Using a combination of modern cell biology techniques, including... #trafficking assays, #CRISPR, and secretomics, Pereira, Stalder, David Gershlick et al. Cambridge University reveal that the exocyst complex has a fundamental role in protein secretion.show more

Fantastic to tour the impressive Autodesk in Birmingham. The... technology center is using cutting-edge advanced manufacturing techniques that are reshaping the way things are designed and made for customers across a broad range of sectors including automotive and aerospace industries.show more

Earlier today the Israel Defense Force and Shin Bet... conducted a Precision Strike on a Hamas Command-and-Control Center inside of a Mosque within the Al-Taba’een School Complex in Gaza City, with it so far Confirmed that 19 Senior Members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were Eliminated in the Strike, including a Platoon Commander and Two Cell Commanders of Hamas. The Strike was carried out using Three Precision Munitions which Directly Impacted the Command Center, causing No Severe Damage to any nearby Buildings, the School Complex, or even the Mosque. This Footage clearly shows the claims being made by the Hamas-Run, Gaza Health Ministry of over 100 Palestinian Deaths as a result of the Strike are False and nearly Impossible.show more

NEW: U.S. Africa Command releases video of the airstrike... that targeted and eliminated ISIS fighters in Nigeria, including ISIS second-in-command Abu-Bilal al-Minuki. President Trump called the “meticulously planned and very complex mission” a complete success.show more

According to a release from the Israel Defense Force... (IDF), in the past two days, using 650 munitions, the IDF has conducted strikes on 400 Iranian regime and IRGC targets. Targets included air defense systems, launch sites, production, storage of ballistic missiles and missiles intended to target aircraft, and 15 weapons manufacturing sites, including a central complex of the Iranian Ministry of Defense.show more

The most detailed 3D reconstruction of a cell ever... created. Blows my mind every time. But what exactly are we looking at here? The average human cell contains: ~ 15-20 total distinct organelle types, totalling between ~1-10 million working together per cell. All these nano-machines in the cell are made up of proteins. ~ 8,000-10,000 distinct types of unique proteins, adding up to between 40 million - 10 trillion total proteins making up all those cellular systems. ~ 10,000 - 15,000 distinct types of RNA shuttling information around the cell, totalling up to ~10 million RNA molecules moving around the cell simultaneously. ~ Billions of Lipid molecules packed together into the cell membrane, which is also packed tightly with millions more protein-based nano-machines. And let's not forget billions of lines of DNA information to build and run it all. That's TRILLIONS of of individual molecular pieces working together to make a single cell function. That means there is more complexity in a single cell than humanity's largest cities. And people still believe this wasn't Divinely Designed. This is God's Glory on Display. But to make the point. A cell couldn't have evolved from some nebulous simpler "protocell" because even the simplest cells still require massive complexity. The "simplest" cell ever created was engineered by scientists knocking out pieces of a functional cell until it stopped functioning. Here is what they found is the absolute necessary minimal requirements of a cell to function: - Over ~531,000 lines of coded DNA information - 473 total genes to create hundreds of unique protein products (they later added 19 genes back in because the cell was so weak) - Hundreds of thousands of total proteins all working together - Extensive regulatory networks guiding all these interactions If the cell doesn't have all these systems in place, from the start... it doesn't live. Cell rely on an intricate network of complex systems, which are themselves built from complex interconnected pieces woven together into an incomprehensibly complex web of functionilty. Only intelligence has ever been observed creation vast interconnected systems like this. Life was clearly Created. It couldn't happen any other way.show more

BREAKING: Matt Gatez has been Nominated to be Trump's... Attorney General. As of November 2024, Representative Matt Gaetz has been involved in several legal investigations and proceedings: 1. Federal Investigation into Sex Trafficking Allegations: In 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into allegations that Gaetz was involved in sex trafficking, including claims of a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. 2. House Ethics Committee Investigation: Reopening of Probe: In June 2024, the House Ethics Committee announced it was reviewing allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, acceptance of improper gifts, and obstruction of justice. 3. Civil Defamation Lawsuit: Subpoena: In May 2024, Gaetz was subpoenaed to testify in a civil defamation lawsuit involving a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with him when she was 17. 4. Association with Joel Greenberg: Joel Greenberg, a former associate of Gaetz, pleaded guilty in 2021 to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg's cooperation with authorities was a significant aspect of the investigations involving Gaetz.show more

