Lifeboat Foundation

For the first time, doctors have attempted to cure blindness by gene-hacking a patient with CRISPR technology.

A team from Oregon Health & Science Institute injected three droplets of fluid that delivered the CRISPR DNA fragments directly into a patient’s eyeball, The Associated Press reports, in hopes that it will reverse a rare genetic condition called Leber congenital amaurosis, which causes blindness early in childhood.

“We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see,” Charles Albright, chief scientific officer of Editas Medicine, told the AP. Editas is one of the biotech companies that actually developed the treatment. “We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA.”

During a Tuesday briefing, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Nancy Messonnier warned that self-imposed quarantines could last weeks.

“You may need to take a break from your normal daily routine for two weeks,” she said, as quoted by The Washington Post.

“Staying home when you are sick is really important,” she added. “Don’t let the illness spread beyond you. Stay away as much as you can from other people.”

The 2019 novel coronavirus or coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has threatened the entire world at present. Scientists are working day and night to understand the origin of COVID-19. You may have heard the news recently that the complete genome of COVID-19 has been published. How did scientists figure out the complete genome of COVID-19? In this article, I will explain how we can do this.

A genome is considered as all the genetic material, including all the genes of an organism. The genome contains all the information of an organism that is required to build and maintain it.

How can we read the information present in the genome? This is where sequencing comes into action. Assuming you have read my previous article on DNA analysis, you know that sequencing is used to determine the sequence of individual genes, full chromosomes or entire genomes of an organism.

“The problem of plastic pollution is too large to simply throw worms and there is still a lot to do before we can parlay this work into making a meaningful contribution,” Cassone said. “Also, the larvae tend to eat less plastic with longer times on that type of diet. By understanding the process – why the breakdown of plastic occurs so rapidly in the waxworm—we can then begin to develop ways to really make a meaningful impact to plastic pollution.”

He continued: “Now that we know the microbiome plays a role, if we can better understand how the bacteria works together with the worm and what kind of conditions cause it to flourish, perhaps this information can be used to design better tools to eliminate plastics from our environment.”

Not all are convinced, however. Till Opatz, from the Department of Chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany, was critical of the initial findings that caterpillars digest plastic. At the time he and his colleagues said they disagreed with the methodology and conclusions reported, adding the study “does not provide sufficient proof” that G. mellonella can chemically destroy polyethylene.

Physicists are using analog black holes to better understand gravity.

Viruses and mobile genetic elements are molecular parasites or symbionts that coevolve with nearly all forms of cellular life. The route of virus replication and protein expression is determined by the viral genome type. Comparison of these routes led to the classification of viruses into seven “Baltimore classes” (BCs) that define the major features of virus reproduction. However, recent phylogenomic studies identified multiple evolutionary connections among viruses within each of the BCs as well as between different classes. Due to the modular organization of virus genomes, these relationships defy simple representation as lines of descent but rather form complex networks. Phylogenetic analyses of virus hallmark genes combined with analyses of gene-sharing networks show that replication modules of five BCs (three classes of RNA viruses and two classes of reverse-transcribing viruses) evolved from a common ancestor that encoded an RNA-directed RNA polymerase or a reverse transcriptase. Bona fide viruses evolved from this ancestor on multiple, independent occasions via the recruitment of distinct cellular proteins as capsid subunits and other structural components of virions. The single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses are a polyphyletic class, with different groups evolving by recombination between rolling-circle-replicating plasmids, which contributed the replication protein, and positive-sense RNA viruses, which contributed the capsid protein. The double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses are distributed among several large monophyletic groups and arose via the combination of distinct structural modules with equally diverse replication modules. Phylogenomic analyses reveal the finer structure of evolutionary connections among RNA viruses and reverse-transcribing viruses, ssDNA viruses, and large subsets of dsDNA viruses. Taken together, these analyses allow us to outline the global organization of the virus world. Here, we describe the key aspects of this organization and propose a comprehensive hierarchical taxonomy of viruses.

A spontaneous hole in the fabric of reality could theoretically end the universe, but don’t worry: physicists are studying the idea for what it can teach us about the cosmos.

Met Basilisk zelfherstellende reparatiemortel herstelt u op eenvoudige wijze scheuren en verhelpt u lekkages in betonnen constructies. Traditionele reparatiemethoden moeten door het werken van de betonconstructie vaak na verloop van tijd worden herhaald. Door de zelfherstellende eigenschappen is dit bij Basilisk zelfherstellende reparatiemortel niet het geval: één reparatie volstaat. Ook als de constructie in de toekomst gaat werken.

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Circa 2018

One promising candidate is eco-friendly and poses no known risks to human health.