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RAADfest 2024: An Early Preview

I like what Fahy says here most.


RAADfest is the largest and most immersive event in the world focused on super-longevity for a general audience. Bringing together cutting-edge science, inspiration, entertainment and fun, RAADfest is more than just a conference – it’s a celebration of life. From brain longevity and sexual health, to senolytics, personalized medicine and helping your pets live longer too, RAADfest provides the information and inspiration to enable people to take charge of their longevity.

For more info, visit: https://www.raadfest.com/

Produced by the Coalition for Radical Life Extension, RAADfest also includes RAADcity, the international product expo. RAADcity features leading brands sharing demos and deals on their longevity products and services with the people who want and need them the most.

When: Sept 5th to 8th, 2024

Exploring consciousness with ‘eureka’ moments

For generations, researchers have been pondering the question of how and where consciousness is formed in the brain. Professor Ekrem Dere from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, proposes a new approach to researching conscious cognitive information processing. He advocates defining phases of conscious cognitive processes on the basis of behavioral observations and learning curves.

“Learning is often not a gradual process, but takes place in leaps and bounds; you could say that humans and experience sudden epiphanies every now and then,” he says. “It’s likely that these experiences are preceded by conscious processes.”

Dere outlines his new approach, which might apply to both humans and animals, in an article published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job

A mind-bending parasite may one day deliver drugs to the brain.

Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that famously makes mice lose their fear of cats, but also can cause deadly foodborne illnesses (SN: 1/14/20).


Those with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of developing severe disease when exposed to T. gondii. Pregnant people run the risk of preterm birth and pregnancy loss. In addition, the parasite can cause a variety of problems for the baby including blindness, hearing loss, epilepsy and jaundice. More than 200,000 cases of toxoplasmosis are diagnosed each year in the United States, with about 5,000 requiring hospitalization. An estimated 750 people each year die from the disease.

Koshy’s own previous research indicates that brain cells the parasite injects a payload into eventually die.

If researchers want to use the parasite for drug delivery, they will need to learn how it causes disease and disable those mechanisms without harming T. gondii’s ability to quietly infect the brain.

FINDING THAT CONNECTION© — neurons connecting to one another in a Petri dish — growth cones

FINDING THAT CONNECTION ©
This is my laboratory work, please see copyright details at bottom.

You’re watching two neurons that I saw under the microscope sensing one another and connecting.

There are 86 billion neurons in the brain — how do they know how to connect to other neurons or body parts when our bodies are developing?

They use these webbed hand-like structures that you can see in this video. The finger like projections actively sense the environment around it.

When we are developing in utero, you’ll find these “growth cones,” at the tip of every growing neuron, actively searching their way between cells, trying to find the right spot to connect to. When they make their connection, they become resorbed and disappear.

I know — it’s heartbreaking that the video ends right when we get to the exciting part, but see the black wavering line in the bottom right? That’s what they look like after they’ve connected together in a Petri dish.

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