Lifeboat Foundation

The World Health Organization said the fast-spreading coronavirus that’s infected more than 8,200 people across the world is a global health emergency — a rare designation that helps the international agency mobilize financial and political support to contain the outbreak.

The announcement comes just hours after the U.S. confirmed its first human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has killed at least 171 people in China and has now spread to at least 18 other countries.

Since emerging less than a month ago in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has infected more people than the 2003 SARS epidemic, which sickened roughly 8,100 people across the globe over nine months. As of Thursday, there are at least eight cases in four countries, outside of China, of human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus.

Scientists are one step closer to understanding how fish can repair their own heart, offering clues for treatment in millions of heart attack patients.

Zebrafish, a Mexican fish, are often the focus of scientific research because they are known to remarkably regenerate their own heart tissue.

University of Oxford scientists were ‘surprised’ to find that immune cells, called macrophages, were involved in the process.

Researchers from Stanford University and Michigan State University have teamed up to create a nanoparticle that can eat away at the arterial plaques that lead to strokes and heart attacks in a mouse model of atherosclerosis.

The team has created a nanoparticle that acts like a Trojan horse, targeting atherosclerotic plaque to reduce its amount and prevent it from getting out of control. A considerable amount of plaque material consists of dead and dying macrophages, a type of immune cell, which have become trapped and overwhelmed while trying to remove debris and fatty deposits. As these cells die, they attract more macrophages which arrive to try to clear up the waste; they too become trapped, and this is the foundation of atherosclerotic plaque.

The new study demonstrates how the nanoparticle is able to locate the plaque while showing high selectivity for macrophages [1]. Once it has located its target, the nanoparticle enters the macrophages within the plaque and delivers a drug payload to the cells, encouraging the macrophages to engulf and consume cellular debris. Essentially, this means that the macrophages eat the dead and dying cells within the plaque and thus reduce its overall size.

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Have humans become an indoor species? Given that Americans spend, on average, 93 percent of their time indoors, it would seem that we are indeed suffering from what some call “nature deficit disorder.”

We don’t need a fancy term to realize we might benefit from spending more time outdoors. Getting out for a gentle walk or a vigorous hike is likely to reduce stress, improve health, and increase emotional well-being.

If you spend much time on a computer, you probably reach a time in the day when you have so many browser tabs and programs open that your computer slows considerably. It’s time for a reset.

Graphene is a paradox. It is the thinnest material known to science, yet also one of the strongest. Now, research from University of Toronto Engineering shows that graphene is also highly resistant to fatigue—able to withstand more than a billion cycles of high stress before it breaks.

“This is a very serious public health situation,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Moving forward, we can expect to see more cases, and more cases means more potential for person-to-person spread.”

The virus, which emerged Dec. 31, has already spread to more people than the 2003 SARS epidemic, which sickened roughly 8,100 people across the globe over nine months. The transmission makes the U.S. at least the fifth country where the infection is now spreading through human-to-human contact, including China. Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there are at least nine cases of human-to-human transmission outside of China, as of Thursday.

As of Thursday afternoon, 8,137 cases were confirmed in mainland China alone, according to Chinese state media, and more than 100 cases were confirmed elsewhere around the world — bringing the global total to at least 8,248.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has set its sights on a new kind of drone ship — one that doesn’t contemplate a human ever setting foot on it. Dubbed NOMARS (No Manning Required, Ship), the new ships could feature radical new designs and cut costs by removing any elements normally needed to accommodate people.