Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: food – Page 8

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to create societal transformations. Indeed, AI is already emerging as a factor in geopolitics, with malicious non-state actors exploiting its capabilities to spread misinformation and potentially develop autonomous weapons. To be sure, not all countries are equal in AI, and bridging the “AI divide” between the Global North and South is vital to ensuring equal representation while addressing regulatory concerns and the equitable distribution of benefits that can be derived from the technology.

Most G20 members have established comprehensive national AI strategies, notably technology giants like the United States, United Kingdom, China, and countries of the European Union. Global South nations such as Brazil, Argentina, and India, despite economic constraints, are demonstrating progress in leveraging AI in areas like social services and agriculture. Future strategies must anticipate emerging threats like Generative AI (GenAI) and Quantum AI, prioritising responsible governance to mitigate biases, inequalities, and cybersecurity risks.

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A study from Tübingen University and the German Center for Diabetes Research reveals that the brain plays a crucial role in obesity and type 2 diabetes development. It shows that even a brief period of consuming high-calorie processed foods can significantly alter brain insulin sensitivity, a key factor in weight gain and metabolic disorders. The research demonstrated that insulin’s appetite-suppressing effect in the brain diminishes after a short-term high-calorie diet, leading to insulin resistance. These effects were observed in healthy participants, suggesting that dietary habits could influence brain function before any significant weight gain occurs. Further research is needed to understand the brain’s role in these conditions.

The number of obese persons has grown significantly in recent decades, which presents significant difficulties for those who are impacted, healthcare systems, and those who provide treatment. The hormone insulin plays a key role in the development of obesity. Up until recently, there have been numerous signs indicating insulin causes neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders, especially in the brain. A recent study by the University Hospital of Tübingen, the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), and Helmholtz Munich offers intriguing new insights into the origins of type 2 diabetes and obesity as well as the brain’s function as a critical control center.

Obesity has only been officially recognized as a disease in Germany since 2020, despite the fact that it has long been known to cause a number of illnesses, including diabetes, heart attacks, and even cancer. The World Health Organization has already declared obesity to be an epidemic, affecting over one billion individuals globally and almost 16 million in Germany alone. A body mass index of 30 or more is considered obese, and a poor diet and insufficient exercise are frequently cited as the causes of this chronic illness. However, the mechanisms in the body that lead to obesity and cause the disease are more complex.

Obesity and the role of insulin in the brain

Unhealthy body fat distribution and chronic weight gain are linked to the brain’s sensitivity to insulin. What specific functions does insulin perform in the brain, and how does it affect individuals of normal weight? In their study, Prof. Dr. Stephanie Kullmann and her colleagues at the Tübingen University Hospital for Diabetology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology found the answer to this query. “Our findings demonstrate for the first time that even a brief consumption of highly processed, unhealthy foods (such as chocolate bars and potato chips) causes a significant alteration in the brain of healthy individuals, which may be the initial cause of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” says Prof. Kullmann, the study’s leader. In a healthy state, insulin has an appetite-suppressing effect in the brain. However, in people with obesity in particular, insulin no longer regulates eating behavior properly, resulting in insulin resistance.

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Basically mushrooms can cure all major illnesses all over the human body and brain. If all the pharmaceutical companies got into business with Chinese medicine which has used mushrooms of all types we essentially have a no side effect system of 100 percent healing. Even the basic food pyramid has show essentially to prove beneficial to humans more than medicines. Also essentially nanotransfection for people that have lost limbs or lost any body part could in the future regenerate limbs similar to wolverine like in the marvel comics but at a slower pace but would heal anything while the mushrooms keep one well and fed. A lot of the American studies are a stop gap measure while mushrooms can cure things slowly but to 100 percent. Along with healthy eating and nanotransfection one could have all they need for any regeneration in the far future. In the future this technology and food could essentially allow for minimal down time healing inside and the foods would fuel the body. It could be put on a smartphone where even trillions of dollars would be saved getting doctor treatments down to a dollar or less for entire body scans and healing. It would be the first step towards Ironman but using the human body to heal itself and the foods to fuel regeneration.

The WHO has published the first list of priority fungal pathogens, which affect more than 300 million people and kill at least 1.5 million people every year. However, funding to control this scourge is less than 1.5% of that devoted to infectious diseases.

