Recommendable!
Friday, February 28, 2025
Christie's Makes History with first AI Art Sale by a major auctioneer
It had to happen sooner or later! Unfortunately, this report was ruined by overemphasizing the intellectual property issues!
This is the first all-Canadian Antarctic expedition
Good news! Unfortunately, the YouTube video is in narrow format (like so many recent videos)! Unfortunately, the expedition appears to be foremost concerned with the global warming hoax/climate change demagoguery! What a petty! There is so much more to research in the Antarctica!
Donald Trump tells Ukraine President Zelenskyy: "You're gambling with World War Three"
That's right! The Russo-Ukrainian War is already World War III by any other name. Just look how many countries are actively involved in this war.
If Trump is correct, then Zelensky is perhaps not the right person to lead the Ukraine anymore.
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Finalise Border Deal After Long-standing Dispute with Palki Sharma
Good news! Blessed are the peacemakers!
Trump’s deportation of illegal immigrants hits milestone with over 50,000 removed
Good news! Trump is only in office for just over one months!
Jeff Bezos ruiniert die „Washington Post“ und die Demokratie gleich mit. Wirklich!
Typischer Schwachkopf Kommentar aus der Bananenrepublik D!
Die Washington Compost war schon seit vielen Jahren ruiniert! Bezos scheint sich endlich für mehr für das Thema Freiheit einzusetzen. Siehe auch meinen blog post dazu.
A majority American Jews say they rarely or never pray, new Pew Research poll finds
What does it mean?
I was unable to find this Pew Research poll or article. The link provided in the article below points to some generic page about American Jews. Presumably, the 2025 Religious Landscape Study is the source.
"... In 2014, 45% of Jewish adults chose “seldom/never” to describe their prayer frequency. When Pew asked the question again in 2023 and 2024, the proportion was 58%. ...
The poll also found that fewer American Jews say religion is important in their lives. ...
The proportion of Jews that hardly if ever pray is far higher than among other religious communities. For Muslim Americans, the corresponding figure was 18%, while for evangelical Christians it was 7%. Among religious groups, only followers of the New Age movement had a larger proportion of people who seldom or never pray, at 62%. ..."
Tesla Fires a Manager Who Criticized Elon Musk on Social Media for using Nazi references. Really!
Why did this manager not resign if he was so concerned/offended for years!
Is this the next smear campaign against Elon Musk after he raised his arms in what was claimed to be a Nazi salute?
"Tesla has fired a manager who objected to a social media post by Elon Musk, the chief executive, that referred to Nazi leaders. It was the latest example that public criticism of the boss was unacceptable in the Musk business empire.
Jared Ottmann, a manager and engineer who worked with Tesla’s battery suppliers, said he had been fired because he criticized Mr. Musk for a post on X that used the names of Nazis like Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring in a series of wordplay.
“Stop Göring your enemies,” Mr. Musk wrote on Jan. 23, adding, “Bet you did Nazi that coming.” He punctuated the post with a laughing-while-crying emoji."
Credits: Techcrunch newsletter
Physicists find unexpected crystals of electrons in pentalayer/tetralayer rhombohedral graphene
Amazing stuff!
"... physicists report the unexpected discovery of electrons forming crystalline structures in a material only billionths of a meter thick. The work adds to a gold mine of discoveries originating from the material, which the same team discovered about three years ago.
In a paper published [2022], the team describes how electrons in devices made, in part, of the material can become solid, or form crystals, by changing the voltage applied to the devices when they are kept at a temperature similar to that of outer space. Under the same conditions, they also showed the emergence of two new electronic states that add to work they reported [2024] showing that electrons can split into fractions of themselves. ...
the material, one composed of five layers of atomically thin carbon; the other composed of four layers. This indicates “that there’s a family of materials ...
rhombohedral pentalayer graphene ...
For example, in 2023 they created a sandwich of rhombohedral pentalayer graphene with “buns” made of hexagonal boron nitride. By applying different voltages, or amounts of electricity, to the sandwich, they discovered three important properties never before seen in natural graphite.
[2024] ... reported yet another important and even more surprising phenomenon: Electrons became fractions of themselves upon applying a current to a new device composed of rhombohedral pentalayer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride. This is important because this “fractional quantum Hall effect” has only been seen in a few systems, usually under very high magnetic fields. The Ju work showed that the phenomenon could occur in a fairly simple material without a magnetic field. As a result, it is called the “fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect” (anomalous indicates that no magnetic field is necessary). ...
In the current work, ... reports yet more unexpected phenomena from the general rhombohedral graphene/boron nitride system when it is cooled to 30 millikelvins ... discovering two more of these fractional states.
They also found another unusual electronic phenomenon: the integer quantum anomalous Hall effect in a wide range of electron densities. The fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect was understood to emerge in an electron “liquid” phase, analogous to water. In contrast, the new state that the team has now observed can be interpreted as an electron “solid” phase — resembling the formation of electronic “ice” — that can also coexist with the fractional quantum anomalous Hall states when the system’s voltage is carefully tuned at ultra-low temperatures.
