Around half a billion years ago, in what is now the Yunnan Province of China, a tiny larva was trapped in mud. Hundreds of millions of years later, after the mud had long since become the black shales of the Yuan’shan formation, the larva surfaced again, a meticulously preserved time capsule that would unearth more about the evolution of arthropods.

 

Youti yuanshi is barely visible to the naked eye. Roughly the size of a poppy seed, it is preserved so well that its exoskeleton is almost completely intact, and even the outlines of what were once its internal organs can be seen through the lens of a microscope. Durham University researchers who examined it were able to see features of both ancient and modern arthropods. Some of these features told them how the simpler, more wormlike ancestors of living arthropods evolved into more complex organisms.

 

The research team also found that Y. yuanshi, which existed during the Cambrian Explosion (when most of the main animal groups started to appear on the fossil record), has certain features in common with extant arthropods, such as crabs, velvet worms, and tardigrades. “The deep evolutionary position of Youti yuanshi… illuminat[es] the internal anatomical changes that propelled the rise and diversification of [arthropods],” they said in a study recently published in Nature.

Inside out and outside in

While many fossils preserved in muddy environments like the Yuan’shan formation are flattened by compression, Y. yuanshi remained three-dimensional, making it easier to examine. So what exactly did this larva look like on the outside and inside?

 

The research team could immediately tell that Y. yuanshi was a lobopodian. Lobopodians are a group of extinct arthropods with long bodies and stubby legs, or lobopods. There is a pair of lobopods in the middle of each of its twenty segments, and these segments also get progressively shorter from the front to back of the body. Though soft tissue was not preserved, spherical outlines suggest an eye on each side of the head, though whether these were compound eyes is unknown. This creature had a stomodeum—the precursor to a mouth—but no anus. It would have had to both take in food and dispose of waste through its mouth.

 

Youti yuanshi has a cavity, known as the perivisceral cavity, that surrounds the outline of a tube that is thought to have once been the gut. The creature's gut ends without an opening, which explains its lack of an anus. Inside each segment, there is a pair of voids toward the middle. The researchers think these are evidence of digestive glands, especially after comparing them to digestive glands in the fossils of other arthropods from the same era.

 

A ring around the mouth of the larva was once a circumoral nerve ring, which connected with nerves that extend to eyes and appendages in the first segment. Inside its head is a void that contained the brain. The shape of this empty chamber gives some insight into how the brain was structured. From what the researchers could see, the brain of Y. yuanshi had wedge-shaped frontal portion, and the rest of the brain was divided into two sections, as evidenced by the outline of a membrane in between them.

Way, way, way back then and now

Given its physical characteristics, the researchers think that Y. yuanshi displays features of both extinct and extant arthropods. Some are ancestral characteristics present in all arthropods, living and extinct. Others are ancestral characteristics that may have been present in extinct arthropods but are only present in some living arthropods.

 

Among the features present in all arthropods today is the protocerebrum; its evolutionary precursor was the circumoral nerve ring present in Y. yuanshi. The protocerebrum is the first segment of the arthropod brain, which controls the eyes and appendages, such as antennae in velvet worms and the mouthparts in tardigrades. Another feature of Y. yuanshi present in extant and extinct arthropods is its circulatory system, which is similar to that of modern arthropods, especially crustaceans.

 

Lobopods are a morphological feature of Y. yuanshi that are now found only in some arthropods—tardigrades and velvet worms. Many more species of lobopodians existed during the Cambrian. The lobopodians also had a distinctively structured circulatory system in their legs and other appendages, which is closest to that of velvet worms.

 

“The architecture of the nervous system informs the early configuration of the [arthropod] brain and its associated appendages and sensory organs, clarifying homologies across [arthropods],” the researchers said in the same study.

 

Yuti yuanshi is still holding on to some mysteries. They mostly have to do with the fact that it is a larva—what it looked like as an adult can only be guessed at, and it's possible that this species developed compound eyes or flaps for swimming by the time it reached adulthood. Whether it is the larva of an already-known species of extinct lobopod is an open question. Maybe the answers are buried somewhere in the Yuan’shan shale.

 

Nature, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07756-8

 

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years.

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

Our study, published today in Nature, provides a new long-term picture of the ocean surface temperatures driving coral bleaching. It shows recent sea surface heat is unprecedented compared to the past 400 years. It also confirms humans are to blame.

