Science and Technology links (September 5th 2020)

  1. Single cells are able to navigate complex mazes. E.g., it works with mouse pancreatic cancer cells.
  2. Body builders and athletes sometimes take a supplement called AKG. It was found to prolong life in worms. Researchers have now found that AKG massively delays frailty in mice: old mice that took AKG look better and are stronger. The mice also live a bit longer.
  3. Hair dyes applied at home are not associated with greater cancer risks.
  4. Plaque in the arteries is correlated with cardiovascular diseases (heart attacks) and tends to accumulate with age. Researchers have determined that a daily supplement of something called IPE could reverse the amount of plaque in a relatively small clinical trial.
  5. A company called NuScale got a new nuclear reactor design approved in the US. It took over two million pages of documentation. These are new, small and very safe reactors. They should become commercially available in a few years.
  6. People who suffer from diabetes are at greater risk of death from diseases like COVID 19. Researchers found that those taking metformin (a cheap and popular anti-diabetes drug) are protected from COVID 19.
  7. In mice, both caloric restriction (eating less) and a drug called rapamycin, prolongs female fertility into old age.

Published by

Daniel Lemire

A computer science professor at the University of Quebec (TELUQ).

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