Lifeboat Foundation

By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.

Researchers have long thought that rewards like food or money encourage learning in the brain by causing the release of the “feel-good” hormone dopamine, known to reinforce storage of new information. Now, a new study in rodents describes how learning still occurs in the absence of an immediate incentive.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study explored the relationship between dopamine and the brain chemical acetylcholine, also known to play a role in learning and memory. Past research had shown that these two hormones compete with one another, so that a boost in one causes a decline in the other. Rewards were thought to promote learning by simultaneously triggering an increase in dopamine and a decrease in acetylcholine.

This sudden hormone imbalance is believed to open a window of opportunity for brain cells to adjust to new circumstances and form memories for later use. Known as neuroplasticity, this process is a major feature of learning as well as recovery after injury. However, the question had remained whether food and other external rewards are the only drivers for this memory system, or whether our brains instead are able to create the same conditions that are favorable to learning without outside help.

In polarized times, our shared cellular origin can unite us in solidarity and awe — from the embryonic scale to the cosmic perspective.

A team from the University of Chicago.

Founded in 1,890, the University of Chicago (UChicago, U of C, or Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Located on a 217-acre campus in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, near Lake Michigan, the school holds top-ten positions in various national and international rankings. UChicago is also well known for its professional schools: Pritzker School of Medicine, Booth School of Business, Law School, School of Social Service Administration, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, Divinity School and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

Using machine learning, the system could warn us about the emergence of dangerous virus variants in the future and allow us to prepare in advance.

We all know how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been – and it could have been even worse if not for the efforts of scientists and health workers around the world. But what if we could get a heads-up on the next most dangerous variants of a virus before they become a global threat?

Well, a new AI system can just do that. It can warn us about the emergence of dangerous virus variants in future pandemics, according to a study by scientists from Scripps Research and Northwestern University in the US.

Year 2021 This bit of dna could be synthesized to essentially regrow humans if they had critical injury much like wolverine from the marvel movies.

Two species of sea slugs can pop off their heads and regrow their entire bodies from the noggin down, scientists in Japan recently discovered. This incredible feat of regeneration can be achieved in just a couple of weeks and is absolutely mind-blowing.

Most cases of animal regeneration — replacing damaged or lost body parts with an identical replacement — occur when arms, legs or tails are lost to predators and must be regrown. But these sea slugs, which belong to a group called sacoglossans, can take it to the next level by regrowing an entirely new body from just their heads, which they seem to be able to detach from their original bodies on purpose.

Continue reading “This Sea Slug Can Chop Off Its Head and Grow an Entire New Body—Twice” »

Hosted by: medical humanities and arts program, center for biomedical ethics, center for asian health research and education, center for innovation in global health, center for population health sciences, stanford center on longevity.

*Program is preliminary and subject to change.

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This is a major crisis in America and most likely globally now.

The US is in the midst of a catastrophic fentanyl epidemic that is causing an eye-watering number of deaths and tearing the fabric of American society apart.

Continue reading “Fentanyl’s deathly grip on America causes 1,500 deaths a week” »

A protein famed among scientists and clinicians for its ability to suppress the development of many types of tumors may just be moonlighting as a cancer fighter, a recent study by researchers at Stanford Medicine found. The study, conducted in laboratory mice, suggests that the protein, p53, instead evolved to promote the repair of tissues and cells after injury.

The surprising finding is like learning that your favorite bit actor is actually an Oscar-winning director who dabbles in performance on the weekends.

“This turns what we thought we knew about p53 on its head,” said Laura Attardi, Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology and of genetics. “We need to consider that p53’s role as a tumor suppressor may be secondary to a more basic role in repairing damage to tissues.”