Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: Study uncovers new genetic risk factors for age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in adults.

Source: PLOS

Combining a map of gene regulatory sites with disease-associated loci has uncovered a new genetic risk factor of adult-onset macular degeneration (AMD), according to a new study publishing January 17 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Ran Elkon and Ruth Ashery-Padan of Tel Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues.

Imagine you’re driving your Tesla, or an equivalent electric car, down the highway. Your battery is running low. Sure, you could pull off at the next exit and spend time, and energy, searching for a recharging station. Or you could simply change lanes and drive over special charging strips embedded in the road.

That’s the vision of Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering. He’s pioneering an innovative approach for the wireless charging of electric vehicles, autonomous forklifts and other mobile machines, while they remain in motion.

Continue reading “Research paves way for wireless charging of electric vehicles” »

It’s not just information that can move from one point in the universe to another, without passing through the space in between.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDM8bLfNsNQ

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Exoplanet LH 475b has a radius about 99 percent the size of Earth’s, but that rocky radius is surrounded by either a choking atmosphere of carbon dioxide — or the vacuum of space, according to recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). But it’s definitely a planet, and that’s something astronomers couldn’t say for sure until now.

Astronomer Jacob Lustig-Yeager, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, presented their work at the 241^st meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Summary: A new biological sensor sends electrical information in response to the presence of an odor which the robot is able to detect and interpret.

Source: Tel Aviv University.

A new technological development by Tel Aviv University has made it possible for a robot to smell using a biological sensor. The sensor sends electrical signals as a response to the presence of a nearby odor, which the robot can detect and interpret.

Photosynthesis is the greatest natural process converting sunlight into chemical energy on a massive scale and maintaining life on Earth. There are basically two successive stages of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is how plants and some microorganisms use sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water.

Summary: Study opens the door for the exploration of information processing in vestibular synapses.

Source: Rice University.

The sensory organs that allow us to walk, dance and turn our heads without dizziness or loss of balance contain specialized synapses that process signals faster than any other in the human body.

The agency is funding research projects to find ways to boost people’s resilience to extreme cold.