Howe and Howe unveils Ripsaw EV-2 "luxury tank"

The Ripsaw EV2 could be described as Mad Max and Batman's love child (Credit: Howe and Howe)

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If you've seen Mad Max: Fury Road, then you'll be familiar with the tank-tracked Peacemaker chase vehicle. In fact, the Peacemaker was actually a modified Ripsaw, an off-road vehicle manufactured by Maine-based Howe and Howe Technologies. Although the movie version had a car body on top, the consumer/military version is open-topped. Now, however, Howe & Howe has announced the new-and-enclosed Ripsaw EV2 (Extreme Vehicle 2) – it's described as a "high-end luxury super tank."
Little is available in technical details right now, which is partly due to the fact that the EV2 will be made largely to individual buyers' specs.
We can tell you, however, that it has a power winch, gull-wing doors, a high-intensity light bar, 12 inches (30 cm) of suspension travel, and a diesel engine that puts out over 600 hp. It additionally has an interior that looks more like something out of one of the Batman movies than a Mad Max creation
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There are also no performance specs just yet, although the company does state that the original Ripsaw (which is the base of the EV2) is the fastest dual-tracked vehicle ever made.
Should you be wanting one, you'd better be quick, patient and wealthy. Howe and Howe states that the Ripsaw EV2 will be made by hand in a limited run, each one taking up to six months to build, and costing "well into the 100s of thousands depending on desired luxury and performance packages."

Source: Ripsaw

Japanese nuclear plant cleared to restart

Thu, 05/28/2015 - 12:50pm

 

Associated Press

 

 

Today, a nuclear plant in southern Japan obtained the final permit needed to restart its reactors, paving the way for it to become the first to go back online under new safety standards introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

All of Japan's more than 40 reactors are currently offline for repairs or safety inspections. The two units at the Sendai nuclear power plant are among 24 reactors seeking to restart, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pro-business government tries to put as many back online as possible.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority approved the Sendai plant's operational safety plans, the last step of a three-part screening process. The plant's safety program includes emergency response plans in case of fire, floods or other natural disasters or a serious accident.

The plant, owned by Kyushu Electric Power Co., won approval in September of the safety of its reactors and other equipment under tighter rules set after a powerful 2011 earthquake and tsunami decimated the Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan.

Abe's government says nuclear energy is vital for resource-poor Japan's economy. It is now finalizing plans for Japan's long-term energy mix and is seeking to have nuclear energy supply about 20 to 22% of its energy needs in 2030, although public opinion remains divided.

While local municipalities have already approved the Sendai plant's restart, many residents oppose the plan, citing potential danger from active volcanos in the region.

Kyushu Electric hopes to restart one reactor at the Sendai plant in late July after onsite tests and training and the other in late September, though there could be some delays.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka reminded the utility of the importance of safety education and training for plant workers after a multi-year stoppage. Kyushu Electric vowed to further improve the emergency response training of its workers and ensure safety.

Researchers may have discovered fountain of youth by reversing aging in human cells

 

Japanese noriben, in the shape of mitochondria (Credit: University of Tsukuba)

Researchers in Japan have found that human aging may be able to be delayed or even reversed, at least at the most basic level of human cell lines. In the process, the scientists from the University of Tsukuba also found that regulation of two genes is related to how we age.
The new findings challenge one of the current popular theories of aging, that lays the blame for humans' inevitable downhill slide with mutations that accumulate in our mitochondrial DNA over time. Mitochondrion are sometimes likened to a cellular "furnace" that produces energy through cellular respiration. Damage to the mitochondrial DNA results in changes or mutations in the DNA sequence that build up and are associated with familiar signs of aging like hair loss, osteoporosis and, of course, reduced lifespan.
So goes the theory, at least. But the Tsukuba researchers suggest that something else may be going on within our cells. Their research indicates that the issue may not be that mitochondrial DNA become damaged, but rather that genes get turned "off" or "on" over time. Most intriguing, the team led by Professor Jun-Ichi Hayashi was able to flip the switches on a few genes back to their youthful position, effectively reversing the aging process.

The researchers came to this conclusion by comparing the function level of the mitochondria in fibroblast cell lines from children under 12 years of age to those of elderly people between 80 and 97. As expected, the older cells had reduced cellular respiration, but the older cells did not show more DNA damage than those from children. This discovery led the team to propose that the reduced cellular function is tied to epigenetic regulation, changes that alter the physical structure of DNA without affecting the DNA sequence itself, causing genes to be turned on or off. Unlike mutations that damage that sequence, as in the other, aforementioned theory of aging, epigenetic changes could possibly be reversed by genetically reprogramming cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state, effectively turning back the clock on aging.

For a broad comparison, imagine that a power surge hits your home's electrical system. If not properly wired, irreversible damage or even fire may result. However, imagine another home in which the same surge trips a switch in this home's circuit breaker box. Simply flipping that breaker back to the "on" position should make it operate as good as new. In essence, the Tsukuba team is proposing that our DNA may not become fried with age as previously thought, but rather simply requires someone to access its genetic breaker box to reverse aging.

To test the theory, the researchers found two genes associated with mitochondrial function 
and essentially experimented with turning them on or off. In doing so, they were able to create defects or restore cellular respiration. These two genes regulate glycine, an amino acid, production in mitochondria, and in one of the more promising findings, a 97-year-old cell line saw its cellular respiration restored after the addition of glycine for 10 days.

The researchers' findings were published this month in the journal Scientific Reports.
Whether or not this process could be a potential fountain of youth for humans and not just human fibroblast cell lines still remains to be seen, with much more testing required. However, if the theory holds, glycine supplements could one day become a powerful tool for life extension.

Similar research from the Salk Institute has also recently looked at other ways to slow down or stop aging at a cellular level, while yet another team is looking into a new class of drugs called senolytics that could help slow aging. 

Source: University of Tsukuba