Lifeboat Foundation

The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains—with humans bucking this trend—a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has revealed.

Researchers at the University of Reading and Durham University collected an enormous dataset of brain and body sizes from around 1,500 species to clarify centuries of controversy surrounding brain size evolution.

Bigger brains relative to body size are linked to intelligence, sociality, and behavioral complexity—with humans having evolved exceptionally large brains. The new research reveals the largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains, challenging long-held beliefs about brain evolution.

July 8 (UPI) — SpaceX is targeting a Monday afternoon launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying aloft Turkey’s first home-grown communications satellite.

The launch at 5:21 p.m. EDT can be viewed online.

Turkey has had satellites launched before but this is the first one to be entirely built in the Middle East nation. Turkey is just the 11th country capable of manufacturing its own communications satellites.

Forget a pinch of salt, this guy’s predictions need the full shaker.

Restraining or slowing ageing hallmarks at the cellular level have been proposed as a route to increased organismal lifespan and healthspan. Consequently, there is great interest in anti-ageing drug discovery. However, this currently requires laborious and lengthy longevity analysis. Here, we present a novel screening readout for the expedited discovery of compounds that restrain ageing of cell populations in vitro and enable extension of in vivo lifespan.

Using Illumina methylation arrays, we monitored DNA methylation changes accompanying long-term passaging of adult primary human cells in culture. This enabled us to develop, test, and validate the CellPopAge Clock, an epigenetic clock with underlying algorithm, unique among existing epigenetic clocks for its design to detect anti-ageing compounds in vitro. Additionally, we measured markers of senescence and performed longevity experiments in vivo in Drosophila, to further validate our approach to discover novel anti-ageing compounds. Finally, we bench mark our epigenetic clock with other available epigenetic clocks to consolidate its usefulness and specialisation for primary cells in culture.

We developed a novel epigenetic clock, the CellPopAge Clock, to accurately monitor the age of a population of adult human primary cells. We find that the CellPopAge Clock can detect decelerated passage-based ageing of human primary cells treated with rapamycin or trametinib, well-established longevity drugs. We then utilise the CellPopAge Clock as a screening tool for the identification of compounds which decelerate ageing of cell populations, uncovering novel anti-ageing drugs, torin2 and dactolisib (BEZ-235). We demonstrate that delayed epigenetic ageing in human primary cells treated with anti-ageing compounds is accompanied by a reduction in senescence and ageing biomarkers. Finally, we extend our screening platform in vivo by taking advantage of a specially formulated holidic medium for increased drug bioavailability in Drosophila. We show that the novel anti-ageing drugs, torin2 and dactolisib (BEZ-235), increase longevity in vivo.

Mind-blowing experiments are bringing ancient cosmic conditions into modern labs.

A team of astronomers has identified a temperate exoplanet as a promising super-Earth ice or water world.

The findings, led by Université de Montréal, show that the habitable zone exoplanet, LHS 1,140 b, is not likely a mini-Neptune, a small so-called gas giant—large planets composed mostly of gas—with a thick hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The planet, located about 48 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, emerges as one of the most promising habitable zone exoplanet candidates known, potentially harboring an atmosphere and even a liquid water ocean.

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were collected in December 2023 and added to previous data from other space telescopes Spitzer, Hubble, and TESS to solidify this result, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters this week and currently available on the arXiv preprint server.

Dr. Mark Holley, a distinguished underwater archaeology professor at Northwestern Michigan University, recently unearthed a prehistoric structure in the bay that has drawn comparisons to England’s iconic Stonehenge. Located approximately 40 feet beneath Lake Michigan’s surface, this remarkable find is poised to transform our understanding of the region’s ancient history.

The submerged stones, although smaller than those at Stonehenge, appear to be meticulously arranged. These stones, varying in size from basketballs to compact cars, form a meandering line over a mile long. Among them, a particularly notable rock stands out. It measures three and a half to four feet tall and five feet wide, and features a carving of a mastodon—a testament to an era when these majestic creatures roamed the Earth.

The stones are estimated to be around 9,000 years old, predating Stonehenge by about 4,000 years. This period follows the end of the Ice Age and the formation of Grand Traverse Bay, when the lake bed had not yet been submerged.

Researchers have devised a passive thermal regulation mechanism using common materials that selectively manage radiant heat, providing a sustainable way to significantly improve building energy efficiency and comfort.

Engineers at Princeton and UCLA have developed a passive mechanism to cool buildings in the summer and warm them in the winter.

In an article recently published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, they report that by restricting radiant heat flows between buildings and their environment to specific wavelengths, coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve.

Each Monday, I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere).