Lifeboat Foundation

Placement of five anode electrodes (left) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode (right) over the right shoulder (to avoid spurious cognitive effects from cortical excitability) (credit: Justin Nelson et al./ Front. Hum. Neurosci.)

In an experiment at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, researchers have found that transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) of the brain can improve people’s multitasking skills and help avoid the drop in performance that comes with information overload.

The study was reported in a pre-publication paper in the open-access journal Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. It was motivated by the observation that various Air Force operations such as remotely piloted and manned aircraft operations require a human operator to monitor and respond to multiple events simultaneously over a long period of time. “With the monotonous nature of these tasks, the operator’s performance may decline shortly after their work shift commences,” according to the researchers.

Continue reading “Test of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the brain shows improved multitasking performance” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RlzKH5nMr9E

Nifty…I’ll definitely give it a go when I find the time!

Has anyone else seen it yet? If so, thoughts?

Continue reading “You Can Watch the First Episode of Syfy’s Incorporated Right Now” »

Scientists have discovered a new way to edit DNA that could fix “broken genes” in the brain, cure previously incurable diseases and potentially even extend the human lifespan.

The breakthrough – described as a “holy grail” of genetics – was used to partially restore the sight of rats blinded by a condition which also affects humans.

Previously researchers were not able to make changes to DNA in eye, brain, heart and liver tissues.

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Progress for heart disease!

For the first time, a new drug given along with a cholesterol-lowering statin medicine has proved able to shrink plaque that is clogging arteries, potentially giving a way to undo some of the damage of heart disease.

The difference was very small but doctors hope it will grow with longer treatment, and any reversal or stabilization of disease would be a win for patients and a long-sought goal.

Continue reading “Cholesterol drug shows promise to help reverse heart disease” »

Great to see more quality aging biomarkers arriving for researchers. Well done to Alex Zhavoronkov and his team for this brilliant work.

Pathway analysis aids interpretation of large-scale gene expression data, but existing algorithms fall short of providing robust pathway identification.

To get to Mars faster, humans might have to slow themselves down grizzly-style.

NRG-X is the world’s first fully automatic charging solution, which provides efficient, high power energy transfer, has a great range of parking tolerance and can be simply retrofitted to almost every electric vehicle. Therefore, NRG-X is the ideal solution for convenient every day charging of your electric vehicle primarily at home. The system comprises two basic components:

I said over a year ago that if the US will not do it China will. Whilst there was talk about a moratorium on CRISPR in the US the Chinese were forging ahead and taking steps to become a world leader in biotech. Well here we are, they have deployed CRISPR in humans for cancer and this is only the start. As George Church advocates, we should have appropriate engineering safety measures in place but we should push ahead and do these things.

The move by Chinese scientists could spark a biomedical duel between China and the United States.

Fancy a bit of cheese?

(Medical Xpress)—A large team of researchers with members from several Europeans countries and the U.S. has found that mice fed a compound called spermidine lived longer than ordinary mice and also had better cardiovascular heath. In their paper published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers describe experiments they carried out with the compound and mice, what they found and why they believe the compound might provide benefits for humans.

Prior research has found that ingestion of spermidine—which was first discovered in semen samples, hence its name—led to longer lifespans in simple organisms such as fruit flies, yeast and roundworms. In this new study, the researchers sought to find out if the same would prove true for more complex creatures.

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