Particle accelerators generate high-energy beams of electrons, protons and ions for a wide range of applications, including particle colliders that shed light on nature’s subatomic components, X-ray lasers that film atoms and molecules during chemical reactions and medical devices for treating cancer.
As a rule of thumb, the longer the accelerator, the more powerful it is. Now, a team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has invented a new type of accelerator structure that delivers a 10 times larger energy gain over a given distance than conventional ones. This could make accelerators used for a given application 10 times shorter.
The key idea behind the technology, described in a recent article in Applied Physics Letters, is to use terahertz radiation to boost particle energies.
The cell membrane, the wall-like boundary between the cell interior and its outside environment, is primarily made up of two kinds of biomolecules: lipids and proteins. Different lipid species closely pack together to form a double layer, or “bilayer,” the membrane’s fundamental structure, while proteins are embedded within or attached to the bilayer.
Membrane proteins are responsible for various important cellular activities, and their dysfunction can lead to serious health issues. Studying membrane protein structures and how they behave will help scientists better understand their connection to diseases and aid in developing therapeutics.
A team of researchers led by Vanderbilt University has recently shed light on how membrane proteins could be influenced by the lipids around them. By developing a novel type of membrane model, the scientists were able to show that the shape and behavior of a protein can be altered by exposure to different lipid compositions.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A common type 2 diabetes drug called metformin may have an unexpected, but positive, side effect: New research suggests that people taking the drug appear to have significantly slower declines in thinking and memory as they age.
“Our six-year study of older Australians with type 2 diabetes has uncovered a link between metformin use and slower cognitive [mental] decline and lower dementia rates,” said study author Dr. Katherine Samaras. She’s the leader of the healthy aging research theme at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in New South Wales, Australia.
“The findings provide new hope for a means of reducing the risk of dementia in individuals with type 2 diabetes, and potentially those without diabetes,” Samaras said.
On Sept. 29, we are launching science, tech demos, & products to the International Space Station!
🌱 Growing radishes in space 🧬 Cancer therapies 🚽 Space toilet 🌊 Water recovery 🎥 A Felix & Paul Studios Virtual Reality camera 💫 An Estee Lauder serum.
A Swedish company is developing technology that could allow truck drivers to work from home. Al Jazeera’s Paul Rhys reports from Sandhult in southern Sweden.
Targeting Mechanisms of Aging Across Species — I am joined on this episode of ideaXme by Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, to discuss his research focus on cross-species mechanisms of aging, in order to facilitate interventions that extend healthspan and improve quality of life — #Ideaxme #Health #Wellness #Longevity #Aging #LifeExtension #Rapamycin #MTor #CElegans #ExtracellularVesicles #Geroscience #GenomicInstability #AlzheimersDisease #Neurodegeneration #Parkinsons #MitochondrialDysfunction #OralHealth #SystemsBiology #DogAgingProject #Science #Transhumanism #Innovation #Immortality #IraPastor #Bioquark #Regenerage The Dog Aging Project.
Ira Pastor, idea me life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington.
Dr. matt kaeberlein researchers aging across species:
Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, is Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington. With a PhD from MIT in Biology, and post-doctoral work in the Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, his research interests are focused on basic mechanisms of aging in order to facilitate translational interventions that promote healthspan and improve quality of life.
Dr. Kaeberlein has published nearly 200 papers in top scientific journals and has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including a Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award, an Alzheimer’s Association Young Investigator Award, an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, a Murdock Trust Award, a Pioneer in Aging Award, and the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research.
Software bugs are a tale as old as time — which, in the case of programming, means about 75 years. In 1947, programmer Grace Murray Hopper was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University when she noticed a moth that was stuck in the relay, preventing the computer program from running. It was the first “bug”, and countless others have followed since then.
In the history of programming, bugs have ranged from harmless to absolutely catastrophic. In 1986 and 1987, several patients were killed after a Therac-25 radiation therapy device malfunctioned due to an error by an inexperienced programmer, and a software bug might have also triggered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, at a Soviet trans-Siberian gas pipeline.
While events such as this are rare, it’s safe to say that software bugs can do a lot of damage and waste a lot of time (and resources). According to recent analysis, the average programmer produces 70 bugs per 1,000 lines of code, with each bug demanding 30 times more time to fix than it took to write the code in the first place. In the US alone, an estimated $113 billion is spent identifying and fixing code bugs…
Summary: Metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, slows cognitive decline and reduces dementia risk in older people with diabetes.
Source: garvan institute of medical research.
Metformin is the first-line treatment for most cases of type 2 diabetes and one of the most commonly prescribed medications worldwide, with millions of individuals using it to optimise their blood glucose levels.
