Lifeboat Foundation

One of the most debated ethical concerns regarding brain organoids is the possibility that they will become conscious (de Jongh et al. 2022). Currently, many researchers believe that human brain organoids will not become conscious in the near future (International Society for Stem Cell Research 2021). However, several consciousness theories suggest that even existing human brain organoids could be conscious (Niikawa et al. 2022). Further, the feasibility depends on the definition of “consciousness.” For the sake of argument, we assume that human brain organoids can be conscious in principle and examine the legal implications of three types of “consciousness” in the order in which they could be easiest to realize. The first is a non–valenced experience—a mere sensory experience without positive or negative evaluations. The second is a valenced experience or sentience— an experience with evaluations such as pain and pleasure. The third is a more developed cognitive capacity. We assume that if any consciousness makes an entity a subject of (more complex) welfare, it may need to be legally (further) protected.

As a primitive form of consciousness, a non–valenced experience will, if possible, be realized earlier by human brain organoids than other forms of consciousness. However, the legal implications remain unclear. Suppose welfare consists solely of a good or bad experience. In that case, human brain organoids with a non–valenced experience have nothing to protect because they cannot have good or bad experiences. However, some argue that non–valenced experiences hold moral significance even without contributing to welfare. In addition, welfare may not be limited to experience as it has recently been adopted in animal ethics (Beauchamp and DeGrazia 2020). Adopting this perspective, even if human brain organoids possess only non–valenced experiences—or lack consciousness altogether—their basic sensory or motor capacities (Kataoka and Sawai 2023) or the possession of living or non-living bodies to utilize these capacities (Shepherd 2023), may warrant protection.

We developed click editors, comprising HUH endonucleases, DNA-dependent DNA polymerases and CRISPR–Cas9 nickases, which together enable programmable precision genome engineering from simple DNA templates.

Genomes can be modelled with language approaches by treating nucleotide bases A, C, G and T like text, but there is no natural concept of what the words would be and whether there is even a ‘language’ to be learned this way. Sanabria et al. have developed a language model called GROVER that learns with a ‘vocabulary’ of genome sequences with byte-pair encoding, a method from text compression, and shows good performance on genome biological tasks.

What is the new LB.1 variant and is it causing a summer COVID-19 wave? Experts discuss symptoms, vaccines, isolation guidelines, and more.

A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.

In recent years, batteries have become ubiquitous in consumers’ daily lives. However, existing commercial battery technologies, which use liquid electrolytes and carbonaceous anodes, have certain drawbacks such as safety concerns, limited lifespan, and inadequate power density particularly at high temperatures.

Yet, there is an increasing need for batteries that can operate in extreme conditions, such as the high temperatures required in various industrial sectors, including medical device sterilization, subsurface exploration, and thermal reactors.

This has prompted researchers to search for solid electrolytes that are safe and compatible with lithium metal anodes, which are known for their high theoretical specific power capacity.

From 2018, Dr. Jon LaPook’s groundbreaking report following an Alzheimer’s patient and her caregiver husband for 10 years to document the struggles they face. From 2019, Bill Whitaker’s heartbreaking look at frontotemporal dementia. From July 2017, Lesley Stahl’s examination of efforts to prevent Alzheimer’s. And from this past January, Sharyn Alfonsi’s story on a new approach to brain surgery that could revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

#news #alzheimer #dementia.

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of technology in Haifa have shown that boosting a person’s mental state could help them recover from a heart attack.

The researchers focused on the reward system – a network in the brain that is activated when a person is motivated or in a positive emotional state – in order to ascertain its impact on recovery from a heart attack, formally known as an acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

They found that activating this system in mice led to better clinical outcomes and reduced scarring of the heart tissue. And while the science behind the link between the brain and the heart is still undefined, the Technion said the study raises hopes of improved treatment for heart disease.

A 13-year-old boy named Oran Knowlson has become the world’s first patient to test out a brain stimulation implant to treat severe epilepsy.

Knowlson was sometimes having hundreds of seizures per day before the device was fitted. His family has stated that he’s already seeing positive changes compared to his condition before implanting the device.