The results are sobering confirmation that global warming—caused by human activities—will continue to damage the Great Barrier Reef.

All hope is not lost. But we must face a confronting truth: if humanity does not divert from its current course, our generation will likely witness the demise of one of Earth's great natural wonders.

One-of-a-kind ecosystem

The Great Barrier Reef is the most extensive coral reef system on Earth. It is home to a phenomenal array of biodiversity, including more than 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusks, as well as endangered turtles and dugongs.

However, mass coral bleaching over the past three decades has had serious impacts on the reef. Bleaching occurs when corals become so heat-stressed they eject the tiny organisms living inside their tissues. These organisms give coral some of its color and help power its metabolism.

In mild bleaching events, corals can recover. But in the most recent events, many corals died.

The Great Barrier Reef has suffered five mass bleaching events in the past nine summers. Is this an anomaly, or within the natural variability the reef has experienced in previous centuries? Our research set out to answer this question.

A 400-year-old story

Coral itself can tell us what happened in the past.

As corals grow, the chemistry of their skeleton reflects the ocean conditions at the time—including its temperature. In particular, large boulder-shaped corals, known as Porites, can live for centuries and are excellent recorders of the past.

Our study sought to understand how surface temperatures in the Coral Sea, which includes the reef, have varied over the past four centuries. We focused on the January–March period—the warmest three months on the reef.

First, we collated a network of high-quality, continuous coral records from the region. These records were analyzed by coral climate scientists and consist of thousands of measurements of Porites corals from across the Western tropical Pacific.

From these records, we could reconstruct average surface temperatures for the Coral Sea from the year 1618 to 1995, and calibrate this to modern temperature records from 1900 to 2024. The overall result was alarming.

From 1960 to 2024, we observed annual average summer warming of 0.12°C per decade.

And average sea surface temperatures in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024 were five of the six warmest the region has experienced in four centuries.

Humans are undoubtedly to blame

The next step was to examine the extent to which increased temperatures in the Coral Sea can be attributed to human influence.

To do this, we used published computer model simulations of the Earth's climate—both with and without human influence, including greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

So what did we find? Without human influence, Coral Sea surface temperatures during January–March remain relatively constant since 1900. Add in the human impacts, and the region warms steadily in the early 1900s, then rapidly after the 1960s.

In short: without human-caused global warming, the very high sea temperatures of recent years would be virtually impossible, based on our analysis using the world's top climate models.

There is worse news. Recent climate projections put us on a path to intensified warming, even when accounting for international commitments to reduce emissions. This places the reef at risk of coral bleaching on a near-annual basis.

Back-to-back bleaching is likely to be catastrophic for the Great Barrier Reef, because it thwarts the chances of corals recovering between bleaching events.

Even if global warming is kept under the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, 70% to 90% of corals across the world could be lost.

Humans are undoubtedly to blame

The next step was to examine the extent to which increased temperatures in the Coral Sea can be attributed to human influence.

To do this, we used published computer model simulations of the Earth's climate—both with and without human influence, including greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

So what did we find? Without human influence, Coral Sea surface temperatures during January–March remain relatively constant since 1900. Add in the human impacts, and the region warms steadily in the early 1900s, then rapidly after the 1960s.

In short: without human-caused global warming, the very high sea temperatures of recent years would be virtually impossible, based on our analysis using the world's top climate models.

There is worse news. Recent climate projections put us on a path to intensified warming, even when accounting for international commitments to reduce emissions. This places the reef at risk of coral bleaching on a near-annual basis.

Back-to-back bleaching is likely to be catastrophic for the Great Barrier Reef, because it thwarts the chances of corals recovering between bleaching events.

Even if global warming is kept under the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures, 70% to 90% of corals across the world could be lost.

We must stay focused

The Australian government has a crucial role to play in managing threats to the Great Barrier Reef. The devastation is in their backyard, on their watch.

But what's happening on the Great Barrier Reef should also be an international wake-up call. The fourth global mass coral bleaching event occurred this year; the Great Barrier Reef is not the only one at risk.

Every fraction of a degree of warming we avoid gives more hope for coral reefs. That's why the world must stay focused on ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions reduction targets must be met, at the very least. The solutions are available and our leaders must implement them.

Our research equips society with the scientific evidence for what's at stake if we don't act.

The future of one of Earth's most remarkable ecosystems depends on all of us.