One way to think about the relation between the integer and fractional states is to imagine a map created by tuning electric voltages: By tuning the system with different voltages, you can create a “landscape” similar to a river (which represents the liquid-like fractional states) cutting through glaciers (which represent the solid-like integer effect) ...
observed all of these phenomena not only in pentalayer rhombohedral graphene, but also in rhombohedral graphene composed of four layers. This creates a family of materials, and indicates that other “relatives” may exist.
“This work shows how rich this material is in exhibiting exotic phenomena. We’ve just added more flavor to this already very interesting material,” ..."
From the abstract:
"Electrons in topological flat bands can form new topological states driven by correlation effects. The pentalayer rhombohedral graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattice was shown to host fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (FQAHE) at approximately 400 mK, triggering discussions around the underlying mechanism and role of moiré effects.
In particular, new electron crystal states with non-trivial topology have been proposed.
Here we report electrical transport measurements in rhombohedral pentalayer and tetralayer graphene/hBN moiré superlattices at electronic temperatures down to below 40 mK. We observed two more fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states and smaller Rxx values in pentalayer devices than those previously reported.
In the new tetralayer device, we observed FQAHE at moiré filling factors v = 3/5 and 2/3. With a small current at the base temperature, we observed a new extended quantum anomalous Hall (EQAH) state and magnetic hysteresis, where Rxy = h/e2 and vanishing Rxx spans a wide range of v from 0.5 to 1.3.
At increased temperature or current, EQAH states disappear and partially transition into the FQAH liquid. Furthermore, we observed displacement field-induced quantum phase transitions from the EQAH states to the Fermi liquid, FQAH liquid and the likely composite Fermi liquid. Our observations established a new topological phase of electrons with quantized Hall resistance at zero magnetic field and enriched the emergent quantum phenomena in materials with topological flat bands. "
Extended quantum anomalous Hall states in graphene/hBN moiré superlattices (no public access, but here is the link to the preprint version)
Trapping Drones: Fishing Nets from Denmark Help Ukraine’s Soldiers Survive
Bravo Danes! Whatever works! 😊 Do we need some AI here to optimize?
It appears these fishing nets are only used passively. I would prefer active use to bring down drones with fishing nets.
"... When asked about the general mood among the Danish people regarding the war in Ukraine, especially now that the US has suspended its military supplies, Futtrup said his entire circle of friends, as well as many Danes, support Ukraine, and many continue to donate.
“In general, Danes are very keen to help Ukraine,” he said. ..."
Carl Futtrup the Danish volunteer helping Ukraine.
Is this rechargeable paper battery the key to truly sustainable power storage?
Sounds almost too good to be true!
"... using a chemistry of renewables to store over 220 Wh/kg. Singaporean startup Flint ...
Flint says the rechargeable batteries will have a life cycle comparable to traditional battery technologies, unlike other single-use paper battery designs. ...
The company's proprietary battery chemistry relies on cellulose, the structural plant material used to make paper, as the medium for ion transfer between the anode and cathode. Flint then replaces problematic non-renewables like cobalt and lithium with less environmentally impactful, easily recycled metals like zinc and manganese. ...
As to cost, the company believes it can eventually build its batteries for roughly US$50/kWh, less than half the average 2024 cost of lithium-ion. ...."
Treatment strategy reprograms brain cancer cells, halting tumor growth
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!
"Key takeaways
- Combining radiation therapy with a plant-derived compound called forskolin can force glioblastoma cells into a dormant state, making them incapable of dividing or spreading.
- Unlike traditional therapies that force cancer cells to mature, ... researchers used radiation to create a temporary, flexible state, making glioma cells easier to guide into specialized, less harmful types.
- Researchers found that the forskolin was able to cross the blood-brain barrier, significantly depleting glioma stem cells and slowing tumor proliferation.
..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
The distinctive nature of glioblastoma (GBM) and the blood–brain barrier (BBB) are obstacles for therapies that aim to permanently stop glioma cells from dividing. Similar to reprogramming normal cells, “differentiation therapies” try to push cancer cells into a flexible state and then guide them to differentiate into nondividing cells. Our study shows that using radiation first and then activating adenylate cyclase can solve the problems found in earlier work. Irradiation induces a flexible cellular state, and the addition of an adenylate cyclase activator helps turn them into types that cannot regrow tumors. This combined approach works well against GBM and suggests that using radiotherapy together with carefully timed differentiation treatments that force cells to mature could improve treatment outcome.
Abstract
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the deadliest brain cancer in adults, and all patients succumb to the tumor. While surgery followed by chemoradiotherapy delays disease progression, these treatments do not lead to tumor control, and targeted therapies or biologics have failed to further improve survival.
