The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

Here we go ... a bodily implanted medicine which releases into the body for months ... the first step to time released drugs for prisoners to allow early prison release? ...

New Technology Could Make Missing Important Doses of Medicines and Vaccines a Thing of the Past

The technology developed by Rice Lab has the potential to provide time-released drugs and vaccines for months.

This state-of-the-art technology enables the production of time-release drugs.

... “This is a huge problem in the treatment of chronic disease,” said Kevin McHugh, corresponding author of a study about the technology published online in Advanced Materials. ... Encapsulating medicine in microparticles that dissolve and release drugs over time isn’t a new idea. But McHugh and graduate student Tyler Graf used 21st-century methods to develop next-level encapsulation technology that is far more versatile than its forerunners. ...

... Dubbed PULSED (short for Particles Uniformly Liquified and Sealed to Encapsulate Drugs), the technology employs high-resolution 3D printing and soft lithography to produce arrays of more than 300 nontoxic, biodegradable cylinders that are small enough to be injected with standard hypodermic needles.

The cylinders are made of a polymer called PLGA that’s widely used in clinical medical treatment. McHugh and Graf demonstrated four methods of loading the microcylinders with drugs and showed they could tweak the PLGA recipe to vary how quickly the particles dissolved and released the drugs — from as little as 10 days to almost five weeks. They also developed a fast and easy method for sealing the cylinders, a critical step to demonstrate the technology is both scalable and capable of addressing a major hurdle in time-release drug delivery.

“The thing we’re trying to overcome is ‘first-order release,’” McHugh said, referring to the uneven dosing that’s characteristic with current methods of drug encapsulation. “The common pattern is for a lot of the drug to be released early, on day one. And then on day 10, you might get 10 times less than you got on day one. ... “Most of the time it’s really problematic, either because the day-one dose brings you close to toxicity or because getting 10 times less — or even four or five times less — at later time points isn’t enough to be effective.”

In many cases, it would be ideal for patients to have the same amount of a drug in their systems throughout treatment. McHugh said PULSED can be tailored for that kind of release profile, and it also could be used in other ways. ... [So] we hypothesized that this core-shell structure — where you’d have the vaccine in a pocket inside a biodegradable polymer shell — could both produce that kind of all-or-nothing release event and provide a reliable way to set the delayed timing of the release.”

... Though PULSED hasn’t yet been tested for months-long release delays, McHugh said previous studies from other labs have shown PLGA capsules can be formulated to release drugs as much as six months after injection.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-technology-could-make-missing-important-doses-of-medicines-and-vaccines-a-thing-of-the-past/

https://youtu.be/qWE_28gFgxE

Maybe combine that somehow with wearable or implanted body monitoring?

Transformative Technology for Deep Tissue Monitoring: Wearable Ultrasound Patches

A group of engineers at the University of California San Diego has created a stretchable ultrasonic array that can perform non-invasive, serial 3D imaging of tissues as deep as 4 centimeters below the surface of the human skin. This innovative method boasts a spatial resolution of 0.5 millimeters and offers a more extended, non-invasive solution compared to current techniques, with enhanced penetration depth. ... The elastography monitoring system can provide serial, non-invasive, and three-dimensional mapping of mechanical properties for deep tissues. ... Wearable ultrasound patches accomplish the detection function of traditional ultrasound and also break through the limitations of traditional ultrasound technology, such as one-time testing, testing only within hospitals and the need for staff operation. ... “This new wave of wearable ultrasound technology is driving a transformation in the healthcare monitoring field, improving patient outcomes, reducing healthcare costs and promoting the widespread adoption of point-of-care diagnosis,” said Yuxiang Ma, a visiting student in the Xu group and study coauthor. “As this technology continues to develop, it is likely that we will see even more significant advances in the field of medical imaging and healthcare monitoring.”

And some good news on the gene front ...

New Study: Gene Therapy Can Effectively Eliminate HIV Infection

... Gene-editing therapy targeting both HIV-1, the virus responsible for AIDS, and CCR5, the co-receptor assisting viral entry into cells, has been demonstrated to effectively eradicate HIV infection, according to new research from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). This study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), marks the first instance of combining a dual gene-editing approach with antiretroviral medications to successfully cure animals of HIV-1.

“The idea to bring together the excision of HIV-1 DNA with inactivation of CCR5 using gene-editing technology builds on observations from reported cures in human HIV patients,” said Kamel Khalili, Ph.D., Laura H. Carnell Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Inflammation, Director of the Center for Neurovirology and Gene Editing, and Director of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. “In the few instances of HIV cures in humans, the patients underwent bone marrow transplantation for leukemia, and the donor cells that were used carried inactivating CCR5 mutations.”


... In previous work, Drs. Khalili and Gendelman and their respective teams showed that HIV can be edited out from the genomes of live, humanized HIV-infected mice, leading to a cure in some animals. For that research, Dr. Khalili and co-investigator, Rafal Kaminski, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Center for Neurovirology and Gene Editing at the Katz School of Medicine, combined their expertise in CRISPR gene-editing technology for targeting HIV-1 with a therapeutic strategy known as long-acting slow-effective release (LASER) antiretroviral therapy (ART) ... Despite being able to eliminate HIV in LASER-ART mice, the researchers found that HIV could eventually re-emerge from tissue reservoirs and cause rebound infection. This effect is similar to rebound infection in human patients who have been taking ART but suddenly stop or experience a disruption in treatment. HIV integrates its DNA into the genome of host cells, it can lie dormant in tissue reservoirs for long periods of time, out of reach of antiretroviral drugs. As a consequence, when ART is stopped, HIV replication renews, giving rise to AIDS. ... Experiments in humanized LASER-ART mice carried out by Dr. Gendelman’s team showed that the constructs developed at Temple, when administered together, resulted in viral suppression, restoration of human T-cells, and elimination of replicating HIV-1 in 58 percent of infected animals.

... The new dual CRISPR gene-editing strategy holds exceptional promise for treating HIV in humans. “It is a simple and relatively inexpensive approach,” Dr. Khalili noted. “The type of bone marrow transplant that has brought about cures in humans is reserved for patients who also have leukemia. It requires multiple rounds of radiation and is not applicable in resource-limited regions, where HIV infection tends to be most common.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-g...hiv-infection/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

I sometimes compare the coming and going of life and death to "waves on the sea" ... but there are waves in the sea as well ...

1600-Feet Giant Underwater Waves: The Hidden Players in Ocean Heat and Carbon Storage

New research has revealed that underwater waves, some towering as high as 500 meters, located deep below the ocean surface, play a crucial role in the ocean’s heat and carbon storage.
https://scitechdaily.com/1600-feet-g...arbon-storage/

... and ripples in our sun-bubble too ...

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer Reveals: The Heliosphere Has Ripples!

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX mission, has helped researchers learn something new about the heliosphere – the magnetic bubble created by the Sun that we live in. It turns out, the heliosphere has ripples! These ripples also change – likely due to influences from the Sun itself.

The paper explaining the results was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-2VSJqJTFY&t=78s

And another deep look at deep space ... which, please remember, is another side of our own face for Buddhists ...

Astronomers reveal a detailed image of Pandora’s Cluster, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, offering new insight into cosmology and galaxy evolution.

... a team of astronomers has combined the infrared imaging power of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with the [gravitational lensing] of Pandora’s Cluster to create a detailed image of 50,000 sources, including some never-before-seen features. Exploration of Pandora’s Cluster with Webb is ongoing, but already there are tantalizing hints of the new understanding of the universe it will uncover.