If you have Cancer, this is your visualization. That... is a cancerous cell reaching Apoptosis and Necrosis—they are gone. — Natural Killer (NK) cells play a the primary role in the immune system's defense against cancer. They induce cancer cell death primarily through two mechanisms: Apoptosis Necrosis Apoptosis is a programmed, non-inflammatory form of cell death, while necrosis is a more abrupt and inflammatory process. In many cases, NK cells can trigger a combination of both, leading to mixed forms of cell death. This dual capability allows NK cells to effectively target and destroy all tumor cells. Their ability to act without prior sensitization makes them vital for early cancer surveillance and curing existing cancer. One of the only ways cancer never starts or stops entirely is NK cells. They are the guerrilla warfare troops that never sleep. This is why it is vital for BioShield by to be approved, NOW for every cancer, not just a single cancer type. With the rest needing years and years of tests. Cancer is cancer, unregulated cell division and NK cells are NK cells. The ONLY thing that stops BioShield is government betrayal, and organized corruption disguised as following the “regulations” designed by the entrenched gatekeepers of corporate protection. Everyone knows it works that has even a molecule of biological understanding. Now you know.show more

Has Iran started using S-400 systems? In a recent... television interview, one of Iran's air defense commanders said the country already uses the S-300 and S-400 systems. This may indicate that Russia has supplied Iran with modern S-400 systems, but there has been no official confirmation yet.show more

To replace animal testing with AI, we need MASSIVE... human datasets. Today, we're thrilled to share Axiom's new data exploration tool, providing the ability to visually explore the world's largest primary human liver toxicity dataset. Built with Axiom's proprietary wetlab protocols, our dataset includes detailed liver toxicity profiles for over 100,000 distinct molecules. The key to this dataset is our ability to do high-throughput, multiplexed high-content screening with primary human liver cells. Traditionally, toxicity assays either sacrifice throughput or sacrifice biological relevance (using easy-to-grow immortalized cell lines instead of real human cells). We managed to combine throughput, physiological relevance, and multiplexing in one platform. The assays run in a high throughput format using automation, meaning thousands of compound-dose conditions can be tested in one experiment. We achieved this using pooled primary human hepatocytes, which are often fragile and expensive. By systemizing our automation and quality control processes, we were able to run over 120+ batches on the same donor pool with incredible reproducibility and consistency. We did this while integrating many readouts per well, whereas many existing toxicity assays only do a single readout. Our multiplexed approach provides far more data per experiment enabling us to measure 10-20 different toxicity phenotypes such as apoptosis, necrosis, mitochondrial fission, endoplasmic reticulum stress, stress granule formation, microtubules, and more all from a single well on a 384-well plate! The combination of scale, high content information, and data quality is exactly what is needed to train highly accurate AI models in biology. If you're interested, please explore the dataset in the comments below and let me know if you want to chat about the details!show more

