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Sep 12, 2022

Rheumatoid arthritis protein discovery points to potential new therapy

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A team of researchers in the United States has discovered a novel mechanism in which a key protein drives the inflammatory damage associated with rheumatoid arthritis. The foundational finding is hoped to direct research toward entirely new pathways to treat this autoimmune disease affecting millions.

One of the most impactful rheumatoid arthritis discoveries over the past few decades was finding an immune cytokine called tumor necrosis factor‑alpha (TNF-alpha) plays a crucial role in joint tissue inflammation. Following this discovery the development of monoclonal antibody TNF inhibitors offered rheumatoid arthritis patients a completely new type of medicine to treat their condition.

But, as senior author on the new research Salah‑Uddin Ahmed explained, TNF inhibitors aren’t effective in all patients. And even then, they are not ideal long-term medicines dues to a variety of side effects.

Sep 12, 2022

Extended Arm — STELARC

Posted by in category: futurism

Stelarc discusses the extended arm in this interview with Adam Ford.
“The Extended Arm is an eleven-degree-of-freedom manipulator with wrist flexion, wrist rotation, thumb rotation, individual finger flexion, with each finger splitting open, so each finger can potentially be a gripper in itself. The artist’s fingers rest on a panel of switches enabling the selection of pre-programmed sequences of finger, thumb and wrist movements. The clicking fingers, the compressed air and solenoid generate the sounds when performing. The Extended Arm extends the artist’s right arm to primate proportions. ”

Many thanks for tuning in!

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Sep 12, 2022

Senolytic elimination of senescent macrophages restores muscle stem cell function in severely dystrophic muscle

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Senescent macrophages are in fact also found to express senescence-related markers p16(Ink4a) and β-galactosidase (β-gal), and promote inflammation in diseased tissues [25, 26]. Our previous work has indicated increased cellular senescence in dystrophic muscles of mdx/utr(−/−) mice [3], however, whether or not macrophages in particular develop cellular senescence and promote senescence associated phenotypes was still unknown. To this end, here we further examined mdx/utr(−/−) mice and solved these puzzles.

Immune cells in the skeletal muscle are activated during muscle injury and promote the process of muscle regeneration by coordinating with muscle stem cells. However, studies with severely diseased muscles further demonstrate that immune cells can become dominantly activated and is inductive of increased fatty infiltration and fibrosis formation, while at the same time potently repress the proliferation and function of muscle stem cells [27]. Our current results in severely dystrophic muscle reveal a similar situation of interaction between macrophages and MPCs, showing that the function of MPCs is repressed by the senescent macrophages. As senescent cells accumulate in the aged or diseased tissues, it can exert profound effects on the growth and function of normal cells by releasing SASPs [9, 10].

Sep 12, 2022

US Chip Ban Likely to Hit Most of China’s Tech Giants

Posted by in category: computing

Analysts say the ban will hit a swathe of Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings, Baidu, and Huawei Technologies.

Sep 12, 2022

NASA, Microchip, SiFive Announces Partnership for RISC-V Spaceflight Computing Platform

Posted by in categories: computing, space travel

NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration has tapped SiFive and Microchip Technology Inc. to create a space-centric RISC-V processor: the High-Performance Spaceflight Computing chip. At heart of the HPSC will be SiFive’s X280 64-bit RISC-V cores, which include ML acceleration capabilities.


Designed to replace existing systems still using a processor design from 1997, the RISC-V-powered chip will offer 100 times the performance.

Sep 12, 2022

T-Omega re-thinks floating offshore wind turbines for huge cost savings

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Most of the world’s greatest wind power resources are offshore – often a long way offshore, where the water’s so deep that it’s impractical to build typical fan-on-a-stick wind turbines with bases sunk deep into the sea floor. Floating wind, at this stage, is so vastly expensive to build, deploy and maintain that it ends up costing two to three times as much per kilowatt-hour of energy as fixed-bottom offshore installations.

There’s a huge opportunity here for technological advancement, and companies like Norway’s World Wide Wind are proposing some pretty radical ideas in the space. A lot of the energy cost comes down to the size, weight and materials involved in the structure of the turbine, along with the logistical issues and specialized equipment needed to build, install and maintain the things.

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Sep 12, 2022

Key advance in physics research could help enable super-efficient electrical power

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

Today, an international team of researchers led by Séamus Davis, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and University College Cork, has announced results that reveal the atomic mechanism behind high-temperature superconductors. The findings are published in PNAS.

Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity with zero resistance, so that an electric current can persist indefinitely. These are already used in various applications, including MRI scanners and high-speed maglev trains, however superconductivity typically requires extremely low temperatures, limiting their widespread use. A major goal within physics research is to develop super conductors that work at , which could revolutionize energy transport and storage.

Certain copper oxide materials demonstrate superconductivity at higher temperatures than conventional superconductors, however the mechanism behind this has remained unknown since their discovery in 1987.

Sep 12, 2022

Self-assembling molecules suffocate cancer cells within hours

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, food

The technology at the heart of this research takes aim at one of the key metabolic functions of cells in all living things called ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. This molecule is the primary energy carrier in cells, capturing chemical energy from the breakdown of food molecules and distributing it to power other cellular processes.

Among those cellular processes is the proliferation of cancerous cells, and because of this we have seen ATP implicated in previous anti-cancer breakthroughs. The authors of the new study sought to cut off the supply of ATP, which is generated as mitochondria soak up oxygen and convert it into the molecule.

Sep 11, 2022

Updated View on the Relation of the Pineal Gland to Autism Spectrum Disorders

Posted by in categories: biological, neuroscience

Circa 2019 The pineal gland is often misunderstood even today we still are glimpsing the vast universe of the human mind but until we can essentially know all input and output of the human brain we may not know everything that is needed for proper care of the human brain much like back in the 1900s when we still talked about aether or even miasma. We can see Manu things like the pineal gland produces dmt, HGH, melatonin, aswell as many other biological functions for circadian rhythm even dreams but still are scratching the surface.


Keywords: autism, pineal gland, N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), melatonin, neural plasticity.

Citation: Shomrat T and Nesher N (2019) Updated View on the Relation of the Pineal Gland to Autism Spectrum Disorders. Front. Endocrinol. 10:37. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.

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Sep 11, 2022

Schizophrenia May Be the Price We Pay for a Big Brain

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Circa 2015 face_with_colon_three


The disease is linked to genetic changes on the evolutionary road from ape to human.