Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 6220

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will launch an Astroscale mission to rendezvous with a spent rocket stage in low Earth orbit, a prelude to eventually deorbiting the stage.

Rocket Lab announced Sept. 21 that it won a contract from Astroscale for the launch of its Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft. A Rocket Lab Electron will launch ADRAS-J from its Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in 2023.

ADRAS-J will rendezvous with and inspect an upper stage left in orbit by a Japanese launch. The Japanese space agency JAXA awarded Tokyo-based Astroscale a contract in 2020 for the mission as part of its two-phase Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration project. The second phase, which will involve an attempt to deorbit the upper stage, has not yet been competed by JAXA.

Read more | >

One of the modifications was the cupola, or giant window, that let the four astronauts have a panoramic view of space in the modified Crew Dragon craft.

The Inspiration4 crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near Florida on September 18 at 23:06 UTC, bringing an end to their historic three-day mission orbiting Earth, 360 miles above the surface.

The Dragon capsule descended towards Earth on four chutes before gently landing in the water as the module floated on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more | >

“We have no guarantee that these antibodies that are out there will continue being effective against any new variants that occur,” Georgiev said.

According to a release from Vanderbilt, “Georgiev and his colleagues describe the isolation of a monoclonal antibody from a patient who had recovered from COVID-19 that ‘shows potent neutralization’ against SARS-CoV-2. It also is effective against variants of the virus that are slowing efforts to control the pandemic.”

VUMC said researchers can also use the technology to screen antibodies against any current variant of COVID-19, and researchers hope even other viruses that have not yet caused human disease but have the potential of doing so.

Read more | >

A surprise result for solid state physicists hints at an unusual electron behavior.

While studying the behavior of electrons in iron-based superconducting materials, researchers at the University of Tokyo observed a strange signal relating to the way electrons are arranged. The signal implies a new arrangement of electrons the researchers call a nematicity wave, and they hope to collaborate with theoretical physicists to better understand it. The nematicity wave could help researchers understand the way electrons interact with each other in superconductors.

A long-standing dream of solid state physicists is to fully understand the phenomenon of superconductivity — essentially electronic conduction without the resistance that creates heat and drains power. It would usher in a whole new world of incredibly efficient or powerful devices and is already being used on Japan’s experimental magnetic levitation bullet train. But there is much to explore in this complex topic, and it often surprises researchers with unexpected results and observations.

Read more | >

Cardiovascular fat deposition, found to be higher in postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women, is a novel risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It is also believed to affect cognitive function through neuropathological pathways by changing the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and adipokines. The quality of cardiovascular fat is characterized by its radiodensity.

Summary: Greater radiodensity of perivascular adipose tissue in women during midlife was associated with decreased working memory performance later in life.

Source: NAMS

A worsening cardiovascular profile after menopause may contribute to the fact that women are disproportionately affected by dementia. A new study identified a link between cardiovascular fat volume and radiodensity and cognitive function, as well as racial differences in this association.

Continue reading “The Quality, Not Quantity, of Cardiovascular Fat Can Interfere With Memory Later in Life” | >

“We show that focusing on genes whose expression patterns are evolutionarily conserved across species enhances our ability to learn and predict ‘genes of importance’ to growth performance for staple crops, as well as disease outcomes in animals,” explained Gloria Coruzzi, Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor in NYU’s Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and the paper’s senior author.

Machine learning can pinpoint “genes of importance” that help crops to grow with less fertilizer, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. It can also predict additional traits in plants and disease outcomes in animals, illustrating its applications beyond agriculture.

Using to predict outcomes in agriculture and medicine is both a promise and challenge for . Researchers have been working to determine how to best use the vast amount of genomic data available to predict how organisms respond to changes in nutrition, toxins, and pathogen exposure—which in turn would inform crop improvement, disease prognosis, epidemiology, and public health. However, accurately predicting such complex outcomes in agriculture and medicine from genome-scale information remains a significant challenge.

In the Nature Communications study, NYU researchers and collaborators in the U.S. and Taiwan tackled this challenge using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence used to detect patterns in data.

Continue reading “Machine learning uncovers ‘genes of importance’ in agriculture and medicine” | >