Source

“It’s one thing to know it intellectually,” said Clark, a 67-year-old resident of Des Moines, Iowa, who paid about $75 out of pocket for two sensors that lasted a month. “It’s another thing to see it, to watch in real time what you’re doing to yourself.”

Soon, a prescription won’t be necessary. In a groundbreaking expansion of technology previously aimed at diabetics who need to carefully control their blood sugar, Abbott Laboratories and Dexcom are poised to begin selling continuous glucose monitors over the counter, meaning they can be purchased by adults without first seeing a doctor.

The potential market is vast, analysts say, made up of millions of people with diabetes who do not depend on insulin as well as legions of health-conscious people who don’t have diabetes but are trying to get even healthier.

Dexcom and Abbott each won Food and Drug Administration clearance to market the devices this year. Dexcom has not disclosed specific pricing but said it expects to offer “subscriptions” for under $100 a month and initially sell them online, starting this month. Abbott has said it plans to launch its devices this summer but hasn’t disclosed details including pricing or how they can be purchased.

There are about 7.5 million diabetic patients who use insulin in the United States, according to Margaret Kaczor Andrew, an analyst at William Blair. The devices by Dexcom and Abbott will target the roughly 25 million diabetics who don’t, and their over-the-counter designation will open up the market to nearly 100 million people who are prediabetic, she said.

“Now both companies are targeting one of the arguably largest medical technology markets we have ever seen,” she wrote in a note to clients in June.

Abbott is explicitly marketing one of its two new sensors, Lingo, as a wellness tool. Beyond broadening the use of its devices among diabetes patients, the company wants to reach “what is probably the larger market, which is people that don’t have diabetes,” Robert Ford, the company’s CEO, said on an earnings call with analysts last month. He described Lingo as a potential multibillion-dollar product in the United States and Europe, where it was introduced in Britain earlier this year.

Some physicians see benefits for nondiabetics, saying the monitors can head off metabolic disease, reduce cardiovascular risks and encourage healthy eating and exercise. Already, several telehealth firms offer subscriptions to apps combined with continuous glucose monitors, working with physicians who prescribe the device to people regardless of whether they have diabetes.

While some research suggests that healthy people could benefit from continuously monitoring their glucose, there aren’t many rigorous studies demonstrating that the devices will benefit people who don’t have diabetes, according to experts in the field. Studies done on people without diabetes have tended to find their blood sugar stays in a healthy range most of the time. Though the monitors have little risk, some argue that there could be a downside — including the not-insignificant cost.

“Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean you should,” said Robert Shmerling, a doctor who reviewed the prospect of broad CGM use for Harvard Health Publishing. “If you’re focused on potentially normal fluctuations in blood sugar,” he said, “maybe that takes focus and energy away from things you could be looking at more closely.”

“If people are eating healthy food and exercising regularly and avoiding stress, they’re probably doing everything they can to avoid diabetes,” said David Klonoff, an endocrinologist and medical director of the Diabetes Research Institute at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center.

Abbott said in a statement that research shows a connection between moderating glucose and preventing many diseases. That led the company to develop a product for “an audience that traditional health care companies don’t usually target — the healthy — to help them stay healthy.”

Continuous glucose monitors work by penetrating the skin with a sensor — a painless sensation, several users said in interviews — which scans the fluid between cells to estimate the amount of glucose in the blood. A transmitter ships the data wirelessly to a smartphone or watch, while an adhesive patch holds it in place. The FDA approved the first version 25 years ago.

Insurance coverage, however, remains spotty. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services significantly expanded its coverage of the monitors in 2023 for Medicare beneficiaries, but it is still limited to patients using insulin or those who can demonstrate a history of problematic low blood sugar. Medicaid and commercial plans tend to follow Medicare. That leaves many diabetics who don’t use insulin unable to get reimbursed. The American Diabetes Association has found that people with lower incomes and older people of color in particular struggle to obtain the devices.

In clearing Dexcom’s Stelo in March for over-the-counter sales, an FDA official called it “an important step forward in advancing health equity for U.S. patients.” The American Diabetes Association said in a statement that the new nonprescription monitors have “the potential to greatly expand access to this technology for people living with diabetes,” noting that they’re intended for those who don’t use insulin.

