Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Scientists say they’ve put together a new kind of molecular toolkit that could eventually be used to treat a variety of brain diseases, possibly including epilepsy, sleep disorders and Huntington’s disease.

The kit currently contains more than 1,000 tools of a type known as enhancer AAV vectors, with AAV standing for “adeno-associated virus.” A consortium that included researchers from Seattle’s Allen Institute for Brain Science and the University of Washington combined harmless adeno-associated viruses with snippets of engineered DNA to create a gene-therapy package that could target specific neurons in the brain while having no effect on other cells.

Researchers laid out their findings in a set of eight studies published today in the Cell Press family of journals. The work is part of a project called the Armamentarium for Precision Brain Cell Access, funded through the National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative.

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OpenAI’s decision to buy Jony Ive’s gadget company, io, is about distribution.

Getting ChatGPT and other OpenAI models and products into the hands of users — that’s what really counts. Without that direct relationship, these products won’t be used as much, or it will cost a lot to get the offerings to consumers indirectly.

Sam Altman is working with Ive to secure direct user access, showing how distribution is becoming more important than technology in the AI race.

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While the scientific fields of planetary geology and archaeology don’t initially seem like a natural pairing, their unique methodological and technol | Earth And The Environment

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Ultra-processed foods now dominate the food supplies of high-income countries, with over 50% of energy intake coming from ultra-processed foods in the United States. Observational data has revealed that greater ultra-processed food consumption is associated with adverse mental health outcomes, while data from randomized controlled trials has demonstrated improvements to mental health following reduction in ultra-processed food intake. Ultra-processed foods are known to contain high concentrations of microplastics, largely due to both the processing and packing procedures. In light of recent findings which demonstrated alarming microplastic concentrations in the human brain, we propose that microplastics may partially mediate the adverse mental health effects of increasing ultra-processed food intake. In this viewpoint, we discuss the overlapping mechanisms for adverse mental health, paucity of research in the area, and propose a Dietary Microplastic Index (DMI) to study this potential relationship.

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When we think about renewable energy, images of sprawling solar farms or towering coastal wind turbines usually come to mind. Yet, there is a quieter, more compact option: a slender strip of material fluttering in the breeze, capable of converting ambient airflow into usable electrical energy.

In our research group, we have been exploring how flexible structures—thin polymer sheets—can convert the energy of ambient flow into electricity using piezoelectric materials. These materials generate an electrical signal when mechanically deformed. Think of them as energy translators—converting flutter and vibration into voltage.

Our work focuses on a simple idea: attach a flexible plate with a piezoelectric sheet to the downstream side of a cylinder and expose it to wind. As wind flows past the cylinder, it causes the attached plate to flutter—much like a flag.

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Catalog number: WPCR-16723
Rare and out of print.
This rare remastered audio was copied directly from the original CD and uploaded in lossless format. The only lossy conversion is YouTube’s final processing step.

0:00 In The Beginning.
1:24 Let There Be Light.
6:22 Supernova.
9:46 Magellan.
14:26 First Landing.
15:43 Oceania.
19:02 Only Time Will Tell.
23:29 Prayer For The Earth.
25:39 Lament For Atlantis.
28:22 The Chamber.
30:11 Hibernaculum.
33:43 Tubular World.
37:05 The Shining Ones.
40:05 Crystal Clear.
45:47 The Sunken Forest.
48:25 Ascension.
54:14 A New Beginning

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