Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 341

I found this on NewsBreak: #Virus #Publichealth

Dr. Melvin Vopson’s study delves into the intriguing concept of information entropy, which differs from traditional physical entropy. Physical entropy measures the disorder within a system’s physical states, whereas information entropy pertains to the arrangement and complexity of information within those states.

Vopson applied this principle to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, analyzing its mutations through an information entropy lens. He explained, “The physical entropy of a given system is a measure of all its possible physical microstates compatible with the macrostate…the additional entropy associated with them is called the entropy of information.”

Unlike physical entropy, which tends to increase, Vopson observed that information entropy in the virus decreased over time. This finding led him to propose the second law of info-dynamics, suggesting that information entropy must remain constant or decrease, offering a fresh perspective on how information evolves within physical systems.

Read more | >

In a pioneering achievement, a research team led by experts at Cincinnati Children’s have developed the world’s first human mini-brain that incorporates a fully functional blood-brain barrier (BBB).

This major advance, published May 15, 2024, in Cell Stem Cell, promises to accelerate the understanding and improved treatment of a wide range of brain disorders, including stroke, cerebral vascular disorders, brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions.

“Lack of an authentic human BBB model has been a major hurdle in studying neurological diseases,” says lead corresponding author Ziyuan Guo, PhD, “Our breakthrough involves the generation of human BBB organoids from human pluripotent stem cells, mimicking human neurovascular development to produce a faithful representation of the barrier in growing, functioning brain tissue. This is an important advance because animal models we currently use in research do not accurately reflect human brain development and BBB functionality.”

Read more | >

Theory of mind —the ability to understand other people’s mental states—is what makes the social world of humans go around. It’s what helps you decide what to say in a tense situation, guess what drivers in other cars are about to do, and empathize with a character in a movie. And according to a new study, the large language models (LLM) that power ChatGPT and the like are surprisingly good at mimicking this quintessentially human trait.

“Before running the study, we were all convinced that large language models would not pass these tests, especially tests that evaluate subtle abilities to evaluate mental states,” says study coauthor Cristina Becchio, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. The results, which she calls “unexpected and surprising,” were published today —somewhat ironically, in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The results don’t have everyone convinced that we’ve entered a new era of machines that think like we do, however. Two experts who reviewed the findings advised taking them “with a grain of salt” and cautioned about drawing conclusions on a topic that can create “hype and panic in the public.” Another outside expert warned of the dangers of anthropomorphizing software programs.

Read more | >

“Neuralink to implant 2nd human with brain chip as 85% of threads retract. Neuralink’s first patient, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, opened up about the roller-coaster experience. ” I was on such a high and then to be brought down that low. It was very, very hard,” Arbaugh said. ” I cried.” What a disaster!

Algorithm tweaks made up for the loss, and Neuralink thinks it has fix for next patient.

Read more | >

How do you define consciousness?

Some theories are even duking it out in a mano-a-mano test by imaging the brains of volunteers as they perform different tasks in clinical test centers across the globe.

But unlocking the neural basis of consciousness doesn’t have to be confrontational. Rather, theories can be integrated, wrote the authors, who were part of the Human Brain Project —a massive European endeavor to map and understand the brain—and specialize in decoding brain signals related to consciousness.

Not all authors agree on the specific brain mechanisms that allow us to perceive the outer world and construct an inner world of “self.” But by collaborating, they merged their ideas, showing that different theories aren’t necessarily mutually incompatible—in fact, they could be consolidated into a general framework of consciousness and even inspire new ideas that help unravel one of the brain’s greatest mysteries.

Read more | >

Nightmares and hallucinations could be early signs of autoimmune diseases like lupus, potentially improving early diagnosis and treatment, according to a new study.

An increase in nightmares and hallucinations – or ‘daymares’ – could indicate the beginning of autoimmune diseases such as lupus. This is according to an international team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London.

They emphasize the importance of recognizing these mental health and neurological symptoms as early warning signs of an impending ‘flare,’ a phase during which the disease intensifies temporarily.

Read more | >

In March, the United States reported its first detection of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in dairy cattle, with outbreaks spreading to nine states by May. The transmission method among cattle remains unclear. However, a study published in the journal Nature Communications revealed that a similar H5N1 strain, subtype clade 2.3.4.4b, which previously caused an outbreak in farmed mink in 2022, was capable of airborne transmission to a small group of ferrets.

This is the first time that a member of the group of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses has been shown to exhibit this ability. According to the Penn State researchers who led the study, the findings suggest these viruses are evolving to infect mammals and with potentially increased risk to humans.

“While there is no evidence that the strain of H5N1 that is presently affecting dairy cattle is capable of airborne transmission, our study suggests that another member of this family of viruses has evolved some degree of airborne transmissibility,” said Troy Sutton, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, Penn State, and corresponding author on the paper. “This finding underscores the importance of continued surveillance to monitor the evolution of these viruses and their spillover into other mammals, including humans.”

Read more | >