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Apr 26, 2021

The Immune Link Between a Leaky Blood-Brain Barrier and Schizophrenia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

The work adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that schizophrenia and certain other neuropsychiatric conditions may be in part neuroinflammatory disorders.


Summary: People with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders may have a more permissive blood-brain barrier which allows the immune system to become more actively involved in the central nervous system. The resulting inflammation may contribute to the clinical manifestation of psychosis-like symptoms.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

Continue reading “The Immune Link Between a Leaky Blood-Brain Barrier and Schizophrenia” »

Apr 26, 2021

FDA to scrutinize unproven cancer drugs after 10-year gap

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The U.S. spends more per person on prescription drugs than any other nation, and spending on cancer drugs has more than doubled since 2013 to over $60 billion annually, according to the data firm IQVIA. New medications typically cost $90000 to $300000 a year. And those prices have risen much faster than patient survival.


Each year the U.S. approves dozens of new uses for cancer drugs based on early signs that they can shrink or slow the spread of tumors.

Apr 26, 2021

Space Renaissance and Spirituality — April 25th 2021

Posted by in categories: alien life, government, internet

Watch the Webinar “Space Renaissance and Spirituality”, held yesterday April 25th 2021.


The webinar “The Space Renaissance and Spirituality” discusses another, often neglected, primary need of humans: spirituality. Spirituality animated human deep feeelings and culture since the very ancient times of our history on our mother planet, Earth. Spirituality is a feeling that characterizes us, as human beings, and cannot be felt by other sentient but not self-aware and less intelligent species. Spirituality suggests reverence for life and great appreciation for the highest expression of nature: the intelligent life.
The Webinar Series are done in the frame of 2021 Space Renaissance Congress “The Civilian Space Development”.
The panel includes:
- Adriano V. Autino (SRI President and Co-Founder, author of “A greater world is possible!”, trying to develop further the Astronautic Humanism philosophy) 07:41
- Giulio Prisco (blogger and founder of the Turing Church, Hungary) 34:18
- Paul Ziolo (Director of Psychohistory Department, University of Liverpool, UK) 51:37
- Tsvi Bisk (Strategic Futurist, author of Cosmodeism: A Worldview for the Space Age, founder of The Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking, Israel) 01:10:30
- The Cometan (Brandon R. Taylorian, founder of the Astronism channel, UK) 01:27:32
- Steven Wolfe (Founder of Beyond Earth Institute, author of “The Obligation ”, evolutionist philosopher, USA) 01:47:26
- Alberto Cavallo (SRI Co-Founder, Buddhist, Engineer, Scholar of Philosophy, Italy) 02:01:05
Moderates: Giulio Prisco.

Continue reading “Space Renaissance and Spirituality — April 25th 2021” »

Apr 26, 2021

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew faster and farther than ever before in its third aerial adventure over Mars

Posted by in category: space travel

Sunday’s flight likely pushed the helicopter to its farthest distance yet: around 330 feet. Ingenuity has another two flights ahead.


The helicopter made spaceflight history last Monday when it lifted off Mars and rose 10 feet above the planet’s surface. Never before had a spacecraft conducted a controlled, powered flight on another planet.

Then on Thursday, Ingenuity flew even higher — 16 feet — and moved sideways for the first time.

Continue reading “NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew faster and farther than ever before in its third aerial adventure over Mars” »

Apr 25, 2021

‘Our customers are hardcore’: Vollebak is aiming to be the Tesla of fashion, creating clothes fit for the toughest places on Earth and in space

Posted by in categories: military, space

It’s clothing fit for a post-apocalyptic world, not our own. It’s unsurprising then that the company has found a large following in Silicon Valley, which is known for attracting vast resources and the kinds of people absorbed in questions of where we’re all headed. Many have, after all, bought up the boltholes and bunkers to prove it.


A Vollebak rack would sooner belong in a military surplus warehouse than a high street clothing store.

Apr 25, 2021

Little Swirling Mysteries: Dynamics of Ultrasmall, Ultrafast Groups of Atoms Uncovered

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

Exploring and manipulating the behavior of polar vortices in material may lead to new technology for faster data transfer and storage. Researchers used the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne and the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC to learn more.

Our high-speed, high-bandwidth world constantly requires new ways to process and store information. Semiconductors and magnetic materials have made up the bulk of data storage devices for decades. In recent years, however, researchers and engineers have turned to ferroelectric materials, a type of crystal that can be manipulated with electricity.

In 2016, the study of ferroelectrics got more interesting with the discovery of polar vortices — essentially spiral-shaped groupings of atoms — within the structure of the material. Now a team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has uncovered new insights into the behavior of these vortices, insights that may be the first step toward using them for fast, versatile data processing and storage.

Apr 25, 2021

3D biomaterial used as ‘sponge’ for stem cell therapy to reverse arthritis

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A 3D biomaterial scaffold design to slowly release stem cells ensures that implanted stem cells stick around to relieve pain and reverse arthritis in mice knee joints. This reduces the use of stem cells by 90%, thus avoiding the challenge of redness, swelling and scar tissue that can arise from large doses of such stem cells, and potentially opening a path to reversal of osteoarthritis in humans for the first time.

The results were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal on February 25.

There is currently no treatment that can reverse the course of osteoarthritis, and our sole options are to try to relieve pain. Stem cell therapy potentially offers hope and has been shown to alienate the disease, but a ‘goldilocks’ dose of stem cells remains out of reach. Too much of a dose of stem cells and the subject suffers redness, swelling and . Too little and the therapy is only successful for a limited period due to gradual cell loss.

Apr 25, 2021

The World’s Biggest AI Chip Now Comes Stock With 2.6 Trillion Transistors

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The world’s biggest AI chip just doubled its specs—without adding an inch.

The Cerebras Systems Wafer Scale Engine is about the size of a big dinner plate. All that surface area enables a lot more of everything, from processors to memory. The first WSE chip, released in 2019, had an incredible 1.2 trillion transistors and 400000 processing cores. Its successor doubles everything, except its physical size.

The WSE-2 crams in 2.6 trillion transistors and 850000 cores on the same dinner plate. Its on-chip memory has increased from 18 gigabytes to 40 gigabytes, and the rate it shuttles information to and from said memory has gone from 9 petabytes per second to 20 petabytes per second.

Apr 25, 2021

Mainstream DDR5 Memory Modules Pictured & Headed For Mass Production, Will Be Available For Next-Generation AMD and Intel Platforms Later This Year

Posted by in category: futurism

DDR5 memory production is finally picking up speed as several manufacturers have finalized their mainstream designs for the next-generation standard. The DDR5 memory standard will be utilized by upcoming Intel (Alder Lake) & AMD (Raphael) platforms which are expected to launch later this year.

Jiahe Jinwei has announced that it has received the first batch of DDR5 memory modules from its assembly line based in the Shenzhen Pingshan factory. The memory modules are now being mass-produced and are expected to launch later this year with the next-generation platforms from Intel and AMD. Intel is said to take a lead in offering the next-gen memory support first on its next-gen Alder Lake platform comprising of the Z690 chipset-based motherboards as reported here.

Apr 25, 2021

Groundbreaking effort launched to decode whale language

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

With artificial intelligence and painstaking study of sperm whales, scientists hope to understand what these aliens of the deep are talking about.