Lifeboat Foundation

Apparently scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital are making some progress on identifying what they are calling a “universal vaccine” or the “Achilles heel” for viruses…

BOSTON — As the coronavirus outbreak shows, viruses are a constant threat to humanity. Vaccines are regularly developed and deployed against specific viruses, but that process takes a lot of time, doesn’t help everyone who needs protection, and still leaves people exposed to new outbreaks and new viruses.

Now, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have uncovered a novel potential antiviral drug target that could lead to treatments protecting against a host of infectious diseases — creating a pan, or universal, treatment. Their work suggests that the protein Argonaute 4 (AGO4) is an “Achilles heel” for viruses.

Continue reading “Mass General Hospital researchers identify new ‘universal’ target for antiviral treatment” »

A new review from the FDA says it finds no evidence linking the two, but that research should continue.

The findings: The report reviewed 125 experiments carried out on animals and 75 on humans between 2008 and August 2019. In summary, the FDA said that there’s “no consistent pattern” to link radiofrequency radiation, or RFR, to tumors or cancer.

Rats don’t use cell phones the way humans do. An overarching problem with the animal studies in the review is that they don’t mimic how humans actually use their phones. Animal studies often douse a rat’s entire body in radiation at levels that are far higher than what humans are normally exposed to when we use cell phones. The human studies were also flawed, relying only on questionnaires from family members or observational data.

Scientific studies continue to show us how exercise can bring a range of cognitive benefits, from limiting the risk of Alzheimer’s to giving an immediate boost to our learning capabilities. Researchers working in this area at the University of South Australia have turned their attention to neuroplasticity, finding two styles of workout in particular that give this key brain function the biggest boost.

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to rewire the neural connections as we go through life, whether that be in response to certain experiences, building memories, learning new skills or adapting to new environments. In this way, it is seen as critical to the development of a healthy brain from infancy all the way through to adulthood, and the authors of this new study set out to dig into how exercise can influence these vital pathways.

Continue reading “Study pinpoints two workouts that give brain plasticity a big boost” »

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Prime editing can change individual DNA letters, delete letters, or insert blocks of new letters into the genome, with minimal damage to the DNA strand.

Following the first U.S. test of CRISPR gene editing in patients with advanced cancer, researchers report findings in Science that represent an important step toward the ultimate goal of using gene editing to help a patient’s immune system attack cancer. Read the research: https://fcld.ly/y1nst2o

https://youtube.com/watch?v=95aYLmG0wt8

Circa 2015

A researcher at Ransselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US has given three Nao robots an updated version of the classic ‘wise men puzzle’ self-awareness test… and one of them has managed to pass.

Continue reading “A Robot Has Just Passed a Classic Self-Awareness Test For The First Time” »

Could automatically find the coronavirus vaccine.

We research and build safe AI systems that learn how to solve problems and advance scientific discovery for all. Explore our work: deepmind.com/research

From 2001… I wonder how much this how been studied since?

People who survived the Black Death could have passed on a mutation that prevents the human immunodeficiency virus entering cells.