Lifeboat Foundation

Diet has a key role in the reproductive axis both in males and females. This review aims to analyze the impacts of different dietary patterns on fertility. It appears that the Mediterranean diet has a predominantly protective role against infertility, while the Western diet seems to be a risk factor for infertility. Moreover, we focus attention also on dietary patterns in different countries of the World (Middle Eastern diet, Asian diet). In particular, when analyzing single nutrients, a diet rich in saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, animal proteins, and carbohydrates with high glycemic index is highly associated with male and female infertility. Finally, we evaluate the effects of vegetarian, vegan, and ketogenic diets on fertility, which seem to be still unclear.

Thirteen proteins linked to brain aging in humans are identified in a Nature Aging paper. Changes in the concentrations of these blood proteins may peak at 57, 70, and 78 years old in humans, and suggest that these ages may be important for potential interventions in the brain aging process.

It is estimated that by 2050 the number of individuals aged 65 years and over will exceed 1.5 billion globally, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of the aging process—particularly in relation to the brain.

The prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia, is known to increase with aging; however, effective therapies are still limited. The early identification of and intervention in brain aging could help us to prevent such disorders.

A group of scientists at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has revealed a new genetic code that acts like a cancer ringleader, recruiting and deploying a gang of tumor cells to incite a biological turf war by invading healthy organs and overpowering the normal cells.

This discovery— published today, Dec. 9, in Nature Biotechnology —could unveil an entirely different understanding of the origins of cancer within the body, as well as offer insight into new treatment strategies that could target the growth of tumors in their earliest stages.

The study authors have also developed an intravenous therapy that empowers healthy cells to mount an immune response and build up a defensive resistance against these invading tumor cells. This treatment has already been proven effective in ovarian tumors, but the implications of this research could be universal to all cancer types.

We are about to show you a technological innovation that could, one day, change the way every child in every school in America is taught. It’s an online tutor powered by artificial intelligence designed to help teachers be more efficient… and students learn more effectively. It’s called Khanmigo–conmigo means “with me,” in Spanish. And Khan…is its creator…Sal Khan, the well-known founder of Khan Academy — whose lectures and educational software have been used for years by tens of millions of students and teachers in the U.S. and around the world. Khanmigo was built with the help of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Its potential is staggering, but it’s still very much a work in progress. It’s being piloted in 266 school districts in the U.S. in grades three-12. We went to Hobart High School in Indiana to see how it works.

Melissa Higgason: Good morning, just a normal day in chem, right?

At eight in the morning Melissa Higgason knows it’s not always easy to get 30 high schoolers excited about chemistry.

Science and Technology: Google said its quantum computer, based on a computer chip called Willow, needed less than five minutes to perform a mathematical calculation that one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers could not complete in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe.

Electronic skins (e-skins) are flexible sensing materials designed to mimic the human skin’s ability to pick up tactile information when touching objects and surfaces. Highly performing e-skins could be used to enhance the capabilities of robots, to create new haptic interfaces and to develop more advanced prosthetics.

In recent years, researchers and engineers have been trying to develop e-skins with individual tactile units (i.e., taxels) that can accurately sense both normal (i.e., perpendicular) and shear (i.e., lateral) forces. While some of these attempts were successful, most existing multi-axis sensors are based on intricate designs or require complex fabrication and calibration processes, which limits their widespread deployment.

Continue reading “Soft e-skin utilizes magnetic fields to independently sense three-axis forces” »

Microplastics are an environmental hazard found nearly everywhere on Earth, released by the breakdown of tires, clothing, and plastic packaging. Another significant source of microplastics is tiny beads that are added to some cleansers, cosmetics, and other beauty products.

In an effort to cut off some of these microplastics at their source, MIT researchers have developed a class of biodegradable materials that could replace the plastic beads now used in beauty products. These polymers break down into harmless sugars and amino acids.

MIT researchers developed biodegradable materials that could replace the plastic microbeads now used in beauty products. The materials could also be used to encapsulate nutrients for food fortification.

Continue reading “A new biodegradable material to replace certain microplastics” »

Chatbots can wear a lot of proverbial hats: dictionary, therapist, poet, all-knowing friend. The artificial intelligence models that power these systems appear exceptionally skilled and efficient at providing answers, clarifying concepts, and distilling information. But to establish trustworthiness of content generated by such models, how can we really know if a particular statement is factual, a hallucination, or just a plain misunderstanding?

In many cases, AI systems gather external information to use as context when answering a particular query. For example, to answer a question about a medical condition, the system might reference recent research papers on the topic. Even with this relevant context, models can make mistakes with what feels like high doses of confidence. When a model errs, how can we track that specific piece of information from the context it relied on — or lack thereof?

To help tackle this obstacle, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers created ContextCite, a tool that can identify the parts of external context used to generate any particular statement, improving trust by helping users easily verify the statement.

Continue reading “Citation tool offers a new approach to trustworthy AI-generated content” »

Creating realistic 3D models for applications like virtual reality, filmmaking, and engineering design can be a cumbersome process requiring lots of manual trial and error.

While generative artificial intelligence models for images can streamline artistic processes by enabling creators to produce lifelike 2D images from text prompts, these models are not designed to generate 3D shapes. To bridge the gap, a recently developed technique called Score Distillation leverages 2D image generation models to create 3D shapes, but its output often ends up blurry or cartoonish.

Continue reading “A new way to create realistic 3D shapes using generative AI” »

The Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot shows off a few of its skills on Caltech’s campus. More info: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/new-bioinspired-robot-flie…