Lifeboat Foundation

Accelerating rejuvenation therapies to repair the damage of aging. Berlin, March, 28 — 30.

Ron Miller’s work spans five decades—and the galaxy.

Today, we chronicle the progress of OSKM and discuss how this powerful treatment may be able to reprogram cells back into a youthful state, at least partially reversing the hallmark of epigenetic alterations and other hallmarks as well.

The birth of cellular reprogramming

Continue reading “Hitting the Reset Button on Aging Cells” »

‘’Computational rationality leads to a deeper understanding because it goes beyond descriptions of how we fail. Instead, it shows us how the brain marshals its resources to solve problems. One benefit of this approach is the ability to test theories of what our abilities and constraints are.

Decades of psychological research suggests humans are rather irrational. But a new approach, borrowing an idea from artificial intelligence, challenges this notion.

Continue reading “Rationality: research shows we’re not as stupid as we have been led to believe” »

Electronegativity is one of the most well-known models for explaining why chemical reactions occur. Now, Martin Rahm from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has redefined the concept with a new, more comprehensive scale. His work, undertaken with colleagues including a Nobel Prize-winner, has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The theory of electronegativity is used to describe how strongly different atoms attract electrons. By using electronegativity scales, one can predict the approximate charge distribution in different molecules and materials, without needing to resort to complex quantum mechanical calculations or spectroscopic studies. This is vital for understanding all kinds of materials, as well as for designing new ones. Used daily by chemists and materials researchers all over the world, the concept originates from Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius’ research in the 19th century and is widely taught at high-school level.

Now, Martin Rahm, Assistant Professor in Physical Chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology, has developed a brand-new scale of electronegativity.

Continue reading “New scale for electronegativity rewrites the chemistry textbook” »

Ice is one of the most significant hazards to drivers and pilots and is blamed for multibillion-dollar losses each year in the US. Ice causes all manner of delays in air travel and damages infrastructure, power generation equipment, and power transmission facilities each year. Scientists from the University of Houston have made a breakthrough in repelling ice that could have uses in multiple industries.

It’s not magic, it’s microbiology. Check it out:

Over the past 40 years, the fishing village of Shenzhen has been reborn as a futuristic metropolis bursting with factories. Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance travels to the heart of China’s tech revolution to witness this new reality firsthand, as part of a three-episode exploration of the city. In part one of Hello World Shenzhen, Vance gets a worker’s view of life in a startup and then explores one of the city’s famous electronics markets to learn how people survive (and in some cases make fortunes) in such a frenetic, competitive environment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/hello-world

Continue reading “Inside China’s Future Factory | Hello World Shenzhen: Part One” »

Prostate cancer remains one of the major causes of death worldwide. In view of the limited treatment options for patients with prostate cancer, preventive and treatment approaches based on natural compounds can play an integral role in tackling this disease. Recent evidence supports the beneficial effects of plant-derived phytochemicals as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents for various cancers, including prostate cancer. Prunus africana has been used for generations in African traditional medicine to treat prostate cancer. This review examined the potential roles of the phytochemicals from P. africana, an endangered, sub-Saharan Africa plant in the chemoprevention and chemotherapy of prostate cancer. In vitro and in vivo studies have provided strong pharmacological evidence for antiprostate cancer activities of P. africana-derived phytochemicals. Through synergistic interactions between different effective phytochemicals, P. africana extracts have been shown to exhibit very strong antiandrogenic and antiangiogenic activities and have the ability to kill tumor cells via apoptotic pathways, prevent the proliferation of prostate cancer cells, and alter the signaling pathways required for the maintenance of prostate cancer cells. However, further preclinical and clinical studies ought to be done to advance and eventually use these promising phytochemicals for the prevention and chemotherapy of human prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common nonskin cancers in men. It is caused by unregulated prostate cell division, which leads to abnormal growth, with the potential to spread to other parts of the body [1]. These neoplastic cells originate from highly specialized cells through a process of regression to an advanced stage. Unlike the normal parent cells, these cells divide continuously, resulting in a tumor. Approximately, 9–11% of men are at risk of clinically suffering from prostate cancer in their life time [2–5]. Prostate cancer is typically androgen-dependent during its initial stages when the hormone androgen binds to the androgen receptor (AR) and then transactivates target genes [6, 7]. Androgen and AR-mediated signaling are therefore crucial for the development and functioning of both the normal prostate and prostate cancer.