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Jun 24, 2021

South African brothers disappear with $3.6B in bitcoin in alleged heist

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, finance, law

Two brothers in South Africa have disappeared along with $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin that was housed on their cryptocurrency investment platform, according to a Cape Town law firm hired by investors to investigate the alleged heist.

The law firm, Hanekom Attorneys, said it has reported the incident to the Hawks, an elite unit of South Africa’s national police force. Hanekom has also reported the matter to South African financial regulators and crypto exchanges around the world.

The brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, set up their crypto investment service, Africrypt, in 2019.

Jun 24, 2021

Highly Chirped Laser Pulses Defy “Conventional Wisdom”

Posted by in category: physics

University of Rochester researchers describe first highly chirped pulses created by a using a spectral filter in a Kerr resonator.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by researchers who pioneered a technique to create ultrashort, yet extremely high-energy laser pulses at the University of Rochester.

Now researchers at the University’s Institute of Optics have produced those same high-powered pulses—known as chirped pulses—in a way that works even with relatively low-quality, inexpensive equipment. The new work could pave the way for:

Jun 24, 2021

Google delays blocking third-party cookies in Chrome until 2023

Posted by in categories: employment, internet, space

Third-party cookie trackers live to fight for another year.


Google is announcing today that it is delaying its plans to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser until 2023, a year or so later than originally planned. Other browsers like Safari and Firefox have already implemented some blocking against third-party tracking cookies, but Chrome is the most-used desktop browser, and so its shift will be more consequential for the ad industry. That’s why the term “cookiepocalypse” has taken hold.

In the blog post announcing the delay, Google says that decision to phase out cookies over a “three month period” in mid-2023 is “subject to our engagement with the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).” In other words, it is pinning part of the delay on its need to work more closely with regulators to come up with new technologies to replace third-party cookies for use in advertising.

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Jun 24, 2021

You can ride a hydrogen balloon to outer space for $125K

Posted by in category: space travel

After a devastating year of life on Earth, here’s your chance to get far, far away from it all.

Space flight company Space Perspective has debuted a $125000 package that brings travelers to the edge of our atmosphere on a space-age hot air balloon.

Continue reading “You can ride a hydrogen balloon to outer space for $125K” »

Jun 24, 2021

Scientists may need to rethink which genes control aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension, neuroscience

To better understand the role of bacteria in health and disease, National Institutes of Health researchers fed fruit flies antibiotics and monitored the lifetime activity of hundreds of genes that scientists have traditionally thought control aging. To their surprise, the antibiotics not only extended the lives of the flies but also dramatically changed the activity of many of these genes. Their results suggested that only about 30% of the genes traditionally associated with aging set an animal’s internal clock while the rest reflect the body’s response to bacteria.

“For decades scientists have been developing a hit list of common aging . These genes are thought to control the aging process throughout the , from worms to mice to humans,” said Edward Giniger, Ph.D., senior investigator, at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the senior author of the study published in iScience. “We were shocked to find that only about 30% of these genes may be directly involved in the aging process. We hope that these results will help medical researchers better understand the forces that underlie several age-related disorders.”

The results happened by accident. Dr. Giniger’s team studies the genetics of aging in a type of fruit fly called Drosophila. Previously, the team showed how a hyperactive immune system may play a critical role in the neural damage that underlies several aging brain disorders. However, that study did not examine the role that bacteria may have in this process.

Jun 24, 2021

Human Embryos Cloned From Skin Cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Circa 2008 😗


Advance could lead to embryonic stem cell lines for treating disease.

Jun 24, 2021

NASA spacecraft spots China’s Mars rover Zhurong heading south on Red Planet (photo)

Posted by in category: space

China’s first-ever Mars rover was on the move earlier this month, imagery by a NASA spacecraft shows.

The rover, named Zhurong, is part of Tianwen-1, China’s first fully homegrown Red Planet mission, which arrived in orbit around Mars in February. Zhurong separated from the Tianwen-1 orbiter on May 14 and touched down on the vast plain Utopia Planitia a few hours later.

Jun 24, 2021

Chinese rocket manufacturer outlines manned Mars mission roadmap, timetable

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

China’s prime rocket manufacturer has unveiled a roadmap for the country’s future manned Mars exploration missions, which not only includes manned landing missions but also Mars base building.

Wang Xiaojun, head of the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), outlined the plans in his speech themed “The Space Transportation System of Human Mars Exploration” at the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021) via a virtual link, the academy told the Global Times on Wednesday.

After reviewing the successful mission of the Tianwen-1 probe mission, the country’s first interplanetary exploration that achieved a successful orbiting, landing and roving the Red Planet all in one go, Wang introduced the three-step plan for future Mars expedition.

Jun 24, 2021

Inflammatory Proteins May Slow Cognitive Decline in Aging Adults

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, life extension, neuroscience

These results suggest that IL-12 and IFN-γ could one day be measured along with other biomarkers to predict future brain health in cognitively normal people–a tool that doesn’t yet exist in medicine.


Summary: Higher levels of two cytokines were associated with slower cognitive decline in aging adults, a new study reports.

Source: Mass General

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Jun 24, 2021

Pathogenic gut bacteria linked to weight loss from low-calorie diet

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

The same bacteria that cause inflammation also trigger weight loss.


A new study investigating how a low-calorie diet alters gut microbial populations is reporting unexpected results. The findings reveal a strange relationship between extreme caloric restriction and increased levels of a pathogenic bacteria linked to inflammatory bowel disease.

The research began by recruiting 80 overweight or obese subjects. Half the cohort were directed to maintain a stable weight for 16 weeks, while the other half completed a medically supervised weight-loss program including eight weeks of a very low calorie diet (800 kcal per day).

Continue reading “Pathogenic gut bacteria linked to weight loss from low-calorie diet” »