Lifeboat Foundation

The only cure for painful sickle cell disease today is a bone marrow transplant. But soon there may be a new cure that attacks the disorder at its genetic source.

On Tuesday, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will review a gene therapy for the inherited blood disorder, which in the U.S. mostly affects Black people. Issues they will consider include whether more research is needed into possible unintended consequences of the treatment.

If approved by the FDA, it would be the first gene therapy on the U.S. market based on CRISPR, the gene editing tool that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020.

Read now ➡️ by Laurie K. Jackson, et al.

Featured on the cover of Volume 12, Issue 7 (July 2022).

The article 👉

Continue reading “Exploiting Differences in Heme Biosynthesis between Bacterial Species to Screen for Novel Antimicrobials” »

Everdrone’s advanced service promises to reduce the average response time to under 2 minutes.

Aiming to improve emergency response services, Swedish firm Everdrone has introduced a state-of-the-art drone that combines an advanced camera system as well as customizable medical kits.

Christened E2, the multi-purpose drone aims to revolutionize emergency dispatch by providing the ability to transmit live infrared and high-definition video along with emergency medical equipment supplies. Everdrone claims that E2 will help to lower average response times under two minutes.

The US has relied on computer simulations since 1992 for verifying the performance of its nuclear stockpile but will soon get more realistic estimates.

Three US national defense labs are engaged in the process of building a test site, one thousand feet under the ground in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that will send powerful X-rays and verify the reliability of the country’s nuclear stockpile, a press release said.

The US nuclear program heavily relied on actual testing of warheads to determine if its stockpile could serve as a deterrent when called upon. This, however, changed in 1992, after then-President George H.W. Bush signed a law calling for a moratorium on nuclear testing.

It could improve limits on information transfer speed but is made of a super expensive ingredient that might make it financially infeasible.

Researchers at Columbia University in the US have developed the fastest and most efficient superconductor that works at room temperature, a press release said. The superconductor is made of superatomic material only known by its chemical formula, Re6Se8Cl2.

In a short span of time, silicon has become an integral part of most modern-day equipment ranging from cell phones to cars, computers to smart homes. However, scientists have found that silicon will soon reach its limits. This is because of the atomic structure of the semiconductor.

A team of researchers from TU Delft, University of Illinois, and MPI Göttingen has developed a nanoscale turbine made of DNA that can rotate in both directions depending on the salt concentration in the solution. This remarkable feat of nanotechnology could pave the way for new applications in drug delivery, biomimetics, and energy harvesting.

Natural turbines using DNA origami

A turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of a fluid into mechanical work. These are ubiquitous in our modern world, from wind farms to jet engines. They are also essential for life, as some biological molecules act as turbines to power cellular functions, such as the ATP synthase that produces energy for cells and the bacterial flagella that propel bacteria.

Continue reading “Nanotechnology breakthrough: DNA turbine changes direction with salt” »

The new telescope would allow scientists to “understand the beginning, history, and makeup of the universe.”

In a quest to advance the knowledge concerning the beginning of the universe, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background, the National Science Foundation is set to grant up to $21.4 million to the University of Chicago. The agreement will see $3.7 million awarded to the team next year, in a project aimed at developing final designs for a next-generation set of telescopes that will map the light from the earliest moments of the universe.

The project, named CMB-S4, will be led by researchers at UOC and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and aims to construct infrastructure and telescopes… More.

Continue reading “Mapping microwave light: $21.4M boost for telescope probing universe origins” »

The newly developed material resisted temperatures up to 7,343 degrees Fahrenheit without melting or losing shape during tests when applied to encase the surface of a waverider aircraft.

China’s scientists have claimed a major breakthrough: a successful test of a new surface material for hypersonic jets, which was considered impossible to make earlier.

The development means that the Asian powerhouse has surpassed far ahead of the United States in the hypersonic race, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Monday.

A team of engineers from The University of Manchester has created and flown the world’s largest drone, made from a lightweight and eco-friendly material.

The Giant Foamboard Quadcopter (GFQ) is unlike any other drone worldwide thanks to its innovative design. It is made from foamboard, a cardboard type with a foam core and a paper skin.

A team of engineers from The University of Manchester.

Continue reading “World’s largest quadcopter drone made from foamboard takes flight” »