Lifeboat Foundation

When it comes to venomous snake bites, time is tissue. Even non-fatal snake bites still rapidly kill skin and muscle in a gruesome process called necrosis, often leaving victims permanently disfigured. In an effort to help reduce the global health burden of these bites, a team of scientists has developed an antivenom cocktail that saves tissue after a snake bite, sparing survivors a lifetime of disability.

In a paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers demonstrate that their formula, when injected into mice that had been exposed to venom from a black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis), protected against any tissue-killing effects. What’s unique about their new treatment is that it’s not made up of any one substance but a mixture of nanoparticles, which can target the individual compounds that make up a snake’s poison.

“If this is achieved, then the progression of this local necrosis would be halted, and then the person can be transported to a health facility to receive the antivenom, but the local tissue damage would have been controlled and the frequency of permanent tissue damage and sequelae would be reduced,” José María Gutiérrez, Ph.D.. a senior professor of microbiology at Instituto Clodomiro Picado (the University of Costa Rica) and one of the paper’s authors, tells Inverse.

Continue reading “New Weapon Against Gruesome Venomous Snakebites Is Invisible to the Eye” »

By Christian Jarrett. The cognitive benefits of brief exercise seem to be due to how it makes us feel more energetic.

Matter ejected from a spinning disc of doom surrounding a black hole a mere 15,000 light years away has produced some of the most energetic rays of light ever witnessed from an object of its kind.

The insanely powerful photons of gamma radiation were produced by a never-before-seen phenomenon surrounding a miniature quasar. The discovery could help us better understand what goes on deep in the chaotic heart of the Milky Way.

SS 433 is a smaller version of the kinds of maelstrom of death you’d find lurking at the core of most galaxies. It’s also in our neighbourhood, more or less, making it relatively easy to study.

Continue reading “We’ve Just Found The Source of Some of The Most Powerful Light Beams Ever Detected” »

Physicist Jun Ye built the world’s most precise clock and is part of the group of scientists who changed our understanding of time itself.

Planets can ‘discover’ nuclear power on their own, naturally, without any intelligence. Earth did it 1.7 billion years before humans.

AI still has a long way to go until it can topple humanity, says Woz.

Deep learning neural networks are behind much of the progress in AI these days. Neuton is a new framework that claims to be much faster and compact, and it requires less skills and training than anything the AWSs, Googles, and Facebooks of the world have.

A new discovery could add to a “checklist” of options to make sure women with ovarian cancer get the right treatment.

BREMEN, Germany — A SpaceX executive said Oct. 3 that the company’s first commercial crew test flight could be delayed until early 2019 because of paperwork issues.

In a speech at the 69th International Astronautical Congress here, Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX, said launching an uncrewed test flight before the end of the year will be a “close call” even though the hardware itself should be ready.

“We’re working hard to get this done this year,” he said. “The hardware might be ready, but we might still have to do some paperwork on the certification side of it. It’s going to be a close call whether we fly this year or not.”

Continue reading “First SpaceX commercial crew test flight could slip to 2019” »