Lifeboat Foundation

The widespread perception that it was once official British policy to let the novel coronavirus spread until the population reached herd immunity is false; the government was just overly optimistic about how easy flattening the curve would be. But the idea has gained so much traction in some circles, fueled by speculation that we might already be much closer to it than we think, that it’s worth understanding why it’s not a viable policy according to the evidence to date.

As the world fights against the COVID-19 pandemic, nuclear weapons have taken a backseat in most people’s minds. But for Global Strike Command (AFGSC)—the Air Force unit in control of two of the three legs of America’s nuclear triad—their mission remains top priority.

And it’s an unforgiving business. Nuclear deterrence requires extreme levels of readiness among pilots, maintenance crews, and security teams. Adversaries that don’t think the U.S. can respond with conventional bombing strikes or nukes could be emboldened to act aggressively.

Continue reading “The Coronavirus Can’t Stop America’s Nukes” »

Experts explained to Newsweek why this doesn’t jeopardize efforts to create a vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

The mining industry is focused on continuing production through the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Margaret Gleeson, despite workers’ and local communities’ concerns.

New Analysis on the possible origins of a virus in the animal population.

Statistical analyses suggest that surveillance efforts for the next pandemic look beyond the flying mammals.

This automatic shoe cover machine will play a role in some places during the coronavirus outbreak.

A desirable option would be to use CRISPR gene editing to essentially cut out the unwanted gene. There are, however, many challenges ahead.

If you want to remove an undesirable gene from a population, you have a couple theoretical options — one that most people might find unthinkable, and one that lies outside our current scientific abilities.

Continue reading “We can identify ‘bad’ genes. Why can’t we use CRISPR gene editing to get rid of them?” »

Scientists say they have discovered the first evidence of a “significant” mutation of the coronavirus — raising concerns that strides made toward a vaccine so far could become “futile,” according to a new study.

The researchers, who isolated a strain of the virus from a sample collected in India in January, said the mutation appeared to make the bug less able to bind to a receptor on human cells called ACE2, an enzyme found in the lungs.

The discovery of this mutation “raises the alarm that the ongoing vaccine development may become futile in future epidemic if more mutations were identified,” the researchers said, according to Newsweek. The study, which was published on biorxiv.org on Saturday, has not yet been peer-reviewed.

More than a century after giving the world aspirin, another potential drug has been found in the stem and leaves of willows—this time with anti-cancer properties.

Scientists led from Rothamsted Research, working with cancer biologists at the University of Kent have discovered the chemical, miyabeacin, which has been found to kill various cancer cells, including those resistant to other drugs.

Of particular excitement is its activity against neuroblastoma, a hard to treat and common childhood cancer where the overall survival rate is below 50%.