Daily exposure to chemicals called phthalates, which are used in the manufacture of plastic food containers and many cosmetics, may lead to roughly 100,000 premature deaths among older Americans each year, a new study shows. The resulting annual economic burden is between $40 billion and $47 billion, a value more than quadruple that of previous estimates.
NYU Langone study shows deaths linked to endocrine-disrupting chemicals called phthalates may cost United States billions in lost productivity. Learn more.
Coastal artisanal fisheries, particularly those in developing countries, are facing a global crisis of overexploitation1. Artificial reefs (ARs), or human–made reefs2, have been widely advocated by governmental and non-governmental conservation and management organizations for addressing these issues. Industries, particularly oil and gas, seeking to avoid the costs of removal or conventional disposal of used materials are often major advocates for deploying ARs. Yet, major questions remain regarding the success of such efforts in the context of weak governance and poorly sustained international investment in AR development projects. There is frequently confusion over whether or not ARs should be fishing sites and the precise goals of constructing such ARs are often unclear, making difficult to evaluate their successfulness3. Over the last 40 years, both failures and success AR implementation programs have been reported4,5. The main point of the present work is to underline the importance of the governance issue and address social and management factors on AR “success”.
To improve fishery yields, it has been recommended that ARs must be no-take areas (e.g.,2). Yet, most ARs were historically delineated as sites for fishing4, and were rarely implemented at large scales in/for no-take zones, even in countries with centuries of experience in constructing ARs, such as Japan. In Japan, fishery authorities and local fishers use ARs to promote sustainable catches and to establish nursery grounds of target species6. However, fishery authorities and local fishery cooperatives in Japan have extensive management authority over ARs. For example, fishing around ARs is usually limited to hook and line techniques, with net fishing rarely being permitted in areas where risk of entanglement in ARs is high. Furthermore, during spawning, fishing gear and fishing season are often restricted around ARs in Japan. These practices are recognized for their effectiveness in maintaining good fishing performance and marine conservation in Japan and elsewhere where they have been implemented7.
Creating Smart Home Ecosystems — Enabling Health & Well-Being In Every Home — Viren Shah, VP & Chief Digital Officer, GE Appliances, Haier
Mr. Viren Shah is Vice President & Chief Digital Officer, at GE Appliances (GEA — https://www.geappliances.com/), the American home appliance manufacturer, now a majority owned subsidiary of the Chinese multinational home appliances company, Haier (https://www.haierappliances.com/).
“Move fast and break things” doesn’t exactly translate into Mandarin. Sign-up for Acorns! 👉 https://acorns.com/ee?s2=SV3 (upon registration, Acorns will deposit $5 in your account to help you get started with investing!)
Acclaimed Harvard professor and entrepreneur Dr. David Sinclair believes that we will see human life expectancy increase to at least 100 years within this century. A world in which humans live significantly longer will have a major impact on economies, policies, healthcare, education, ethics, and more. Sinclair joined Bridgewater Portfolio Strategist Atul Lele to discuss the science and societal, political, systemic and ethical implications of humans living significantly longer lives.
Facebook has announced some exciting connectivity technologies that will enable the company to provide access to fast and affordable internet service to the next billion people as well as enhance existing infrastructure projects.
The company said that Facebook Connectivityhas helped provide quality internet connectivity to over 500M people since 2013. Now, the company aims to enable affordable, high-quality connectivity for another one billion people at less cost and with greater speed by leveraging emerging technologies.
Commenting on the new connectivity technologies during the unveiling, Dan Rabinovitsj, VP of Facebook Connectivity said:“We have seen that economies flourish when there is widely accessible internet for individuals and businesses.”
One of the most critical aspects of SpaceX’s quest for the reusability of its space hardware is the recovery of its booster. To achieve this, SpaceX decided to land its boosters on the sea. However, the boosters land on large drone ships to prevent losing the booster and transport it back to land. After many successful landings and recovery of the boosters, the large and dependable drone ships have become a vital link in SpaceX’s dream to make space travel affordable. SpaceX recently added another drone ship to the pair it had in service. Join us as we explore SpaceX’s insane new drone ship! To the armchair engineer, landing a rocket in the sea is suicide as many things can go wrong. To start with, when floating on the sea, the drone ship or barge is small compared to all the land available for the booster to land on. Compounding the problem is that the drone ship itself can be rocked about on the sea, more than 300 km off the coast. So, combining the size and instability of the drone ship, the booster can miss the drone ship and crash into the sea, making it harder or even impossible to recover. However, many things have gone wrong as SpaceX tried to land a rocket on land, with several boosters crashing and bursting into flames. Apart from that, SpaceX has very good reasons to prefer a sea landing for its boosters, and the reason has to do with fuel. Fuel is a critical component on any mission because the engineers have to balance carrying enough quantity of it and keeping the rocket as light as possible. As you can imagine, the Falcon 9 rockets are heavy, at more than half a million kilograms which means fuel is a premium. This is how it breaks down: When you launch to space and the booster returns, you need to slow down the speed from more than 8,000 km/h down to zero. This is done by reigniting the engine, and it requires fuel. The fuel has to come from the leftover after boosting the upper stage. This is where it gets interesting. If you blasted a payload to low orbit, for example, you would have more than enough fuel for the landing. However, if the mission was destined for beyond Earth’s orbit, you will need more fuel because you have to launch faster. This will leave you with no fuel for the landing. This will be a big blow to SpaceX’s dream of reusing its boosters. Recall that the company wants to launch missions to Mars, which will require lots of fuel to attain the speed necessary for launch but not enough fuel for landing. However, there is a way out of this problem with the aid of geography. When SpaceX launches from Florida, the rocket heads East over the Atlantic Ocean. So making the rocket land at sea and not having to return to the launch site will reduce the fuel required because the distance is shorter. This means for more ambitious launches, it makes sense for SpaceX to land on the sea. As Musk put it at a conference, “For half our missions, we will need to land out to sea. Anything beyond Earth is likely to need to land on the ship.” Now, what motivation does SpaceX have to land and reuse its boosters? The motivation is money. SpaceX wants to save money on its launches, and refurbishing a rocket saves time and costs a fraction of building a new one. Just how much money is SpaceX saving? We might never get an actual figure because it is a trade secret, but it is a play on several factors. For example, to save some fuel for landing, it means you have to reduce your payload. For the Falcon 9 that means a reduction of up to 40 percent in revenue, according to Musk’s tweet:
Payload reduction due to reusability of booster & fairing is <40% for F9 & recovery & refurb is <10%, so you’re roughly even with 2 flights, definitely ahead with 3
Comprehensive health, social services and economic well-being for american indian and alaska native elders — larry curley, executive director, national indian council on aging.
Enterprises of all sizes and across virtually all markets are scrambling to augment their analytics capabilities with artificial intelligence (AI) in the hopes of gaining a competitive advantage in a challenging post-pandemic economy.
Plenty of anecdotal evidence points to AI’s ability to improve analytics, but there seems to be less conversation around how it should be implemented in production environments, let alone how organizations should view it strategically over the long term.
Stimulating STEM Innovation & Securing U.S. High-Tech Economy — Kimberly A. Reed, Fmr President and Chairman Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Kimberly A. Reed just finished up a 2-year term as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM — https://www.exim.gov). She was the first woman to lead EXIM in the agency’s 87-year history, was the first recipient of EXIM’s highest honor, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Award, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 on a strong bi-partisan basis.
