Mark Davison
@bigexperiment.bsky.social
Tech CEO, science podcaster, investor, runner, cyclist. Solving temperature control (www.grantinstruments.com). Interviewing biotech founders on "The Big Experiment" https://thebigexperiment.buzzsprout.com/2312519
Three million child deaths per year linked to antibiotic resistance. Major bacterial threats will re-emerge for all of us, unless we control the use of antibiotics, and discover new ones. 🧪
Three million child deaths linked to drug resistance
Children in Africa and South East Asia are most at risk from antibiotics medicines no longer working, a study suggests.
bbc.com
Lab-grown food that tastes like real meat could be transformational. It can improve animal welfare (no death), climate change (uses less water, creates less GHGs), biodiversity (less farmland = more nature), hygiene (eg. no bird flu), and more. Interesting to see how this goes. 🧪
Lab-grown food could be sold in UK in two years
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is looking at how it can speed up the approval process for lab-grown foods.
bbc.co.uk
Having a bad day? My lucky Ace of Spades banana can help. Scientifically endorsed by Lemmy's ghost. 🧪
Ice makes your organoids go bang in poor thawing protocols. Accept low yields and variable results, or fix the problem with electrically controlled freeze-thaw. Same great result every time. Small and cost-effective. Every stem cell or organoids lab needs one. 🧪
Controlled Rate Freeze Thaw - CRFT
The CRFT is a programmable freezing and thawing system that allows you ultimate control of cryopreservation research protocols.
grantinstruments.com
Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis. 🧪
Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation
Wu et al. provide new insights into how aspartame consumption exacerbates atherosclerosis through an insulin-dependent mechanism. Aspartame-triggered high insulin levels upregulate the endothelial mem...
cell.com
Civilization is tissue-thin. Dead ones were great once, too. Read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for an analysis of how it happens. Or Shelley's "Ozymandias" for a more poetic warning.🧪
There are many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse. Here’s how to survive if that happens | George Monbiot
It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves, writes columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
Very interesting progress on migraines. Article is behind a paywall but there's enough visible to get the gist. 🧪
Migraine is more than a headache — a radical rethink offers hope to one billion people
Drugs that can prevent or relieve migraine attacks are only effective for some people. Research is starting to untangle the reasons why.
nature.com
Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra. Fascinating BBC documentary, and great insight into big pharma's workings. 🧪
Storyville - Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra
Twenty-five years ago, Viagra kick-started the second sexual revolution and a controversy unlike any drug before it. From Wales to New York, this is the big story of the little blue pill.
bbc.co.uk
Intelligent life may evolve more easily than we thought. Interesting read. 🧪
A reassessment of the “hard-steps” model for the evolution of intelligent life
Humans—and analogous life beyond Earth—may represent the probable outcome of biological and planetary coevolution.
science.org
Pope Francis has a "polymicrobial infection". He's wise enough to know that hopes-and-prayers don't replace science (strong antibiotics). He's also pro-vax. 🧪
Pope Francis's health a 'complex clinical situation', Vatican says
The pontiff will remain in hospital for as long as necessary, the Vatican has said.
bbc.co.uk
"A male’s ability to subvert his rivals is central to his reproductive success" Fruit fly world is like high school. 🧪
Male-male interactions shape mate selection in Drosophila
Male-male competition strongly influences mate selection in Drosophila, with males performing wing flicks to repel their rivals and jam a female’s perception of other potential mates. Recruitment of p...
dlvr.it
Potential game changer test. Prognosis for pancreatic is usually terrible because it is often stage 4 when discovered. 🧪
Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads
The deadly cancer is often not found until it has spread to other parts of the body.
nature.com
Microplastics: 10g isolated per donated human brain. That's two teaspoons. Imagine that's not great for microvasculature....🧪
Your brain is full of microplastics: are they harming you?
Plastics have infiltrated every recess of the planet, including your lungs, kidneys and other sensitive organs. Scientists are scrambling to understand their effects on health.
nature.com
Study implies that basic life abounds in the Universe. So why can't we find aliens? See Fermi Paradox for possible reasons 🧪 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_p...
