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According to a new analysis From existing data representing a new milestone in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), less than 0.04% of star systems have the potential to host advanced civilizations with equivalent radio technology or slightly more advanced than 21st century humans.

A collaborative research team at the University of Manchester has discovered an analytical breakthrough that has dramatically expanded the search for extraterrestrial life from 1,400 stars to 280,000, increasing the number of stars analyzed by a factor of more than 200.

Only intelligent life

This new analysis, then, could only locate intelligent and technically advanced civilizations that use radio waves as a form of communication; for example, they could not detect "simple" life or non-technical civilizations.

According to the study leader, Michael Garrett, from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, Reviewing the catalog produced by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia spacecraft, stars were selected at much greater distances (up to about 33,000 light years) than the original sample of nearby stars , being able to expand the number of stars studied from 1,327 to 288,315:

We now know that fewer than one in every 1,600 stars closer than about 330 light years host transmitters a few times more powerful than the most powerful radar we have here on Earth. Inhabited worlds with much more powerful transmitters than we can currently produce must be even rarer.

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Furthermore, the expanded sample includes not only a wide range of main sequence stars, but also numerous giant stars and white dwarfs.

The Kardashov scale is a method to measure the degree of technological evolution of a civilization, proposed in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashov. It has three categories, called Type I, II and III, based on the amount of energy that a civilization is capable of using from its environment. Generally speaking, a Type I civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet, Type II of its planetary system, and Type III of its galaxy. However, perhaps things don't work that way: because we cannot understand advanced civilizations, as criticized in Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, from the biologist Jack Cohen and the mathematician Ian Stewart.

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The news

Less than 0.04% of star systems would have the potential to host advanced civilizations

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

A new lab study shows that a molecule found in bee venom can suppress the growth of particularly nasty cancer cells.

He study has focused on certain subtypes of breast cancer, including triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is an extremely aggressive condition with limited treatment options.

TNBC

TNBC accounts for up to 15 % of all breast cancers. To be treated, different types of treatments are needed because they are estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative and HER2 negative. Drugs such as tamoxifen, which targets the estrogen receptor, and trastuzumab (Herceptin), which targets HER2, are not helpful in treating triple-negative breast cancer.

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He bee venom (Apis mellifera), however, it has shown potential in other medical therapies such as treating eczema, and has been known for some time to have anti-tumor properties, including melanoma. However, how it works against tumors at the molecular level is not fully understood. Now, however, a big step has been taken towards the answer.

Bees really use melittin, the molecule that makes up half of its venom and makes its bites painful, to combat its own pathogens. Insects produce this peptide not only in their venom, but also in other tissues, where it is expressed in response to infections. With their sights set on this molecule, the researchers subjected lab-grown cancer cells and normal cells to bee venom from Ireland, England, and Australia, and bumblebee venom (Bombus terrestris) from England.

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Bumblebee venom, which does not contain melittin, had little effect on breast cancer cells, but bee venom of all places did make a difference. In fact, melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes within 60 minutes.

Furthermore, if this were not enough, melittin had little impact on normal cells, specifically targeting cells that produced a large amount of EGFR and HER2 (another molecule produced in excess by some types of breast cancer); it even spoiled the ability of cancer cells to replicate.

After trying the same thing with a synthetic version of melittin, they discovered the same results.

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Before you get excited, it's worth warning that many things can kill a cancer cell in a petri dish, and researchers warn that there is still a long way to go before this bee venom molecule can potentially be used as a treatment in humans.

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The news

Breast cancer cells are destroyed in the laboratory thanks to bee venom

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.