Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a low-cost tool that can capture power from wind energy as moderate as a light breeze.

The gadget can create a voltage of three volts and energy power of up to 290 microwatts when exposed to winds with speeds as low as 2 meters per second (m/s). This is enough to power a commercial sensor device and allow it to transfer data to a smartphone or computer.

This study reveals a mechanism by which the environment, diet in this case, can influence cancer risk.

“With the world growing more crowded, the great powers strive to conquer other planets. The race is on. The interplanetary sea has been charted; the first caravelle of space is being constructed. Who will get there first? Who will be the new Columbus?” A robot probe is being readied to explore the secrets of the red planet, Mars. The only component lacking: a human brain. No body. Just the brain. It is needed to deal with unexpected crises in the cold, dark depths of space. The perfect volunteer is found in Colonel Barham, a brilliant but hot-tempered astronaut dying of leukemia. But all goes awry as, stripped of his mortal flesh, Barham — or rather his disembodied brain — is consumed with a newly-found power to control…or destroy. Project psychiatrist Major McKinnon (Grant Williams) diagnoses the brain as having delusions of grandeur…but, just perhaps, Col. Barham has achieved grandeur.

Largest polyatomic molecule created and stabilised at just above absolute zero provides new insights into quantum chemistry.

Imagine an army of self-propelling, radioisotope-covered particles 2,500 to 10,000 times smaller than a speck of dust that, upon injection into the body, search for and attach themselves to cancerous tumours, destroying them. Sounds like science fiction? Not so for mice with bladder cancer.

Researchers in Spain report that nanoparticles containing radioactive iodine and which propel themselves upon reaction with urea have the ability to distinguish cancerous bladder tumours from healthy tissue. These “nanobots” penetrate the tumour’s extracellular matrix and accumulate within it, enabling the radionuclide therapy to reach its precise target. In a study conducted at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona, mice receiving a single dose of this treatment had a 90% reduction in the size of bladder tumours compared with untreated animals.

This novel approach may one day revolutionize the treatment of bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is the tenth most common cancer in the world, with over 600,000 new cases diagnosed in 2022 and more than 220,000 deaths globally, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Cancer Observatory.

“Megaworkup” revealed brain and immune differences in a small patient group.

Study shows power of paleogenomics to explore incidence of disability in the past.

‘Inception’ is about to become a documentary — or are we all just dreaming?

Australian researchers have worked out how to fix a defect that causes lupus, and hope their world-first discovery will offer effective long-term treatment.

Published in Nature Communications, the Monash University-led study found a way to reprogram the defective cells of lupus patients with protective molecules from healthy people.

Using human cells, the new treatment restores the protective side of the immune system that prevents autoimmunity, which is when the immune system attacks its own cells.