Lifeboat Foundation

Using lasers and metal powder, Australian scientists have created a super strong, super lightweight new — but they got the idea for this sci fi-sounding creation from plants.

The challenge: Materials that are strong yet lightweight, such as carbon fiber and graphene, are used to make everything from medical implants to airships, and developing ones with ever greater “strength-to-weight ratios” is the goal of many material scientists.

In pursuit of that goal, some have turned to nature, looking for ways to replicate in metal the hollow lattice structures, like those in the Victoria water lily, that make some plants remarkably strong.

Summary: Researchers uncovered how certain brain cells enhance our ability to maintain and focus on short-term memories. Their study highlights a new type of neuron, dubbed PAC neurons, which coordinate the activity of memory-specific neurons without storing any information themselves.

These findings were derived from the brain activity recordings of epilepsy patients during memory tasks, providing novel insights into how working memory functions. Understanding these mechanisms may lead to improved treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s and ADHD, where such cognitive functions are impaired.

While the artificial intelligence revolution has just begun, it is transforming healthcare, speeding drug discovery, improving both diagnosis and patient communication.

As anyone with seasonal allergies knows, unseen airborne particles can really wreck a person’s day. Like the tree pollen that might be plaguing you this spring, small concentrations of trace elements in the air can have significant negative impacts on human health. However, unlike pollen counts and other allergy indices, which are carefully tracked and widely available, limited knowledge exists about the ambient concentrations of cancer-causing trace elements like lead and arsenic in urban areas of developing countries.

An innovative programmable tool for targeting nucleic acids has been created, utilizing a prokaryotic immune defense system—and it is not CRISPR-Cas. Russian Academy of Sciences researchers have successfully re-engineered prokaryotic Argonautes (pAgos) to utilize RNA guides for locating nucleic acid sequences. These systems have been modified to form a complex with effector nucleases.

The researchers employed a two-component system known as SPARDA (short prokaryotic Argonaute, DNase, and RNase-associated) to effectively identify DNA sequences with a notable level of sensitivity and induce collateral nuclease activity. SPARDA and other concise pAgos systems that encode diverse effectors have the potential to offer a novel programmable tool for the field of biotechnology.

The research article “DNA-targeting short Argonautes complex with effector proteins for collateral nuclease activity and bacterial population immunity” was published in Nature Microbiology.

A recent USC study provides new information about why SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, may elicit mild symptoms at first but then, for a subset of patients, turn potentially fatal a week or so after infection. The researchers showed that distinct stages of illness correspond with the coronavirus acting differently in two different populations of cells.

The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, may provide a roadmap for addressing cytokine storms and other excessive immune reactions that drive serious COVID-19.

The team found that when SARS-CoV-2 infects its first-phase targets, cells in the lining of the lung, two viral proteins circulate within those cells—one that works to activate the immune system and a second that, paradoxically, blocks that signal, resulting in little or no inflammation.

I found this on NewsBreak.

According to reports, Japanese scientists have devised a technique for connecting lab-grown brain-mimicking tissue„ like how circuits in our brain work.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo released a study in Nature Communications journal that looked into making a seemingly impossible idea a reality.

Continue reading “Groundbreaking: Japanese scientists develop a technique to connect brain cells grown in the lab” »

I found this on NewsBreak: Scientists Discover New Fundamental Biological Mechanism That Could Lead to Novel Cancer Treatments.

I found this on NewsBreak: Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains.