Lifeboat Foundation

Breakthrough techniques in living cells upend field.

Two studies provide a radically new picture of how bacterial cells continually repair damaged sections (lesions) in their DNA.

Led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the work revolves around the delicacy of DNA molecules, which are vulnerable to damage by reactive byproducts of cellular metabolism, toxins, and ultraviolet light. Given that damaged DNA can result in detrimental DNA code changes (mutations) and death, cells evolved to have DNA repair machineries. A major unresolved question in the field, however, is how do these machineries rapidly search for and find rare stretches of damage amid the “vast fields” of undamaged DNA.

Scientists defrosted and analyzed 300 prehistoric worms from different ages and origins. Some came back to life.

Nearly two months after its debut at the Super Bowl, DeLorean Motor is inching closer to revealing itself to the public.

The Humble, Texas, electric-vehicle maker, which shares the name of the vehicle from the “Back to the Future” film franchise, started getting buzz after a 15-second spot during The Super Bowl this year.

41 Megapixel Quanta Image Sensor’s Low Light and HDR Imaging Capabilities with Small Pixels are Unrivaled in the Market.

PASADENA, Calif. 0, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Gigajot Technology, inventors and developers of Quanta Image Sensors (QIS), today announced the expansion of its groundbreaking QIS product portfolio with the GJ04122 sensor and associated QIS41 camera. With market leading low read noise, the GJ04122 sensor is capable of photon counting and photon number resolving at room temperature. The QIS41 camera, built around the GJ04122 sensor, pairs well with standard 4/3-inch microscopy optics, bringing unparalleled resolution and low light performance to scientific and industrial imaging applications.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Purdy: Seeing Starbase ‘gives you a lot of ideas of what the future could be’

COLORADO SPRINGS – Brig. Gen. Stephen Purdy was in Boca Chica, Texas, last month visiting Starbase. That is SpaceX’s launch and rocket manufacturing and testing facility where the company hopes to operate Starship, the largest rocket ever built.

Purdy is the commander of Florida’s Eastern Range and also serves as the Space Force’s program executive officer for assured access to space, a new post within the Space Systems Command overseeing launch services procurement for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

We live in the Milky Way galaxy, an immense, flat, spiral galaxy surrounded by a massive halo of stars and dark matter. The disk of stars, gas, and dust in which the Sun resides is fully 120,000 light years across; a soul-crushing distance on the human scale. In the middle of the disk is the central bulge, a lozenge-shaped hub of stars.

How did all this structure come together? We know it didn’t all happen at once, but what were the different chapters in the galaxy’s life? What is the timeline of the Milky Way?

Continue reading “Timeline of the Milky Way” »

NASA associate administrators participate in a panel on the collaboration of the Artemis Program and the aerospace industry in building the space economy at the 37th Annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Speakers include:
- Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
- Jim Free, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
- Jim Reuter, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
- Ken Bowersox, Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.

Continue reading “Space Symposium: NASA Leaders on Building the Space Economy with the Artemis Program” »

NASA’s Kepler space telescope has spotted a Jupiter look-alike in a new discovery, even though the instrument stopped operations four years ago.

An international team of astrophysicists using NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which ceased operations in 2018, have discovered an exoplanet similar to Jupiter located 17,000 light-years from Earth, making it the farthest exoplanet ever found by Kepler. The exoplanet, officially designated K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, was spotted in data captured by Kepler in 2016. Throughout its lifetime, Kepler observed over 2,700 now-confirmed planets.

Study shows that compound from cardamom shows promise for treating aggressive breast cancer.

Cardamonin — a natural compound found in the spice cardamom and other plants — could have therapeutic potential for triple-negative breast cancer, according to a new study using human cancer cells. The findings also show that the compound targets a gene that helps cancer cells elude the immune system.

About 10–15% of breast cancers are triple-negative, which means they don’t have receptors for estrogen or progesterone and don’t make excess amounts of a protein called HER2. These tumors are difficult to treat because they don’t respond to the hormone-based therapies used for other types of breast cancer. They also tend to be more aggressive and have a higher mortality rate than other breast cancers.