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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,623

Estimated 1.56 billion face masks will have entered oceans in 2020

COVID-19 facemasks & marine plastic pollution.

Our oceans will be flooded with an estimated 1.56 billion face masks in 2020 says a report released today by Hong-Kong-based marine conservation organization OceansAsia. This will result in an additional 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of marine plastic pollution, says the report, entitled “Masks on the Beach: The Impact of COVID-19 on Marine Plastic Pollution.” These masks will take as long as 450 years to break down, slowly turning into micro plastics while negatively impacting marine wildlife and ecosystems.

The report used a global production estimate of 52 billion masks being manufactured in 2020, a conservative loss rate of 3%, and the average weight of 3 to 4 grams for a single-use polypropylene surgical face mask to arrive at the estimate.

“The 1.56 billion face masks that will likely enter our oceans in 2020 are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Director of Research for OceansAsia, and lead author of the report. “The 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of face masks are just a small fraction of the estimated 8 to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans each year.”

New COVID-19 variant discovered in South Africa | DW News

Scientists in South Africa are warning of a new strain of COVID-19. The variant — which is yet to be named — appears to have a high number of mutations. That is of concern, because there’s a possibility it could be able to evade our immune response and be even more transmissible. South Africa has called for an emergency meeting of the World Health Organization to discuss this new variant.

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Scientists produce new antibiotics

Scientists have discovered a new route to produce complex antibiotics exploiting gene editing to re-program pathways to future medicines urgently required to combat antimicrobial resistance, treat neglected diseases and tackle future pandemics.

Researchers from The University of Manchester have discovered a new way of manipulating key assembly line enzymes in bacteria which could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotic treatments.

New research published today in Nature Communications, describes how CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can be used to create new nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes that deliver clinically important antibiotics. NRPS enzymes are prolific producers of natural antibiotics such as penicillin. However, up until now, manipulating these complex enzymes to produce new and more effective antibiotics has been a major challenge.

This is what buildings of the future will look like: and 5 ways to get there

Learn More.

World Economic Forum.

The gigantic roof regulates heat and light, drawing on ancient Mayan design.

Learn more about the importance of sustainable buildings.

For years many of us in the real estate community have recognized the pressing need for change. In early 2020, the World Economic Forum’s Real Estate partners set out to prepare a report on the future of real estate.

At the time, we thought sustainability had to be our core focus; sustainability in the broader sense of its meaning – clearly highlighting the importance of making real estate more environmentally friendly, but also addressing questions such as wellness, community, and the inclusiveness of buildings and urban spaces. For example, inclusiveness doesn’t touch only on city planning, architecture and accessibility, but also on affordability. All these required a concerted response from the real estate sector, from urban entrepreneurs and from policy makers.

Continue reading “This is what buildings of the future will look like: and 5 ways to get there” | >

How molecular clusters in the nucleus interact with chromosomes

A cell stores all of its genetic material in its nucleus, in the form of chromosomes, but that’s not all that’s tucked away in there. The nucleus is also home to small bodies called nucleoli — clusters of proteins and RNA that help build ribosomes.

Using computer simulations, MIT chemists have now discovered how these bodies interact with chromosomes in the nucleus, and how those interactions help the nucleoli exist as stable droplets within the nucleus.

Their findings also suggest that chromatin-nuclear body interactions lead the genome to take on a gel-like structure, which helps to promote stable interactions between the genome and transcription machineries. These interactions help control gene expression.

Robots and AI assist in designing and building Swiss university’s ‘hanging gardens’

Architecture and construction have always been, rather quietly, at the bleeding edge of tech and materials trends. It’s no surprise, then, especially at a renowned technical university like ETH Zurich, to find a project utilizing AI and robotics in a new approach to these arts. The automated design and construction they are experimenting with show how homes and offices might be built a decade from now.

The project is a sort of huge sculptural planter, “hanging gardens” inspired by the legendary structures in the ancient city of Babylon. (Incidentally, it was my ancestor, Robert Koldewey, who excavated/looted the famous Ishtar Gate to the place.)

Begun in 2019, Semiramis (named after the queen of Babylon back then) is a collaboration between human and AI designers. The general idea of course came from the creative minds of its creators, architecture professors Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler. But the design was achieved by putting the basic requirements, such as size, the necessity of watering and the style of construction, through a set of computer models and machine learning algorithms.

This Synthetic DNA Factory Is Building New Forms of Life

In this DNA factory, organism engineers are using robots and automation to build completely new forms of life.
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Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston company specializing in “engineering custom organisms,” aims to reinvent manufacturing, agriculture, biodesign, and more.

Biologists, software engineers, and automated robots are working side by side to accelerate the speed of nature by taking synthetic DNA, remixing it, and programming microbes, turning custom organisms into mini-factories that could one day pump out new foods, fuels, and medicines.

While there are possibly numerous positive and exciting outcomes from this research, like engineering gut bacteria to produce drugs inside the human body on demand or building self-fertilizing plants, the threat of potential DNA sequences harnessing a pathological function still exists.

That’s why Ginkgo Bioworks is developing a malware software to effectively stomp out the global threat of biological weapons, ensuring that synthetic biology can’t be used for evil.

Learn more about synthetic DNA and this biological assembly line on this episode of Focal Point.

Continue reading “This Synthetic DNA Factory Is Building New Forms of Life” | >

Making Tomorrow Better

I have a small YouTube channel which I create videos on clean energy and the environment. I have under 600 subs and many videos have not even hit 100 views but I am being increasingly targeted by fossil fuel activists and supporters, with personal attacks and misinformation.
I do respond to misinformation, and remove the worst comments but if anyone would like to help support me, nipping over to my channel, watching some videos and subscribing to the channel would be most appreciated.
We can show them that they are the minority, not us, and the wider the information spreads the quicker the change will be and the better life will be for everyone.
Thanks in advance and have an awesome day.

It is very likely that treatments to address the issues that cause aging & its related conditions & diseases will be within our reach in 15 to 20 years.

It is highly likely that a general realisation that these treatments are not only scientifically possible but within our reach will start to become increasingly apparent to the wider population in as little as maybe 5 years.

On this channel I will seek to hasten this realisation, & provide answers to the most common questions & concerns. I will also seek to distil the current scientific knowledge base into an easy to use action plan for those wishing to take measures to make sure they see this in good health.

To raise awareness of how close longevity treatments are.

Continue reading “Making Tomorrow Better” | >

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