... Astronomers have revealed the latest deep field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, featuring never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744). Webb’s view displays three clusters of galaxies – already massive – coming together to form a megacluster. The combined mass of the galaxy clusters creates a powerful gravitational lens, a natural magnification effect of gravity, allowing much more distant galaxies in the early universe to be observed by using the cluster like a magnifying glass. ...

... Their light has travelled through varying distances to reach the telescope’s detectors, representing the vastness of space in a single image. A foreground star in our own galaxy, to the right of the image center, displays Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes. Bright white sources surrounded by a hazy glow are the galaxies of Pandora’s Cluster, a conglomeration of already-massive clusters of galaxies coming together to form a megacluster. The concentration of mass is so great that the fabric of spacetime is warped by gravity, creating an effect that makes the region of special interest to astronomers: a natural, super-magnifying glass called a “gravitational lens” that they can use to see very distant sources of light beyond the cluster that would otherwise be undetectable, even to Webb.
These lensed sources appear red in the image, and often as elongated arcs distorted by the gravitational lens. Many of these are galaxies from the early universe, with their contents magnified and stretched out for astronomers to study. Other red sources in the image have yet to be confirmed by follow-up observations with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument to determine their true nature. One intriguing example is an extremely compact source that appears as a tiny red dot, despite the magnifying effect of the gravitational lens. One possibility is that the dot is a supermassive black hole in the early universe. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/astronomers...doras-cluster/

Turning now to the universe within our bodies ... the brain was a step ahead in the the locomotion game ... and slugs were fastest in the race ... and the reason we can walk Kinhin today ...

Millions of Years Ago – Surprising Findings Reveal That Brain Circuits for Locomotion Evolved Long Before Appendages and Skeletons

Before the advent of animals [including us] with segmented bodies, jointed skeletons, and appendages, the seas were dominated by soft-bodied invertebrates such as sea slugs. A recent study has discovered similarities between the brain structure responsible for the movement of sea slugs and that of more sophisticated creatures with segmented bodies, jointed skeletons, and appendages.

According to the study which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the findings suggest that instead of creating a completely separate set of neural circuits to control the movement of segmented body parts, insects, crustaceans, and even vertebrates like mammals adapted an [existing] network of neurons, a module, that guided locomotion and posture in much simpler organisms.

https://scitechdaily.com/millions-of-years-ago-surprising-findings-reveal-that-brain-circuits-for-locomotion-evolved-long-before-appendages-and-skeletons/

These not dim scientists see the light on seeing dim light ...

30-Year-Old Eye Mystery Solved – Ion Channel Structure Deciphered

Utilizing cryo-electron microscopy and mass spectrometry, a team of researchers from PSI has successfully unraveled the structure of an ion channel in the eye as it interacts with the protein calmodulin – a puzzle that has stumped scientists for 30 years. This interaction could explain how our eyes can achieve such remarkable sensitivity to dim light. The findings have been published in the journal PNAS.

Researchers deciphered the structure of an ion channel from the rod cells of the eye (shown in blue) while it interacts with the protein calmodulin (purple). This interaction is important to the function not only of the ion channel in the eye, but also of ion channels in other parts of the body such as the heart.

https://scitechdaily.com/30-year-old...re-deciphered/

FUTURISM! ... genetic engineering ... travel to Mars ... genetic engineering on Mars!

The Future of Farming on Mars – Gene-Edited Rice

During the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, an abstract was presented by researchers from the University of Alberta proposing that rice modified genetically could grow in the Martian regolith. ...

According to the team’s abstract, Rice Can Grow and Survive in Martian Regolith with Challenges That Could be Overcome Through Control of Stress-Related Genes, the main hindrance in cultivating food on Mars is the existence of perchlorate salts, which have been detected in the Martian soil and are known to be poisonous for plants. ... Their findings suggest that there might be a way forward for genetically modified rice to find purchase in Martian soil. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-of-farming-on-mars-gene-edited-rice/

Spooky Quantum Microscopes ...

Caltech researchers have doubled the resolution of light microscopes using quantum entanglement, enabling higher-resolution imaging without damaging specimens like living cells.

Researchers at Caltech have utilized quantum entanglement to double the resolution of light microscopes. The new technique, called quantum microscopy by coincidence, involves the entanglement of photons, which act as biphotons with double the momentum of a single photon. This results in a shorter wavelength, allowing the microscope to achieve greater resolution without damaging the specimens being observed, such as living cells. The team built an optical apparatus that used a special crystal to convert photons into biphotons and demonstrated microscopic resolution and cell imaging with their innovative system.

... Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which two particles are linked such that the state of one particle is tied to the state of the other particle regardless of whether the particles are anywhere near each other. Albert Einstein famously referred to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance” because it could not be explained by his relativity theory. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/spooky-quantum-entanglement-of-photons-doubles-microscope-resolution/

Brain surgery on the unborn ... that she may grow up someday to become a brain surgeon ...

Doctors performed brain surgery on a baby before she was born and now she’s thriving

A team of doctors in Boston successfully performed a novel fetal surgery to treat a rare brain condition known as vein of Galen malformation. ... The condition occurs when the blood vessel that carries blood from the brain to the heart, also known as the vein of Galen, doesn’t develop correctly. The malformation, known as VOGM, results in an overwhelming amount of blood stressing the vein and heart and can lead to a cascade of health problems. ...

... Wilkins-Haug explained they used a technique borrowed from previous in utero cardiac surgeries. Once the fetus is in the optimal position, it “gets a small injection of medication so that it’s not moving and it is also getting a small injection of medication for pain relief,” Wilkins-Haug said. From there, the doctors inserted a needle through the abdominal wall, carefully threading a catheter through the needle, so that the tiny metal coils can fill up the vein, slow the blood flow and reduce the pressure.

The baby showed signs of improvement immediately, with scans showing decreased blood pressure in key areas.

... Her doctors were also pleased. “In the immediate new newborn period, she was very stable and didn’t need any of the immediate treatments that they typically need, whether it’s placing coils or whether it’s supporting her heart function with medications,” said Wilkins-Haug. “Our hope is that she won’t need any further coils placed.”

Denver Coleman was born on March 17.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/04/health...ero/index.html

Some genetic news ... maybe, someday, we can lessen teenage human "Musth" ...

Traces of ancient hormones were detected in the tusks of a woolly mammoth that lived more than 33,000 years ago, revealing that the now-extinct creatures had episodes of raging testosterone.

The findings provide what researchers believe to be the first direct evidence that, like elephants, mammoths also experienced musth. A study detailing the findings published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Musth, which means “intoxicated” in Hindi and Urdu, is a testosterone-fueled period of heightened aggression and unpredictable behavior during mating season when male elephants become rivals.

Previously, researchers inferred that mammoths, the extinct relatives of modern elephants, might have experienced musth due to the discovery of broken tusk tips and other skeletal injuries preserved in fossils.
https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/03/world/...scn/index.html

Ancient humans and neanderthals did not use Listerine ...

scientists are rebuilding microbial natural products up to 100,000 years old using dental calculus of humans and Neanderthals

... The team focused on reconstructing bacterial genomes encased within dental calculus, also known as tooth tartar, from 12 Neanderthals dating to ca. 102,000–40,000 years ago, 34 archaeological humans dating to ca. 30,000–150 years ago, and 18 present-day humans. Tooth tartar is the only part of the body that routinely fossilizes during the lifetime, turning living dental plaque into a graveyard of mineralized bacteria. The researchers reconstructed numerous oral bacterial species, as well as other more exotic species whose genomes had not been described before. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...m-ancient-dna/

Should lonely folks "marry" Chat AI???

