As we promised a few months back with the site's relaunch, Betterhumans.com said we would deliver new content in many new forms every month or two. Betterhumans Videos is the next new feature we're proud to roll out.

To get the ball rolling, we've already accumulated about 100 videos covering more than 48 hours of content. We're covering a diverse range of science/technology topics that should be of interest to our community; genomics, space, nanotechnology, life extension, brain plasticity, artificial intelligence, education, the environment, ethics, alternative energy, existential risks, megascale engineering projects, demos of new products, and many more. New content will be added often.

Each video has several tags assigned to it to help you search for specific content. Comments are enabled on each video posted, so please feel free to add your thoughts, links, and additional ideas on as many as you like.
If you have suggestions for specific new videos or comments for what types/sources/lengths of videos you prefer, please share your thoughts!

We hope you enjoy this new feature!

It's been long recognized that current anti-cancer therapies like radiation therapy and some chemotherapeutic agents have an unfortunately overly-abundant list of negative side effects. (examples: http://www.healthcastle.com/cancerse.shtml)
This list may be bigger than we previously thought.

From http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=5454 ;
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center scientists have now linked a treatment-induced growth factor to a cancer's future spread. The team led by Carlos Arteaga, M.D., reports in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation that radiation and chemotherapy increase circulating levels of the growth factor TGF-beta, circulating cancer cells, and tumor metastases in a mouse model of metastatic breast cancer. Blocking TGF-beta in the model
prevented tumor metastases, suggesting that TGF-beta inhibitors may be clinically useful in combination with primary therapies.

The team is currently assessing TGF-beta levels in the serum of patients with breast cancer who are being treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy to shrink the tumor prior to surgery.

“We'll be looking to see in what proportion of patients the serum and tumor TGF-beta goes up, and whether the increase correlates with the inability of the therapy to eliminate the cancer in the breast,” Arteaga said.

Increased circulating and/or tumor TGF-beta in response to treatment may be a marker of tumors destined to progress rapidly after therapy, he said. Patients with such tumors might benefit from the addition of TGF-beta inhibitors to the primary therapy.

Several TGF-beta inhibitors are currently in early stage clinical trials, some of which are being conducted at Vanderbilt.

“It probably isn't just TGF-beta that is having this effect,” Arteaga said. “There are other growth factors and cytokines that have been reported to increase in response to radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, and some of these could also be tumor survival and prometastatic signals.

--
Between research like this, and the research into DCA (http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/)
we are hopefully well on the way to permanently changing cancer from a potential killer to a manageable disease, if not outright curing this awful condition.

As a side-note, I'd like to give a 'shout out' to our great member, Hoelder1in. He has joined the Betterhumans 300 Mprize Initiative by adding a donation to our groups' account. Bravo, Hoelder1in!

If other members wish to join in and help make a difference by actively supporting
healthy life extension research, see here (http://www.betterhumans.com/content/Mprize.aspx) for more information.

Here's a sampling of some great video interviews from around the web...

Many of you may have heard on the news or seen in print last week an article on fruit fly aggression being altered by manipulating a gene. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15814732/

Detailed interview with Edward Kravitz, Dept of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School

http://www.jove.com/Details.htm?ID=156&VID=118

Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is an online journal publishing visualized (video-based) biological research studies. This publication aims to solve some of the most difficult problems in the contemporary life science research.

PBS.org technology columist Robert X. Cringeley interviews…

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/shows/

SuperNerds

Andy Hertzfeld (Macintosh OS)

Max Levchin (Paypal)

Bill Joy (Sun Microsystems)

Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive)

Tim O’Reilly (Internet publisher)

Dave Winer (RSS)

Dan Drake (Autodesk)

Avram Miller (Intel Capital)

Anina

Dan Bricklin (Spreadsheet inventor)

Doug Engelbert (Computer mouse inventor)

Bob Kahn (TCP/IP)

July Estrin (Internet entrepeneur)

More on the way, including Steve Wozniak, Jerry Kaplan, Bob Frankston, Bob Metcalfe +9 more..

Other PBS shows available …

Scientific American Frontiers (last broadcast in 2005)

All shows available

http://www.pbs.org/saf/previous.htm

Selected episodes of NOVA

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs/

And, of course, other cutting edge videos, from our friends at...

http://www.thoughtware.tv/

(fyi - www.thoughtware.tv has joined our ranks as the 2nd group to support the Mprize.)

It's not just a lame John Mayer song. It's what so many of us have been doing for far too long. We pour over the newest science and technology magazines. We visit tons of future-oriented sites (or better yet, subscribe to their RSS feeds). We keep an ear to the wind, straining to hear any mention of advances in nanotechnology, AI, VR, renewable energy, healthy life extension research, or the latest hint of a cure for cancer.

But too many of us have been complacent for too long.

"I'm just a student"
"I don't have enough money to make a real difference."
"What can one person do?"

Wrong, wrong, and so damn wrong. There's plenty of stuff you can do.
Just on this site alone, there are 3 avenues you can take. (shameless plugs coming)

1.) Join the staff and improve the site. This site has so much potential, to gather in people from all walks of life, to share knowledge and plans for the future, and to act on that knowledge. The better the site becomes will lead to more people getting involved, to more knowledge shared, to more power you are given to make a difference. Knowledge is power, more so than muscle, money, fame or beauty.

