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Feb 13, 2020

Grateful Dead Drummer’s Quest to End Alzheimer’s

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, media & arts, neuroscience

Hart’s demonstrations are entertainment for sure. But his message runs deeper: rhythm and vibration heal the brain. Dementia, he says, is the “loss of rhythm.” And he, along with notables who collaborated on the event — University of California at San Francisco neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley and opera singer Renée Fleming (who lent her soprano to the event’s musical track) — are all at work searching for pathways that can bypass obstacles to function and cognition. Hart has also worked with Dr. Connie Tomaino, who runs the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, on music as a therapeutic tool for brain function.

Gazzaley is currently conducting clinical trials with healthy older adults to show how a regular regimen of digital rhythm can enhance attention and memory in people with cognitive impairment. Hart has been working with Gazzaley on what will be a downloadable app, their goal to develop a game that challenges one’s rhythmic ability, with the hope of building new neuropathways in the brain. “What we’re talking about here is a deeper and longer immersive experience which can actually harness the brain’s plasticity to change the way it functions,” says Gazzaley.

Taking up an instrument as a child, and playing through adulthood is one proven way to protect one’s brain. But learning later in life is helpful, too. Hart shares the story of his unlikely best friend, Walter Cronkite, who was 73 when he became a Deadhead, and also started playing the drums. In July of 2009, as Cronkite lay dying from complications of cerebrovascular disease, Hart handed him a hand drum. “He could no longer speak, but he could play,” Hart says, tears in his eyes. “He used to ask, ‘When we do we know we have found our groove?’ Well, he found it.”

Feb 13, 2020

California lab says it discovered coronavirus vaccine in 3 hours

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

An American biotech company says it created a coronavirus vaccine three hours after getting access to the virus’ genetic sequence in mid-January, and now scientists are racing to get the vaccine on the market in record time.

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Inovio Pharmaceuticals is based in Pennsylvania, but scientists in its laboratory in San Diego made the discovery.

Feb 13, 2020

Designer artificial viruses stimulate the immune system to fight cancer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

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Feb 13, 2020

10 Companies Using Robotics to Disrupt the Agriculture Industry

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, robotics/AI

Robotics technology continues to propel itself forward at an incredible rate. Robots have streamlined automated production, reducing worker injuries and manufacturing defects; in the health, sector robots perform precise, minimally invasive surgeries speeding recovery time and allowing surgeons to perform operations beyond their natural abilities. Now, robotic systems are moving past these stationary roles and finding their way into the agricultural fields around the world. These nimble, autonomous systems are poised to transform farming in an amazing way. Standing at the forefront of this inherent metamorphosis are 10 companies revolutionizing robotics in agriculture.

Blue River Technology

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Feb 13, 2020

Special Edition: After Shock and The Legacy of Alvin Toffler

Posted by in category: futurism

Seeking Delphi host Mark Sackler discusses After Shock, the new book that reflects on the 50 year legacy of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, with two of the contributing essayists. (Andrew Curry and Jerome Glenn)

Feb 13, 2020

These bionic shorts help turn an epic hike into a leisurely stroll

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, information science, robotics/AI, transhumanism, wearables

Forget the Thighmaster. Someday you might add a spring to your step when walking or running using a pair of mechanically powered shorts.

Step up: The lightweight exoskeleton-pants were developed by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Nebraska, Omaha. They are the first device to assist with both walking and running, using an algorithm that adapts to each gait.

Making strides: The super-shorts show how wearable exoskeleton technology might someday help us perform all sorts of tasks. Progress in materials, actuators, and machine learning has led to a new generation of lighter, more powerful, and more adaptive wearable systems. Bulkier and heavier commercial systems are already used to help people with disabilities and workers in some factories and warehouses.

Feb 13, 2020

Scientists make organs transparent so you can see inside

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Add a way of coloring structures and you’ve got some eye-popping imagery.

Feb 13, 2020

Scientists just watched a newfound asteroid zoom by Earth. Then they saw its moon

Posted by in category: space

Scientists took a second look at a recently discovered asteroid and realized it was in fact two space rocks orbiting together.

Feb 13, 2020

Can art be effective medicine for treatment of mental and physical illness?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, health, neuroscience

Yes! In this video with my dear friend, artist Nicholas Wilton, I review the scientific data linking creativity and disease remission from Mind Over Medicine. Plus, Nick reads the quote he wrote in Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly about art-making as treatment for perfectionism. If you or someone you love has been hoping to become a “health outlier” who experiences a better than usual outcome from a health struggle, or if you just love art and want to improve your art-making as part of your prescription for optimal health and a vital, fully expressed life, we hope this will offer you inspiration—and a few medicinal laughs! (As an OB/GYN, I couldn’t resist drawing the female reproductive systems when we got to the art-making part.)

Nick will be teaching a wonderful free online art class ART 2 LIFE that starts on Valentine’s Day, so give yourself this gift of your love of art-making. You can sign up for the free course here. https://share.tellafrienda2l.com/a/a2lworkshop/LissaR

Feb 13, 2020

Childhood brain tumor discovery may unlock new treatments for many cancers

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

“” This cancer seems simple. Basically, it has been known for many years it is just one type of cells that proliferate out of control,” Zong said. “However, we noticed an interesting paradox. While tumor cells grow really fast in the body, they grow poorly and only for a limited time when we take them out and put them in a [lab] dish. So we suspected some other cells may be in play.”

His investigation of that suspicion turned science’s understanding of medulloblastoma on its head. Using an innovative model of the disease, Zong and his team marked tumor cells so that they would appear green. That led to the first surprise: While all other cell types outside the tumor are colorless, a cell type called astrocyte appeared green, which never happens in normal brain regions.

“Astrocyte actually has been linked to poor prognosis of medulloblastoma, but nobody has ever suspected its origin, since the cell of origin for medulloblastoma normally never gives rise to astrocytes. The fact that tumor-associated astrocytes share the same color with tumor cells suggests that they actually come from tumor cells,” he said. “So some tumor cells basically completely change their identity to make a separate cell type.”

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