Lifeboat Foundation

Before scientists discovered the new state of matter last week, we were basically all used to just three states of matter. After all, during our daily lives we encounter some variety of solids, liquids and gases. Solids hold a definite shape without a container, liquids conform to the shape of their container, and gases not only conform to a container, but also expand to fill it.

And there’s variety amidst these three: A crystalline solid, for example, has all its atoms lined up in exactly the precise order in perfect symmetry, while a quasicrystal solid fills all its space without the tightly regulated structure. Liquid crystals, which make up the visual components of most electronic displays, have elements of both liquids and crystal structures, as anyone who has ever pushed the screen of their calculator can confirm.

Under standard conditions on Earth, solids, liquids and gasses are the vast majority of what a person will experience in life. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a whole lot more beneath the surface.

The evolving gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 is useful for changing one gene, or maybe a few genes at a time. A team at ETH Zurich has tweaked the technology so they can change 25 different gene sites at once. Instead of using the Cas9 enzyme to do the DNA cutting, though, they used Cas12a. That allowed them to create a long “address list” of gene sites to target, they explained in the journal Nature Methods. They created a DNA molecule called a plasmid to store the list, inserted it in human cells and were able to modify several genes, they reported. (Release)

Chemotherapy and radiation suppress blood stem cells, often for several weeks or even months after cancer treatments are complete. This leaves patients vulnerable to infections and other health problems. Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles have created a new drug that targets the protein tyrosine phosphatase-sigma (PTP-sigma), which is prevalent on blood stem cells. They showed that blocking the protein in rodent models with the drug, called DJ009, helped blood cells recover more quickly after they were damaged by radiation. They published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. (Release)

Supplementing psychotherapy with small doses of MDMA could be an effective strategy to prevent relapses of alcohol addiction in patients, an ongoing small clinical trial suggests. The research is yet another example of how scientists and doctors are finding or rediscovering therapeutic uses for recreational and illicit drugs.

MDMA-assisted therapy is actually an old idea, which enjoyed some popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. Though the exact mechanisms are unclear, the synthetic drug’s euphoric effects are thought to amplify the positive patterns of thinking taught by therapy, as well as make people feel less anxious during sessions. Of course, these same mood-boosting attributes made MDMA a popular recreational drug. This popularity led the U.S. government to ban MDMA in 1985, by classifying it as a Schedule 1 drug with no accepted medical use.

Scientists discovered the Origin of Schizophrenia and managed to treat it!

Ever been frustrated waiting for your YouTube video to stream quickly? A team of experts from MIT has created a system that allows multiple Wi-Fi users to stream and buffer high-quality videos.

Smart contact lenses will allow you to zoom in and record what you see!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BPKHHQFI-WM

People say, well, but we’re going to stop being human if we merge with machines. No, that is what it means to be human.

Dr. Kurtzweil, I would like to ask you. You have made hundreds of predictions out of which many already have come true, and with no doubt many more will come through. But if you would have to single out your three most important predictions for the upcoming decade, what would they be?

Continue reading “Ray Kurzweil: Enhanced Longevity by 2030” »

In 2006, scientists discovered a way to “reprogram” mature cells—adult skin cells, for example—into stem cells that could, in principle, give rise to any tissue or organ in the body. Many assumed it was only a matter of time until this groundbreaking technique found its way into the clinic and ushered in a regenerative medicine revolution.

Because the same patient would be both the donor and the recipient of cells derived from these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), these cells would be seen as “self” by the immune system, the thinking went, and not subject to the problems of rejection that plague conventional transplants.

But iPSCs haven’t emerged as the cure-all that was originally envisioned, due to unforeseen setbacks, including the surprising preclinical finding that iPSC-derived cell transplants are often rejected, even after being reintroduced into the organism the cells were sourced from.