But the prescription-free products are not expected to be covered by most insurance. An over-the-counter continuous monitor “will still be cost-prohibitive to many people, but it will be a tool for people that financially are able to cover a $100 a month investment in their health,” said Nicole Ehrhardt, an endocrinologist at UW Medicine in Seattle.

Kyra Pellant, an athlete in Los Angeles who’s training for an Ironman triathlon, was keenly aware of this dynamic when she wore her CGM at the gym.

“People would come up to me and ask, ‘Are you diabetic?’” said Pellant, 30, who doesn’t have diabetes. She said she paid about $80 for a CGM that lasted two weeks. “I know it’s such a privilege to be able to afford that,” she said.

One of the highest profile endorsers of continuous glucose monitors, longevity medicine doctor Peter Attia, was introduced to them on a flight several years ago when he happened to sit next to Kevin Sayer, Dexcom’s chief executive.

“He was sticking his finger like 12 times a day,” Sayer said in an interview. “We got him on a CGM and it was definitely life-changing for him.” He added, “I do think everybody can learn from a CGM. It’s absolutely true.”

Attia, who has a vast social media following, went on to consult for Dexcom and praised the benefits of CGMs at its annual meeting with Wall Street analysts in 2020.

“It’s going to give you insights that I can’t even give you,” Attia said he told his patients, listing the effects on glucose from food, exercise, stress and sleep, according to a transcript compiled by S&P Global Intelligence. A CGM can “become the most powerful behavioral tool you’ve ever encountered,” he added.

A representative for Attia said he was traveling and couldn’t be reached.

Clark said she lost five pounds wearing a glucose monitor and lowered her blood sugar, and she plans to wear one periodically. The continuous data she got gave her new insights into how her body processed food, and she now takes walks after eating a large, celebratory meal.

As for whole-grain crackers, she said, “It’s probably a better idea to put my cheese on a zucchini slice.”

Source

“While we’re heartened by the decision, a strong remedy is critical,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a blog post after the ruling, referencing the new trial phase that will kick off in September.

“We’ve passed a key milestone, but there’s still a lot of history to be written,” Kamyl Bazbaz, senior vice president of public affairs for DuckDuckGo, said in a statement. “Google will do anything it can to get in the way of progress which is why we hope to see a robust remedies trial that can really dig into all the details, propose an array of remedies that will actually work, and set up a monitoring body to administer them.”

These statements reflect an understanding that Judge Amit Mehta’s decision on how to restore competition will be just as — if not more – important than his finding that Google violated antitrust law. The recently concluded liability phase determined that Google violated the Sherman Act through exclusionary contracts with phone and browser makers to maintain its default search engine position. In the remedies phase, Mehta will decide how to restore competition in general search services and search text advertising. But a weak remedy will simply give Google a pass.

DuckDuckGo knows better than most how important effective remedies are. Google was ruled a monopolist in the European Union years ago, and the region imposed a choice screen in an attempt to create competition, asking device users to select their default search engine. But the approach hasn’t seemingly produced as much of an impact as competitors once hoped — and Google remains overwhelmingly dominant.

“[W]e can’t underscore this enough: the implementation details matter,” Bazbaz said. In the EU, “there are some solutions that are promising, but Google has found it relatively easy to work around their implementations.” DuckDuckGo is calling for a group of “truly independent” technical experts to monitor any remedies imposed by the court, “to ensure Google doesn’t find new ways to give itself preferential treatment.”

“[W]e can’t underscore this enough: the implementation details matter”

DuckDuckGo said that some solutions from Europe could be effective, if implemented in a better way. Instead of showing up only once during initial setup, for instance, a choice screen could pop up “periodically.” Conversely, the company wants a ban on “dark pattern” popups that push people back toward the default, something it says isn’t enforced in the EU.

DuckDuckGo also proposes that the court bar Google from buying default status or pre-installation (which could scuttle its multibillion-dollar deal with Apple) and provide access to its search and ad APIs.

Yelp’s Stoppelman says that Google should be required to “spin off services that have unfairly benefited from its search monopoly, a straightforward and enforceable remedy to prevent future anticompetitive behavior.” The judge should also prohibit Google from using exclusive default search deals and from “self-preferencing its own content in search results,” Stoppelman said.

Other advocates of enforcement against Google, including groups representing publishers that advertise on the service or rely on search for traffic, also have suggestions. On a call with reporters organized by the American Economic Liberties Project, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint said forcing Google to separate its Chrome and Android businesses could be a useful solution. That’s because, Kint says, data from the browser and mobile operating system can be used to expand the scale of search queries and make that product even stronger.

