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Dec 20, 2019

United Launch Alliance’s countdown is underway in preparation for liftoff of an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Friday at 6:36 a.m

Posted by in category: space

United Launch Alliance €™s countdown is underway in preparation for liftoff of an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Friday at 6:36 a.m. EST (1136 GMT) with Boeing €™s Starliner crew capsule on an unpiloted Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station.

LIVE COVERAGE: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/18/atlas-5-av-080-starlin…us-center/

Dec 20, 2019

Philippines to experience 2019’s longest night on December 22

Posted by in category: futurism

The Philippines will experience this year’s longest night on December 22, with peak darkness slated around midnight, state weather bureau PAGASA said.

4 h

ABS-CBN News

Dec 20, 2019

Ketamine-like drug for depression gets UK licence

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Psychiatrists divided on ‘game-changing’ esketamine due to potential for addiction.

Dec 19, 2019

Inflammation Marker May Be a Red Flag for Rapid Brain Aging

Posted by in categories: life extension, neuroscience

This study involved 4,717 participants from two different community-based cohorts. A meta-analysis of both cohorts showed that elevated sCD14 was associated with a 12 percent increased risk of dementia as people got older. Higher levels of sCD14 were also associated with accelerated brain aging in both cohorts, a faster progression of age-related brain atrophy, and a more rapid decline of executive functions.

The authors sum up their findings: “sCD14 is an inflammatory marker related to brain atrophy, cognitive decline, and incident dementia.”

“Higher levels of sCD14 were associated with markers of brain aging and injury, such as total brain atrophy and a decline in executive functioning—the decision-making needed for many activities of daily life,” first author Matthew Pase, of the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia, said in a news release.

Dec 19, 2019

New method captures real-time movement of millions of molecules in 3D

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, wages war in our bodies using a strategy evolved over millions of years that turns our own cellular machines against themselves. Despite massive strides in understanding the disease, there are still important gaps. For years, scientists at the University of Utah wished there was a way to visualize how the virus and its molecules interact with human cells in real time. So, a research group developed one.

Dec 19, 2019

Probiotics for Diarrhea: Benefits, Types, and Side Effects

Posted by in categories: food, health

Probiotic supplements and probiotic-rich foods have become popular natural treatments for a number of health conditions. This article reviews how probiotics may help treat diarrhea.

Dec 19, 2019

Scientists Grew a Mini Brain in a Lab. It Has Human-Like Brain Waves. What Does That Mean for Research?

Posted by in category: neuroscience

For the first time, a lab-grown mini brain has brain waves. Researchers can now launch new ways to study brain disorders. But the question of consciousness in the brain-like organoid could raise concern.

Dec 19, 2019

Physicists determine the barely-measurable property entropy for the first time in complex plasmas

Posted by in categories: chemistry, engineering, particle physics

Since the end of the 19th century, physicists have known that the transfer of energy from one body to another is associated with entropy. It quickly became clear that this quantity is of fundamental importance, and so began its triumphant rise as a useful theoretical quantity in physics, chemistry and engineering. However, it is often very difficult to measure. Professor Dietmar Block and Frank Wieben of Kiel University (CAU) have now succeeded in measuring entropy in complex plasmas, as they reported recently in the renowned scientific journal Physical Review Letters. In a system of charged microparticles within this ionized gas, the researchers were able to measure all positions and velocities of the particles simultaneously. In this way, they were able to determine the entropy, as it was already described theoretically by the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann around 1880.

Surprising thermodynamic equilibrium in plasma

“With our experiments, we were able to prove that in the important model system of complex , the thermodynamic fundamentals are fulfilled. What is surprising is that this applies to microparticles in a plasma, which is far away from thermodynamic equilibrium,” explains Ph.D. student Frank Wieben. In his experiments, he is able to adjust the thermal motion of the microparticles by means of a laser beam. Using video microscopy, he can observe the dynamic behaviour of the particles in real time, and determine the from the information collected.

Dec 19, 2019

A new Gene Therapy Strategy, courtesy of Nature

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, nanotechnology, neuroscience

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

Though the research was intended as a proof of concept, the experimental therapy slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival in mice with gliomas, which constitute about 80 percent of malignant brain tumors in humans.

The technique takes advantage of exosomes, fluid-filled sacs that cells release as a way to communicate with other cells.

Dec 19, 2019

Engineers develop a less invasive way to study the brain

Posted by in categories: genetics, nanotechnology, neuroscience

Optogenetics, a tool for controlling neurons with light, has given neuroscientists the ability to flip brain cells on and off more or less at will, revolutionizing neuroscience.

Yet the technique faces a fundamental challenge: To study all but the outermost part of the brain, researchers need to implant fiber optics or other invasive devices to deliver deep into the brain.

Now, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford researchers report that they’ve found a less invasive way to do so: injectable nanoparticles that convert , which can easily penetrate into the brain, into light.