Lifeboat Foundation

I am writing this shortly after returning from the third edition of RAADfest, a conference created two years ago by a team led by Jim Strole. I go to a lot, I mean a lot, of conferences, not least because outreach is such a big part of my role in our crusade. But I think this is the first time I have chosen to devote an editorial to one. You may wonder what’s so special.

Well, RAADfest is … not your typical conference. Its organizers—Strole and his team, most notably his partner Bernadeane—have, for a couple of decades, led a group in Arizona named “People Unlimited”, which has acquired a reputation—and, I have to report, a well-deserved one—for, let’s say, placing excessive emphasis on the principle that ‘‘where there’s a will there’s a way’’ in relation to the defeat of aging (Yeah, I can still do classic British understatement when I try). Accordingly, when they first let it be known that they planned to do something bigger, the initial reaction was decidedly mixed. I don’t know how many credentialed biogerontologists declined speaking invitations, but only a few of us accepted—and of those, as I recall, only the perennially fearless Michael Rose was a university professor. I myself, though happy to lend my support to this new initiative as a speaker, was rather more diffident in response to Strole’s entreaties to promote the event through my outreach channels.

But the doubters were wrong—very wrong. The event was a storming success, in terms of both attendance—Strole had secured significant sponsorship from the Life Extension Foundation under the expectation of a budgetary shortfall but was actually able to give it back, yes you read that correctly—and also content, which, while being necessarily a little light on science given the paucity of scientist speakers, was coherent, rousing, and informative.

Continue reading “Anti-Aging Passion and Pragmatism: Effective Bedfellows at Last” »

It may do more for heart health than joint pain.

Blocking an immune-related molecule lodged in blood vessels stops memory loss.

• By Simon Makin on May 14, 2019

Stressful life events most likely contribute to autoimmune diseases, but scientists don’t have a deep understanding of the underlying chain of events. A study on mice published this week in mSystems suggests that the gut microbiota may play a significant role in that connection. Researchers found that the onset of stress caused changes in the intestinal bacteria that, in turn, stimulated the activity of immune cells in a way that increased the likelihood that the body would a…

Chronic social stress in mice induces the expression of virulent genes in the gut microbiota. The altered microbiota increases the presence of effector T helper cells in the lymph nodes and induces myelin autoreactive cells. Exposure to chronic stress, therefore, may increase the risk of developing autoimmune diseases for some individuals with a susceptibility.

As we look forward to #Moon2024 mission, we’re sharing these highlights of our favorite neighbor taken from the International Space Station and Earth:

Photographs of the moon taken by astronauts in space and individuals on Earth.

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Continue reading “Moon: Exploration is in our DNA and our closest celestial friend, the Moon, is a treasure chest of science!” »

But neither SpaceX nor Musk have announced plans to do so.

ALC’s new OptiFlex virtual integrator has been named the winner of the AHR Expo Innovation award in the building automation category.

5:30 pm.

Sky-high IQs are coming.

Dark matter is an unknown type of matter present in the universe that could be of particle origin. One of the most complete theoretical frameworks that includes a dark matter candidate is supersymmetry. Many supersymmetric models predict the existence of a new stable, invisible particle called the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), which has the right properties to be a dark matter particle.

The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN has recently reported two new results on searches for an LSP that exploited the experiment’s full Run 2 data sample taken at 13 TeV proton-proton collision energy. The analyses looked for the pair production of two heavy supersymmetric particles, each of which decays to observable Standard Model particles and an LSP in the detector.