Lifeboat Foundation

A human cell harbors roughly 2 meters of DNA, encompassing the essential genetic information of an individual. If one were to unwind and stretch out all the DNA contained within a single person, it would span a staggering distance—enough to reach the sun and back 60 times over. In order to manage such an astounding volume of biological information, the cell compacts its DNA into tightly packed chromosomes.

“Imagine DNA as a piece of paper upon which all our genetic information is written,” says Minke A.D. Nijenhuis, co-corresponding author. “The paper is folded into a very tight structure in order to fit all of that information into a small cell nucleus. To read the information, however, parts of the paper have to be unfolded and then refolded. This spatial organization of our genetic code is a central mechanism of life. We therefore wanted to create a methodology that allows researchers to engineer and study the compaction of double-stranded DNA.”

Natural DNA is often double-stranded: one strand to encode the genes and one backup strand, intertwined in a double helix. The double helix is stabilized by Watson-Crick interactions, which allow the two strands to recognize and pair with one another. Yet there exists another, lesser-known class of interactions between DNA. These so-called normal or reverse Hoogsteen interactions allow a third strand to join in, forming a beautiful triple helix (Figure 1).

Researchers have developed a “sandwich-like” membrane that removes pollutants while generating power.

Synthetic human embryos – derived from stem cells without the need for eggs or sperm – have been created for the first time, scientists say. The structures represent the very earliest stages of human development, which could allow for vital studies into disorders like recurrent miscarriage and genetic diseases. But questions have been posed about the legal and ethical implications, as the pace of scientific discovery outstrips the legislation.

The breakthrough was reported by the Guardian newspaper following an announcement by Professor Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, a developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge and Caltech, at the 2023 annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed paper.

It’s understood that the synthetic structures model the very beginnings of human development. They do not yet contain a brain or heart, for example, but comprise the cells that would be needed to form a placenta, yolk sac, and embryo. Żernicka-Goetz told the conference that the structures have been grown to just beyond the equivalent of 14 days of natural gestation for a human embryo in the womb. It’s not clear whether it would be possible to allow them to mature any further.

F-35 test pilots described how intense it is to fly the aircraft, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“It’s like an 800-pound gorilla sitting on your chest,” a pilot said in a Lockheed Martin webinar.

“After some training, pilots come out looking like they are 100 years old,” another test pilot said.

There’s no shortage of emerging applications and projects that promise increased productivity, new levels of automation, and cutting-edge innovation. But all too often, AI initiatives within the enterprise fail to get off the ground, and there can be vast and costly unintended consequences when this technology is applied to the wrong use cases or falls into the wrong hands.

In the case of cyber defense, widespread accessibility to generative AI tools, as well as the increasing sophistication of nation-state actors, means that threats are more personalized and convincing than ever. In an era of algorithms fighting algorithms, human defenders must effectively team up with AI to build cyber resiliency and prevent business disruption.

Presented by expert stakeholders from industry, academia, and government, this event is designed to offer practical guidance for security teams to cut through the noise and unleash the power of AI responsibly and effectively.

It can, baby. Welcome to the light. And guess what, the experts agree. Martin Riese, the preeminent water sommelier, agrees that water is best served at room temperature. Cold water numbs your taste buds, he explained in an August 2020 video, which dulls the experience. It’s kind of like singing the roof of your mouth with hot pizza — after that everything tastes meh.

“When you put ice cubes on your palate you’re numbing all the aromas,” he said. “You can’t really taste anything anymore. Therefore, please drink you water [at] room temperature. It’s way better. It’s tastier.”

If language models such as ChatGPT are trained using the outputs of other AIs, they will become heavily biased, overly simple and disconnected from reality, researchers warn.

By Alex Wilkins

Illinois houses, apartments and condos being built from 2024 onward must equip EV charging points.

IBM announced a new breakthrough, published on the cover of the scientific journal Nature, demonstrating for the first time that quantum computers can produce accurate results at a scale of 100+ qubits reaching beyond leading classical approaches.

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