Giving blood could be good for your health – new research

Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Michelle Spear, University of BristolBlood donation is widely recognised as a life-saving act, replenishing hospital supplies and aiding patients. But could donating blood also benefit the donor? Frequent blood donors may experience subtle genetic changes that could lower their risk of developing blood cancers, according to new research from the Francis Crick Institute in London. Alongside this, a growing body of evidence highlights a range of health benefits associated with regular donation. As we age, our blood-forming stem cells naturally accumulate mutations, a process known as clonal haematopoiesis. Some of these mutations increase the risk of diseases such as leukaemia. However, the new Francis Crick Institute study has identified an intriguing difference in frequent blood donors. The study compared two groups of healthy male donors in their 60s. One group had donated blood three times a year for 40 years, while the other had given blood only about five times in total. Both groups had a similar number of genetic mutations, but their nature differed. Nearly 50% of frequent donors carried a particular class of mutation not typically linked to cancer, compared with 30% of the infrequent donors. It is thought that regular blood donation encourages the body to produce fresh blood cells, altering...

Read More........→March 20, 2025

Reducing plastic pollution by 5pc yearly may stabilise ocean microplastics: Study

New Delhi, (IANS) Cutting down plastic pollution by 5 per cent per year may help stabilise the level of microplastics -- plastics less than 5 mm in length -- on the surface of oceans, finds a study on Friday.From human blood to testicles, to flora and fauna, microplastics have long been known as a significant environmental and health concern worldwide.To predict its impact on oceans, researchers at Imperial College London and GNS Science developed a model of eight different scenarios of plastic pollution reduction starting from 2026 up to 2100.The results, published in Environmental Research Letters, showed that a reduction in plastic pollution by more than 5 per cent each year will stabilise and also prevent the increase of microplastics in the ocean.However, the modelling also predicted that even a yearly reduction of 20 per cent will "not significantly reduce existing microplastic levels, meaning they will persist in our oceans beyond 2100”.Zhenna Azimrayat Andrews, from the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London noted that “stabilising microplastic levels is the first step towards elimination’’ as they “never be a completely successful removal” from oceans.“But the current global output of plastic pollution is so great, that even a 1 per cent annual reduction in pollution would make a big difference overall,”...

Read More........→June 25, 2024

Chester Zoo Celebrates as 11 Adorable Endangered Penguin Chicks Hatch–the Most for a Decade

Baby penguins hatched – Chester ZooIt’s hatching season for Humboldt penguins at the Chester Zoo, and this year the keepers have seen a record number of chicks hatched.The 11 chicks joining the colony are a delight for visitors and handlers alike, as well as a boon for the species which was recently classified as “Vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.Chester Live reports that the zoo has seen all 11 successfully make it through the first 40 days of life—the most delicate period for the flightless birds—and that now the naming process will begin.The zoo has previously used themes to keep track of hatching groups and their years, with previous generations being named after NHS doctors, Olympic athletes, and retail chocolate bars, this year’s theme is flowers. Nettle, Thistle, Dandelion, Tulip, and Daffodil are among the confirmed names so far.“We’re delighted to say that all of the chicks are looking really healthy and the parents have done a superb job of caring for their new arrivals up to this point. As keepers, our main role in raising the new youngsters is to ensure the adult penguins have all they need,” said Zoe Sweetman, team manager of parrots and penguins at the zoo.“Sometimes this can mean providing extra fish, which the parents swallow, churn into a high-protein soup, and then regurgitate...

Read More........→June 10, 2024

UK’s fastest supercomputer switched on

The computer is officially the most sustainable supercomputer in the UKThe UK’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer, known as Isambard-AI, has been switched on at the University of Bristol this week.The Isambard-AI supercomputer was first announced by the government last March alongside a £225 million investment. The facility has been built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and contains over 5,000 NVIDIA superchips, allowing it to complete 200 quadrillion calculations per second.Officially named the AI Research Resource (AIRR), the facility is ten times more powerful than the previous leading supercomputer in the UK. Researchers will use the facility to support critical work on the development of AI technology, working closely alongside the UK’s AI Safety Institute.The facility includes thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) and will be used to train the large language models. as Additional focus areas include climate research and accelerating automated drug discovery.“The Isambard-AI cluster will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and will help industry experts and researchers harness the game-changing potential of AI, including through the mission-critical work of our Frontier AI Taskforce,” said Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan in a press release.“This will equip the UK with...

