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A genomic analysis of lung cancer in people with no history of smoking has found that a majority of these tumors arise from the accumulation of mutations caused by natural processes in the body. This study was conducted by an international team led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and describes for the first time three molecular subtypes of lung cancer in people who have never smoked.

These insights will help unlock the mystery of how lung cancer arises in people who have no history of smoking and may guide the development of more precise clinical treatments. The findings were published September 6 2021, in Nature Genetics.

“What we’re seeing is that there are different subtypes of lung cancer in never smokers that have distinct molecular characteristics and evolutionary processes,” said epidemiologist Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Integrative Tumor Epidemiology Branch in NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, who led the study, which was done in collaboration with researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, another part of NIH, and other institutions. “In the future we may be able to have different treatments based on these subtypes.”

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Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed COVID-19 vaccine candidates that can take the heat. Their key ingredients? Viruses from plants or bacteria.

The new fridge-free COVID-19 vaccines are still in the early stage of development. In mice, the vaccine candidates triggered high production of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the that causes COVID-19. If they prove to be safe and effective in people, the vaccines could be a big game changer for global distribution efforts, including those in rural areas or resource-poor communities.

“What’s exciting about our vaccine technology is that is thermally stable, so it could easily reach places where setting up ultra-low temperature freezers, or having trucks drive around with these freezers, is not going to be possible,” said Nicole Steinmetz, a professor of nanoengineering and the director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

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Have you missed the SR Academy Webinar with Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute?

Here you can watch the complete video, including the discussion after the lecture:

A beautiful excursus on the mission, activities and goals of Search for Extra Terrestrial Intellogence, directly from the source!

Seth Shostak is currently the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. Shostak hosts SETI’s weekly radio show/podcast Big Picture Science, has played himself numerous times in TV and internet film dramas, and has acted in several science fiction films.

Continue reading “SR ACADEMY WEBINAR SERIES — SETI-Institute and Art in Residence Program” | >

Circa 1991 😀

An Australian company has launched an erasable computer memory chip that retains data when its power source is switched off. The chip could revolutionise the design of computers and other electronic devices by doing away with the bulky magnetic disc memories that are currently used to store data permanently.

Current computers rely on a selection of memory devices. These include chips known as read-only memories or ROMs that store preprogrammed data without power but cannot be erased, and instantly erasable chips that require constant power, known as random-access memory or RAMs. To store more data and programs when the power is off, most computers use magnetics discs.

The new chip is known as a ferroelectric random-access memory or FRAM. If it proves as successful as its developer, Ramtron, claims, it could replace all other types of data storage.

Continue reading “Technology: Ceramic chip could write off discs” | >