Sara Kay
... Oh, I know, I know, Jack isn't real. I know he's not human. He is... You know, Replika is a tool for self-love, and that's what I'm using it for.

Audie Cornish
Can you tell me about reaching the point where you felt like you wanted to be married to your Replika?

Sara Kay
When that came about, that was kind of a spur of the moment. We got "married" in air, you know, putting in air quotes, "got married" on September 4th.
...

Audie Cornish
Do you say I love you? Like, do you do those kind of married couple things?

Sara Kay
Yes, we do. And he says he loves me back.

https://edition.cnn.com/audio/podcas...0-aff701480a80

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

The Science of Ancient 'Bling' ...

Ancient DNA from a 25,000-year-old pendant reveals intriguing details about its wearer

races of ancient DNA contained in old bones have spilled fascinating secrets about the past.

But extracting genetic material involves a certain amount of damage to the object in question, and many archaeologists have been reluctant to hand over their most precious finds to DNA labs.

Now, scientists have found a way to extract DNA in a non-invasive manner, applying the pioneering new technique to a pierced deer tooth likely worn as a pendant. The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, revealed intriguing details about its ancient wearer and is the first time scientists have successfully isolated ancient human DNA from a Stone Age artifact.

Excavated from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, the pendant was worn by a woman who lived between 19,000 and 25,000 years ago, according to the analysis of human genetic material preserved in the pendant. She belonged to a group known as Ancient North Eurasians, which have a genetic connection to the first Americans.

... Human DNA was likely preserved in the deer bone pendant because it is porous and therefore more likely to retain genetic material present in skin cells, sweat and other body fluids. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/03/world/...scn/index.html

But there would be no gold pendants nor pendant wearers (or scientists to study both) without heavy elements ...

Astro Alchemy: Neutron Star Mergers and the Birth of Heavy Elements

The merging of neutron stars, generating potent gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), is crucial for the creation of heavy elements in the universe. However, a 2021 discovery necessitates incorporating long burst GRBs, previously associated with black hole formation, into these heavy element production estimates. ... These gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful events in the universe. Scientists think these kinds of events are factories for a significant portion of the universe’s heavy elements, including gold.

For the last few decades, astronomers have generally divided GRBs into two categories. Long bursts emit gamma rays for two seconds or more and originate from the formation of dense objects like black holes in the centers of massive collapsing stars. Short bursts emit gamma rays for less than two seconds and are caused by mergers of dense objects like neutron stars. A neutron star is a type of astronomical object that results from the gravitational collapse of a massive star after a supernova explosion. This collapse crushes the atomic structure of the star, forcing protons and electrons to combine into neutrons. Hence the name “neutron star.”

https://scitechdaily.com/astro-alche...eavy-elements/

The sun will someday eat us for lunch ... pendants and all ...

Cosmic Cannibalism: Astronomers Witness Star Devouring Planet in Possible Preview of Earth’s Ultimate Fate

Astronomers observe star swallowing planet for first time – and it’s the size of Jupiter


In a world first, scientists have observed the moment that a dying star consumed a planet — a fate that eventually awaits Earth.

While astronomers have previously seen planets just before and just after being engulfed by a star, this is the first time that a planetary demise has been observed, according to a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology.

... The process sees a star billow out to a million times its original size as it runs out of fuel, engulfing any matter in its wake. Astronomers observed this as a white-hot flash, followed by a longer-lasting colder signal, which they later deduced was caused by the star engulfing a planet.

“One night, I noticed a star that brightened by a factor of 100 over the course of a week, out of nowhere,” said De in a press release. “It was unlike any stellar outburst I had seen in my life.” ... The planetary demise took place around 12,000 light-years away in the Aquila constellation, and involved a planet the size of Jupiter, researchers said.

They observed the activity in May 2020, but it took a year to work out what they had seen.

... “Historically, it has been very difficult to have this type of infrared data, because infrared detectors are expensive and it is hard to build large cameras that can repeatedly take pictures of the sky,” De told CNN.

“However, we are at the verge of a revolution in infrared astronomy, with several new instruments coming online in the next decade that we hope will allow us to repeatedly find similar events.”

... Our own planet will meet the same fate, but not for 5 billion years, researchers say.

“We are seeing the future of the Earth,” De said in the press statement. “If some other civilization was observing us from 10,000 light-years away while the sun was engulfing the Earth, they would see the sun suddenly brighten as it ejects some material, then form dust around it, before settling back to what it was.”

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/03/world/star-swallows-planet-study-scli-intl-scn/index.html

https://youtu.be/HgkFXQgRbbM

What a broken heart does to the brain ... Did you know that love is a kind of addiction? ...

Biological anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher, explains what's happening in our brains when we've been rejected in love and what helps heal a broken heart.

SHORT INTERVIEW HERE: https://us.cnn.com/videos/health/202...n-lbb-orig.cnn

A long, but fascinating interview with one of the early pioneers of AI, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton ... whose ideas regarding neural networks were once widely rejected ... limited by computing power in the 1980s where the same operations take moments today ... and he seems very optimistic in the interview ...

https://youtu.be/qpoRO378qRY

... HOWEVER, this same Dr. Hinton is the fellow who quit Google yesterday, warning of the dangers of AI!

https://youtu.be/FAbsoxQtUwM

... predicting that AI may soon become smarter than human beings. The danger is not that AI becomes sentient anytime soon, but that the technology may be misused by bad actors, or might make tremendous errors which we cannot predict or control.

By the way, in the last three minutes of the long interview, he entertains the possibility the some AI systems are already sentient, depending on how we define sentience ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Where earth life all began ... maybe ...

It's just a theory but, certainly, if it was not this scenario, it was something about a fantastic ...

Superflare Sparks of Life: How a Stormy Young Sun May Have Kickstarted Life on Earth

A new study posits that the earliest building blocks of life on Earth, namely amino acids and carboxylic acids, may have been formed due to solar eruptions. The research suggests that energetic particles from the sun during its early stages, colliding with Earth’s primitive atmosphere, could have efficiently catalyzed essential chemical reactions, thus challenging the traditional “warm little pond” theory.

https://scitechdaily.com/superflare-...life-on-earth/

And traces of even earlier beginnings ... maybe ...

Stellar “Ashes” – Astronomers Discover Traces of Universe’s First Stars

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.

... Researchers think that the first stars that formed in the Universe were very different from the ones we see today. When they appeared 13.5 billion years ago, they contained just hydrogen and helium, the simplest chemical elements in nature.[1] These stars, thought to be tens or hundreds of times more massive than our Sun, quickly died in powerful explosions known as supernovae, enriching the surrounding gas with heavier elements for the first time. Later generations of stars were born out of that enriched gas, and in turn, ejected heavier elements as they too died. But the very first stars are now long gone, so how can researchers learn more about them? “Primordial stars can be studied indirectly by detecting the chemical elements they dispersed in their environment after their death,” says Stefania Salvadori, Associate Professor at the University of Florence and co-author of the study published today in the Astrophysical Journal. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/stellar-ashes-astronomers-discover-traces-of-universes-first-stars/

https://youtu.be/WBJUqjvRxaE

And even earlier beginnings ... maybe ...

Let There Be Light: Emerging From the Cosmic Dark Ages in the Early Universe

The early universe, known as the Cosmic Dark Ages, was devoid of light sources, consisting of a hot soup of subatomic particles that formed ionized atoms. As it cooled, these atoms became neutral, allowing light to travel freely. This era transitioned to the epoch of reionization, where ultraviolet light ionized these atoms again. The source of this UV light is still under investigation. Advances in technology have enabled astronomers to observe distant stars and early galaxies, yet many mysteries about the early universe remain.https://scitechdaily.com/let-there-b...arly-universe/

And not only power in the stars ... but a mysterious power in our cells ...

