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Penguins may be self-aware.


A trio of researchers—one with the Indian government’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, another with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and the third with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, also in India—has found that some species of wild penguins may have some degree of self-awareness.

Prabir Ghosh Dastidar, Azizuddin Khan and Anindya Sinha have written a paper describing their study of the behavior of Adélie in Antarctica and what they learned in their effort. The full paper is available on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that self-awareness is rare in the —up to now, only a few mammals, some birds and some fish have been found to have it. In humans it is an easy thing to test, but in animals it takes some doing. Most studies looking for it have used what is known as the mirror test, where as its name suggests, test animals are allowed to see themselves in a mirror while researchers study their reactions.

A new drug that contains an ACE2 decoy molecule may be the way we stop COVID-19 permanently.


What’s Needed is a New Approach

A recent paper appearing in Science Advances published on December 7, 2022, describes a new approach to tackling COVID-19. A new drug in animal trials has shown effectiveness in stopping the spread of coronaviruses and all variants. It is the way this drug works that gives it a unique advantage not just to stop present Omicron and other COVID-19 versions but all future evolutions of the virus and other coronaviruses.

Why the confidence in this drug? Rather than synthesize antibodies to fight COVID-19 and create vaccines that deliver them to tag the virus (the mRNA approach), the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has created a molecule that is an ACE2 receptor decoy.

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At their best, AI systems extend and augment the work we do, helping us to realize our goals. At their worst, they undermine them. We’ve all heard of high-profile instances of AI bias, like Amazon’s machine learning (ML) recruitment engine that discriminated against women or the racist results from Google Vision. These cases don’t just harm individuals; they work against their creators’ original intentions. Quite rightly, these examples attracted public outcry and, as a result, shaped perceptions of AI bias into something that is categorically bad and that we need to eliminate.

While most people agree on the need to build high-trust, fair AI systems, taking all bias out of AI is unrealistic. In fact, as the new wave of ML models go beyond the deterministic, they’re actively being designed with some level of subjectivity built in. Today’s most sophisticated systems are synthesizing inputs, contextualizing content and interpreting results. Rather than trying to eliminate bias entirely, organizations should seek to understand and measure subjectivity better.

Great advice here. I follow much of it; my diet is good though there is a little bit of processed stuff in it. I do not drink or smoke. Interesting that Dr Stanfield has a rapamycin human trial going.


We have the tools available today to have a healthy 105-year lifespan, and I’ll summarise it all in this video. Plus at the end we’ll go through the emerging therapies in the longevity space that will push us towards a healthy 120-year lifespan.

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McMaster University researcher Sheila Singh and her team have discovered how glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, can evade treatments and kill.

The researchers found the cancer cells that survive the first round of radiotherapy or chemotherapy do so by mutating during the post-treatment minimal residual disease (MRD) or dormant state. The MRD profile of each patient was mapped using single cell sequencing to find a genetic signature that predicted how the cancer would recur in each individual.

Singh said that by mapping the MRD, researchers found that each patient had a different trajectory to their cancer recurring, potentially opening the door to future treatments tailored to each individual with glioblastoma. Singh’s team monitored five patients between 2018 and 2022.

Powered by data produced by its AI-driven discovery platform, clinical-stage biotech BioAge Labs is rapidly developing a pipeline of therapies to extend healthy lifespan by targeting the molecular causes of aging. Having raised more than $120 million in funding, and with multiple clinical trials already under its belt, the company is focused on building a broad pipeline of potential longevity therapies in three main areas: muscle, immune, and brain aging.

Longevity. Technology: There are few companies in the longevity biotech field that appear to be executing on their vision as quickly and consistently as BioAge. When the company wowed the sector with a $90 million funding round in 2020, talk of multiple imminent clinical trials may have sounded optimistic to some, but BioAge has delivered on its promise time and again. Beyond the trials already underway, the company’s much-vaunted AI discovery platform also appears to be churning out the data, this year spawning a new programme exploring the potential of NLRP3 inhibitors in brain aging. To learn more, we caught up with BioAge co-founder and CEO Kristen Fortney.

Looking back at 2022, Fortney says it has been “immensely gratifying” to see so many new companies and investors coming into the longevity field.

In this #webinar, Dr Vincenzo Sorrentino from the Department of Biochemistry and Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, shared about his research on the relationship between metabolism, nutrition and proteostasis and their impact on health and ageing, and engaged in discussion about the role of mitochondrial proteostasis in ageing and related diseases.

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References:
Closing video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycgL3Qg_Ak.

Disclaimer: The opinions and advice expressed in this webinar are those of the speakers and do not represent the views and opinions of the organizers and National University of Singapore or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The information provided in this webinar is for general information purposes only as part of a general discussion on public health. The information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnoses or treatment; and cannot be relied on in place of consultation with your licensed healthcare provider. All Rights Reserved.

All of the proceedings of this webinar, including the presentation of scientific papers, are intended for limited publication only, and all property rights in the material presented, including common-law copyright, are expressly reserved to the speaker or NUS. No statement or presentation made is to be regarded as dedicated to the public domain.

Microsoft may provide Office users a way to write text for projects, by incorporating AI technology from OpenAI into its apps.

AI has become more prevalent in creative fields over time, with tools like Stable Diffusion creating artworks from simple prompts. It now seems that Microsoft is considering using that same technology to help its customers put words on a page or a presentation.

According to a source with direct knowledge of Microsoft’s plans speaking to The Information, Microsoft wants to incorporate artificial intelligence created by OpenAI into Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, and other apps.