Tech Time Podcast Episode 7:

Gut-Brain Connection Could Lead To a ‘New Sense’

In our podcast a new study has revealed a “fast-acting neural circuit allowing gut cells to communicate with the brain in just seconds,” reports New Atlas. Diego Bohorquez, senior author of the study, says “these findings are going to be the biological basis of a new sense. One that serves as the entry point for how the brain knows when the stomach is full of food and calories.” He says it “brings legitimacy to [the] idea of the ‘gut feeling’ as a sixth sense.”

Duke university

Remarkable new work from a team of researchers at Duke University has now revealed a previously unknown direct circuit between the gut and the brain that could allow for fast sensory communication that doesn’t relay on laborious hormonal signaling.

 

Mosquitoes Genetically Modified To Crash Species That Spreads Malaria

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that a controversial new kind of genetic engineering can rapidly spread a self-destructive genetic modification through a complex species.

The scientists used the revolutionary gene-editing tool known as CRISPR to engineer mosquitoes with a “gene drive,” which rapidly transmitted a sterilizing mutation through other members of the mosquito’s species

After mosquitoes carrying the mutation were released into cages filled with unmodified mosquitoes in a high-security basement laboratory in London, virtually all of the insects were wiped out, according to a report in Nature Biotechnology. The mosquitoes were created in the hopes of using them as a potent new weapon in the long, frustrating fight against malaria. Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases, killing more than 400,000 people every year, mostly children younger than 5 years old.

What’s encouraging is that the mosquitos reportedly did not appear to further mutate in a way that would diminish the effectiveness of the engineered mutation. “But the researchers stressed that many years of additional research are needed to further test the safety and effectiveness of the approach before anyone attempts to release these mosquitos or any other organisms created this way into the wild,

Matt – What effect would this have on the local ecology?  I hate mosquitos but would birds, bats and other predators starve? Would other insects move in to replace mosquitos?

 

Uber Drivers and Other Gig Economy Workers Are Earning Half What They Did Five Years Ago

According to a new study by the JPMorgan Chase Instittue, drivers who transport people via apps (e.g. Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Postmates) made 53 percent less in 2017 than they did in 2013.

drivers on average are working fewer hours; demand hasn’t increased to meet the increased number of drivers; trip prices have fallen; or platforms are paying drivers lower rates.

The average monthly payments to those who worked for a transportation app in a given month declined to $783 from $1,469. Meanwhile, people working for leasing apps — Airbnb, Turo, Parklee and other apps that let you rent assets like your home, car or parking space — saw their incomes from those platforms rise 69 percent to $1,