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Scientists at Berkeley Lab are unraveling the mysteries of Bennu, a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid, using cutting-edge technology.

The asteroid harbors traces of ancient briny water, salty minerals, and even organic molecules – potential clues to life’s origins. Researchers are using X-ray and electron microscopy to analyze these space rocks at the atomic level, revealing how early planetary systems formed. Even more exciting, they’ve found amino acids.

<div class=””> <div class=””><br />Amino acids are a set of organic compounds used to build proteins. There are about 500 naturally occurring known amino acids, though only 20 appear in the genetic code. Proteins consist of one or more chains of amino acids called polypeptides. The sequence of the amino acid chain causes the polypeptide to fold into a shape that is biologically active. The amino acid sequences of proteins are encoded in the genes. Nine proteinogenic amino acids are called “essential” for humans because they cannot be produced from other compounds by the human body and so must be taken in as food.<br /></div> </div>

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New RNA-based active agents reliably protect plants against the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), the most common virus in agriculture and horticulture. They were developed by researchers at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU).

The active ingredients have a broad spectrum effect; a series of RNA support the plant’s immune system in combating the virus. In laboratory experiments, 80 to 100% of the treated plants survived an infection with a high viral load, as the team reports in Nucleic Acids Research.

Their paper has been selected as a “breakthrough article” by the journal. The researchers are now working on transferring the idea from the laboratory into practice.

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Snap a photo of your meal, and artificial intelligence instantly tells you its calorie count, fat content, and nutritional value—no more food diaries or guesswork.

This futuristic scenario is now much closer to reality, thanks to an AI system developed by NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers that promises a new tool for the millions of people who want to manage their weight, diabetes and other diet-related health conditions.

The technology, detailed in a paper presented at the 6th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Sustainable Informatics, uses advanced deep-learning algorithms to recognize food items in images and calculate their nutritional content, including calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat.

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With rapid technological advances, social media has become an everyday form of human social interactions. For the first time in evolutionary history, people can now interact in virtual spaces where temporal, spatial, and embodied cues are decoupled from one another. What implications do these recent changes have for socio-cognitive phenotypes and mental disorders? We have conducted a systematic review on the relationships between social media use and mental disorders involving the social brain. The main findings indicate evidence of increased social media usage in individuals with psychotic spectrum phenotypes and especially among individuals with disorders characterized by alterations in the basic self, most notably narcissism, body dysmorphism, and eating disorders.

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In an amazing achievement akin to adding solar panels to your body, a northeast sea slug sucks raw materials from algae to provide its lifetime supply of solar-powered energy, according to a study by Rutgers University–New Brunswick and other scientists.

“It’s a remarkable feat because it’s highly unusual for an animal to behave like a plant and survive solely on photosynthesis,” said Debashish Bhattacharya, senior author of the study and distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers–New Brunswick. “The broader implication is in the field of artificial photosynthesis. That is, if we can figure out how the slug maintains stolen, isolated plastids to fix carbon without the plant nucleus, then maybe we can also harness isolated plastids for eternity as green machines to create bioproducts or energy. The existing paradigm is that to make green energy, we need the plant or alga to run the photosynthetic organelle, but the slug shows us that this does not have to be the case.”

The sea slug Elysia chlorotica, a mollusk that can grow to more than two inches long, has been found in the intertidal zone between Nova Scotia, Canada, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, as well as in Florida. Juvenile sea slugs eat the nontoxic brown alga Vaucheria litorea and become photosynthetic – or solar-powered – after stealing millions of algal plastids, which are like tiny solar panels, and storing them in their gut lining, according to the study published online in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

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A new device produces ammonia from air and wind energy, offering a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel-dependent methods for agriculture and clean energy applications.

The air we breathe holds the key to more sustainable agriculture, thanks to an innovative breakthrough by researchers at Stanford University and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. They have created a prototype device that uses wind energy to extract nitrogen from the air and convert it into ammonia—a critical ingredient in fertilizer.

If fully developed, this method could replace the traditional process of producing ammonia, which has been in use for over a century. The conventional method combines nitrogen and hydrogen at high pressures and temperatures, consuming 2% of the world’s energy and generating 1% of annual carbon dioxide emissions due to its reliance on natural gas. This new approach offers a cleaner, more energy-efficient alternative.

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