Toggle light / dark theme

An international team of researchers has used modeling techniques borrowed from chemistry applications to create a new kind of city simulator. In their paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, the group describes using their models to create simulations of of COVID-19 spread for two real-world cities: Birmingham England and Bogota Columbia.

A team of researchers with members from institutions in the U.S., Sweden and Taiwan has developed an artificial intelligence system for predicting breast cancer years before tumors appear. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group describes how they developed and trained their system and how well it worked when tested.

An anthropologist dives into the world of genetic engineering to explore whether gene-editing tools such as CRISPR fulfill the hope of redesigning our species for the better.


The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans by Eben Kirksey. St. Martin’s Press, November 2020. Excerpt previously published by Black Inc.

Surreal artwork in the hotel lobby—a gorilla peeking out of a peeled orange, smoking a cigarette; an astronaut riding a cyborg giraffe—was the backdrop for bombshell news rocking the world. In November 2018, Hong Kong’s Le Méridien Cyberport hotel became the epicenter of controversy about Jiankui He, a Chinese researcher who was staying there when a journalist revealed he had created the world’s first “edited” babies. Select experts were gathering in the hotel for the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing—a meeting that had been called to deliberate about the future of the human species.

Dr. Richi Gill, MD, is back at work, able to enjoy time with his family in the evening and get a good night’s sleep, thanks to research. Three years ago, Gill broke his neck in a boogie board accident while on vacation with his young family. Getting mobile again with the use of a wheelchair is the first thing, Gill says, most people notice. However, for those with a spinal cord injury (SCI), what is happening inside the body also severely affects their quality of life.

You may have heard of Autophagy, it was the beneficiary of a Nobel Prize in 2016 and has been a hot topic since then.

It is credited with such amazing benefits as removing toxic proteins from cells such as which cause Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, recycling residual proteins, providing energy and building blocks for cells that could still benefit from repair, prompting regeneration for healthy cells, and it may also help with cancer prevention.

COVID-19 may have shocked the city’s commercial market but that hasn’t stopped developers from doing what they do best. In fact, a bevy of newly constructed and redeveloped towers are poised to hit the market in Manhattan.

Industry experts told The Post that it will be those new buildings, designed with cutting-edge tech and with future pandemics in mind, that will have the greatest advantage on the market.

“There is no question the buildings provisioned for the 21st century-plus are going to be in a better position to cash in on the leasing opportunities ahead,” said David Goldstein, vice chairman of real estate services provider Savills. “It could be an older building reimagined, or a new one under construction or in planning stages.”