Dec 27, 2024
Switching Gene Therapy On and Off with a Pill
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in category: biotech/medical
Besides offering a gene expression switch, MeiraGTx attends to vector optimization, manufacturing, and pipeline expansion.
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Dec 27, 2024
Study finds high levels of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in popular smartwatch bands
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, food, health
Smartwatch bands from popular brands have been found to contain high concentrations of toxic for forever chemicals, also known as PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances). These synthetic chemicals do not break down easily in the environment and build in our bodies over time, hence earning them the nickname of forever chemicals.
PFAS are used in various consumer products, including non-stick cookware, water-resistant clothes, carpets, mattresses, food wraps, and more. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to serious health problems, including increased risks of certain cancers, hormone disruption, weakened immune systems, and developmental delays in children. These chemicals can leach into water, soil, and food, making them a growing public health concern worldwide.
A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters has found that smartwatch bands made of fluoroelastomers contain a very high concentration of a forever chemical known as perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA).
Dec 27, 2024
Could Remnants of Ancient Viral Infections Affect Human Health Today?
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience
Patterns of human endogenous retrovirus expression linked to decreased neurodegenerative disease risk.
Dec 27, 2024
How micro and nanoscale filaments create spinning waves?
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: innovation, nanotechnology
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a method to generate bright, twisted light using technology similar to an Edison light bulb. This breakthrough overcomes the challenges of producing twisted light with sufficient brightness using traditional methods like electron or photon luminescence.
Dec 27, 2024
How Has Neurodivergence Shaped Human History?
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in category: futurism
Did some famous people throughout history have ADHD? Researchers explain why yes, some could have been neurodivergent and why the traits may be increasing today.
Dec 27, 2024
Project Astra: Google Smart Glasses Could Be on The Way
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: augmented reality, space, virtual reality
XR Today reports on the latest extended reality news from around the globe, including virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
Dec 27, 2024
DeepSeek-V3, Ultra-Large Open-Source AI, Outperforms Llama And Qwen On Launch
Posted by Bruce Burke in categories: innovation, robotics/AI
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, known for challenging leading AI vendors with its innovative open-source technologies, today released a new ultra-large model: DeepSeek-V3.
Dec 27, 2024
An artificial nerve system gives prosthetic devices and robots a sense of touch
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, cyborgs, robotics/AI
Stanford and Seoul National University researchers have developed an artificial sensory nerve system that can activate the twitch reflex in a cockroach and identify letters in the Braille alphabet.
The work, reported May 31 in Science, is a step toward creating artificial skin for prosthetic limbs, to restore sensation to amputees and, perhaps, one day give robots some type of reflex capability.
“We take skin for granted but it’s a complex sensing, signaling and decision-making system,” said Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering and one of the senior authors. “This artificial sensory nerve system is a step toward making skin-like sensory neural networks for all sorts of applications.”
Dec 27, 2024
Asia’s Economies Can Embrace Services to Boost Growth and Productivity
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: economics, employment, food
Employment and production typically move from agriculture to manufacturing to services, as part of a natural progression that comes with rising income. In Asia, factories have propelled economies, but a transition to modern services could be a new source of growth and productivity. Our blog explains.
Manufacturing has been the engine of growth in Asia, but a transition to modern, tradable services could be new source of growth and productivity.
Dec 27, 2024
Cosmic Radio Burst from 8 Billion Years Ago Reveals Universe’s Missing Matter
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in category: space
An international team has spotted a remote blast of cosmic radio waves lasting less than a millisecond. This ‘fast radio burst’ (FRB) is the most distant ever detected. Its source was pinned down by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in a galaxy so far away that its light took eight billion years to reach us. The FRB is also one of the most energetic ever observed; in a tiny fraction of a second it released the equivalent of our Sun’s total emission over 30 years.
The discovery of the burst, named FRB 20220610A, was made in June last year by the ASKAP radio telescope in Australia and it smashed the team’s previous distance record by 50 percent.
“Using ASKAP’s array of dishes, we were able to determine precisely where the burst came from,” says Stuart Ryder, an astronomer from Macquarie University in Australia and the co-lead author of the study published today in Science. “Then we used [ESO’s VLT] in Chile to search for the source galaxy, finding it to be older and further away than any other FRB source found to date and likely within a small group of merging galaxies.”
