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Apr 8, 2020
Mutant Bacterial Enzyme Can Break Down Plastic Waste in Just Hours
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: sustainability
Researchers working for industrial development company Carbios have created a mutant bacterial enzyme that can break down plastic bottles for recycling in only a couple of hours, according to The Guardian.
The enyzme can break down PET plastic bottles into their individual chemical composites, which could later be reused to make brand new bottles.
Conventional recycled plastic that goes through a “thermomechanical” process isn’t high enough quality and is mostly used for other products such as clothing and carpets.
Apr 8, 2020
Researchers successfully repair stroke-damaged rat brains
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in restoring mobility and sensation of touch in stroke-afflicted rats by reprogramming human skin cells to become nerve cells, which were then transplanted into the rats’ brains. The study has now been published in the research journal PNAS.
“Six months after the transplantation, we could see how the new cells had repaired the damage that a stroke had caused in the rats’ brains,” says Professor Zaal Kokaia, who together with senior professor Olle Lindvall and researcher Sara Palma-Tortosa at the Division of Neurology is behind the study.
Several previous studies from the Lund team and others have shown that it is possible to transplant nerve cells derived from human stem cells or from reprogrammed cells into brains of rats afflicted by stroke. However, it was not known whether the transplanted cells can form connections correctly in the rat brain in a way that restores normal movement and feeling.
Apr 8, 2020
It Came From Outside Our Solar System and Now It’s Breaking Up
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
Comet Borisov, only the second interstellar object spotted by astronomers, shed at least one big chunk as it rounded our sun.
Apr 8, 2020
In-Plane Electroluminescent Technology Could Improve LEDs for Displays and Wearables
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in category: wearables
DAEGU, South Korea, April 6, 2020 — Luminescence technology developed at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), using an in-plane electric field generated in parallel to the light-emitting layer of an LED, could help improve the efficiency of light-emitting elements used in billboards and banners. According to the research team, the LEDs produced this way emit light in a more flexible, stable way than conventional LEDs.
Apr 8, 2020
New “refrigerator” super-cools molecules to nanokelvin temperatures
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics
“Collisional cooling has been the workhorse for cooling atoms,” adds Nobel Prize laureate Wolfgang Ketterle, the John D. Arthur professor of physics at MIT. “I wasn’t convinced that our scheme would work, but since we didn’t know for sure, we had to try it. We know now that it works for cooling sodium lithium molecules. Whether it will work for other classes of molecules remains to be seen.” MIT School of Science, Harvard — MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, RLE at MIT — Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, #research #supercooledatoms #nanokelvin #WolfgangKetterle
Technique may enable molecule-based quantum computing.
Apr 8, 2020
At least 20 UK phone masts vandalised over false 5G coronavirus claims
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, internet, mobile phones
Apr 8, 2020
Scientists decipher complete genome of SARS-Cov-2
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, evolution
Scientists in Argentina decipher complete genome of SARS-Cov-2. Work by ANLIS-Malbrán Institute specialists will allow experts to follow evolution of virus in Argentina, ensure quality of diagnosis and contribute to development of vaccine.
Apr 8, 2020
Bat Man: Hunting Down COVID-19 and other Deadly Viruses
Posted by Mike Diverde in category: biotech/medical
If you’re curious about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship to animals, I’d like to recommend an excellent interview with a bat virus expert who was in Wuhan, China at ground zero in mid-January. He has been involved in a series of investigations of viral epidemics since the mid-1990s.
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Dr. Linfa Wang, director of the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at the collaborative Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School in Singapore.
Continue reading “Bat Man: Hunting Down COVID-19 and other Deadly Viruses” »
Apr 8, 2020
Israeli COVID-19 treatment shows 100% survival rate
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in category: biotech/medical
Not only have all the patients survived, according to Pluristem, but four of them showed improvement in respiratory parameters and three of them are in the advanced stages of weaning from ventilators. Moreover, two of the patients with preexisting medical conditions are showing clinical recovery in addition to the respiratory improvement.
“We are pleased with this initial outcome of the compassionate use program and committed to harnessing PLX cells for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems,” said Pluristem CEO and president Yaky Yanay. “Pluristem is dedicated to using its competitive advantages in large-scale manufacturing to potentially deliver PLX cells to a large number of patients in significant need.”
Pluristem’s PLX cells are “allogeneic mesenchymal-like cells that have immunomodulatory properties,” meaning they induce the immune system’s natural regulatory T cells and M2 macrophages, the company explained in a previous release. The result could be the reversal of dangerous overactivation of the immune system. This would likely reduce the fatal symptoms of pneumonia and pneumonitis (general inflammation of lung tissue).