In this extract from We, Robots, we journey into the past, experience the present, and ponder the future of science fiction, and of artificial intelligence.www.sciencefocus.com
Get kids engaged with space with the ESA Kids app, now available for download on iOS and Android devices! The ESA Kids app features a set of carefully crafted games for kids to learn about space while having fun. Simple yet engaging, the app is suitable for a variety of age ranges and is available in 14 languages! Introduce the tiny explorers to space and Paxi with colouring, matching, and memory games. Challenge the older pioneers with specific missions to build spacecraft, land on different planets and moons, and clean up space debris. Get the whole family together for a round of space trivia. Prefer to play the games on a computer? No problem! Find them on the ESA Kids website. Get ready to explore the Solar System with Paxi!www.esa.int
The disruption to the vaccine rollout comes after parts of the North saw snowfall overnight and more is forecast later today.But, of course, the government planned in advance for the bad weather. Didn't they? Doesn't look like it. The UK pays an obscene amount for the upkeep of military forces. Can they not be deployed to affected areas?
The disruption to the vaccine rollout comes after parts of the North saw snowfall overnight and more is forecast later today.news.sky.com
The UK is "taking steps" to keep out cases of a coronavirus variant discovered in Brazil, the prime minister has said.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
The UK is "taking steps" to keep out cases of a coronavirus variant discovered in Brazil, the prime minister has said.news.sky.com
A large-scale trial of a new treatment it is hoped will help stop Covid-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun in the UK.Inhaling nebulised interferon beta stimulates the immune system cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by almost 80%.
It is hoped the treatment will help stop patients from developing severe illness from the virus.www.bbc.co.uk
Wearable devices have become more sophisticated in recent years, with the ability to track everything from abnormal heart rates and atrial fibrillation to stress and even blood oxygen levels. However, monitoring blood pressure is a challenge for a wrist-worn device. Wearable components maker Valencell says it’s figured out how to measure blood pressure using photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensors from your finger or wrist.Apple has already filed its own patent on measuring blood pressure with an Apple Watch. It will be interesting to see how quickly this technology comes to market.
This new tech could be game-changing for wearables.gizmodo.com
A new report released Tuesday by the American Cancer Society provides some good news: Americans who had cancer in 2018 were less likely to die from it than they were a year earlier, continuing a steady decline in cancer mortality over the past 30 years. As hopeful as this trend is, though, there are still lower survival rates in different parts of the country and among Black Americans. Experts also worry that the covid-19 pandemic will end up erasing some of this progress.#science #medicine #health #cancer
A new report released Tuesday by the American Cancer Society provides some good news: Americans who had cancer in 2018 were less likely to die from it than they were a year earlier, continuing a steady decline in cancer mortality over the past 30 years. As hopeful as this trend is, though, there are still lower survival rates in different parts of the country and among Black Americans. Experts also worry that the covid-19 pandemic will end up erasing some of this progress.gizmodo.com
Some of the people infected with the novel coronavirus who survive COVID-19 will then experience persistent symptoms for weeks or even months after the illness, in what’s known as “Long COVID.”#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
Doctors are still trying to understand the lingering symptoms, with the Westchester Medical Center in New York running a treatment and study program for long haulers.
Now, a new report explains another strange coronavirus symptom that can appear with Long COVID: Some people have experienced skin peeling off their hands and a strange purple discoloration in their fingers.
"Aaron is dead. Wanderers in this crazy world, we have lost a mentor, a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down, we have lost one of our own. Nurturers, carers, listeners, feeders, parents all, we have lost a child. Let us all weep." - Tim Berners Lee.
One main reason humans need to get a flu vaccine annually; flu strains mutate regularly so vaccines need to be slightly altered every year. During past flu seasons, the CDC has noted a vaccine effectiveness range between 40-60%, and a reduced the risk of flu-related illness by 40-60% within the overall population.#science #medicine #health #Influenza
There are, however, several “universal” flu vaccines currently being studied that aim to make annual flu vaccinations a thing of the past.
- Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.comweather.com
For people who are most sick with Covid-19 - those whose lungs have not been helped by a ventilator - there is another alternative: ECMO.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
The ECMO machine is a lifeline for coronavirus patients whose condition has not improved using a ventilator.www.bbc.co.uk
All of our patients who die, do so alone. There is nobody to hold their hand. Nobody to comfort themReporting restrictions in the UK seem to have been eased recently, as more and more front-line workers are telling us how harrowing it is in the Covid wards.
A new type of learning model uses far less data than conventional AIs, allowing researchers with limited resources to contributewww.scientificamerican.com
New research out today looks to bring us closer to understanding how covid-19 can cause brain damage. The study suggests that while the viral infection may not directly reach the brain in most cases, it can spark the sort of destructive inflammation that’s seen with other neurological conditions, like stroke.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
U.S. government scientists studied the brains of 19 people who died after contracting covid-19.gizmodo.com
The past three decades saw a dramatic improvement in our understanding of what brings about Alzheimer’s disease. Two proteins are thought to be responsible: amyloid and tau. The most widely accepted theory is that a critical level of amyloid in the brain triggers the build-up of the more toxic tau protein. This has led to several studies testing drugs and vaccines that remove amyloid and tau to see if they can improve or even prevent dementia. Results have been disappointing.But the hunt is on for new tests.
