Longevity science

Taking aspirin daily may help protect against cancer but the effect seems weaker than previously thought, according to a U.S. study that included a decade's worth of data from more than 100,000 people.

We just saw that a patient was able to control a robotic arm using her thoughts. She was able to give herself a sip of a drink.

Now, surgeons at the Washington University School of Medicine have rerouted working nerves in the upper arms of a quadriplegic patient, to restore some of he patient's hand function.

Although it’s known to kill bacteria, selenium has never been tried as an antibacterial coating for implanted medical devices ... until now, that is.

Engineers from Rhode Island’s Brown University have applied coatings of selenium nanoparticles to pieces of polycarbonate – the material used for things like catheters and endotracheal tubes – and then exposed those samples to Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. In some cases, populations of the bacteria were subsequently reduced by up to 90 percent.

The researchers started by growing separate batches of both large and small selenium nanoparticles, then coating polycarbonate samples with them – some samples were coated with only large nanoparticles, while others were coated with only small ones. Within each of those groups, they then applied tape to some samples, then ripped it off. This was done both to test how durable the coatings were, and to see how effective less-dense coatings would perform as compared to ones that were left intact.

The ability to activate brown fat in the body could provide a means to fight obesity and keep the weight off.

Now scientists have discovered a protein that could allow them to do just that.

Cathy Hutchinson hasn’t moved her limbs of her own volition for 15 years, but by imagining she was using her own hand, she controlled a robotic arm to pick up a thermos of coffee and took a sip.

The technology is a neural interface system...

Scientists have long thought that part of our genetic code was redundant. Further, they thought that the redundant code contained only duplicate information. A new discovery indicates that the redundant bits contain unique and speed-related instructions for protein formation.

“By measuring the rate of protein production in bacteria, the team discovered that slight genetic alterations could have a dramatic effect. This was true even for seemingly insignificant genetic changes known as “silent mutations,” which swap out a single DNA letter without changing the ultimate gene product. To their surprise, the scientists found these changes can slow the protein production process to one-tenth of its normal speed or less.”

“This new discovery challenges half a century of fundamental assumptions in biology. It may also help speed up the industrial production of proteins, which is crucial for making biofuels and biological drugs used to treat many common diseases, ranging from diabetes to cancer.”