselves, many of whom have decamped elsewhere.

As if to preempt all the predictable derision, Musk replied to his own post: "Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I am my own worst enemy by far. No need for others to dig my grave when Im doing it so well myself lmao."

More on Elon Musk: Apple Drops Ads on Twitter After Elon Musks Antisemitic Outburst

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The Hole in the Ozone Layer Is Getting Bigger Again, Scientists Say – Futurism

"The 2023 ozone hole has already surpassed the size of the three years prior." Holed Up

A large hole in the Antarctic ozone layer once thought to be steadily closing could actually be widening, according to new research, casting doubt on whether global efforts to heal the ozone have been successful after all.

Most scientists would disagree. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, contradict the broader consensus that the ozone has been steadily recovering over the past four decades.

By analyzing both monthly and daily changes in the ozone from 2004 to 2022, the researchers found that the ozone hole has significantly less ozone than it did 19 years ago, with levels declining by a shocking 26 percent.

"Our analysis ended with data from 2022, but as of today the 2023 ozone hole has already surpassed the size of the three years prior late last month it was over 26 million square kilometers, nearly twice the area of Antarctica," said study lead author Hannah Kessenich at the University of Otago said in a statement about the work.

Located miles above the surface in the stratosphere, the ozone layer is essential to life on Earth, shielding our planet from the Sun's harsh ultraviolet radiation. To protect it, world leaders at the United Nation passed the landmark Montreal Protocol in 1987, internationally banning a chemical used in aerosols called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that scientists discovered just years earlier was depleting the ozone.

The treaty has been widely hailed as a huge environmental victory. This year, a UN report projected that the ozone will return to 1980s levels by 2040.

But Kessenich and her team argue that it's too soon to pat ourselves on the back.

"Most major communications about the ozone layer over the last few years have given the public the impression that the 'ozone issue' has been solved," Kessenich said. "While the Montreal Protocol has vastly improved our situation with CFCs destroying ozone, the hole has been among the largest on record over the past three years, and in two of the five years prior to that."

So the ban on CFCs did work but they may not be the sole culprit if we're to explain this recent widening. Instead, the researchers suggest that ozone depletion could also be driven by the Antarctic polar vortex, a low pressure swirl of cold, westerly winds. So far, they've noted a link between changes in the vortex and declines in the ozone, but can't explain why this would happen.

The researchers' peers aren't quite convinced, though. Martin Jucker at the Climate Change ResearchCentre at the University of New South Wales notes that existing literature has already found that these holes were caused by climate events such as the 2019 bushfires and a massive volcanic eruption.

"It is important to note that the ozone hole is extremely variable from year to year, meaning that it can be large one year and small the other year," Jucker wrote in response to the paper on SciMex. "It is only over longer terms that a trend can be identified," he explained, criticizing the study for "using only 22 years" of data.

Still, right or wrong, the researchers say their work highlights "the importance of continued monitoring of the state of the ozone layer."

More on Earth: A Supernova Blew Out Part of Earth's Atmosphere, Scientists Say

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Scientists Say These Villains Are Causing Way More Than Their … – Futurism

Fat cats, living high on the hog. Big Carbon

As some climatologists fret over the morality of flying on an airplane, the richest among us haven't curbed their lifestyle due to any climate change concerns and are actually spending far more on luxuries than usual lately.

Putting this in particularly stark climate terms, a new study from Oxfam confirms that the richest 1 percent of the world had the same carbon footprint in 2019 as the poorest 66 percent, or the equivalent of 5 billion people.

For perspective, 59.4 million people in the world have a net worth of over $1 million, but the top 1 percent are worth over $11 million a minuscule proportion of the ultra-elite thats responsible for an obscene amount of the planets impending global warming doom.

"This report from Oxfam makes it glaringly clear: these are not separate issues," said climate activist Greta Thunberg in the foreword of the Oxfam study. "Climate breakdown and inequality are linked together and fuel each other. If we are to overcome one, we must overcome both."

The study, jointly conducted with the Stockholm Environment Institute, also found that the 1 percent are responsible for so many emissions that any carbon savings from off-shore wind turbines is moot, among other sobering facts.

Whats glaring in the data and testimony in the report is that while the rich are responsible for an outsize share of carbon emissions, its the poorest who will suffer most from the detrimental impact of climate change. For example, global warming will impact the availability of food and potable water whose scarcity will hurt the poor, while the rich can just pay extra for those necessities.

To change this dynamic, the Oxfam report calls for a tax on wealthy individuals and corporations, with proceeds going towards the Global South that would fund an energy transition and help ameliorate adverse effects of climate change on the poor.

