Lifeboat Foundation

A mind-bending parasite may one day deliver drugs to the brain.

Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that famously makes mice lose their fear of cats, but also can cause deadly foodborne illnesses (SN: 1/14/20).

Those with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of developing severe disease when exposed to T. gondii. Pregnant people run the risk of preterm birth and pregnancy loss. In addition, the parasite can cause a variety of problems for the baby including blindness, hearing loss, epilepsy and jaundice. More than 200,000 cases of toxoplasmosis are diagnosed each year in the United States, with about 5,000 requiring hospitalization. An estimated 750 people each year die from the disease.

Continue reading “Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job” »

If Mark Kelly, the Space Shuttle pilot who played a pivotal role in assembling the International Space Station, is catapulted into the White House as Vice President, he could quickly help reverse the death sentence that NASA’s current leaders have placed on the ISS.

Now a widely popular U.S. senator and potential running mate of Kamala Harris, Kelly spent the first decade of the new millennium ferrying European and Japanese modules to the Station — and guiding gigantic robotic builders to put the ISS together — all while the outpost was circling the planet at 17,000 miles per hour.

The space hero — recently inducted into the pantheon of the greatest American astronauts — is likely part of a contingent of ISS spacefarers who back saving the orbiting icon from NASA’s death decree by boosting it into a higher orbit and transforming it into an eternal monument to human ingenuity, says Rick Tumlinson, a torchbearer in the “Save Our Station,” or SOS movement.

Mathematics application to a new understanding thd world and life and information.

Dr. David Spivak introduces himself as a keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Artificial General Intelligence Conference in Seattle and shares his lifelong passion for math. He discusses his journey from feeling insecure about the world as a child, to grounding his understanding in mathematics.

Continue reading “David Spivak: Pioneering Math for Understanding Reality | AGI-24 Keynote Preview” »

Your favorite TV show isn’t the only place where guest stars might appear. Keep an eye on the sky for the second half of 2024 and you might be able to witness a rare astronomical event.

The unusual patterns, found beneath West Antarctica’s Doston Ice Shelf, could help scientists to better understand how glaciers erode.

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Physicists say that they might have solved a long standing problem: How do supermassive black holes manage to merge to larger ones. Their idea: dark matter gets the job done. Or does it? I’ve had a look.

Continue reading “Dark Matter Solves Longstanding Black Hole Problem, Astrophysicists Say” »

Calculations show that nerve fibres in the brain could emit pairs of entangled particles, and this quantum phenomenon might explain how different parts of the brain work together.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Lex Fridman Podcast.

432 videos.

Have you ever considered the possibility that our reality might be an intricately crafted computer simulation? There is a name for this theory — Simulation Hypothesis — and it is now being tested in quantum lab experiments.

Though it may initially resemble a plot from the latest sci-fi blockbuster, a dedicated group of researchers is rigorously exploring this intriguing concept.

They are investigating the philosophical implications and technological advancements that could render such a simulation plausible.