Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers from the University of Houston have reported a new device that can both efficiently capture solar energy and store it until it is needed, offering promise for applications ranging from power generation to distillation and desalination.

Unlike solar panels and solar cells, which rely on photovoltaic technology for the direct generation of electricity, the hybrid device captures heat from the sun and stores it as thermal energy. It addresses some of the issues that have stalled wider-scale adoption of solar power, suggesting an avenue for using solar energy around-the-clock, despite limited sunlight hours, cloudy days and other constraints.

The work, described in a paper published Wednesday in Joule, combines molecular energy storage and latent heat storage to produce an integrated harvesting and storage device for potential 24/7 operation. The researchers report a harvesting efficiency of 73% at small-scale operation and as high as 90% at large-scale operation.

Organic electronic devices, which are made of small molecules or polymers (i.e., substances composed primarily or completely of similar units bound together) are known to have several advantageous properties. In fact, organic electronics have relatively low production costs, they are easy to integrate with other systems and they enable good device flexibility.

Despite their advantages, most organic optoelectronics devices do not perform as well as devices built on rigid substrates. This is primarily due to the lack of existing flexible electrodes that can simultaneously provide low resistance, high transparency and smooth surfaces.

With this in mind, researchers at Nankai University in China have recently set out to create new organic electrodes for flexible photovoltaics, devices that can be used to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity. The electrodes they developed, presented in a paper published in Nature Electronics, were built using water-processed silver nanowires and a polyelectrolyte.

Last week, the BBC reported on the plight of axolotls in Mexico City, which are under threat of extinction. [1] The risk to these creatures is made doubly concerning when you consider their incredible ability to regenerate and apparent immunity to cancer, which is of great interest to scientists and companies working in the Longevity sector. One such company is Bioquark, a Philadelphia-based life sciences company that is working on the development of combinatorial biologics for the rejuvenation and repair of human organs and tissues. Among its clinical plans, it lists the development of therapeutic products for cancer reversion, organ repair and regeneration, and even brain death resuscitation. Nothing major then!

Bioquark has developed a novel combinatorial biologic called BQ-A, which mimics the regulatory biochemistry of the living human egg (oocyte) immediately following fertilization. While ooplasm-based reprogramming has been studied in experiments such as in-vitro fertilization and cloning, Bioquark claims it is the first company to apply it to somatic tissue in mammals.

We spoke with Bioquark’s CEO, Ira Pastor, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, to find out more about the company and where it’s headed.

Statistically, it’s unlikely that most of us will ever reach our 110th birthday, so scientists are fascinated by those few that do. In a new study, researchers looked at the immune systems of people who have hit the milestone, and found that they have a high number of a particular type of immune cell that’s rare even in healthy, younger people.

Even in our world of modern medicine, supercentenarians (people over the age of 110) are extremely rare, with estimates saying there are less than 1,000 such people worldwide. Perhaps not surprisingly, previous studies have shown that people who make it to 110 years old generally seem to avoid illnesses like cancer or infections throughout their whole lifetimes.

So for the new study, researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Science (IMS) and Keio University set out to examine the immune systems of supercentenarians and compare them to younger people. They took over 40,000 cells from seven supercentenarian subjects, and about 20,000 cells from five control subjects, aged in their 50s to 80s.

While Intermittent fasting may sound like another dieting craze, the practice of routinely not eating and drinking for short periods of time has shown again to lead to potentially better health outcomes.

In a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, researchers have found that cardiac catheterization patients who practiced regular intermittent fasting lived longer than patients who don’t. In addition, the study found that patients who practice intermittent fasting are less likely to be diagnosed with heart failure.

“It’s another example of how we’re finding that regularly fasting can lead to better health outcomes and longer lives,” said Benjamin Horne, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have developed a technique to operate on dying patients by putting them in a state of suspended animation.

I found several bloopers here how about you??? AEWR.

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While everyone has specific life stressors, factors related to job pressure, money, health, and relationships tend to be the most common.

Continue reading “Vitamins for Stress: 7 Great Options” »

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Launcher says one-piece manufacture lowers the cost of its part, compared with those printed in pieces and joined. To do this, the Brooklyn-based startup teamed with 3D printer companies to build a space large enough for its entire copper-alloy part, which itself is a huge investment.