Read More........→May 23, 2024

Wayve secures $1bn in funding for AI-powered autonomous vehicles

UK self-driving car startup Wayve has secured $1.05 billion in investments to develop its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered vehicles, led by Japanese bank Softbank and with1notable contributions from Nvidia and Microsoft.Founded in 2017, Wayve develops AI foundation models to help enable autonomous driving. Its technology equips vehicles with a ‘robot brain’ that can learn from and interact with real-world environments. Known as ‘embodied AI’, the technology will help self-driving vehicles react to situations that do not follow set patterns or rules, such as unexpected events from pedestrians.“AI is revolutionising mobility,” said Kentaro Matsui, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers in a press release.“Vehicles can now interpret their surroundings like humans, enabling enhanced decision-making that promises higher safety standards. The potential of this type of technology is transformative; it could eliminate 99% of traffic accidents. SoftBank Group is delighted to be at the forefront of this effort with Wayve,” he continued.“By utilizing Microsoft’s supercomputing capabilities and cloud computing technology, copilot-enabled developer platform, enterprise data management applications, and leading AI model commercialization expertise, Wayve can deliver and scale innovative Embodied AI solutions that enable safer and...

Read More........→May 09, 2024

UK and New Zealand partner for subsea cable earthquake

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Metrology Institute, has partnered with Measurement Standards Laboratory (MSL) in New Zealand to carry out earthquake detection tests through subsea cables in the Pacific Ocean.The duo will carry out the tests in a 3,876km-long section of the Southern Cross NEXT cable (a subsea cable that connects Aukland, Sydney and Los Angeles), that sits on the floor of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The area has been chosen as it is highly seismically active –meaning it is vulnerable to earthquakes– which the NPL say is “an ideal test bed for advancing the technology and demonstrating its full potential.”As part of the trial, scientists will turn the cable section into various sensors for earthquakes and ocean currents, by performing ultra-sensitive optical measurements. It will not need any new hardware or infrastructure, only the cable itself. This technique, which was created NPL in 2021, will mean the cable can gather continuous, real-time environmental data from the ocean floor. This will act as an early warning system for coastal communities in the event of a tsunami. If the trial is successful, the concept could be turned into a worldwide monitoring system.“This technology, pioneered at NPL, is the perfect example of how our science can create impact, delivering...

Read More........→May 02, 2024

'Love hormone' guides young songbirds in choice of 'voice coach'

Zebra finches are highly social birds and will press a lever in order to hear a recording of another Zebra finch singing. (Photo by Carlos Rodríguez-Saltos)By Carol Clark:  Oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone,” plays a key role in the process of how a young zebra finch learns to sing by imitating its elders, suggests a new study by neuroscientists at Emory University. Scientific Reports published the findings, which add to the understanding of the neurochemistry of social learning. “We found that the oxytocin system is involved from an early age in male zebra finches learning song,” says Natalie Pilgeram, first author of the study and an Emory PhD candidate in psychology. “It’s basic science that may lead to insights into the process of vocal learning across the animal kingdom, including humans.” “Our results suggest that the neurochemistry of early social bonds, particularly during language learning, may be relevant in studies of autism,” adds Donna Maney, a professor of neuroscience in Emory’s Department of Psychology and senior author of the study. Young male zebra finches learn to sing by listening to an adult male tutor that they choose to pay close attention to, normally their biological father or a “foster” father who nurtures them. This social process holds some similarities for how children learn to speak, making...

Read More........→August 17, 2023

How grandmothers' brains react to the sight of their grandchildren

"We're highlighting the brain functions of grandmothers that may play an important role in our social lives and development," says Minwoo Lee, an Emory graduate student and co-author of the study. "It's an important aspect of the human experience that's been largely left out of the field of neuroscience."By Carol Clark: Many people lucky enough to have grown up with doting grandmothers know that they can burnish a child’s development in unique and valuable ways. Now, for the first time, scientists have scanned grandmothers’ brains while they’re viewing photos of their young grandchildren — providing a neural snapshot of this special, inter-generational bond.Proceedings of the Royal Society B published the first study to examine grandmaternal brain function, conducted by researchers at Emory University.“What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,” says James Rilling, lead author and professor in Emory's Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them. If their grandchild is smiling, they’re feeling the child’s joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they’re feeling the child’s pain and distress.”In contrast, the...