A pro-Palestinian 🇵🇸 group slashed and spray-painted a century-old... portrait of the author of the Balfour Declaration at the University of Cambridge in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 In March 2024; a pro-Palestinian group slashed and spray-painted a century-old portrait of Arthur James Balfour at the University of Cambridge on Friday, defacing a painting of the British official whose pledge of support in 1917 for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” helped pave the way to Israel’s founding three decades later. The group, Palestine Action, said in a statement that the destruction of the portrait in Trinity College, Cambridge, was intended to call attention to “the bloodshed of the Palestinian people since the Balfour Declaration was issued,” particularly in light of the current conflict in Gaza. A spokeswoman for Trinity, whose alumni include King Charles III as well as Balfour himself, said in a statement on Friday that the college “regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours” and that it had notified the police. A Cambridge police statement said officers were on the scene to investigate a report of “criminal damage.” Palestine Action posted a video of a protester first spraying the portrait, painted in 1914 by Philip Alexius de László, with red paint and then slashing it with a sharp object. The group’s statement said Balfour had given away the homeland of the Palestinians — “a land that wasn’t his to give away” — touching off what it described as decades of oppression. Since October 7 - 2023, when Hamas militants invading southern Israel killed approximately 1,200 people and abducted 240 others, Israeli bombings and invasions have killed more than 30,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. Defacing art has become a popular protest tactic in recent years. It is perhaps most closely associated with environmentalists, who have targeted paintings by van Gogh, Vermeer and Monet. In 2024, two women from an environmental group entered the Louvre and flung soup at the Mona Lisa. Most of the paintings that have been targeted were covered or protected in some way, and very few were damaged. The pro-Palestinian protesters have targeted art in New York. A few dozen demonstrators disrupted the opening of an Israeli artist’s show at a Manhattan gallery, Hyperallergic reported. In February 2024, protesters interrupted a conversation featuring an Israeli artist whose drawings depicting October 7, 2023 are being exhibited at the Jewish Museum and dozens chanted “Free Palestine” in a demonstration at the Museum of Modern Art. © The New York Times #archaeohistoriesshow more

A sneak peak of a complex and technically challenging... experiment that my lab developed: Super proud of PhD candidate Hannah Johnson for showcasing our Whole-gut spatial genomic analysis in #zebrafish. This video illustrates one landmark in the protocol after multiple rounds of sequential #HCR and 3D imaging in zebrafish larvae to reveal spatial expression of numerous mRNAs in the same specimen. Data from these imaging data sets are then computationally analyzed for spatial cell groups, spatially variable genes, and differentially expressed genes along 3D. We are leveraging this systems-level SGA to uncover unappreciated mechanistic insight at the cell and tissue levels into #ENS construction. Stay tuned for our work that exploits this pipeline within various mutant and perturbation conditions. Reach out if you are interested in trying this! #fruitypebblesshow more

Robotic surgery in pancreatic cancer care: *Quo vadis?* 🩺🤖... In 2000, one of the first robot-assisted cholecystectomies in Belgium was performed UZ Leuven using the ZEUS system. Shortly after, the technology was acquired by Intuitive — a company that would become the global leader in robotic surgery. In 2013, this pioneering trajectory continued with one of Belgium’s first robotic Whipple procedures, using the da Vinci platform. After several cases, however, the robotic approach was paused due to its high cost and limited advantage over laparoscopy at that time. Today, robotic surgery is deeply integrated in complex abdominal procedures — including pancreatic resections. Industry investment in conventional laparoscopy has declined. Intuitive’s business model has evolved, and the cost of robotic surgery is now approaching parity with laparoscopic approaches. Technology has evolved. The market has too. **Is now the time to fully embrace robotic surgery – even for complex procedures like the Whipple?** 👇 Curious to hear your thoughts: Vote in the poll below and feel free to elaborate in the comments. #RoboticSurgery #Pancreaticcancer #Whipple #MedTech #SurgicalInnovation #Healthcare #MinimallyInvasiveshow more

Today in Kyiv, I had the pleasure of meeting... with Sanna Marin, former Prime Minister of Finland. Sanna has been a true friend of Ukraine. From the very first days of the full-scale invasion, she made a clear and unwavering choice to stand with us. Our countries have grown much closer during this most difficult period in our history, and her personal leadership has played an important role in that. She represents a form of women’s leadership that strengthens global politics across all areas, including security, particularly in times of historic challenge. Thank you for the thoughtful gift, Hope in Action, which speaks so powerfully about Ukraine and the resilience of our people. It is always a pleasure to welcome Sanna to Ukraine ❤️show more

