Lifeboat Foundation

In the heart of a galaxy cluster 200 million light-years away, astronomers have failed to detect hypothetical particles called axions.

This places new constraints on how we believe these particles work — but it also has pretty major implications for string theory, and the development of a Theory of Everything that describes how the physical Universe works.

“Until recently I had no idea just how much X-ray astronomers bring to the table when it comes to string theory, but we could play a major role,” said astrophysicist Christopher Reynolds of the University of Cambridge in the UK.

It appears that there are some effective treatments for COVID-19 rising up. These could dramatically improve/weaken the effects of the virus.

There’s also some hope that things are better than they seem anyway. There’s growing evidence that a lot of people have COVID-19 but have such mild symptoms that they aren’t being tested and counted as confirmed cases — which means the death rate and statistics about severe cases are much better than they seem. Additionally, it’s possible a larger share of the population is immune to the virus than initially thought:

Continue reading “[UPDATED] Progress On COVID-19 Treatment? Looks Like It” »

The complicated secondary metabolism of plants has been the source of countless medicinal compounds and leads for drug discovery. It is little surprise then that plant products and their analogues have been employed as an early line of defence against COVID-19. On 17 February, the Chinese State Council announced that chloroquine phosphate — a structural analogue of quinine, originally extracted from the bark of cinchona trees — can be used for treating COVID-19 patients. This anti-malarial also has broad-spectrum antiviral activity and regulatory effects on the immune system. Clinical evaluation of chloroquine phosphate in more than ten hospitals across several provinces in China has shown that it alleviates the symptoms for most patients and expedites virus seroconversion.

Epidemic diseases are not a new phenomenon, but easy access to transport in the modern world has accelerated their spread. Perhaps some botanical understanding can help slow them down.

As of Thursday afternoon, there are 10,985 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and zero FDA-approved drugs to treat the infection.

While DARPA works on short-term “firebreak” countermeasures and computational scientists track sources of new cases of the virus, a host of drug discovery companies are putting their AI technologies to work predicting which existing drugs, or brand-new drug-like molecules, could treat the virus.

Firm says ion-trap technology overcomes main obstacles to integrating qubits.

🌿 Find Arizona marijuana information and news. Find AZ marijuana dispensaries, doctors, laws, events, news, and more.

Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center and their colleagues have found that “natural killer” white blood cells could guard against the cascade of cellular changes that lead to Parkinson’s disease and help stop its progression.

Natural killer (NK) cells are white blood cells that can kill tumors without being “told” from the body to do so. NK cells provide the first line of defense against invasion or a virus and are equipped with activating receptors that can sense cellular stress and identify cells that have been altered due to infection.

“Right now there’s no available therapy to modify or stop the progression of Parkinson’s,” said lead author Jae-Kyung “Jamise” Lee, assistant professor in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “This would be the first NK study to show the possibility of actually stopping the disease.”

Discuss:

— Preprint manuscript suggests COVID-19 virus has already mutated into multiple strains.

Goji berries have long been part of Chinese culture. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago a doctor visited a village in China where everyone was more than 100 years old. He discovered that they all drank from a well that was surrounded by goji berries. And the theory was that, as the fruit ripened, it would fall into the well and its vitamin-packed contents would seep into the water. Tales are also told of a 17th-Century herbalist called Li Qing Yuen who ate goji berries every day and was said to have lived until he was 252 years old. If this wasn’t enough to encourage future generations to eat the traditional old fire simmer soups that were garnished with goji berries, Chinese mothers would tell their children that the berries would stop them from needing glasses to get them to finish their bowls.

But times are changing for this simple berry, including how it is consumed. The ancient goji berry, which has long been part of Chinese culture, is now being viewed as a superfood both in China and beyond.

Asia’s younger generations are embracing the goji berry, but giving it their own twist. For example, members of Gen Z are now buying “wellness kettles” for their goji berry tea. Their parents might recognise these as traditional soup kettles that have been repackaged by brands such as Buydeem and turned a more Instagram-worthy shade of pink. A 2019 study by Agility Research & Strategy on Gen Z in China showed that this generation sees living a healthy life as a key priority, even over money, career, personal enjoyment and having a family.