Read More........→July 11, 2023

UK becomes first nation to approve Omicron vaccine

AUG 16, 2022 Britain has become the first country to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine that targets the Omicron variant. The UK medicine regulator (MHRA) approved the 'bivalent' vaccine made by Moderna as a booster for adults, Reuters reported. The agency's decision was based on clinical trial data that showed the booster triggered "a strong immune response" against both Omicron (BA.1) and the original 2020 virus, it said. The UK medicine regulator also cited an exploratory analysis in which the shot was also found to generate a good immune response against the currently dominant Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, Copyright © Jammu Links News, Source: Jammu Links N...

Read More........→August 16, 2022

Chemists crack complete quantum nature of water

"Now that we have a good template for understanding how water molecules interact among themselves, we have a basis to deepen our understanding of the role of water in biochemical processes essential to life," says Joel Bowman, Emory professor of theoretical chemistry. Chemists have produced the first full quantum mechanical model of water — one of the key ingredients of life. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters published the breakthrough, which used machine learning to develop a model that gives a detailed, accurate description for how large groups of water molecules interact with one another. “We believe we have found the missing piece to a complete, microscopic understanding of water,” says Joel Bowman, professor of theoretical chemistry at Emory University and senior author of the study. “It appears that we now have all that we need to know to describe water molecules under any conditions, including ice, liquid or vapor over a range of temperature and pressure.” The researchers developed free, open-source software for the model, which they dubbed “q-AQUA.” The q-AQUA software provides a universal tool for studying water. “We anticipate researchers using it for everything from predicting whether an exoplanet may have water to deepening our understanding of the role of water in cellular function,” Bowman says. Read more...

Read More........→August 10, 2022

Are You Ready for Benevolent Artificial Intelligence

Credit: © IMAGO / Jochen Tack                                                                     Autonomous bus, in Monheim, RhinePicture yourself driving on a narrow road in the near future when suddenly another car emerges from a bend ahead. It is a self-driving car with no passengers inside. Will you push forth and assert your right of way, or give way to let it pass? At present, most of us behave kindly in such situations involving other humans. Will we show that same kindness towards autonomous vehicles?Using methods from behavioural game theory, an international team of researchers at LMU Munich and the University of London have conducted large-scale online studies to see whether people would behave as cooperatively with artificial intelligence (AI) systems as they do with fellow humans.Cooperation holds a society together. It often requires us to compromise with others and to accept the risk that they let us down. Traffic is a good example. We lose a bit of time when we let other people pass in front of us and are outraged when others fail to reciprocate our kindness. Will we do the same with machines?The study which is published in the journal iScience...

Read More........→July 20, 2022

Do You Have a Saggy Brain?

Credit: Newcastle UniversityNew research from Newcastle University, UK, in collaboration with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, investigated the way the human brain folds and how this ‘cortical folding’ changes with age. Losing the youthful firmness and elasticity in our skin is one of the first outward signs of ageing. Now it seems it’s not just our skin that starts to sag - but our brains too.Linking the change in brain folding to the tension on the cerebral cortex - the outer layer of neural tissue in our brains - the team found that as we age, the tension on the cortex appears to decrease. This effect was more pronounced in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.Publishing their findings today in the academic journal PNAS, the team say this new research sheds light on the underlying mechanisms which affect brain folding and could be used in the future to help diagnose brain diseases.Lead author Dr Yujiang Wang (pictured) of Newcastle University, explains: “One of the key features of a mammalian brain is the grooves and folds all over the surface – a bit like a walnut - but until now no-one has been able to measure this folding in a consistent way.“By mapping the brain folding of over 1,000 people, we have shown that our brains fold according to a simple universal law. We also show that a parameter of the law, which is...

