Science - NRC Approves Gen IV Nuclear Reactor Design

significant news,. drug that targets the growth mechanism of all solid tumors and kills it stopping the growth. tested in animals, currently in ph 1 human trials.

Cancer-killing pill that annihilates tumours hailed as 'holy grail' breakthrough (msn.com)
A breakthrough treatment could target cancer cells without damaging other tissues (Picture: Getty/iStockphoto)© Provided by Metro
Scientists have developed a ‘holy grail’ molecule that kills all solid cancer tumours, leaving healthy cells unaffected.

The team at the City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the US, made the breakthrough against the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) protein.

In a mutated form PCNA is critical in DNA replication and repair of all expanding tumours, but a molecule developed by the team, AOH1996, targets and kills the mutated PCNA.

Previously PCNA was thought too challenging to be a target for therapy, but preclinical research shows AOH1996 seems to annihilate all solid tumours – without effects on other body cells. The team is continuing to investigate the mechanisms that make this cancer-stopping pill work in animal models, while a Phase 1 clinical trial test is also ongoing in humans.

 

they have replicated the fusion reaction that produced more energy than input

The nuclear fusion era has arrived, if we choose it - Big Think

Last year, on December 5, 2022, an incredible milestone was achieved: for the first time, a nuclear fusion reaction experienced what’s known as a net energy gain. This means, remarkably, that the energy liberated from a nuclear fusion reaction exceeded the (useful) energy that was inputted into the reaction. This wasn’t achieved by a magnetic confinement fusion reactor, which is where most of the worldwide fusion funding is centered, nor by any among the hundreds of private laboratories dedicated to bringing commercial fusion to the public, but rather by a largely forgotten source: the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

This year, on July 30, 2023, the National Ignition Facility did it again, and in an even superior fashion: repeating their results and achieving an even higher energy yield than in the December prior. All of this was achieved despite a paltry amount of funding being directed toward nuclear fusion research by the U.S. government: an average of just half-a-billion dollars per year across all endeavors, combined. With this recent confirmation, the path toward developing widespread nuclear fusion as the anchor to a clean, carbon-neutral energy economy is now clearer than ever. But in order to truly achieve it, we not only need to be brave and bold, but also focused, as the distractions and pitfalls could truly divert us from the ultimate goal.
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This was a big deal when the National Ignition Facility first announced it in December of 2022, and it’s a big deal that they did it again (proving reproducibility) at the end of July 2023: they have demonstrated that they have passed the breakeven point in a fusion reaction. They have achieved a net energy gain, where if you look at the amount of energy that goes into creating the fusion reaction — the amount of energy incident on the target — and compare it to the amount of energy that gets generated via fusion in the ensuing reaction, the energy generated is greater than the energy that went into it.
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But we must not undersell the importance of what the National Ignition Facility has achieved. In December of 2022, they fired 192 lasers, from all directions, onto the walls of a pellet that was filled with light elements: the same elements and isotopes that are found ubiquitously in the Sun. The total amount of energy from the lasers that hit the target, as measured in joules (the physicist’s unit of energy, where one joule-per-second is the more familiar watt, the unit of power), was 2.05 megajoules. The amount of energy liberated, or released in the ensuing fusion reaction, was more than that: 3.15 megajoules. That’s a net energy gain from the reaction, and improvements in either:

• the number of firing lasers,
• the total amount of incident energy,
• or the geometry of the laser strike on the pellet,

would only be expected to increase the energy gain. Although the laboratory performing the experiment, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has not released the final figures and details just yet, they have confirmed that there was an even greater net energy gain during the July 2023 test than the earlier December 2022 test. We are now in the post-breakeven era, where “energy out” is greater than “energy in” for the most important portion of the reaction: the one where fusion reactions are created.

 

another vaccine showing consistent results against Alzheimer's in rats

Vaccine Shows Promise of Slowing or Even Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease (msn.com)

Arecent study has revealed that a new vaccine targeting a specific protein associated with Alzheimer's disease may have the potential to reduce or even prevent the devastating impact of the condition.

