Menu

Blog

Page 7772

Mar 15, 2020

US Military Scientists Hope To Have Coronavirus Therapeutic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military

A new approach would use RNA or DNA to help the body develop antibodies to the rapidly spreading illness.

A U.S. military research program that seeks a new way to boost a body’s immunity to viruses could change how governments and militaries prepare for pandemics — and might even arrive soon enough to help with the COVID −19 outbreak.

DARPAs Pandemic Prevention Platform isn’t looking to create a vaccine, which can take years to produce and weeks to take effect in the body. Rather, the goal is to identify the specific monoclonal antibodies that the body naturally produces when it encounters a virus, and then trick the body into producing the one that guards against a specific illness. That could serve as a temporary, months-long shield that can protect the individual from the pathogen until a vaccine can be brought online.

Mar 15, 2020

2017 North Korean nuclear test

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, nuclear weapons

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on 3 September 2017, stating it had tested a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb).[6].

Mar 15, 2020

China May Have Identified Patient Zero in the Coronavirus Outbreak

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

And others in the research community, like this nuclear physicist at the Large Hadron Collider, are realizing how close they came to catching the virus.

The first COVID-19 case may have started as early as November 17. A good chunk of my reararch group, and our particular slice of the nuclear physics community, were literally in Wuhan until just a week before this. To think what could have been… https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro…raced-back

— Dennis V. Perepelitsa (@dvperepelitsa) March 13, 2020

Mar 15, 2020

BREAKING! Coronavirus Research: Could Echinacea Act As A Prophylaxis Against The SARS-Cov-2 Coronavirus? More Research Warranted

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Coronavirus Research : A recent study published on an open platform but has yet to be peer reviewed caught our eyes as it was strangely conducted by the prestigious Spiez Laboratory In Switzerland by a team of leading virologists and microbiologists, but what intrigued me was that why would a prestigious research centre like the Spiez laboratory that had enormous funds and had some of the leading specialist post a ‘half-baked’ research on an open platform?

Echinacea Flowers

Mar 15, 2020

Toyota’s self-driving car mapping system could be a game changer

Posted by in categories: mapping, robotics/AI, transportation

With commercial satellite technology, Toyota showed it can create HD maps more quickly and do it in a cost-effective manner.

Mar 15, 2020

An Unexpected Ally in the War With Bacteria

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Scientists have struggled to develop new antibiotics. Enter: the machines.

Mar 15, 2020

Local manufacturer unveils lightweight anti-drone gun

Posted by in categories: drones, government

Turkey’s first electromagnetic anti-drone systems manufacturer Harp Arge (R&D) on Sunday unveiled its 2.5-kilogram (5.5-pound) anti-drone weapon produced with the latest antenna technology, allowing for reduced size and weight.

The technology firm, which has been working to improve capabilities of national drone systems, introduced its newest product, ES-60 Electromagnetic Anti Drone Gun, designed to inflict high-speed electromagnetic interference to disrupt communications between drones and their control units and cause enemy devices to malfunction.

The Harp Arge said the anti-drone gun has a weight of 2.5 kilograms and is capable of combating rogue drones within a 3-kilometer (1.86-mile) range. The company said the new antenna technology installed enabled the company to reduce the size and weight of the weapon to an impressive extent. The firm added that the jamming weapon is produced using more than 70% of locally sourced content and would only be provided to government agencies as per weapons regulations.

Mar 15, 2020

The five hottest synthetic biology job markets in the world

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Although the majority of the synthetic biology market is concentrated in North America and Europe, the synthetic biology landscape is growing worldwide — with some of the fastest growing areas developing outside of the United States. There are several hotspots — formed when innovation at one company or university lab sparks new spinoffs — that synthetic biology followers should pay close attention to in the coming months and years.

The United Kingdom and Ireland

Among non-US hotspots for synthetic biology, the United Kingdom stands out. While most US universities still lack programs in synthetic biology, they are not hard to come by in the UK. Imperial College London, the University of Warwick, Cambridge University, and the University of Edinburgh are all particularly noteworthy for the depth and breadth of synthetic biology research. And, OpenPlant, a joint initiative between the University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre, and the Earlham Institute, is advancing synthetic biology by engineering the next generation of DNA tools for “smart” crop breeding systems.

Mar 15, 2020

MIT’s deep learning found an antibiotic for a germ nothing else could kill

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Scientists at MIT and Harvard’s Broad Institute and MIT’s CSAIL built a deep learning network that can acquire a broad representation of molecular structure and thereby discover novel antibiotics. The resulting compound, halicin, can destroy a pathogen for which no cure has existed, and it could even help in the fight against coronavirus.

Mar 15, 2020

Fusion Energy Solution May Come From Permanent Magnets Like Those on Refrigerator Doors – But Far Stronger

Posted by in categories: food, nuclear energy, physics, space

Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energy – the same energy produced by the sun and stars.

In principle, such magnets can greatly simplify the design and production of twisty fusion facilities called stellarators, according to scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. PPPL founder Lyman Spitzer Jr. invented the stellarator in the early 1950s.

Most stellarators use a set of complex twisted coils that spiral like stripes on a candy cane to produce magnetic fields that shape and control the plasma that fuels fusion reactions. Refrigerator-like permanent magnets could produce the hard part of these essential fields, the researchers say, allowing simple, non-twisted coils to produce the remaining part in place of the complex coils.