Read More........→December 24, 2020

Mutated virus variant from South Africa found in UK

A new, potentially more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been found in Britain in cases linked to South Africa, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday.South Africa’s health department said last week that a new genetic mutation of the virus had been discovered and might be responsible for a recent surge in infections there.“Thanks to the impressive genomic capability of the South Africans, we’ve detected two cases of another new variant of coronavirus here in the UK,” Hancock told a media briefing.“Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa over the past few weeks.”Britain is already trying to curb the spread of a mutated strain of the virus which is up to 70% more transmissible, and further studies aerie being carried out on the new variant.“This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible, and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant has been discovered in the UK,” he said.Close contacts of those with the new variant and all those who have been in South Africa in the last fortnight, or were in close contact with someone who had, must quarantine, he said.Immediate restrictions were being imposed on travel from South Africa, he added.Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to both Britain and...

Read More........→December 24, 2020

COVID-19 linked to sudden permanent hearing loss in some rare cases: Scientists

OCT 14, 2020 LONDON: Although uncommon, infection with the novel coronavirus may cause sudden permanent hearing loss in some patients, according to a study which is the first case report linking the disabling condition to COVID-19 in the UK. According to the scientists, including those from the University College London in the UK, awareness of this possible side effect is important since a prompt course of steroid treatment can reverse the hearing loss. They said while the causes are not very clear, the condition sometimes follows a viral infection, such as flu or herpes. The research, published in the journal BMJ Case Reports, describes the case of a 45 year old man with asthma who was referred to the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in the UK after suddenly experiencing hearing loss in one ear while being treated for COVID-19. According to the scientists, the patient had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms which had been going on for 10 days during which he was transferred to intensive care as he was struggling to breathe. He was put on a ventilator for 30 days, and developed other complications as a result, the study noted. The researchers noted that he was treated with the antiviral drug remdesivir, intravenous steroids, and a blood transfusion after which he started to get better. However, the patient...

Read More........→October 14, 2020

'Blood test may tell if you are at risk of severe COVID-19 infection'

AUG 11, 2020 LONDON: A simple blood test may predict the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, say scientists who have identified a particular molecular signature in the blood that increases the chances of hospitalisation by 5 to 10 times in people infected by the novel coronavirus. The test can be used to identify people who''ll need special precautions to avoid infection and prioritise those in most need of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the scientists at Nightingale Health, a biotechnology company in Helsinki, Finland. Identification of healthy people at high risk for severe COVID-19 is a global health priority, they said. The researchers investigated whether blood biomarkers measured by high-throughput metabolomics could be predictive of severe pneumonia and COVID-19 hospitalisation years after the blood sampling. The researchers analysed over 100,000 blood samples from the UK Biobank, and identified a particular molecular signature in the blood that is common among people who get severe symptoms if infected by the coronavirus. Those with this molecular signature are five to 10 times more likely to be hospitalised, they said. These findings are novel, as the blood biomarkers in the molecular signature have not been previously known as risk markers in healthy people for developing severe forms of COVID-19, according to the...

Read More........→August 12, 2020

Scientists identify six distinct clusters of COVID-19 symptoms in patients

LONDON: Scientists have claimed that there are six distinct ''types'' of COVID-19, each distinguished by a particular cluster of symptoms in patients, findings, if validated, can help physicians better diagnose and monitor those infected with the novel coronavirus. The yet-to-be peer reviewed study, published in the medRxiv preprint platform, used a machine learning algorithm to analyse data from a subset of around 1,600 users in the UK and US with confirmed COVID-19, who had regularly logged their symptoms using the app in March and April. It analysed if particular symptoms appeared together, and how this was related to the progression of the disease. According to the scientists, led by those from King's College London in the UK, the findings have major implications for the clinical management of COVID-19 patients. "These findings have important implications for care and monitoring of people who are most vulnerable to severe COVID-19," said Claire Steves, a co-author of the study from King''s College London. They said the research can also help doctors predict who is most at risk and likely to need hospital care in a second wave of coronavirus infections. The study noted that patient symptoms can fall under one of the six following categories: ''flu-like' with no fever, ‘flu-like' with fever, gastrointestinal, severe level...

