Science

An Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. The device - BiVACOR - is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.

The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well, according to a statement from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where the operations were conducted.

Antonio Alcamí shuddered when he saw that a new plague — which had already caused the death of hundreds of millions of birds around the world — was leaping to the Americas and sweeping relentlessly from north to south, on its way to Antarctica, killing tens of thousands of marine mammals in its path.

Few people were as uniquely prepared as he was — a virologist specializing in lethal viruses, already hardened by the treacherous polar terrain — so he proposed setting up a laboratory at the Spanish Army’s Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic Base.

On February 24, 2024, Alcamí and his colleague Ángela Vázquez confirmed for the first time the presence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in Antarctica. He immediately had a bold idea: he would set up a floating laboratory aboard a sailboat, allowing him to navigate through penguin colonies and find out what was happening. Two journalists from EL PAÍS joined him for a day, documenting his odyssey as he followed the trail of the plague.

Misinformation is widespread, but only some people fall for the false information they encounter. This raises two questions: Who falls for misinformation, and why do they fall for misinformation? To address these questions, two studies investigated associations between 15 individual-difference dimensions and judgments of misinformation as true. Using Signal Detection Theory, the studies further investigated whether the obtained associations are driven by individual differences in truth sensitivity, acceptance threshold, or myside bias. For both political misinformation (Study 1) and misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines (Study 2), truth sensitivity was positively associated with cognitive reflection and actively open-minded thinking, and negatively associated with bullshit receptivity and conspiracy mentality. Although acceptance threshold and myside bias explained considerable variance in judgments of misinformation as true, neither showed robust associations with the measured individual-difference dimensions. The findings provide deeper insights into individual differences in misinformation susceptibility and uncover critical gaps in their scientific understanding.

The vaccine generated robust immune response in nine patients with advanced disease

Largest ever analysis of feline bones from the country suggests the animals may have been prized exotic pets

This is a baffling execution of "America First."

A domestic breeding program kept these birds from going extinct. An initial reintroduction to their native habitat on the big island was halted after their natural predators proved too adept (or the coddled crows proved not adept enough, I guess). So they're now being relocated to Maui.

A patch made from lab-grown muscle cells boosted heart function in monkeys with cardiovascular disease and is now being tested in humans

relevant study: A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications:

NOVA1, a neuronal RNA-binding protein expressed in the central nervous system, is essential for survival in mice and normal development in humans. A single amino acid change (I197V) in NOVA1’s second RNA binding domain is unique to modern humans. To study its physiological effects, we generated mice carrying the human-specific I197V variant (Nova1hu/hu) and analyzed the molecular and behavioral consequences. While the I197V substitution had minimal impact on NOVA1’s RNA binding capacity, it led to specific effects on alternative splicing, and CLIP revealed multiple binding peaks in mouse brain transcripts involved in vocalization. These molecular findings were associated with behavioral differences in vocalization patterns in Nova1hu/hu mice as pups and adults. Our findings suggest that this human-specific NOVA1 substitution may have been part of an ancient evolutionary selective sweep in a common ancestral population of Homo sapiens, possibly contributing to the development of spoken language through differential RNA regulation during brain development.

A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us communicate in a novel way. Speech allowed us to share information, coordinate activities and pass down knowledge, giving us an edge over extinct cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The new study is “a good first step to start looking at the specific genes” that may affect speech and language development, said Liza Finestack at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved with the research.

The genetic variant researchers were looking at was one of a variety of genes “that contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens as the dominant species, which we are today” said Dr. Robert Darnell, an author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Baby mice with the human variant squeaked differently than normal littermates when their mom came around. Adult male mice with the variant chirped differently than their normal counterparts when they saw a female in heat.

Both are settings where mice are motivated to speak, Darnell said, “and they spoke differently” with the human variant, illustrating its role in speech.

This isn’t the first time a gene has been linked to speech. In 2001, British scientists said they had discovered the first gene tied to a language and speech disorder.

Consider muscle movement. Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine to trigger your muscle cells to contract. If acetylcholine sticks around for too long, it can paralyze your muscles – including your heart muscle cells – and, well, that’s that. This is where the enzyme acetylcholinesterase comes in. This enzyme can break down thousands of acetylcholine molecules per second to ensure muscle contraction is stopped, paralysis avoided and life continued. Without this enzyme, it would take a month for a molecule of acetylcholine to break down on its own – about 10 billion times slower.

You can imagine why enzymes are of particular interest to scientists looking to solve modern problems. What if there were a way to break down plastic, capture carbon dioxide or destroy cancer cells as fast as acetylcholinesterase breaks down acetylcholine? If the world needs to take action quickly, enzymes are a compelling candidate for the job – if only researchers could design them to handle those challenges on demand.

Designing enzymes, unfortunately, is very hard. It’s like working with an atom-sized Lego set, but the instructions were lost and the thing won’t hold together unless it’s assembled perfectly. Newly published research from our team suggests that machine learning can act as the architect on this Lego set, helping scientists build these complex molecular structures accurately.

I think I may need to set up a macro for "well, this isn't good."

Story is a bit old but I've been watching the development of processing chips that run off of body heat since 2008.

https://archive.ph/9L36A

Now, millions more people will soon have access to this painkiller — a drug called suzetrigine that works by selectively blocking sodium channels on pain-sensing nerve cells and delivers opioid-level pain suppression without the risks of addiction, sedation or overdose. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved suzetrigine for short-term pain management, making it the first pain drug given a regulatory nod in more than 20 years that works through a brand-new mechanism.

"This is a big step forward," says Stephen Waxman, a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"Anything we can add to the toolbox that will allow us to reduce opioid dependency is a significant positive," says Paul White, an anaesthesiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, who was involved in suzetrigine's development.

Article is in Nature but paywalled so I shared archive.