Lifeboat Foundation

Now scientists are hoping to use the knowledge about CRISPR systems to engineering phages to destroy dangerous bacteria.

As the world fights the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, another group of dangerous pathogens looms in the background.

Several years after scientists discovered what was considered the oldest crater a meteorite made on the planet, another team found it’s actually the result of normal geological processes.

During fieldwork at the Archean Maniitsoq structure in Greenland, an international team of scientists led by the University of Waterloo ’s Chris Yakymchuk found the features of this region are inconsistent with an impact crater. In 2012, a different team identified it as the remnant of a three-billion-year-old meteorite crater.

“Zircon crystals in the rock are like little time capsules,” said Yakymchuk, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. “They preserve ancient damage caused by shockwaves you get from a meteorite impact. We found no such damage in them.”

The results of this study demonstrate a clear relationship between psychopathology and rate of aging. Remarkably, this relationship was obvious by the age of 45. By that time, those with the upper 10% of psychopathology factor (p-factor) scores had aged approximately 5.3 more years than those with the lowest 10% of p-factor scores.

Is a history of psychiatric illness associated with more rapid aging?

In the study, the researchers found that when AML cells were exposed to chemotherapy, a subset of the cells went into a state of hibernation, or senescence, while at the same time assuming a condition that looked very much like inflammation. They looked similar to cells that have undergone an injury and need to promote wound healing—shutting down the majority of their functions while recruiting immune cells to nurse them back to health.

Cancer cells can dodge chemotherapy by entering a state that bears similarity to certain kinds of senescence, a type of “active hibernation” that enables them to weather the stress induced by aggressive treatments aimed at destroying them, according to a new study by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. These findings have implications for developing new drug combinations that could block senescence and make chemotherapy more effective.

In a study published Jan. 26 in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the investigators reported that this biologic process could help explain why cancers so often recur after treatment. The research was done in both organoids and mouse models made from patients’ samples of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) tumors. The findings were also verified by looking at samples from AML patients that were collected throughout the course of treatment and relapse.

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The robotic exoskeletons can think and make control decisions on their own.

Robotics researchers are developing exoskeleton legs capable of thinking and making control decisions on their own using onboard cameras and sophisticated artificial intelligence technology.

As the name suggests, an exoskeleton leg is an external structure that can be used to support people who are otherwise unable to walk. But the things still do have limitations; most existing exoskeleton legs must be manually switched over to different modes – via smartphone applications or joysticks – for more complicated tasks, such as stepping over or around obstacles.

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“3D printing—I think the majority of what it does is allow us to make individualized treatment, when we never had that opportunity to do it before,” Ripley explained. “And I think we’re going to just keep growing with that.”

It’s rooted in the patient’s unique idea to use a drinking straw to open up his hearing pathway.

California, it seems, is leading the world here: the report counts at least 35 Californian cities with such a ban at the end of 2020.

In a cool and rare moment for the U.S., it’s a leader in something that may actually do some good for the planet. A new report shows that the U.S. currently has the most cities in the world that have enacted some sort of ban on fossil fuels at the local level.

Studies in mammals have shown that the ‘memories’ of various environmental effects – such as diet, weight, and stress – are being passed on from dads to offspring, despite these states not being coded for in the DNA sequences carried by sperm. Now, we have a new explanation for how it’s possible.

The story has much to do with epigenetics. Molecules that attach themselves to DNA can act like on-off switches that control which sections of DNA get used – but until now we haven’t known which of these molecules can carry the settings marked by a father’s life experiences, to be incorporated into an embryo via sperm.

“The big breakthrough with this study is that it has identified a non-DNA-based means by which sperm remember a father’s environment (diet) and transmit that information to the embryo,” said McGill University epigeneticist Sarah Kimmins.

Stress may improve intelligence. That does not mean you should desire problems.

Summary: People who experience fewer stressors in daily life report better emotional stability, moods, and overall health. However, those who are less stressed score lower on cognitive tests than those who experience daily stressors. Those who are stress-free are also less likely to give emotional support or experience positive things happening throughout the day.

Source: Penn State

Continue reading “Living a Stress-Free Life May Have Benefits, but Also a Downside” »