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Jan 28, 2020
How to Levitate Objects With Sound (and Break Your Mind)
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: chemistry, robotics/AI
Along with personal jetpacks for every man, woman, and child (sure, why not), levitation is one of those conveniences that sci-fi has long promised us but has yet to deliver, other than magnetically levitating trains. But at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, physicist Chris Benmore and his colleagues are levitating objects with an unlikely tool: sound. It’s called acoustic levitation, and after breaking your brain with what seems to be an optical illusion, it’s poised to deliver advances in pharmacology, chemistry more broadly, and even robotics.
Jan 28, 2020
U.S. charges target alleged Chinese spying at Harvard, Boston institutions
Posted by Brent Ellman in categories: biotech/medical, government
(Reuters) — A Harvard University department chair and two Chinese nationals who were researchers at Boston University and a Boston hospital were charged on Tuesday with lying about their alleged links to the Chinese government.
Jan 28, 2020
‘Ageotypes’ provide window into how individuals age, Stanford study reports
Posted by Steve Hill in category: biological
Stanford scientists have identified specific biological pathways along which individuals age over time.
Jan 28, 2020
Researchers Transplant Lab-Grown Heart Muscle Cells Into Patient
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in category: biotech/medical
Jan 28, 2020
The Pacific Ocean is so acidic that it’s dissolving Dungeness crabs’ shells
Posted by Brent Ellman in categories: biotech/medical, economics, habitats
The Pacific Ocean is becoming more acidic, and the cash-crabs that live in its coastal waters are some of its first inhabitants to feel its effects.
The Dungeness crab is vital to commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, but lower pH levels in its habitat are dissolving parts of its shell and damaging its sensory organs, a new study found.
Their injuries could impact coastal economies and forebode the obstacles in a changing sea. And while the results aren’t unexpected, the study’s authors said the damage to the crabs is premature: The acidity wasn’t predicted to damage the crabs this quickly.
Jan 28, 2020
Decoding the Brain Goes Global With the International Brain Initiative
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: health, neuroscience
Rather than each country formulating their own brain projects independently, the project argues, it’s high time for the world to come together and share their findings, resources, and expertise across borders. By uniting efforts, the IBI can help shape the future of neuroscience research at a global scale—for promoting brain and mental health, for stimulating international collaboration, for ethical neuroscience practices, and for crafting future generations of scientists.
“It takes a world to understand the brain,” said Caroline Montojo of the Kavli Foundation, which offered support to the project. “When we have the best brains and the best minds working together, sharing information and research that could benefit us all.”
The initiative, at the time of writing, includes Japan’s Brain/Minds, Australian Brain Alliance, the EU’s Human Brain Project (HBP), Canadian Brain Research Strategy, the US’ BRAIN Initiative (BRAINI), the Korea Brain Initiative, and the China Brain Project.
Jan 28, 2020
What is quantum cognition? Physics theory could predict human behavior
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: neuroscience, quantum physics
Jan 28, 2020
Laser ultrasound enables diagnoses at a distance
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: biotech/medical
Generating and detecting sound waves remotely means patients can be spared the discomfort that sometimes comes with conventional ultrasound imaging.
Jan 28, 2020
CRISPR gene-editing corrects muscular dystrophy in pigs
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most common and most devastating muscular diseases, greatly reducing patients’ quality of life and life expectancy. Now, researchers in Germany have managed to use the CRISPR gene-editing tool to correct the condition in pigs, bringing the treatment ever closer to human trials.
A protein called dystrophin is necessary for muscles to regenerate themselves, but people with DMD have a genetic mutation that removes the gene that produces dystrophin. That means that affected children usually begin to show symptoms of muscle weakness by age five, lose the ability to walk by about age 12, and rarely live through their 30s as their heart muscles give out.
Because it’s a genetic condition, DMD is a prime target for treatment with the gene-editing tool CRISPR. This system is prized for its ability to cut out problematic genes and replace them with more beneficial ones, and has been put to work treating cancer, HIV and forms of blindness.