“The underlying data that interlocks all that is the critical asset that needs to be constrained,” he says. AELP senior legal counsel Lee Hepner adds that separating the businesses “would open up competition for alternative search rivals on Chrome or Android.”

Whatever happens, the process could be a drawn-out one. Google’s president of global affairs Kent Walker has confirmed the company plans to appeal the ruling, saying the decision “recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

Meanwhile, the specter of artificial intelligence looms over the case, threatening to make moot any proposed solution that doesn’t account for how the whole business model of search could change in the coming years. Hepner said the court could consider solutions like requiring Google to open access to its large language model (LLM).

Department of Justice antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter hasn’t commented specifically on what remedies the department will seek, beyond noting they “need to be forward-looking” to account for issues like AI. But he’s previously said that the division would “pursue structural remedies in our conduct cases whenever possible,” meaning break-ups, rather than mandates to change certain behaviors. If the DOJ puts forward a broad remedy and Mehta rules in favor of it, the result could be a whole new tech landscape.

“I believe that Judge Mehta’s decision will be as consequential, if not more so, than the Microsoft antitrust case 23 years ago,” wrote Stoppelman. “That decision spurred an era of unprecedented innovation that allowed promising startups to flourish, including Google. It’s exciting to imagine the new technologies and innovation we’ll see emerge as a result of this ruling over the next decade and beyond.”

Source

"I think the big take-home message is the virus is pretty ubiquitous," says Virginia Tech conservation biologist Amanda Goldberg. "We found positives in a large suite of common backyard animals."

Testing almost 800 nasal and oral swabs from animals in rehabilitation centers or that were trapped and released in the wild, the researchers identified six different species with antibodies indicating they'd been infected with SARS-CoV-2 at some point.

Most of the infected species are common across North America and the researchers think it's likely that wildlife exposure to the virus is widespread.

But Goldberg and colleagues stress that they found no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 being transmitted back to humans from wildlife.

Sites with high human activity had three times the prevalence of viral antibodies in animals, suggesting that, as with most diseases, humans are doing the majority of the spreading. Humans pass on twice as many viruses to other animals as we receive from them.

As humans rarely come into physical contact with wildlife, the researchers suspect most wildlife exposure to SAR-CoV-2 occurs indirectly through trash and wastewater.

The species found to have been infected included eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), racoons (Procyon lotor), eastern deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), groundhogs (Marmota monax), and eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis).

Not all species showed symptoms of the virus or viral shedding when tested in laboratory conditions.

"Our results highlight that evaluating the importance of each species in the context of a broader community of hosts will be critical for controlling future zoonotic disease risk," explain the researchers.

Multiple animals tested positive for current infections at the same sites within four days of each other, suggesting animal-to-animal transmission is occurring.

"The virus aims to infect more humans, but vaccinations protect many humans," says Virginia Tech molecular biologist Carla Finkielstein. "So the virus turns to animals, adapting and mutating to thrive in the new hosts."

The concern is a sylvatic cycle developing – where the virus mutates enough to sustain itself in wild animal populations – becoming another potential source of new mutations with potential risks for humans.

Analyzing 126 blood samples, the researchers found most of the strains in the wildlife were the same as those found in humans. But they did detect one previously unreported mutation in the virus taken from an opossum. This mutation may make it easier for the virus to avoid our current antibodies.

These findings highlight the need for continued COVID-19 surveillance and further research to understand the virus's movements within and between species.

"It will be important to continue to sequence variants from wildlife as well as humans to assess if SARS-CoV-2 is adapting to new wildlife hosts," Goldberg and team conclude.

This research was published in Nature Communications.

Source

In a first-ever “State of the Science” address at the end of June, National Academy of Sciences president Marcia McNutt warned that the U.S. was ceding its global scientific leadership to other countries—highlighting China in particular. McNutt, a widely respected geophysicist, said this slippage could make it harder for the U.S. to maintain the strength of its economy and protect its national security. She also laid out a provisional plan of action to reverse the decline.

The June 26 speech served as a scientific parallel to the State of the Union address by the U.S. president and came from the chief of a body originally chartered to provide nonpartisan advice on science and technology to the nation’s government. It surveyed the strengths and weaknesses of the current scientific landscape and underscored an urgent need for a new coordinated approach to research and development.

