Diverse gut microbiomes protect against pathogens by blocking nutrient access, according to a new Science study. The findings highlight why microbiome diversity is important to human health.
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Jan 8, 2024
Major Study Identifies 15 Factors Linked to Early Dementia Risk
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: genetics, health, neuroscience
While dementia is much more common in older adults, hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with young-onset dementia (YOD) each year – and an extensive new study sheds some considerable new light on why.
Most previous research in this area has looked at genetics passed down through generations, but here, the team was able to identify 15 different lifestyle and health factors that are associated with YOD risk.
“This is the largest and most robust study of its kind ever conducted,” says epidemiologist David Llewellyn from the University of Exeter in the UK.
Jan 8, 2024
Citi says AI demand growth will boost these 9 memory chip stocks — and gives one 60% upside
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: robotics/AI
The Wall Street bank estimates that specialized memory and storage products meant for AI chips will help chipmakers regain pricing power and raise earnings.
Jan 8, 2024
Revealing the True Colors of Neptune and Uranus: A Breakthrough Study
Posted by Laurence Tognetti, Labroots Inc. in categories: physics, space
“The misperception of Neptune’s color, as well as the unusual color changes of Uranus, have bedeviled us for decades. This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest,” said Dr. Heidi Hammel.
In space, not everything is how it seems, and this might be the case with Uranus and Neptune, as a study scheduled to be published in February 2024 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society examines how the colors of the two gas giants might be more similar that what NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft imaged in 1986 and 1989, respectively, as it flew past the gas giants during its mission. Originally, Voyager 2 imaged Uranus to exhibit a greenish-type color while Neptune appeared to be a strong blue, and this new study holds the potential to help scientists better understand how to estimate the true colors of planets throughout the cosmos.
“Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ color, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue,” said Dr. Patrick Irwin, who is a Professor of Planetary Physics at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study. “Even though the artificially-saturated color was known at the time amongst planetary scientists – and the images were released with captions explaining it – that distinction had become lost over time.”
Continue reading “Revealing the True Colors of Neptune and Uranus: A Breakthrough Study” »
Jan 8, 2024
Targeted MRI detects chronic liver disease
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in category: biotech/medical
Chronic liver diseases such as hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Fibrosis—the thickening and scarring of connective tissue—plays a major role in these liver diseases but detection of fibrosis is limited to biopsy, which suffers from limitations including the risk of complications, sampling only a tiny fraction of the liver, and an inability to serially monitor disease progression due to its invasive nature.
To provide better diagnosis and treatment of chronic liver diseases, researchers are working to use non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect and quantify liver fibrosis throughout the entire organ, which would enable earlier detection and the ability to monitor disease progression as well as the effects of treatment over time.
Adapting MRI for detecting chronic conditions such as fibrosis involves the development of tissue-specific MRI contrast agents that target diseased tissue such as the collagen that accumulates in fibrotic liver. To develop such agents, researchers have been challenged to design and synthesize compounds that must find and bind the tissue target, provide a strong signal under MRI, and rapidly clear from the system to minimize any toxicity.
Jan 8, 2024
Immune Cells Hold the Key to Biological Aging
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension
Summary: Scientists are using epigenetic clocks to reveal our biological age, a true marker of health.
A new study delves into the immune system’s role in understanding and improving the accuracy of these clocks. Their innovative approach sheds light on the relationship between immune cell composition and biological age, with a focus on the balance between naïve and memory immune cells.
This research has significant implications for aging insights, health interventions, and targeted cancer treatments.
Jan 8, 2024
Using AI to Identify High Risk Patients With Asthma and COPD
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI
YSM researchers are using deeplearning AI models to improve detection of patients at risk for multiple hospitalizations due to asthma and COPD.
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are two of the most common lung diseases worldwide, and exacerbation of these conditions can negatively impact health and increase health care costs. A new study shows that deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses large amounts of data to process information, can improve detection of patients with these diseases who are at increased risk for multiple hospitalizations.
The study was published Dec. 13, 2023, in the journal Respiratory Research.
Continue reading “Using AI to Identify High Risk Patients With Asthma and COPD” »
Jan 8, 2024
Metahuman lets you create photorealistic, animated digital humans
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in category: entertainment
When it comes to virtual worlds, one of the most challenging things to create (rivaling real trees, which Eric Ramberg, Chief Content Officer at Quixel, wrote is “the most requested type of asset”) is realistic human characters — especially their faces.
But Epic Games may have created the best solution so far. They have released a new character creation tool in Unreal Engine, called Creator, that helps you render an almost endless selection of near-photorealistic digital people.
Continue reading “Metahuman lets you create photorealistic, animated digital humans” »
Jan 8, 2024
First Vulcan rocket launches commercial moon lander with a boost from Blue Origin
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: robotics/AI, space travel
Powered by Blue Origin engines, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket launched Astrobotic’s moon lander on a lunar odyssey.
Jan 8, 2024
Scientists flip around gravitational-wave data analysis: Have LIGO and Virgo detected a merger of dark-matter stars?
Posted by Cecile G. Tamura in categories: cosmology, physics
Thanks to the LIGO and Virgo detectors, researchers now regularly observe ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves, which are caused by catastrophic cosmic events such as black-hole mergers, star explosions, or the big bang itself.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime that travel at the speed of light. These are produced in some of the most violent events in the universe, such as black-hole mergers, supernovae, or the Big Bang itself. Since their first detection in 2015, and after three observing runs, the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors have detected around 100 such waves.
Thanks to these observations, we are starting to unveil the black-hole population of our universe, study gravity in its most extreme regime and even determine the formation of elements like gold or platinum during the merger of neutron stars.