In this week’s edition of the prototype, we look at NASA’s waiting holidays, gene therapy with blood cells, a possible historical moment of quantum computing, a new spatial telescope, such as not falling for conspiracy theories and more. You can sign up to get the prototype in your box here.
NASA’s main scientist Katherine Calvin was fired this week.
Xinhua News Agency through Getty Images
NASA closed three offices this weekIncluding the office of the main scientist, who advised NASA’s leadership for scientific programs and strategic planning, resting 23 people in the process. It is a prelude to incorrect plans for a greater decline in force to reconcile with President Trump’s executive orders. How many people can be affected is difficult to say now – the agency saved cuts for test workers that have affected other agencies (and in some cases returned).
My colleague Jeremy Bogaisis reported last November that the Trump administration is likely to aim at consolidating NASA’s research efforts, which have spread to the top 10 centers in the field. Some of these facilities have been used over the past decade after the agency has moved to work with trading partners for missile development. For example, NASA has 38 missile trial stands on six different sites across the country, but is not using most of them.
An open question is how these plans will continue while NASA does not yet have an administrator. President Trump appointed billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead the January Space Agency, but so far the Senate has not planned a confirmation session or vote.
Stay okay.
This startup gives gene therapy with bio -projecting blood cells
Immuselic
W.A patient needs gene therapyIt is common for them to undergo a drug “prerequisite regimen” to prepare their body, which can sometimes include immunosuppression. While necessary for these rescue treatments, these medicines can sometimes have harmful side effects.
SEATTLE-based Immusoft is proving a different approach: it is bio-projecting a class of white blood cells called “cell B” to give gene therapy on site. Normally, B cells are your body factories for antibodies. Immusoft is using this B cell property to make specific proteins that treat diseases in the country.
Earlier this month, the company introduced data from its first clinical test, in which its B cells were used to treat a genetic disorder called type I mucopolysaccharidosis. Patients with the disease do not produce a protein that the body uses to disrupt and recycle sugars called Gags. Building these sugars in the body can cause skeletal abnormalities, loss of eyesight and heart disease, and make simple movements such as walking or even washing your hair difficult due to reduced flexibility in the joints.
Once they get into the body – without any need for a prerequisit regime – the B cells of the Immusoft make their way to the bone marrow, where they are grafted and begin to ignite the protein that explodes gags. The small clinical trial found that patients had significant lower GAG levels, CEO Sean Ainsworth told me, and also that they were able to recover a normal rhythm in the foot and improve their flexibility. No side effects were reported in the study.
The next step, Ainsworth, will work with the FDA to expand its clinical studies to include children and continue to pass on a path to approval. The company is also working on therapy for other diseases, including Parkinson’s disease.
Week discovery: quantum supremacy achieved (probably)
D-Wave quantum calculation company claimed it has achieved “quantum superiority” by solving a complex physics problem that said it would take a conventional computer for hundreds of years to solve. Its results were published in Science This week. However, two separate research groups also published findings – in which they used conventional computers to solve subdivisions of the same problem, suggesting that there is no necessity for the use of quantum computers. Andrew King, an elderly scientist in D-Wave, told reporters at a conference this week that those findings were not comparable because they did not include the entire problem solved his team. If the company’s claim relates to further scientific control, this would be a great milestone for quantum calculation.
Last Limit: NASA’s new spatial telescope -s
NASA began the spatial telescope Sperthex in the Earth’s orbit earlier this week, and has successfully managed communicating with it. Once it is fully in function, sperhex will observe the sky at infrared wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye, enabling astronomers to collect data on asteroids, galaxies and other astronomical objects. This includes information about oxygen, carbon dioxide and other chemicals that may indicate the presence of life. The first observations of the telescope may occur next month.
What else have I written this week
The federal government is making massive cuts in the national weather service, and companies can be forced to fill in the gaps. I wrote for tomorrow.IO, such a start, whose CEO told me he didn’t want people to think that companies like “are here to get business from NOAA.”
I also wrote about Cognixion, a startup that has developed a brain-computer interface that requires nothing to be implanted in your head. The company announced it is starting clinical evidence of its equipment with ALS patients.
In my other newspaper, Innovationrx, my colleague Amy Feldman and I wrote about the outbreak of deteriorating measles, a shot that can prevent HIV infections for a year, replacing heart valves with robots and more.
Technology sciences and news
California -based graphic energy has developed a way to generate hydrogen that is not only clean and affordable – it produces valuable material graphite in the process.
Greenhouse gas emissions Not only do they heat the soil, they are also decreasing the upper atmosphere, which can reduce the number of satellites that can safely function in the low orbit of the soil up to 66%.
Plastic recycling may become less expensive Taking advantage of moisture in the air, new research shows.
Scientists in the mit Successfully returned mice skin cells to Neurone, without having to turn them into a source cell first. If this can be repeated in humans, access can be used to scale the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases or spinal cord injuries.
China’s spatial agency It is inviting international partners to submit proposals to join its Tianwen-3 mission, which will begin in 2028 to send an investigation into Mars, where it will pierce a sample of its surface and then return that sample to the ground.
Pro scientific advice: Good sleep protects you from conspiracy theories
There are many psychological factors that go on for why people can believe even the strangest theories of the plot, but new research suggests that there is also a physiological: not getting enough sleep. Researchers from the University of Nottingham studied over 1,000 people’s sleep habits and discovered that those with poor poor sleep quality and insomnia were more likely to adopt new theories of the plot presented to them than people who had taken good sleep. So if you are reading this in bed, put your phone and rest instead. Your critical thinking capacity will thank you in the morning.
What is entertaining me this week
When Marvel started its television series Duddy In Netflix 10 years ago, I was fixed. It was a perfect adaptation of one of my favorite characters for all time, from throwing to the ground level to some of the best stunt choreography on TV. So I was disappointed when Marvel canceled her agreement with Netflix, taking the show with her. So far, this is. Marvel has reunited Netflix Show’s original cast and started Daredevil: Born againwhich continues the series in Disney Plus. Three episodes in and the show has not lost a step at all. It’s fantastic.
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