Toggle light / dark theme

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Synthetic, shelf-stable blood developed by Maryland scientist could save lives in emergencies

A Maryland scientist developed synthetic blood that could save lives when seconds count and fresh blood is out of reach.

Dr. Allan Doctor is a professor-scientist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His shelf-stable synthetic blood product is called ErythroMer, under development by KaloCyte.

The blood alternative could be used in the field without a refrigerator or a donor match, he said.

In a world breakthrough, Israeli researchers grow first long-term human kidney in lab

In a world first, researchers from Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown human kidney organoids – a synthetic 3D organ culture – using kidney tissue stem cells.

The synthetic kidney organs matured and stayed stable for 34 weeks, which is the longest-lasting and purest set of kidney organoids ever developed.

Prof. Benjamin Dekel, Director of the Pediatric Nephrology Unit and the Stem Cell Research Institute at the Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Center and Director of the Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine at Tel Aviv University led the study. Doctoral student Dr. Michael Namestannikov, a graduate of the Physician-Researcher track at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Osnat Cohen-Sontag, a research associate at Sheba Medical Center, participated in the research.

Jupiter-Venus conjunction: How to see our solar system’s 2 brightest planets in August

From meteor showers to visible nebulas, August is primed to be an action-packed month for stargazers in the United States.

And one of the highlights of the month? The impending meet-up of Jupiter and Venus.

The gas giant Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, is due to make a close approach in August with Venus, NASA said in an August skywatching guide. The rendezvous, known in astronomy terms as a conjunction, comes a few months after Venus underwent an inferior conjunction in March – meaning it appeared in the sky after sunset and again before sunrise.

New super-thin robot mimics muscle to crawl, twist, and grab objects

A team of researchers from South Korea has developed a thin, robotic actuator based on the movements of real human muscles.

Actuators are, effectively, the ‘muscles’ of robotic machines. They are devices that convert stored energy into physical motion.

The new system was inspired by human muscle proteins, a press statement reveals. It could eventually allow for human-robot interactions, and may even enable robots to perform delicate surgical procedures.

New Theory: Space Has Memory, Stores Information

Use my code SABINE at https://displate.com/@sabine get 1 Displates for 23% off & 2–3 Displates for 27% off, and 4 or more for Displates for 33% off!

(*Not applicable on Lumino, Textra and Limited Edition).

Gravitational memory is the idea that gravity’s ability to duplicate information from other forces should somehow store that information in certain masses. A group of physicists has now published a series of papers claiming that this idea might solve the black hole information loss problem and explain dark matter. Really? Let’s take a look.

🤓 Check out my new quiz app ➜ http://quizwithit.com/
📚 Buy my book ➜ https://amzn.to/3HSAWJW
💌 Support me on Donorbox ➜ https://donorbox.org/swtg.
📝 Transcripts and written news on Substack ➜ https://sciencewtg.substack.com/
👉 Transcript with links to references on Patreon ➜ https://www.patreon.com/Sabine.
📩 Free weekly science newsletter ➜ https://sabinehossenfelder.com/newsletter/
👂 Audio only podcast ➜ https://open.spotify.com/show/0MkNfXlKnMPEUMEeKQYmYC
🔗 Join this channel to get access to perks ➜
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yNl2E66ZzKApQdRuTQ4tw/join.

#science #sciencenews #physics #gravity

What Is Chikungunya? A Guide to The Virus Spreading in China

Cases of chikungunya fever are rising in southern China, prompting local authorities to take measures to curb its spread.

Here is what you need to know about the disease:

What is chikungunya?

Chikungunya is caused by a virus that can be passed to humans by infected mosquitoes, with most cases occurring in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Overlooked microproteins could treat obesity and metabolic disorders

The obesity rate has more than doubled in the last 30 years, affecting more than one billion people worldwide. This prevalent condition is also linked to other metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and cancers.

Current treatment options include lifestyle interventions, bariatric surgery, and GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, but many patients struggle to access or complete these treatments or to maintain their weight loss afterward.

Salk Institute scientists are looking for a new treatment strategy in microproteins, an understudied class of molecules found throughout the body that play roles in both health and disease.

Targeting sleeping tumor cells: Oncogene location may determine neuroblastoma’s resistance to cancer therapy

Neuroblastoma can be a particularly insidious cancer. In about half of all cases, tumors regress, even without therapy. In the other half, tumors grow very quickly. These tumors often respond well to chemotherapy at first, but usually return after one to two years. A characteristic feature of such aggressive neuroblastoma cells is an abnormally high number of copies of the oncogene MYCN.

A team led by Dr. Jan Dörr and Professor Anton Henssen from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint institution of Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center, has now discovered that the location of the MYCN gene plays an important role in the aggressiveness of neuroblastoma: If it is located outside chromosomes, enter a dormant state and thereby render themselves immune to therapy.

In Cancer Discovery, the research team proposes a new treatment strategy that targets these dormant . Their approach has already proven successful in a .

/* */