Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers are warning that geoengineering efforts to help cool temperatures in California could trigger heatwaves in Europe, a “scary” implication given the sheer lack of regulation controlling such measures across the globe.

As The Guardian reports, scientists have suggested spraying aerosols into clouds over the ocean to cool down the surface below, a practice called “marine cloud brightening.” As the name suggests, the idea is to brighten clouds to make them reflect more of the Sun’s radiation back into space.

Last month, a team of University of Washington researchers attempted to do just that in the San Francisco Bay using a machine that sprays tiny sea-salt particles, amid criticism from environmentalists. The experiment was later shut down by city officials, citing health concerns.

Researchers at the University of Utah Health have discovered that “time cells” in mice are crucial for learning tasks where timing is critical. These cells change their firing patterns as mice learn to distinguish between timed events, suggesting a role beyond just measuring time. This finding could help in the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s by highlighting the importance of the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), which is among the first brain regions affected by such diseases.

Researchers at the University of Utah Health found that “time cells” in mice adapt to learning timed tasks, a discovery that could aid early Alzheimer’s detection by monitoring changes in a key brain region.

Our perception of time is crucial to our interaction with and understanding of the world around us. Whether we’re engaging in a conversation or driving a car, we need to remember and gauge the duration of events—a complex but largely unconscious calculation running constantly beneath the surface of our thoughts.

As space travel becomes more common, it is important to consider the impacts of space flight and altered gravity on the human body. Led by Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles, researchers at Texas A&M University are studying some of those impacts, specifically effects on the eye. The findings are published in the journal npj Microgravity.

A new approach to care may help people with cancer better manage depression, pain, and fatigue. With this approach, people may be offered weekly cognitive behavioral therapy sessions from a counselor and medicine for their symptoms.

Stepped collaborative care is an approach for managing symptoms such as depression, pain, and fatigue in people with cancer. It includes psychotherapy and medication if the symptoms are not reduced by psychotherapy alone.

A person’s symptoms are assessed every 4 weeks. If the symptoms are not in the normal range, health care providers change the frequency or type of treatment.

Continue reading “Approach Integrates Cancer Symptom Management into Routine Care” »

Robots and food have long been distant worlds: Robots are inorganic, bulky, and non-disposable; food is organic, soft, and biodegradable. Yet, research that develops edible robots has progressed recently and promises positive impacts: Robotic food could reduce electronic waste, help deliver nutrition and medicines to people and animals in need, monitor health, and even pave the way to novel gastronomical experiences. But how far are we from having a fully edible robot for lunch or dessert? And what are the challenges?

Scientists from the RoboFood project, based at EPFL, address these and other questions in a new perspective article in the journal Nature Reviews Materials (“Towards edible robots and robotic food”).

“Bringing robots and food together is a fascinating challenge,” says Dario Floreano, director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL and first author of the article. In 2021, Floreano joined forces with Remko Boom from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Jonathan Rossiter from the University of Bristol, UK, and Mario Caironi from the Italian Institute of Technology, to launch the project RoboFood.

A series of advances in materials and design have enabled manufacturers to work at scales smaller than a billionth of a size to create devices and objects of nanoscopic dimensions. This is nanotechnology, which, although relatively new, produces materials and technologies already used in mass production.

The European Commission defines nano as any material that is at least 50% composed of particles between one and one hundred nanometers in size (i.e. one billionth of a meter, or one-millionth of a millimeter). Nanomaterials differ from conventional materials because of their unique properties such as higher electrical conductivity and mechanical strength, sensor technologies, and biomedical applications, and because they can create coatings that make surfaces more hydrophobic or self-cleaning.

The widespread use of nanotechnology is relatively new. Since 2000, nanomaterials have been used industrially as new research and experimental designs have made their effectiveness in different sectors clear. For example, in the health field, nanotechnology helps to reduce diagnostic errors and to develop nanobots (microscale robots) to repair and replace intercellular structures, or repair DNA molecules; in the chemical sector, it facilitates coating devices with nanoparticles to improve their smoothness and heat resistance; in manufacturing, materials developed with nanotechnology enhance the performance of the final product by improving heat resistance, strength, durability, and electrical conductivity.

Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles: “When we’re upright, a large part of our fluids are stored in our legs, but in microgravity we get a redistribution of fluids into the upper body.”

What physiological effects can extended periods of microgravity have on the human eye? This is what a recent study published in npj Microgravity hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how the shifting of fluids under microgravity conditions could lead to eye vessel alterations. This study holds the potential to help space agencies, researchers, and the public better understand the short-and long-term physiological effects of microgravity, specifically with more humans traveling beyond Earth’s gravity on commercial spaceflights.

“When we experience microgravity conditions, we see changes in the cardiovascular system because gravity is not pulling down all these fluids as it typically does on Earth when we are in an upright position,” said Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University and a co-author on the study. “When we’re upright, a large part of our fluids are stored in our legs, but in microgravity we get a redistribution of fluids into the upper body.”

Continue reading “Impact of Space Flight on Human Health: A Focus on the Eye” »

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a non-chemotherapy treatment regimen that is achieving full remissions for some people with aggressive B-cell lymphoma that has come back or is no longer responding to standard treatments. The five-drug combination targets multiple molecular pathways that diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) tumors use to survive.

In a clinical trial at NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), researchers tested the combination of venetoclax, ibrutinib, prednisone, obinutuzumab, and lenalidomide (called ViPOR) in 50 patients with DLBCL, the most common type of lymphoma. The treatment shrank tumors substantially in 26 of 48 (54%) evaluable patients, with 18 (38%) of those patients’ tumors disappearing entirely, known as a complete response. At two years, 36% of all patients were alive and 34% were free of disease. These benefits were seen mainly in people with two specific subtypes of DLBCL.

The findings were published June 20, 2024, in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Groundbreaking maps reveal the complex gene regulation in brains with and without mental disorders, enhancing the understanding of mental illnesses and potential treatments.

A consortium of researchers has produced the largest and most advanced multidimensional maps of gene regulation networks in the brains of people with and without mental disorders. These maps detail the many regulatory elements that coordinate the brain’s biological pathways and cellular functions. The research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), used postmortem brain tissue from over 2,500 donors to map gene regulation networks across different stages of brain development and multiple brain-related disorders.

“These groundbreaking findings advance our understanding of where, how, and when genetic risk contributes to mental disorders such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression,” said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). “Moreover, the critical resources, shared freely, will help researchers pinpoint genetic variants that are likely to play a causal role in mental illnesses and identify potential molecular targets for new therapeutics.”