Lifeboat Foundation

After analyzing the data, researchers found that participants who underwent cataract surgery had nearly 30 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared with those who did not have the procedure. The study also found that the reduction of risk continued for at least a decade following surgery and was associated specifically with the lower risk of Alzheimer’s.

“This is really exciting because no other medical intervention has shown such a strong association with lessening dementia risk in older individuals,” Cecilia S. Lee, ophthalmologist and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

Thyme and oregano possess an anti-cancer compound that suppresses tumor development, but adding more to your tomato sauce isn’t enough to gain significant benefit. The key to unlocking the power of these plants is in amplifying the amount of the compound created or synthesizing the compound for drug development.

Researchers at Purdue University achieved the first step toward using the compound in pharmaceuticals by mapping its biosynthetic pathway, a sort of molecular recipe of the ingredients and steps needed.

“These plants contain important compounds, but the amount is very low and extraction won’t be enough,” said Natalia Dudareva, a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, who co-led the project. “By understanding how these compounds are formed, we open a path to engineering plants with higher levels of them or to synthesizing the compounds in microorganisms for medical use.

“Today’s technology announcement is about challenging convention and rethinking how we continue to advance society and deliver new innovations that improve life, business and reduce our environmental impact,” said Dr. Mukesh Khare, Vice President of Hybrid Cloud and Systems, IBM Research. “Given the constraints the industry is currently facing along multiple fronts, IBM and Samsung are demonstrating our commitment to joint innovation in semiconductor design and a shared pursuit of what we call ‘hard tech.’”

Moore’s Law – an ongoing trend that shows the number of transistors on a computer chip doubling every two years or so – is now approaching what are considered fundamental barriers. Simply put, as more and more transistors are crammed into a finite area, engineers are running out of space.

Historically, transistors have been built to lie flat upon the surface of a semiconductor, with the electric current flowing laterally, or side-to-side, through them. Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors (VTFET), by contrast, are built perpendicular to the surface of the chip with a vertical, or up-and-down, current flow.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RLdt3wgnuDs

AI chips, which are semiconductors designed to accelerate machine learning, have many applications. One of the promising use cases, according to Albert Liu, is using AI chips in autonomous driving vehicles.

That’s why Liu’s AI chipmaking startup Kneron has been quietly racking up investments to march into smart transportation. It recently closed a new round of $25 million funding led by Lite-On Technology, a Taiwanese optoelectronic pioneer, which was a strategic investor in the round. Other investors included Alltek, PalPilot, Sand Hill Angels and Gaingels.

Continue reading “AI chip maker Kneron raises $25M for autonomous driving push” »

So-called land planets may be habitable. Here’s why that matters.

Scientists propose so-called land planets have a better chance at sustaining alien life than Earth-like water worlds.

The James Dyson Award recently recognized a team of Malaysian designers for their sustainable desalination pod concept called WaterPod that works on solar distillation to convert seawater into drinkable water. Developed by Bennie Beh Hue May, Yap Chun Yoon, and Loo Xin Yang, the WaterPod is designed to be floated at sea, and therefore accessible to sea nomads.

WaterPod is a low-cost yet environmentally-friendly desalination method to generate drinkable water.

Tokamak Energy has announced a more efficient design for the cryogenic electronics in fusion reactors. This provides a 50% reduction in the power needed for the cooling of high-temperature superconducting magnets.

As workers move around, forecasters predict additional jobs will continue to open up in the new year, giving job-switchers even more opportunities to choose from, says Julia Pollak, chief economist with the job-search site ZipRecruiter.

“We’ve seen substantial job growth in recent months, all taking place without the labor force participation rate changing,” Pollak tells CNBC Make It. She says it’s “an exciting moment for job seekers who are benefiting from employers offering hiring incentives and reducing their requirements” to fill a sharply rising number of vacancies.

Here are three reasons why Pollak believes workers will continue to have their pick of jobs in 2022, and what it will take for more Americans to rejoin the labor force.