Lifeboat Foundation

Each year, flu causes hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of hospitalizations worldwide. Although the best way to protect against serious illness is annual vaccination, the influenza vaccine’s effectiveness is far from perfect. In the past decade, CDC estimates of flu vaccine effectiveness have ranged from a low of 19% to a high of 48%, spurring calls for development of more effective flu vaccines. Now, NIH-funded researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken a new approach to crafting flu vaccines that resulted, both in mice and human tonsil tissue, in a more broadly protective immune response compared to currently available flu vaccines. The studies were led by Mark M. Davis, Ph.D., and the findings appeared in Science.

The trouble with current vaccines

Currently, flu vaccines are formulated annually to contain up to four strains of human influenza virus that are predicted to circulate widely in the coming season. For example, the 2024–2025 seasonal flu vaccine contains two strains of the influenza viurs A subtype and one of influenza virus B subtype. Each virus strain includes a viral protein called hemagglutinin (HA) that the virus uses to attach to and enter human cells. The immune system recognizes and responds to components of a virus or a vaccine—the antigens—by generating protective antibodies and T cells. On exposure to the flu virus, a subset of flu-specific T cells, called CD4+ helper T cells, provides signals to generate and activate antibody-producing B cells. Ideally, a swarm of HA-matched antibodies is produced following vaccination and will protect the vaccinated person from infection by flu virus strains represented in that year’s vaccine.

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Continue reading “Antiviral Medication Use Is Associated With Reduced Dementia Risk: Amy Proal, PhD” »

For the first time, scientists have imaged an entirely new form of magnetism called altermagnetism.

The researchers used cutting-edge x-ray techniques to visualize and fine-tune this novel magnetic material, which is very different from the kind of magnets we know in day-to-day life.

Their findings, published in Nature, demonstrate that altermagnetic materials can be precisely controlled in microscopic devices, marking a major step forward in magnetic and material science.

Rapidus becomes the first Japanese firm to announce 2nm trial production and integrate ASML’s EUV equipment, potentially gaining a place in NVIDIA’s supply chain.

Rapidus Announces 2nm Trial Production To Occur By 2025, Commercial Production Slated For 2027, Almost Two Years After TSMC

When you look at the general semiconductor dynamics, it won’t be wrong to say that TSMC has a wide lead, taking in orders from all the big tech giants out there. Competition from the likes of Intel Foundry and Samsung isn’t looking too good, given that both companies are witnessing organizational flaws, which has given TSMC a clear edge. However, Rapidus, which is said to be an emerging semiconductor player, has announced the integration of ASML’s EUV scanners in a facility in Japan and has also revealed that 2nm production is on track, ready to compete with TSMC.

WASHINGTON — Japanese lunar lander developer ispace has confirmed that its second mission to the moon will launch on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 as Firefly Aerospace’s first lunar lander.

In an online presentation late Dec. 17 to discuss preparations for its Resilience lander, Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive of ispace, said that his company’s mission would launch during a six-day window in mid-January on the same rocket launching Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 mission.

Continue reading “Firefly, ispace lunar landers to share Falcon 9 launch” »

Groundbreaking studies in mice have sparked a frenzy among longevity enthusiasts—but human trials are still in their infancy.

But a simple plain text DM-style email system might be too basic for the mass market.

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking is Google’s take on so-called AI reasoning models.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly useful for the prediction of emergency events such as heart attacks, natural disasters, and pipeline failures. This requires state-of-the-art technologies that can rapidly process data. In this regard, reservoir computing, specially designed for time-series data processing with low power consumption, is a promising option.

It can be implemented in various frameworks, among which physical reservoir computing (PRC) is the most popular. PRC with optoelectronic artificial synapses that mimic human synaptic elements are expected to have unparalleled recognition and real-time processing capabilities akin to the human visual system.

However, PRC based on existing self-powered optoelectronic synaptic devices cannot handle time-series data across multiple timescales, present in signals for monitoring infrastructure, natural environment, and health conditions.