Richard Leis

Month: October 2007

  • Armadillo Aerospace’s Latest Competition Attempt Fails

    With the moon visible overhead, Armadillo Aerospace unsuccessfully attempted to win the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup this weekend at Holloman Air Force Base. The only competitor of nine ready to go for the event, Armadillo Aerospace, led by John Carmack of Doom and Quake fame, experienced both successes…

  • X PRIZE Cup – Table of Contents

    A race to space is shaping up in the private industry and once a year the public is invited to see the latest breakthroughs, vehicles, and competitions intended to accelerate this progress. The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup was held October 26 through 28 at the Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA. Combined…

  • HiRISE Releases False Color Images of Potential MSL Landing Sites

    The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) team today released a slew of new false color images of the surface of Mars to the public, the culmination of many months of software and automation development.

  • Article Published: “No Graveyard” in Cryonics Volume 29.1

    Magazine cover of Cryonics Volume 29:2 2nd Quarter 2008 with transparent knight chess pieces on a black and white chessboard

    “Alcor is no graveyard.”

  • Alcor Conference – Table of Contents

    [11 August 2021 Statement by Richard Leis about Transhumanism, Life Extension, and Related Organizations and Movements] Frontier Channel liveblogging from the 7th Alcor Conference: Event Announcement Frontier Channel at 7th Alcor Conference Introduction Day 1 Steve Bridges Brian Wowk First Break Stephen Van Sickle Tanya Jones Luncheon Ralph Merkle Michael West Afternoon Break Aubrey de…

  • Sputnik 1: 50 Years Later

    [History] | [Commentary] Plenty of space blogs, organizations, and media outlets are marked last Thursday as the 50 year anniversary of the first artificial satellite in Earth orbit, Sputnik 1. On October 04, 1957 Russia surprised the United States by demonstrating their technological prowess with the successful launch of Sputnik 1. The “artificial moon” did…

  • Rumor: Artificial Life

    Although the following news appears to have been confirmed by Craig Venter, it should be viewed as rumor until there is an official announcement. The Guardian is reporting that Venter and a team of scientists have created artificial life, in the form of an artificial chromosome that can make use of another organism’s cellular machinery…

  • Alcor Conference – Chris Heward

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Chris Heward discussed his work on the “Kronos Longitudinal Aging Study (KLAS)” as a measurement of human aging. KRONOS Science Laboratory is a research institution in Phoenix, AZ, USA. Heward showed a graph of progress in life expectancy at birth and at 65. Life expectancy at birth has…

  • Alcor Conference – Christine Peterson

    [11 August 2021 Statement by Richard Leis about Transhumanism, Life Extension, and Related Organizations and Movements] [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Christine Peterson presented “Good News, Bad News, Surprising News” about life extension. She now spends about half time studying life extension as an enthusiast. She began by stating that terminology matters. Which terms…

  • Alcor Conference – Calvin Mercer

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Calvin Mercer asked “Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes?”  Cryonics, Mercer believes, will require support from more people than just scientists, including religious people.  How should cryogenics supporters present these ideas to religious people? How the discussion will play out, according to Mercer, will include debates between liberal…

  • Alcor Conference – Morning Break

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Popcorn, cookies, and pretzels. We talked to a couple who are musicians and Alcor members about how art can be used to promote life extension and transhumanism.

  • Alcor Conference – Calvin Mercer

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Calvin Mercer asked “Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes?” Cryonics, Mercer believes, will require support from more people than just scientists, including religious people. How should cryogenics supporters present these ideas to religious people? How the discussion will play out, according to Mercer, will include debates between liberal…

  • Alcor Conference – Steven Harris

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Steven Harris is a researcher developing “Rapid Body Cooling for Prevention of Brain Damage.” Rapid body cooling technologies are important to both cryonics and emerging short-term treatments. Hypothermia induced by lowering the body temperature by 4 degrees Celsius in five minutes could allow sufficient time for medical care…

  • Alcor Conference – Morning Panel

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Day two of the Alcor Conference. The day began with the “Human Cryopreservation and Critical Care Medicine Panel,” including Alcor’s Tanya Jones, critical care physician David Crippen and bioethicist Leslie Whetstine and moderated by Aschwin de Wolf. [Recap] The panelists discussed the various definitions death, including legal and biological,…

  • Alcor Conference – Alcor Board of Directors Panel

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Stephen Van Sickle, Ralph Merkle, Michael R. Seidl, and Brian Wowk of the Alcor Board of Directors answered questions from the audience for the last session of the day. The Board addressed questions about the current state of Alcor finances. Alcor is financially stable, with the following sources of…

  • Alcor Conference – Aubrey de Grey

    [11 August 2021 Statement by Richard Leis about Transhumanism, Life Extension, and Related Organizations and Movements] [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Does Aubrey de Grey really need an introduction at this point? His public proposal for repairing and reversing the damage of aging, SENS, and his public admission of being an Alcor member…

  • Alcor Conference – Afternoon Break

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] Ice cream! Networking! Being nearly run over by busy organizers!

  • Alcor Conference – Michael West

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Another approach to recovery of cryonics patients, or patients prior to requiring cryonics, is regenerative medicine, that is, the ability to use stem cells to rebuild tissues. Michael West from Advanced Cell Technology discussed “Immortal Cells: The Prospect of Regenerative Medicine.” The biology of aging remains a mystery,…

  • Alcor Conference – Ralph Merkle

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] [Recap] Nanotechnology. Once only an obscure buzzword among fringe techno-progressives, nanotechnology has emerged both as a multi-billion dollar industry and a controversial technology that could lead, according to some, to a prosperous future of plenty, or, according to others, the destruction of the Earth. The word has become increasingly…

  • Alcor Conference – Luncheon

    [Alcor Conference – Table of Contents] It is time for lunch. These breaks, lunches, and dinners are includes in the conference package and sponsored and funded by organizations or wealthier Alcor members. These sponsors have been mentioned between talks.