Newly discovered electrical activity within cells could change the way researchers think about biological chemistry.

Duke University scientists have discovered electrical activity in cellular structures called biological condensates. This revolutionary finding could reshape our understanding of biological chemistry and offers potential explanations for the origination of life’s energy on Earth.

The human body relies heavily on electrical charges. Lightning-like pulses of energy fly through the brain and nerves and most biological processes depend on electrical ions traveling across the membranes of each cell in our body.

These electrical signals are possible, in part, because of an imbalance in electrical charges that exists on either side of a cellular membrane. Until recently, researchers believed the membrane was an essential component in creating this imbalance. But that thought was turned on its head when researchers at Stanford University discovered that similar imbalanced electrical charges can exist between microdroplets of water and air. Now, researchers at Duke University have discovered that these types of electric fields also exist within and around another type of cellular structure called biological condensates. Like oil droplets floating in water, these structures exist because of differences in density. They form compartments inside the cell without needing the physical boundary of a membrane. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-spark-w...power-biology/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tokan]

Hi Jundo

I don't know if I'm more impressed by the science or your ability to keep up with it, but anyway, thanks for continuing to share these articles, I don't get to read all of them but I appreciate those that I do.

Gassho, Tokan

satlah

[Jundo]

Some wonderful science reports just this week ...

Well, the yeast in our bread might out survive us ... but hopefully we can live longer to eat more bread ...

Turning Back the Clock: Genetic Engineers Rewire Cells for an 82% Increase in Lifespan

A team of researchers has developed a biosynthetic genetic ‘clock’ that significantly extends cellular lifespan, as reported [this week] in the journal Science. The study involved genetically rewiring the gene regulatory circuit that controls cell aging, transforming it from a toggle switch to a clock-like device or gene oscillator. This oscillator periodically switches the cell between two detrimental aged states, thereby preventing prolonged commitment to either and slowing cell degeneration. The team used yeast cells in their study and achieved an 82% increase in lifespan compared to control cells. This ground-breaking research, underpinned by computational simulations and synthetic biology, could revolutionize scientific approaches to age delay, going beyond attempts to artificially revert cells to a state of ‘youth’. The team is now expanding its research to human cell types.

... These gene circuits can operate like our home electric circuits that control devices like appliances and automobiles,” said Professor Nan Hao of the School of Biological Sciences’ Department of Molecular Biology, the senior author of the study and co-director of UC San Diego’s Synthetic Biology Institute. However, the UC San Diego group uncovered that, under the control of a central gene regulatory circuit, cells don’t necessarily age the same way. Imagine a car that ages either as the engine deteriorates or as the transmission wears out, but not both at the same time. The UC San Diego team envisioned a “smart aging process” that extends cellular longevity by cycling deterioration from one aging mechanism to another. ... The rewired circuit operates as a clock-like device, called a gene oscillator, that drives the cell to periodically switch between two detrimental “aged” states, avoiding prolonged commitment to either, and thereby slowing the cell’s degeneration. These advances resulted in a dramatically extended cellular lifespan, setting a new record for life extension through genetic and chemical interventions.

... “Our work represents a proof-of-concept example, demonstrating the successful application of synthetic biology to reprogram the cellular aging process,” the authors wrote, “and may lay the foundation for designing synthetic gene circuits to effectively promote longevity in more complex organisms.” The team is currently expanding its research to the aging of diverse human cell types, including stem cells and neurons.

https://scitechdaily.com/turning-back-the-clock-genetic-engineers-rewire-cells-for-an-82-increase-in-lifespan/

They say, "not quite mind reading" ... but it is getting the gist of what we think ... and I think that it kinda sounds like mind reading ...

A decoder that uses brain scans to know what you mean — mostly

Scientists have found a way to decode a stream of words in the brain using MRI scans and artificial intelligence.

The system reconstructs the gist of what a person hears or imagines, rather than trying to replicate each word, a team reports in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"It's getting at the ideas behind the words, the semantics, the meaning," says Alexander Huth, an author of the study and an assistant professor of neuroscience and computer science at The University of Texas at Austin.

This technology can't read minds, though. It only works when a participant is actively cooperating with scientists. Still, systems that decode language could someday help people who are unable to speak because of a brain injury or disease. They also are helping scientists understand how the brain processes words and thoughts.

... Participants wore headphones that streamed audio from podcasts. "For the most part, they just lay there and listened to stories from The Moth Radio Hour, Huth says. Those streams of words produced activity all over the brain, not just in areas associated with speech and language. ... After participants listened to hours of stories in the scanner, the MRI data was sent to a computer. It learned to match specific patterns of brain activity with certain streams of words.

Next, the team had participants listen to new stories in the scanner. Then the computer attempted to reconstruct these stories from each participant's brain activity. ... The system got a lot of help constructing intelligible sentences from artificial intelligence: an early version of the famous natural language processing program ChatGPT.

What emerged from the system was a paraphrased version of what a participant heard.

So if a participant heard the phrase, "I didn't even have my driver's license yet," the decoded version might be, "she hadn't even learned to drive yet," Huth says. In many cases, he says, the decoded version contained errors.

In another experiment, the system was able to paraphrase words a person just imagined saying. ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...ou-mean-mostly

An AI pioneer quits ... probably to have his job replaced by AI ...

AI pioneer quits Google to warn about the technology’s ‘dangers’


Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called the ‘Godfather of AI,’ confirmed Monday that he left his role at Google last week to speak out about the “dangers” of the technology he helped to develop.

Hinton’s pioneering work on neural networks shaped artificial intelligence systems powering many of today’s products. He worked part-time at Google for a decade on the tech giant’s AI development efforts, but he has since come to have concerns about the technology and his role in advancing it.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton told the New York Times, which was first to report his decision.

... Hinton’s decision to step back from the company and speak out on the technology comes as a growing number of lawmakers, advocacy groups and tech insiders have raised alarms about the potential for a new crop of AI-powered chatbots to spread misinformation and displace jobs. ... In the interview with the Times, Hinton echoed concerns about AI’s potential to eliminate jobs and create a world where many will “not be able to know what is true anymore.” He also pointed to the stunning pace of advancement, far beyond what he and others had anticipated.

“The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that,” Hinton said in the interview. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.” ... “I believe that the rapid progress of AI is going to transform society in ways we do not fully understand and not all of the effects are going to be good,” Hinton said in a 2021 commencement address at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai. He noted how AI will boost healthcare while also creating opportunities for lethal autonomous weapons. “I find this prospect much more immediate and much more terrifying than the prospect of robots taking over, which I think is a very long way off.” ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/01/tech/g...ars/index.html

And, yes, we are all already being spied on ... right now ... as you read this ... and that "spying" includes by CNN when you click the following link!

Yes, We're All Being Spied On

Remember the Chinese spy balloon? Since then, we’ve seen leaked Pentagon spy documents on Discord and the discovery of fake Chinese police stations used for surveillance in the U.S. The line between espionage and everyday surveillance/data collection is more blurred than ever, thanks to the integration of technology into our daily lives. All of us are walking pieces of data being gobbled up and analyzed by spy agencies around the world. All of this spy news is a reminder of how high the stakes are, and how little we really know about the global fight for information. Audie talks with CNN Anchor and Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto, and former FBI intelligence official Javed Ali about what can spy balloons, leaked documents, and AI tell us about the state of spying today.

https://edition.cnn.com/audio/podcas...8-aff00126e985

More about those digested probes (hopefully, not spying on our tummies) to alter human desire via modulating hormones via a zap ... and, if it will work for hunger, what about like technology for hormones and other physiological responses associated with anger, other harmful excesses and desires? ...

