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May 1, 2020

North Korea defector ‘99 percent’ sure Kim Jong Un is dead

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A North Korean defector-turned-South Korea lawmaker claimed Friday he is “99 percent” sure that Kim Jong Un died after surgery — amid swirling speculation about the dictator’s condition.

Ji Seong-ho, who earned a proportional representation seat of a minor party in the country’s April 15 elections, told Yonhap News Agency he believes Kim died after his recent surgery and that North Korea will announce it this weekend.

“I’ve wondered how long he could have endured after cardiovascular surgery. I’ve been informed that Kim died last weekend,” Ji told the outlet. “It is not 100 percent certain, but I can say the possibility is 99 percent. North Korea is believed to be grappling with a complicated succession issue.”

May 1, 2020

Nanoarchitected metamaterial with material achieves the theoretic limits of stiffness and strength

Posted by in categories: materials, space travel

Question: When you’ve designed the world’s most efficient metamaterial, one that could change the way cars, planes and even space exploration vehicles are built, is mostly air yet reaches the theoretical bounds for stiffness and strength and can equally resist forces coming from any direction, what do you do next?

Answer: You break it.

At least, that’s what a team of material scientists including Jonathan Berger of UC Santa Barbara and Jens Bauer of UC Irvine did. Their goal? To learn what boundaries could be pushed with a novel metamaterial called plate-nanolattice. The research findings are published in a paper in the journal Nature Communications (“Plate-nanolattices at the theoretical limit of stiffness and strength”).

May 1, 2020

Abu Dhabi stem cell center develops ‘promising’ new COVID-19 treatment

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics

“According to WAM, stem cells are extracted from the patient’s blood and then reintroduced in an “activated” state to the lungs through inhalation after being nebulized into a fine mist.

ADSCC researchers said the mist had a therapeutic effect, helping to regenerate lung cells and alter the response of the immune system to stop it from overreacting to the COVID-19 infection and causing more damage to healthy cells.

The treatment has undergone and successfully passed the first stage of clinical trials with further tests to demonstrate its effectiveness being carried out over the next two weeks.”

Continue reading “Abu Dhabi stem cell center develops ‘promising’ new COVID-19 treatment” »

May 1, 2020

Over 70 percent of tested inmates in federal prisons have coronavirus

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, law enforcement

WASHINGTON — Michael Fleming never got to say goodbye to his father. He didn’t know his dad was fading away on a ventilator, diagnosed with coronavirus at the federal prison where he was serving time for a drug charge.

His father, also named Michael, was held at FCI Terminal Island in Los Angeles and died April 19. At least half the population there has tested positive, the largest known hot spot in the federal prison system. But the first word the family received of the father’s illness was the day he died, from a prison chaplain asking if the body should be cremated and where the ashes should be sent.

“They just left us all in the dark,” Fleming said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We had to find out from the news what the actual cause of death was. It was kind of screwed up.”

May 1, 2020

Safety of ACEIs and ARBs in Patients With COVID-19—What Is the Evidence?

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a current pandemic infection caused by a positive-sense RNA virus named the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The particularly infectious capacity of the virus, along with mortality rates ranging from 1% to above 5%, has raised concerns across the globe.1 Older patients with comorbid conditions including pulmonary disease, cardiac disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension have been associated with even higher mortality rates, suggesting particularly susceptible populations.

The increased mortality and morbidity of COVID-19 in patients with hypertension is an association that has been observed in a number of initial epidemiological studies outlining the characteristics of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Wu et al2 found hypertension to have a hazard ratio of 1.70 for death and 1.82 for acute respiratory distress syndrome in 201 patients with COVID-19. Zhou et al3 found hypertension to have a hazard ratio of 3.05 for in-hospital mortality in 191 patients with COVID-19.

Neither of these studies2,3 adjusted for confounding variables and thus it remains unclear if this association is related to the pathogenesis of hypertension or another associated comorbidity or treatment. There has been a growing concern that this association with hypertension is confounded by treatment with specific antihypertensive medications: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).

May 1, 2020

Study Finds Eating More “Nattō” Reduces Risk of Mortality

Posted by in categories: food, health

The study of both fermented and non-fermented soy products was based on the results of research carried out on approximately 90,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 74 over a period of 15 years. The team calculated intake quantities for all soy products and fermented products only through a dietary survey and examined the relationship with mortality in five similarly sized groups.


Findings from a scientific study help support the long-held belief that fermented soy products like nattō are good for one’s health.

May 1, 2020

Can Electric Cars on the Highway Emulate Plane-to-Plane Refueling?

Posted by in categories: military, sustainability

Jet fighters can’t carry a huge tank of fuel because it would slow them down. Instead they have recourse to air-to-air refueling, using massive tanker planes as their gas stations. If electric vehicles could pull off the same kind of peer-to-peer charging scheme it could eliminate range phobia and speed the adoption of EVs.


On-the-road peer-to-peer charging depends on steerable booms to make the connection.

May 1, 2020

‘Mars Engine’ Shatters Records for Ion Propulsion

Posted by in category: satellites

These propulsion systems already help satellites stay in position and spacecraft explore the solar system. Now engineers want to build a bigger one that could take us to Mars.

May 1, 2020

These insane robot machine guns guard the Korean DMZ

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, robotics/AI

The friendly maker of your mom’s smartphone also developed a highly-advanced killer robot that guards the DMZ between North and South Korea.

May 1, 2020

Skinny wormholes could send messages through time

Posted by in category: cosmology

Circa 2014


A wormhole with a long, thin throat could prop itself open long enough to let through pulses of light, offering a way to talk across time.