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Science and Technology links (May 16th 2020)
- Most of our processors, whether in our PCs or mobile phones, are 64-bit processors. In the case of your PC, it has been so for a couple of decades. Unfortunately, we have been stuck with 32-bit operating systems for a long time. Apple has stopped supporting 32-bit applications in the most recent version of its macOS operating system and 32-bit applications have stopped running on the iPhone quite some time ago. Microsoft will now stop providing 32-bit versions of its operating system.
- Moths transport pollen at night and play an important role as pollinators.
- If you transplant fecal microbes from old to young rats, you age the young rats. We have solid evidence that blood transfusions from old mammals to young mammals will age the young recipient (Nature, 2016). The other direction, evidently more useful, is achievable in vitro, but harder to achieve in actual organisms. In what might be a breakthrough, Horvath et al. report system-wide rejuventation in rats using plasma (blood) transfusion: the treatment more than halved the epigenetic ages of blood, heart, and liver tissue. Details are missing and we should reserve judgement. Horvath is a well regarded scientist from UCLA.