Lifeboat Foundation

A ten-year-old beagle with prostate cancer is helping researchers at The University of Queensland use nanomedicines to accurately diagnose and target the disease.

Hoover is the first patient in the world to receive the nanomedicine, which the research team hopes will help track and treat his cancer, and lead to better treatment for people with the same disease.

Nanomedicine is the science of developing tiny particles for applications in health — in this case therapeutics to specifically target a protein found in prostate cancer.

Continue reading “Hoover gives hope for novel nanomedicine cancer treatment” »

IMAGE: The internet of things (IoT) is allowing scientists to optimize laboratory operations and combine instruments to measure and respond to complex experimental conditions. As a result, IoT is enabling more… view more

Credit: SLAS Technology

The building blocks of matter in our universe were formed in the first 10 microseconds of its existence, according to the currently accepted scientific picture. After the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago, matter consisted mainly of quarks and gluons, two types of elementary particles whose interactions are governed by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interaction. In the early universe, these particles moved nearly freely in a quark-gluon plasma. Then, in a phase transition, they combined and formed hadrons, among them the building blocks of atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons.

In the current issue of Nature, an international team of scientists has presented an analysis of a series of experiments at major particle accelerators that sheds light on the nature of this transition. The scientists determined with precision the transition temperature and obtained new insights into the mechanism of cooling and freeze-out of the quark-gluon plasma into the current constituents of matter such as protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei. The team of researchers consists of scientists from the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, and from the universities of Heidelberg and Münster (Germany), and Wroclaw (Poland).

A central result: The record-breaking high-energy experiments with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the research center CERN produced matter in which particles and antiparticles coexisted in equal amounts, similar to the conditions in the early universe. The team has confirmed via analysis of the experimental data theoretical predictions that the phase transition between quark-gluon plasma and hadronic matter takes place at the temperature of 156 MeV, 120,000 times higher than that in the interior of the sun.

Continue reading “New observations to understand the phase transition in quantum chromodynamics” »

Announcing Two Ini Postdoctoral Fellowships

Ini Fellowship in Neuroscience Research

The Iowa Neuroscience Institute ( INI ), part of the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa, seeks talented postdoctoral scientists to engage in cutting-edge neuroscience research. The INI was established in January 2017, supported by a transformational $45 million grant to the University of Iowa from The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. Led by Director Ted Abel, Ph.D., the INI is a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary neuroscience center spanning 5 colleges and 26 departments, dedicated to finding the causes of — and preventions, treatments, and cures for — the many diseases that affect the brain and nervous system. Successful candidates will join a strong cohort of postdoctoral fellows working in the field of neuroscience, such as those participating in the NIH –funded INSPIRE program. The University of Iowa Postdoctoral Association provides a variety of social and professional development opportunities on campus.

Vector today launched a new programme to raise awareness of the need to keep trees well clear from power lines, by planting thousands more of them to launch the initiative.

The Vector Urban Forest initiative means the power company will replace every tree it must cut down for network management or safety purposes, with two new natives, planted in areas that help with local ecological restoration schemes.

“The Vector Urban Forest is a promise from Vector to plant two native seedlings where they are needed most, and far away from Auckland’s powerlines which will mean Aucklanders’ power supply is better protected”, said Andre Botha, Vector’s Chief Networks Officer.

Semiconductor nanoparticles under the influence of an electric field are directed by the intensity of light.

Billionaire Paul Allen’s aerospace company says it’s exploring the development of a series of rocket planes that would serve as testbeds for hypersonic flight.

Why aging isn’t a way out if you’re tired of living…

Suppose that, at a point, you get completely, irreparably tired of life and want to die. In these circumstances, how willing would you be to bear with around twenty more years of the same life that you can’t stand any more, particularly in a state of declining health? It would seem more reasonable that if you are tired of life right now and you are absolutely certain that you will not change your mind, you would rather end your life at once than wait for two more, increasingly miserable, decades. Yet, there is a certain narrative suggesting that the decay of old age, which inevitably leads to death, is an acceptable option for people who are sure that they are through with life.

Warning: spoilers

Continue reading “Aging and Tiredness of Living: from the Frying Pan to the Fire” »

As of June, a total of 31 states and the District of Columbia allow for the use of medical marijuana. Pain is the most common reason people say they need this cannabis and the vast majority of users say that it helps. However, despite the claims of the many individuals who believe that cannabinoids — the chemicals in marijuana — can ease pain, it’s been difficult for scientists to explain why. Researchers published in JAMA Psychiatry now claim to clarify the discrepancy.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis released Wednesday, scientists from Syracuse University explain that while studies can’t currently prove that cannabinoid drugs reduce pain, research does demonstrate that they can help with the experience of feeling pain. An evaluation of 18 studies that included 442 adults revealed that the use of cannabinoid drugs modestly increased people’s threshold for pain and reduced pain’s overall sensation of unpleasantness. This suggests to the researchers that cannabis’ analgesic properties, or ability to relieve pain, affect the mind rather than the body.

“This [result] is especially salient because managing chronic pain is not solely about minimizing pain,” Kevin Boehnke, Ph.D., who was not involved in the study, tells Inverse. Boehnke is currently a part of a University of Michigan study also analyzing the effect of cannabis on chronic pain. “Sleep problems, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and other factors tie into the experience of chronic pain.”