Lifeboat Foundation

Today, dementia affects over 46 million people worldwide, by 2050 it will affect more than 131 million people.

Global costs of dementia are estimated at $818 billion. As a result, if dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy.

Dementias are one of the most expensive diseases for the healthcare system as patients require long-term care with daily activities like washing, getting dressed and eating. It has been estimated that the US health care would save an astonishing 40 billion dollars annually if the age of onset for Alzheimer’s disease was delayed by just 5 years. The estimated annual cost of dementia worldwide is 818 billion dollars, more than the current US defence budget. By 2018 the cost may reach a trillion dollars. Remarkably, if dementia were a country, it would be the 18th largest economy on earth.

Read more

The story of the dark side of antioxidant research isn’t well known outside of medical circles. It’s an unseemly story, profoundly unsettling; it doesn’t fit the “antioxidants are good for you” mantra that sells billions of dollars per year of blueberry- and pomegranate-fortified granola bars.

Not all vitamins are good for all people, all the time. In fact, some can kill you. And guess what? We know where the bodies are buried.

Read more

A Harvard medical pioneer calls it “astounding” — an “incredible achievement” and a “quantum leap forward” in the battle against cancer, autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

What’s going on? Scientists at Ohio State University say they’ve figured out a way to grow the genetic equivalent of a nearly complete embryonic human brain.

Read more

Maybe we can convince the Chinese to start funding our space program.

On Monday, Chinese scientist Youyou Tu was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of a new malaria therapy. It was remarkable research in its own right, but equally significant is the fact that Tu is the first scientist to ever be awarded a Nobel Prize for work done at a Chinese institution — despite the fact that the country trains more scientists and engineers than any other nation on Earth.

In fact, China now spends more money on research and development than Europe, and by 2020, it’s predicted to outspend the US, as Nature editor Ed Gerstner wrote last month in Research Information. But despite that investment, there’s a big reason for why Chinese science has lagged behind other parts of the world — it has a long history of pumping out dodgy research.

Continue reading “China now spends more on science than the EU, will soon overtake the US” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=075Vit5108w

“The result could be a major step towards animal replacement and improved safety screening for drugs, as well as towards transplantable kidneys”

Scientists in Australia succeed in growing ‘organoids’ comparable to early stage of a baby’s kidneys that have collecting ducts and filtering units called nephons.

Read more

An article written by Dr Michael Fossel talking about telomerase therapy for Alzheimer’s and the work Bioviva and Telocyte are doing to beat this horrific condition.

Reversing Alzheimer’s by Lengthening Telomeres.

There are telomere lengthening compounds available right now for use in research labs. They are not currently available for human use. A group of scientists wants to test these compounds on aging humans now to see if the telomere lengthening effects will induce meaningful age reversal effects.

Telomeres in our cells shorten as we grow older and create cellular havoc that predisposes us to multiple age-related pathologies. These experimental enzymes promote telomere lengthening and in the process offer an intriguing opportunity to circumvent biological aging processes.

Continue reading “Alzheimer’s Cure” »

Surgeons at Brisbane hospital managed to reattached the head of 16-month-old Jaxon Taylor.

Read more

1. A heart of foam.
2. Artificial arteries.
3. Brain implants.
4. Robotic hand that can recognize objects by Feel.
5. Upside-Down Rover to explore Europa.

Welcome to #18 Avatar Technology Digest. Again, get ready for exciting news on Technology, Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence. Thank you for watching us. You are welcome to Subscribe, follow us in social media, leave your comments and join the conversation. And here are the top stories of the last week.

1) A heart of foam could replace your own. Existing artificial hearts have multiple moving parts, which increases the chance of failure, but this new device is just a single piece of material. Researchers inspired by soft robots have built a pumping artificial heart that could one day replace the real deal.
The team of Bioengineers at Cornell University build their robots out of a solid, plastic foam, which naturally has an interconnected network of tubes to let air flow – just as our muscles are permeated by blood vessels. A solid coating of plastic seals everything inside like a skin.

Continue reading “#18 Avatar Technology Digest / Paralyzed Patients Control Comp…” »

A DNA-powered PC may not be on the horizon, but DNA can still compute even if it can’t build a computer.

Read more