Please see the latest edition of the Security & Tech Insights Newsletter.
Risk mitigation in the cyber and emerging tech landscapes in 2024 will be a challenge as technologies become more sophisticated and interconnectivity grows. This edition of the newsletter explores some of those trends.
Medication delivered by a novel gel cured 100% of mice with an aggressive brain cancer, a striking result that offers new hope for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most common brain tumors in humans.
Cui’s team combined an anticancer drug and an antibody in a solution that self-assembles into a gel to fill the tiny grooves left after a brain tumor is surgically removed. The gel can reach areas that surgery might miss and current drugs struggle to reach to kill lingering cancer cells and suppress tumor growth. The results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Continue reading “This gel stops brain tumors in mice. Could it offer hope for humans?” »
Osteoarthritis affects as many as 30 million Americans, but treatment has traditionally been limited to managing symptoms with pain relievers and lifestyle changes. In a new Nature study, YSM researchers identify a new therapeutic target that could help slow and reverse joint damage from osteoarthritis.
Yale researchers have identified a drug target that may alleviate joint degeneration associated with osteoarthritis, a debilitating condition that afflicts as many as 30 million people in the United States alone, they report Jan. 3 in the journal Nature.
Pain relievers and lifestyle changes, such as exercise and reduced excess weight, have long been the therapies most commonly used to treat the joint stiffness and pain caused by the degenerative disease, but there is a pressing need for therapies that can prevent joint breakdown that occurs in osteoarthritis.
Continue reading “Epilepsy drug shows promise in slowing joint degeneration in osteoarthritis” »
An AI trained to hunt for technosignatures from intelligent alien life found 8 interesting signals on its first deployment.
Australian researchers have successfully trialed a novel experiment to address offensive and rude comments in operating theaters by placing “eye” signage in surgical rooms.
The eye images, attached to the walls of an Adelaide orthopaedic hospital’s operating theater without any explanation, had the desired effect of markedly reducing poor behavior among surgical teams.
Lead researcher University of South Australia Professor Cheri Ostroff attributed the result to a perception of being “watched,” even though the eyes were not real.
A s the world moves away from gas towards electricity as a greener power source, the to-do list goes beyond cars. The vast global manufacturing network that makes everything from our batteries to our fertilizers needs to flip the switch, too.
A study from UChicago chemists found a way to use electricity to boost a type of chemical reaction often used in synthesizing new candidates for pharmaceutical drugs.
Published Jan. 2 in Nature Catalysis, the research is an advance in the field of electrochemistry and shows a path forward to designing and controlling reactions—and making them more sustainable.
The city of Austin asked Cruise to idle its robotaxis on Halloween due to safety concerns. The request shows how cities barred by state law from regulating driverless cars must resort to diplomacy.
The world’s largest ultra-high-altitude wind farm came online on January 1 in Tibet, or what China now refers to as the Xizang Autonomous Region.
The 100-megawatt (MW) wind farm is at an altitude of 4,650 meters (15,256 feet) in the Seni District. A wind farm built at 3,500 (11,483 feet) to 5,500 feet (18,045 feet) is considered ultra-high.
Its developer, CHN Energy, will use the wind farm for R&D to further develop large-scale ultra-high-altitude wind farms. But in the meantime, this wind farm is providing clean electricity to 140,000 households in Nagqu City, the largest of Tibet’s prefecture-level cities.
Here’s my new Opinion article for Newsweek on AI!
Like so many in America, I watch astounded as generative artificial intelligence (AI) evolved at lighting speed in 2023, performing tasks that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Just last month, a survey found that nearly 40 percent of more than 900 companies were planning to cut jobs in 2024 in part because of AI. If robotics takes a giant leap in the next 12 months, as some suspect, then the survey might end up being too conservative. Generative AI combined with humanoids, which many companies are racing to turn out, is a game changer. Construction jobs, physician jobs, police jobs, and many more will soon be at stake.
Clearly, capitalism is facing a crisis. For years, I have advocated for a Universal Basic Income (UBI), as a way to transition society into the AI age. My method was by leasing out the trillions of dollars worth of empty U.S. federal land to big business, and using some of the proceeds to pay for a basic income for every American. However, any method of a basic income will now help offset the loss of jobs AI will bring.
This is a good thing to know.
Microbes living in our guts ooze a substance that could help protect us against excessive weight gain, according to observations in mice.
The bacteria-derived compound may explain why early exposure to antibiotics can play a role in childhood obesity, a condition which is rising globally.
Continue reading “Chemical Produced by Gut Microbes Seems to Prevent Obesity in Mice” »
