Lifeboat Foundation

This is a fantastic podcast exploration of a rapidly maturing, wildley varied fields of science, the military, medicine, the industrialization, exploration, and colonization of our solar system, and the hope for, path to, and purpose of the successful creation of a posthuman, post scarcity future. Its a future destination for humanity that will require a seemless, successful integration of our human biology with artificial intelligence and advanced nonbiological — AND artificially biological — mechanical systems that in one way or another all pass through a very few neccessary technological achievements. In this case it is the seemless communication in both directions of the biological, in this specific case it’s the human sense of touch.

When Brandon Prestwood’s left hand was caught in an industrial conveyor belt six years ago, he lost his arm. Scientists are slowly unraveling the science of touch by trying to tap into the human nervous system and recreate the sensations of pressure for people like Prestwood. After an experimental surgery, Brandon’s prosthetic arm was upgraded with a rudimentary sense of touch—a major development in technology that could bring us all a little closer together.

Continue reading “Restoring a lost sense of touch | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic” »

A study published today in Cell Reports reveals how populations of a bacterium called Pseudomonas respond to being treated with Colistin, a “last resort” antibiotic for patients who have developed multi-drug resistant infections.

Antibiotics play a key role in human health by helping to combat bacterial infection, but bacteria can evolve resistance to antibiotics patients rely on. Antibiotic–resistant infections now cause 1 million deaths worldwide per year.

With a small number of “last-resort” antibiotics available, researchers from the University of Oxford are investigating the processes that drive the rise, and fall, of resistance in common bacterial pathogen populations, which is key to tackling the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The US-based scientists said complete remission in every patient was “unheard-of,” but experts warn the study is very small.

The oil kingdom fears that its population is aging at an accelerated rate and hopes to test drugs to reverse the problem. First up might be the diabetes drug metformin.

One theory for is that it is similar to the “death feint” that some animals show. When faced with a predator of overwhelming size or strength, some prey animals will freeze and presumably the predator may not notice them.

One patient in the study vividly described seeing a snake (which also spoke to her). We can’t say from one example that her body was adopting a primitive defence to a predator, but it’s certainly a possibility.

Catatonia remains a mysterious condition, stuck halfway between neurology and psychiatry. At least by understanding what people may be experiencing, we can provide reassurance and empathy.

Our cells perform a marvel of engineering when it comes to packing information into small spaces. Every time a cell divides, it bundles up an amazing 4 metres of DNA into 46 tiny packages, each of which is only several millionths of a metre in length. Researchers from EMBL Heidelberg and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg have now discovered how a family of DNA motor proteins succeeds in packaging loosely arranged strands of DNA into compact individual chromosomes during cell division.

The researchers studied condensin, a protein complex critical to the process of chromosome formation. Although this complex was discovered more than three decades ago, its mode of action remained largely unexplored. In 2018, researchers from the Häring group at EMBL Heidelberg and their collaborators showed that condensin molecules create loops of DNA, which may explain how chromosomes are formed. However, the inner workings by which the protein complex achieves this feat remained unknown.

Continue reading “How the Genome Shapes Up for Cell Division” »

A non-profit organization merges engineering and biology to accelerate drug development for childhood cancers.

A study of the Type 2 diabetes drug tirzepatide found it resulted in dramatic weight loss, offering hope for those struggling with obesity.

A drug combination targeting multiple mutant versions of cancer’s “death star” protein has shown promise in a small, early-phase clinical trial for some patients with advanced lung, ovarian and thyroid cancer.

The two–drug combination was effective against advanced cancers with a range of mutations to the KRAS gene—dubbed the “death star” because its protein drives one in four cancers and has a largely impenetrable, drug-resistant surface.

The phase I trial tested the drugs VS-6766 and everolimus in 30 patients with a range of mutations to KRAS—including 11 with highly advanced, non-small cell lung cancer.