Lifeboat Foundation

Tickling the brain with low-intensity electrical stimulation in a specific area can improve verbal short-term memory. Mayo Clinic researchers report their findings in Brain.

The researchers found word recall was enhanced with stimulation of the brain’s lateral temporal cortex, the regions on the sides of the head by the temples and ears. Patients recalled more words from a previously viewed list when low-amplitude electrical stimulation was delivered to the brain. One patient reported that it was easier to picture the words in his mind for remembering.

“The most exciting finding of this research is that our memory for language information can be improved by directly stimulating this underexplored brain area,” says Michal Kucewicz, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher in the Department of Neurology and co-first author. Dr. Kucewicz compares the stimulation to “tickling” the brain.

Warning over wider global health impacts after findings reveal hundreds of tonnes of colistin – the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ – are being shipped to India’s farms.

Fiona Harvey

Thu 1 Feb 2018 05.50 EST Last modified on Thu 1 Feb 2018 11.20 EST.

Continue reading “India’s farmed chickens dosed with world’s strongest antibiotics, study finds” »

I suspect this will be the hands for ATLAS. being field tested by human volunteers to see what it needs to do for average use. And, then blow that away within a few years.

Johnny Matheny is the first person to live with an advanced mind-controlled robotic arm. Last December, researchers from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab delivered the arm to Matheny at his home in Port Richey, Florida. Aside from the occasional demo, this is the first time the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) has spent significant time out of the lab.

Continue reading “The most advanced robotic arm in the world, John Hopkins’s Modular Prosthetic Limb, is finally leaving the lab” »

Worth a closer look at, parasites causing cancer.

Vietnam veterans may have a slow growing, silent killer sitting inside their bodies, and they probably won’t even know it until it’s too late.

Last year, we talked about a new cancer “vaccine” currently in clinical trials in an article here, and now a second cancer vaccine is capturing media interest due to impressive results in the lab. The new therapy is now in human clinical trials for lymphoma patients.

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have found that injecting two immune system stimulating agents directly into a solid tumor can eradicate the tumor completely. The treatment is also able to destroy distant metastases that have not been directly treated themselves.

Part of Vittorio Sebastiano’s job is to babysit a few million stem cells. The research professor of reproductive biology at Stanford University keeps the cells warm and moist deep inside the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building, one of the nation’s largest stem cell facilities. He’s joined there by an army of researchers, each with their own goals. His own research program is nothing if not ambitious: He wants to reverse aging in humans.

Stem cells are the Gary Oldman of cell types. They can reprogram themselves to carry out the function of virtually any other type of cell, and play a vital role in early development. This functional reprogramming is usually accompanied by an age reset, down to zero. Sebastiano figures that if he can separate these different kinds of reprogramming, he can open up a whole new kind of aging therapy. Nautilus caught up with him last month.

Researcher Dr. Dena Dubal, from the University of California San Francisco, is considering a new approach to combat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, using a protein known as klotho.

Aging is the foundation of age-related diseases

Instead of trying to understand each of these diseases and the complex mechanisms unique to both, she considered what all these conditions have in common; the answer, of course, is aging.

Continue reading “Could Klotho Treat Dementia” »

Viewing party of one of the most highly-anticipated science fiction stories onto the screen. Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon on Netflix. Introduction speech by Dr. Aubrey de Grey, famous proponent of innovative biotechnologies.

Watch the premiere alongside other fans and talk about what you would do if you could live another 100 years.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80097140