Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing. A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice. It involved screening around 10000 genes in search of particularly strong drivers of cellular ageing. They identified 100 genes in that pool, but the one that really stood out was the kat7. They then inactivated that kat7 gene in the livers of mice, Professor Qu Jing explained some of their findings: “These mice show after six to eight months, they show overall improved appearance and grip strength and most importantly they have extended lifespan for about 25%.” Kat7 is one of tens of thousands of genes found in the cells of mammals. The scientists also tested the function of the gene in human stem cells, human liver cells and more. So far there have been no side effects of cellular toxicity. Despite this, the method still has a long way to go from being ready for human trials and will require a lot of funding and much more research. “In the end we do hope that we can find a way to delay ageing even by a very minor percentage we want to delay the human ageing in the future.” For now, there’s no final answer to cheating death, but the scientists plan on testing the function of kat7 in other cell types of humans and other organs of mice.

Scientists at EPFL have used a snap-freezing method to reveal the true structure of the connections that join neurons together in the adult brain.

Phil Davies leads a global campaign to claim ownership of the planet by improving its atmosphere.

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A breakthrough COVID-19 treatment using pineapples has been accidently discovered by Australian scientists, but how does it compare to a vaccine?

Angela Cox speaks with Professor David Morris, the man behind the discovery.

Graphene is an allotropic form of carbon and posses some of the unique properties that are making this compound stand out of all other allotropic compounds of carbon. The compound was discovered in modern ages by two scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester, UK. After its initial discovery the compound soon began to make impact on every field of life and in recognition to their work they were awarded a physics noble prize in 2010. Graphene has unique physical and chemical properties and is much lighter, flexible and strong than many previously existing compounds.

Fragrance helps learning even during sleep!

Effortless learning during sleep is the dream of many people. The supportive effect of smells on learning success when presented both during learning and sleep was first proven in an extensive sleep laboratory study. Researchers at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center, the Freiburg Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg have now shown that this effect can be also achieved very easily outside the lab. For the study, pupils in two school classes learned English vocabulary—with and without scent sticks during the learning period and also at night. The students remembered the vocabulary much better with a scent. The study was published in the Nature Group’s Open Access journal Scientific Reports on 27 January 2020.

“We showed that the supportive effect of fragrances works very reliably in everyday life and can be used in a targeted way,” said study leader PD Dr. Jürgen Kornmeier, head of the Perception and Cognition Research Group at the Freiburg-based IGPP and scientist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center in Germany.

The smell of roses when learning and sleeping

For the study, first author and student teacher Franziska Neumann conducted several experiments with 54 students from two 6th grade classes of a school in southern Germany. The young participants from the test group were asked to place rose-scented incense sticks on their desks at home while learning English vocabulary and on the bedside table next to the bed at night. In another experiment, they also placed the incense sticks on the table next to them during a vocabulary test at school during an English test. The results were compared with test results in which no incense sticks were used during one or more phases.

Lego is an unusual candidate to make thermal computing cost less.

Still baffled by quantum computing? How about turning to comic books (graphic novels for the well-read among you) for some clarity and a little humor on QC. The National Science Foundation has done just as part of its EPiQC (Enabling Practical-scale Quantum Computing) program. So far eight €˜Zines €™ have been created with more to come.

€œComic books offer approachable ways to convey both humor and information. One might think that comic books would not be able to convey complex information like the ideas behind QC. In this case, one would be wrong, at least for one as creative as the University of Chicago €™s Diana Franklin, as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded https://www.epiqc.cs.uchicago.edu/”>EPIQC Expedition in Computing, € wrote Mark Hill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a recent blog for Computing Community Consortium, run by NSF.

€œIn particular, Diana and colleagues have developed eight, with more coming, €œ https://www.epiqc.cs.uchicago.edu/zines”>zines € that are comic-book-like pamphlets obtained by printing and folding a single sheet of paper. The topics include quantum notation, superposition, and history. In my humble opinion, these are great examples of the synergy possible with research and education done together. Enjoy! €.

Researchers are investigating how the community of microbes living in the gut might help people with multiple sclerosis, lupus and type 1 diabetes.