Lifeboat Foundation

The chatbot’s creators, from the AI company Limbic, set out to investigate whether AI could lower the barrier to care by helping patients access help more quickly and efficiently.

A new study, published today in Nature Medicine, evaluated the effect that the chatbot, called Limbic Access, had on referrals to the NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression program, a series of evidence-based psychological therapies for adults experiencing anxiety disorders, depression, or both.

It examined data from 129,400 people visiting websites to refer themselves to 28 different NHS Talking Therapies services across England, half of which used the chatbot on their website and half of which used other data-collecting methods such as web forms. The number of referrals from services using the Limbic chatbot rose by 15% during the study’s three-month time period, compared with a 6% rise in referrals for the services that weren’t using it.

Scientists have discovered a mechanism that lets senescent tumor cells undermine chemotherapy. With this mechanism blocked, standard chemotherapy led to complete regression of mammary tumors in mice [1].

Senescent yet still dangerous

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy, still the two most common treatments for solid tumors, subject cells to powerful stress as they are designed to do. This stress drives cellular senescence. Since senescent cells stop proliferating, inducing senescence in cancer cells is considered a desirable outcome. However, this is not the end of the story.

Veteran autonomous delivery robot developer Starship Technologies announced it had raised an additional $90 million in funding to help expand its micro-logistics service to additional territories around the globe.

Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis based on the idea that autonomy can help many of the challenges in last-mile deliveries. The company’s L4 autonomous delivery robots have completed over six million trips to date, transporting meals, packages, groceries, and important documents to students and other customers.

In August 2023, that mileage total was five million, operating in 30 different areas. Today, Starship’s robots have expanded to 80 locations worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland.

Bigger than Intel, Nvidia and Samsung.

The US National Ignition Facility has achieved even higher energy yields since breaking even for the first time in 2022, but a practical fusion reactor is still a long way off.

By Matthew Sparkes

Apparently, the Vision Pro can double as a key for one’s Tesla.

Less powerful but nearly as efficient as the Grand Touring model, these cheaper Airs should still satisfy.

Sidewalk delivery robot services appear to be stalling left and right, but a pioneer in the concept says it is profitable and has now raised a round of funding to scale up to meet market demand. Starship Technologies, a startup out of Estonia that was an early mover in the delivery robotics space, has picked up $90 million in funding as it works to cement its position at the top of its category.

This latest investment round is being co-led by two previous backers: Plural, the VC with roots in Estonia and London that announced a new $430 million fund last month; and Iconical, the London-based investor backed by Janus Friis, the serial entrepreneur who was a co-founder of Skype, and who is also a co-founder of Starship itself.

It brings the total raised by Starship to $230 million, with previous backers including the Finnish-Japanese firm NordicNinja, the European Investment Bank, Morpheus Ventures and TDC.

In a recent breakthrough, DNA sequencing technology has uncovered the culprit behind cassava witches’ broom disease: the fungus genus Ceratobasidium. The cutting-edge nanopore technology used for this discovery was first developed to track the COVID-19 virus in Colombia, but is equally suited to identifying and reducing the spread of plant viruses.

The findings, published in Scientific Reports, will help plant pathologists in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand protect farmers’ valued cassava harvest.

“In Southeast Asia, most smallholder farmers rely on cassava. Its starch-rich roots form the basis of an industry that supports millions of producers. In the past decade, however, cassava witches’ broom disease has stunted plants, reducing harvests to levels that barely permit affected farmers to make a living,” said Wilmer Cuellar, Senior Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.