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May 22, 2019

Civil War plant medicines blast drug-resistant bacteria in lab tests

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

During the height of the Civil War, the Confederate Surgeon General commissioned a guide to traditional plant remedies of the South, as battlefield physicians faced high rates of infections among the wounded and shortages of conventional medicines. A new study of three of the plants from this guide—the white oak, the tulip poplar and the devil’s walking stick—finds that they have antiseptic properties.

Scientific Reports is publishing the results of the study led by scientists at Emory University. The results show that extracts from the plants have antimicrobial activity against one or more of a trio of dangerous species of multi-drug-resistant bacteria associated with wound infections: Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

“Our findings suggest that the use of these topical therapies may have saved some limbs, and maybe even lives, during the Civil War,” says Cassandra Quave, senior author of the paper and assistant professor at Emory’s Center for the Study of Human Health and the School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology.

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May 22, 2019

Cyber attacks are rewriting the ‘rules’ of modern warfare—and we aren’t prepared for the consequences

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, government, military

Governments are becoming ever more reliant on digital technology, making them more vulnerable to cyber attacks. In 2007, Estonia was attacked by pro-Russian hackers who crippled government servers, causing havoc. Cyber attacks in Ukraine targeted the country’s electricity grid, while Iran’s nuclear power plants were infected by malware that could have led to a nuclear meltdown.

In the US, president Trump recently declared a “national emergency” to recognise the threat to US computer networks from “foreign adversaries”.

Politically-motivated cyber are becoming increasingly commonplace but unlike traditional warfare between two or more states, cyberwarfare can be launched by groups of individuals. On occasion, the state is actually caught in the crosshairs of competing hacking groups.

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May 22, 2019

Physicists propose a second level of quantization for quantum Shannon theory

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Information theory, which was developed by Claude Shannon starting in the late 1940s, deals with questions such as how quickly information can be sent over a noisy communications channel. Both the information carriers (e.g., photons) and the channel (e.g., optical fiber cable) are assumed to be clas…

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May 22, 2019

Why Cryonics Makes Sense

Posted by in categories: cryonics, life extension

The more I read about cryonics—i.e. freezing yourself after death—the more I realized it’s something we should all be talking about.

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May 22, 2019

Successful Life Extension Study Is a Sign That Aging Can Be Stalled

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A drug cocktail could be the key.

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May 22, 2019

Senescent Cells and Cataract Development

Posted by in category: life extension

In a recent study, researchers have explored senescence-related proteins and protein interactions in cataracts, a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in older adults.

Cataracts are characterized by the clouding of the lens in the eye, which leads to impaired vision. Cataracts generally develop slowly and can affect either one or both eyes at the same time. Cataract symptoms typically include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and difficulty seeing at night.

By analyzing proteins and their interactions, these researchers aim for a full understanding of this condition, showing that multiple biomarkers associated with aging rise during the formation of cataracts. Typically, p53, a well-known biomarker for the presence of senescent cells, is seen to rise along with transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1), another biomarker commonly associated with inflammation when encountered in high amounts. During the development of cataracts, the number of senescent cells rises, as this research shows.

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May 22, 2019

📣Discovery Alert!

Posted by in category: space

Three new #exoplanets join the known planets orbiting⭕️ other stars✨ in our galaxy🌌.


Two gas giants were discovered by NASA’s TESS space telescope🛰 and the third was found using a ground-based telescope🔭.

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May 22, 2019

Sen 4K video from space

Posted by in category: space

Sen has successfully demonstrated the world’s most powerful ever video streaming platform to operate in space, and the world’s first 4K video from a satellite: https://sen.com/press/press-release

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May 22, 2019

Views from a continent in flux

Posted by in category: futurism

Nature asked nine leading Europeans to pick their top priority for science at this pivotal point. Love, money, and trust got most votes.

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May 21, 2019

In Ford’s future, two-legged robots and self-driving cars could team up on deliveries

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Autonomous vehicles might someday be able to navigate bustling city streets to deliver groceries, pizzas, and other packages without a human behind the wheel. But that doesn’t solve what Ford Motor CTO Ken Washington describes as the last 50-foot problem.

Ford and startup Agility Robotics are partnering in a research project that will test how two-legged robots and self-driving vehicles can work together to solve that curb-to-door problem. Agility’s Digit, a two-legged robot that has a lidar where its head should be, will be used in the project. The robot, which is capable of lifting 40 pounds, can ride along in a self-driving vehicle and be deployed when needed to delivery packages.

“We’re looking at the opportunity of autonomous vehicles through the lens of the consumer and we know from some early experimentation that there are challenges with the last 50 feet,” Washington told TechCrunch in a recent interview. Finding a solution could be an important differentiator for Ford’s commercial robotaxi service, which it plans to launch in 2021.

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