Lifeboat Foundation

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — U.S. regulators on Friday approved a fast-acting, super-potent opioid tablet that is 10 times more powerful than Fentanyl and 1,000 times more potent than morphine.

The drug called Dsuvia was developed as an alternative to IV painkillers used in hospitals.

The decision by the Food and Drug Administration came over objections from critics who fear the pill will be abused. In a lengthy statement, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said there will be “very tight restrictions” placed on its distribution and it is intended only for supervised settings like hospitals.

Continue reading “FDA approves painkiller 1,000 times more powerful than morphine” »

Physics tells us that a hammer and a feather, dropped in a vacuum, will fall at the same rate – as famously demonstrated by an Apollo 15 astronaut on the Moon. Now, CERN scientists are preparing to put a spooky new spin on that experiment, by dropping antimatter in a vacuum chamber to see if gravity affects it the same way it does matter – or if antimatter falls upwards instead.

This phenomenon requires generating photons with visible, UV wavelengths rather than hot, infra-red wavelengths, and it happens in nature.

Rutgers scientists have created a tiny, biodegradable scaffold to transplant stem cells and deliver drugs, which may help treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, aging brain degeneration, spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.

Stem cell transplantation, which shows promise as a treatment for central nervous system diseases, has been hampered by low cell survival rates, incomplete differentiation of cells and limited growth of neural connections.

So, Rutgers scientists designed bio-scaffolds that mimic natural tissue and got good results in test tubes and mice, according to a study in Nature Communications. These nano-size scaffolds hold promise for advanced stem cell transplantation and neural tissue engineering. Stem cell therapy leads to stem cells becoming neurons and can restore neural circuits.

What was it like to see, up close, the H-IIA rocket (that carried Diwata-2) leave the grounds of Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center last October 29? Here’s a firsthand account from BusinessMirror.

WHILE waiting for the launching of Diwata-2 at the view deck in Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan, with our cameras trained at the launch site, Dr. Joel Marciano, the head of Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite Program (PHL-Microsat) whispered: “Don’t just look at the rising rocket [named H-IIA F40 that carries Diwata-2] through your camera. Look at the real event so you can feel it.”

I didn’t know and did not have the time to ask what he meant by “feel it.”

Continue reading “Feeling high with Diwata-2 in the sky” »

The International Space Station is your orbiting laboratory, and the science being conducted there will help us push farther into deep space, while providing benefits back on Earth. Microgravity unlocks new worlds of discovery. Dive into what we’re learning: 🔬🚀.

Lucy is a mission to primitive asteroids orbiting Jupiter, where we’ll learn about planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Lucy will complete a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids, more destinations in independent orbits than any space mission in history.

What if we could bottle solar energy so it could be used to power our homes and factories even when the sun doesn’t shine?

Scientists have spent decades looking for a way do just that, and now researchers in Sweden are reporting significant progress. They’ve developed a specialized fluid that absorbs a bit of sunlight’s energy, holds it for months or even years and then releases it when needed. If this so-called solar thermal fuel can be perfected, it might drive another nail in the coffin of fossil fuels — and help solve our global-warming crisis.

Unlike oil, coal and natural gas, solar thermal fuels are reusable and environmentally friendly. They release energy without spewing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Continue reading “Scientists are trying to bottle solar energy and turn it into liquid fuel” »