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Jun 26, 2021

‘It’s a wow!’: New CRISPR gene-editing success holds promise for treating many genetic diseases with a single dose

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension, nanotechnology

👏😄We are rapidly approaching — from multiple directions of attack (pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, gene manipulation, etc) — the end of all forms of cancer, inherited diseases, even aging itself. It’s a great time to be alive IF you can live long enough to live forever(ish)! Which makes EVERY death that occurs in the meantime to be all the more of a punch to the gut and slap to the face. PARTICULARLY the 600 000 + people here in the US alone! It’s also another reason t… See More.


If the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 continues to show such promise it will herald a new era for the treatment of many genetic diseases.

Jun 26, 2021

Are humans on the brink of achieving immortality?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

In August last year, Unity released interim results showing that its drug was probably ineffective in treating study patients suffering from osteoarthritis.

Its stock price plummeted as a consequence, but Dr de Grey remains hopeful that “soon we might have drugs that actively cause these cells to die”.

While Dr de Grey is excited to see much of the life extension research he helped develop come to fruition, some thinkers are raising concerns about the implications of an extended human lifespan.

Jun 26, 2021

Babies Can See Things That Adults Cannot

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The results of the study demonstrated that the mechanisms for visual perception change drastically in the second half of the first year of life, from the bottom-up system to the system incorporating top-down processing.


Summary: Study reveals very young infants can perceive objects that older infants, children, and adults can not see due to a phenomenon called visual backward masking.

Source: Chuo University

Continue reading “Babies Can See Things That Adults Cannot” »

Jun 26, 2021

He Inherited A Devastating Disease. A CRISPR Gene-Editing Breakthrough Stopped It

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Scientists successfully treated a rare disease with the experimental gene-editing technique. It could open the door to new ways of treating more common disorders in the future.

Jun 26, 2021

Why does outer space look black?

Posted by in category: space

Here’s why space is black, even though the sky is blue.

Jun 26, 2021

Are MXenes the future of nanotechnology?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Artificial kidneys, powerful batteries and efficient water purification are some of the future applications of a group of ultrathin materials known as MXenes. This opinion is expressed in an article in the journal Science, whose authors include one from Linköping University.

Materials that have a cross-section as thin as one or a few layers of atoms possess unusual properties due to their thickness. These properties may be , or an ability to withstand heat, giving a great potential for use in future technology. The most well-known material is graphene, and the hunt for other ultrathin materials, also known as two-dimensional materials, has increased in intensity since its discovery.

Graphene and many other two-dimensional materials are either semiconductors, semimetals or polarized insulators. The lack of an ultrathin metal conductor is an obstacle in the development of components based exclusively on two-dimensional materials.

Jun 26, 2021

In Extraordinary Experiment, Physicists Bring Human-Scale Object to Near Standstill, Reaching a Quantum State

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

The results open possibilities for studying gravity’s effects on relatively large objects in quantum states.

To the human eye, most stationary objects appear to be just that — still, and completely at rest. Yet if we were handed a quantum lens, allowing us to see objects at the scale of individual atoms, what was an apple sitting idly on our desk would appear as a teeming collection of vibrating particles, very much in motion.

In the last few decades, physicists have found ways to super-cool objects so that their atoms are at a near standstill, or in their “motional ground state.” To date, physicists have wrestled small objects such as clouds of millions of atoms, or nanogram-scale objects, into such pure quantum states.

Jun 26, 2021

Strange Ghostly Galaxies Lacking Dark Matter Confirmed

Posted by in category: cosmology

The most accurate distance measurement yet of ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) NGC1052-DF2 (DF2) confirms beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is lacking in dark matter. The newly measured distance of 22.1 +/-1.2 megaparsecs was obtained by an international team of researchers led by Zili Shen and Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Shany Danieli, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study.

“Determining an accurate distance to DF2 has been key in supporting our earlier results,” stated Danieli. “The new measurement reported in this study has crucial implications for estimating the physical properties of the galaxy, thus confirming its lack of dark matter.”

The results, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 9, 2021, are based on 40 orbits of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, with imaging by the Advanced Camera for Surveys and a “tip of the red giant branch” (TRGB) analysis, the gold standard for such refined measurements. In 2019, the team published results measuring the distance to neighboring UDG NGC1052-DF4 (DF4) based on 12 Hubble orbits and TRGB analysis, which provided compelling evidence of missing dark matter. This preferred method expands on the team’s 2018 studies that relied on “surface brightness fluctuations” to gauge distance. Both galaxies were discovered with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array at the New Mexico Skies observatory.

Jun 26, 2021

We finally know when the first stars in the universe switched on

Posted by in category: space

The most detailed observations of some of the most distant galaxies we have ever seen have revealed the timing of cosmic dawn, when the first stars began to shine.

Jun 26, 2021

How Stem Cells Promote the Health of Nearby Cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue appear to reverse some effects of aging in nearby somatic cells.


A new study published in the FASEB Journal shows how mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue (ADSCs) reverse some effects of aging in nearby cells.

It’s not the cells themselves, it’s what they secrete

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