Technology

Gene therapy is now able to restore sight to completely blind people

In some forms of blindness, much of the eye works fine, but the vision is perceived by damage to the photoreceptors in the retina, which is the first step in the visual chain. Because when they are activated by light, they transmit the stimulus to further areas of the nervous system, where it is analyzed. In higher organisms, there is talk of the visual path transmitting information to the visual cortex. Unfortunately, photoreceptors are damaged in many eye diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, and while the other vision mechanisms are working, the patient loses his sight.

It turns out that hallucinogenic mushrooms are much more effective than antidepressants

New research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is showing remarkable results, with scientists announcing that this is just the beginning. It all started when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided to give the green light to research into its positive effects on people suffering from depression, although this substance is clearly associated with the famous magic mushrooms that are able to change the perception of the world by the consuming person - time, space, colors or sound, or induce visual hallucinations.

Who's the most garbage in space? Analysts presented a ranking of countries

Humanity has already turned the Earth into a huge garbage dump, and is now trying to do so with orbit as well. The next step will probably be the Moon and Mars. However, we can limit our devastation of outer space by creating projects to clean it. Many companies are already successfully testing their technologies, but dealing with so much rubbish will not be an easy task.

Elon Musk showed the main station of the Loop transport system near Las Vegas

Elon Musk showed on his Twitter profile The Boring Company the interior of the main station of the transport system called Loop, which is being built under the City of Gambling. In the film, we can see the hall in the background illuminated with colorful LEDs, with the sounds of one of the songs of the late musician Avici. There are escalators to the main station from the city center. Tesla vehicles are waiting for passengers there, which they can use to set off on their way to their destination. The journey takes place in full autonomous mode at a speed in excess of 200 km / h.

The Chinese Jiuzhang quantum computer has made groundbreaking calculations

Recently, Google announced to the world that the quantum computer it is building, called Sycamore, only needs a few minutes to make calculations that would take a classic computer about 10,000 years. Now we are hearing news that the newest and one of the most advanced quantum computers in the world from China has broken this record.

Watch the spectacular explosion of the Starship prototype during landing

The prototype with the designation SN8 took off in a beautiful manner, soared to a height of 12 kilometers and without any problems started a very interesting-looking landing maneuver, but in the last seconds it flew too fast and hit the plate of the company's test center in Boca Chica, Texas with all its force. Elon Musk tweeted that there was a problem with the pressure of the top tank, as a result of which the Raptor engines power dropped and they were unable to brake the vehicle just in front of the center plate. The billionaire also said they had sensor data, so they'll fix this problem quickly.

This is what the first space radish looks like. Astronauts grew it in orbit

We must remember that the cosmic home is in Earth's orbit, about 400 kilometers above our heads. There are microgravity conditions there, so chemical reactions often take place in a completely different way than on the Earth's surface. Growing vegetables or fruit that can be used as part of the diet of the inhabitants of the International Space Station is not a simple task.

Antibiotics are produced that slow down the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

In short, the overuse and inept use of antibiotics (for example, to "treat" viral infections or prematurely discontinue therapy) have made more and more bacteria resistant to them, making it difficult to treat many diseases. And while we are still developing new antibiotics, the process is not fast enough to keep up with the bacteria - luckily, there is a light in the tunnel, and we are talking about antibiotics to be used together and antibiotics to reduce the development of bacterial resistance. This is a perfect example of how evolution works, because when a drug wipes out a bacterial population, a few out of several million will survive, often due to random genetic mutations, and will pass on new immunity to the next generation.