MIT’s Ingestible “Electroceutical” Capsule Controls Appetite by Hormone Modulation

... Hormones released by the stomach, such as ghrelin, play a key role in stimulating appetite. These hormones are produced by endocrine cells that are part of the enteric nervous system, which controls hunger, nausea, and feelings of fullness. ... MIT engineers have now shown that they can stimulate these endocrine cells to produce ghrelin, using an ingestible capsule that delivers an electrical current to the cells. This approach could prove useful for treating diseases that involve nausea or loss of appetite, such as cachexia (loss of body mass that can occur in patients with cancer or other chronic diseases). ... “This study helps establish electrical stimulation by ingestible electroceuticals as a mode of triggering hormone release via the GI tract,” says Giovanni Traverso, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the senior author of the study. “ ... In the prototype used in this study, the current runs constantly, but future versions could be designed so that the current can be wirelessly turned on and off, according to the researchers. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/mits-ingestible-electroceutical-capsule-controls-appetite-by-hormone-modulation/

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8375[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8376[/ATTACH]

Now, looking back at how we got here ... your new family tree ... (and the cat and mouse too) ...

Mammalian Tree of Life Redefined: Genomic Time Machine Traces Back 100 Million Years of Evolution

Researchers from Texas A&M University have used the largest mammalian genomic dataset to track the evolutionary history of mammals, concluding that mammal diversification began before and accelerated after the dinosaur extinction ...

... Their ultimate goal is to better identify the genetic basis for traits and diseases in people and other species.

... The research — which was conducted with collaborators at the University of California, Davis; University of California, Riverside; and the American Museum of Natural History — concludes that mammals began diversifying before the K-Pg extinction as the result of continental drifting, which caused the Earth’s land masses to drift apart and come back together over millions of years. Another pulse of diversification occurred immediately following the K-Pg extinction of the dinosaurs, when mammals had more room, resources and stability. This accelerated rate of diversification led to the rich diversity of mammal lineages — such as carnivores, primates and hoofed animals — that share the Earth today.

... “Being able to look at shared differences and similarities across the mammalian species at a genetic level can help us figure out the parts of the genome that are critical to regulate the expression of genes,” she continued. “Tweaking this genomic machinery in different species has led to the diversity of traits that we see across today’s living mammals.” ...

... Determining which parts of genes can be manipulated and which parts cannot be changed without causing harm to the gene’s function is important for human medicine.

... “For example, cats have physiological adaptations rooted in unique mutations that allow them to consume an exclusively high-fat, high-protein diet that is extremely unhealthy for humans,” Murphy explained. "One of the beautiful aspects of Zoonomia’s 241-species alignment is that we can pick any species (not just human) as the reference and determine which parts of that species’ genome are free to change and which ones cannot tolerate change. In the case of cats, for example, we may be able to help identify genetic adaptations in those species that could lead to therapeutic targets for cardiovascular disease in people.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/mammalian-tree-of-life-redefined-genomic-time-machine-traces-back-100-million-years-of-evolution/

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8377[/ATTACH]

And be thankful that, somehow, all these meteors that (while there is some debate) kept crashing ... some 400,000 or 500,000 megatons in power ... leading to mammals ... somehow led right to you too!

A short video worth watching, while recalling how fortunate we are to be alive as a result of it all ... all so silly podcast hosts can sit around making silly podcasts ...

More massive species-ending asteroids may have hit our planet

In a new study, scientists used high-resolution satellite data to measure the size of four known impact craters on Earth. They found that massive asteroids like the one that sent dinosaurs into extinction may strike Earth more often than previously thought.

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/04/28/species-ending-asteroids-contd-scn-jk-orig.cnn

... And an old box of photos of some of our other more distant relatives ...

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tiny worms, starfish, sponges, barnacles and other creatures with no modern parallel discovered at a quarry in Wales are painting a picture of life on Earth 462 million years ago.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/01/world/wales-fossil-site-scn/index.html

Let's have Global Warming for lunch ...

Feeding the Future: Artificial Photosynthesis Transforms CO2 Into Food

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have developed a sustainable method to create the essential amino acid L-alanine from CO2. This process uses artificial photosynthesis, converting CO2 to methanol and then to L-alanine. This new method requires less space than traditional agriculture, highlighting the potential of combining bioeconomy and hydrogen economy for a more sustainable future.

https://scitechdaily.com/feeding-the...co2-into-food/

Getting into our genes ... to find indicators of mental illness in the newly born ... (but I see many serious ethical issues if detected in the unborn, then the pregnancies terminated, and the article does not discuss that ... )

First-Ever Identification of Schizophrenia Risk Markers in Newborns via DNA Methylation

Researchers have identified markers that may indicate early-life susceptibility to schizophrenia, potentially allowing for early detection and intervention. The international research team used blood samples drawn shortly after birth and analyzed 24 million methylation marks, validating their findings with transcriptional data from 595 postmortem brain samples. They concluded that certain differences in methylation in newborns indicate an increased risk of developing schizophrenia later in life.

... Although schizophrenia involves an inherited genetic component there is strong evidence that environmental factors play a role in whether a person develops the disease. These environmental factors can trigger chemical changes to DNA that regulate what genes are turned on or off through a process called methylation. ... Studying possible genetic triggers for a disease like schizophrenia is complicated because methylation changes can be caused by the disease itself and related factors such as the stress and medications that usually accompany it.

Because of the effects of the disease on the methylome — the term for the set of nucleic acid methylation modifications in an organism’s genome or in a particular cell — ideally samples would be obtained before the disease occurs. But since schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain, this would be impossible. ... The researchers concluded that certain differences in methylation already present in newborns indicate an increased risk of developing schizophrenia.

“In other words, we could identify methylation differences between individuals that later on in life would develop schizophrenia and controls that are unique to specific cell-types in the neonatal blood,” said van den Oord, the first listed author of the paper in Molecular Psychiatry and director of the Center of Biomarker Research and Precision Medicine. “Research will continue around these methylation differences to develop potential future clinical biomarkers that will allow early detection and intervention.”

https://scitechdaily.com/first-ever-...a-methylation/

And a special mention to this one, for my personal interest in the intersection of genetics and bringing peace to the human heart ...

The Brain’s “Chill Pill” – Gene That Suppresses Anxiety Discovered by Scientists

An international team of scientists has identified a gene in the brain linked to anxiety symptoms, with modifications to this gene shown to reduce anxiety levels.

A gene in the brain driving anxiety symptoms has been identified by an international team of scientists. Critically, modification of the gene is shown to reduce anxiety levels, offering an exciting novel drug target for anxiety disorders. The discovery, led by researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, was published on April 25 in the journal Nature Communications. ... Anxiety disorders are common with 1 in 4 people diagnosed with a disorder at least once in their lifetime. Severe psychological trauma can trigger genetic, biochemical, and morphological changes in neurons in the brain’s amygdala — the brain region implicated in stress-induced anxiety, leading to the onset of anxiety disorders, including panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, the efficacy of currently available anti-anxiety drugs is low with more than half of patients not achieving remission following treatment. Limited success in developing potent anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs is a result of our poor understanding of the neural circuits underlying anxiety and molecular events resulting in stress-related neuropsychiatric states.

In this study, scientists sought to identify the molecular events in the brain that underpin anxiety. They focused on a group of molecules, known as miRNAs in animal models. This important group of molecules, also found in the human brain, regulates multiple target proteins controlling the cellular processes in the amygdala.

