biological – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Mon, 02 Jun 2025 23:06:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 The Eternal Life and Art of Maxwell Ardeen https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/the-eternal-life-and-art-of-maxwell-ardeen https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/the-eternal-life-and-art-of-maxwell-ardeen#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2025 23:06:47 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/the-eternal-life-and-art-of-maxwell-ardeen

Bioart emerges where biological science, technology, and aesthetics collide. For one terminally ill artist, it offered a chance at immortality.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/the-eternal-life-and-art-of-maxwell-ardeen/feed 0
Scientists Create Biodegradable Plastic Alternative That’s Literally Alive https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/scientists-create-biodegradable-plastic-alternative-thats-literally-alive https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/scientists-create-biodegradable-plastic-alternative-thats-literally-alive#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2025 19:06:44 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/scientists-create-biodegradable-plastic-alternative-thats-literally-alive

Swiss scientists have created a new plastic-like material that’s flexible, biodegradable, and even edible. The secret? It’s still alive.

The material, which was created by a team from Empa in Switzerland, manages to balance biodegradability with toughness and versatility – a feat that is far from easy in materials science.

The researchers processed fibers from the mycelium (the root-like part) of the split-gill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune) into a liquid mixture, without actually killing them off or destroying their natural biological functions.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/scientists-create-biodegradable-plastic-alternative-thats-literally-alive/feed 0
Neuroscience breakthroughs: Surprising truths about memory revealed in 7 recent studies https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/neuroscience-breakthroughs-surprising-truths-about-memory-revealed-in-7-recent-studies https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/neuroscience-breakthroughs-surprising-truths-about-memory-revealed-in-7-recent-studies#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:17:44 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/neuroscience-breakthroughs-surprising-truths-about-memory-revealed-in-7-recent-studies

Memory is strange. It sharpens, fades, twists, and sometimes misleads. These seven recent studies uncover how emotion, stress, and biology shape what we remember—and what we forget.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/06/neuroscience-breakthroughs-surprising-truths-about-memory-revealed-in-7-recent-studies/feed 0
Human trial finds therapeutic plasma exchange reduces biological age https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age#respond Sat, 31 May 2025 18:04:09 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age

Circulate Health and Buck researchers find that TPE combined with immunoglobulin reduced biological age by more than 2.5 years on average.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age/feed 0
Humans Give Off a Light That Is Extinguished in Death, Study Reveals https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/humans-give-off-a-light-that-is-extinguished-in-death-study-reveals https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/humans-give-off-a-light-that-is-extinguished-in-death-study-reveals#comments Sat, 31 May 2025 02:04:32 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/humans-give-off-a-light-that-is-extinguished-in-death-study-reveals

So-called “ultraweak photon emission” could provide a new tool for studying living organisms.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/humans-give-off-a-light-that-is-extinguished-in-death-study-reveals/feed 1
How the fight-or-flight response resets on a molecular level https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-resets-on-a-molecular-level https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-resets-on-a-molecular-level#respond Fri, 30 May 2025 15:07:48 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-resets-on-a-molecular-level

Being cut off in traffic, giving a presentation or missing a meal can all trigger a suite of physiological changes that allow the body to react swiftly to stress or starvation. Critical to this “fight-or-flight” or stress response is a molecular cycle that results in the activation of protein kinase A (PKA), a protein involved in everything from metabolism to memory formation. Now, a study by researchers at Penn State has revealed how this cycle resets between stressful events, so the body is prepared to take on new challenges.

The details of this reset mechanism, uncovered through a combination of imaging, structural and biochemical techniques, are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“Some of the early changes in the fight-or-flight response include the release of hormones, like adrenaline from stress or glucagon from starvation,” said Ganesh Anand, associate professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and in the Penn State Eberly College of Science and lead author of the paper.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-resets-on-a-molecular-level/feed 0
Recovery is still possible for critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper with urgent intervention https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/recovery-is-still-possible-for-critically-endangered-hawaiian-honeycreeper-with-urgent-intervention https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/recovery-is-still-possible-for-critically-endangered-hawaiian-honeycreeper-with-urgent-intervention#respond Fri, 30 May 2025 06:36:35 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/recovery-is-still-possible-for-critically-endangered-hawaiian-honeycreeper-with-urgent-intervention

A new study, led by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, and additional researchers, offers a unique lens for understanding the unprecedented extinction crisis of native Hawaiian forest birds.

Just 17 out of approximately 60 species of the iconic honeycreeper remain, most of which are facing due to avian malaria. The findings, published in Current Biology, include new evidence that there is still time to save the critically endangered honeycreeper ‘akeke’e—but the window is rapidly closing.

“In a race against time to save the remaining honeycreepers, necessary insights about their survival are found in their ,” said Christopher Kyriazis, Ph.D., lead author and postdoctoral researcher from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “Our findings provide a new understanding of the last remaining individuals as recovery efforts forge on in their native forests and in human care.”

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/recovery-is-still-possible-for-critically-endangered-hawaiian-honeycreeper-with-urgent-intervention/feed 0
ChatGPT for Biology: A New AI Whips Up Designer Proteins With Only a Text Prompt https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/chatgpt-for-biology-a-new-ai-whips-up-designer-proteins-with-only-a-text-prompt https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/chatgpt-for-biology-a-new-ai-whips-up-designer-proteins-with-only-a-text-prompt#respond Wed, 28 May 2025 02:03:36 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/chatgpt-for-biology-a-new-ai-whips-up-designer-proteins-with-only-a-text-prompt

The new algorithm, Pinal, is just the latest in a growing family of algorithms that can translate English text into new proteins.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/chatgpt-for-biology-a-new-ai-whips-up-designer-proteins-with-only-a-text-prompt/feed 0
Vitamin D supplements slow telomere loss, reducing biological agin https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/vitamin-d-supplements-slow-telomere-loss-reducing-biological-agin https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/vitamin-d-supplements-slow-telomere-loss-reducing-biological-agin#respond Tue, 27 May 2025 22:10:13 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/vitamin-d-supplements-slow-telomere-loss-reducing-biological-agin

Participants taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily had significantly less telomere loss over four years, study finds.

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/vitamin-d-supplements-slow-telomere-loss-reducing-biological-agin/feed 0
Scientists Warn Against Creating “Mirror Life” https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/scientists-warn-against-creating-mirror-life https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/scientists-warn-against-creating-mirror-life#respond Tue, 27 May 2025 06:03:23 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/scientists-warn-against-creating-mirror-life

Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’. A new study suggests that creating a new tree of life could put the earth at unprecedented risk. paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads9158 #science #breakthrough #biology #mirrorlife #shorts 🚀 JOIN US for members-only content: https://www.patreon.com/DrBenMiles 🤘👨‍🔬 ROCKSTAR SCIENTIST Merch: https://www.rockstarscientist.org/ 📸 INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/drbenmiles A few people have asked so I’ve added the info below. Some of these are affiliate links. If you make a purchase it doesn’t cost you anything extra, but a percentage of the sale will help support this channel and my work to bringing entrepreneurship into science. Camera : Sony A7III https://amzn.to/3OWrmGd Lens: Sigma 402,965 16 mm F1.4 https://amzn.to/49BNJdq Mics: Shure SM7B https://youtu.be/lVTS_J7Xmxs Zoom H4n Pro https://amzn.to/3OXsklB Sennheiser AVX https://amzn.to/4geWnBi

]]>
https://lifeboat.com/blog/2025/05/scientists-warn-against-creating-mirror-life/feed 0