Lifeboat Foundation

Software bugs are a tale as old as time — which, in the case of programming, means about 75 years. In 1947, programmer Grace Murray Hopper was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University when she noticed a moth that was stuck in the relay, preventing the computer program from running. It was the first “bug”, and countless others have followed since then.

In the history of programming, bugs have ranged from harmless to absolutely catastrophic. In 1986 and 1987, several patients were killed after a Therac-25 radiation therapy device malfunctioned due to an error by an inexperienced programmer, and a software bug might have also triggered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, at a Soviet trans-Siberian gas pipeline.

While events such as this are rare, it’s safe to say that software bugs can do a lot of damage and waste a lot of time (and resources). According to recent analysis, the average programmer produces 70 bugs per 1,000 lines of code, with each bug demanding 30 times more time to fix than it took to write the code in the first place. In the US alone, an estimated $113 billion is spent identifying and fixing code bugs…

Summary: Metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, slows cognitive decline and reduces dementia risk in older people with diabetes.

Source: garvan institute of medical research.

Metformin is the first-line treatment for most cases of type 2 diabetes and one of the most commonly prescribed medications worldwide, with millions of individuals using it to optimise their blood glucose levels.

Toronto scientists have mapped the genes allowing cancer cells to avoid getting killed by the immune system in a finding that paves the way for the development of immunotherapies that would be effective for larger patient populations and across different tumour types.

“Over the last decade, different forms of immunotherapy have emerged as really potent cancer treatments but the reality is that they only generate durable responses in a fraction of patients and not for all tumour types,” says Jason Moffat, a professor of molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto who led the work.

The study also revealed the need for new therapy to take into account the genetic composition of tumours because of mutations in the cancer cells that can potentially make the disease worse in response to treatment, often referred to as cancer resistance mutations.

We all want to know how to live longer, but is a prolonged life a healthy, happy one? One Vogue writer looks at the science that says it might be possible.

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What started as a dream more than 10 years ago, has finally become reality. After more than 2 years of work, dozen of failures, hundreds of hours of lab work and design time, we’ve finally done it. We’ve engineered a strain of yeast that produce real spider silk! This video explains how.

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Continue reading “I Grew Real Spider Silk Using Yeast” »

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in a new paper, it has the potential to create complex structures with nanometer-scale precision. Because many gels are compatible with living cells, the new method could jump-start the production of soft tiny medical devices such as drug delivery systems or flexible electrodes that can be inserted into the human body.

A standard 3D printer makes solid structures by creating sheets of material—typically plastic or rubber—and building them up layer by layer, like a lasagna, until the entire object is created.

Using a 3D printer to fabricate an object made of gel is a “bit more of a delicate cooking process,” said NIST researcher Andrei Kolmakov. In the standard method, the 3D printer chamber is filled with a soup of long-chain polymers—long groups of molecules bonded together—dissolved in water. Then “spices” are added—special molecules that are sensitive to light. When light from the 3D printer activates those special molecules, they stitch together the chains of polymers so that they form a fluffy weblike structure. This scaffolding, still surrounded by liquid water, is the gel.

Short excerpt of a recent interview with Dr. David Sinclair published in the Youtube channel “Think Inc.”

Short excerpt of an interview with Dr. David Sinclair published in the Youtube channel “Think Inc.“
During the interview, Dr. Sinclair referres to the possibility of turning back the biological aging clock of the entire human body, through partial cellular reprograming in the not so distant future.

Continue reading “David Sinclair talks about human rejuvenation (Excerpt with S/T in Spanish)” »

The footage, uploaded to YouTube by local observers, is admittedly sped up between at least two to four times, as Newsweek points out — but the grace at which it moonwalks across the ground in front of it and give a salute is a sight to behold in itself. The robot was finally completed last month, according to Japanese news site SoraNews24. The massive structure weighs over 55,000 pounds and is modeled after the RX-78–2 unit from the popular “Gundam” science fiction franchise.

The robot still hasn’t been revealed to the public, because the ongoing pandemic has indefinitely delayed its opening at the Gundam Factory in the port of Yokohama, Japan. It was originally meant to go on display in October of this year.

Before #COVID19, we like to imagine a #future where we can get and do anything from home, including working, with the help of novel #technologies such as #VR and #AR.

However, the #COVID19 pandemic shows us the human nature, that is, “going out” is one of the basic needs for human being!

One revelation here is that: When speaking of how #technology can change our lives, we often neglect the humane factors and focus only on the technical ones. Take #VR as an example. Yes, it does allow you to have a shopping experience similar to (or even better than) shop outside. However, do you really want to stay at home 24/7 and complete everything online?

Continue reading “Report: Fewer Americans want to work from home” »