The research, reported by StudyFinds, was conducted by scientists at Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan which found that the vaccine was able to eliminate toxic cells in mice suffering from Alzheimer's.
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The vaccinated mice displayed signs of heightened awareness and caution, suggesting a potential reduction in disease symptoms. Additionally, several inflammatory biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's were found to be diminished in the vaccinated mice.

A behavioral test conducted on the mice showed that those who received the SAGP vaccine responded significantly better to their environment compared to those who were given a placebo.

 

the rate at which new medicines are being developed is promising

Vaccine shows promise against the virus linked to multiple sclerosis (msn.com)

MS reversed by transplanted immune cells that fight Epstein-Barr virus

In mice, the vaccine produced EBV antibodies and T-cells for more than seven months after immunisation. It also thwarted the growth of tumours in a separate group of mice that were induced to develop EBV-related lymphoma.

The researchers want to explore whether the vaccine can be tweaked to prevent MS. In the meantime, they hope to test their existing vaccine in people within the next two years.

If the vaccine is shown to tackle EBV within cells in people, it may be valuable for treating EBV-related cancers, says Paul Farrell at Imperial College London. It could also prevent the infection itself in younger people who haven’t yet caught the virus, he says.

Its potential against MS, however, is more complicated, as “we do not sufficiently understand the immune mechanisms that cause and control the disease”, says Farrell.

 

new force in nature?

Scientists say ‘fifth force of nature’ possible after latest discovery (msn.com)

Scientists believe they could be nearing the discovery of a new fifth force of nature. It came after an experiment confirmed the peculiar wobble of a subatomic particle called a muon.
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Brendan Casey, a senior scientist at Fermilab said: “We are looking for an indication that the muon is interacting with something that we do not know about.

“It could be anything – new particles, new forces, new dimensions, new features of space-time, anything.” Rebecca Chislett, a University College London physicist and co-author of the study, said: “Yes, it is fair to say that it could be pointing to unknown particles or forces.

 

AI Is Building Highly Effective Antibodies That Humans Can’t Even Imagine

Design
A machine learning model designs antibodies based on loose direction from human scientists (to narrow down the search space) and insights from previous learning cycles using a process called Bayesian optimization.
Build
DNA molecules for the antibodies are created and validated, and then the antibodies are grown inside mammalian or bacterial cells before being purified, ready for the next stage—robotic automation helps speed the process along.
Test
Disease-relevant cell-based assays are grown in the lab and used as a testing ground for the antibodies, with much higher throughput enabling 768 antibodies to be tested at once. Each test has a barcode that enables the system to track it.
Learn
The experimental data is fed back into the machine learning model, which helps to guide the design of the next batch of 700 antibodies. This combination of machine learning and real-world experiments increases the number of testable antibodies 35-fold.

 

that is not comforting

 

another article on the fifth force of nature. Are we being prepped for time travel or new form of energy.

Scientists Believe They May Have Discovered A Fifth Force Of Nature (msn.com)

 

that money would be much better spent taking carbon out on the front end. green steel, electric fleets, etc remove more carbon for the buck that the current capture tech. Let capture tech advance first before scaling

 

Amazing.

Aggressive Cancer Cells Transformed Into Healthy Cells in Breakthrough
And they say that their technique, now demonstrated on two different types of sarcoma, could be applicable to other sarcomas and cancer types, since it gives scientists the tools needed to find how to cause cancer cells to differentiate.
"Every successful medicine has its origin story," [COLOR=rgba(0,86,137,var(--tw-text-opacity))]Vakoc says. "And research like this is the soil from which new drugs are born[/COLOR]
The researchers found that knocking out NF-Y inactivates PAX3-FOXO1, which in turn forces the cells to continue their development, differentiating into mature muscle cells with no sign of cancer activity.
This, the team say, is a key step in the development of differentiation therapy for rhabdomyosarcoma, and could accelerate the timeline for which such treatments are expected.