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Toxic chemicals known as PFAS exist in almost 42,000 sites around the U.S., according to research released on Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group.

The research published in the American Water Works Association’s journal Water Science found tens of thousands of potential point sources for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination around the country. Researchers analyzed data collected between August 2016 and March 2021. They found numerous previously unknown PFAS sites in samples of water downstream from manufacturing facilities.

“We don’t as of yet have great information on how frequently these different sources are contributing to the PFAS contamination we’re finding in surface water and drinking water,” lead study author David Andrews told The Hill.

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Blue Origin is set to launch William Shatner on their second crewed spaceflight of its New Shepard rocket. Takeoff is currently scheduled on Wednesday, October 13 at 9:00 am CDT / 14:00 UTC from Corn Ranch, Texas.

New Shepard is designed to take people and payloads to suborbital space and back. It is expected to start sending space tourists this year. Ticket reservations are still on hold.

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Continue reading “WATCH LIVE: Blue Origin Launch William Shatner into Space on Jeff Bezos New Shepard Rocket” | >

VAN HORN, Texas — William Shatner and three other passengers will launch into space today (Oct. 13) on the second crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, and you can watch all the action live online.

The New Shepard rocket-capsule combo will lift off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, near the West Texas town of Van Horn, at 9 a.m. local time (10 a.m. EDT; 1,400 GMT). A live webcast of the mission will begin about 90 minutes before liftoff, and you can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of Blue Origin. The webcast will also stream live on Bue Origin’s website and on YouTube.

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Kickstarter campaign offers signed books, photo prints.

For more than 30 years, Roland Miller has used photography to bring new light to the U.S. space program, from visual tours of abandoned launch pads to floating among the laboratories on the International Space Station. Now, Miller is preparing to release his third collection, this one focused on the space shuttle, the winged orbiters that were central to U.S. human spaceflight for three decades.

“Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle” presents Miller’s own interpretation of the iconic spacecraft, based on his effort to capture the fleet in its transition to retirement.

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Researchers have identified a subpopulation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that boost the healing of bone fractures and show an ability to differentiate into various cell types.

Their findings are published in the journal Bone Reports in a paper titled, “Bone marrow CD73+ mesenchymal stem cells display increased stemness in vitro and promote fracture healing in vivo,” and led by researchers from the University of Tsukuba, in collaboration with the University of Bonn, Germany.

“MSCs are multipotent and considered to be of great potential for regenerative medicine,” the researchers wrote. “We could show recently (Breitbach, Kimura, et al. 2018) that a subpopulation of MSCs, as well as sinusoidal endothelial cells (sECs) in the bone marrow (BM) of CD73-EGFP reporter mice, could be labeled in vivo. We took advantage of this model to explore the plasticity and osteogenic potential of CD73-EGFP+ MSCs in vitro and their role in the regenerative response upon bone lesion in vivo.”

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“Lower levels of DHA are associated with inflammation, cardiovascular and brain disorders, such as depression, which are all linked to migraine risk.”

Professor Nyholt said LPE(20:4) was a chemical compound that blocked the production of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anandamide.

Summary: Researchers have identified causal genetic links to three blood metabolite levels that increase migraine risks.

Source: Queensland University of Technology

Continue reading “Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels” | >

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is on the cusp of achieving significant disruption across several sectors in the world — one can simply look to companies like American company Alfi (NASDAQ: ALF) which is attempting to revolutionize the ad-tech industry with privacy-conscious AI —. It is becoming a key driver of productivity and gross domestic product growth for many nations and is pushing the boundaries of technology as we know it.

According to a report, the United States leads the AI pack today, with China in a close 2nd and the European Union in 3rd. Out of 100 total available points in the report’s scoring methodology, the United States leads with 44.2 points, China with 32.3, and the European Union with 23.5.

Although it may seem like the U.S. has an unassailable lead, the fact is that China is rapidly catching up and stands today as a full-spectrum peer competitor of the U.S. in many applications of AI.

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China’s national share of smart-computing power is 52%, compared to 19% in the U.S.

Recently, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released a white paper on the country’s computing power. According to the paper, which was translated by ChinAI, the country’s computing power reached 135 exaFlops (EFlops), an increase of 48 EFlops from last year. One EFlop is equivalent to the computing power of roughly two million laptops.

So, what’s the point in all this computing speed? China is accelerating its computing power for a faster AI adoption. It is evident in the way it prioritizes its resources for next-generation computing. Beijing divides its AI needs into basic-, smart-, and super-computing. Between 2016 and 2,020 the country dropped its basic-computing share to 57% from 95% and increased smart-computing to 41% from 3%.

And according to the paper, China’s national share of smart-computing power is 52%, compared to 19% in the U.S. While the statistics need to be taken with a pinch of salt, it sure does reveal something about the direction in which China is moving.

Continue reading “China’s closing the AI gap with U.S.” | >

Researchers in Iceland are growing over 100,000 genetically modified barley plants inside a greenhouse for a very unusual purpose: creating lab-grown meat, the BBC reports.

The altered barley gets harvested and purified to extract “growth factor” proteins, which, in turn, can be used to cultivate lab-grown meat — an innovation that could make the lab-grown meat industry rely even less on live animals in the future.

The company behind the greenhouse, ORF Genetics, is growing the biogenetically engineered barley over 22,000 square feet using high-tech hydroponic cultivation methods.

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