Lifeboat Foundation

Two-factor authentication by SMS? More like SOS

Once again, it’s been demonstrated that vulnerabilities in cellphone networks can be exploited to intercept one-time two-factor authentication tokens in text messages.

A patch that would have prevented the devastating Equifax breach had been available for months. There’s no excuse for that.

Summary: A new report on mitochondria and cancer shows how our mitochondria help our cancers to grow. With its 37 genes, mitochondria are an attractive druggable target and researchers are looking it as an angle to develop powerful cancer cures. Cover Photo: FatCamera – iStock/Getty Images.

Scientists believe the cure for cancer lies within our mitochondria.

Once considered an academic backwater, researchers suddenly have a renewed interest in the metabolism of cancer cells and are focusing on the lowly mitochondrion. New research shows that the mitochondria within our bodies bend over backward to help cancer cells grow. Scientists are publishing increasing amounts of evidence showing that cancer-induced changes in our mitochondria contribute to the growth of cancer. As Dr. Dario C Altieri, Head of the Altieri Lab at the Wistar Institute said in a review in the July 2017 British Journal of Cancer.

Continue reading “Can We Stop Mitochondria From Causing Cancer to Grow?” »

Most people don’t realize that all human beings have two sets of DNA in their bodies, the DNA inside our chromosomes, and a foreign DNA inside our mitochondria, that our ancestors stole from bacteria over a billion years ago.

Look into any of your cells, and you’ll see mysterious foreign DNA lurking inside your mitochondria, the tiny organelles that litter your cells. Recently, mitochondria have come under a growing scientific spotlight; scientists increasingly believe they play a central role in many, if not most, human illnesses. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, and when they falter, our cells lose power, just as a flashlight dims when its batteries weaken. Recently, researchers have linked mitochondria to an array of metabolic and age-related maladies, including autism, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and cardiovascular disease.

While our mitochondria did not come from another planet, they might as well have. Peer through a microscope, and you’ll swear that tiny aliens have invaded your cells. You are partially correct. Mitochondria appear out of place compared to the other structures within the cell. Something ‘alien’ has invaded our cells, eons ago, but it came from primordial bacteria, a distinctly terrestrial source.

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer in the world. It is the primary compound in the cell walls of green plants, and is typically used to make paper and cardboard.

At the VTT Technical Centre of Finland, a state owned research and development non-profit, scientists have used nano-structured cellulose to make a 3D printable material.

The nanocellulose paste is now in development to make smart-dressings that heal and monitor skin wounds.

Continue reading “VTT Finland develops 3D printed device for advanced wound care” »

The annual awards ceremony for research that “first makes you laugh, then makes you think” took place at Harvard University on Thursday evening, with three bona fide Nobel laureates, including the British-born economist Oliver Hart, on hand to distribute prizes.

Scientists from around the globe gathered for annual ceremony celebrating research that ‘first makes you laugh, then makes you think’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIjLcDufAlI&feature=share

Hurricane Irma has left behind a trail of unimaginable destruction and has caused the entire British Virgin Islands (BVI) infrastructure to collapse. People need help rebuilding their lives and there is an immediate and critical need for food, water and shelter.

Thanks to Producer Rob Sorrenti for the Hurricane Irma BVI appeal film with voiceover from Kate Winslet.

General Electric Co. is working on a way to use artificial intelligence in electricity grids, a technology that it expects will save $200 billion globally by improving efficiency.

For much of human history, living up to a ripe old age was seen as a gift from the gods, an aberration, or just the product of sheer luck. Given that up to the beginning of the twentieth century many of us succumbed to disease at an early age, being extremely fortunate to live anywhere past the age of forty, it should be no surprise that living a long life is still beatified today as something akin to winning the lottery.

Even when confronted with the galloping pace of scientific advances in human longevity, our historical sensibilities have led us to take a defeatist stance towards the subject: “Even if longevity interventions become available during my lifetime, I am already too late to take advantage of them, so why bother?”

Indeed, this hesitation to see human life extension as a real possibility in our lifetime, dismissing it as a dream belonging to the realms of science fiction[1] and futuristic utopias[2] is not an uncommon one, and as long as tangible rejuvenation therapies do not become available, we will feel validated in our pragmatism.