Utilizing a transient radiation-induced state of multipotency, we used the adenylcyclase activator forskolin to alter the fate of irradiated glioma cells.
The effects of the combined treatment on neuronal marker expression, cell cycle distribution, and proliferation were studied.
Gene expression profiling was conducted using bulk RNA-seq. Changes in cell populations were investigated using single-cell RNA-seq. Effects on glioma stem cells (GSCs) were studied in extreme limiting dilution assays, and the effects on median survival were studied in both syngeneic and PDOX mouse models of GBM.
The combined treatment induced the expression of neuronal markers in glioma cells, reduced proliferation, and led to a distinct gene expression profile. scRNA-seq revealed that the combined treatment forced glioma cells into a microglia- and neuron-like phenotype.
In vivo, this treatment led to a loss of GSCs and prolonged median survival. Collectively, our data suggest that revisiting a differentiation therapy with forskolin in combination with radiation could lead to clinical benefit."
Radiation-induced cellular plasticity primes glioblastoma for forskolin-mediated differentiation (open access)
Fig. 6 A combination of radiation and forskolin eliminates GSC in vivo and prolongs median survival in mouse models of glioblastoma (GBM).
New Reports Say Smart Device Cyberattacks More Than Doubled In 2024
Bad news! Then there is "The rise of AI-driven automation tools"!
"... The latest research shows a sudden change in security threats last year, with Internet of Things attacks up by a massive 124% in 2024. ... Cybersecurity company SonicWall's comprehensive 2025 Annual Cyber Threat Report ...
SonicWall reports in 2024 it stopped more than 17 million attacks on IP cameras, a massive increase from the previous year. ...
As we've reported before, smart home hacking attempts are incredibly rare ...
The sharp increase in attacks last year came from several factors:
- Government installations and related areas tend to have older security cameras and devices that are more open to attack
- The global 2024 elections saw a greater interest in hacking government facilities and even polling locations
- New, powerful IoT vulnerabilities were leveraged, such as the Hikvision IP Camera Command Injection vulnerability, which allows hackers to take control of vulnerable cams remotely
- The continued growth of the "Reaper" Botnet, which recruits unprotected smart devices for large-scale cyberattacks, often as part of espionage
- Shared vulnerabilities among similar IoT devices, especially those running OSS (open-source software)
- Cybercriminals using AI tools to find and exploit more vulnerabilities than ever before
..."
NASA cuts off international climate science support for UN IPCC
Good news!
Keep in mind: Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion! It is being used as a pretext by Big Government and the elite to interfere with our lives. It is among the greatest scams and scandals of at least the last 30 years!
"The world’s nations convened this week in Hangzhou, China, to plan the next major international assessment of climate science—but without the United States. Late last week, President Donald Trump’s administration denied officials permission to travel to the meeting and cut off a technical support contract for the report, the seventh assessment of the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The decision, first reported by Axios, is the first time the administration has targeted international climate science. ...
At the same time, last week the Department of State reportedly opted to not allow its diplomatic delegation to travel to Hangzhou for the meeting. ..."
The first Israeli military commission into the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks found that officials missed blatant signs that Hamas was about to attack
Complacency and lack of vigilance can be dangerous!
"The findings shed new light on the scale of Israeli intelligence failures and scope of Hamas’s planning. The details will likely prompt further reckoning in Israel where no politician and only a handful of military figures have resigned over the failings, though the report doesn’t apportion blame. ..."
North Korea appears to have sent more troops to aid Russia, Seoul says
Hopefully, this adventurism will be the end of the dictatorship in North Korea!
Germany was reunited in 1990! How much longer will it take to reunite the Korean peninsula?
"South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia, after its soldiers deployed on the Russian-Ukraine fronts suffered heavy casualties. The National Intelligence Service said in a brief statement it was trying to determine exactly how many more troops North Korea has deployed to Russia.
The NIS also assessed that North Korean troops were redeployed at fronts in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, following a reported temporary withdrawal from the area. ...
Earlier Thursday, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing unidentified sources, reported that an additional 1,000-3,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to Kursk between January and February. ..."
First petawatt electron beam is ready to rip apart matter and space
Amazing stuff!
"... Now, accelerator physicists ... producing petawatt pulses of electrons that could also have spectacular applications. ...
at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory ...
The ultra-short electron pulses might serve to make certain accelerator-based x-ray sources shine even brighter and generate plasma like that seen in astrophysical phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. If the pulses can be made 10 times shorter still, they might even be used to try to rip particles out of the vacuum of empty space. ..."
From the abstract:
"In this Letter, we report on the experimental generation of high energy (10 GeV), ultrashort (femtosecond-duration), ultrahigh current (∼0.1 MA), petawatt peak power electron beams in a particle accelerator. These extreme beams enable the exploration of a new frontier of high-intensity beam-light and beam-matter interactions broadly relevant across fields ranging from laboratory astrophysics to strong field quantum electrodynamics and ultrafast quantum chemistry. We demonstrate our ability to generate and control the properties of these electron beams by means of a laser-electron beam shaping technique. This experimental demonstration opens the door to on-the-fly customization of extreme beam current profiles for desired experiments and is poised to benefit a broad swath of cross-cutting applications of relativistic electron beams."
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Youtube’s Biggest Star Mr Beast Values Company at $5 Billion with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! I don't remember ever to know of Mr. Beast before even though I watch YouTube videos daily.
Mexico Extradites 29 Jailed Drug Bosses to U.S., Including Rafael Caro Quintero Who Killed DEA Agent
Good news! Looks like the partnership between Trump and Sheinbaum is evolving well!
Amazon's new Ocelot chip brings us closer to building a practical quantum computer
Good news! On the heels of Microsoft's announcement (see my blog post).
2025 really shapes up to be a of quantum computing takeoff as was frequently suggested.
"Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Ocelot, a new quantum computing chip that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches. Developed by the team at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot represents a breakthrough in the pursuit to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance that are beyond the reach of today’s conventional computers. ...
Ocelot was designed from the ground up with error correction “built in.” ...
Ocelot: Fast facts
- Ocelot is a prototype quantum computing chip, designed to test the effectiveness of AWS’s quantum error correction architecture.
- It consists of two integrated silicon microchips. Each chip has an area of roughly 1cm2. They are bonded one on top of the other in an electrically-connected chip stack.
- On the surface of each silicon microchip are thin layers of superconducting materials that form the quantum circuit elements.
- The Ocelot chip is composed of 14 core components: five data qubits (the cat qubits), five ‘buffer circuits’ for stabilizing the data qubits, and four additional qubits for detecting errors on the data qubits.
- The cat qubits store the quantum states used for computation. To do so, they rely on components called oscillators, which generate a repetitive electrical signal with steady timing.
- Ocelot’s high-quality oscillators are made from a thin film of superconducting material called Tantalum. AWS material scientists have developed a specific way of processing Tantalum on the silicon chip to boost oscillator performance.
..."
"... Ocelot achieves the following major technical advances:
- The first realization of a scalable architecture for bosonic error correction, surpassing traditional qubit approaches to reducing error correction overhead;
- The first implementation of a noise-biased gate — a key to unlocking the type of hardware-efficient error correction necessary for building scalable, commercially viable quantum computers;
- State-of-the-art performance for superconducting qubits, with bit-flip times approaching one second in tandem with phase-flip times of 20 microseconds.
..."
"... a new quantum chip architecture for suppressing errors using a type of qubit known as a cat qubit. Cat qubits were first proposed in 2001, and, since then, researchers have developed and refined them. Now, the AWS team has put together the first scalable cat qubit chip that can be used to efficiently reduce quantum errors. ...
Due to the complexity of superposition found in qubits, they can have two types of errors:
bit flips, as in the classical digital systems, and
phase flips, in which the qubit states of 1 and 0 become out of phase (or out of sync) with each other.
Researchers have developed many strategies to handle both error types in quantum systems, but the methods require qubits to have a significant number of backup partners. In fact, current qubit technologies may require thousands of additional qubits to provide the desired level of protection from errors. ...
The team's new scheme relies on a type of qubit formed from superconducting circuits made of microwave oscillators, in which the 1 and 0 states representing the qubit are defined as two different large-scale amplitudes of oscillation. This makes the qubit states very stable and impervious to bit-flip errors. ...
In fact, the name "cat" qubits refers to the ability of these qubits to take on two very large, or macroscopic states, at the same time—just like the famous cat in Erwin Schrödinger's [cat] thought experiment, which can be both dead and alive simultaneously. ...
The Ocelot chip achieves this by combining five cat qubits, along with special buffer circuits to stabilize their oscillation, and four ancillary qubits to detect phase errors. ..."
From the abstract:
"To solve problems of practical importance, quantum computers probably need to incorporate quantum error correction, in which a logical qubit is redundantly encoded in many noisy physical qubits.
The large physical-qubit overhead associated with error correction motivates the search for more hardware-efficient approaches. Here, using a superconducting quantum circuit, we realize a logical qubit memory formed from the concatenation of encoded bosonic cat qubits with an outer repetition code of distance d = 5.
A stabilizing circuit passively protects cat qubits against bit flips. The repetition code, using ancilla transmons for syndrome measurement, corrects cat qubit phase flips.
We study the performance and scaling of the logical qubit memory, finding that the phase-flip correcting repetition code operates below the threshold. The logical bit-flip error is suppressed with increasing cat qubit mean photon number, enabled by our realization of a cat-transmon noise-biased CX gate.
The minimum measured logical error per cycle is on average 1.75(2)% for the distance-3 code sections, and 1.65(3)% for the distance-5 code. Despite the increased number of fault locations of the distance-5 code, the high degree of noise bias preserved during error correction enables comparable performance.
