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Oct 14, 2020
Japanese space debris specialist Astroscale raises $51 million
Posted by Malak Trabelsi Loeb in category: space
Astroscale raised an additional funding of $51 million from a group of investors, bringing the total capital raised to $191 million, the Japanese orbital debris removal company said today.
This latest round makes Astroscale the most funded on-orbit services and logistics company globally and most funded space venture in Japan, the Tokyo-based company said.
The investment raised since its founding in 2013 has allowed Astroscale to establish a global footprint across five countries and grow to over 140 team members, Astroscale said. âEach of the five global offices are working in concert to achieve the Astroscale mission of safe and sustainable development of space for future generations.â
Luxembourg, 13 October 2020. â Astroscale raised an additional funding of $51 million from a group of investors, bringing the total capital raised to $191 million, the Japanese orbital debris removal company said today.
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Oct 14, 2020
Report: Eli Lilly halts COVID-19 treatment trial
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: biotech/medical, government
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) reportedly paused a clinical trial testing its COVID-19 antibody treatment candidate because of a âpotential safety concern.â
The New York Times reported that Eli Lillyâs testing site researchers were notified of the pause by emails sent by government officials (it is a government-sponsored trial) and the company later confirmed it. A spokesperson from the company told The Hill that âSafety is of the utmost importance to Lilly. We are aware that, out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has recommended a pause in enrollment.â
Eli Lillyâs trial was comparing its therapy to a placebo, while all study participants also received the experimental drug remdesivir, which has been used in treating COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. The companyâs therapeutic uses monoclonal antibodies in an effort to block the virus from infecting cells.
Oct 13, 2020
DroneBrella: Time to enjoy the rain with this self flying umbrella
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: futurism
Oct 13, 2020
Space is becoming too crowded, Rocket Lab CEO warns
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: internet, satellites
In 1978, NASA scientist Donald Kessler warned of a potential catastrophic, cascading chain reaction in outer space. Today known as âKessler Syndrome,â the theory posited that space above Earth could one day become so crowded, so polluted with both active satellites and the detritus of space explorations past, that it could render future space endeavors more difficult, if not impossible.
Last week, the CEO of Rocket Lab, a launch startup, said the company is already beginning to experience the effect of growing congestion in outer space.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said that the sheer number of objects in space right now â a number that is growing quickly thanks in part to SpaceXâs satellite internet constellation, Starlink â is making it more difficult to find a clear path for rockets to launch new satellites.
Oct 13, 2020
GE Healthcare secures 510k clearance Vivid Ultra Edition AI-powered ultrasound systems
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI
GE Healthcare has received 510k clearance from US FDA for its Ultra Edition package on Vivid cardiovascular ultrasound systems, which come with features based on artificial intelligence (AI) that allows clinicians to get quicker and more exams repeatedly. Although methodical evaluations of heart function are necessary in echocardiography, such evaluations can be time-consuming and difficult to get. Quality acquisition of data and operator skill are essential factors to get precise and thorough exams. Given that patients undergo subsequent monitoring exams, the reproducibility of the exam evaluations is essential to monitoring improvement or progress of the disease.
Oct 13, 2020
In situ structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike reveals flexibility mediated by three hinges
Posted by Omuterema Akhahenda in category: biotech/medical
Flexible spikes
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein enables viral entry into host cells by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is a major target for neutralizing antibodies. About 20 to 40 spikes decorate the surface of virions. TuroĆovĂĄ et al. now show that the spike is flexibly connected to the viral surface by three hinges that are well protected by glycosylation sites. The flexibility imparted by these hinges may explain how multiple spikes act in concert to engage onto the flat surface of a host cell.
Science, this issue p. 203.
Oct 13, 2020
Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
Posted by Steven B. Harris in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience
If Dr. Ken Berry actually meant to say that you need to eat saturated fat for your nerves and brain, he flunks Biochem 101. First of all, your body can make all the saturated fat you need out of carbs and proteins. You donât need to eat ANY saturated fat. Second, the most common fatty acid in your brain is the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) called DHA, which you DO need to eat, because you canât make it from non-fats (you need to eat it or EPA in things like seafood, or at least the precursor omega-3 PUFA called ALA in cold-climate plants.) Ironically enough, ALA is common in Canola oil, which Dr. Berry deprecates, but not in the tropical plant oils that he likes. More on that later.
A diet with a lot of saturated fat is NOT the best for the heart. The American Heart Association continues to recommend low saturated fat diets (with the missing sat-fat replaced by mono and polyunsaturated fat, not by carbohydrates) because the evidence from animal and human trials and even properly controlled epidemiology, shows these the best diets (see reference belowâan extensive review of meta analyses [1]). Examples are the DASH hypertension diet and the closely-related Mediterranean diet (which has lots of olive oil for monounsaturated fatty acid, and seafood for DHA). If Dr. Berry thinks he has something better than the Mediterranean diet for longevity, what is his direct evidence?
Saturated fat, of course, is used by the body to make cholesterol (you donât need to eat any cholesterol for this reason), and it does raise cholesterol levels and it does increase atherosclerosis in nearly every controlled prospective experimental model in animals and humans. This is the gold standard of evidence in medicine.
Oct 13, 2020
Muskâs Next Invention Is A Rocket That Can Deliver Weapons In An Hour To Anyplace In The World
Posted by Kelvin Dafiaghor in categories: Elon Musk, innovation
It will have a speed of 7500 miles per hour.
An Amazon Prime-like service to deliver weapons? Well, that is what Elon Musk is working on. Yes, rockets that can deliver weapons to US Armed Forces stationed anywhere in the world.
Oct 13, 2020
A New Brain-Inspired Learning Method for AI Saves Memory and Energy
Posted by Kelvin Dafiaghor in categories: neuroscience, robotics/AI
Interesting Eric Klien
That prompted the researchers, who are part of the Human Brain Project, to look at two features that have become clear in experimental neuroscience data: each neuron retains a memory of previous activity in the form of molecular markers that slowly fade with time; and the brain provides top-down learning signals using things like the neurotransmitter dopamine that modulates the behavior of groups of neurons.
In a paper in Nature Communications, the Austrian team describes how they created artificial analogues of these two features to create a new learning paradigm they call e-prop. While the approach learns slower than backpropagation-based methods, it achieves comparable performance.
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