What is reality?
I have just finished reading This Way to the Universe, by Michael Dine, a theoretical physicist. It ' s essentially an overview of what physicists think they do and do not understand about the universe, trying to convey it to lay readers. I won ' t try to quantify how much of it I think I understand, but hardly anybody really understands it, including at the deepest level the theoretical physicists themselves.But the details aren ' t really important to any but a few of us. The Big Picture is that scientific understanding has left all of our intuitions behind, along with all historical beliefs about the structure and meani...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 18, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Lab-Designed “Fish” Could Pave the Way for Artificial Hearts
Researchers at Harvard University have created a fish-like construct from human stem cell-derived cardiac muscle. The structure can beat and swim autonomously, and is inspired by zebrafish. So far, the researchers have shown that the fish can survive and swim for over 100 days, and they hope these new structures could provide insights into cardiac diseases, such as arrhythmias. However, the major prize in sight is an artificial heart that is suitable for transplantation, and the technology may represent a stepping stone to this eventual goal.
“Our ultimate goal is to build an artificial heart to replace a malforme...
Source: Medgadget - February 15, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Materials Source Type: blogs
Photographing the Physics of Cells
Dr. Melike Lakadamyali with a microscope. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Lakadamyali.
“It would be a dream come true if I could look at a cell within a tissue and have a Google Maps view to zoom in until I saw individual molecules,” says Melike Lakadamyali, Ph.D., an associate professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Her lab is helping make part of that dream a reality by developing super-resolution microscopy tools that visualize cells at a near-molecular level.
Blending Physics and Biology
Science and math fascinated Dr. Lakadamyali since childhood, ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - February 2, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Cells Tools and Techniques Cellular Imaging Cellular Processes Cool Tools/Techniques Profiles Source Type: blogs
Automatic Blood Smear Preparation for Reliable Malaria Diagnosis
Researchers at Cambridge and Bath universities in the UK, along with colleagues at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, have created two devices, called autohaem, that assist in creating blood smears, a common technique for diagnosing malaria. A blood smear involves manually smudging a drop of blood across a microscope slide to allow observation of the blood in detail, enabling a diagnosis. While this sounds simple, it requires dexterity and skill to perform correctly, and these latest devices are intended to streamline the process and allow health workers in low-resource areas to replicate high-quality smears consist...
Source: Medgadget - January 19, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Pathology Public Health Source Type: blogs
BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE -- PreDoc, PostDoc, and Research Fellow Opportunities
FUNDED PREDOCTORAL AND POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS AT THE BCBL- BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE (SAN SEBASTI ÁN, BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN), www.bcbl.eu The Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebasti án, Basque Country, Spain) offers the following positions:FUNDED POSTDOCTORAL CANDIDATE POSITION – Computational Neuroscience Group- AT THE BCBL- BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE (SAN SEBASTIÁN, BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN)FUNDED JOINT POSTDOCTORAL CANDIDATE POSITION at the Neurobiology of Language Group, BCBL- BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE (SAN SEBASTI ÁN,...
Source: Talking Brains - January 14, 2022 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
Career Conversations: Q & A with Structural Biologist Lauren Parker Jackson
Dr. Lauren Parker Jackson. Credit: Vanderbilt University.
“A confusing experimental result almost always means you’ve stumbled upon something interesting and maybe even exciting. I think that’s what makes science fun,” says Lauren Parker Jackson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Check out the highlights of our interview with Dr. Jackson to learn how she became a biologist and what she studies in her lab.
Q: What sparked your interest in science?
A: I credit my high school chemistry, physics, and biology teachers with getting me interested ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 12, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Cells Cellular Processes Profiles Source Type: blogs
Wanted: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Branch Chief
We’re seeking a highly qualified branch chief for our Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences (BBCB). Applicants should have interest and experience in the scientific areas managed by the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) Branch. Position responsibilities include: scientific and administrative planning, management, and evaluation; optimization of Branch procedures; and overseeing grant portfolio activities of the Branch program directors. The branch chief will also manage a research grant portfolio and will work closely with the Biophysics and Biomedical Technology Branc...
Source: NIGMS Feedback Loop Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 10, 2022 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Job Announcements Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 3rd 2022
In this study, we showed that the iPaD (inducing Plagl2 and anti-Dyrk1a) lentivirus substantially rejuvenated the proliferative and neurogenic potential of NSCs in the aged brain. Clonal analysis by a sparse labeling approach as well as transcriptome analysis indicated that iPaD can rejuvenate aged NSCs (19-21 mo of age) to a level comparable with those at 1 or 2 months of age and successfully improved cognition of aged mice.
