Lifeboat Foundation

Western diets that are high in sugars, fats, and processed foods have been linked to a wide variety of health ailments. Now, researchers have determined that Western diets can also disrupt the crucial barrier in the gastrointestinal tract known as the gut mucosa. This disruption can raise an individual’s risk of inflammation and infectious disease. Scientists have also identified a gut microbe called Blautia that has an important role in shielding the gut mucosa. The findings have been reported in Nature Communications.

“Our results contribute to an increased understanding of how the intestinal bacteria and the mucus layer work together, which may eventually lead to new treatment strategies for diseases linked to the Western diet such as the inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis,” said first study author Sandra Holmberg, a graduate student at Umeå University.

A new study led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers shows that an enzyme called PARP1 is involved in repair of telomeres, the lengths of DNA that protect the tips of chromosomes, and that impairing this process can lead to telomere shortening and genomic instability that can cause cancer.

Researchers have discovered that individuals who live to be 100 years old and remain cognitively healthy possess genetic variations that may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. These “protective alleles” are significantly more prevalent among centenarians compared to Alzheimer’s patients and even middle-aged individuals without the disease. This finding could pave the way for new approaches in preventing and treating Alzheimer’s, particularly by focusing on enhancing these protective genetic mechanisms.

The new findings have been published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that predominantly affects older adults, leading to a decline in cognitive functions such as memory and reasoning. Over time, this can result in a complete loss of independence and eventually death. The risk of developing Alzheimer’s increases significantly with age, and while it is not an inevitable part of aging, it is one of the most common causes of dementia among seniors.

Think of all the information we get based on how an object interacts with wavelengths of light — a.k.a. color. Color can tell us if food is safe to eat or if a piece of metal is hot. Color is an important diagnostic tool in medicine, helping practitioners diagnose diseased tissue, inflammation, or problems in blood flow.

Companies have invested heavily to improve color in digital imaging, but wavelength is just one property of light. Polarization — how the electric field oscillates as light propagates — is also rich with information, but polarization imaging remains mostly confined to table-top laboratory settings, relying on traditional optics such as waveplates and polarizers on bulky rotational mounts.

Illinois may be on the verge of securing the largest technology project in its history—what is being labeled a “$20 billion, 150-acre quantum computing campus,” potentially anchored by Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. PsiQuantum, hot off an announcement that its receiving $600 million to build a manufacturing site in Australia, is reportedly considering two Chicago-area locations for the project, the business journal reports.

The proposed sites, the former U.S. Steel plant on the South Side and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport, are both under final review, with a decision expected soon. This initiative is part of a broader vision by Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration, which pundits are referring to a modern-day Manhattan Project, to position Illinois as a leader quantum computing.

Quantum computing leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to process information much faster than classical machines for certain computational problems. Quantum devices could potentially transform everything from cancer research to climate modeling. PsiQuantum aims to use a photonic quantum approach to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer that could be commercially viable.

How will future generations come to be? There is no straightforward answer.

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer. Often the first sign of melanoma is a change in the size, shape, color, or feel of a mole. Most melanomas have a black or black-blue area. Melanoma may also appear as a new mole. It may be black, abnormal, or “ugly looking.”

Thinking of “ABCDE” can help you remember what to watch for:

Resolve specializes in detecting “soft” X-rays, a form of light with energies 5,000 times greater than visible light. This allows it to pierce through the veil and observe the universe’s most violent and energetic phenomena: supermassive black holes, sprawling galaxy clusters, and the fiery aftermath of supernovae.

However, these 36 pixels are far from ordinary. They function as a “microcalorimeter spectrometer,” explains Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist. Each pixel acts like a miniature thermometer, meticulously measuring the temperature change caused by an incoming X-ray. This seemingly simple act reveals a wealth of information.

A new peptide-carrying magnetic nanoparticle described in Science Advances has resolved both biological and behavioral symptoms in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.

A short peptide disassembles stable pathogenic tau fibrils of Alzheimer’s disease.