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Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced on Friday early result that indicate their experimental oral antiviral drug molnupiravir might halve the risk of death or hospitalization from Covid-19.

In a news release, the company said 7.3% of 385 patients who received the antiviral were either hospitalized or died from Covid-19, compared with 14.1% of the 377 patients who received a placebo, which does nothing.

Full data from the molnupiravir trial has not yet been released, and this data has not yet been peer-reviewed or published. But Merck says it will seek authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, and if it’s granted, the drug could be the first antiviral treatment available orally to fight Covid-19.

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Designing a society that can adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence and allow everyone to thrive as these changes unfold is likely to be one of our most significant challenges in the coming years and decades. It will require an emphasis on retraining and education for those workers who can realistically undertake the necessary transition, as well as an improved safety net – and perhaps an entirely new social contract – for those who will inevitably be left behind.

From fast food to farming, Covid-19 has accelerated the rise of the worker robots. This in turn will put more jobs at risk and makes the need to reframe society ever more urgent.

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In the spring, a team of University of Virginia and Virginia Tech scientists shared some exciting news: The vaccine they are developing showed promising results in early animal trials not only for COVID-19, but for other coronaviruses.

If that trend continues through further testing, this vaccine could help contain both current and future variants of the COVID-19 virus — including the Delta variant currently plaguing the United States, and other variants that might crop up in the coming months and years. It could even protect against other coronaviruses, including viruses that cause the common cold. And, it could cost as little as $1 a dose.

What if we had a vaccine that would work for any COVID-19 variants that might pop up – and even for some coronaviruses that cause the common cold? UVA and Virginia Tech scientists are working on it.

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Stimulating STEM Innovation & Securing U.S. High-Tech Economy — Kimberly A. Reed, Fmr President and Chairman Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Kimberly A. Reed just finished up a 2-year term as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM — https://www.exim.gov). She was the first woman to lead EXIM in the agency’s 87-year history, was the first recipient of EXIM’s highest honor, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Award, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 on a strong bi-partisan basis.

EXIM provides loans, guarantees, and export credit insurance for the export of U.S. goods and services from enterprises ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses in a multitude of sectors including infrastructure, power, agriculture, transportation/aviation, health care, commodities, industrial, and technology.

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#Israel is on the verge of finalizing a #COVID19 vaccine whose creators believe could offer better protection against variants than its international counterparts such as #Pfizer. In an interview with ‘The Jerusalem Post’, the father of Israel’s BriLife coronavirus vaccine, Prof. Shmuel Shapira, predicted that when the country’s #vaccine is ready, “it will be better” than what its citizens have today.

HEALTH AFFAIRS: The father of the BriLife initiative explains Israel’s strategic imperative to have its own vaccine.

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Boston-based company Regent has taken US$465 million in pre-orders for its super-fast electric “Seaglider.” Using the wing-in-ground effect, this 180-mph (290-km/h) beast promises twice the range of an electric aircraft, and a revolution in coastal transport.

“The speed, comfort, and navigation systems of an aircraft with the convenience, maneuverability, and affordability of a boat,” reads the Regent press release, marking approximately the first time boats have ever been called affordable or maneuverable.

So, what is this thing? Well, it’s the latest incarnation of a ground-effect vehicle, or GEV – with a couple of twists. GEVs are aircraft designed to fly so low (within one wingspan of the water’s surface) that they ride on an air pressure cushion between the wing and the surface, giving them extra lift and radically boosting their efficiency. They can’t – or at least, don’t – fly outside the ground effect, enabling them to be certified and registered as boats in certain areas.

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Indeed, as Gizmodo’s report highlights, many experts believe that these researchers have not actually found evidence of dinosaur DNA. They told the news outlet, for example, that—even under the best circumstances—DNA couldn’t last more than three million years. Let alone more than 100 million. And that the chemicals may have been staining inorganic matter that only looks cellular in nature.

As of now, the most ancient DNA that scientists have been able to sequence was that of a million-year-old woolly mammoth. And the youngest dinosaurs are at least 65 million years old. But if future experiments do confirm this evidence as real, then that really changes things. At least in our fantasies, where reanimated dinosaurs and Ian Malcolms abound.

The post Fossil of Peacock-Like Dinosaur May Have Preserved DNA Remnants appeared first on Nerdist.

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