Lifeboat Foundation

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a technique that allows them to align gold nanorods using magnetic fields, while preserving the underlying optical properties of the gold nanorods.

“Gold nanorods are of interest because they can absorb and scatter specific wavelengths of light, making them attractive for use in applications such as biomedical imaging, sensors, and other technologies,” says Joe Tracy, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University.

It is possible to tune the wavelengths of light absorbed and scattered by engineering the dimensions of the gold nanorods. Magnetically controlling their orientation makes it possible to further control and modulate which wavelengths the nanorods respond to.

The invention of the transistor in 1947 by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain at Bell Laboratories ushered in the age of microelectronics and revolutionized our lives. First, so-called bipolar transistors were invented, in which negative and positive charge carriers contribute to the current transport; unipolar field effect transistors were only added later. The increasing performance due to the scaling of silicon electronics in the nanometer range has immensely accelerated the processing of data. However, this very rigid technology is less suitable for new types of flexible electronic components, such as rollable TV displays or medical applications.

For such applications, transistors made of organic material, or carbon-based semiconductors, have come into focus in recent years. Organic field effect transistors were introduced as early as 1986, but their performance still lags far behind silicon components.

A research group led by Prof. Karl Leo and Dr. Hans Kleemann at the TU Dresden has now succeeded for the first time in demonstrating an organic, highly efficient bipolar transistor. Crucial to this was the use of highly ordered thin organic layers. This new technology is many times faster than previous organic transistors, and for the first time the components have reached operating frequencies in the gigahertz range (i.e., more than a billion switching operations per second).

Neuro-Protection & Neuro-Regeneration R&D For Optic Pathologies — Dr. Thomas V. Johnson, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Dr. Thomas V. Johnson III, M.D., Ph.D. (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/details/thomas-johnson) is a glaucoma specialist and the Allan and Shelley Holt Rising Professor in Ophthalmology at Wilmer Eye Institute, at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a member of the Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) Repopulation, Stem cell Transplantation, and Optic nerve Regeneration (RReSTORe) consortium (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/research/storm/rrestore/index.html), an initiative focused on advancing translational development of vision restoration therapies for glaucoma and other primary optic neuropathies by assembling an international group of more than 100 leading and emerging investigators from related fields.

Continue reading “Dr Thomas V Johnson III, MD, PhD — Neuro-Protection & Neuro-Regeneration R&D For Optic Pathologies” »

A new theory suggests that mutations have few straightforward ways to establish themselves in cells and cause tumors.

For many researchers, the road to cancer prevention is long and difficult, but a recent study by Rice University scientists suggests that there may be shortcuts.

A theoretical framework is being developed by Rice scientist Anatoly Kolomeisky, postdoctoral researcher Hamid Teimouri, and research assistant Cade Spaulding that will explain how cancers brought on by several genetic mutations might be more readily recognized and perhaps prevented.

Scientists have developed a new technique that can repair and even regenerate heart muscle cells after a heart attack (or myocardial infarction).

While it has only been tested on mice so far, if it works the same in humans it could potentially be a life-saving treatment for people who have suffered a heart attack.

The technique uses a synthetic messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). mRNA creates a ‘blueprint’ of DNA sequences that the body then uses to build the proteins that form and regulate our cells. By tweaking the mRNA, scientists can deliver different instructions for different biological processes.

Treatment-resistant typhoid originating mostly from South Asia has springboarded across borders almost 200 times in the past three decades, according to new research that underscores the increasing global threat of infections that can evade antibiotics.

Latin Foods Market issued a recall for an Artri King joint supplement, as it contains undeclared diclofenac and dexamethasone.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a health warning in mid-April concerning Artri King-branded products. The company makes a pain reliever available as a supplement for joint pain and arthritis. However, FDA testing discovered that Artri King products contain hidden drug ingredients, including diclofenac and dexamethasone.

Walmart already recalled Artri King products in late May, and now Latin Foods Market is following suit with a new recall of its own.

Continue reading “Pain medicine recall: These pain pills have undeclared steroids, so check your bottles” »

Humans are unrivaled in the area of cognition. After all, no other species has sent probes to other planets, produced lifesaving vaccines, or created poetry. How information is processed in the human brain to make this possible is a question that has drawn endless fascination, yet no definitive answers.

Our understanding of brain function has changed over the years. But current theoretical models describe the brain as a “distributed information-processing system.” This means it has distinct components that are tightly networked through the brain’s wiring. To interact with each other, regions exchange information though a system of input and output signals.

However, this is only a small part of a more complex picture. In a study published last week in Nature Neuroscience, using evidence from different species and multiple neuroscientific disciplines, we show that there isn’t just one type of information processing in the brain. How information is processed also differs between humans and other primates, which may explain why our species’ cognitive abilities are so superior.

https://tinyurl.com/comahbp

TNX to hard work of Coma Science Group and collaborators from Milano and Paris within Human Brain Project!