These results, where the intrinsic error suppression of the bosonic encodings enables us to use a hardware-efficient outer error-correcting code, indicate that concatenated bosonic codes can be a compelling model for reaching fault-tolerant quantum computation."
Amazon announces Ocelot quantum chip (technical report) "Prototype is the first realization of a scalable, hardware-efficient quantum computing architecture based on bosonic quantum error correction."
New Ocelot Chip Makes Strides in Quantum Computing (CalTech's corresponding news release) "Scientists based at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing on Caltech's campus have made a leap forward in figuring out how to suppress errors in quantum computers, a pesky problem that continues to be the greatest hurdle to building the machines of the future."
The pair of silicon microchips that compose the Ocelot logical-qubit memory chip.
Fig. 1: Repetition code of bosonic qubits.
A dilution refrigerator at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing. Quantum computers require these cooling devices to maintain the quantum chips at ultra-cold temperatures.
Turkey and Russia are advancing as a leading alternative to Western security partnerships across West Africa
Concerning? The Scramble for Africa continues!
"Turkey is advancing as a leading alternative to Western and Russian security partnerships across West Africa as it moves to backfill recently departed French forces in Chad. Russia’s and Turkey’s efforts to fill the security void left by decreased Western engagement in West Africa are not mutually exclusive and are sometimes complementary. Turkey’s growing role as a leading counterterrorism partner in Africa and Syria could lead to increased Salafi-jihadi attack plots in Turkey."
"... The French state-owned outlet Radio France Internationale reported on January 31 that Chad planned to base Turkish drones and Turkish drone technicians at the Faya-Largeau air base in north-central Chad and Abéché air base in eastern Chad. Multiple outlets reported in early February that Chad and Turkey signed an agreement in mid-January that granted Turkey “control” of the Abéché air base. Other reports only noted that Chad agreed to host Turkish personnel at Abéché to train the Chadian Air Force. ...
Turkish advisers and trainers are present in many other francophone African countries that are diversifying their partnerships away from the West while simultaneously facing worsening Salafi-jihadi insurgencies. An attack by al Qaeda’s Sahelian affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wa al Muslimeen (JNIM), in October 2024 killed two Turkish soldiers near the Burkinabe border, confirming reports that Turkish trainers were present in northern Togo. Turkish personnel instruct Togolese forces, help clear mines, and pilot helicopters to improve border security in northern Togo. Turkey sought to expand preexisting training efforts in Mali and Niger in 2024 that had been in place for several years.
Turkey is a leading provider of drones in Africa. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Togo all use Turkish drones in their counterterrorism operations. Turkish drones have an optimal price-to-performance ratio for many African countries as they are more affordable than similar Western models but perform better than cheaper Chinese or Iranian drones. Turkish drone diplomacy has built on preexisting defense ties in places such as Nigeria and created defense ties that Turkey has expanded on in francophone West Africa.
Turkey reportedly sent more than a thousand Syrian mercenaries to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2024. ... The mercenaries are reportedly primarily responsible for protecting crucial economic sites where the Turkish government has a shared stake, such as mines. ...
Russia’s and Turkey’s efforts to fill the security void left by decreased Western engagement in West Africa are not mutually exclusive and are sometimes complementary. ... Turkish and Russian officials frame themselves as non-colonial alternatives that put fewer conditions on their assistance than their Western counterparts. France and Turkey have been rivals for influence in Africa for over a decade, and Turkey repeatedly criticized France’s decade-long military intervention in the Sahel as neocolonial. Turkish outreach leverages Turkey’s shared Muslim roots and cultural values with the majority-Muslim Sahelian countries as a comparative advantage over the West and Russia.
Russia’s and Turkey’s defense partnerships with African countries often address different partner-country needs and sometimes complement each other. The Malian junta leverages Turkish drones and trainers to augment its forces while over 1,000 Russian personnel are engaged in a direct combat capacity alongside the Malian army.
Turkish mercenaries in Burkina Faso and Niger protect high-value economic targets, whereas the small Russian contingents in these countries primarily focus on training and on protecting the junta leaders. ... reported that Sadat put some mercenaries under the command of Russian advisers in Niger, while Wagner Group–linked sources claimed that Sadat-linked technicians in Mali operate and maintain Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones that support Malian and Russian forces.
Russian and Turkish overlap in Africa could give Russia insight into the Turkish drone systems used by African partner governments. ..."
Figure 6. Russian and Turkish Defense Partnerships in Africa
The Wistar Institute Scientists Discover New Weapon to Fight Treatment-Resistant Melanoma
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!
"The lab ... has identified a new strategy for attacking treatment-resistant melanoma: inhibiting the gene S6K2. ...
the group took aim at melanomas with a mutation in the NRAS gene (abbreviated as NRASMUT melanoma).
NRASMUT melanoma accounts for about 30% of all melanoma cases, which has made it a priority of melanoma researchers. ...
