Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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We often wonder where all the aliens are out in the galaxy, but could it be that the technologies needed to get to space and travel the stars lead to inevitable catastrophe?

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A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has found that electrical stimulation of the body combined with sound activates the brain’s somatosensory or “tactile” cortex, increasing the potential for using the technique to treat chronic pain and other sensory disorders. The researchers tested the non-invasive technique on animals and are planning clinical trials on humans in the near future.

The paper is published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, a highly regarded, peer-reviewed scientific journal for the interdisciplinary field of neural engineering.

During the experiments, the researchers played broadband sound while electrically stimulating different parts of the body in guinea pigs. They found that the combination of the two activated neurons in the brain’s somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for touch and pain sensations throughout the body.

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“The Commission determined that these applications failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service,” the FCC said in a statement.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel added: “We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements.”

In December 2020, the FCC tentatively awarded $886 million to SpaceX to help its Starlink service supply high-speed broadband to 642,925 locations in 35 states. However, it came with a requirement (Opens in a new window) that SpaceX provide a long-form application about how Starlink would meet its obligations before the federal funding could be fully secured.

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The signaling protein, known as mTOR, is excessively active in many cancer cells and plays a key role in various diseases, such as diabetes, inflammation, and aging. Meanwhile, autophagy is well-known for its elaborately mediated regulation of activity by the mTOR protein in cells. Inhibiting this activity of the mTOR protein can increase autophagy and subsequently induce cancer cell death.

Professor Kim Se-yun’s research team conducted a study on developing an mTOR-inhibitory anticancer drug with a drug regeneration strategy based on effective binding technology that models physical interactions between compounds and target proteins using the three-dimensional protein structure.

Drug regeneration finds new indications for FDA-approved drugs or clinical drug groups previously proven safe. According to the researchers, this strategy can innovatively shorten the enormous time and investment in new drug development that traditionally takes more than 10 years.

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The Federal Communications Commission denied SpaceX’s bid for $886 million in US subsidies on Wednesday.

Elon Musk’s startup was seeking funds to provide its satellite internet service to rural communities in nearly 650,000 locations across 35 states. The FCC funding is part of a $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund — an effort to bring WiFi to remote areas of the country where it would be more expensive to serve customers.

Starlink and LTD Broadband were both denied FCC subsidies. The agency said in a press release that both companies “failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service.”

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