The study says that a 60 percent income tax on the 1 percent would able to reduce emissions at more than the total carbon emissions of the United Kingdom and generate an annual figure of $6.4 trillion for a robust energy transition away from fossil fuels.

Would a climate tax on the wealthy have a snowballs chance in hell of happening? With stories of rich people trying to hide their wealth in off-shore accounts, most likely not. But perhaps this sobering report would make them think twice about flying off to Majorca in a private jet.

More on climate change: Exxon is Trying to Find the Guy Who Did Climate Change

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Wave of Volcanoes Erupting Around the World is Totally Normal … – Futurism

The Earth is typically this busy. Hot Topic

A seeming barrage of volcanoes have erupted across the world this past week. Scenes hitting the news of a volcano in Mexico billowing smoke and ash, another in Italy spewing lava, an undersea volcano dredging up a whole new island in Japan, and a town in Iceland dramatically evacuated as steam hisses through cracks opened in the Earth, warning of an imminent eruption.

Taken together, it may seem rather apocalyptic, and some have speculated on social media that the volcanic activity is unusually high, as if hinting at some sort of geological conspiracy. But according to experts, there's nothing to be alarmed about; these levels of volcanism are pretty much par for the course.

"This is totally normal," said Janine Krippner, a physical volcanologist at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, on X-formerly-Twitter.

There are 46 volcanoes in "continuing eruption" as of 11 October 2023, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, which means they are intermittently erupting at least every three months (and some, like the volcano in Mexico, have been erupting since 2005). The typical amount is between 40-50, with about 20 erupting on any given day.

Christopher Kilburn, a professor of volcanology and geophysical hazards at University College London, agrees it's not at all unusual for a dozen volcanoes to be erupting simultaneously.

"However, there may be an unusual increase in the number of reports that circulate in the media, especially if a volcano is near a populated area or when dramatic video is available showing an eruption in progress," Kilburn told Newsweek.

Jenni Barclay of the University of East Anglia was a little more blunt. "This is very much an instance of people noticing volcanoes erupting more than usual," she told the magazine.

To that end, the evacuation of the small Icelandic town Grandavik this week has provided plenty of spectacle. Footage shared in the news and online show the town's roads cleaved asunder from volcanic activity, and footage of its 3,500 or so residents hurriedly retrieving their belongings from their homes. Authorities fear a high likelihood of an eruption, though exactly when is unclear.

It's unsettling, to be sure, but Iceland and Grandavik's region in particular is a hotbed of volcanic activity, so this is hardly unprecedented for the Nordic nation.

Edward Llewellin, a volcanologist at Durham University in England, told Newsweek that Iceland's headline-making eruptions in the recent past, such as when the volcano Eyjafjallajkull blew its top in 2010 and significantly disrupted air travel, has led to "elevated interest" in the nation's volcanism, which is why the current activity near Grandavik "is making the news even though there is no eruption, yet."

In sum, it's good that more people are warming up to volcanism but let's not blow anything out of proportion.

More on Earthly happenings: Residents Alarmed When Pond Turns Bright Pink

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This Apparently Wasn’t the First Time Sam Altman Was Dramatically … – Futurism

Why does this keep happening? Got the Boot

As more details are revealed about the drama at OpenAI, insiders are coming forward with anonymous anecdotes about all manner of messiness from Sam Altman's past.

In an extraordinary expos, the Washington Post has revealed for the first time that Altman was not only fired from the tech incubator Y Combinator in 2019, but that the organization's founder Paul Graham was the one who did the sacking.

Though prior reports said only that Altman had "stepped down" from his role as young president of the incubator, three people familiar with the matter told WaPo that Graham, who was something of a mentor to the younger tech guru, flew from the United Kingdom to San Francisco to personally give his proteg the boot.

"It was the school of loose management," one ofWaPo's insiders said, "that is all about prioritizing whats in it for me."

Altman was also, curiously enough, fired by a close colleague at OpenAI on Friday. According to a timeline of events posted over the weekend by the company's former board president Greg Brockman, cofounder Ilya Sutskever sacked Altman in a Google Meet call far less personal than an international trip for a face-to-face discussion, but that's business in a post-COVID world.

The now-reinstated CEO was, as is now very public, fired by OpenAI's board for allegedly being less than candid when communicating with them, though the exact details remain a topic of intense speculation.

But this latest revelation about his termination at Y Combinator suggests shows that at the very least, the blowout wasn't unprecedented.

More on Altman: OpenAI Employees Say Firm's Chief Scientist Has Been Making Strange Spiritual Claims

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