Lifeboat Foundation

They may be something else entirely.

Despite this economic pressure, rural America remains one of our nation’s most fertile regions, and recent advances in biotechnology are making it easier than ever to sustainably grow new kinds of valuable goods, from biopharmaceuticals to biomaterials. With the right strategic investments, rural America could see a biotech “bloom.”

I propose a Bio-Belt stretching through middle America to bring new skills and high-paying jobs to communities that desperately need them. This initiative would bolster investment in biotechnology training, education, infrastructure and entrepreneurship in rural areas in order to develop new, sustainable sources of income.

The Bio-Belt is about much more than biofuel. Fermentation is an increasingly powerful force for converting sugar and other forms of biomass into value-added goods—all through the rational design of cells that can be sustainably grown wherever land is abundant.

Thinking of #Upskilling? Check this out: If you want to learn machine learning and artificial intelligence, start here:

Two years ago, I started learning machine learning online on my own. I shared my journey through YouTube and my blog. I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never coded before but decided I wanted to learn machine learning.

Continue reading “5 Beginner Friendly Steps to Learn Machine Learning and Data Science with Python” »

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The terrifying way our universe will end — and when.

The fruit flies in Noah Whiteman’s lab may be hazardous to your health.

Whiteman and his University of California, Berkeley, colleagues have turned perfectly palatable fruit flies—palatable, at least, to frogs and birds—into potentially poisonous prey that may cause anything that eats them to puke. In large enough quantities, the flies likely would make a human puke, too, much like the emetic effect of ipecac syrup.

That’s because the team genetically engineered the flies, using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, to be able to eat milkweed without dying and to sequester its toxins, just as America’s most beloved butterfly, the monarch, does to deter predators.

Official video for possibly maybe by björk.
directed by stéphane sednaoui
written by björk/nellee hooper/ marius de vries.

® 1996 BjörkOverseas Ltd/One Little Indian Records Ltd.

Scientists have a new explanation for Tabby’s Star’s mysterious dimming. Rather than an alien megastructure, a dying icy moon might be to blame.

Scientists have unraveled the biological mechanisms behind what they describe as the extraordinary “superpower” ability of jellyfish to regenerate body parts.

Jellyfish are primitive animals which evolved in the oceans around 600 million years ago. Part of the reason for their evolutionary success is that some species are able to grow back tissue that has been lost—a trait that is rare in the animal kingdom.

To learn more about this poorly understood ability, a team of researchers from Tohoku University in Japan investigated the biology of a jellyfish species known as Cladonema pacificum—which has tentacles that spread out like tree branches—for a study published in the journal PeerJ.

“This work shows that Enceladus’ ocean has reactive building blocks in abundance, and it’s another green light in the investigation of the habitability of Enceladus,” added co-author Frank Postberg.