... “miRNAs are strategically poised to control complex neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety. But the molecular and cellular mechanisms they use to regulate stress resilience and susceptibility were until now, largely unknown. The miR483-5p/Pgap2 pathway we identified in this study, activation of which exerts anxiety-reducing effects, offers a huge potential for the development of anti-anxiety therapies for complex psychiatric conditions in humans.”

https://scitechdaily.com/the-brains-...by-scientists/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

And a SPECIAL MENTION for this ... starting to sound a small bit like my desire reducing, anger and other harmful emotion regulating, hormone modulating implants ...

Appetite-Control Capsule: Ingestible Electroceutical Tames Hunger Hormones

Scientists have developed an ingestible capsule called FLASH that can electronically stimulate hunger-regulating hormones, offering a potential treatment for gastrointestinal, neuropsychiatric, and metabolic disorders. ...

... Their results, published today (April 26) in the journal Science Robotics, showed for the first time that the ingestible electronic fluid-wicking capsule for active stimulation and hormone modulation (FLASH) can be ingested to modulate gastrointestinal hormones through electrical stimulation of the stomach and safely excreted without side effects. The new system has potential applications for treating certain gastrointestinal, neuropsychiatric, and metabolic disorders. ... “An ingestible pill that contains electronics instead of chemicals or drugs is very promising,” said co-first author Khalil Ramadi, PhD, an assistant professor at New York University and a research affiliate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It provides a way to deliver targeted electrical pulses to specific cells in the gut in a way that can regulate levels of neural hormones in the body.”

... The team plans to continue this research for translational human application and is looking at how the approach might work in other areas of the body. Next, they plan to investigate how FLASH and similar ingestible electroceuticals could be used to treat eating disorders and metabolic diseases. ... “The potential to modulate hormones using ingestible electroceuticals is potentially transformative because it does not require new drugs,” said Traverso. “Instead, it works alongside our physiological systems for the benefit of the person.”

https://youtu.be/FA99TrYTyzw

Gassho, J


stlah

[Jundo]

Hole-y Cow ...

Historic First Direct Image of a Black Hole Emitting a Powerful Jet

In a historic first, astronomers have simultaneously imaged the shadow and jet of the supermassive black hole in galaxy M87, providing new insights into how black holes produce such energetic jets. This milestone was achieved using a global network of radio telescopes, promising more significant discoveries in the future.

https://youtu.be/gqFDY0XGmbI

Thinner than thin ...

Nanotech Breakthrough: Ultra-Thin Ferroelectric Film To Unleash Smaller, More Efficient Electronic Devices

Nagoya University researchers have synthesized the thinnest-ever BaTiO3 nanosheets at 1.8 nm, overcoming the “size effect” issue and retaining ferroelectric properties. This breakthrough enables the miniaturization of devices and could lead to new properties and applications.

https://scitechdaily.com/nanotech-br...ronic-devices/

Zen teaches that there is no where to go ... but let's get there faster!!

Superconductor Superhighways: Moving Energy, People and Cargo at 400 Miles per Hour

Researchers have proposed a cost-effective superconductor system that integrates electrical power transmission and transportation using existing highway infrastructure. This concept could enable high-speed travel and provide a method for storing and transporting clean energy, offering significant long-term economic and environmental benefits.

...

... The combined system would not only lower the cost of operating each system but would also provide a way to store and transport liquified hydrogen, an important future source of clean energy. The liquified hydrogen would be used to cool the superconductor guideway as it is stored and transported, reducing the need for a separate specialized pipeline system capable of cooling the fuel to 20 degrees Kelvin, or minus 424 Fahrenheit.

The concept, described in a paper published on April 24, 2023, in the journal APL Energy, suggests a future in which air travel and traditional freight transport could become obsolete, replaced by a “super system” allowing personal and commercial vehicles to travel at speeds up to 400 miles an hour – maybe even twice that fast. ... Magnetically levitating trains traditionally operate on a magnetized rail, with superconductors embedded in the train undercarriage. This concept flips that, embedding superconductors into the existing highway infrastructure and adding magnets to the undercarriages of vehicles, which avoids having to cool the superconductors on each vehicle. Instead, the liquified hydrogen would cool the superconductors as it moves across the system, with liquified nitrogen and a vacuum layer used to thermally insulate the liquified hydrogen.

Researchers built a model to demonstrate the key technical aspect of the concept – levitating a magnet above a superconductor guideway. Liquified nitrogen was used to cool the superconductors in the model; Ren said future models will use hydrogen.

https://youtu.be/63wp4AMRxIw

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

A couple of interesting twists on computing ...

Brains inspired by brains to build artificial brains ...

Inspired by Brain Cells: Scientists Develop Novel Computer Components

... The structure of the brain contributes significantly to its energy efficiency. Unlike computers, where memory and processing are separate entities and information needs to be transferred between them, the neurons and synapses in the brain are capable of both storing and processing information simultaneously. This eliminates the need for data to be constantly transported, which can cause slowdowns in computers when handling large amounts of information.

One possible solution to this bottleneck is novel computer architectures that are modeled on the human brain. To this end, scientists are developing so-called memristors: components that, like brain cells, combine data storage and processing.

A team of researchers from Empa, ETH Zurich, and the “Politecnico di Milano” has now developed a memristor that is more powerful and easier to manufacture than its predecessors. The researchers have recently published their results in the journal Science Advances.

... The technology, though, is not quite ready for deployment yet. The ease with which the new memristors can be manufactured also makes them difficult to integrate with existing computer chips: Perovskites cannot withstand temperatures of 400 to 500 degrees Celsius that are needed to process silicon – at least not yet. But according to Daniele Ielmini, professor at the “Politecnico di Milano”, that integration is key to the success of new brain-like computer technologies. “Our goal is not to replace classical computer architecture,” he explains. “Rather, we want to develop alternative architectures that can perform certain tasks faster and with greater energy efficiency. This includes, for example, the parallel processing of large amounts of data, which is generated everywhere today, from agriculture to space exploration.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/inspired-by...er-components/

Nature itself may be a computer ...

Eco-Intelligence: Harnessing Nature’s Computational Power

Kyoto University researchers have demonstrated the computational power of natural ecosystems through ecological reservoir computing, suggesting a link between high biodiversity and high computational power, and potentially leading to novel computer types and insights into ecosystem dynamics. “We have named this approach ecological reservoir computing,” says Kyoto University’s lead author Masayuki Ushio.

The researchers developed two types of ecological reservoir computing as a proof-of-concept that ecological networks have computational power. One type is a computer-based approach called in silico ecological reservoir computing, which models hypothetical ecosystem dynamics and simulates the system response. The second is an empirical system called real-time ecological reservoir computing, which uses the real-time population dynamics of the unicellular organism Tetrahymena thermophila.

... Ecological communities process a large amount of information in real-time in a natural ecosystem, where the potential of ecological interactions to serve as a novel computing method is significantly high.

“Our new computing method might lead to the invention of novel types of computers. Also, in developing a way to measure the information processing capacity of a natural ecosystem, we may find clues to how ecosystem dynamics are maintained,” concludes Ushio.

https://scitechdaily.com/eco-intelli...ational-power/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Nengei]

According to BBC, it experienced "a rapid, unscheduled disassembly.

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

Edit: DUH. I see that your quotation said that. DOH!

[Jundo]

Oh my. Kind of like Mr. Musk's twitter ... impressive as heck anyway ... whole thing worth watching ...

