Lifeboat Foundation

‘May the forest be with you.’The GEDI system aboard the ISS shoots laser beams down at Earth to fight deforestation.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is building new digital tools to help fight deforestation and climate change. One of these is the FAO’s Framework for Ecosystem Monitoring (FERM) website, which uses satellite images to highlight the negative impact on forests worldwide.

Continue reading “A breakthrough technology shoots laser beams at trees from ISS” »

The countdown now begins for China’s next uncontrolled rocket reentry in October.

China’s Long March 5B rocket crashed into the Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled reentry over the weekend. * NASA’s Bill Nelson criticized China’s space practices, citing a “risk of loss of life and property”. * China will launch another Long March 5B to orbit in October.

China’s Long March 5B rocket core stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday, July 24.

A recent study conducted by researchers from the Universities of Newcastle and Leeds has shown that resistant starch has a preventive effect on various hereditary cancers. The double-blind longitudinal study tracked almost 1,000 patients with Lynch Syndrome, a hereditary condition that raises the risk of several cancer types, for nearly 20 years.

“Reducing a range of cancers by over 60%”

The subtractive manufacturing process involves etching, drilling, or cutting from a solid board to build the final product. It is ideal for applications using a wide variety of materials and in the PCB fabrication of large-size products. In the additive manufacturing process, a product is developed by adding material one layer at a time and bonding the layers together until the final product is ready. The ability to control material density and the possibility of including intricate features makes this process versatile. It is used in a range of engineering and manufacturing applications, especially in custom manufacturing.

Benefits of 3D printing in medical device manufacturing.

3D printing is economical and offers quick PCB prototyping without the need for complex manufacturing steps. It optimizes the PCB design process by avoiding possible design faults in the initial PCB design stages. 3D printing is easy on flex PCBs and multilayer PCB printing is possible using the latest design software. With the growing manufacturing trends and improving software, 3D printing will be more than a prototyping tool and can be a viable alternative for production parts. 3D printing has been recently used for the end-part manufacturing of several medical devices like hearing aids, dental implants, and more. It is more beneficial for low-volume productions.

Genetic mutations which cause a debilitating hereditary kidney disease affecting children and young adults have been fixed in patient-derived kidney cells using a potentially game-changing DNA repair-kit. The advance, developed by University of Bristol scientists, is published in Nucleic Acids Research.

In this new study, the international team describe how they created a DNA repair vehicle to genetically fix faulty podocin, a common genetic cause of inheritable Steroid Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome (SRNS).

Podocin is a protein normally located on the surface of specialised kidney cells and is essential for kidney function. Faulty podocin, however, remains stuck inside the cell and never makes it to the surface, terminally damaging the podocytes. Since the disease cannot be cured with medications, gene therapy which repairs the genetic mutations causing the faulty podocin offers hope for patients.

Capturing the world on an atomic scale is a challenging feat. But scientists have this possible after atoms swimming in liquid were caught on camera!

Cheap and quick to produce, the plasma sensors could help scientists predict the weather or study climate change.