Lifeboat Foundation

The bottom of the ocean is full of mysteries but scientists have recently uncovered one of its best-kept secrets. For 25 years, drug hunters have been searching for the source of a natural chemical that had shown promise in initial studies for treating cancer. Now, researchers at University of Utah Health report that easy-to-find soft corals—flexible corals that resemble underwater plants—make the elusive compound.

Identifying the source allowed the researchers to go a step further and find the animal’s DNA code for synthesizing the chemical. By following those instructions, they were able to carry out the first steps of re-creating the soft coral chemical in the laboratory.

“This is the first time we have been able to do this with any drug lead on Earth,” says Eric Schmidt, Ph.D., professor of medicinal chemistry at U of U Health. He led the study with Paul Scesa, Ph.D., postdoctoral scientist and first author, and Zhenjian Lin, Ph.D., assistant research professor.

Thought Machine CEO Paul Taylor was the brains behind Google’s text-to-speech technology. He now runs the company on the same principles learnt in his early career at Google.

An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows an unusual interaction of four dwarf galaxies, so close together that all of them would fit within the Milky Way.

An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shared this week by NASA shows an unusual interaction of four dwarf galaxies. There are two small galaxies which are so close together that they look like one object, called NGC 1,741, located at the top of the image. Then there is another cigar-shaped galaxy close by to the right, and a fourth galaxy in the bottom left which is connected to the other three by a stream of young stars.

Together, the four galaxies make up a set called the Hickson Compact Group 31, or HCG 31. The group is located 166 million light-years away from Earth, which is relatively close for seeing interacting dwarf galaxies. The galaxies are currently so close together, at within 75,000 light-years of each other, that all four of them would fit within the Milky Way.

Researchers have discovered that Clostridium septicum rapidly kills cells by releasing a toxin that punches holes in the surface of the cell. This induces an immune response that can lead to sepsis and shock. The team is now exploring whether it’s possible to develop drugs to neutralize the toxin to treat the infection.

Staphylococcus aureus infections can be highly unpredictable – some cause a slight rash, whereas others can lead to deadly complications – and researchers have identified a genetic mutation that could be the cause of these differences.

T cells that attack apolipoprotein B, the main component of “bad” cholesterol, could be contributing to inflammation that worsens heart disease.

China christened a remarkable new 290-foot ship last week – the world’s first semi-autonomous drone carrier. It’ll carry, launch, recover and co-ordinate the actions of more than 50 other autonomous aerial, surface and underwater vehicles.

The Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard began construction on the Zhu Hai Yun last July in Guangzhou. According to the South China Morning Post, it’s the first carrier of its kind, a self-contained autonomous platform that will roll out with everything necessary to perform a fully integrated operation including drone aircraft, boats and submersibles.

Continue reading “China launches an autonomous mothership full of autonomous drones” »

Searchable tool reveals more than 90,000 known materials with electronic properties that remain unperturbed in the face of disruption.

What will it take for our electronics to become smarter, faster, and more resilient? One idea is to build them out of topological materials.

Topology stems from a branch of mathematics that studies shapes that can be manipulated or deformed without losing certain essential properties. A donut is a common example: If it were made of rubber, a donut could be twisted and squeezed into a completely new shape, such as a coffee mug, while retaining a key trait — namely, its center hole, which takes the form of the cup’s handle. The hole, in this case, is a topological trait, robust against certain deformations.

Diagnostic device promises miniaturization in stand-alone system.