Lifeboat Foundation

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 40% of people living in the U.S. are obese; and 43% of American women over the age of 60—long past menopause—are considered obese. A recent Johns Hopkins study showed that a drug first developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and sickle cell disease could treat obesity and fatty liver and improve heart function—without changes in food intake or daily activity.

The hypertension drug rilmenidine has been shown to slow down aging in worms, an effect that in humans could hypothetically help us live longer and keep us healthier in our latter years.

Rilmenidine was picked for this latest study because past research has shown it mimics the effects of caloric restriction on a cellular level. Reducing available energy while maintaining nutrition within the body has been shown to extend lifespans in several animal models.

Whether this translates to human biology, or is a potential risk to our health, is a topic of ongoing debate. Finding ways to achieve the same benefits without the costs of extreme calorie cutting could lead to new ways to improve health in old age.

Mistletoe may be a welcome holiday sight when hung over a doorway if a loved one is near. But it can be an unwelcome intruder when found in your trees, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist.

“Mistletoe is a hemiparasite—a semi-parasitic plant,” said Allison Watkins, AgriLife Extension horticulturist for Tom Green County. “It makes its food from photosynthesis, but the roots grow into the host tree, sucking water and minerals out from the sap.”

In other words, you likely do not want to see mistletoe growing on your favorite shade tree or prized ornamental. However, mistletoe can survive as long as the tree it inhabits. So, some mistletoe alive today may still be around in 100 years.

You’ve seen the headlines. The FDA approved its use in tackling the underlying genetic mutation for sickle cell disease. Some researchers edited immune cells to fight untreatable blood cancers in children. Others took pig-to-human organ transplants from dream to reality in an attempt to alleviate the shortage of donor organs. Recent work aims to help millions of people with high cholesterol—and potentially bring CRISPR-based gene therapy to the masses—by lowering their chances of heart disease with a single injection.

But to Dr. Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize in 2020 for her role in developing CRISPR, we’re just scratching the surface of its potential. Together with graduate student Joy Wang, Doudna laid out a roadmap for the technology’s next decade in an article in Science.

If the 2010s were focused on establishing the CRISPR toolbox and proving its effectiveness, this decade is when the technology reaches its full potential. From CRISPR-based therapies and large-scale screens for disease diagnostics to engineering high-yield crops and nutritious foods, the technology “and its potential impact are still in their early stages,” the authors wrote.

A new ultra-low-power method of communication at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics. It is possible to wirelessly transmit information simply by opening and closing a switch that connects a resistor to an antenna. No need to send power to the antenna.

Our system, combined with techniques for harvesting energy from the environment, could lead to all manner of devices that transmit data, including tiny sensors and implanted medical devices, without needing batteries or other power sources. These include sensors for smart agriculture, electronics implanted in the body that never need battery changes, better contactless credit cards and maybe even new ways for satellites to communicate.

Continue reading “Device transmits radio waves with almost no power—without violating the laws of physics” »

It is powerful enough to maneuver over obstacles.

The University of Illinois researchers’ newly developed insect-sized jumping robots will do tasks in small and tight places. The creation of jumping robots is also a significant advance in mechanical, agricultural, and search-and-rescue environments, according to the university.

Continue reading “Newly developed beetle-inspired robot uses elastic energy” »

Chapter 1: 0:00 — 25:49
Chapter 2: 26:00 — 43:44
Chapter 3: 43:55 — 1:25:36
Chapter 4: 1:25:48 — 1:49:50
Chapter 5: 1:50:00 — 2:17:16
Chapter 6: 2:17:27 — 2:49:22
Chapter 7: 2:49:29 — 3:19:09
Chapter 8: 3:19:32 — 3:52:27
Chapter 9: 3:52:38 — 4:01:57
Chapter 10: 4:02:04 — 4:13:39
Chapter 11: 4:13:48 — 4:47:54
Chapter 12: 4:48:03 — 5:12:22
Chapter 13: 5:12:32 — 5:32:24
Chapter 14: 5:32:33 — 5:50:33
Chapter 15: 5:50:42 — 6:05:56
Chapter 16: 6:06:06 — 6:30:30
Chapter 17: 6:30:40 — 6:50:40
Chapter 18: 6:50:49 — 7:25:54

Support Steve on Patreon.
https://www.patreon.com/SteveParker.

Continue reading “Brave New World complete dramatised audiobook” »

When P M Murugesan decided to discontinue his education to join his father’s farming business, he had many ideas in mind. In particular, he wanted to work with the banana plant, being well aware that though farmers end up burning tonnes of banana waste, there’s a utility to each part of the crop.

In 2008, he started thinking of ways to make products out of banana waste. He found the idea of making ropes interesting.

“The idea struck me when I saw banana threads being used to thread flowers for garlands. I used the machine that turns coconut husk into a rope as the base and modified it to work well for processing banana fibre,” says the innovator.

Last week, Rice University in Houston announced that one of its assistant professors of bioengineering, Jerzy Szablowski, received a Young Faculty Award from DARPA to research non-genetic drugs that can “temporarily enhance the human body’s resilience to extreme cold exposure.”

Thermogenesis is the use of energy to create heat, and our bodies have two different ways of doing this. One is shivering, which we’re all familiar with. The other, which Szablowski simply calls non-shivering thermogenesis, involves burning off brown adipose tissue (BAT), or brow n fat.

This type of fat exists specifically to warm us up when we get cold; it stores energy and only activates in cold temperatures. Most of our body fat is white fat. It builds up when we ingest more calories than we burn and stores those calories for when we don’t get enough energy from food. An unfortunate majority of American adults have the opposite problem: too much white fat, which increases the risk of conditions like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.