Lifeboat Foundation

British scientists have stored DNA information for an entire human on a crystal, which could be used to bring back humanity if we become extinct.

The team from the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) used lasers to inscribe the data on a 5D crystal, which they said can survive for billions of years.

Unlike other storage formats, it does not degrade over time.

A small-N comparative analysis of six different areas of applied artificial intelligence (AI) suggests that the next period of development will require a merging of narrow-AI and strong-AI approaches. This will be necessary as programmers seek to move beyond developing narrowly defined tools to developing software agents capable of acting independently in complex environments. The present stage of artificial intelligence development is propitious for this because of the exponential increases in computer power and in available data streams over the last 25 years, and because of better understanding of the complex logic of intelligence. Applied areas chosen for examination were heart pacemakers, socialist economic planning, computer-based trading, self-driving automobiles, surveillance and sousveillance and artificial intelligence in medicine.

Discover new clues about how our ancient relatives disappeared from time.

CRISPR, the gene-editing technology, has been one of the major breakthroughs in biology in the last two decades. And while students learn about the capability to cut, paste, and alter genes, it’s rare that they get the chance to understand the technology by using it themselves.

Thanks to a serendipitous discovery and a lot of painstaking work, scientists can now build biohybrid molecules that combine the homing powers of DNA with the broad functional repertoire of proteins—without having to synthesize them one by one, researchers report in a new study. Using a naturally occurring process, laboratories can harness the existing molecule-building capacities of bacteria to generate vast libraries of potentially therapeutic DNA-protein hybrid molecules.

An electrochemical biosensor capable of detecting low levels of cancer biomarkers is reusable over 200 regeneration cycles without compromising device sensitivity and accuracy.

In the world of nanotechnology, the development of dynamic systems that respond to molecular signals is becoming increasingly important. The DNA origami technique, whereby DNA is programmed so as to produce functional nanostructures, plays a key role in these endeavors. Teams led by LMU chemist Philip Tinnefeld have now published two studies showing how DNA origami and fluorescent probes can be used to release molecular cargo in a targeted manner.

In the journal Angewandte Chemie (“DNA Origami Vesicle Sensors with Triggered Single-Molecule Cargo Transfer”), the researchers report on their development of a novel DNA-origami-based sensor that can detect lipid vesicles and deliver molecular cargo to them with precision.

The sensor works using single-molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET), which involves measuring the distance between two fluorescent molecules. The system consists of a DNA origami structure, out of which a single-stranded DNA protrudes, which has been labeled with fluorescent dye at its tip. If the DNA comes into contact with vesicles, its conformation changes. This alters the fluorescent signal, because the distance between the fluorescent label and a second fluorescent molecule on the origami structure changes. This method allows vesicles to be detected.

The accumulation of mutations in DNA is often mentioned as an explanation for the aging process, but it remains just one hypothesis among many. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern and the University of Bern (UNIBE), has identified a mechanism that explains why certain organs, such as the liver, age more rapidly than others.

The mechanism reveals that damages to non-coding DNA, which are often hidden, accumulate more in slowly proliferating tissues, such as those of the liver or kidneys. Unlike in organs that regenerate frequently, these damages remain undetected for a long time and prevent cell division. These results, published in the journal Cell, open new avenues for understanding cellular aging and potentially slowing it down.

Our organs and tissues do not all age at the same rate. Aging, marked by an increase in senescent cells —cells that are unable to divide and have lost their functions—affects the liver or kidneys more rapidly than the skin or intestine.

Understanding how light travels through various materials is essential for many fields, from medical imaging to manufacturing. However, due to their structure, materials often show directional differences in how they scatter light, known as anisotropy. This complexity has traditionally made it difficult to accurately measure and model their optical properties. Recently, researchers have developed a new technique that could transform how we study these materials.