Facial reconstruction of a 315,000-year-old man from Morocco The... first discovery at the Jebel Irhoud site was made in 1961, when a remarkably complete skull of an archaic human was unearthed. Subsequent excavations revealed another cranial vault, the mandible of a child, and several additional bone fragments. The site has been dated multiple times, with estimates ranging from 30,000 to 190,000 years ago. By 2007, the accepted age was approximately 160,000 years. However, new analyses conducted by the same research team demonstrated that the Jebel Irhoud deposits are significantly older, dating between 240,000 ± 35,000 and 378,000 ± 30,000 years ago, with an average age of approximately 315,000 ± 34,000 years. The Jebel Irhoud individuals occupy an intermediate position between modern humans (including Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnons) and more archaic groups such as Heidelberg humans, Neanderthals, and African Middle Pleistocene populations. This pattern is evident across nearly all studied anatomical features, including the skull, mandible, brain, and dentition. The occipital and temporal bones of Irhoud 1 retain several archaic characteristics, whereas the frontal bone exhibits more derived traits. The face of Jebel Irhoud 1 is essentially indistinguishable from that of modern humans and, in some respects, appears even more modern than that of certain Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens specimens. The mandible displays a receding chin, although a very weak indication of chin prominence may be present. Considered in isolation, the jaw appears relatively archaic; however, in combination with the facial morphology, it does not seem particularly primitive. Viewed from a three-quarter angle, Irhoud 1 appears remarkably modern, while its archaic features become most apparent in profile. The cranial vault bones of Jebel Irhoud 1 are thick, and the vault itself is low and elongated. The forehead is low and receding, although less sloping than that of European Neanderthals. The brow ridge is massive, postorbital constriction is pronounced, and the occipital region exhibits a chignon-like morphology. The mandibular fossa of the temporal bone is moderately deep and spacious. The articular eminence is well developed, and the postglenoid process is large. The face is extremely high and broad. The upper face is relatively flattened, while alveolar prognathism is strongly expressed. The orbits are tall and square-shaped, and the nose is very broad. A canine fossa is absent, and the alveolar process is high. The teeth are large. The brain morphology resembles that of the Kabwe (Broken Hill) specimen. Cranial capacity has been estimated at 1,305–1,480 cm³. (Hublin et al. (2017), Richter et al. (2017), Antropogenez, S. Drobyshevski (2017)).show more

Ansarallah has carried out multiple attacks on Yemen's Saudi-backed... PLC forces in Hadhramaut Governorate, and the city of Marib, using ballistic missiles, drones, and artillery. The Althaniya, Ruweiq, and Al Abr Bases were among the targets hit, which are home to the 1st and 3rd Emergency Brigades of the PLC. According to unconfirmed reports, up to 50 Yemeni fighters may have been killed. Yemen's Joint Operations Command acknowledged the deaths of 17 military personnel, including officers and soldiers. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree stated that the attacks were pre-emptive due to large Saudi military accumulations. He claimed that hundreds of PLC fighters were killed and wounded, while a "large number" of storage facilities and military vehicles were destroyed. In the last hour, a second attack has taken place using ballistic missiles on the city of Marib. The PLC is the internationally recognised government of Yemen.show more

