Lifeboat Foundation

Celebrities often use their platforms to spread awareness on important issues. But while many of us have become numb to their warnings, there’s something about Harrison Ford that makes people sit up and listen.

Maybe it’s the cult following he’s acquired from playing heroic characters like Indiana Jones and Han Solo.

When scientists discovered DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Does the advent of machine learning mean the classic methodology of hypothesise, predict and test has had its day?

Sinclair’s first episode. Enjoy.

In this episode, Dr. David Sinclair and co-host Matthew LaPlante discuss why we age. In doing so, they discuss organisms that have extreme longevity, the genes that control aging (mTOR, AMPK, Sirtuins), the role of sirtuin proteins as epigenetic regulators of aging, the process of “ex-differentiation” in which cells begin to lose their identity, and how all of this makes up the “Information Theory of Aging”, and the difference between “biological age” and “chronological age” and how we can measure biological age through DNA methylation clocks.

Continue reading “The Science Behind Why We Age | Lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair #1” »

Exercise for weight loss and its link to long life is explored in new research. Exercise carries many health benefits, independent of how much weight loss occurs.

Hi everyone, I’m Larry Tabak. I’ve served as NIH’s Principal Deputy Director for over 11 years, and I will be the acting NIH director until a new permanent director is named. In my new role, my day-to-day responsibilities will certainly increase, but I promise to carve out time to blog about some of the latest research progress on COVID-19 and any other areas of science that catch my eye.

I’ve also invited the directors of NIH’s Institutes and Centers (ICs) to join me in the blogosphere and write about some of the cool science in their research portfolios. I will publish a couple of posts to start, then turn the blog over to our first IC director. From there, I envision alternating between posts from me and from various IC directors. That way, we’ll cover a broad array of NIH science and the tremendous opportunities now being pursued in biomedical research.

Since I’m up first, let’s start where the NIH Director’s Blog usually begins each year: by taking a look back at Science’s Breakthroughs of 2021. The breakthroughs were formally announced in December near the height of the holiday bustle. In case you missed the announcement, the biomedical sciences accounted for six of the journal Science’s 10 breakthroughs. Here, I’ll focus on four biomedical breakthroughs, the ones that NIH has played some role in advancing, starting with Science’s editorial and People’s Choice top-prize winner:

High energy density (HED) laboratory plasmas are perhaps the most extreme states of matter ever produced on Earth. Normal plasmas are one of the four basic states of matter, along with solid, gases, and liquids. But HED plasmas have properties not found in normal plasmas under ordinary conditions. For example, matter in this state may simultaneously behave as a solid and a gas. In this state, materials that normally act as insulators for electrical charges instead become conductive metals. To create and study HED plasmas, scientists compress materials in solid or liquid form or bombard them with high energy particles or photons.

Goodbye 2021, and hello 2022!

Despite the ongoing disruption from COVID-19, many impressive breakthroughs in science and technology occurred this year.

Below we have listed our top 20 most viewed blogs of 2021, in reverse order.

A year in review.

This video is sponsored by ResearchHub — https://www.researchhub.com/?ref=eleanorsheeky.

Continue reading “This years biggest breakthroughs in longevity science!!” »