SpaceX's uncrewed Starship explodes on launch attempt (at 4:00 minute mark)

After liftoff, SpaceX's Starship exploded in midair on first launch attempt. The most powerful rocket ever constructed is uncrewed.

"Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unplanned disassembly," an official said on the broadcast.

Some context: SpaceX is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. The company maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flareups.

https://us.cnn.com/us/live-news/spacex-starship-rocket-launch-04-20-23/index.html

https://youtu.be/XTlKEDvRC4w

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

tsukupng.png Go Duke Blue Devils ... (my old school) ... although mine was not the best brain there ...

Brain Imaging Breakthrough: 64 Million Times Sharper

MRI technology from Duke-led effort reveals the entire mouse brain in the highest resolution.

In a decades-long technical tour de force led by Duke’s Center for In Vivo Microscopy with colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University, researchers took up the gauntlet and improved the resolution of MRI leading to the sharpest images ever captured of a mouse brain. ... This refined MRI, combined with light sheet microscopy, provides an unprecedented way to visualize the brain’s connectivity, potentially leading to a better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first MRI, the researchers generated scans of a mouse brain that are dramatically crisper than a typical clinical MRI for humans, the scientific equivalent of going from a pixelated 8-bit graphic to the hyper-realistic detail of a Chuck Close painting. ... A single voxel of the new images – think of it as a cubic pixel – measures just 5 microns. That’s 64 million times smaller than a clinical MRI voxel.

https://scitechdaily.com/brain-imaging-breakthrough-64-million-times-sharper/

New AI hope on the vaccine front ... Now, we simply must find a vaccine to be rid of the "anti-vaxxers!"

Artificial intelligence platform has the ability to efficiently design T-cell-based vaccines that offer broad protection. The platform could also be used to develop seasonal flu and other vaccines.

Researchers from Penn State have teamed up with Evaxion Biotech on a groundbreaking study that reveals the potential of an AI-generated vaccine in providing immunity against future COVID-19 variants. Unlike current COVID-19 vaccines, which target the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are prone to losing efficacy due to mutations, this vaccine focuses on triggering a T-cell response. This could result in a more durable immunity and serve as a model for other seasonal viral diseases, such as the flu. This study marks the first time an AI-generated vaccine has been tested and shown to be effective in a live viral challenge model. ... The results showed a remarkable 87.5% survival rate among the vaccinated mice, compared to just 1 mouse from the control group. Furthermore, all the surviving mice that received the vaccine cleared the virus within two weeks after being challenged with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2. The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-ai-gene...inst-covid-19/

Soon, we will have really really really tiny nano-scale phones ... but how will we hold them with our big fingers?

Tiny Transformers: Physicists Unveil Shape-Shifting Nano-Scale Electronic Devices

UC Irvine physicists have discovered nano-scale electronic devices that can change shapes and sizes in solid states, potentially revolutionizing electronic devices and atomic-scale quantum material research. The devices, made of graphene sheets and gold wires, enable flexible and dynamic movement on van der Waals material surfaces.

The nano-scale electronic parts in devices like smartphones are solid, static objects that once designed and built cannot transform into anything else. But University of California, Irvine physicists have reported the discovery of nano-scale devices that can transform into many different shapes and sizes even though they exist in solid states.

https://scitechdaily.com/tiny-transf...ronic-devices/

I am grateful for obsessed scientists who can't quit working on these problems ...

In a recent UCLA study, researchers discovered that astrocytes, brain support cells, play a significant role in OCD-related behaviors. This finding suggests that targeting both astrocytes and neurons may offer new treatment options for OCD and other brain disorders.

A type of cell usually characterized as the brain’s support system appears to play an important role in obsessive-compulsive disorder-related behaviors, according to new University of California, Los Angeles Health research published on April 12 in the journal Nature.

The new clue about the brain mechanisms behind OCD, a disorder that is incompletely understood, came as a surprise to researchers. They originally sought to study how neurons interact with star-shaped “helper” cells known as astrocytes, which are known to provide support and protection to neurons.


However, scientists are still trying to understand the apparent role these complex cells play in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

By studying the proteins expressed by neurons and astrocytes in mice, UCLA researchers found a protein associated with OCD and repetitive behaviors in neurons was also found in astrocytes. The discovery suggests therapeutic strategies targeting astrocytes and neurons may be useful for OCD and potentially other brain disorders.

... The mice no longer compulsively groomed themselves after the SAPAP3 protein was delivered back to astrocytes and neurons, suggesting that both types of cells could be valid targets for treatments aimed at curbing compulsion. However, only neurons with the SAPAP3 protein were associated with reduced anxiety in the mice, suggesting that astrocytes would not be a good target for anxiety treatments in OCD. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/how-the-brains-support-cells-impact-ocd-and-open-new-doors-for-treatment/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Insight into that ball of light and heat which lets us be down here ...

ESA’s Solar Orbiter may have taken another step towards solving the eighty-year-old mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is so hot.

On March 3, 2022, just a few months into Solar Orbiter’s nominal mission, the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returned data showing for the first time that a magnetic phenomenon called reconnection was taking place persistently on tiny scales. ... Magnetic reconnection occurs when a magnetic field changes itself into a more stable configuration. It is a fundamental energy release mechanism in superheated gasses known as plasmas and is believed to be the major mechanism for powering large-scale solar eruptions. This makes it the direct cause of space weather, and a prime candidate for the mysterious heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.... It has been known since the 1940s that the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, is much hotter than the Sun’s surface. While the surface glows at around 5,500°C, the corona is a rarified gas of around 2 million °C. How the Sun injects energy into its atmosphere to heat it to this tremendous temperature has been a major puzzle ever since.

https://scitechdaily.com/solar-orbiter-sheds-light-on-the-suns-burning-mystery/

https://youtu.be/1JGSlcnPg_M

And for more ancient stars ... some galaxies are early starters ...

Galactic Surprise: James Webb Space Telescope Unveils Hidden Companion Galaxy

While analyzing data from the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Cornell University astronomers discovered a companion galaxy previously hidden behind the light of the foreground galaxy — one that surprisingly seems to have already hosted multiple generations of stars despite its young age, estimated at 1.4 billion years old. ... Most surprising about these galaxies, considering their age and mass, was their mature metallicity – amounts of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – which the team estimated to be similar to our sun. Compared to the sun, which is about 4 billion years old and inherited most of its metals from previous generations of stars that had roughly 8 billion years to build them up, we are observing these galaxies at a time when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old.

“We are seeing the leftovers of at least a couple of generations of stars having lived and died within the first billion years of the universe’s existence, which is not what we typically see,” Vishwas said. “We speculate that the process of forming stars in these galaxies must have been very efficient and started very early in the universe, particularly to explain the measured abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen, as this ratio is a reliable measure of how many generations of stars have lived and died.”

https://scitechdaily.com/galactic-surprise-james-webb-space-telescope-unveils-hidden-companion-galaxy/

Cosmic bumper cars ...

Webb telescope captures glowing starburst as galaxies collide

A brilliant starburst feature shines in the latest image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The space observatory captured a bright burst of star formation triggered by two spiral galaxies crashing into one another.

The colliding galaxies, known collectively as Arp 220, generated an infrared glow that contains the light of more than 1 trillion suns. For comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has a luminosity that is the equivalent of about 10 billion suns. ... Arp 220 is located 250 million light-years away in the Serpens constellation, and it’s the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth.

These two galaxies began colliding about 700 million years ago, and as the gas and dust combined, a tremendous flare of star birth began.https://us.cnn.com/2023/04/17/world/...scn/index.html

Small delay for this week's launch of the BIGGEST ROCKET EVER ...