We now have the technology to identify people who are on a fast track to developing dementia.theconversation.com
It ignores a number of crucial facts.But it does show that a lot of younger, fitter people, the thousands who have protested in London, for example, seriously undervalue people who are older or less healthy.
Dexamethasone demonstrates power of large-scale, randomised trials in finding effective medicines#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
Dexamethasone demonstrates power of large-scale, randomised trials in finding effective medicineswww.theguardian.com
Exclusive: Antibody therapy could confer instant immunity to Covid-19 on at-risk groups#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
Exclusive: Antibody therapy could confer instant immunity to Covid-19 on at-risk groupswww.theguardian.com
The response to Covid-19 has been momentous but discoveries in AI, diet, conservation, space and beyond, show the power of science to improve the world post-pandemic#science #technology
From the first private taxi into space to advances in cultured meat and PTSD research, the year in science wasn’t only about finding a vaccine…www.theguardian.com
Seasonal damage in bone fossils in Spain suggest Neanderthals and their predecessors followed the same strategy as cave bearswww.theguardian.com
The roll out of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK and US this week has led to a spate of new false claims about vaccines. We've looked into some of the most widely shared.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic #ConspiracyTheory
We examine widely shared false claims about vaccines - from "disappearing" needles to a "dead" nurse.www.bbc.co.uk
In the Western world, humans spend 90% of their time indoors. The average American spends even more than that—93%—inside buildings or cars. For years scientists have sounded the alarm that our disconnect from the outdoors is linked to a host of chronic health problems, including allergies, asthma, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and obesity. More recently, experts in various fields have begun studying why buildings, even those designed to be as germ-free as possible, are vectors for disease, not the least Covid-19.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis have spent some years investigating the links between circadian rhythm and Alzheimer’s, and have recently been making some real inroads. Following a 2018 study demonstrating how disrupted sleep can accelerate the buildup of toxic plaques associated with the disease, the team has now identified a protein implicated in the progression of the disease that appears highly regulated by the circadian rhythm, helping them join the dots and providing a potential new therapeutic target.#science #medicine #health #dementia #Alzheimers
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis have spent some years investigating the links between circadian rhythm and Alzheimer’s, and have recently been making some real inroads. Following a 2018 study demonstrating how disrupted sleep can accelerate the buildup of…newatlas.com
There's an ugly truth to the beauty products we slap on our faces and an unsavoury truth to the foods we eat: many are made with palm oil, which is responsible for the rapid deforestation of some of the world's most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino.#science #environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateBreakdown #PalmOil
But now the biotech industry says it has come up with a solution - a synthetic alternative that doesn't involve burning down or clearing any rainforest. It says this could eventually replace natural palm oil in everything from shampoos, soaps, detergents and lipsticks, to food products like packaged bread, biscuits, margarine, ice cream and chocolate.
Plantations for palm oil are blamed for rainforest destruction, but an artificial palm oil is close.www.bbc.co.uk
A new research study found that a variety of eye issues can sometimes indicate an early coronavirus infection.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
The most common eye issues associated with a COVID-19 infection include sore eyes, extreme sensitivity to light, and itchy eyes.
Patients with eye-based issues reported that the symptoms typically went away within two weeks.
Dramatic levels of “friendly fire” from the immune system may drive severe Covid-19 disease and leave patients with “long Covid” – when medical problems persist for a significant time after the virus has been beaten – scientists have said.#science #medicine #health #Covid-19 #CoronaVirus #pandemic
Researchers at Yale University found that Covid-19 patients had large numbers of misguided antibodies in their blood that targeted the organs, tissues and the immune system itself, rather than fighting off the invading virus.
Scientists find aberrant immune system in patients with virus could also be cause of ‘long Covid’www.theguardian.com
Just a few doses of an experimental drug can reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists. The drug, called ISRIB, has already been shown in laboratory studies to restore memory function months after traumatic brain injury (TBI), reverse cognitive impairments in Down Syndrome, prevent noise-related hearing loss, fight certain types of prostate cancer, and even enhance cognition in healthy animals.#science #medicine #health #gerontology
In the new study, UCSF researchers showed rapid restoration of youthful cognitive abilities in aged mice, accompanied by a rejuvenation of brain and immune cells that could help explain improvements in brain function.www.ucsf.edu
According to a recent press release by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a new species of whale has been discovered off the western coast of Mexico, neat the San Benito islands - an island range located about 300 miles from the U.S.-California border. TheVastwww.thevast.net