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Oct 8, 2024

FDA-Approved Antidepressant Treats Incurable Brain Cancer in Preclinical Trial

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A widely available and inexpensive antidepressant drug may soon save lives from an altogether different kind of disease.

The growth of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma, was effectively suppressed in both ex vivo human tissue samples and in living mice by an FDA approved serotonin modulator currently used to treat major depression.

It’s not a cure, but it may offer some relief and constitute an effective part of a treatment regime for glioblastoma patients. Human clinical trials are the next step; patients are cautioned against self-medicating at this stage.

Oct 8, 2024

Plant-based diets and urological health

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

Plant-based diets have grown in popularity owing to multiple health and environmental benefits.


Here, the authors describe the evidence concerning plant-based dietary patterns and omnivorous diets with reduced consumption of animal-based food and increased consumption of plant-based foods and their associations with the most common urological cancers and benign urological conditions.

Oct 7, 2024

Inside the Zoo: A Rare and Life-Preserving Cheetah Surgery

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

National Zoo And Conservation Biology Institute

With the help of 3D modeling technology, a team of veterinary experts successfully carried out a rare spinal surgery on an 11-month-old cheetah cub at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in August.

Oct 7, 2024

New algorithm could reduce energy requirements of AI systems by up to 95 percent

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

Researchers have developed an algorithm that could dramatically reduce the energy consumption of artificial intelligence systems.

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Scientists at BitEnergy AI created a method called “Linear-complexity multiplication” (L-Mul) that replaces complex floating-point multiplications in AI models with simpler integer additions.

Oct 7, 2024

Can AI have common sense? Finding out will be key to achieving machine intelligence

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The advent of LLMs has reopened a debate about the limits of machine intelligence — and requires new benchmarks of what reasoning consists of.

One milestone along that journey is the demonstration of machine common sense.

Oct 7, 2024

Elk Fire in Wyoming nears 73,000 acres burned, sees 10% containment

Posted by in category: futurism

UPDATE: October 7 at 10:41 a.m.

The acreage burned remains the same, 72,998, Monday morning. The change comes in containment: Big Horn National Forest said the fire is 10% contained and 680 people are attacking the blaze.

Oct 7, 2024

Widespread Water Ice Deposits Discovered on the Moon

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Scientists have discovered far more water ice deposits near the Moon’s south pole than previously hypothesized, which could help astronauts on future crewed missions to the lunar surface.


How much water ice could be present within the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) near the Moon’s south pole? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how water ice deposits could exist hundreds of miles beyond the PSRs located near the south pole, as opposed to close proximity to the south pole as previous studies have hypothesized. This study holds the potential to enable future crewed missions to locate water ice deposits, which could assist in water usage, oxygen generation from electrolysis, fuel, and energy.

For the study, the researchers used NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to obtain data on hydrogen concentration within several PSR craters near the lunar south pole, along with potential sources of the hydrogen concentrations. The reason PSRs are targets for water ice is due to their extreme depths where sunlight doesn’t reach, resulting in temperatures well below-freezing and the accumulation of water ice over millions, if not billions, of years. The team found that hydrogen concentrations existed in craters several hundred miles from the direct south pole and with temperatures below 75 Kelvin (−198.15 degrees Celsius/-324.67 degrees Fahrenheit). Additionally, the team also concluded that the likely sources of the hydrogen concentrations were from a variety of sources, including solar radiation, comets, and meteorites.

Continue reading “Widespread Water Ice Deposits Discovered on the Moon” »

Oct 7, 2024

Human Lifespan May Have a Hard Ceiling, Research Suggests

Posted by in category: life extension

Our longevity may actually turn out to have a hard limit. In a new study this week, scientists show that the long rise in our collective life expectancy seen during the 20th century has started to slow down as of late. The findings suggest that focusing on simply expanding our lifespan might be short-sighted, the researchers say.

Oct 7, 2024

Orlando teen hopes to change how the blind see the world

Posted by in category: futurism

Tiffani Gay, 16, is trying to make the world a better place for those with vision impairments.


Tiffani Gay created a visor to help the visually impaired.

Oct 7, 2024

How Conscious Thought Fades Under Anesthesia

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Summary: A new study has shown that conscious thought relies on synchronized brain rhythms to maintain communication between sensory and cognitive brain regions. Under general anesthesia, this rhythm-based communication breaks down, disrupting the brain’s ability to detect and process surprising stimuli.

The research provides evidence that specific brain frequencies enable conscious awareness by linking the front and back of the brain, where cognitive and sensory functions reside. This finding sheds light on the neural mechanisms of consciousness and offers insights into how anesthesia disrupts our ability to perceive and respond to unexpected events.

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