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Dec 20, 2019
IBM Research Created a New Battery That Outperforms Lithium-Ion—No Problematic Heavy Metals Required
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: materials, transportation
With everything from cars, to trucks, to even airplanes going electric, the demand for batteries is going to continue to skyrocket in the coming years—but the availability of the materials currently used to make them is limited. So scientists at IBM Research have developed a new battery whose unique ingredients can be extracted from seawater instead of mining.
Dec 20, 2019
Cops Can Now Get Warrants for Entire DNA Websites
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, law enforcement, policy
To that end, Fields decided to ask a Florida judge to grant him a warrant that would override the new policy, allowing him to search GEDmatch’s entire database, including users who hadn’t opted in — and Judge Patricia Strowbridge did just that, the detective announced at a recent police convention, according to the NYT.
Legal experts told the NYT that this appears to be the first time a judge has approved a DNA website warrant this broad, with New York University law professor Erin Murphy calling it “a huge game-changer.”
“The company made a decision to keep law enforcement out, and that’s been overridden by a court,” Murphy told the newspaper. “It’s a signal that no genetic information can be safe.”
Dec 20, 2019
Gut microbiota shape ‘inflamm-ageing’ cytokines and account for age-dependent decline in DNA damage repair
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
Objective Failing to properly repair damaged DNA drives the ageing process. Furthermore, age-related inflammation contributes to the manifestation of ageing. Recently, we demonstrated that the efficiency of repair of diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced double-strand breaks (DSBs) rapidly declines with age. We therefore hypothesised that with age, the decline in DNA damage repair stems from age-related inflammation.
Design We used DEN-induced DNA damage in mouse livers and compared the efficiency of their resolution in different ages and following various permutations aimed at manipulating the liver age-related inflammation.
Results We found that age-related deregulation of innate immunity was linked to altered gut microbiota. Consequently, antibiotic treatment, MyD88 ablation or germ-free mice had reduced cytokine expression and improved DSBs rejoining in 6-month-old mice. In contrast, feeding young mice with a high-fat diet enhanced inflammation and facilitated the decline in DSBs repair. This latter effect was reversed by antibiotic treatment. Kupffer cell replenishment or their inactivation with gadolinium chloride reduced proinflammatory cytokine expression and reversed the decline in DSBs repair. The addition of proinflammatory cytokines ablated DSBs rejoining mediated by macrophage-derived heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor.
Dec 20, 2019
What happens after removing part of the brain with cancer surgery?
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Dec 20, 2019
Rejuvenation Roundup December 2019
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension
Rejuvenation Roundup November 2019
Quite a number of readily understandable reviews were published this month, along with an X10 episode on epigenetic alterations; if you’re new to the biology of aging or want to introduce someone else to the topic with new material, this is a great time to start.
LEAF News
Dec 20, 2019
Pac-Man-era microchip could help gobble up nuclear warheads
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: computing, military
When Russian nuclear inspectors traveled to the U.S. in the early 2000s, they were not allowed to directly examine classified nuclear weapon components, Professor Alex Glaser said. Instead, the inspectors were shown a radiation detector’s green light as confirmation that components were real.
The Russians were not convinced, Glaser said, noting that one said the only thing the test proved was that the Americans had a green LED with a battery connection.
Details about nuclear weapons remain among the world’s most highly guarded secrets. An expert dismantling a weapon, or even witnessing its destruction, can learn much about the warhead. On the other hand, without examining the weapon, it’s difficult to convince inspectors that a real weapon was destroyed. This has long been considered a problem for disarmament —how can countries convince others that a nuclear weapon is gone without revealing details about its arsenal?
Dec 20, 2019
New form of uranium found that could affect nuclear waste disposal plans
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: nuclear energy
Research shows underground storage can create new compound of element which could affect groundwater.
Dec 20, 2019
Israeli migraine-busting device saluted as 2020 ‘game changer’
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: futurism
Netanya-based startup Theranica chosen in category of ‘electro-charged therapeutics’ by New York data firm CB Insights.
Dec 20, 2019
Making long-lived positronium atoms for antimatter gravity experiments
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: particle physics
O.o.
The universe is almost devoid of antimatter, and physicists haven’t yet figured out why. Discovering any slight difference between the behaviour of antimatter and matter in Earth’s gravitational field could shed light on this question. Positronium atoms, which consist of an electron and a positron, are one type of antimatter atoms being considered to test whether antimatter falls at the same rate as matter in Earth’s gravitational field. But they are short-lived, lasting a mere 142 nanoseconds – too little to perform an antimatter gravity experiment. Researchers are therefore actively seeking tricks to make sources of positronium atoms that live longer. In a paper published today in the journal Physical Review A, the AEgIS collaboration at CERN describes a new way of making long-lived positronium.
To be useful for antimatter gravity experiments, a source of positronium atoms needs to produce long-lived atoms in large numbers, and with known velocities that can be controlled and are unaffected by disturbances such as electric and magnetic fields. The new AEgIS source ticks all of these boxes, producing some 80 000 positronium atoms per minute that last 1140 nanoseconds each and have a known velocity (between 70 and 120 kilometres per second) that can be controlled with a high precision (10 kilometres per second).
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