2.) Donate some loot to the Betterhumans' 300 seat on the Methuselah Foundation's MPrize. The purpose of the group seat was to let people who didn't have tons and tons of money to make a difference and achieve something grand. Funding research for healthy life extension is one of the grandest goals man has ever had. Doesn't take more than a couple of $20s to step up and make a difference. Every bit helps.

3.) Donate some computer power to the Betterhumans Rosetta team. Rosetta@home is a distributed computing project, run by the Baker Laboratory at the University of Washington, aiming to solve the protein structure prediction problem. Its goal is to develop methods that accurately predict and design protein structure and complexes, an endeavor that may ultimately help researchers develop cures for human diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Malaria, viruses and other pathogens. The BH team is led by Hoelder1in, feel free to ask him for more information if you want to join.

What else can you do if you get frisky and decide to leave this site? (shame on you.)

How about help out the Lifeboat Foundation?
How about volunteering at a food bank, for a hospital, or for a politician who doesn't make you physically ill when you think about them running the country, state, or your city?
How about writing your elected officials and letting them know you support stem cell research, alternative energy projects like Cape Wind, or whatever goal you think will make a positive difference, and let them know you expect them to do the same? Why let some special interests or hyper-conservative, uber-religious groups be the only ones talking to your representatives? Or the far left wasting time and demanding the politicians change the Easter Bunny to the Spring Bunny, or taking "God" out of the pledge of allegiance? I'm as athiest as they come, but give me a break. There are far greater issues to deal with...

I believe people that come to sites like this one are a little special. We are looking at the future, and not just the banal extremes of today's modern life. If we don't step up, who will? Are you really comfortable letting Pat Robertson run your life? Do you think the kids from Laguna Beach will have any answers? Angelina can't adopt all of us. ; )

Take a chance and make a difference. Sitting back and waiting is nothing to be proud of. Strive to do something more. Strive to BE something more.

These three technologies have long been in development, but might be finally ready for prime-time.

1.) Too good to be true? A self-sustaining garbage vaporizer that outputs fuel and a glass-like product that could be marketed for many uses. Ultimate waste management tool, if things pan out. New York City and Panama are ready to buy several of the multi-million dollar devices.
Full article from Popular Science here.

2.) How about a car that runs on compressed air? Video here.
Check out the FAQ page on the company's website, to answer many questions like safety and refueling costs/timing.

3.) Jeff Hawkins, creator of the Palm and Treo handhelds, has created a new company called Numenta, which may have made a breakthrough in AI, and is about to issue a 'research release' of its platform. http://www.numenta.com/

Jeff is also featured in the March edition of Wired magazine.

Here's a small list of some next-gen interfaces.  

Best put a napkin on the keyboard, lest your drool while watching these demos mess it all up.

Courtesy of MIT… (link found by Acrinoe)

Smartboard combined with physics simulations.

Good starting point for engineering students. Would love to see more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZNTgglPbUA&eurl

Courtesy of Thoughtware.tv  (link found by Anissimov)

Teddy, A sketching interface for 3d modeling freeform design

http://www.thoughtware.tv/site/show/35

Music Instrument via Tabletop Interface  (link found by Simon)

http://www.iua.upf.es/mtg/reacTable/

Multi-purpose Touchtable Interface (link found by me, cousin.)

Jeff Hand on TED

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/minority-report-becomes-reality-interface-free-touch-driven-screen/

http://on10.net/Blogs/jesse/perceptive-pixel-reinvents-the-human-computer-interface/

FingerSleeve Interface with Haptic Feedback (no video, but sounds cool)

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/04/your-fingers-to-be-the-next-gen-computer-interface/

You want immersion, son? We’re gettin’ close…

Combine this..

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

with

http://www.itheater.com.cn/?gclid=COyT8bzgoooCFQsEVAodyWbJuw

You know of any others? Please provide link. Video demos would be great.

NASA’s Ken Davidian to appear on The Space Show

Ken Davidian, the man behind NASA’s Centennial Challenges (including the Space Elevator Games) is scheduled to appear on The Space Show this coming Sunday, February 11th, from 12:00 noon to 1:30pm (Pacific Time).

If you have questions about any aspect of NASA’s support of the Space Elevator Games, and the Centennial Challenges in general, please listen to this show and phone or email in your questions.  Dr. David Livingston, who hosts The Space Show, does a fine job in both interviewing his guests and in making sure that all listener questions are addressed.

..and for those who want some refreshers on this subject, how 'bout some older video and audio feeds...

Nova
Space Elevator Competition Site
NPR

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.  

 read this full article here...

 http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10971&feedId=online-news_rss20

So is the University of Alberta, Edmonton the only place researching this drug for cancer?

I've found indications that UCSF has used DCA since July '03, but not necessarily towards cancer research (polyglutamine diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, etc..)

If anyone else has further information, more in-depth than the above article, please let us know...

Interesting development over at PBS...

from http://discoblog.discover.com/2007/01/pbs_be_our_prod.html