Science

A patch made from lab-grown muscle cells boosted heart function in monkeys with cardiovascular disease and is now being tested in humans

relevant study: A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications:

NOVA1, a neuronal RNA-binding protein expressed in the central nervous system, is essential for survival in mice and normal development in humans. A single amino acid change (I197V) in NOVA1’s second RNA binding domain is unique to modern humans. To study its physiological effects, we generated mice carrying the human-specific I197V variant (Nova1hu/hu) and analyzed the molecular and behavioral consequences. While the I197V substitution had minimal impact on NOVA1’s RNA binding capacity, it led to specific effects on alternative splicing, and CLIP revealed multiple binding peaks in mouse brain transcripts involved in vocalization. These molecular findings were associated with behavioral differences in vocalization patterns in Nova1hu/hu mice as pups and adults. Our findings suggest that this human-specific NOVA1 substitution may have been part of an ancient evolutionary selective sweep in a common ancestral population of Homo sapiens, possibly contributing to the development of spoken language through differential RNA regulation during brain development.

A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us communicate in a novel way. Speech allowed us to share information, coordinate activities and pass down knowledge, giving us an edge over extinct cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The new study is “a good first step to start looking at the specific genes” that may affect speech and language development, said Liza Finestack at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved with the research.

The genetic variant researchers were looking at was one of a variety of genes “that contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens as the dominant species, which we are today” said Dr. Robert Darnell, an author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Baby mice with the human variant squeaked differently than normal littermates when their mom came around. Adult male mice with the variant chirped differently than their normal counterparts when they saw a female in heat.

Both are settings where mice are motivated to speak, Darnell said, “and they spoke differently” with the human variant, illustrating its role in speech.

This isn’t the first time a gene has been linked to speech. In 2001, British scientists said they had discovered the first gene tied to a language and speech disorder.

Consider muscle movement. Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine to trigger your muscle cells to contract. If acetylcholine sticks around for too long, it can paralyze your muscles – including your heart muscle cells – and, well, that’s that. This is where the enzyme acetylcholinesterase comes in. This enzyme can break down thousands of acetylcholine molecules per second to ensure muscle contraction is stopped, paralysis avoided and life continued. Without this enzyme, it would take a month for a molecule of acetylcholine to break down on its own – about 10 billion times slower.

You can imagine why enzymes are of particular interest to scientists looking to solve modern problems. What if there were a way to break down plastic, capture carbon dioxide or destroy cancer cells as fast as acetylcholinesterase breaks down acetylcholine? If the world needs to take action quickly, enzymes are a compelling candidate for the job – if only researchers could design them to handle those challenges on demand.

Designing enzymes, unfortunately, is very hard. It’s like working with an atom-sized Lego set, but the instructions were lost and the thing won’t hold together unless it’s assembled perfectly. Newly published research from our team suggests that machine learning can act as the architect on this Lego set, helping scientists build these complex molecular structures accurately.

I think I may need to set up a macro for "well, this isn't good."

Story is a bit old but I've been watching the development of processing chips that run off of body heat since 2008.

https://archive.ph/9L36A

Now, millions more people will soon have access to this painkiller — a drug called suzetrigine that works by selectively blocking sodium channels on pain-sensing nerve cells and delivers opioid-level pain suppression without the risks of addiction, sedation or overdose. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved suzetrigine for short-term pain management, making it the first pain drug given a regulatory nod in more than 20 years that works through a brand-new mechanism.

"This is a big step forward," says Stephen Waxman, a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Anything we can add to the toolbox that will allow us to reduce opioid dependency is a significant positive," says Paul White, an anaesthesiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, who was involved in suzetrigine's development.

Article is in Nature but paywalled so I shared archive.

BBC video: Archaeologists make ‘once-in-a-century’ discovery at Pompeii

A bio-archaeologist with the University of Reading, in the U.K., has found an ancient dog's red-painted penis bone along with a trove of other bones, in an ancient Roman era quarry shaft. In her paper published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Ellen Green describes where the bone was found, its condition, and possible reasons for it being painted red.

[...]

Green states that during Roman times, the penis, or depictions of it, were used in many contexts, many of which involved hoping for good luck. She suspects that the bone from the shaft likely played a role in a ritual of some sort, either before being tossed into the quarry shaft, or during its internment. She notes that other objects found in the shaft support the idea that the bone could have played a role in a larger ritual—perhaps one related to fertility.

[...]

Back in 2019, we told you about an intriguing experiment to test a famous anthropological legend about an elderly Inuit man in the 1950s who fashioned a knife out of his own frozen feces. He used it to kill and skin a dog, using its rib cage as a makeshift sled to venture off into the Arctic. Metin Eren, an archaeologist at Kent State University, fashioned rudimentary blades out of his own frozen feces to test whether they could cut through pig hide, muscle, and tendon.

Sadly for the legend, the blades failed every test, but the study was colorful enough to snag Eren an Ig Nobel Prize the following year. And it's just one of the many fascinating projects routinely undertaken in his Experimental Archaeology Laboratory, where he and his team try to reverse-engineer all manner of ancient technologies, whether they involve stone tools, ceramics, metal, butchery, textiles, and so forth.

This video is a bit older now (over one year), but I just found about it. And I want to share it here, because it was very well explained, without boring stock videos or background music. It's just like a teacher would teach you, but with some enthusiasm behind it. I enjoy his videos so far.

• Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Zkv8sW6y3sY
• Watch on Invidious, a more private and indirect way to watch: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Zkv8sW6y3sY

Video description:

Why is the speed of light the same in all reference frames? Let's rediscover the thought experiments that led Einstein to his special theory of relativity

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction
01:15 1/3 Detect motion with particles? (Thought experiment)
04:01 Inertia doesn't allow detecting constant velocity motion
06:18  2/3 Detect motion with waves? (Thought experiment) 
09:18 Medium doesn't allow detecting constant velocity motion
10:15 Constant velocity motion is RELATIVE!
11:02 3/3 Detect motion with light? (Thought experiment)
13:12 Does light break relativity? 
13:46 Michelson & Morley's experiment (oversimplified) 
14:20 The logical conclusion - Speed of light is same in all frames