Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 10206

While cholera rages across many regions of the world, a team of microbiologists and plant scientists has pinpointed a genetic weakness in the pandemic’s armor, which could lead to future treatments.

The current cholera began in Indonesia in 1961. Rather than fade away like its six previous worldwide outbreak predecessors, the responsible strain is thriving and actually picking up steam. A discovery, led by scientists from Michigan State University and Tufts University and featured in the current issue of PNAS, shows the key genetic change the seventh pandemic acquired to thrive for more than 50 years.

The interdisciplinary team of scientists reveal the first ever signaling network for a new bacterial signal, cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP), in the human cholera pathogen. The team also identified the first protein receptor of cGAMP as a phospholipase enzyme that remodels the V. cholerae membrane when cGAMP is produced.

Read more

Deep in the rocky earth, in the liquid-filled cracks created by fracking, lives a community of highly interactive microbes—one that could at once have serious implications for energy companies, human health and scientists investigating the potential for life on Mars.

New research has uncovered the genetic details of microbes found in fracking wells. Not only do a wide array of bacteria and viruses thrive in these crevices created by hydraulic fracturing—they also have the power to produce methane, according to a study led by scientists at The Ohio State University and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That means it’s possible that the tiny life forms could create more energy—and from a different source—than the fracking companies are going after in the first place.

Read more

Potential changes in the frequency and intensity of storms off the coast of the UK and around the world could have a “catastrophic impact” on the livelihood of fishermen and sustainability of fishing industries, research led by the University of Exeter has shown.

The research, based on a review of past studies and examination of future projections, warns that the increase in storms could make fishing more dangerous, displace fish from their natural habitats and interfere with the ability of fish to breed.

Storms off the coast of the UK are projected to become more frequent and intense over the next two centuries and more dramatic storms are expected in the North Sea and North Atlantic, to the West of the UK, Ireland and France, threatening the future of fishermen and the fish they catch.

Read more

VIENNA (Reuters) — Feel like the world is going to the dogs? Want to get away from it all? Here’s a solution: become a citizen of the nation of Asgardia and hope it makes good on its promise to colonize the moon.

Lembit Opik, Asgardia’s Head of Nation Igor Ashurbeyli and Yun Zhao attend the inauguration ceremony of Asgardia’s first Head of Nation in Vienna, Austria June 25, 2018. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner.

Read more

Oculus is launching a TV app for users to check out streaming video content on a big virtual screen on the Oculus Go headset.

The company highlighted Oculus TV at Facebook’s F8 developer conference as one of four new Oculus-built apps that would allow users to get the most out of the inexpensive headset. The app was supposed to launch by the end of May, but we’re finally getting to take a look at it.

Facebook wants a big selling point of the $199 Oculus Go to be that it’s the cheapest home theater you can buy. Oculus TV is a sizable step toward making all of the features related to conventional video viewing available easily. The app will be a free download for existing users of the headset and will come pre-installed on the device moving forward.

Read more