Lifeboat Foundation

Many people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 will probably make antibodies against the virus for most of their lives. So suggest researchers who have identified long-lived antibody-producing cells in the bone marrow of people who have recovered from COVID-19¹.

The study provides evidence that immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection will be extraordinarily long-lasting. Adding to the good news, “the implications are that vaccines will have the same durable effect”, says Menno van Zelm, an immunologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Antibodies — proteins that can recognize and help to inactivate viral particles — are a key immune defence. After a new infection, short-lived cells called plasmablasts are an early source of antibodies.

It’s the rare individual who actually looks forward to getting jabbed with a needle, even if what’s in the needle can protect them from a serious disease such as COVID-19.

But several teams around the world are working on a way to inject a vaccine without the ouch. The trick is to make the needles small. Really small. So small they don’t interact with the nerve endings that signal pain.

Mark Prausnitz is director of the Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery at Georgia Tech. He works on something called microneedle patches to deliver vaccines. So far, he’s developed patch vaccines for flu and measles, but the technology could be used for a COVID-19 vaccine as well.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes about a growing consensus among researchers that the pathogen that gave rise to the COVID-19 pandemic may have emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, rather than through a natural migration from animals to humans.

Things to note: Treating the rats until they die. They are at 31 months and the longest they have lived without treatments is 38 months. Also, a small number of people have done this and though ailments like arthritis go away they still look elderly.

We recently had an update from Professor Rodolfo Goya who is conducting a follow up experiment from the one that Dr. Katcher first did in India, showing a rejuvenation in old rats. This video goes through the update that we had and provides a short introduction to the background.

Continue reading “Young Blood Plasma Extending Rats Max Lifespan | Professor Rodolfo Goya’s Experiment Update” »

Rift Valley fever used to mostly affect livestock in Africa. But the virus that causes it is also spread by mosquitoes whose habitats are expanding because of climate change. If it were to make its way to the rest of the world, it would decimate livestock causing agricultural collapse as well as affecting human health.

In 2015 the Zika virus triggered a global health crisis that left thousands of parents devastated. The virus can cause serious problems in pregnancy, leading to babies with birth defects called microcephaly and other neurological problems. But Zika is not the only virus that can be devastating to pregnant women and their babies; there is another with pandemic potential that could be even more deadly – Rift Valley fever.

The placenta that encases the baby acts as a fortress against many pathogens, but a few can evade its defences. Rift Valley fever is one of them – a 2019 study shows that the virus has the ability to infect a specialised layer of placental cells that carry nutrients to the baby, something that even Zika may not be capable of. In cattle and other livestock, in which the virus spreads, infection can cause more than 90% of pregnant cows to miscarry or deliver stillborn calves. Although the virus kills fewer than 1% of people it infects, it is the risk to babies, and the lasting neurological effects in adults, that is of great concern.

LONDON — An illegal bitcoin mine has been found by police in the U.K. who were looking for a cannabis farm.

The mine — located in an industrial unit on the outskirts of the English city of Birmingham — was stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity from the mains supply, West Midlands Police said Thursday.

Police searched the unit in Sandwell on May 18 on the back of intelligence that led them to believe it was being used as a cannabis farm.

In the welding field, however, some argue that a robot takeover might be beneficial, and even necessary.

Columbus startup Path Robotics believes AI is one solution to the shortage of skilled labor that plagues welding. Path boasts the “world’s first truly autonomous robotic welding system.” Conceived after 18 months in the basement of a foundry, its system identifies what needs to be welded, welds it and learns along the way.

Path Robotics CEO Andy Lonsberry said he and his brother, Alex Lonsberry, chief technology officer at Path Robotics, always wanted to start a business.

Earth’s oldest known material: Some zircons from Australia date back more than 4 billion years.

Crystals of the mineral zircon are rugged enough to survive the most violent geologic events.

How materials behave depends on the interactions between countless atoms. You could see this as a giant group chat in which atoms are continuously exchanging quantum information. Researchers from Delft University of Technology in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University and the Research Center Jülich have now been able to intercept a chat between two atoms. They present their findings in Science on May 28, 2021.

Atoms, of course, don’t really talk. But they can feel each other. This is particularly the case for magnetic atoms. “Each atom carries a small magnetic moment called spin. These spins influence each other, like compass needles do when you bring them close together. If you give one of them a push, they will start moving together in a very specific way,” explains Sander Otte, leader of the team that performed the research. “But according to the laws of quantum mechanics, each spin can be simultaneously point in various directions, forming a superposition. This means that actual transfer of quantum information takes place between the atoms, like some sort of conversation.”