THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE IN '08 FOR SURE...

by Pierre Baltadano


Hwhaat! This is some crazy stuff...and one of the reasons why I love architecture and design. Paris-based Serero Architects have won the open competition to redesign any of the Eiffel Tower's public areas. Serero's project plans on extending the top floor plate of the tower by raising a carbon Kevlar structure on it. The structure won't permanently modify the famous structure in expanding the usable floor area from around 900 SF to around 1,900 SF. I am intrigued by this but we'll see if I can walk on this



[Pictures and Story... Bustler.net via Archinect.com]

...WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?!!!

by Pierre Baltadano


Via io9.com

Over at LA's own USC, scientists have come upon a breakthrough development wherein they have been able to stretch the lifespan of yeast bacteria tenfold. They did this by tweaking two genes that can be catalysts for aging in yeast and cancer in human cells. This procedure can possibly be done in humans due to similarities in the genes and a group of people from Ecuador, that have mutations with effects similar to the yeast study, are being studied by the scientists.

Now this, in my eyes, could be great for learning how to deal with cell regeneration after an illness, accident, or damage, but would I really want to be treated so that I could live nearly a century or close to a millenium? It could be great to spend different periods working in different fields or taking my time exploring so many projects, but how weird would it have so much time?

Would people lazy through school or spend moments of their lives being bums? How out of control could population, resource, and infrastructure issues get? Then again it could be great for science and development of medical research, medicine, or theory. All I know is that things could get crazy if we can live past our currently foreseeable future but we'll just have to wait and see now won't we. Will we want to though?