by Bennett Davis A special strain of bacteria can generate electricity from air, scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered. It’s long been known that several kinds of bacteria can move electrons from their bodies to the ground, metal compounds, or other bacteria along protein filaments that stick out of their bodies....
Author: Ben Daviss
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RESEARCHERS FIND CANCER’S ACHILLES’ HEEL
by Bennett Davis Every kind of cancer is different and each different kind can have a variety of expressions, depending on the individual who has it. That means every kind of cancer demands a different approach to treatment. Now scientists at Cardiff University have found a way to disrupt a key component shared by a...
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SWITZERLAND SUSPENDS 5G DEPLOYMENT
by Bennett Davis Switzerland, one of the first countries to begin deploying a 5G telecommunications network, has halted progress on the initiative “indefinitely” due to widespread public concerns about its health effects. The country installed more than 2,000 5G antennas in 2019 and has been promising its population “imminent” access to the speedier, more capacious...
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BIG CHAIN “HEALTH HUBS” ON THE RISE
The retail giant Walmart is planning to open its second Health “super center” in Georgia this year. Walmart’s first Health center opened its doors last September in Dallas, GA. The 10,000-square-foot storefront offers primary care, lab work, X-rays and EKGs, optical and hearing services, mental health counseling, dental services, nutrition counseling, fitness guidance, and health...
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“SENOLYTIC” DRUG REVERSES KEY CAUSE OF AGING
As the human body ages, it accumulates a growing number of “senescent” cells that lose their ability to work properly or even go dormant. As more of these cells build up, the symptoms of ageing become more pronounced – everything from dementia to crepe-like skin. “Senolytic” drugs that could clear away senescent cells have been...
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IT’S ALIVE! (SORT OF)
Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have created a form of concrete that can reproduce and can heal itself if damaged. Beginning with a particularly robust strain of bacteria, researchers mixed the bugs with sand and a hydrogel holding water and nutrients to feed the microbes. As the bugs flourished and multiplied, they...
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PFAS CONTAMINATION MORE WIDESPREAD
PFAS – perfluoroalkyl substances, a family of more than 5,000 hardy chemicals used to make products ranging from firefighting foam to waterproof mascara – have widely pervaded the U.S. water supply, according to a new study by the private, nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). Several of the chemicals have been linked to liver damage, kidney...
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NEW WAY TO CLEAN UP OCEAN PLASTIC
About 16 billion pounds of plastic flows into the world’s oceans each year. In 2021, the Finnish research center VTT will test a way to start taking it out. Scientists there have sorted through the realm of bacteria to choose several strains that can digest various forms of plastic and turn them back into raw...
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WATER-RELATED VIOLENCE INCREASING
Physical confrontations over water have more than doubled over the past ten years, according to the nonprofit Pacific Institute, who are focused on protecting the world’s fresh water. Water became a weapon in Syria’s civil war as government forces damaged a water pipeline into the city of Aleppo, leaving millions of people desperately short of...
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VACCINE AGAINST ALZHEIMER’S
In a test, a vaccine has cleared the brain protein tangles and build-ups that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the University of California and the Institute for Molecular Medicine genetically engineered mice to develop the tau protein tangles and amyloid protein build-ups that accumulate among brain cells that mark the illness. Previous vaccines had targeted...