Lifeboat Foundation

Dr. Steve Horvath, a professor of genetics and biostatistics at UCLA, has found a way to measure biological aging – a type of “clock” – based on the methylation pattern of an organism’s genome. Methylations are biochemical processes that modify the activity of a DNA segment without changing its sequence – a type of epigenetic change. This video primer explains the basics of epigenetic clocks, the topic of our interview with Dr. Steve Horvath, coming soon!

Get the show notes here:
https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/epigenetic-clock/

Continue reading “Epigenetic Aging: How old is your DNA?” »

However, a breakthrough by researchers at UVA’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the California Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory could eliminate a critical obstacle from the process, a discovery that represents a giant stride toward a clean-energy future.

One way to harness solar energy is by using solar electricity to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen produced by the process is stored as fuel, in a form that can be transferred from one place to another and used to generate power upon demand. To split water molecules into their component parts, a catalyst is necessary, but the catalytic materials currently used in the process, also known as the oxygen evolution reaction, are not efficient enough to make the process practical.

Meet the Smellicopter is a tiny drone developed by scientists at the University of Washington, capable of detecting smells like gas leaks, explosives, or even the survivors of a natural disaster. This amazing, obstacle avoiding UAV doesn’t use a man-made sensor to smell: it uses a moth antenna to navigate towards an odor.

A research paper published in IOP Science describes Smellicopter as “A bio-hybrid odor-guided autonomous palm-sized air vehicle.” The advantages to such a vehicle are clear: the tiny drone can travel in places that humans cannot or should not: the rubble of buildings after a natural disaster; zones where chemical leaks or spills may have occurred; or conflict zones that may contain chemical or explosive weapons.

Continue reading “Smellicopter Tiny Drone Uses Moth Antenna to Find Smells” »

How do molecular catalysts—molecules which, like enzymes, can trigger or accelerate certain chemical reactions—function, and what effects do they have? A team of chemists at the University of Oldenburg has come closer to the answers using a model molecule that functions like a molecular nanobattery. It consists of several titanium centers linked to each other by a single layer of interconnected carbon and nitrogen atoms. The seven-member research team recently published its findings, which combine the results of three multi-year Ph.D. research projects, in ChemPhysChem. The physical chemistry and chemical physics journal featured the basic research from Oldenburg on its cover.

To gain a better understanding of how the molecule works, the researchers, headed by first authors Dr. Aleksandra Markovic and Luca Gerhards and corresponding author Prof. Dr. Gunther Wittstock, performed electrochemical and spectroscopic experiments and used the university’s high-performance computing cluster for their calculations. Wittstock sees the publication of the paper as a “success story” for both the Research Training Groups within which the Ph.D. projects were conducted and for the university’s computing cluster. “Without the high-performance computing infrastructure, we would not have been able to perform the extensive calculations required to decipher the behavior of the molecule,” says Wittstock. “This underlines the importance of such computing clusters for current research.”

In the paper, the authors present the results of their analysis of a molecular structure, the prototype for which was the result of an unexpected chemical reaction first reported by the University of Oldenburg’s Chemistry Department in 2006. It is a highly complex molecular structure in which three titanium centers (commonly referred to in high school lessons as titanium ions) are connected to each other by a bridging ligand consisting of carbon and nitrogen. Such a compound would be expected to be able to accept and release several electrons through the exchange of electrons between the metal centers among other reasons.

Rusted iron pipes can react with residual disinfectants in drinking water distribution systems to produce carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in drinking water, reports a study by engineers at UC Riverside.

Chromium is a metal that occurs naturally in the soil and groundwater. Trace amounts of trivalent chromium eventually appear in the drinking water and food supply and are thought to have neutral effects on health. Chromium is often added to iron to make it more resistant to corrosion.

Certain chemical reactions can change chromium atoms into a hexavalent form that creates cancer-causing genetic mutations in cells. This carcinogenic form of chromium was at the heart of a lawsuit in California’s Central Valley by Erin Brockovich, which became the subject of an Oscar-winning movie.

A startup with a new type of spacecraft propulsion system could make the interplanetary travel seen in Star Trek a reality. Magdrive has just closed a £1.4M seed round led by Founders Fund, an early investor in SpaceX, backed by Luminous Ventures, 7percent Ventures, and Entrepreneur First.

Magdrive is developing a next generation of spacecraft propulsion for small satellites. The startup says its engine’s thrust and efficiency are a “generational leap” ahead of any other electrical thrusters, opening up the space industry to completely new types of missions that were not possible before, without resorting to much larger, expensive and heavier chemical thrusters. It says its engine would make fast and affordable interplanetary space travel possible, as well as operations in Very Low Earth orbit. The engine would also make orbital manufacturing far more possible than previously.

Existing electrical solutions are very efficient but have very low thrust. Chemical thrusters have high thrust but lack efficiency and are hazardous and expensive to handle. Magdrive says its engine can deliver both high thrust and high efficiency in one system.

““Green tea has five tested chemical compounds that bind to different sites in the pocket on Mpro, essentially overwhelming it to inhibit its function,” Xie said. “Muscadine grapes contain these inhibitory chemicals in their skins and seeds. Plants use these compounds to protect themselves, so it is not surprising that plant leaves and skins contain these beneficial compounds.””

Glad I picked up a refill on my resveratrol this week!

Green tea, muscadine grape and dark chocolate chemical compounds inhibit an important SARS-CoV-2 enzyme.

Continue reading “Chemical Compounds in Foods Can Inhibit a Key SARS-CoV-2 Enzyme” »

The United States generates seven million tons of sewage sludge annually, enough to fill 2, 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. While a portion of this waste is repurposed for manure and other land applications, a substantial amount is still disposed of in landfills. In a new study, Texas A&M University researchers have uncovered an efficient way to use leftover sludge to make biodegradable plastics.

In the September issue of the journal American Chemical Society (ACS) Omega, the researchers report that the bacterium Zobellella denitrificans ZD1, found in mangroves, can consume sludge and wastewater to produce polyhydroxybutyrate, a type of biopolymer that can be used in lieu of petroleum-based plastics. In addition to reducing the burden on landfills and the environment, the researchers said Zobellella denitrificans ZD1 offers a way to cut down upstream costs for bioplastics manufacturing, a step toward making them more competitively priced against regular plastics.

“The price of raw materials to cultivate biopolymer-producing bacteria accounts for 25–45% of the total production cost of manufacturing bioplastics. Certainly, this cost can be greatly reduced if we can tap into an alternate resource that is cheaper and readily obtainable,” said Kung-Hui (Bella) Chu, professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “We have demonstrated a potential way to use municipal wastewater-activated sludge and agri-and aqua-culture industrial wastewater to make biodegradable plastics. Furthermore, the bacterial strain does not require elaborate sterilization processes to prevent contamination from other microbes, further cutting down operating and production costs of bioplastics.”

Am I reading this wrong? Sunelight is literally a cure / weapon against corona? Or am I missing something / making an incorrect logical link?

Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have proven that the coronavirus can be killed efficiently, quickly, and cheaply using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs). They believe that the UV-LED technology will soon be available for private and commercial use.

This is the first study conducted on the disinfection efficiency of UV-LED irradiation at different wavelengths or frequencies on a virus from the family of coronaviruses. The study was led by Professor Hadas Mamane, Head of the Environmental Engineering Program at TAU’s School of Mechnical Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The article was published in November 2020 issue of the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology.

Continue reading “LED lights found to kill coronavirus: Global first in fight against COVID-19” »