The bacterial flagellum looks like a simple tail, or... whip. But it’s actually a rotating motor, and perhaps the most sophisticated protein complex nature has ever evolved. In e. coli, these motors are capable of astonishing speeds; about 15,000 rpm. (The world record, according to one study, is for a Vibrio cell that was “clocked at 100,000 rpm by laser microscopy.) The flagellum propels the cell forward at speeds of 20-30 microns per second, or roughly 15 body lengths per second. If scaled up to the size of a cheetah, E. coli would *nearly* be the fastest land organism. The darting movements of a microbe were first observed in 1676 by Antony van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch cloth merchant. Antony was delighted by the motion of his “animalcules,” writing: “I must say, for my part, that no more pleasant sight has ever yet come before my eye than these many thousands of living creatures, seen all alive in a little drop of water, moving among one another, each several creature having its own proper motion.” But Leeuwenhoek did not see flagella. He assumed, rather, that these animalcules must be “furnished with paws” instead. Christian Ehrenberg would not properly describe flagella until 1836. But amazingly, all the way up until the 1970s, nobody actually knew how the flagellum spun! In 1973, there were two competing models people argued over: the helical-wave (bending) model and the rotating (corkscrew) model. The first model suggested that the flagellum whipped back and forth, side-to-side, to propel the cell like paddle. The corkscrew model suggested that the whole flagellum instead spins around like a screw. In 1974, the corkscrew model finally won out. For two separate studies, scientists affixed flagella to glass slides using antibodies, and watched as the cells spun around and around like corkscrews. And finally, in just the last year, high-resolution structures of the flagellum have revealed a LOT more about its intricate assembly. The tail is made from ~20,000 self-assembling copies of a single protein, called flagellin. A “driveshaft,” or rod, spins the tail and is itself made of 26 protein subunits. Each “motor” in E. coli consists of 11 stators, each of which is made from 7 proteins.(Other types of cells have even more stators, and swim with much higher torques.) The flagellum spins when protons flow into the cell through tiny channels in these stators; akin to water running through a turbine. Each proton makes a small part of the stator change shape and push against the rotor, nudging it forward one step. With dozens of stators working at once, these nudges quickly spin the propeller. I'm writing an essay for Asimov Press about this now, and am really enjoying learning about the flagellum and its history. It's an extraordinarily complicated structure, though, and has been a challenge to understand!show more

The IDF confirms killing two Hezbollah operatives in separate... drone strikes in Lebanon earlier today. The first strike, near the southern Lebanon town of Naqoura, killed Abd a-Sayed, who the military says served as Hezbollah's local representative in the nearby village of Ras al-Bayada, and as part of his role, he was responsible for liaising between the terror group and the residents "on economic and military matters." The IDF says a-Sayed was also involved in efforts to restore Hezbollah military capabilities in the village. The second strike near the village of Nabi Chit in the eastern Beqaa Valley killed Ali Hussein al-Mousawi, who the IDF says was a weapons smuggler for the terror group. The IDF says that as part of his role, "he handled the purchasing and transfer of weapons from Syria to Lebanon," and he also "played a significant role in the reestablishment and strengthening of Hezbollah." "Throughout the past year, the terrorist has continuously smuggled weapons for Hezbollah," the military says.show more

✅Explanation of Meaning (by parts): 1. “Having studied and... confirmed that biological evolution on planet Earth” : The author begins by referencing the study of biological evolution on Earth, asserting that scientific investigation has established a clear understanding of its processes, setting a foundation for further claims. 2. “which gave birth to all living things” : Evolution is credited with the origin of all life on Earth, emphasizing its role as the mechanism through which the diversity and complexity of living organisms, including humans, arose over billions of years. 3. “had no purpose” : The author asserts that this evolutionary process lacks a predetermined purpose or intentional design, suggesting that life’s development is driven by natural, undirected mechanisms like mutation and selection, not a teleological goal. 4. “one can easily find answers to other fundamental questions of existence” : By accepting evolution’s purposelessness, the author claims that it becomes simpler to address broader existential questions, implying that this understanding provides a framework for tackling issues like the meaning of life or the Universe’s nature. 🗝️Main Idea (refined version): The author asserts that scientific study confirms biological evolution on Earth, which produced all life, operates without purpose, driven by natural mechanisms rather than intentional design. This understanding facilitates answers to fundamental existential questions, offering clarity on life’s meaning and our place in the cosmos. Recognizing evolution’s purposelessness challenges teleological views, fostering a perspective rooted in empirical reality. It encourages humility, acknowledging our existence as a product of chance rather than destiny. This insight simplifies complex philosophical inquiries, aligning them with scientific principles. It inspires a rational approach to exploring existence, free from preconceived notions of purpose. Ultimately, it empowers us to construct personal and collective meaning within a Universe governed by natural laws, embracing our role as products of a remarkable, undirected process.show more