Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists in California tried to study Alzheimer’s disease from a different perspective and the results may have led them to the cause of the disease.

Researchers at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) recently published results from a study that looked at a protein called tau. By studying the different forms tau proteins take, researchers discovered the difference between people who developed dementia and those who didn’t.

The tau protein was critical for researchers because they wanted to understand what the protein could reveal about the mechanism behind plaques and tangles, two critical indicators doctors look for when diagnosing people with Alzheimer’s.

Elon Musk thinks SpaceX needs to ramp up production of its next-generation Raptor engine soon or face potentially dire consequences, according to media reports.

Raptors will power Starship, the huge, fully reusable vehicle that SpaceX is developing to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations. Each Starship will need a lot of Raptors — 33 for the giant first-stage booster, called Super Heavy, and six for the upper-stage spacecraft, known as Starship.

An asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower is heading towards Earth this month and it’s considered an especially unique piece of rock by scientists.

The asteroid 4,660 Nereus is classified as a “potentially hazardous” piece of rock because of its proximity to Earth. On Dec. 11, NASA expects it to be at its closest point to Earth over a 20-year period. The asteroid was discovered back in 1982.

The race to find medical treatments for Covid-19—and future pandemics—is on, driving renewed investments by the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in Real-World Data (RWD) and Real-World Evidence (RWE). A new report on AI and the real-world studies industry, from Deep Pharma Intelligence (DPI), Evomics Medical and The Yuan (an online forum focused on AI in healthcare, for which I am a contributor), provides fresh insights into this rapidly evolving patient-centric approach to increasing R&D efficiency, accelerating the introduction of new drugs, and improving health outcomes. Full Story:

Qualcomm kicked off its annual Snapdragon Technology Summit with its new premium smartphone SoC dubbed the Snapdragon Series 8 Gen 1. As expected, the new SoC improves performance and efficiency in every aspect of the chip, but enhancements in AI and image processing are especially important for the next generation of premium smartphones.

The new Series 8 Gen 1 SoC follows the previous Snapdragon 888 generation as Qualcomm’s premium smartphone SoC. And yes, there is a new naming convention with this generation. Rather than continuing to count up until the company runs out of numbers for new products, Qualcomm changed the naming convention to that basic series number (Series, 8, 7, 6, and 4) followed by a generational number, similar to what the company began doing with its Snapdragon 8CX SoCs for PCs. Since this is the first generation of smartphone SoCs to use the new nomenclature, the new family of devices will be “Gen 1”. For now, however, the company only announced the premium chip — the Series 8 Gen 1.

Full Story:

Mexican biologist Ingrid Fetter-Pruneda is studying the longevity and fertility in ants in the hope of helping to develop strategies to avoid, slow down or reverse female reproductive aging in other animals or in humans.

Fetter-Pruneda, an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), says most animals show a trade-off between longevity and fertility, but one of the most striking features of ants is that the queens are simultaneously very long lived and very fertile, while the workers are short lived and sterile.

“I am trying to figure out the cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow queens to remain fertile throughout their relatively long lives,” Fetter-Pruneda says, “Many molecular pathways are conserved across many species, and new discoveries in ants could help direct research in other organisms.”

In October, world leaders came together for the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the regulatory body that governs the waters around Antarctica. Yet CCAMLR failed to establish vital protections for Antarctica’s Southern Ocean once again despite resounding international support for the Commission to take sweeping conservation actions.

CCAMLR was first established in 1982 in response to growing commercial interest in Antarctica’s ocean resources, particularly krill. Since then, CCAMLR has passed many conservation measures to protect Antarctica, including measures that established the South Orkney Islands and Ross Sea marine protected areas (MPAs) in 2009 and 2016, respectively. But in recent years, CCAMLR has failed to establish additional MPAs despite the Commission’s formal commitment to establish a network of MPAs around the continent over a decade ago. Today, only about 5% of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean is protected.

What about S-500 makes it so fearsome for stealth fighter jets?

The F-35 is one of the most advanced flying machines ever developed by human beings. Sleek, stealthy, but very expensive, it should dominate the skies for many years to come.

But, has it met its match with the development of the new Russian S-500 surface-to-air missile defense system? Let’s take a look.

Continue reading “Russia’s S-500 Defense System Is Ready To Launch. Is It the Ultimate F-35 Killer?” »

Circa 2019

Researchers of Sechenov University and University of Pittsburgh described the most promising strategies in applying genetic engineering for studying and treating Parkinson’s disease. This method can help evaluate the role of various cellular processes in pathology progression, develop new drugs and therapies, and estimate their efficacy using animal disease models. The study was published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder accompanied by a wide array of motor and cognitive impairments. It develops mostly among elderly people (after the age of 55–60). Parkinson’s symptoms usually begin gradually and get worse over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty controlling their movements, walking and talking and, more importantly, taking care of themselves. Although there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, medicines, surgical treatment, and other therapies can often relieve some symptoms.

Continue reading “Scientists listed ways of applying genetic engineering to treat Parkinson’s disease” »