The team tested their hypothesis in the lab by silencing the S6K2 gene, which successfully killed NRASMUT melanoma cell lines known to resist MAPK inhibition. Further analysis revealed that S6K2 inhibition killed these cancer cells by disrupting an important lipid metabolism process. ...
When they silenced S6K2, the team noticed that it had an effect on another gene called PPARα. After refining their understanding of PPARα’s effects on NRASMUT melanomas, the researchers capitalized on this finding by using a combination treatment of two compounds, fenofibrate (which activates PPARα) and DHA (also known as Omega-3), to successfully induce cell death in melanomas that were known to resist treatment with MAPK inhibitors. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Oncogenic mutations in NRAS are relatively common in cutaneous melanomas. Although mutant NRAS drives tumor growth through MAPK signaling, MAPK inhibition is effective only in a minority of patients. Thus, additional treatments are needed for MAPK inhibitor–resistant melanomas harboring NRAS mutations.
Here, Lipchick et al. identified the ribosomal protein S6 kinase 2 (S6K2) as a potentially targetable therapeutic vulnerability of NRAS-mutant melanomas exhibiting resistance to MAPK inhibition. Knockdown of S6K2 triggered up-regulation of PPARα, accumulation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, and cell death in vitro.
Dual treatment with PPARα agonist and polyunsaturated fatty acids phenocopied the effects of S6K2 knockdown and reduced tumor growth in vivo. Together, these data identify S6K2 as a potential therapeutic target for MAPK inhibitor–resistant NRAS-mutant melanoma.
Abstract
Although oncogenic NRAS activates mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, inhibition of the MAPK pathway is not therapeutically efficacious in NRAS-mutant (NRASMUT) tumors.
Here, we report that selectively silencing the ribosomal protein S6 kinase 2 (S6K2) while preserving the activity of S6K1 perturbs lipid metabolism, enhances fatty acid unsaturation, and triggers lethal lipid peroxidation in NRASMUT melanoma cells that are resistant to MAPK inhibition. S6K2 depletion induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor α (PPARα) activation, triggering cell death selectively in MAPK inhibitor–resistant melanoma. We found that combining PPARα agonists and polyunsaturated fatty acids phenocopied the effects of S6K2 abrogation, blocking tumor growth in both patient-derived xenografts and immunocompetent murine melanoma models. Collectively, our study establishes S6K2 and its effector subnetwork as promising targets for NRASMUT melanomas that are resistant to global MAPK pathway inhibitors."
Selective abrogation of S6K2 identifies lipid homeostasis as a survival vulnerability in MAPK inhibitor–resistant NRAS-mutant melanoma (no public access)
Changes in brain’s ‘sugar shield’ could be key to understanding effects of aging
Good news! This could be a breakthrough!
Is this where the sweet tooth comes from? 😊
"What if a critical piece of the puzzle of brain aging has been hiding in plain sight? While neuroscience has long focused on proteins and DNA, a team of Stanford researchers dared to shift their gaze to sugars – specifically the complex sugar chains that cover all our cells like chain mail. ...
In a study in aging mice, Shi has uncovered striking age-related changes in the sugary coating – called the glycocalyx – on cells that form the blood-brain barrier, a structure that protects the brain by filtering out harmful substances while allowing in essential nutrients. ...
These age-related changes to the glycocalyx weaken the blood-brain barrier, Shi found. As the barrier becomes leaky with age, harmful molecules can infiltrate the brain, potentially fueling inflammation, cognitive decline, and neurodegenerative diseases. ...
The results were striking: In older mice, bottlebrush-shaped, sugar-coated proteins called mucins, a key component of the glycocalyx, were significantly reduced. This thinning of the glycocalyx correlated with increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier and heightened neuroinflammation.
When the team reintroduced those critical mucins in aged mice, restoring a more “youthful” glycocalyx, they improved the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, reduced neuroinflammation, and measurably improved cognitive function. ..."
From the abstract:
"The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is highly specialized to protect the brain from harmful circulating factors in the blood and maintain brain homeostasis.
The brain endothelial glycocalyx layer, a carbohydrate-rich meshwork composed primarily of proteoglycans, glycoproteins and glycolipids that coats the BBB lumen, is a key structural component of the BBB.
This layer forms the first interface between the blood and brain vasculature, yet little is known about its composition and roles in supporting BBB function in homeostatic and diseased states.
Here we find that the brain endothelial glycocalyx is highly dysregulated during ageing and neurodegenerative disease. We identify significant perturbation in an underexplored class of densely O-glycosylated proteins known as mucin-domain glycoproteins.
We demonstrate that ageing- and disease-associated aberrations in brain endothelial mucin-domain glycoproteins lead to dysregulated BBB function and, in severe cases, brain haemorrhaging in mice.
