Lifeboat Foundation

Computers, cars, mobile phones, toasters: countless everyday objects contain microchips. They’re tiny, unremarkable and cheap, but since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve been at the center of a political and industrial tug of war.

Against the backdrop of the trade war between China and the US, “The Microchip War” spotlights all the aspects of this conflict. In the film, the world’s most influential actors in this industrial sector weigh in.

Continue reading “The global battle over microchips | DW Documentary” »

Good telescope that I’ve used to learn the basics: https://amzn.to/35r1jAk.
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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the incredible effects gut microbiome has on our body.
Links:
https://www.clarkson.edu/news/microbes-gut-might-affect-pers…s-research.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fecal-transplants-…180978416/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03532-0
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00093-9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut%E2%80%93brain_axis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_microbiota.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/3/466
#microbiome #gut #bacteria.

Continue reading “Bacteria Living Inside Our Guts Have Mindblowing Effects On Us” »

Particles dispersed in a liquid typically jitter aimlessly in response to the random buffeting they receive from the molecules that surround them. But if the liquid is subjected to a steep temperature gradient, this random motion can become directional as the temperature gradient sets up flows that move the particles from hot regions of the liquid to colder ones. The theory of this so-called thermophoresis is actively developing, but direct observations of both the suspended particles and the liquid molecules are scant. Now Tetsuro Tsuji of Kyoto University in Japan and his colleagues have experimentally characterized the tiny surface flows that drive thermophoresis [1]. Those flows could be harnessed to move and concentrate DNA and other large biomolecules that are suspended in liquids.

For their experiments, the team glued a single polystyrene sphere, 7 µm in diameter, to the lid of a tiny transparent box. They filled the box with water laced with 500-nm-diameter fluorescent tracers. Shining a laser up through the bottom of the box, the team repeatedly drew a circle around the sphere, a process that trapped tracers located within the circle of light. The team focused a second laser, tuned to one of water’s absorption bands, at a spot 18 µm from the polystyrene sphere, locally heating the water to create a temperature gradient in the liquid and across the sphere.

Using a microscope the team observed that, after a few seconds, the tracers started flowing over the sphere’s surface, moving from the sphere’s cold end to its warmer one. From the observations, the researchers showed that this flow imparted momentum to the sphere. They also inferred the force that would have propelled the sphere away had it not been immobilized. Modeling the system under different conditions confirmed the inferences.

A dynamical tension model captures how cells swap places with their neighbors in epithelial tissues, explaining observed phase transitions and cellular architectures.

Epithelial tissues line the surfaces of every organ in our bodies. In the earliest stages of organ development and in wound healing, the cells that make up these simple sheets constantly rearrange themselves, exchanging positions like molecules in a liquid. But this fluidization is often hindered by the formation of multicell clusters, whose origins remain unclear. Using a dynamical structural model, Fernanda Pérez-Verdugo and Shiladitya Banerjee of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania now identify the mechanical prerequisites that lead to the formation and dissolution of these stabilized clusters [1]. They show how dynamic feedback between tension and strain controls the tissue’s material properties.

Existing models of tissue fluidity treat epithelial tissues as foam-like, polygonal networks of cells whose edges join at triple points. However, these models fail to explain the mechanisms underpinning cell neighbor exchanges. In particular, they oversimplify such exchanges by treating them as an instantaneous process, thereby avoiding the impact of exchanges that stall midprocess. One resulting discrepancy with experimental results is the absence of stable “rosette” structures that are observed in developing tissues where four or more cells meet.

It causes the air sacs of the lungs to fill up with fluid or pus. It can range from mild to severe, depending on the type of germ causing the infection, your age, and your overall health.

What causes pneumonia?

Bacterial, viral, and fungal infections can cause pneumonia.

Sumit Rana, head of research and development, discusses how the EHR giant’s system uses AI to generate progress notes, create draft responses to patient questions and assist with medical coding. And how AI sometimes can be more empathetic than a person.

This protocol for the spatiotemporal control of RNA activity uses LicV, a synthetic, photoswitchable RNA-binding protein (RBP) that can bind to a specific RNA sequence in response to blue light irradiation, and provides an efficient and generalizable strategy for engineering photoswitchable RBPs.

After five years, more than 350,000 hours of genome sequencing, and over £200 million of investment, UK Biobank is releasing the world’s largest-by-far single set of human sequencing data—completing the most ambitious project of its kind ever undertaken. The new data, whole genome sequences of its half a million participants, will certainly drive the discovery of new diagnostics, treatments, and cures. Uniquely, the data are available to approved researchers worldwide, via a protected database containing only de-identified data.

This advance lies not only in the abundance of genomic data, but its use in combination with the existing data UK Biobank has collected over the past 15 years on lifestyle, whole body imaging scans, health information, and proteins found in the blood. The Pharma Proteomics Project was published last month in Nature, in the paper, “Plasma proteomic associations with genetics and health in the UK Biobank.”

Looking forward, these data could be used to further advance efforts such as more targeted drug discovery and development, discovering thousands of disease-causing noncoding genetic variants, accelerating precision medicine, and understanding the biological underpinnings of disease.

The drug, LOY-001, works by interacting with a hormone that accelerates aging.