Lifeboat Foundation

A quick look at synthetic biology and its potential for health and treating age-related diseases.

All living organisms contain an instruction set that determines what they look like and what they do. These instructions are encoded in the organism’s DNA within every cell, this is an organism’s genetic code (or “genome”).

Mankind has been altering the genetic code of plants and animals for thousands of years, by selectively breeding individuals with desired features. Over time we have become experts at viewing and manipulating this code, and we can now take genetic information associated with the desired features from one organism, and add it into another one. This is the basis of genetic engineering, which has allowed us to speed up the process of developing new breeds of plants and animals.

Continue reading “Will synthetic biology help us to eliminate age-related diseases?” »

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Some exciting news from Lifespan.io about their current senescent cell therapy campaign.

While the CellAge campaign has done a great job thus far, with over 200 backers raising $11,000+ to better target dysfunctional “senescent” cells in the body, many supporters have let us know that the holidays, along with other concurrent fundraisers, have made it challenging to contribute.

In response we have decided to announce a 1-month extension for the CellAge campaign, and give the generous members of our community greater opportunity to support this important research.

Continue reading “CellAge 1-month campaign extension announced” »

According to quantum mechanics, a vacuum isn’t empty at all. It’s actually filled with quantum energy and particles that blink in and out of existence for a fleeting moment — strange signals that are known as quantum fluctuations.

For decades, there had only ever been indirect evidence of these fluctuations, but back in 2015, researchers claimed to have detected the theoretical fluctuations directly. And now the same team says they’ve gone a step further, having manipulated the vacuum itself, and detecting the changes in these strange signals in the void.

We’re entering the territory of high-level physics here, but what’s really important in this experiment is that, if these results are confirmed, the researchers might have just unlocked a way to observe, probe, and test the quantum realm without interfering with it.

Continue reading “Physicists Say They’ve Manipulated ‘Pure Nothingness’ and Observed the Fallout” »

Many of China’s space capabilities are designed to counter U.S. military advantages.

Sounds pretty neat, eh? Wouldn’t it be nice never to have to worry about running out of fuel or charge ever again? And also to not have to pay for it would be even better! Well, that is potentially what is about to happen over in Israel right now as testing continues into electric roads that can wirelessly charge electric vehicles as they’re moving along.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is in its crucial developmental stages and the government doesn’t seem to be to keen on shaping the way forward, according to experts during a senate inquiry into the dawn of AI.

The senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, under the helm of Texas Senator (R) Ted Cruz, convened November 30 to discuss the state of AI research and development, and its policy effects and implications on commerce. According to experts present at the hearing, the government isn’t doing much to provide guidelines and directions on AI research.

Continue reading “The Government Must Take on a Bigger Role in Shaping the Development of AI” »

Researchers have been able to create tiny structures for conducting electricity by using DNA and gold plating. This new nanostructure could be the foundation of future electronics as soon as improvements are made on this breakthrough development.

Nice.

Indian scientists have designed high precision DNA probes for breast cancer detection, which they claim can bring down costs of diagnostics ten-fold.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology — Guwahati relied on ‘magic bullets’ of science, a class of molecules called aptamers, that can bind to virtually any molecule, clasping it in a firm lock-and-key fit.

Continue reading “Indian scientists design ‘magic’ DNA for low cost breast cancer detection” »