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Jan 1, 2023
Highly immune evasive omicron XBB.1.5 variant is quickly becoming dominant in U.S. as it doubles weekly
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, health
The Covid omicron XBB.1.5 variant is rapidly becoming dominant in the U.S. because it is highly immune evasive and appears more effective at binding to cells than related subvariants, scientists say.
XBB.1.5 now represents about 41% of new cases nationwide in the U.S., nearly doubling in prevalence over the past week, according to the data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant more than doubled as a share of cases every week through Dec. 24. In the past week, it nearly doubled from 21.7% prevalence.
Scientists and public health officials have been closely monitoring the XBB subvariant family for months because the strains have many mutations that could render the Covid-19 vaccines, including the omicron boosters, less effective and cause even more breakthrough infections.
Jan 1, 2023
Genomics pioneer George Church, former Kindred Bio execs launch CRISPR-designed pets company AdoraPet Biosciences
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, existential risks, genetics
A Peninsula biotech startup cofounded by pioneering geneticist George Church — who already is working to engineer the woolly mammoth out of extinction — is trying to raise as much as $5 million in a crowdfunding effort to design healthier, longer-living pets.
AdoraPet Biosciences Inc. of San Mateo plans to apply the genome-engineering CRISPR technology at the egg stage of dogs and cats or insert CRISPR-modified DNA into eggs, to make nonallergenic pets that don’t shed and ultimately live longer, are free of genetic diseases caused by inbreeding and are resistant to cancer and other serious diseases.
Jan 1, 2023
Big gulp! 2 black holes swallow neutron stars
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: cosmology
Dec 31, 2022
Google’s New AI Puts Us One Step Closer to Star Trek’s Universal Translator
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: robotics/AI
Year 2019 face_with_colon_three
Translatotron could perform speech-to-speech translation in your own voice, with no intermediate steps.
Dec 31, 2022
Study explains the mysterious gamma-ray-producing bubbles surrounding the galactic center
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: futurism
Dec 31, 2022
Why Do We Like What We Like? The Neuroscience Behind the Objects That Please Us
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biological, neuroscience
Summary: Researchers say hedonic value isn’t simply a biological and psychological mechanism, it’s also vital for our survival.
Source: The Conversation.
We humans, like other cognitive systems, are sensitive to our environment. We use sensory information to guide our behavior. To be in the world.
Dec 31, 2022
The Silent Film Ensemble — Rotwang
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: entertainment, media & arts
From the forthcoming album “Metropolis: Live at the Roxy Theatre.” Recorded live at the Roxy Theatre, Owen Sound, on December 15th 2012 in front of a theatrical audience.
Music composed and performed by the Silent Film Ensemble.
Creating a map of the most complicated terrain in the universe requires a host of special technologies.
Dec 31, 2022
Scientists remotely controlled the social behavior of mice with light
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience
Year 2021 Basically this could cure many diseases and even allow for better human devices to be created.
New devices — worn as headsets and backpacks — rely on optogenetics, in which bursts of light toggle neurons, to control mouse brain activity.