Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 110

Lithium-6 is essential for producing nuclear fusion fuel, but isolating it from the much more common isotope, lithium-7, usually requires liquid mercury, which is extremely toxic. Now, researchers have developed a mercury-free method to isolate lithium-6 that is as effective as the conventional method. The new method is presented in the journal Chem.

“This is a step towards addressing a major roadblock to nuclear energy,” says chemist and senior author Sarbajit Banerjee of ETH Zürich and Texas A&M University. “Lithium-6 is a critical material for the renaissance of nuclear energy, and this method could represent a viable approach to isotope separation.”

The conventional method used to isolate lithium-6, called the COLEX process, involves liquid mercury and has been banned in the United States since 1963 due to pollution concerns.

Read more | >

Mitochondria are the powerhouses in our cells, producing the energy for all vital processes. Using cryo-electron tomography, researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland, have now gained insight into the architecture of mitochondria at unprecedented resolution.

The results of the study are published in Science.

They discovered that the proteins responsible for energy generation assemble into large “supercomplexes,” which play a crucial role in providing the cell’s energy.

Read more | >

Researchers have discovered that Daphne pseudomezereum (commonly known as Onishibari) contains a substance inhibiting replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The plants were cultivated at the Medicinal Plant Garden of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University. This finding is expected to lead to the discovery of drug seeds for novel drugs with superior anti-HIV activity.

A paper reporting this study was published in the journal Phytochemistry. The research group was led by Professor Wei Li from the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, in collaboration with the Duke University Medical Center in the United States.

The Thymelaeaceae family consists of over 53 genera and 800 species distributed worldwide, except in polar and desert regions. These plants contain diterpenoids, which exhibit significant biological activities, including anticancer, anti-HIV, and .

Read more | >

A team of geologists at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the Institute of Space Sciences and the Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, all in China, has found evidence in soil samples collected from the far side of the moon that bolsters a theory that the moon was once covered by an ocean of magma. In their study published in the journal Science, the group analyzed a moon soil sample returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e-6 mission.

In 2024, the China National Space Administration launched a spacecraft that carried a lander to the surface of the . The mission was the first to collect samples from the far side of the moon and return them to the Earth. For this new study, the research team obtained 2 grams of the soil for testing.

The researchers used multiple methods to determine its composition and then compared the results to those of analyses of from the near side of the moon.

Read more | >

A private lunar lander has captured the first high-definition sunset pictures from the moon.

Firefly Aerospace and NASA released the stunning photos Tuesday, taken before the Blue Ghost lander fell silent over the weekend. One shot included Venus in the distance.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost landed on the on March 2, the first private spacecraft to touch down upright and perform its entire mission. It kept taking pictures and collecting science data five hours into the lunar night before it died for lack of solar energy.

Read more | >

A research team at UNIST has identified the causes of oxygen generation in a novel cathode material called quasi-lithium and proposed a material design principle to address this issue.

Quasi-lithium materials theoretically enable batteries to store 30% to 70% more energy compared to existing technologies through high-voltage charging of over 4.5V. This advancement could allow to achieve a of up to 1,000 km on a single charge. However, during the high-voltage charging process, oxygen trapped inside the material can oxidize and be released as gas, posing a significant explosion risk.

The research team, led by Professor Hyun-Wook Lee in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, discovered that oxygen oxidizes near 4.25V, causing partial structural deformation and gas release.

Read more | >

A new study by UCLA Health has discovered what researchers say is the first drug to fully reproduce the effects of physical stroke rehabilitation in model mice, following from human studies.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, tested two candidate drugs derived from their studies on the mechanism of the brain effects of rehabilitation, of which one resulted in significant recovery in movement control after stroke in the mouse model.

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability because most patients do not fully recover from the effects of stroke. There are no drugs in the field of stroke recovery, requiring stroke patients to undergo physical rehabilitation which has shown to be only modestly effective.

Read more | >

Structural adhesives play a crucial role in assembling automobiles, aircraft, and buildings. Among these, epoxy adhesives stand out for their exceptional mechanical strength and durability. However, traditional cured epoxy resins are often rigid and lack flexibility, resulting in low peel and impact strength.

Now, a groundbreaking advancement in structural adhesives has emerged from the laboratories of Nagoya University, promising to transform material bonding as we know it. This next-generation adhesive boasts an unprecedented impact strength – 22 times higher than conventional epoxy-based adhesives without rubbery additives.

New adhesive using elastomer makes lighter, more carbon-efficient vehicles possible.

Read more | >