Lifeboat Foundation

Stress management.

Everyone faces stress occasionally, whether in school, at work, or during a global pandemic. However, some cannot cope as well as others. In a few cases, the cause is genetic. In humans, mutations in the OPHN1 gene cause a rare X-linked disease that includes poor stress tolerance. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Linda Van Aelst seeks to understand factors that cause specific individuals to respond poorly to stress. She and her lab studied the mouse gene Ophn1, an analog of the human gene, which plays a critical role in developing brain cell connections, memories, and stress tolerance. When Ophn1 was removed in a specific part of the brain, mice expressed depression-like helpless behaviors. The researchers found three ways to reverse this effect.

To test for stress, the researchers put mice into a two-room cage with a door in between. Normal mice escape from the room that gives them a light shock on their feet. But animals lacking Ophn1 sit helplessly in that room without trying to leave. Van Aelst wanted to figure out why.

Continue reading “Reversing a Genetic Cause of Poor Stress Tolerance” »

Chernobyl is a looming threat as reactions continue due to rain water.

Slow rise in neutrons stirs concerns about possible “criticality” accident.

The unprecedented study involves using the gene-editing technique CRISPR to edit a gene while it’s still inside a patient’s body. In exclusive interviews, NPR talks with two of the first participants.

Autistic people tend to switch between images more slowly than non-autistic people do, a previous study shows. And they spend more time seeing a combination of the two images.

Children with genetic conditions linked to autism perform atypically on a test of binocular rivalry, according to a new unpublished study.

Researchers presented the work virtually today at the 2021 International Society for Autism Research annual meetin g. (Links to abstracts may work only for registered conference attendees.)

Continue reading “Autism-related conditions linked to altered visual perception” »

Astronomers try to solve the mystery of antihelium by searching for antistars.

The process could yield 50 billion transistors on fingernail-sized chips that are 75 percent more efficient or 45 percent faster than today’s designs.

The most recent Apple user survey suggests that a blood glucose monitoring feature is definitely on the table.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been billed as a major disruptor to finance. But digital currencies issued by governments might be even more radical—they may even threaten the future of traditional banking.

Read our special report, “The Future of Banking” : https://econ.st/3tuTT8y.

Continue reading “Could digital currencies put banks out of business? | The Economist” »

Using neural networks, Flatiron Institute research fellow Yin Li and his colleagues simulated vast, complex universes in a fraction of the time it takes with conventional methods.

Using a bit of machine learning magic, astrophysicists can now simulate vast, complex universes in a thousandth of the time it takes with conventional methods. The new approach will help usher in a new era in high-resolution cosmological simulations, its creators report in a study published online on May 4, 2021, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“At the moment, constraints on computation time usually mean we cannot simulate the universe at both high resolution and large volume,” says study lead author Yin Li, an astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute in New York City. “With our new technique, it’s possible to have both efficiently. In the future, these AI-based methods will become the norm for certain applications.”