Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Month: July 2020

Toward principles of gene regulation in multicellular systems

A team of quantitative biology researchers from Northwestern University have uncovered new insights into the impact of stochasticity in gene expression, offering new evolutionary clues into organismal design principles in the face of physical constraints.

In cells, are expressed through transcription, a process where genetic information encoded in DNA is copied into messenger RNA (mRNA). The mRNA is then translated to make , the workhorses of cells. This entire process is subject to bursts of natural stochasticity—or randomness—which can impact the outcome of biological processes that proteins carry out.

The researchers’ new experimental and theoretical analyses studied a collection of genes in Drosophila, a family of fruit flies, and found that gene expression is regulated by the frequency of these transcriptional bursts.

Mystery as hundreds of elephants found dead

Mystery surrounds the “completely unprecedented” deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana over the last two months.

Dr Niall McCann said colleagues in the southern African country had spotted more than 350 elephant carcasses in the Okavango Delta since the start of May.

But they have been unable to rule out either poisoning or disease. The way the animals appear to be dying — many dropping on their faces — and sightings of other elephants walking in circles points to something potentially attacking their neurological systems, Dr McCann said.

Study finds the minimum number of Martian settlers for survival is 110

So you want to colonize Mars. Well, Mars is a long ways away, and in order for a colony to function that far from Earthly support, things have to be thought out very carefully. Including how many people are needed to make it work.

A new study pegs the minimum number of settlers at 110.

The study is titled “Minimum Number of Settlers for Survival on Another Planet.” The author is Jean-Marc Salotti, a professor at Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique. His paper is published in Scientific Reports.

Going with a view? A spacewalk is the ‘best view for a bathroom,’ astronaut says

Space is the “best view for a bathroom anywhere,” says one NASA astronaut.

A curious young student asked NASA astronaut Bob Behnken the question on everyone’s mind on Monday (June 29) during a series of televised media interviews: How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?

Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, Disney and Coke

Elon Musk’s electric car business exceeds the value of almost every company in the S&P 500, including some iconic American companies.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday to a new record high of above $1,120 a share. At that price, Tesla’s market cap is nearly $210 billion.

New mathematical idea reins in AI bias towards making unethical and costly commercial choices

Researchers from the University of Warwick, Imperial College London, EPFL (Lausanne) and Sciteb Ltd have found a mathematical means of helping regulators and business manage and police Artificial Intelligence systems’ biases towards making unethical, and potentially very costly and damaging commercial choices—an ethical eye on AI.

Japan offers 20 countries drug to fight virus for free

April 2020 Japan has offered to provide an anti-flu drug free to countries including Turkey to treat coronavirus patients, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday.

According to Kyodo News, Motegi said 20 countries could get the drug Avigan, which is currently undergoing clinical tests, including Turkey, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/search/

Turkey among countries which could get supplies of anti-flu drug Avigan, says foreign minister — Anadolu Agency.

Eleven mayors pledge to explore direct cash payments plan to fight poverty

Eleven mayors have signed on to the “Mayors for Guaranteed Income” initiative. The group is working with the Economic Security Project, which has funded basic income experiments in Stockton and elsewhere, and is co-chaired by Chris Hughes, a multimillionaire guaranteed income advocate and one of the founders of Facebook.

The cities that have joined the initiative also include St Paul, Minnesota; Jackson, Mississippi; Newark, New Jersey; Oakland and Compton, California; Shreveport, Louisiana; Columbia, South Carolina; and Tacoma, Washington.

It’s not yet clear how much money the cities might hand out, or how many residents might actually receive a check in the near future. The mayors are still working on fundraising for the effort and exploring what experiments in their cities might look like, including how to generate more data that shows the effects of the direct cash payments. But Tubbs said that he hoped cities would be able to take some action on guaranteed income by early next year.