Lifeboat Foundation

Detailed commentary on the new SENS Research videos about aging and rejuvenation biotechnology.

The SENS Research Foundation has assembled a set of narrated cellular biochemistry animations that serve as an introduction to the various distinct projects that make up the field of rejuvenation biotechnology. The videos outline the forms of cell and tissue damage that are the root cause of aging and age-related disease, as well as the classes of therapy that could, once constructed, either repair that damage or bypass it entirely. Since aging is exactly an accumulation of damage and the consequences of that damage, repair of the damage is the basis for rejuvenation, the reversal and prevention of degenerative aging and all age-related disease. The goal for the near future is to align ever more of the research community and its funding institutions with this goal, and make real progress towards bringing an end to the pain, suffering, and disease of aging.

Introducing SENS — Metabolism, Damage, Pathology

Continue reading “A Visual Introduction to SENS Rejuvenation Research” »

UCLA’s new method to smaller molecule machines.

UCLA nanoscience researchers have determined that a fluid that behaves similarly to water in our day-to-day lives becomes as heavy as honey when trapped in a nanocage of a porous solid, offering new insights into how matter behaves in the nanoscale world.

“We are learning more and more about the properties of matter at the nanoscale so that we can design machines with specific functions,” said senior author Miguel García-Garibay, dean of the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Continue reading “UCLA chemists report new insights about properties of matter at the nanoscale” »

On a cool Sunday evening in March, a geochemist named Sun Weidong gave a public lecture to an audience of laymen, students, and professors at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, the capital city of the landlocked province of Anhui in eastern China. But the professor didn’t just talk about geochemistry. He also cited several ancient Chinese classics, at one point quoting historian Sima Qian’s description of the topography of the Xia empire — traditionally regarded as China’s founding dynasty, dating from 2070 to 1600 B.C. “Northwards the stream is divided and becomes the nine rivers,” wrote Sima Qian in his first century historiography, the Records of the Grand Historian. “Reunited, it forms the opposing river and flows into the sea.”

In other words, “the stream” in question wasn’t China’s famed Yellow River, which flows from west to east. “There is only one major river in the world which flows northwards. Which one is it?” the professor asked. “The Nile,” someone replied. Sun then showed a map of the famed Egyptian river and its delta — with nine of its distributaries flowing into the Mediterranean. This author, a researcher at the same institute, watched as audience members broke into smiles and murmurs, intrigued that these ancient Chinese texts seemed to better agree with the geography of Egypt than that of China.

In the past year, Sun, a highly decorated scientist, has ignited a passionate online debate with claims that the founders of Chinese civilization were not in any sense Chinese but actually migrants from Egypt. He conceived of this connection in the 1990s while performing radiometric dating of ancient Chinese bronzes; to his surprise, their chemical composition more closely resembled those of ancient Egyptian bronzes than native Chinese ores. Both Sun’s ideas and the controversy surrounding them flow out of a much older tradition of nationalist archaeology in China, which for more than a century has sought to answer a basic scientific question that has always been heavily politicized: Where do the Chinese people come from?

Continue reading “Study claims: Chinese Civilization Come From Ancient Egypt” »

Computadores qu nticos estão chegando. O mundo pode não estar pronto.
A mec nica qu ntica, Carl Sagan observou certa vez, é tão estranho que o “senso comum é quase inútil em se aproximar dela.” Os cientistas ainda não entendem exatamente por que a matéria se comporta como faz no nível qu ntico. No entanto, eles estão ficando melhor a exploração dos seus din mica peculiar — de maneiras que podem em breve revolucionando o negócio tecnoloco.

Não é surpresa, então, o investimento no campo está crescendo. IBM, Microsoft e Google são todos construção de laboratórios de pesquisa qu ntica. Startups estão se preparando. Os bancos estão muito interessados na verdade. Governos ver aplicações para a exploração espacial, a investigação médica e de coleta de inteligência. Agência de Segurança Nacional dos Estados Unidos, na verdade, foi discretamente tentando construir um computador qu ntico, durante anos, na esperança de que ele iria fazer um código-breaker imparável.

Via Bloomberg.

Continue reading “Quantum Computers Are Coming, and the World Might Not Be Ready” »

Our friends at the Methuselah Foundation are working on macular degeneration.

Typically, a fellowship and participation in a research study to cure a major disease would occur years after completing undergrad, possibly even after earning a PhD. But Jennifer DeRosa is not a typical student.

As early as high school, DeRosa was already in the lab, conducting research in plant biotechnology at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) before graduating valedictorian from Skaneateles High School. As a freshman student at Onondaga Community College, she continued to develop skills in molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and cell biology. She logged over 1,600 hours in academic and industry laboratories while maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA, completing her associate’s degree in Math and Science in only one year.

Continue reading “Methuselah Foundation Fellowship Award Winner Tackles Research in Macular Degeneration” »

Watching DNA self-repair itself.

After 2015’s Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded for advancements in our understanding of DNA repair, a recent Nature report characterises the mechanism in molecular detail. The implications for cancer research are vast.

Researchers in Paris, France, and Bristol, England, have leveraged recent advances in microscopy and fluorescent imaging to characterise the entire process of DNA repair at the molecular level. They were able to observe RNA polymerase, which ‘reads’ DNA and initiates its replication, as it moved along the DNA strand.

Continue reading “Now we can watch DNA Repair itself!” »

Scientists have developed self-propelling liquid metals that could be used for future electronic circuits.

Current electronic technology is based on solid state components with fixed metallic tracks and semiconductors. Researchers are investigating soft circuit systems that act like live cells, communicating with each other to form new circuits when possible. In one study, Professor Kalantar-zadeh from RMIT University in Australia, along with his researchers immersed a number of different metallic elements, in the form of liquid droplets, in water.

Continue reading “Moving metal promises dynamic circuits” »

Nice.

Software can tell chemists how to make new molecules from scratch and its inventors claim it has already mapped out a cheaper route to a blockbuster drug.

Continue reading “Revolutionary computer program could change chemistry forever” »

I never get tired of talking about the many uses for Q-dot technology. One area that has me even more intrigued is how it is used in crystallized formations. I expect to see more and more experimenting on crystalized formations on many fronts including complex circuitry for performance and storage.

And, with synthetic technology today plus 3D printing along with Q-dots we could (as I have eluded to many times over several months) truly begin to see some amazing technology be developed on the wearable tech front.

Wearables could include synthetic circuitry stones in various accessories to not only store information, but also serve as another form of unique id because in synthetic stones we have been able (like in nature) create complex crystalized formations that are each unique/ 1 of a kind like a unique finger print, or iris of an eye. I expect to see some very interesting things coming in this space.

Continue reading “Quantum dots with impermeable shell used as a powerful tool for ‘nano-engineering’” »