Superfast levitating trains, long-range lossless power transmission, faster MRI machines—all these fantastical technological advances could be in our grasp if we could just make a material that transmits electricity without resistance—or “superconducts”—at around room temperature.
Not ideal!
In January, multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk announced that his brain-computer interface startup Neuralink had successfully implanted a wireless brain chip into a human subject for the first time.
Over the next couple of months, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh was shown moving a cursor with his mind, playing Civilization VI and even a fast-paced round of Mario Kart.
Each CRISPR system has two parts: a strand of RNA that matches the target and a protein that makes the edit. The most commonly used protein for gene editing is called “Cas9,” but scientists have discovered CRISPRs with other proteins that give them unique capabilities — while CRISPR-Cas9 slices through DNA, for example, CRISPR-Cas13 targets RNA.
Our current CRISPR gene editors are far from perfect, though. They can make edits in the wrong places or edit too few cells to make a difference, so researchers are constantly on the hunt for new CRISPR systems.
AI-designed CRISPR: Up until now, that hunt has been limited to the CRISPRs that have been discovered in nature, but Profluent has used the same types of AI models that allow ChatGPT to generate language to develop an AI platform that can generate millions of CRISPR-like proteins.
Tumors that move to the brain are difficult to treat because of the brain-blood barrier that separates the brain from the rest of the body.
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have developed a nanoparticle that could one day be used to treat brain metastases.
Summary: Researchers created the largest 3D reconstruction of human brain tissue at synaptic resolution, capturing detailed images of a cubic millimeter of human temporal cortex. This tiny piece of brain contains 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and 150 million synapses, which amounts to 1,400 terabytes of data.
This research is part of a broader effort to map an entire mouse brain’s neural wiring, with hopes of advancing our understanding of brain function and disease. The technology combines high-resolution electron microscopy and AI-powered algorithms to meticulously color-code and map out the complex neural connections.
Irina Conboy, Michael Conboy and Josh Mitteldorf discuss one of the central questions in aging research: is aging an active process of the body or is aging a passive process of damage accumulation? See the whole debate on our YouTube Channel: @HealesMovies Josh Mitteldorf, PhD, runs the blog “Aging Matters” (https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/) and is a consultant in mathematical modeling and creative data analysis. His research areas include evolutionary ecology, biology of aging, and the epidemiology of COVID-19. On the field of aging research, he has published two books,” Cracking The Aging Code”, co-written with Dorion Sagan (https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Aging-Code-Science-Growing/d…atfound-20 and “Aging is a Group-Selected Adaptation” (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bs0faQEV3T9cu-Eq079-e5bIGgMwNH08/view). Heales website (Healthy Life Extension Society): https://heales.org/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://heales.org/newsletter/ Contact e-mail: [email protected] #science #aging #rejuvenation #biology #health #longevity #antiaging #debate #stemcells #programmedaging #entropy #cancer #conboy #conboys #mitteldorf Music: Closer To Your Dream by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon (CC BY 4.0)
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Putting more meat on the theory that dinosaurs’ closest living relatives are modern-day birds, molecular analysis of a shred of 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein — along with that of 21 modern species — confirms that dinosaurs share common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators.
The work, published this week in the journal Science, represents the first use of molecular data to place a non-avian dinosaur in a phylogenetic tree that traces the evolution of species. The scientists also report that similar analysis of 160,000-to 600,000-year-old collagen protein sequences derived from mastodon bone establishes a close phylogenetic relationship between that extinct species and modern elephants.
Continue reading “Molecular analysis confirms T. Rex’s evolutionary link to birds” »
Neuralink’s first human patient has become so adept at using the company’s brain implant that he can now beat other players at video games.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s company provided a progress update on Noland Arbaugh, who received a brain implant in January that lets him remotely control the cursor on a laptop.
In March, Neuralink revealed that Arbaugh was using the implant to play games including Chess, Civilization VI, and Mario Kart. In Wednesday’s update, the company reported that Arbaugh’s use of the implant has only improved over time.
“There is still a great deal of stigma around the use of substances during pregnancy,” said Dr. Jamie Lo, M.D., M.C.R. “Our hope is that this research supports more open and productive conversations that ultimately result in a healthier pregnancy.”
It has long been known that smoking during pregnancy can result in bad health for newborns, but what are the consequences of smoking both nicotine and cannabis during pregnancy? This is what a recent study published in JAMA hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the potential health risks for newborns when pregnant mothers smoke both nicotine and cannabis during pregnancy. This study holds the potential to help researchers, medical practitioners, and the public better understand the health risks of cannabis as its recreational use continues to become legalized across the United States.
“With the growing legalization of cannabis around the country, there is often a perception that cannabis is safe in pregnancy,” said Dr. Jamie Lo, M.D., M.C.R., who is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and a co-author on the study. “Because we know that many people who use cannabis often use tobacco or nicotine products, we wanted to better understand the potential health implications on both the pregnant individual and the infant.
Continue reading “Health Risks of Concurrent Cannabis and Nicotine Use During Pregnancy” »
Save the date for Free the Pill’s 6th annual Free the Pill Day on May 9—the same day that the first birth control pill was approved by the US FDA back in 1960!
This year’s Free the Pill Day will be the first one with an OTC birth control pill on the shelf! On May 9, we invite you to join us on social media throughout the day to celebrate Opill on the shelf, spread evidence-based information about Opill and how to get it, and highlight the need for continued work to support equitable access—including advocating for full insurance coverage, low and no-cost options, and availability in stores and online without barriers.
