Lifeboat Foundation

Immune checkpoint blockade therapies have been revolutionary in the treatment of some cancer types, emerging as one of the most promising treatments for diseases such as melanoma, colon cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

While in some cases checkpoint blockade therapies elicit a strong immune response that clears tumors, checkpoint inhibitors do not work for all tumor types or all patients. Moreover, some patients who do experience an initial benefit from these therapies see their cancers recur. Only a small minority of patients treated with checkpoint blockade therapies see lasting benefits. Researchers have developed various combination therapy strategies to overcome resistance to checkpoint blockade therapies, with the STING pathway emerging as one of the most attractive lines of inquiry.

In a study published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, a team of MIT researchers engineered a therapeutic cancer vaccine capable of restoring STING signaling and eliminating the majority of tumors in mouse models of colon cancer and melanoma, with minimal side effects. The vaccine also inhibited metastasis in a breast cancer mouse model and prevented the recurrence of tumors in cured mice.

Students engage in virtual tours and learn about plants, recipes, and STEM education in a captivating Indigenous garden, now accessible online.

Impulsive or Helium-3 enriched solar energetic particle (SEP) events, characterized by Helium-3 and ultra-heavy ion abundances, show high association with type III radio bursts. Minor (B-or C-class) GOES soft X-ray flares often accompany these events.

There are reports on such events measured in clusters from sub-flares in single active regions, where abundance showed significant variations. Imaging observations revealed that sources of these recurrent Helium-3 enriched are jets from solar plages (patches of scattered magnetic fields) or coronal hole edges.

From a distance of only half an astronomical unit (AU), or around 46.5 million miles, scientists from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have made the first close-up observations of a source of energetic particles ejected from the Sun. ESA’s Solar Orbiter provided high-resolution images of the solar flare.

Jiangnan University, via SCMP

Ceramics are commonly used in the fields of electronics, mechanical engineering, and aerospace because of their structural integrity. They are also common because they are resistant to wear while also having endurance to high temperatures. Yet, because of their brittleness and hardness, designing and manufacturing certain ceramic parts.

Imperial College researchers have created a spinning disk of plasma in a lab, mimicking disks found around black holes and forming stars.

The experiment more accurately models what happens in these plasma disks, which could help researchers discover how black holes grow and how collapsing matter forms stars.

As matter approaches black holes it heats up, becoming plasma—a fourth state of matter consisting of charged ions and free electrons. It also begins to rotate, in a structure called an accretion disk. The rotation causes a centrifugal force pushing the plasma outwards, which is balanced by the gravity of the black hole pulling it in.

Just because you need one. 🤔

The Von Mercier Arosa is not a car.
The Von Mercier Arosa is aiming to be the world’s first sport luxury hovercraft.

Continue reading “VonMercier’s electric ‘sports hovercraft’ promises exceptional agility” »

A soft robot inserted through a hole in the skull can deploy six sensor-filled legs on the surface of the brain to monitor electrical activity. The design has been tested in miniature pigs and could someday help people who experience epileptic seizures.

By Jeremy Hsu

In the three-dimensional printing process of ceramic with low-angle structures, additional supporting structures are usually employed to avoid collapse of overhanging parts. However, the extra supporting structures not only affect printing efficiency, but the problems caused by their removal are also a matter of concern. Herein, we present a ceramic printing method, which can realize printing of unsupported multi-scale and large-span ceramics through the combination of direct ink writing and near-infrared induced up-conversion particles-assisted photopolymerization. This printing technology enables in-situ curing of multi-scale filaments with diameters ranging from 410 µm to 3.50 mm, and ceramic structures of torsion spring, three-dimensional bending and cantilever beam were successfully constructed through unsupported printing. This method will bring more innovation to the unsupported 3D manufacturing of complex shape ceramics.

In 3D ceramic printing, the need for additional supports can increase processing time and introduce defects during post-processing removal. Here, authors merge direct ink writing and up-conversion particles-assisted photopolymerization under near-infrared irradiation for support-free printing with controlled curing rates reducing material waste, printing time, and post-processing steps.

The flexible, thin-film device has the potential to make any surface into a low-power, high-quality audio source.