Lifeboat Foundation

Plants take in carbon dioxide, water, and sunshine to create a sugary fuel. Now researchers have done the same, but even better.

A recent study in Science describes the system, named Bionic Leaf 2.0. In the “leaf,” solar energy splits up a water molecule, and bacteria turn hydrogen and carbon dioxide into liquid fuel, mainly isopropanol. The fuel could possibly be used to power a car’s engine or motor in the future.

The researchers, led by Daniel Nocera and Pamela Silver from Harvard University, have made advancements on their original Bionic Leaf, released last year. The system had some problems, mainly with the metal catalyst that helped the reaction. In the first edition, the catalyst also set off a reaction that attacked the bacteria’s DNA.

Continue reading “Bionic Leaf Is 10 Times Better At Photosynthesis Than Real Plants” »

Among bacteria’s many attributes, perhaps one of its most overlooked yet important ones is its ability to propel itself via flagellum, a unique appendage hanging off its end. This mechanism is a perfect example of a naturally occurring, biological wheel.

Now, for the first time, scientists were able to take a high resolution, 3D look at these wheels at work, using an electron microscope. Their work was published online yesterday in the journal, PNAS.

A flagella is like a tiny tail at the end of the bacteria, allowing it to move through various mediums. It generates torque (that’s twisting force) from stators, a ring of structures around the motor part of the organ. These act as the wheel providing the power.

Continue reading “Bacteria Have ‘Biological Wheels’ That We Can Finally See In 3D” »

It tells us something important about cancer.

A mysterious cell process named anastasis (Greek for “rising to life”) challenges our idea of life being a linear march towards death, and suggests that cell death can actually be reversed under certain conditions—essentially allowing cells to un-die.

Even as the cell is shrivelling up in response to radiation, toxins, or other stresses, it can in some cases undo the dying process and repair itself if the stress is taken away before the cell is completely gone, said cell biologist Denise Montell of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Continue reading “Cell Death Might Be Reversible, and Scientists Are Trying to Find Out Why” »

Thanks to 3D printing, scientists can now recreate any organ in the human body.

In Brief:

Researchers found that an Antarctic sea sponge produces a compound that can effectively kill 98.4% of MRSA cells. The compound has been patented and is now undergoing lab synthesis in order to develop a treatment for the life-threatening infection.

Research published in Organic Letters shows a compound that can successfully kill Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been found, a mutated strain of Staphylococcus aureis that has developed resistance to most available antibiotics used in treatment of common staph infections.

Steven Pinker claims that will speed up progress.

It looks like Self Driving cars may create a US organ shortage that finally acts as the Kick in the Ass to force stem cell generated organs on to the market. Enough of the ‘in the future’ we might have these Nonsesne.

Science, however, can offer better a better solution.

The waiting lists for donor organs are long — 120,000 people on a given day — and ever increasing. With fewer donor organs to go around, researchers are working on other ways to get people the parts they need. With help from 3D printing and other bioengineering technologies, we will eventually be able to grow our own organs and stop relying on donors.

Continue reading “Self-driving cars will create organ shortage — can science meet demand?” »

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, launched in September 2016 and run by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, set out with the ambitious goal “to cure, prevent or manage all disease during our children’s lifetime”.

As part of the US$3 billion initiative, the organisation created an independent nonprofit Biohub, which on Wednesday said it committed US$50 million to 47 scientists, technologists, and engineers working at UCSF, Stanford, and UC-Berkeley.

The 47 investigators are working on a wide range of projects, but there was one central thesis the Biohub tried to keep in mind when picking from the 700 applicants.

Continue reading “The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative Is Giving $3 Billion to Cure, Manage, or Prevent ‘All Disease’” »