Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 15

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Anti-neuroinflammatory natural products from isopod-related fungus now accessible via chemical synthesis

“Herpotrichone” is a natural substance that has been evaluated highly for its excellent ability to suppress inflammation in the brain and protect nerve cells, displaying significant potential to be developed as a therapeutic agent for neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. This substance could only be obtained in minute quantities from fungi that are symbiotic with isopods. However, KAIST researchers have succeeded in chemically synthesizing this rare natural product, thereby presenting the possibility for the development of next-generation drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.

A research team led by Professor Sunkyu Han of the Department of Chemistry successfully synthesized the natural anti-neuroinflammatory substances ‘herpotrichones A, B, and C’ for the first time. The paper is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Herpotrichone natural products are substances obtainable only in minute quantities from Herpotrichia sp. SF09, a symbiotic pill bug fungus, and possesses a unique 6÷6÷6÷6÷3 pentacyclic framework consisting of five fused rings (four six-membered and one three-membered ring).

Machine learning model helps scientists understand deadly cone snail toxins

Marine cone snails are host to a family of dangerous neurotoxins. Very little is known about how those toxins interact with the human body, making this an area of interest for medical drug research and an area of concern in national security spaces. For the first time, a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has successfully trained a machine learning model that predicts how alpha conotoxins bind to specific human receptor subtypes, which could help researchers develop lifesaving anti-toxins.

“Because of the diversity and complexity of natural conotoxins, it is estimated that only 2% of them have been sequenced,” said Gnana Gnanakaran, theoretical biologist at Los Alamos. “No antidotes exist for conotoxins, but by using machine learning to predict conotoxin binding, we now have the ability to develop tools to understand and respond to these threats.”

The deadly secretions issued by any one of the more than 800 cone snail species represent a conglomeration of more than 1 million natural conotoxins. The research team concentrated their machine learning work on alpha conotoxins, a particularly prevalent and deadly conotoxin family.

Posting digitally enhanced photos of yourself could have a social cost, researchers find

The use of disclaimer labels on digitally enhanced portraits could have unintended social consequences for their subjects, according to a study by a team of McGill researchers.

Researchers at the Laboratory for Attention and Social Cognition used beauty filters on a common social media application to gradually edit a total of 300 images of 60 women (from 0% to 100%, 25% at a time). They randomly labeled half of the images as “edited” and the other half as “unedited,” regardless of their level of editing.

A sample of 76 then reviewed the images. The participants were asked to rate the individual’s attractiveness, but also to imagine the person’s social life and some of their social qualities.

Quantum Leap in Measurement: New System Nears the Theoretical Limit of Physics

Fast, precise, and ready for use in the field: a quantum-level optical frequency comb system capable of measuring 0.34 nanometers in just 25 microseconds. The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science has developed a cutting-edge system for measuring length with a level of precision that

Is the Multiverse Real? New Quantum Tech Might Finally Tell Us

Imagine a gamma ray laser that safely eliminates cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed. A University of Colorado Denver engineer is close to providing researchers with a powerful new tool that could bring science fiction concepts closer to reality. Consider the potential of a gamm

Cosmic Rays May Be Fueling Hidden Life on Mars and Beyond

“This discovery changes the way we think about where life might exist,” said Atri. “Instead of looking only for warm planets with sunlight, we can now consider places that are cold and dark, as long as they have some water beneath the surface and are exposed to cosmic rays. Life might be able to survive in more places than we ever imagined.”

The study introduces a new idea called the Radiolytic Habitable Zone. Unlike the traditional “Goldilocks Zone” — the area around a star where a planet could have liquid water on its surface — this new zone focuses on places where water exists underground and can be energized by cosmic radiation. Since cosmic rays are found throughout space, this could mean there are many more places in the universe where life could exist.

The findings provide new guidance for future space missions. Instead of only looking for signs of life on the surface, scientists might also explore underground environments on Mars and the icy moons, using tools that can detect chemical energy created by cosmic radiation.

Experiment Recreates The Universe’s Very First Chemical Reactions

The first chemical reactions in the wake of the Big Bang have been recreated for the first time in conditions similar to those in the baby Universe.

A team of physicists led by Florian Grussie of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Germany has reproduced the reactions of the helium hydride ion (HeH+), a molecule made from a neutral helium atom fusing with an ionized atom of hydrogen.

These are the first steps that lead to the formation of molecular hydrogen (H2), the most abundant molecule in the Universe and the stuff from which stars are born. The new work, therefore, elucidates some of the earliest processes that gave rise to the Universe as we know it today.

Dark Mirror of Our Own Universe Could Explain Quirks in Gravity

Since conventional explanations have failed to pony up dark matter, one physicist is looking towards the unconventional.

In a series of two papers, physicist Stefano Profumo of the University of California, Santa Cruz has proposed two strange, but not impossible, origins for the mystery material responsible for the excess gravitational effects we see out there in the Universe.

In the first, published in May 2025, he proposes that dark matter could have been born in a dark matter ‘mirror’ of our own Universe, where matter is made of dark versions of particles akin to our protons and neutrons.

/* */