Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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With more than 1,000 nerve endings, human skin is the brain’s largest sensory connection to the outside world, providing a wealth of feedback through touch, temperature and pressure. While these complex features make skin a vital organ, they also make it a challenge to replicate.

By utilizing nanoengineered hydrogels that exhibit tunable electronic and thermal biosensing capabilities, researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a 3D-printed electronic skin (E-skin) that can flex, stretch and sense like human skin.

“The ability to replicate the sense of touch and integrate it into various technologies opens up new possibilities for human-machine interaction and advanced sensory experiences,” said Dr. Akhilesh Gaharwar, professor and director of research for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “It can potentially revolutionize industries and improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.”

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In the United States, the shortage of available organs for transplantation remains a critical issue, with over 100,000 individuals currently on the waiting list. The demand for organs, including hearts, kidneys, and livers, significantly outweighs the available supply, leading to prolonged waiting times and often, devastating consequences.

It is estimated that approximately 6,000 Americans lose their lives while waiting for a suitable donor organ every year.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a novel tissue engineering technique that aims to potentially bridge the gap between organ demand and availability, offering a beacon of hope.

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A multinational company was scammed out of $25.6 million by hackers who fooled employees at the company’s Hong Kong branch into believing their digital recreation of its chief financial officer — as well as several other video conference participants — were real.

The hack, believed to be the first of its kind, highlights just how far deepfake technology has progressed.

As the South China Morning Post reports, scammers are believed to have used publicly available footage to create deepfake representations of the staff. Some of the fake video calls apparently only had a single human on the line, with the rest being deepfakes created by the hackers.

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Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have discovered a protein expressed on multiple myeloma cancer cells that drives disease growth and development. The new study found that blocking part of the protein’s unique signaling pathway stops myeloma growth in culture and in laboratory mice. Their study was published in the journal Cancer Research.

The protein studied, called ephrin B2, is a powerful new target in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma, a disease that has numerous partially effective treatments, but no cure. Based on these findings, investigators are now working on the development of therapies to target this protein in patients.

Myeloma cells grow inside a patient’s bone marrow. Unlike many types of cancer cells, multiple myeloma cells cannot live outside the patient, meaning they rely on signals from the patient’s healthy cells in order to grow. Investigators sought to determine the source of that signal as a potential way to block myeloma cells’ growth.

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At the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the spotlight was on groundbreaking developments in AI and healthcare. However, battery technology is the game-changer at the heart of these innovations, enabling greater power efficiency. Importantly, electric vehicles are where this technology is being applied most intensely.

Today’s EVs can travel around 700 km on a single charge, while researchers are aiming for a 1,000 km battery range. Researchers are fervently exploring the use of silicon, known for its high storage capacity, as the anode material in lithium-ion batteries for EVs. However, despite its potential, bringing silicon into practical use remains a puzzle that researchers are still working hard to piece together.

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It’s “Little Shop of Horrors” meets “Terminator.”

A team of scientists successfully took control over a Venus Flytrap, a type of cultivated carnivorous plant, by implanting a tiny microchip in it.

This “artificial neutron” was able to force the plants to open and close — conventionally a way for them to devour its prey — mimicking the brain’s methods of processing and transferring information.

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