Fermi paradox - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences@pnas.org · 2y agoOne of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Concomitant formation of protocells and prebiotic compounds under a plausible early Earth atmosphere.” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.
Physical activity helps protect against age-related decline in physical performance. Use it or lose it. 🧪
Impact of physical activity on physical function, mitochondrial energetics, ROS production, and Ca2+ handling across the adult lifespan in men
Cefis et al. show that mitochondrial respiration and ROS production are not affected during healthy muscle aging but identify altered mitochondrial calcium handling as a potential key driving mechanis...
cell.com
Europe explodes into space as earth's core changes shape. Visual proof below. 🧪 UK still oddly cold.
Earth's inner core may have changed shape, say scientists
The findings shed light on a deeply mysterious part of Earth that is key to life on our planet.
bbc.co.uk
A great listen for medical device engineers, cancer biologists, oncologists, and anyone affected by this horrible disease 🧪
Mark Davison@bigexperiment.bsky.social · 2y agoKilling glioblastoma (brain cancer) with a brain-computer- interface. Hear my podcast guest discuss: 🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole 🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal 💡 Sending data through skin, without wires ⚡ Power without a battery 🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
Killing glioblastoma (brain cancer) with a brain-computer- interface. Hear my podcast guest discuss: 🩺 Tiny sensor fits inside a skull drill hole 🚦 Detecting differences in cancer brain signal 💡 Sending data through skin, without wires ⚡ Power without a battery 🔦 "Tuning out" cancer growth
Therapeutic brain-computer-interfaces for glioblastoma, with Dr Elise Jenkins
open.spotify.com
Brain cancer, and how to fight it with amazing tech. Great podcast episode! 🧪 open.spotify.com/episode/7G2o...
Therapeutic brain-computer-interfaces for glioblastoma, with Dr Elise Jenkins
The Big Experiment · Episode
open.spotify.com
Flu infects. Just doing its job. May feel like a heavy cold, or it may channel 1918 and kill you one day, who knows. #CDC is a vital defense.🧪
The 1918 Flu Pandemic Was Brutal, Killing More Than 50 Million People Worldwide
"We had no ICUs at that time. We had no antivirals, had no vaccines for flu. We had no idea that the flu was even a virus at that time," one scholar said. But social distancing helped then too.
npr.org
We are entering a new, man-made biological universe. 🧪
A roadmap toward the synthesis of life
This perspective offers a cross-disciplinary roadmap toward synthetic life that does not shy away from technical and non-technical challenges, ethical concerns, and provocative implications, embracing...
cell.com
Don't sniff at this idea. Harmless microbes as intranasal drug couriers to your brain. 🧪
Engineered commensals for targeted nose-to-brain drug delivery
Shen et al. investigate the use of Lactobacillus plantarum, a commensal bacterial strain, as a chassis for targeting the olfactory mucosa to facilitate precise nose-to-brain delivery of therapeutic mo...
cell.com
Bacteria can kill you or cure you. Here are some positive uses. 🧪
Microbes in space: how bacteria could help sustain long-distance space travel
So far, microorganisms have been research subjects or contaminants on space stations, but could they assist longer missions?
nature.com
One more time for RFK. Vaccines save lives. Period. End of story. 🧪
Mark Davison@bigexperiment.bsky.social · 2y agoFrom 2007, but relevant. Proof that vaccines save lives and prevent suffering. You are here partly because your forebears didn't die in childhood of an infectious disease. 🧪
Grant Instruments is making a customised precision water bath, with 200 litre capacity, for a top UK university. For reference, that's the volume of a UK wheelie bin, as modeled by the charity runner below. DM me if you need unusual temp control solutions in your lab 🧪
From 2007, but relevant. Proof that vaccines save lives and prevent suffering. You are here partly because your forebears didn't die in childhood of an infectious disease. 🧪
Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States
Context National vaccine recommendations in the United States target an increasing number of vaccine-preventable diseases for reduction, elimination, or eradication.Objective To compare morbidity and ...
jamanetwork.com
