Lifeboat Foundation

A new study in mice found limited intakes of one particular essential amino acid slowed the impacts of ageing and even lengthened their lifespan.

Scientists are now wondering if these findings could help people improve their longevity and quality of life.

Isoleucine is one of three branched-chain amino acids we use to build proteins in our bodies. It is essential for our survival, but since our cells can’t produce it from scratch, we have to get it from sources like eggs, dairy, soy protein and meats.

Design Cells / iStock.

The tool can correct genetic errors, control gene activity, and potentially treat diseases like cancer. However, its use raises ethical concerns regarding altering human genes and embryos.

Data is the vital force of large AI models, and thus of the industry itself. But it’s also a finite resource — and companies could run out.

Humanity has sent probes to other planets, to their moons, and even into interstellar space, but we have yet to reach another star system.

Now that’s forward thinking but it’ll be a long while. But that’s science!

Nothing escapes black holes, but over the decades researchers have worked out ways to get some energy out of them. Some happen naturally, and some energy can be stolen in clever ways. Now, researchers have worked out novel approaches to use black holes as power sources, suggesting that they can be used as either batteries or nuclear reactors.

The assumption of this study is a Schwarzschild black hole – one that has no electric charge or angular momentum. So, it’s neutral and it doesn’t spin. By dropping charged particles on it, the black holes can be made to have a static electric field – and suddenly, you have the makings of a battery.

Continue reading “Black Holes Could Be Used As Batteries Or Nuclear Reactors” »

What is the weather like on water-rich exoplanets? This is something a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to shed light on as a team of researchers conducted laboratory experiments to simulate how hazy skies might form on such exoplanets throughout the cosmos. Haze changes the way light reacts to various gases within a planet’s atmosphere, which alters what astronomers detect, as well. This study comes as the number of potential water-rich exoplanets continues to grow and holds the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions necessary for the formation and evolution of water-rich exoplanets, including how life might form and evolve on them, whether on their surfaces or in their atmospheres.

Artist illustration of water-rich exoplanets comprised of hazy atmospheres, which was the focus of this study. (Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University)

“The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system, but trying to answer that kind of question requires really detailed modeling of all different types, specifically in planets with lots of water,” said Dr. Sarah Hörst, who is an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author on the study. “This has been a huge challenge because we just don’t have the lab work to do that, so we are trying to use these new lab techniques to get more out of the data that we’re taking in with all these big fancy telescopes.”

GPT-4 for radiology.

As the benefits of AI in healthcare continue to emerge, we investigate GPT-4’s potential in radiology. Learn about research exploring GPT-4’s potential in assisting report structuring, classifying diseases, and generating comprehensive findings summaries:

Researchers report that they have developed a new composite material designed to change behaviors depending on temperature in order to perform specific tasks. These materials are poised to be part of the next generation of autonomous robotics that will interact with the environment.

The new study conducted by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Shelly Zhang and graduate student Weichen Li, in collaboration with professor Tian Chen and graduate student Yue Wang from the University of Houston, uses computer algorithms, two distinct polymers, and 3D printing to reverse engineer a material that expands and contracts in response to temperature change with or without human intervention.

Continue reading “Researchers engineer a material that can perform different tasks depending on temperature” »

Life expectancy and healthy aging in mice can be determined by a protein present in some cells of the immune system, according to a study published in the journal Cell Reports. When this protein—known as the CD300f immune receptor—is absent, animal models have a shorter life expectancy and suffer from pathologies associated with cognitive decline and premature aging, especially in females.

“Our study indicates that alterations in immune system cells, for instance, in macrophages and microglia, can determine the healthy aging degree in mice,” notes Hugo Peluffo, leader of this study and member of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) of the University of Barcelona.

Understanding how the CD300f immune receptor —and the myeloid cells of the immune system—can determine by themselves the onset rate of aging-associated pathologies, “will help to better understand this process, and it will contribute to the design of strategies to regulate its action. For instance, using the immune receptor CD300f as a target in biomedicine,” notes the expert. “Also, our team has previously shown that some variants of the CD300f immune receptor could be useful as biomarkers in patients.”