Lifeboat Foundation

Regenerating legs is a first for frogs and now attention turns to whether the discovery holds clues to restoring human limbs.

This time, astronomers will see all the way to the Milky Way’s edge.

The upcoming release will add some previously unavailable information, including about the chemical compositions, ages and masses of millions of stars.

Related: 4 big Milky Way mysteries the next Gaia mission data dump may solve.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects how people act, think, and perceive reality. It is often very difficult to treat because it has many different causes and symptoms. In a study published last month in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have identified an autoantibody—a protein that is produced by the immune system to attach to a specific substance from the individual’s own body, rather than to a foreign substance like a virus or bacteria—in some patients with schizophrenia. Notably, they also found that this autoantibody caused schizophrenia-like behaviors and changes in the brain when they injected it into mice.

When considering possible autoantibodies that might cause schizophrenia, the research team had a specific protein in mind. Previous research has suggested that neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM1), which helps cells in the brain talk to one another via specialized connections known as synapses, may have a role in the development of schizophrenia.

“We decided to look for autoantibodies against NCAM1 in around 200 healthy controls and 200 patients with schizophrenia,” explains lead author of the study Hiroki Shiwaku. “We only found these autoantibodies in 12 patients, suggesting that they may be associated with the disorder in just a small subset of schizophrenia cases.”

Another Mayflower crosses the Atlantic Ocean with a renewed purpose, vigor, and thirst to learn more about the ocean and its inhabitants.

Methylation clocks are taking the longevity community by storm, but why are they so useful?

Do you know how old you really are? I am not doubting your ability to remember your birthday or questioning the honesty of your parents. Do you, on a fundamental level, know how ‘old’ your body truly is? Now surely that is just the same as the number of years you have been around, which would be your chronological age? Well in reality the answer to how ‘old’ your body is comes down to much more than simply how long you have been around for.

Allow me to explain by falling back to the commonly used automobile analogy. Let’s imagine I bought two identical Ford Escorts in 1982, and then proceeded to place one of them inside a time capsule, where it would be kept at a constant temperature in a non-reactive atmosphere. I then proceeded to drive the second car for the next 40 years. Over that 40 years, this car is going to experience wear and tear, and will most likely break down several times which will require mechanical intervention (analogous to medical intervention). Now, after this 40-year period I am going to take the first car out of storage and compare the two cars side by side. Which car is in the better condition? Well, the car that was preserved, obviously. Which car is likely to last the longest from that point onward? Well, the car which has been preserved, obviously.

Understanding the early universe has been a goal for scientists for decades. And, now with NASA’s James Webb space telescope, and other technology, we’re finally making some decent strides. A new simulation on early galaxy formation could be another key stepping stone, too.

Researchers created the simulation using machine learning. It then completed over 100,000 hours of computations to create the one-of-a-kind simulation. The researchers named the algorithm responsible for the project Hydo-BAM. They published a paper with the simulation’s findings earlier this year.

Creating a simulation of early galaxy formation has allowed researchers to chart the earliest moments of our universe. These important moments began just after the Big Bang set everything into motion. Understanding these key moments of the formation of the early universe could help us better understand how galaxies form in the universe today.

One day soon, buildings could become more energy-efficient—and environmentally sustainable—with insulating material developed from wood by researchers in Sweden. The newly-developed material offers as good or even better thermal performance than ordinary plastic-based insulation materials, according to researchers reporting recently in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Yuanyuan Li, an assistant professor at Wallenberg Wood Science Center, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, says that the new insulating material is an aerogel integrated wood which is made without adding additional substances.

Wood cellulose aerogels themselves are nothing new—researchers have been developing advanced types of aerogels and other composites for the last several years in the Wallenberg Wood Science Center at KTH—but Li says the new method represents a breakthrough in controlled creation of insulating nanostructures in the pores of wood.

“Functional mutations in the growth hormone pathway” meaning it is not active. What’s good for you as a youngster might not be good for you when you’re old.

Dr Nir Barzilai reveals what the longevity genes project found on why Centenarians live longer, not the longevity genes, not healthy lifestyles in this clip.

Continue reading “NOT The Longevity Genes!? Surprising Facts WHY Centenarians LIVE LONGER | Dr Nir Barzilai Clips” »

Circa 2019

Mark Lawrence (link is external), a postdoctoral scholar in materials science and engineering at Stanford, has moved a step closer to this future with a scheme to make a photon diode — a device that allows light to only flow in one direction — which, unlike other light-based diodes, is small enough for consumer electronics.