Lifeboat Foundation

Newly released data taken using the Belle II experiment at KEK in Japan and the LHCb experiment at CERN in Switzerland show no sign of a possible anomaly that researchers think could provide a route to overturning the standard model of particle physics [1– 3].

According to the standard model, electrons, muons, and tau leptons should all behave identically when subjected to any of the fundamental forces of nature. Over a decade ago, researchers began questioning the validity of this assumption—known as lepton universality—when they observed high-energy particle decays that deviated from standard-model predictions. Specifically, the observations concerned the decay of B mesons into various leptons, with the experiments hinting that a few more tau leptons were being produced than expected. Excitement built among particle physicists, who hoped they were on the cusp of finding the long-sought standard-model violation that would uncover new physical phenomena. Hopes rose further as other experiments found hints of lepton-universality violations in the decay of B mesons into electrons and muons, but the signals remained too small to rule out experimental artifacts.

Then at the end of last year, hopes began to fade when the LHCb Collaboration released data for B-meson decays involving electrons and muons that exactly matched standard-model predictions [2, 3]. Now data from the Belle II Collaboration for a different B-meson decay involving electrons and muons dim those hopes further [1]. The study provides the most precise lepton-universality test yet in such decays. But researchers haven’t yet given up on leptons unlocking a door to new physics, says Belle II Collaboration member Henrik Junkerkalefeld of the University of Bonn, Germany. He notes that, although the results provide new constraints on the options for undiscovered physics, they don’t completely rule them all out.

In 2021, retired actor Bruce Willis gave video production firm DeepCake permission to use deepfake tech to insert his likeness into a series of advertisements — and the AI they trained for the project could allow him to keep entertaining fans well into the future.

Authorized deepfake: In March 2022, Willis’ family announced that he would be stepping away from acting due to a recent diagnosis of aphasia, a language disorder that was impairing his cognitive abilities.

Continue reading “Bruce Willis sells his likeness for a deepfake ad” »

Canadian architecture studio Atelier l’Abri has built a series of A-Frame buildings for the Farouche Tremblant agrotourism site in Québec’s Mon-Tremblant National Park, which were designed to “recede in the landscape”.

Intending to celebrate and showcase the surrounding untamed woodlands, Atelier l’Abri created a cafe, farm and four rental micro–cabins that act as a basecamp for visitors wanting to explore the nearby Devil’s River and its valley.

Sitting among the wild terrain, the four small rental cabins have steep-pitched roofs clad in cedar shingles that extend to the ground to form sloping walls.

Calculations inscribed on a clay tablet helped ancient people document property boundaries, new research suggests.

As we age, our bodies undergo various changes that can impact our overall health and make us more susceptible to diseases. One common factor in the aging process is low-grade inflammation, which contributes to age-related decline and impairment. However, the precise pathways responsible for this inflammation and their impact on natural aging have remained elusive until now.

A new study led by Andrea Ablasser at EPFL now shows that a molecular signaling pathway called cGAS/STING plays a critical role in driving chronic inflammation and functional decline during aging. By blocking the STING protein, the researchers were able to suppress inflammatory responses in senescent cells and tissues, leading to improvements in tissue function.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

In a new study, scientists say that a particle that links to a fifth dimension can explain dark matter. (The previous article has been updated.)

At the University of Oxford, scientists have developed a nanopore technology that can identify three different post-translational modifications (PTMs) in individual proteins, even deep within long protein chains. The scientists asserted that their technology “[lays] the groundwork for compiling inventories of the proteoforms in cells and tissues.”

The technology was introduced in Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper titled, “Enzyme-less nanopore detection of post-translational modifications within long polypeptides.” The paper noted that single-molecule proteoform identification requires knowledge of the architecture of long polypeptide chains, knowledge that has proven elusive. Although there are methods for translocating folded proteins through solid-state nanopores or protein nanopores of large sizes, these methods have yet to locate PTMs within a polypeptide sequence. The methods that have detected PTMs have been able to do so only within short peptides.

In their paper, the Oxford scientists described their approach: We use electro-osmosis in an engineered charge-selective nanopore for the non-enzymatic capture, unfolding, and translocation of individual polypeptides of more than 1,200 residues. Unlabeled thioredoxin polyproteins undergo transport through the nanopore, with directional co-translocational unfolding occurring unit by unit from either the C or N terminus. Chaotropic reagents at non-denaturing concentrations accelerate the analysis.

The solar arrays have successfully deployed on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft that is on its way to deliver more than 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations, cargo, and supplies to the International Space Station after launching at 8:31 p.m. EDT Sunday from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

The James Webb Space Telescope has used its infrared sensors to show us El Gordo’s gravitationally distorted galaxies, a red giant star and tons of other space goodies Hubble could only hint at.