Read More........→July 19, 2020

Black Hole in 'Mirachs Ghost' Galaxy Hints at How It Was Born

Credit: Cardiff University Astronomers zoom in on black hole with one of the lowest masses ever observed in nearby "ghost" galaxy. "On the left is shown a color composite Hubble Space Telescope image of the centre of `Mirachs Ghost'. On the right is shown the new ALMA image of this same region, revealing the distribution of the cold, dense gas that swirls around this centre of this object in exquisite detail." A research team led by Cardiff University scientists say they are closer to understanding how a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is born thanks to a new technique that has enabled them to zoom in on one of these enigmatic cosmic objects in unprecedented detail. Scientists are unsure as to whether SMBHs were formed in the extreme conditions shortly after the big bang, in a process dubbed a 'direct collapse', or were grown much later from 'seed' black holes resulting from the death of massive stars. If the former method were true, SMBHs would be born with extremely large masses - hundreds of thousands to millions of times more massive than our Sun - and would have a fixed minimum size. If the latter were true then SMBHs would start out relatively small, around 100 times the mass of our Sun, and start to grow larger over time by feeding on the stars and gas clouds that live around them. Astronomers have...

Read More........→July 17, 2020

Brain Networks Come ‘Online’ During Adolescence to Prepare Teenagers for Adult Life

Credit: Frantisek Vasa New brain networks come ‘online’ during adolescence, allowing teenagers to develop more complex adult social skills, but potentially putting them at increased risk of mental illness, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Brain development during adolescence: red brain regions belong to the “conservative” pattern of adolescent development, while the blue brain regions belong to the “disruptive” pattern Adolescence is a time of major change in life, with increasing social and cognitive skills and independence, but also increased risk of mental illness. While it is clear that these changes in the mind must reflect developmental changes in the brain, it has been unclear how exactly the function of the human brain matures as people grow up from children to young adults. A team based in the University of Cambridge and University College London has published a major new research study that helps us understand more clearly the development of the adolescent brain. The study collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on brain activity from 298 healthy young people, aged 14-25 years, each scanned on one to three occasions about 6 to 12 months apart. In each scanning session, the participants lay quietly in the scanner so that...

Read More........→July 11, 2020

30 Intelligent Civilizations Throughout the Galaxy

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech) Is there anyone out there? This is an age-old question that researchers have now shed new light on with a study that calculates there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations throughout our Galaxy. This is an enormous advance over previous estimates which spanned from zero to billions. One of the biggest and longest-standing questions in the history of human thought is whether there are other intelligent lifeforms within our Universe. Obtaining good estimates of the number of possible extraterrestrial civilizations has however been very challenging. "This dazzling infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy. In visible-light pictures, this region cannot be seen at all because dust lying between Earth and the galactic center blocks our view." Image downscaled (2x) from original. A new study led by the University of Nottingham and published in The Astrophysical Journal has taken a new approach to this problem. Using the assumption that intelligent life forms on other planets in a similar way as it does on Earth, researchers have obtained an estimate for the number of intelligent communicating civilizations within our own galaxy -the Milky...

Read More........→June 17, 2020

British Study: Stem Cell Transplants Restore 2 Patients' Vision

By Paul Ebeling: An experimental stem cell therapy restored partial vision to two patients with a common cause of blindness, British doctors reported this week. Embyronic stem cells were converted into patches of eye cells and grown in the lab. The patches were then inserted into the back of one eye in each of the patients, both of whom suffer from age-related macular degeneration, according a report. The transplants, on a woman in her 60’s and an 86-year-old man, were performed at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. A year later, both patients report improved vision in the treated eye. Another 8 more patients are scheduled to take part in the clinical trial of the procedure, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology. “We’ve restored vision where there was none,” Dr. Lyndon da Cruz, consultant retinal surgeon at Moorfields, told reporters. “It’s incredibly exciting. As you get older, parts of you stop working and for the 1st time we have been able to take a cell and make it into a specific part of the eye that is failing and put it back in the eye and get vision back.” Dr. da Cruz stopped short of calling the procedure a cure because it does not completely restore normal vision. “What’s exciting about this study is that the patients recorded an increase in vision,” according to Carmel Toomes, Leeds Institutes...

Read More........→April 10, 2018