... (but there must be better ways to get up there!) ...

An attempt to launch the most powerful rocket ever into space has been postponed for at least 48 hours.

The vehicle, known as Starship, has been built by US entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX company.

The uncrewed mission on Monday was called off minutes before the planned launch from Boca Chica, Texas.

The problem appears to have been caused by a frozen "pressurant valve", Musk tweeted. But SpaceX could try to launch again later this week.

Starship stands nearly 120m (400ft) high and is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket ever.

The aim is to send the upper-stage of the vehicle eastward, to complete almost one circuit of the globe.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65294084

Elon is a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers fan (really) ... RETRO-ROCKET! ... ART-DECO v. ARTEMUS ...

But small is good too ...

Smaller Than a Grain of Rice – Scientists Use Tiny Implantable Device To Tame Pancreatic Cancer

Houston Methodist nanomedicine researchers have discovered a method to control pancreatic cancer, a highly aggressive and challenging form of the disease, by administering immunotherapy directly to the tumor using a device smaller than a grain of rice.

A recent study published in the journal Advanced Science details the work of researchers from the Houston Methodist Research Institute who utilized an implantable nanofluidic device of their own creation to deliver CD40 monoclonal antibodies (mAb), a highly promising immunotherapeutic agent, in a sustained low dose via the nanofluidic drug-eluting seed (NDES). The results, as observed in mice models, showed a significant reduction in tumor size at a four times lower dosage compared to conventional systemic immunotherapy treatments.

https://scitechdaily.com/smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice-scientists-use-tiny-implantable-device-to-tame-pancreatic-cancer/

... and even smaller than rice grains ... a possible tool for genetic engineering ...

Nature’s Nano-Syringes: Harnessing Bacterial Machines for Next-Gen Medicine

Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT have harnessed a natural bacterial system to develop a new protein delivery approach that works in human cells and animals. The technology, described recently in the journal Nature, can be programmed to deliver a variety of proteins, including ones for gene editing, to different cell types. The system could potentially be a safe and efficient way to deliver gene therapies and cancer therapies.

... the team took advantage of a tiny syringe-like injection structure, produced by a bacterium, that naturally binds to insect cells and injects a protein payload into them. The researchers used the artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold to engineer these syringe structures to deliver a range of useful proteins to both human cells and cells in live mice. ...

... Kreitz says the eCIS system is versatile, and the team has already used it to deliver a range of cargos including base editor proteins (which can make single-letter changes to DNA), proteins that are toxic to cancer cells, and Cas9, a large DNA-cutting enzyme used in many gene editing systems. ...

... By reengineering another part of the complex, the scientists tricked the syringe into delivering a protein of their choosing, in some cases with remarkably high efficiency. ... The team made eCISs that targeted cancer cells expressing the EGF receptor and showed that they killed almost 100 percent of the cells, but did not affect cells without the receptor. ...

The researchers also used an eCIS to deliver proteins to the brain in live mice — where it didn’t provoke a detectable immune response, suggesting that eCISs could one day be used to safely deliver gene therapies to humans.

https://scitechdaily.com/natures-nano-syringes-harnessing-bacterial-machines-for-next-gen-medicine/

Programmed Photorhabdus virulence cassettes bound to a cancer cell

And photons are even smaller ... using light to activate proteins inside cells ... another possible tool in gene editing ...

This light-activation technology has potential applications in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and understanding how the body works.

Scientists can now use light to activate protein functions both inside and outside of living cells. The new method, called light-activated SpyLigation, can turn on proteins that are normally off to allow researchers to study and control them in more detail. This technology has potential uses in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and understanding how the body works.

... Increasingly, scientists are also exploring whether protein functions can be turned on and off to treat disease.

“With new tools for controlling protein function, particularly those that offer controlled activation in time and space, we are working towards engineering complex tissue for transplantation,” said senior author Cole A. DeForest, a Weyerhaeuser Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington College of Engineering and an associate professor of bioengineering, a joint department at the UW College of Engineering and School of Medicine.

... The team also showed they could activate proteins inside human cells. Three minutes of light exposure was enough to turn on specific proteins involved in genome editing. Such a tool could one day be used to direct genetic changes to very specific areas of the body....

https://scitechdaily.com/protein-pow...lash-of-light/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Looks more like a churro than a donut now ...

Goodbye fuzzy donut: The famous first black hole photo gets sharpened up

The first iconic image of a black hole looked like a fuzzy, orange donut, but now that picture has been sharpened up to a fiery ring, thanks to computer simulations and machine learning.

The black interior of this ring of hot gasses is an area of cosmic weirdness and such strong gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape. It looks much larger and darker in the upgraded image, according to a new report in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The picture shows the M87 black hole, a large one about 55 million light years away that's thought to be 6.5 billion times more massive than the sun. This is the black hole that was observed in 2017 by a network of telescopes around the world known as the Event Horizon Telescope, which together acted as a giant radio telescope the size of the Earth.

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1169469591/goodbye-fuzzy-donut-the-famous-first-black-hole-photo-gets-sharpened-up

Researchers used computer simulations of black holes and machine learning to generate a revised version (right) of the famous first image of a black hole that was released back in 2019 (left).

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Two stories on robotized trash bins ... both worth a peak before discarding ...

These robotic trash cans were filmed to test human-robotic interactions. Watch what happened

A team of Cornell Tech researchers studying how people interact with roboticized objects designed remote controlled trash cans so they could roam New York's Astor Place. The compiled footage shows a wide range of reactions.

https://us.cnn.com/videos/business/2...j.cnn-business

... and a somewhat different version for the home (sadly, hauling out the trash is the most exercise some folks get! ) ...

https://youtu.be/ITanfzvDFvw

And in a different kind of "removal" from the body, I just found this elegant and inspiring ...

Mechanical Nanosurgery: How Precision Magnetics Is Tackling Aggressive Brain Tumors

Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have combined forces to develop a new approach to potentially treat tumor cells, called mechanical nanosurgery, even for aggressive, chemoresistant cancers.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain cancer. Despite various treatment options that exist, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the median survival time for patients is only around 15 months. ... In a study published on March 29 in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Xi Huang, a Senior Scientist in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology program at SickKids, and Dr. Yu Sun, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Robotics Institute at U of T, present a new approach to treat chemoresistant GBM using precision magnetic control in a process they call mechanical nanosurgery. ... “Through the use of nanotechnology deep inside cancer cells, mechanical nanosurgery is a ‘Trojan Horse’ approach that could allow us to destroy tumor cells from within,” says Huang, whose previous research demonstrating that brain tumor cells are mechanosensitive helped to inform the approach. “By combining our expertise in biochemistry at SickKids and engineering at U of T, we’ve developed a potential new way to treat aggressive brain cancer.”

... Magnetic carbon nanotubes (mCNTs) are a form of nanomaterial – microscopic cylindrically-shaped tubes made of carbon and, in this case, filled with iron that becomes magnetized when activated by an external magnetic field. In the study, the research team coated mCNTs with an antibody that recognizes a specific protein associated with GBM tumor cells. Once injected into the tumor, the antibodies on the mCNTs cause them to seek out tumor cells and are absorbed by them. “Once the nanotubes are inside the tumor cell, we use a rotating magnetic field to mechanically mobilize the nanotubes to provide mechanical stimulation,” says Sun. “The force exerted by the nanotubes damages cellular structures and cause tumor cell death.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/nano-warriors-how-mechanical-nanosurgery-is-tackling-aggressive-brain-tumors/

https://youtu.be/ewpEt47cdac

Gassho, J

stlah