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Mar 1, 2020

Venn and the art of avoiding a parallel governance universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, governance

Boards and management teams can easily find themselves either stepping on each other’s toes – or, conversely, functioning in parallel universes. So how do you find the perfect balance? Top tips on achieving a Venn-like state from Patrick Dunne – a serial social entrepreneur, chair of the EY foundation and the author of a new book on governance.

Mar 1, 2020

How China is using AI and big data to combat coronavirus outbreak

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, information science, robotics/AI, surveillance

Authorities in China step up surveillance and roll out new artificial intelligence tools to fight deadly epidemic.

Mar 1, 2020

Coronavirus genome structure and replication

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2005;287:1–30.

In addition to the SARS coronavirus (treated separately elsewhere in this volume), the complete genome sequences of six species in the coronavirus genus of the coronavirus family [avian infectious bronchitis virus-Beaudette strain (IBV-Beaudette), bovine coronavirus-ENT strain (BCoV-ENT), human coronavirus-229E strain (HCoV-229E), murine hepatitis virus-A59 strain (MHV-A59), porcine transmissible gastroenteritis-Purdue 115 strain (TGEV-Purdue 115), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus-CV777 strain (PEDV-CV777)] have now been reported. Their lengths range from 27,317 nt for HCoV-229E to 31,357 nt for the murine hepatitis virus-A59, establishing the coronavirus genome as the largest known among RNA viruses.

Mar 1, 2020

DNA discovery can lead to new types of cancer drugs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Cells can both survive and multiply under more stress than previously thought, shows research from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

This was found by inhibiting the essential gene DNA polymerase alpha, or POLA1, which initiates DNA replication during .

The discovery gives researchers new insights into DNA replication and may potentially be used for a new type of cancer treatment. Research Leader and Associate Professor Luis Toledo of the Center for Chromosome Stability at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine states as follows:

Mar 1, 2020

Binary Stars Appear To Harbor Just As Many Planets As Single Stars, Says Study

Posted by in category: space

New paper sheds light on the age-old question about the frequency of planets around binary versus single stars.

Mar 1, 2020

Can Destroying Senescent Cells Treat Age-Related Disease?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

I think so.


A handful of clinical trials are underway to find out whether drugs that target senescent cells can slow the ravages of old age.

Mar 1, 2020

How regenerative agriculture could help save the planet

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

A quiet revolution is reshaping the agricultural world, with farmers like Danie Slabbert saying that if we want to save the planet, it’s not so much about what we eat, but how we farm. CNN’s David McKenzie reports.

Mar 1, 2020

Full Brain Emulation / Logan & Zion2020 178. Debt Nation

Posted by in category: neuroscience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FZ3-mBq22c

Logan is finally on the show!

Mar 1, 2020

Journal Club February – Gamma Stimulation Ameliorates Alzheimer’s-Associated Pathology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

The February edition of Journal Club, hosted by Dr. Oliver Medvedik, took a look at a recent paper that explored using gamma stimulation, accomplished through visual and auditory stimuli, to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Mar 1, 2020

Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, information science

Under the watchful eye of a microscope, busy little blobs scoot around in a field of liquid—moving forward, turning around, sometimes spinning in circles. Drop cellular debris onto the plain and the blobs will herd them into piles. Flick any blob onto its back and it’ll lie there like a flipped-over turtle.

Their behavior is reminiscent of a microscopic flatworm in pursuit of its prey, or even a tiny animal called a water bear—a creature complex enough in its bodily makeup to manage sophisticated behaviors. The resemblance is an illusion: These blobs consist of only two things, skin cells and heart cells from frogs.

Writing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe how they’ve engineered so-calleds (from the species of frog, Xenopus laevis, whence their cells came) with the help of evolutionary algorithms. They hope that this new kind of organism—contracting cells and passive cells stuck together—and its eerily advanced behavior can help scientists unlock the mysteries of cellular communication.