Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: A subset of taste cells may play a key role in the body’s immune response to harmful oral microbes. The findings could help taste loss associated with infections, aging, and dysregulation of the oral microbiome caused by chemotherapy.

Source: University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Taste cells are heavily exposed to the microbes in the mouth, but their role in helping the body respond to those microbes has not yet been studied in detail.

Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics. It is clear that it must exist, because without dark matter, for example, the motion of galaxies cannot be explained. But it has never been possible to detect dark matter in an experiment.

Currently, there are many proposals for new experiments: They aim to detect dark matter directly via its scattering from the constituents of the atomic nuclei of a detection medium, i.e., protons and neutrons.

A team of researchers—Robert McGehee and Aaron Pierce of the University of Michigan and Gilly Elor of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany—has now proposed a new candidate for dark matter: HYPER, or “HighlY Interactive ParticlE Relics.”

Many life-saving drugs directly interact with DNA to treat diseases such as cancer, but scientists have struggled to detect how and why they work—until now.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, University of Cambridge researchers have outlined a new DNA sequencing method that can detect where and how small molecule drugs interact with the targeted genome.

“Understanding how drugs work in the body is essential to creating better, more effective therapies,” said co-first author Dr. Zutao Yu from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. “But when a therapeutic drug enters a cancer cell with a genome that has three billion bases, it’s like entering a black box.”

Chapter 1: 0:00 — 25:49
Chapter 2: 26:00 — 43:44
Chapter 3: 43:55 — 1:25:36
Chapter 4: 1:25:48 — 1:49:50
Chapter 5: 1:50:00 — 2:17:16
Chapter 6: 2:17:27 — 2:49:22
Chapter 7: 2:49:29 — 3:19:09
Chapter 8: 3:19:32 — 3:52:27
Chapter 9: 3:52:38 — 4:01:57
Chapter 10: 4:02:04 — 4:13:39
Chapter 11: 4:13:48 — 4:47:54
Chapter 12: 4:48:03 — 5:12:22
Chapter 13: 5:12:32 — 5:32:24
Chapter 14: 5:32:33 — 5:50:33
Chapter 15: 5:50:42 — 6:05:56
Chapter 16: 6:06:06 — 6:30:30
Chapter 17: 6:30:40 — 6:50:40
Chapter 18: 6:50:49 — 7:25:54

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A new technique to restore the organs in a body all at once could one day help get much-needed organs to those waiting on the transplant list.

Summary: Study reveals a skin-to-brain neural circuit that responds to rewarding forms of social touch. Researchers say the findings could provide an avenue for harnessing the power of touch to assist in treating social and emotional disorders.

Source: Columbia University.

A parent’s reassuring touch. A friend’s warm hug. A lover’s enticing embrace. These are among the tactile joys in our lives.

Multi-decade study describes how Earth’s core dynamics are slowing leading to speculation about what the length of a day will be in the distant future.

Seismic readings show a slowing since 2009. Should sci-fi fans be concerned?

Out solar system will soon be getting a new explorer, as a mission to study the moons of Jupiter readies for launch.

The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or JUICE, is scheduled for launch in just a few months’ time, so the spacecraft is now being packed up at its testing location in Toulouse, France, for transport to its launch location in French Guiana.

The spacecraft recently went through its final round of testing, including a thermal vacuum test to ensure it can handle the cold temperatures of space, and the system validation test in which the immediate steps after launch are simulated, like the deploying of booms and arrays that will happen in space.

The device could gather more in-depth information about individual neurons.