Lifeboat Foundation

An NC State researcher has developed a new way to get CRISPR/Cas9 into plant cells without inserting foreign DNA. This allows for precise genetic deletions or replacements, without inserting foreign DNA. Therefore, the end product is not a genetically modified organism, or GMO.

CRISPR/Cas9 is a tool that can be used to precisely cut and remove or replace a specific genetic sequence. The Cas9 protein serves as a pair of molecular scissors, guided to the specific genetic target by an easily swapped RNA guide. Basically, it seeks out a specific genetic sequence and, when it finds that sequence, cuts it out. Once the target DNA is snipped, it can be deleted or replaced.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has tremendous potential for improving crops by changing their genetic code. That does not necessarily mean inserting foreign DNA, but the systems used to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 into a plant’s cells often do, which means the relevant crop is a GMOs undergo through a rigorous evaluation process and many consumers prefer non-GMO products.

This charming conical flask-carrying robot was created by a 3D printer capable of printing with multiple different materials, at a speed and level of detail that was previously impossible. And in the future it could have some, well, slightly more useful applications…

A new, radical paradigm shift is in progress. The U.S. economy may shrink as much as 40% in the first semester of 2020. China, already the world’s largest economy by PPP for a few years now, may soon become the world’s largest economy even in exchange rate terms.

by Pepe Escobar

Continue reading “One thought on ‘Get Ready for the Next Game-Changer: The Gold-Backed Digital Yuan’” »

The coronavirus pandemic has forced economists, financiers, executives, and policymakers to jettison or dramatically revise their forecasts for 2020. But what will the future look like on the other side of the crisis? We asked a variety of leaders from around the world for their best guess on how our lives will be fundamentally changed.

Economists, investors, and CEOs on how the coronavirus has forever changed the world.

It’s a frustrating fact that whenever you try to improve materials like steel, you end up introducing new weaknesses at the same time. It’s a balancing act between different properties. Now, engineers have developed a new type of “super steel” that defies this trade-off, staying strong while still resisting fractures.

For materials like steel, there are three main properties that need to be balanced – strength, toughness and ductility. The first two might sound like the same thing, but there’s an important difference. Strength describes how much of a load a material can take before it deforms or fails, measured in Pascals of pressure. Toughness, meanwhile, measures how much energy it takes to fracture a material.

For reference, glass has relatively high strength but low toughness, so it’s able to support quite a bit of weight but it doesn’t take much energy to break.

The C20 will replace the C8 as the personal defence weapon for Canadian Forces sniper teams, confirmed Department of National Defence spokeswoman Andrée-Anne Poulin.

The government will also launch a competition sometime this month to buy 229 bolt action sniper rifles. That rifle, designated as the C21, will be used for long-range shooting and will come in two different calibres.

The Canadian Forces says the new C20, which will be in 7.62 calibre, will be more accurate and an improvement over the current C8 used by sniper teams.

Masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are essential for protecting healthcare workers. However, the textiles and materials used in such items can absorb and carry viruses and bacteria, inadvertently spreading the disease the wearer sought to contain.

When the coronavirus spread amongst healthcare professionals and left PPE in short supply, finding a way to provide better protection while allowing for the safe reuse of these items became paramount.

Research from the LAMP Lab at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering may have a solution. The lab has created a textile coating that can not only repel liquids like blood and saliva but can also prevent viruses from adhering to the surface. The work was recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

On April 7, Karin Shetler awoke in the middle of the night to a toe that was throbbing violently. She threw back the covers to reveal her purple-colored middle toe.

“I wondered whether I had somehow broken my toe,” said Shetler. “I iced it, not understanding what it was, and called my physician sister in New Orleans the next morning.”

She asked if it might be gout. It wasn’t.

Hypothetical COVID-19 Treatments.

The virus causes clotting everywhere and widespread epithelial damage. One is tempted to treat it like stroke prophylaxis. Patients clot rather than bleed, almost always. The same thing happens in influenza, also.

The pro-clotting effects of corticosteroids may be a reason why they have not stood out yet. The profound anticlotting treatment necessary to treat patients with ECMO extracorporial oxygenation in COVID-19, might have its own therapeutic value (it’s not just the artificial lung but the heparin they need to put you on it!). The lungs of COVID-19 patients in trouble are not only full of fluid, but macro and micro-emboli. Low molecular weight heparin, given in all ICUs, looks like a good gamble.

Continue reading “Functional Role of Dietary Intervention to Improve the Outcome of COVID-19: A Hypothesis of Work” »