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Alzheimer’s breakthrough: Vaccine developed

Experts at Adelaide’s Flinders University have made an Alzheimer’s breakthrough that may result in world’s first dementia vaccine. Developed by Australian and US scientists, this vaccine may not only prevent but also reverse early stages of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.

The Alzheimer’s vaccine may be tested on humans within the next two to three years after being bankrolled by the US Government. Scientists from Flinders University and America’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and University of California developed the vaccine by targeting proteins in the brain that block neurons.

The formula targets tau proteins and abnormal beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer’s. The scientists are confident that the vaccine would eventually be used as preventative vaccine. According to Flinders University medicine professor Nikolai Petrovsky, the proteins must be removed from the brain as Alzheimer’s, and dementia sufferers have lots of these broken down proteins inside.

Brain ‘hacking’: Entrepreneurs turn to fasting and ‘smart drugs’

The SV trend.


Employees at San Francisco startup Nootrobox don’t eat on Tuesdays.

The weekly fast isn’t an extreme money-saving move by a scrappy, bootstrapping company. Instead, Nootrobox team members swear withholding food for 36 hours — they stop eating Monday night — improves their workplace focus and concentration.

“We’re actually super productive on Tuesdays,” co-founder and CEO Geoffrey Woo said. “It’s hard at first, but we literally adopted it as part of the company culture.”

Eating Sugar And Fatty Foods Is As Bad As Doing Drugs

Is it time for rehab for junk food junkies?


Apparently, all the burgers and smoothies you’re consuming cause your brain to forget to stop eating even when you’re full.

Can you relate to midnight cravings and the feeling of perpetual hunger? Do you resort to grabbing fast food on the fly or eating out of a tub of ice cream while you’re bored around the house?

New research reveals obesity may be a brain disease that worsens in people with a diet high in sugar and fat. People who are diet conscious and eat healthy are less likely to indulge in sweet cravings and unhealthy snacks, since their brain recalls a sense of fulfillment derived from watching what they eat. Consuming sugars and fats hinders the functioning of the hippocampus area of one’s brain, blocking from their mind the memories of when their stomach felt full.

ON Semiconductor – New 8MP device has improved near-infrared sensitivity for imaging and intelligent transportation systems

ON Semiconductor’s new 8 megapixel (MP) KAI-08052 image sensor enhances imaging performance in demanding industrial applications with technology that improves the near-infrared sensitivity of CCD image sensors.

The image sensor provides up to twice the sensitivity in near-infrared wavelengths as the company’s standard Interline Transfer CCD pixel design. This enhanced sensitivity can be critical in applications such as scientific and medical imaging, where samples emit or fluoresce in NIR wavelengths; or in machine vision and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), where NIR illumination is often used to better examine an object or to isolate a vehicle’s license plate.

The new CCD pixel design used extends the electron capture region deeper in the silicon to better capture electrons generated by long wavelength photons. This deeper pixel well improves detection of NIR wavelengths by up to a factor of two depending on the specific wavelength studied.

PURE GENIUS — Official Trailer — CBS New Shows 2016

Pure Genius is an upcoming American medical drama television series created by Jason Katims starring Dermot Mulroney. A young Silicon Valley tech-titan enlists a veteran surgeon with a controversial past in starting a hospital with a cutting-edge, new school approach to medicine.


A young Silicon Valley tech-titan enlists a veteran surgeon with a controversial past in starting a hospital with a cutting-edge, new school approach to medicine.

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How to Make Molecular Devices? Microscopic DNA Tools May Be Key

DNA codes for life as we know it, but in recent years, scientists have discovered more uses for the molecule. Because DNA is foldable and “sticky,” they’ve begun making microscopic shapes called DNA origami. Over the last decade or so, researchers have improved at this DNA art, and now, Caltech scientists say they used DNA to sketch a glowing masterpiece — a replica of Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry Night”— on a canvas the size of a dime.

While the mini-van Gogh is neat — if a little fuzzy and monochromatic — the demonstration shows the technique may be approaching more practical uses. One of the difficulties of making technologies ever-smaller is figuring out how to precisely place components. As it turns out, our fingers are just a little too fat to build on scales far thinner than a human hair.

Researchers hope DNA origami can be like surrogate hands on the tiniest scales, and if successful, the technology may be used to build useful devices smaller than any yet in existence.

Alfred G. Knudson Jr., geneticist who decoded a mystery of cancer, dies at 93

Alfred G. Knudson Jr., a medical researcher who helped decode a mystery of cancer — using genetics, mathematics and intuition to explain how and why certain forms of the disease attack — died July 10 at his home in Philadelphia. He was 93.

His death was announced by the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where Dr. Knudson had served as president, scientific director and in other capacities since joining the institution in 1976. He had heart ailments and dementia, said his wife, Anna Meadows, a pediatric oncologist.

Dr. Knudson was among the most renowned researchers in his field, with honors including a 1998 Lasker Award, commonly known as the American Nobel, and a 2004 Kyoto Prize recognizing him for a discovery that “opened a new horizon in modern cancer genetics and played a pivotal role in the major developments” in cancer research.

This Mobile Game Helps Children Prevent Asthma Attacks

Imagine your chest tightening as you struggle for for breath. There’s no cure for it, and it will most likely be a hindrance to your day-to-day life.

This feeling is familiar to the 300 million people worldwide who suffer from asthma. In the US alone, one in 14 people has asthma, and ten of them die from asthma every day.

For children, relying on symptoms to determine whether an asthma attack is about to happen is particularly difficult. Not only is it harder for them to articulate their discomfort, it’s less likely that they will be able to attribute it to asthmatic symptoms.

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