Lifeboat Foundation

The primary question we will attempt to investigate in this article is whether consciousness is a fundamental property of nature, or is it an emergent phenomenon. The nature of consciousness is shrouded in mystery. Although we understand a lot about how the world works from a third person perspective, we don’t understand the source of consciousness, even though everything we know is due to consciousness. Our conclusion is that consciousness is likely an emergent phenomenon. Consciousness emerges from physical matter (due to the arrangement of and interactions between physical matter), and ordered complexity is simply a fortunate product of random processes. We claim that defining consciousness as a fundamental property of the universe is not scientific. We also provide some evidence as to why it is likely that consciousness is emergent from physical matter.

In this article, we will also be addressing the question of whether we need fundamentally new kinds of laws to explain complex phenomena, or can extensions of the existing laws governing simpler phenomena successfully explain more complex phenomena. It is crucial to understand this question in order to obtain a better understanding of the way complexity arises from simplicity. This question is interdisciplinary in nature and would possibly have an effect on less fundamental sciences (like medical sciences), other than physics. The question involves chaos theory, emergence and many other concepts.

Gene therapy shows promise in repairing damaged brain tissue from strokes.

From the NIH Director’s Blog by Dr. Francis Collins.

It’s a race against time when someone suffers a stroke caused by a blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain. Unless clot-busting treatment is given within a few hours after symptoms appear, vast numbers of the brain’s neurons die, often leading to paralysis or other disabilities. It would be great to have a way to replace those lost neurons. Thanks to gene therapy, some encouraging strides are now being made.

Continue reading “Gene therapy shows promise repairing brain tissue damaged by stroke” »

DNA is nature’s highly efficient mechanism for data storage. Now, scientists are taking note to address our storage crisis.

Researchers have developed a method to recreate the formation of Lewy bodies in human neurons, shedding light on the essential roles of alpha-synuclein and immune responses in their development. This breakthrough offers new insights into Parkinson’s disease, showing that Lewy bodies form only under specific conditions and highlighting the potential…

Aesthetic bewilderment is a kind of common ground in science and art, an engine for new ideas in both disciplines, writes Brazilian artist Vik Muniz in the introduction to a new book of photographs and essays about bacteria by microbiologist Tal Danino. That book, titled Beautiful Bacteria: Encounters in the Microuniverse, was published last week.

Danino collaborated with Muniz on a number of projects—including one that involved making art out of viruses and cancer cells—when Muniz was a visiting artist at MIT. “I think that scientists oftentimes see a beautiful pattern and wonder about the underlying processes that make such a pattern happen,” says Danino when I ask him what aesthetic bewilderment means to him. Take the complex architectures of the snowflake, the markings on the coats of animals, or the fractal-like arrangements produced by some communities of microbes. “I think that there’s a lot of scientific work that just begins with a scientist saying, ‘Wow, this is such a cool pattern or dynamic process and I really want to study it,’” he says.

Billionaires are backing top scientists racing to develop tech that could reverse aging. Cellular reprogramming promises to rejuvenate the body… but how does it work, and is it safe?

00:00 – Introduction.
00:55 – The Role Of Stem Cells.
02:33 – What Is Aging?
03:24 – What Is Cellular Reprogramming?
03:56 – How The Yamanaka Factors Can Rejuvenate Cells.
05:35 – Why Scientists Want To Partially Reprogram Cells.
06:28 – How Humans Could Become More Resilient To Age-Related Diseases.
07:00 – How Johnny Huard Uses Cellular Reprogramming.
08:10 – How Cellular Reprogramming Could Shape The Future.
08:38 – Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Is Investing Billions With Altos Labs.
09:02 – How Harvard Professor David Sinclair Used Cellular Reprogramming on Mice.
10:07 – ChatGPT’s Sam Altman Launched Retro. Biosciences.
10:57 – The Risks of Cellular Reprogramming, Including Cancer.
12:56 – How the Tech World Is Investing In Biotech.
13:50 – Credits.

Continue reading “Scientists Are Closer Than Ever To Reverse Aging. How Does It Work? | Life Extended” »

Researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School have identified interleukin-11 (IL11) as a key factor in the ageing process. Elevated IL11 levels lead to fat accumulation and muscle loss—two major indicators of ageing. Inhibiting IL11 could enhance healthy lifespans.

Ageing populations pose significant health and economic challenges globally. Even a one-year increase in life expectancy could be valued at $38 trillion.

In a study published in Nature, the team demonstrated that anti-IL11 therapy not only counters the harmful effects of ageing but also increases lifespan by up to 25% in preclinical models. The therapy shifts metabolism from generating harmful white fat to beneficial brown fat, which helps burn calories and maintain body temperature.

A widely available and inexpensive antidepressant drug may soon save lives from an altogether different kind of disease.

The growth of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma, was effectively suppressed in both ex vivo human tissue samples and in living mice by an FDA approved serotonin modulator currently used to treat major depression.

It’s not a cure, but it may offer some relief and constitute an effective part of a treatment regime for glioblastoma patients. Human clinical trials are the next step; patients are cautioned against self-medicating at this stage.

Plant-based diets have grown in popularity owing to multiple health and environmental benefits.

Here, the authors describe the evidence concerning plant-based dietary patterns and omnivorous diets with reduced consumption of animal-based food and increased consumption of plant-based foods and their associations with the most common urological cancers and benign urological conditions.