Finally, we demonstrate that we can improve BBB function and reduce neuroinflammation and cognitive deficits in aged mice by restoring core 1 mucin-type O-glycans to the brain endothelium using adeno-associated viruses. Cumulatively, our findings provide a detailed compositional and structural mapping of the ageing brain endothelial glycocalyx layer and reveal important consequences of ageing- and disease-associated glycocalyx dysregulation on BBB integrity and brain health."
Glycocalyx dysregulation impairs blood–brain barrier in ageing and disease (open access)
What a sweet smile! Sophia Shi, the study’s lead author and a Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellow and PhD student in the Department of Chemistry.
Fig. 1: The brain endothelial glycocalyx is highly dysregulated during ageing.
Fig. 3: Reduced brain endothelial mucin-type O-glycosylation increases BBB leakiness and brain bleeding.
In young mice (left), a dense layer of sugar molecules (shown in black on this transmission electron micrograph) coats the inner lining of the brain vasculature.
In older mice (right), that layer becomes sparse and thinner.
Staat schüttete 2023 fast 4 Millionen Euro an die Agora-Netzwerke aus
Wer wird den mehrere Jahrzehnte alten Sumpf der Staatsknete (am Tropf der Steuerzahler) in der Bananenrepublik D. endlich trocken legen? Viel beklagt, aber getan wurde wenig!
Die Energiewende? Vielleicht der grösste Skandal und Betrug seit 1945!
Agora Energiewende: 2.395.180,84 Euro
Agora Verkehrswende: 756.214,47 Euro
Agora Industrie: 764.645,09 Euro
Insgesamt: 3.916.040,40 Euro
..."
Graichen und Habeck
Cold War redux? Weighing the risks of a ‘great-power’ contest with China and weakens democracy. Really!
Could it be that the author overemphasizes the famous Mark Twain quote that history does not repeat, but it often rhymes?
Comparisons with the Cold War are far fetched! China is very different from the former Soviet Union. China is an ancient civilization of extraordinary achievements, while Russia was a backwater before Peter the Great!
The US and China should engage in "constructive diplomacy" to "effectively address climate change". What a joke! How many coal fired power plants is China building every year?
Did you know that the US was a "multiracial democracy"? Don't we love leftist jargon!
Many people around the world are eagerly awaiting the day that the Chinese people get rid of their Communist Party dictatorship to become a democracy.
Caveat: I did not read the book.
"The rise of China as a global power has cast a shadow over U.S. foreign policy. For nearly a decade, elected leaders from both major political parties have described China as a sinister threat to America’s national interests and democracy worldwide.
As a result, the U.S. government has committed to a full-throated rivalry with China reminiscent of its Cold War with the Soviet Union. ...
His new book, “The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy” ..., makes the case for taking a less aggressive approach to China. This, he argues, would ease tensions between the two powers and achieve constructive diplomacy, enhancing their ability to effectively address climate change and other pressing global challenges. ...
Great-power competition with China assumes that the United States is engaged in a new Cold War with China. The rise of China as a great power, combined with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s assertive and nationalistic view of his country’s role in the world, has made U.S. policymakers see a return to the dynamics that existed during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. ...
One major cost is to democracy itself. The anti-China rhetoric utilized by Republicans and Democrats has stoked anti-Chinese sentiments that exacerbate nativism and xenophobia, which erodes the foundation of a pluralistic, multiracial democracy [???] like the United States. ...
Another flawed reading of history is the idea that the Cold War united Americans, regardless of political party, in an existential contest against communism. That ignores the rise of McCarthyism and the Red Scare ..."
How Flaviviruses Use Mitochondrial Processes to Thrive
Good news! Amazing stuff!
"A team of ... infectious diseases researchers recently conducted an in-depth review of the literature on how one genus of viruses, known as flaviviruses, manipulates mitochondria to evade immune responses. Annually, more than 3 billion people are at risk for flavivirus infection, which includes diseases such as yellow fever and dengue fever.
In their review ... the authors highlighted key mechanisms used by flaviviruses to evade host immune responses, such as the manipulation of mitochondrial fission and fusion processes to enhance replication, modulation of mitochondrial metabolic pathways, and effects on mitochondrial respiration. The work covered a wide scope of viruses within the genus, detailing the mechanisms used by Zika virus, dengue virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, West Nile virus, tick-borne encephalitis, and yellow fever virus. ..."
From the abstract (a disappointing, amateurish abstract):
"Mitochondria are essential eukaryotic organelles that regulate a range of cellular processes, from metabolism to calcium homeostasis and programmed cell death. They serve as essential platforms for antiviral signaling proteins during the innate immune response to viral infections. Mitochondria are dynamic structures, undergoing frequent fusion and fission processes that regulate various aspects of mitochondrial biology, including innate immunity. Pathogens have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to manipulate mitochondrial morphology and function to facilitate their replication. In this review, we examine the emerging literature on how flaviviruses modulate mitochondrial processes."
