Lifeboat Foundation

Ingenuity decided to go big — and not to go home.

China may have missed out on the opportunity to shape standards in the past, but it is quickly dominating fields that could drive the next industrial revolution, such as consumer internet, automation and green technology.

International technology standards are one reason for the West’s dominance over the last two centuries. China now has a plan for how to get the world to follow its rules.

A research group working at Uppsala University has succeeded in studying ‘translation factors’ – important components of a cell’s protein synthesis machinery – that are several billion years old. By studying these ancient ‘resurrected’ factors, the researchers were able to establish that they had much broader specificities than their present-day, more specialized counterparts.

In order to survive and grow, all cells contain an in-house protein synthesis factory. This consists of ribosomes and associated translation factors that work together to ensure that the complex protein production process runs smoothly. While almost all components of the modern translational machinery are well known, until now scientists did not know how the process evolved.

The new study, published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, took the research group led by Professor Suparna Sanyal of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology on an epic journey back into the past. A previously published study used a special algorithm to predict DNA sequences of ancestors of an important translation factor called elongation factor thermo-unstable, or EF-Tu, going back billions of years. The Uppsala research group used these DNA sequences to resurrect the ancient bacterial EF-Tu proteins and then to study their properties.

Combining self-assembly techniques from across scientific disciplines could allow us to precisely build any material structure.

Nanocars are an impressive achievement – but nanoarchitectonics can unlock a far greater range of material structures.

In a lecture at the American Physical Society in 1959 titled ‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’, Richard Feynman argued that huge possibilities come from working in the world of molecules and atoms. He dreamed of ultra-small computers, cars running under a microscope, and medical machines working in our body.

Continue reading “Exploring the potential of nanoarchitectonics” »

Einstein, who was not involved in the study, noted that the number of LEEP procedures performed per year in the U.S. — approximately 500000 — indicates the scope of the disease. Additionally, he pointed out that due to the association between LEEP and preterm births, “it is truly important to explore these nonsurgical agents.”

Imiquimod directly activates innate immune cells through Toll-like receptors 7 and 8, resulting in production of cytokines and interferons.

Fonseca and colleagues evaluated the histologic response of cervical HSIL — defined as regression to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1 — after topical application of 5% imiquimod cream.

A robotic artist powered by AI algorithms has created realistic self-portraits that question the limits of artificial intelligence and what it means to be human.

Today we discuss Mars surface conditions with the villain from a 90s Kid’s movie. I also get mad (but not in a technical way). Apologies for this one.

The next one will be on Space Guns and Jules Verne which is more fitting for the channel.

Continue reading “Is Mars Heck?” »

Last month, the United States Air Force successfully test flew an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called Skyborg, operating on an autonomous hardware/software suite, for the very first time.

The military aims for this UAV to fuel collaboration among manned and unmanned aircraft. For its first test run, the Skyborg suite flew aboard a Kratos UTAP-22 Mako air vehicle in the first step of what’s known as the Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation Campaign.

By and large, the US Air Force Research Laboratory seeks a UAV solution that can carry out all of the functions of a manned aerial vehicle but also with the option of manned operation.

Wines and table grapes exist thanks to a genetic exchange so rare that it’s only happened twice in nature in the last 6 million years. And since the domestication of the grapevine 8000 years ago, breeding has continued to be a gamble.

When today’s growers cultivate new varieties – trying to produce better-tasting and more disease-resistant grapes – it takes two to four years for breeders to learn whether they have the genetic ingredients for the perfect flower.

Females set fruit, but produce sterile pollen. Males have stamens for pollen, but lack fruit. The perfect flower, however, carries both sex genes and can self-pollinate. These hermaphroditic varieties generally yield bigger and better-tasting berry clusters, and they’re the ones researchers use for additional cross-breeding.