Lifeboat Foundation

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark interviews Matthew Richardson, Canadian author of “Threatened and Recently extinct Vertebrates of the World”, primatologist and conservationist.

“My forthcoming book, Threatened and Recently-extinct Vertebrates of the World, required me to assess and place some 15,000 species and subspecies within an updated biogeographic framework. I also had to coin common names for more than 5,000 of them; figure out an entirely new system of ecoregions based on elevation to nest within my “realms and regions.” find a way to standardize language across the globe in a way that would be mostly acceptable to everyone; and somehow make it interesting for the reader. It is twice the length of “War and Peace.” I’ve gone through three publishers, it took me ten years to write, and I’ve received zero funding in the process” Matthew Richardson.

Continue reading “Saving History of Threatened and Recently Extinct Vertebrates of the World” »

US$400 million for healthy aging and elder care.

Ira Pastor ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Shelley Lyford, President and Chief Executive Officer of West Health, the Gary and Mary West Foundation, and the West Health Institute.

Continue reading “Billionaires Pour US $400 Million into Initiatives to Help the Weak and Vulnerable” »

“Gravitational waves from what could be the most massive black hole merger yet has been detected by researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its discovery is also raising questions about how massive black holes are formed.

When scientists made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger in February 2016, not only did they prove Einstein right, they also discovered another curious quirk; the audibl… See More.

The detection of the heaviest black hole merger to date is also the first clear detection of an ” intermediate-mass” black hole.

Using the venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Perth Western Australia, Ireland and England, Dr. Ciara Duffy from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and The University of Western Australia, tested the effect of the venom on the clinical subtypes of breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer, which has limited treatment options.

Results published in the prestigious international journal npj Precision Oncology revealed that honeybee venom rapidly destroyed triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells.

Dr. Duffy said the aim of the research was to investigate the anti-cancer properties of honeybee venom, and a component compound, melittin, on different types of breast cancer cells.

In a recent study conducted in mice, researchers became one step closer to that understanding, discovering that exercise actually strengthens the brain’s resilience to stress. Exercise helps animals cope with stress by enabling an uptick in a crucial neural protein called galanin, the study suggests. This process influences stress levels, food consumption, cognition, and mood.

Leveraging this finding, researchers were able to genetically tweak even sedentary mice’s levels of galanin, shifts that lowered their anxious response to stress.

The study’s authors explain that this study helps pin down the biological mechanisms driving exercise’s positive effects on stress. While further human experiments are needed to confirm these findings, the researchers have practical advice for people looking to get these benefits: perform regular, aerobic exercise.

FP Trending Sep 02, 2020 12:48:13 IST

SpaceX postponed the launch date of its next batch of Starlink satellites to 3 September. The space firm was going to loft the 60 satellites aboard the Falcon 9 rocket yesterday morning.

The official handle of Elon Musk’s company tweeted about the delay, saying the team will be utilising the extra time to review data. Now the launch from Launch Complex 39A has been set at 6.16 pm IST (8.46 am EDT) on 3 September.

Get ready to check into the Multiverse, fellow travelers, and enjoy all the sights, sounds and experiences that the 2020 Burning Man has to offer.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), emerged in December 2019.¹ Seroconversion of most patients with Covid-19 occurs between 7 and 14 days after diagnosis.^2,3 A study of 61,000 persons in Spain showed that 5% of the population had formed antibodies against the spike and nucleoproteins and that approximately one third of infected persons were asymptomatic.⁴ It was suggested that a substantial fraction of those infected become antibody-negative early in the convalescence period.⁵ Several studies have reported a higher prevalence⁴ and levels^3,5 of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in severely ill patients than in those with no or mild symptoms.

The infection fatality risk of SARS-CoV-2 is difficult to estimate because the total number of diagnosed and undiagnosed cases is needed as the denominator. The infection fatality risk was reported as 0.4% in a small German town after carnival festivities,⁶ 0.6% on the Diamond Princess cruise ship,⁷ and 0.66% in China.⁸

Well-validated serologic assays for SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed. Several small comparative studies of commercial SARS-CoV-2 antibody assays have been published.^9–12 A highly specific assay is required for screening populations with a low seroprevalence, such as that in Iceland.