Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

When it comes to searching for life beyond Earth, specifically on exoplanets or exomoons, are researchers searching for the correct biomarkers? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how certain organic compounds that were long hypothesized to be created by life can be created in a laboratory setting without life present. This study holds the potential to challenge longstanding hypotheses regarding what biomarkers scientists should search for when trying to identify life on other worlds and how we should adapt our search methods accordingly.

For the study, the researchers successfully created dimethyl sulfide, which is an organic sulfur compound typically produced by marine algae, using a combination of light and gases that have been identified in the atmospheres of exoplanets. The caveat is no organisms were present to create the dimethyl sulfide, which left the researchers puzzled due to the longstanding hypothesis that marine organisms were the only way dimethyl sulfide was created.

“The sulfur molecules that we’re making are thought to be indicators of life because they’re produced by life on Earth,” said Dr. Eleanor Browne, who is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a co-author on the study. “But we made them in the lab without life — so it might not be a sign of life but could be a sign of something hospitable for life.”

Read more | >

Researchers have uncovered how hormones profoundly affect our immune systems, explaining why men and women are affected by diseases differently.

Scientists from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Imperial College London have shown for the first time which aspects of our immune systems are regulated by sex hormones, and the impacts this has on disease risk and health outcomes in males and females.

It is well established that diseases can affect men and women differently, due to subtle differences in our immune systems. For example, the immune condition systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is nine-times more likely to affect women, or with COVID-19, males are known to have a greater risk of acute first-time infections, while females have a greater risk of long-COVID.

Read more | >

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) immunotherapy facilitates new approaches to achieve precision cancer treatment.

Zhang, D., Wang, M., Liu, G. et al. Novel FABP4+C1q+ macrophages enhance antitumor immunity and associated with response to neoadjuvant pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in NSCLC via AMPK/JAK/STAT axis. Cell Death Dis 15, 717 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-024-07074-x.

Download citation.

Read more | >

On September 29, 1901 Enrico Fermi ForMemRS was born.

On May 11, 1974, National Accelerator Laboratory was given a new name: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The eponym honors famed Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, whose accomplishments in both theoretical and experimental physics place him among the greatest scientists of the 20th century.

Many visitors to Fermilab reasonably conclude from its name that Enrico Fermi worked at the laboratory, but he never did. In fact, he died in 1954, years before scientists even officially recommended the construction of a U.S. accelerator laboratory in 1963.

In 1938, Fermi won the Nobel Prize for work that eventually led to the first controlled release of nuclear energy. He and his family then left Italy and came to the United States, where he accepted a position at Columbia University. He later moved to the University of Chicago, where he built the first atomic pile in the squash court under the university’s Stagg Field. While there, he continued investigating the nature of particles that make up the nucleus. He was also active in the design of the school’s synchrocyclotron. At the time of its completion, it was one of the most powerful atom smashers in the world.

Continue reading “Why are we called Fermilab?” | >

Physicists have detected a long-sought particle process that may suggest new forces and particles exist in the universe.

By Clara Moskowitz

Once in a very great while, an ephemeral particle called a kaon arises and then quickly decays away into three other obscure entities. Whether or not this happens in a particular way has very little bearing on most of us, who will go about our lives without knowing either way. But to physicists who have been searching for this arcane process for decades, it matters a lot; finding out how often it happens could reveal hidden aspects of our universe.

Read more | >

U.S. researchers developed CheekAge, a tool that reliably estimates mortality risk.

Researchers in the United States have created a next-generation tool named CheekAge, which uses methylation patterns found in easily obtainable cheek cells.

In a groundbreaking discovery, the team has demonstrated that CheekAge can reliably estimate mortality risk, even when epigenetic data from different tissues are utilized for analysis.

Epigenetic markers are chemical changes to DNA that don’t alter the genetic code but can affect how genes work. Methylation is one such change, often linked to aging. Scientists use these patterns to create “age clocks” that estimate biological age, revealing how fast someone is aging.

Continue reading “US scientist reveal mouth swab that can gauge your risk of death” | >

Like atoms coming together to release their power, fusion researchers worldwide are joining forces to solve the world’s energy crisis. Harnessing the power of fusing plasma as a reliable energy source for the power grid is no easy task, requiring global contributions.

Read more | >