Researchers discovered viral fragments in blood samples from long COVID patients, hinting at a possible biomarker. The findings suggest the virus may linger in hidden reservoirs, fueling ongoing symptoms.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 397
3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand
3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand ‘…small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables…’ — Fritz Leiber, 1968.
Smartwatch Powered By Slime Mold ‘Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system…’ — Philip K. Dick, 1966.
Carpentopod Walking Table ‘Twoflower’s Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs…’
AI learns the language of code to outsmart cyber threats
A software vulnerability checker with the potential to become a repair shop could keep critical computer systems one step ahead.
High-profile cyberattacks, such as the one that compromised British retailer Marks & Spencer’s customer data in April 2025, highlight the need for better ways to detect software vulnerabilities in the computer systems that increasingly control everything, from oil pipelines to hospital records.
To help, an international research team including Khalifa University’s Merouane Debbah, has developed SecureQwen, a smart software checker that automatically detects and flags vulnerabilities for repair. Powered by an AI model trained in the language of computer code, SecureQwen could even identify weaknesses that it had not explicitly been taught or come upon before.
Robert Anton Wilson — Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley
Few people are aware of Marvel Whiteside Parsons (a.k.a Jack Parsons), co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Parsons made major contributions to rocket development, particularly in the area of solid fuel propellant. The solid motors on the Space Shuttle and the motors in the Minuteman missile were based on the solid propellant technology that he invented. He was a founding member of Aerojet Corporation, and he even has a crater on the dark side of the moon named after him. So why isn’t he as celebrated as the other founding fathers of spaceflight?
Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was a British occultist, writer, mountaineer, philosopher, poet, mystic, drug experimenter, and chess player. He was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed \.
Abstract: Applying precision medicine to patients with pancreatic cancer could lead to higher survival rates
As part of JCI’s ongoing review series on pancreatic cancer Vasiliki Pantazopoulou et al. discuss nuances of experimental models and the use of patient-derived systems for improving outcomes.
1Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, USA.
2Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
3Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Moores Cancer Center, UCSD, San Diego, California, USA.
PlasmaBlade-assisted surgical septal myectomy: technique and our experience
The pulsed-electron avalanche knife (PEAK) PlasmaBlade is an electrosurgical device that provides atraumatic, scalpel-like cutting precision and electrocautery-like hemostasis. Primarily, the PlasmaBlade uses pulsed radiofrequency energy to generate a plasma-mediated discharge along the exposed rim of an insulated blade. Plasma is an electrically conductive cloud created when the energy contacts tissue. The “plasma” allows the radiofrequency energy to cross the tissue at a much lower overall power level, resulting in lower operating temperatures and less thermal damage (7). The PlasmaBlade operates at 40–100°C, while the blade tip stays near body temperature. Therefore, underlying tissue damage is limited. Studies reporting the use of the PlasmaBlade during internal mammary artery harvesting or ocular surgeries have found the area of collateral damage to be only 2–10 μm with the PlasmaBlade compared to 100–400 μm with electrosurgery (7, 8).
The PlasmaBlade has been extensively used in ophthalmologic, plastic, and dermatological surgeries as precisely as a scalpel with the hemostatic control of conventional electrosurgery. Studies have also reported a reduced risk of bleeding, tissue injury, and scar formation with the PlasmaBlade (9– 11). However, experience in cardiac surgery is limited to pocket creation for the pacemaker and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation (12, 13) and internal mammary artery harvesting (7).
In our institute, we have used the PlasmaBlade to perform SSM for the last 4 years. The purpose of this retrospective study is to review our clinical outcomes and the effect of PlasmaBlade cutting on the excised muscle in terms of necrosis and inflammation.
Generative AI models build new antibiotics starting from a single atom
Researchers have tapped into the power of generative artificial intelligence to aid them in the fight against one of humanity’s most pernicious foes: antibiotic-resistant bacteria. | Researchers have tapped into the power of generative artificial intelligence to aid them in the fight against one of humanity’s most pernicious foes: antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Using a model trained on a library of about 40,000 chemicals, scientists were able to build never-before-seen antibiotics that killed two of the most notorious multidrug-resistant bacteria on earth.