Lifeboat Foundation

A team of researchers from Portugal, Israel, Poland and Spain has found the gene that prompts the parasite Trypanosoma brucei to change from its normal long, slender shape to one that is short and stumpy. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how they found the gene and their hope that doing so will lead to a cure for African sleeping sickness.

African sleeping sickness is caused by Trypanosoma brucei transmitted by tsetse fly bites. People afflicted initially show no symptoms, giving the parasite time to multiply. Eventually, it makes its way to the brain, leading to personality and behavioral changes and sleep disorders. If left untreated, it is fatal. Prior research has shown that once the parasite reaches a certain saturation point in the body, individual kinetoplastids begin to change shape from a long, slender appearance to a shorter and stumpier form. Researchers have been studying the transformation in hopes of determining a way to get the parasite to transform earlier, because in its stumpy form, it cannot reproduce. In this new effort, the researchers found the gene responsible for initiating the shift.

The researchers found the gene by taking a closer look at so-called junk DNA—parts of the genome labeled as non-coding, and thus not likely to be of use to researchers. They analyzed the RNA produced via instructions from the genome at such sites and found 1,428 possibilities, which they narrowed to 399. They were then able to find one they called “grumpy” by studying nearby genes that were already known to play a role in the process of transformation. They confirmed their find by artificially increasing the same type of RNA in a parasite sample in mice and found that it induced the change to the stumpy form.

Fri, Jun 17 at 7 PM CDT.

This Friday, June 17th at 8:00 pm, join us as we hear from AAI member Dr. Clif Ashcraft. Clif has his own observatories in his backyard. Learn how he built them and what beautiful images he has taken over the years!

We’ll need thousands of these direct air capture plants or their equivalents from industry and nature to reduce atmospheric CO₂.

Direct Air Capture, also known as DAC, is one of a number of carbon capture technologies seen as a way to mitigate the worst impacts of global warming. The technology harvests carbon dioxide (CO₂) from ambient air. It is not an add-on to a coal-fired or natural-gas thermal power plant, but rather a standalone solution to removing CO₂ from the atmosphere for the purpose of permanently sequestering it underground.

A leader in this form of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is Carbon Engineering, a Canadian-based company whose demonstration plant sits in Squamish, British Columbia. Bill Gates is an investor. And now Occidental Petroleum through its subsidiary 1PointFive has entered into a partnership to build and deploy a minimum of 70 or as many as 135 DAC plants like the one seen in the picture above by 2035.

Continue reading “Carbon Engineering-Occidental Petroleum Partnership to Build 70 to 135 Direct Air Capture Plants by 2035” »

This sci-fi megastructure has captivated big thinkers for decades. A leading expert in astrobiology tells us how to construct one.

The paper focused more on theory than engineering, and Dyson provided scant details on what such a megastructure might look like or how we might build one. He described his sphere only as a “habitable shell” encircling a star. But that was enough to captivate and inspire astrophysicists, scientists, and sci-fi writers. In some depictions, the Dyson Sphere, as it became known, appears as a massive ring encircling a star and reaching nearly to Earth. In others, the Sphere completely encases the sun, a hulking megastructure capturing every bit of that star’s energy. In addition to scientific works, Dyson Spheres have appeared in novels, movies, and TV shows—including Star Trek —as a home for advanced civilizations.

Dyson himself understood the challenges of constructing such a massive structure, and he was skeptical that it might ever happen. Nonetheless, his Sphere has stirred ambitious ideas about the future of our civilization, and it continues to be offered as a solution to some of humanity’s most dire dilemmas. Harnessing the total energy of our sun—or any star—would solve our immediate and long-term energy crisis, but when civilization gains access to the complete energy output of a star, meeting our terrestrial energy needs is just the beginning.

Continue reading “Swarms of Satellites Around the Sun Could Supply Us With Unlimited Power” »

Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision loss in adults over age 50, but there are few treatments available. Researchers are now developing promising stem cell therapies to treat the disease.

D-Wave opens up access to its next-generation 500 qubit quantum computer Advantage2.

Amazon senior principal scientist Aleix M. Martinez has seen deep learning revolutionize computer vision— to the point that many of the problems that defined th… See more.

Senior principal scientist Aleix M. Martinez on why computer vision research has only begun to scratch the surface.

Held aloft by helium and powered electricity, they will seat 100 passengers, and typically fly 300–400 kilometers (186−249 miles).

Air Nostrum, a Spanish airline, has ordered 10 Airlander 10 aircraft to make regional journeys around Spain.

Michael LorreyGates is, famously, the guy who said, “Why would anyone ever need more than 640kb of memory?” and “The internet is a fad.”

2 Replies.

Paul Battista shared a link. Lifeboat Foundation.

Continue reading “Major Scientific Breakthrough Toward the Benefits of Exercise in a Pill” »