The threat of antibiotic resistance has been growing rapidly, concerning medical professionals and hospitals. Applying AI to medical research now opens a new pathway for the discovery of antibiotics, meeting an essential demand in healthcare. Antibiotic resistance is a significant threat to global health, leading to harder-to-treat infections, increased spread of diseases. Acknowledged by the… Continue reading Revolutionizing Antibiotic Discovery with Artificial Intelligence
Tag: Discovery
CRISPR:
From Bacterial Defense to Gene Editing Tool The implications of Doudna and Charpentier’s CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) discovery were monumental. Scientists realized that if they could program CRISPR-Cas9 to target specific DNA sequences in bacteria, they could use this technology in any organism. This adaptability transformed it into a gene-editing tool of… Continue reading CRISPR:
Unseen Conflict:
How Bacterial Battles Paved the Way for CRISPR Gene Editing In the microscopic world, a relentless battle has been raging for millennia, one that has inadvertently given rise to one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of our time: CRISPR gene editing technology. This discovery, stemming from the age-old war between bacteria and viruses, reshaped… Continue reading Unseen Conflict:
A Tale of Two Elements:
Marie Curie and Lise Meitner November 7th marked the shared birthday of Marie Curie and Lise Meitner, pioneers whose discoveries transformed our understanding of the atom. These two are the only women with elements of the periodic table named after them: Curium and Meitnerium. They also shared both the brilliance and tenacity to succeed when… Continue reading A Tale of Two Elements:
Jennifer Doudna:
Rewriting the Code of Life with CRISPR-Cas9 Few discoveries in modern science have generated as much excitement and promise as CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene-editing system. Standing for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, CRISPR is a powerful tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA, revolutionizing the field of biology. UC Berkeley biochemist… Continue reading Jennifer Doudna:
Ernest Everett Just
Great Underappreciated Black Biologist Ernest Everett Just was a pioneering African American biologist, academic, and science writer known for his work in the fields of cellular biology and marine biology. I learned about his life and contributions listening to a talk given by Mélina Mangal, author, school library teacher, and biographer of Ernest Everett Just.… Continue reading Ernest Everett Just
AI vs. Lethal Superbugs
Artificial intelligence helped identify a promising new antibiotic. Researchers deployed AI to zero in on a chemical that might be the nemesis of the notorious Acinetobacter baumannii. The CDC reports that this drug-resistant “superbug” caused 8,500 infections and 700 deaths in hospitals during 2017 alone. In this pioneering work, they showed a potential antibiotic called… Continue reading AI vs. Lethal Superbugs
New Vistas
The James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) has to count as one of the greatest advances in science in 2022. NASA’s giant infrared observatory in the sky is now sending images back to earth. This new perspective on the cosmos revealed unprecedented detail of distant galaxies and the far reaches of space,… Continue reading New Vistas
Dragonfly Robot
Nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the science, engineering, and technology at the molecular level, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. At Duke University, bio-medical engineers have created a robot shaped like a dragonfly with a soft body that operates without electronics. This miniature robot is driven by air pressure through microchannels in its hydrogel body. DraBot, as… Continue reading Dragonfly Robot
Emerging Technologies
Start of an exploration “May You Live in Interesting Times” though reputed to be an ancient Chinese curse, it is actually Western and recent. We certainly live in interesting times. Technology has become an important part of our lives, and it certainly is interesting. New technologies are always emerging, always building on what came before,… Continue reading Emerging Technologies