Once rejuvenated and activated by iPaD, aged dormant NSCs can generate, on average, 4.9 neurons but very few astrocytes in 3-week tracing. Furthermore, these activated NSCs were maintained for ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 2, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Look Back at 2021: Progress Towards the Treatment of Aging as a Medical Condition
Well, here we are again, at the end of another pandemic year, a year older and - hopefully - a year wiser and more knowledgeable. I said all that really needs to be said on the topic of COVID-19 as an age-related condition at the end of last year. We might hope that, given widespread vaccination, the pandemic will become a topic of diminishing importance as the year ahead progresses, even given the present round of variants, fears, and reintroduction of restrictions.
Advocacy for Aging Research
Have we finally made significant progress in convincing the world that aging is the cause of age-related disease, th...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 31, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
Career Conversations: Q & A with Biological Engineer Brian Munsky
Dr. Brian Munsky. Credit: Colorado State University.
“I think having a career in science is really the best way to rechannel the inner child, to remain forever curious about the world,” says Brian Munsky, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Check out the highlights of our interview with Dr. Munsky below to learn how his childhood practical jokes led to him running a research group that uses computational and experimental methods to study complex processes inside cells.
Q: How did you become interested in science and math?
A: I reall...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - December 8, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Bioinformatics Computational Biology Profiles Source Type: blogs
Quantum Computing ’ s Sputnik Moment
By KIM BELLARD
General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently expressed grave concern about China’s reported test of a hypersonic missile: “I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that. It has all of our attention.” Maybe it should be, but General Milley may have missed the real 21st-century version of a Sputnik moment: China has claimed huge breakthroughs in quantum computing.
It’s inside baseball to those of us who are neither computer experts nor quantum physicists, but let’s put it this way: the countries/companies that domi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 2, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Healthcare Kim Bellard quantum computer quantum computing Source Type: blogs
Ejuhmuhcayshun
One of the strangest responses to the recent phony culture war flapdoodle is that schools should be limited to teaching basic skills -- reading and math, I suppose, and maybe shop and home economics. If public schools teach history, science, social studies and literature, students might learn something their parents don ' t want them to.It seems to me there are really two or three separate phenomena going on here. We need to keep them straight. The first is people who don ' t believe certain objective truths, of science or history. An example which the courts have already dealt with is evolution. In 2004, ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 29, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The final frontier
As the world -- or at least the corporate media -- seems enthralled by the spectacle of billionaires taking joy rides to the edge of space, I feel compelled to comment on the larger implications. There are no larger implications, other than the prospect that billionaires may continue to take joyrides to the edge of space until they get tired of it, then they ' ll find some other way to waste their ill-gotten gains. This may seem a digression, but bear with me. Many people find it so compellingly obvious that we ought to have discovered other technological civilizations in the galaxy, and even be in contact with them, ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 24, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Two simple papers that will fetch you a Nobel prize in Medicine/Economics instantly for sure !
This article from Mr. Arun Maira,(The Pakistan-born British Indian ex-planning commission member) is a real eye-opener on the way we have understood science. All socially conscious scientists must-read. (If properly appreciated, the 15 minutes you are going to spend on this is worth the time of one full semester in a top-notch university)
Nowadays, Noble prizes are given for some soul-searching simple researches.It is heartening to note the shift, Complex research methodology is looked down on, especially in economics. Contributors of simple observational studies bordering on forgotten common sense are rewarded. (In...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - October 19, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: bio ethics comparative research cost effectiveness in medical research Epistemology health economics medicial education noble prize in medicine economics Source Type: blogs
Two simple papers that will fetch you a Nobel prize in Medicine or Economics instantly for sure !
This article from Mr. Arun Maira,(The Pakistan-born British Indian ex-planning commission member) is a real eye-opener on the way we have understood science. All socially conscious scientists must-read. (If properly appreciated, the 15 minutes you are going to spend on this is worth the time of one full semester in a top-notch university)
Nowadays, Noble prizes are given for some soul-searching simple researches.It is heartening to note the shift, Complex research methodology is looked down on, especially in economics. Contributors of simple observational studies bordering on forgotten common sense are rewar...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - October 19, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: bio ethics comparative research cost effectiveness in medical research Epistemology health economics medicial education noble prize in medicine economics Source Type: blogs
