Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists from The University of Manchester and the University of Hong Kong have found a source for the enigmatic alignment of stars close to the Galactic Center.

The initial discovery of the alignment of planetary nebulae was made a decade ago by Bryan Rees, a Manchester PhD student, but has remained unexplained.

New data obtained from the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope.

An artificial intelligence platform developed by an Israeli startup can reveal whether a patient is at risk of a heart attack by analyzing their routine chest CT scans.

Results from a new study testing Nanox. AI’s HealthCCSng algorithm on such scans found that 58 percent of patients unknowingly had moderate to severe levels of coronary artery calcium (CAC) or plaque.

CAC is the strongest predictor of future cardiac events, and measuring it typically subjects patients to an additional costly scan that is not normally covered by insurance companies.

“That’s what’s driving all this – the availability of this technology and better patient care,” he said.

As many as 20–30% of the Knoxville-based health system’s patients could receive virtual care through the program.

The discovery has enabled a more detailed analysis of where the Hualongdong people fit on the human family tree. The mandible has a mixture of both modern and archaic features. For example, the bone along the jawline is thick, a feature shared with early human species, such as Homo erectus. It also lacks a true chin, the presence of which is a key feature of Homo sapiens. But the side of the mandible that attaches to the upper jaw is thinner than those of archaic hominins and more reminiscent of that of modern humans.

How do we feel about this Lifeboat?

The long read: When a microbe was found munching on a plastic bottle in a rubbish dump, it promised a recycling revolution. Now scientists are attempting to turbocharge those powers in a bid to solve our waste crisis. But will it work?

A new compound called d16 that reduces tumor growth and overcomes treatment resistance in mutant p53-bearing cancers has been developed by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine. Their findings testing the compound, published in the journal Cancer Research Communications, suggests the new compound could be used in combination therapies to provide more effective treatment against these kinds of cancer.

“One of the most common alterations in many human cancers are mutations in p53, a gene that normally provides one of the most powerful shields against tumor growth,” says Helena Folly-Kossi, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in Weei-Chin Lin’s lab at Baylor and the study’s first author. “Mutations that alter the normal function of p53 can promote tumor growth, cancer progression and resistance to therapy, which are associated with poor prognosis. It is important to understand how p53 mutations help cancer grow to develop therapies to counteract their effects.”

According to Lin, finding ways to target p53 mutations directly as a form of therapy for cancer has been difficult. His lab has been working for many years to not interfere directly with p53, but rather to identify vulnerabilities in the cells carrying p53 mutations that they could target to prevent cancer growth. “One of the challenges has been to develop drugs that act on mutant p53 directly. Some of these drugs are under development, but they appear to be toxic,” he said.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University received a grant for more than $3.9 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research Infrastructure Programs to establish the Baylor/Rice Genome Editing Testing Center (GETC). The new center will assist investigators from across the country with somatic cell genome editing experiments in mouse models.

Somatic cell genome editing, the ability to edit DNA within the body’s non-reproductive cells, is a promising potential treatment for the most severe human diseases. Over the last decade, significant effort has gone into developing more effective genome editing systems and methods of delivery to specific cells and organs. However, many of these new technologies do not progress to use in humans because there is insufficient evidence from animal models supporting their effectiveness.

“Our center will provide mouse model resources and genome editing testing pipelines to researchers who are developing new genome editing and delivery technologies but need assistance with conducting preclinical animal studies,” said Dr. Jason Heaney, co-principal investigator and associate professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor. “Our goal is to help generate the animal model data needed to demonstrate the therapeutic potential of these cutting-edge technologies.”

From attending a meeting to enjoying a live performance or, perhaps, taking a class at the University of Tokyo’s Metaverse School of Engineering, the application of virtual reality is expanding in our daily lives. Earlier this year, virtual reality technologies garnered attention as tech giants, including Meta and Apple, unveiled new VR/AR (virtual reality/augmented reality) headsets. We spoke with VR and AR specialist Takuji Narumi, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, to learn about his latest research and what VR’s future has to offer.

At the Avatar Robot Café DAWN ver. β, employees serve customers via a digital screen and engage in conversation using avatars of their choice, such as an alpaca and a man with blue hair.

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DarkBeam is a digital risk protection firm, which left its interface unprotected and so exposed records with user emails and passwords from previously reported and non-reported data breaches. These leaked logins present cybercriminals with almost limitless attack capabilities.

The CEO of SecurityDiscovery Bob Diachenko first identified the leak, and he states that it contained over 3.8 billion records. DarkBeam has apparently been collecting information to alert its customers in case of a data breach, but this incident will most likely affect more than only DarkBeam users.