Lifeboat Foundation

Soldiers and Marines teamed up to test new tactical biological detection and chemical contamination systems that aim to keep service members safe. The systems indicate when chemical agents are present so decontamination can take place.

DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah — Soldiers from Fort Drum and Joint Base Lewis-McChord teamed with Marines from Camp Pendleton to test new tactical biological detection and chemical contamination indicator systems here.

Soldiers with the 59th Hazard Response Company and 13th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion along with Marines from the 3rd Marine Air Wing went hands-on with the Joint Biological Tactical Detection System (JBTDS) and the Contamination Indication Disclosure Assurance System (CIDAS), which indicates chemical agent contaminants so proper decontamination can take place.

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Here is a snapshot of our talks on synthetic biology. These videos will provide you with a basic understanding and appreciation for this field. These lectures start with an introduction to synthetic biology and go through the major discoveries and ethical controversies that arise from this field. You can check out the full Synthetic Biology Playlist here!

Coronavirus disease-19 caused by the novel RNA betacoronavirus SARS-CoV2 has first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and since then developed into a worldwide pandemic with 99 million people afflicted and 2.1 million fatal outcomes as of 24th January 2021. SARS-CoV2 targets the lower respiratory tract system leading to pneumonia with fever, cough, and dyspnea. Most patients develop only mild symptoms. However, a certain percentage develop severe symptoms with dyspnea, hypoxia, and lung involvement which can further progress to a critical stage where respiratory support due to respiratory failure is required. Most of the COVID-19 symptoms are related to hyperinflammation as seen in cytokine release syndrome and it is believed that fatalities are due to a COVID-19 related cytokine storm. Treatments with anti-inflammatory or anti-viral drugs are still in clinical trials or could not reduce mortality. This makes it necessary to develop novel anti-inflammatory therapies. Recently, the therapeutic potential of phytocannabinoids, the unique active compounds of the cannabis plant, has been discovered in the area of immunology. Phytocannabinoids are a group of terpenophenolic compounds which biological functions are conveyed by their interactions with the endocannabinoid system in humans. Here, we explore the anti-inflammatory function of cannabinoids in relation to inflammatory events that happen during severe COVID-19 disease, and how cannabinoids might help to prevent the progression from mild to severe disease.

“I haven’t seen anything like it,” scientist says of the flashy arachnid from Asia.

“People love to jump to conclusions what such a behavior is good for,” such as attracting prey or deterring predators, says Rainer Foelix, author of the book Biology of Spiders.

“Rather than to speculate, it would be better to study this phenomenon scientifically,” Foelix says.

Continue reading “Disco Spider Pulsates With Color, Baffling Scientists” »

Methane at Enceladus: biotic or abiotic origin?

Here we go again: biology or unknown abiotic process?

Methane is an organic molecule that hangs around in Earth’s atmosphere and is mostly produced by living organisms, most notoriously by burping cows. Its detection on Mars, on the other hand, has been a weird mystery for planetary scientists.

In recent years, NASA’s Curiosity rover has picked up tiny traces of methane numerous times on the red planet. While these emissions might be coming from some geological process, it was possible they could indicate the presence of some sort of life form on Mars (unlikely to be cows, of course).

As you’d expect, scientists are really excited by that prospect, but the data are confusing. Higher in the atmosphere, orbiting technology from the European Space Agency (ESA) has detected no methane in any concentration.

Deposit contains exceptionally preserved fossils of soft-bodied, juvenile organisms from the Cambrian period.

All life on Earth 500 million years ago lived in the oceans, but scientists know little about how these animals and algae developed. A newly discovered fossil deposit near Kunming, China, may hold the keys to understanding how these organisms laid the foundations for life on land and at sea today, according to an international team of researchers.

The fossil deposit, called the Haiyan Lagerstätte, contains an exceptionally preserved trove of early vertebrates and other rare, soft-bodied organisms, more than 50% of which are in the larval and juvenile stages of development. Dating to the Cambrian geologic period approximately 518 million years ago and providing researchers with 2846 specimens so far, the deposit is the oldest and most diverse found to date.

An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University.

Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, inspiring research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon’s rocky core and its icy shell. Flying through the plumes and sampling their chemical makeup, the Cassini spacecraft detected a relatively high concentration of certain molecules associated with hydrothermal vents on the bottom of Earth’s oceans, specifically dihydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. The amount of methane found in the plumes was particularly unexpected.

“We wanted to know: Could Earthlike microbes that ‘eat’ the dihydrogen and produce methane explain the surprisingly large amount of methane detected by Cassini?” said Régis Ferrière, an associate professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and one of the study’s two lead authors. “Searching for such microbes, known as methanogens, at Enceladus’ seafloor would require extremely challenging deep-dive missions that are not in sight for several decades.”

“What’s so exciting about this result is that it suggests that these types of nanowire networks can be tuned into regimes with diverse, brain-like collective dynamics, which can be leveraged to optimize information processing,” said Zdenka Kuncic from the University of Sydney in a press release.

Today’s deep neural networks already mimic one aspect of the brain: its highly interconnected network of neurons. But artificial neurons behave very differently than biological ones, as they only carry out computations. In the brain, neurons are also able to remember their previous activity, which then influences their future behavior.

This in-built memory is a crucial aspect of how the brain processes information, and a major strand in neuromorphic engineering focuses on trying to recreate this functionality. This has resulted in a wide range of designs for so-called “memristors”: electrical components whose response depends on the previous signals they have been exposed to.