#breakthrough

Delaying menopause

Delaying menopause could reduce health risks associated with aging in women due to the ovaries’ influence on various organ systems.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Progress on mind reading

Researchers have developed a portable, wireless EEG acquisition system called BrainGPT capable of converting thoughts into text without the need for an fMRI machine.

· Link post  #breakthrough #ai
Speaking without vocal cords, thanks to a new AI-assisted device

UCLA bioengineers have created a flexible device that adheres to the neck and converts muscle movements of the larynx into speech.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Bionic device to halt Crohn’s disease

Clinicians at Austin Health have implanted a nerve stimulation device in a Crohn’s disease patient to prevent post-operative inflammation.

· Link post  #breakthrough
We’re entering a golden age of engineering biology

Biotech has become a trillion-dollar industry with significant advancements in health, agriculture, and industrial production, building upon foundational recombinant DNA technology from the 1970s.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the ISS

European researchers sent Antarctic rock-dwelling fungi to the International Space Station (ISS) to expose them to Mars-like conditions.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using chatbots

Users interacted with Replika in various ways, treating it as a friend, therapist, and intellectual counterpart.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Using gene therapy to cure genetic deafness

An 11-year-old boy who was born deaf, had his hearing restored after receiving gene therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, marking a medical breakthrough.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Bio-mining metals

Future Metals is exploring bio-mining as a method to source precious metals for jewellery making.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Robots that cook

Researchers have developed a system called Mobile ALOHA for mobile manipulation tasks that require both hands and the whole body, aiming to improve robotic mobility and dexterity beyond simple table-top manipulation.

· Link post  #breakthrough #ai
Artificial hearts are coming soon

Up to five million Americans have heart failure but only around 2,000 donor hearts are available each year, creating a demand for artificial hearts.

· Link post  #breakthrough
mRNA melanoma vaccine progress

The mRNA cancer vaccine by Moderna and Merck has continued to show a 50% reduction in recurrence or death from melanoma after three years.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Ultrasound enables remote 3D printing

Mechanical engineers Shervin Foroughi and Mohsen Habibi have developed a “direct-sound printing” technology that 3-D prints solid objects by using sound waves transmitted through a solid wall to solidify a liquid.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface

Epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord combined with preprogrammed patterns has previously enabled people with paralysis to stand and walk, but it required motion sensors and did not allow for natural, adaptive control.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Tiny robots made from human cells heal damaged tissue

Scientists created tiny robots, coined ‘anthrobots’, from human tracheal cells that have the potential to repair neural tissue.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Geothermal-via-fracking now running some Google data centres

Google has partnered with the startup Fervo to implement new geothermal technology capable of producing 3.5 MW of power.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Ultra-high-resolution imaging with next-generation MRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) commonly employs a spatial resolution of about 3.0 mm, which is inadequate for capturing details of cortical layers and columns in the human brain.

· Link post  #breakthrough
America's first commercial carbon capture plant is now operating

Heirloom Carbon Technologies has launched the first commercial plant in the U.S. for direct air capture, which extracts greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Cell-based therapy is the future

Cell-based therapies offer potential for curing diseases such as cancer, regenerating organs, and even reversing aging, with CAR-T therapy already successfully used in 2011 to cure a pediatric cancer patient.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Anti-tumor mRNA vaccines

A combined treatment using CAR T cells and serial mRNA vaccine injections shows strong anti-cancer activity in genitourinary cancers, suggesting a new targeted treatment.

· Link post  #breakthrough
How bioelectricity could regrow limbs and organs

In the future, bioelectricity might be used to heal birth defects, injuries, limb loss, and possibly cancer by directing cells to regenerate.

· Link post  #breakthrough
CAR-T cell therapy is curing cancer

The cure rate for lymphoma using CAR-T therapy is 45%.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Dengue rates plunged after release of lab-altered mosquitoes

Wolbachia bacteria-infected mosquitoes have been linked to a significant 97% reduction in dengue infections in three Colombian cities.

· Link post  #breakthrough
Mining asteroids in deep space

Startup AstroForge aims to mine asteroids for resources.

· Link post  #breakthrough
The Psyche Mission will take us to an infant planet

For the first time ever, we’ll explore an asteroid made not of rock or ice, but of metal. The mission will investigate planet formation and could be a building block towards asteroid mining.

· Link post  #breakthrough