Fig. 1: Mitochondria play important roles in innate antiviral immune responses. Under stress conditions, such as those induced by viral infection, DNA is released from the mitochondria (mtDNA) and nucleus (dsDNA).
Fig. 2: Flaviviruses modulate mitochondrial fission and fusion dynamics.
Arabia was 5 times wetter as little as 400 years ago according to new research on ancient rainfall
Climate changes dramatically all the time! Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and so on.
"In the not very distant past, the Arabian Peninsula was likely a savannah, with wolves, lions and leopards.
That’s the conclusion from new research into ancient rainfall patterns in Arabia going back thousands of years, which reveals the region was much wetter than today. ...
Today, Arabia is mostly covered in very arid desert. But the new palaeo-climate analysis ... shows that the past 2,000 years were much wetter, and the region was once a vegetated savannah. ...
Researchers studied Arabia’s ancient climate using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to extract sediment cores from deep-sea brine pools nearly 2km beneath the surface in the Gulf of Aqaba in the northern Red Sea. ...
The ancient, vegetated savannah of Arabia persisted until as recently as 200 years ago [or about the end of the Little Ice Ag], when the rainfall was double what it is today. ..."
From the abstract:
"... Fortuitously, we discovered an anoxic deep-sea brine pool sited close enough to shore to chronicle floods, yet be otherwise undisturbed by animals. Cores retrieved from the pool delivered a 1600-year rainfall record. We merge these core-layer histories with modern rainfall statistics, satellite observations, and simulations to deliver a high-resolution quantitative Late Holocene hydroclimate record for Arabia.
We find that the modern era is 2.5 times drier than the last 1.6 thousand years.
The Little Ice Age stands out as particularly wet. That period experienced a fivefold increase in rainfall intensity compared to today. Though hyperarid now, the flood layers demonstrate that climate shifts can generate weather conditions unwitnessed in the modern era. Such long-range insight is crucial for framing uncertainties surrounding future hydroclimate forecasts."
Fig. 2. Depositional setting of the NEOM brine pool.
YouTube surpasses 1B monthly podcast viewers. Really!
A very annoying development on YouTube!
I also have the impression some providers on YouTube have become lazy or miserly by posting more cheap podcasts instead of videos.
BP Slashes Renewable Spending by More than $5 Billion and shifts strategy towards fossil fuels
Good news! Stop the waste on so called clean, renewable energy!
Hopefully, other oil companies like BP will follow!
"BP opens new tab slashed planned investment in renewable energy and said on Wednesday it would increase annual oil and gas spending to $10 billion, in a major strategy shift aimed at boosting earnings and investor confidence. ..."
"... Disciplined investment in the transition: selective investment in biogas, biofuels and EV charging; capital-light partnerships in renewables; focused investment in hydrogen/CCS; investment in transition businesses of $1.5–2bn p.a., over $5bn p.a. lower than previous guidance. ..."
Growing shareholder value: a reset bp (original news release) "bp today introduced a fundamentally reset strategy, with significant capital reallocation, and plans to drive improved performance, aimed at growing free cash flow, returns and long-term shareholder value."
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins: We're Starting to Import Eggs to Help Shortage from e.g. Turkey. Really!
Good idea, but why from Turkey and not Canada and/or Mexico?
Maybe next time a bird flu breaks out do not cull millions of chickens!
"... She added, “We are beginning to import. I just met with Ag. Commissioner of Texas Sid Miller (R), he let me know that they are working to import some eggs from the country of Turkey. … So, there will be some slight import"
The egg importer
Even the Wall Street Journal uses the despicable capital B when referring to black Americans
Incredible! Very annoying!
"... The Supreme Court signaled that minority groups shouldn’t get an edge in bias lawsuits.
At oral arguments, the justices indicated that white people and members of other majority groups who file reverse-discrimination lawsuits shouldn’t face tougher legal scrutiny than Black and other minority employees with bias claims. ..."
Iran has enough highly enriched uranium for six nuclear weapons
Serious stuff! Suicidal, religious fanatics and warmongers can not have a nuclear weapons!
Why do clerics need nuclear weapons!
"Tehran boosted its stockpile of near weapons-grade fuel by 50% since October, according to a confidential U.N. report, which was reviewed by WSJ. Iran and the U.S. haven’t had significant direct contact about nukes since Trump took office. ..."
Maple Syrup Urine Disease
Have you ever heard of this serious disease? I use maple syrup very often as a sugar substitute.
"Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) was first described in 1954 by pediatrician John Menkes et al. The disease was named after the maple syrup-like odor of the urine." (Google search AI result)
"People with maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) can’t break down three specific amino acids found in protein-containing foods. These amino acids build up, become toxic and cause severe health problems. Without medical management, MSUD can lead to a wide range of intellectual and physical disabilities. It can be fatal without proper management."
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The Main Ingredient – Just Don't Want To Be Lonely (Live)
Enjoy! I was not even familiar with this song.
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