“It’s critically important we keep shouting [this message] from the rooftop,” says Carrie Wolinetz, a science policy expert who has previously advised the White House and the National Institutes of Health. Similar sentiments have circulated in policymaking circles for a few years now, she points out, but they have yet to gain traction among government officials and members of the public.

In her address, McNutt presented a flurry of figures that indicated a slump in American science. The U.S. has a declining share of the most cited science papers, for instance, and the rate at which new drugs and technologies hit the market has flatlined over the past several decades. The U.S. still spends the most money out of any other country on research and development, but China is set to soon outpace those investments. China currently files more patents than the U.S. and hosts more than a quarter of the world’s clinical trials, as compared to only 3 percent in 2013.

“U.S. science is perceived to be—and is—losing the race for global STEM leadership,” McNutt said. A country’s strength in science, she argued, shapes its defense capacities as well as its ability to spread its values abroad.

McNutt suggested that the country’s failure to innovate and stay ahead ran counter to its history. In the decades after World War II, the U.S. achieved widespread excellence in the sciences by investing heavily in both basic and applied research and soliciting foreign talent. Landmark institutions such as the National Science Foundation and NASA emerged during this period, as did the country’s pattern of dominating the Nobel Prizes.

Then, as federal investment dipped in the 1980s, the scientific landscape grew more complex and difficult to coordinate. Companies and philanthropies began funding and conducting greater portions of research and development. This shift affected which scientific questions were addressed, how they got answered and what forms of knowledge entered the public arena. The private sector tends to pursue narrower, applied interests, McNutt explained, and to keep its findings to itself. When companies take over entire fields—as they did with genetically modified organisms and are currently doing with artificial intelligence—research sometimes rushes ahead in a way that increases the public’s distrust of science and technology, she noted.

Public math and science proficiency fell during the 1980s as well, bringing fewer Americans into the STEM workforce.

McNutt followed her recitation of problems with suggested solutions, describing what a revitalized scientific landscape might require. She did not call for more government investment but instead focused on boosting the public’s support for research—and greater public involvement—as well as making the most out of existing science funding.

Of utmost importance, McNutt emphasized, was improving K–12 STEM education. By international standards, American students perform in the middle of the range in science; they are below average in math. She noted that foreign-born individuals play a key role in maintaining U.S. STEM prowess, accounting for 19 percent of the nation’s STEM workforce and 43 percent of its STEM Ph.D. population.

This is a cause for concern, McNutt said, because as other nations rise in the ranks, the U.S. will need to compete with them for talent.

McNutt recommended that schools nurture students’ innate curiosity for science and use technologies such as AI to ease the teaching burden. Too often, she said, students in large classes are taught to view science as a collection of facts rather than a process of discovery.

To maximize the return on current research investment, the U.S. could benefit from more coordination, she added. The European Union and China both have strategic research visions that help them meet specific goals. The U.S. could develop such a plan to patch gaps left by local priority setting, she said. And industries and universities could establish partnerships to both advance research and make academia more financially sustainable for students of all backgrounds.

E. Albert Reece, a scholar in residence at the National Academy of Medicine, who is studying the challenges the biomedical research field faces, says the committee he helps staff has also gone back and forth on whether to request more government funding but ultimately decided it was better to justify the merits of existing support. “We need to demonstrate that we are using up all the available dollars now and are making progress,” he says. “Then, when we come back later [to ask for money, the federal agencies] will love that.”

Wolinetz, too, views the decision not to call for more funding as a shrewd tactical one. “As critical as continued and increasing investment in research is, it should be a means to an end,” she emphasizes. “Step one is: What’s the bold vision of science we’re trying to create as a country? I do believe if we build it, [investors] will come.”

She and others feel the time has come for even more “radical” ideas than those McNutt outlined. “I, for one, believe we need to go faster and stronger,” says Mary Woolley, president of Research!America, regarding efforts to rehaul the scientific landscape.

Woolley says she appreciates McNutt’s emphasis on a strategic research plan and the reinvigoration of public education but fears progress on the latter front will require a heavy lift, given how difficult it is to make countrywide systemic change. In 2005 the National Academy of Sciences issued a report on the worrisome state of K–12 STEM education entitled Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Five years later, the authors updated the report and subtitled the new version Rapidly Approaching Category 5. But the country has improved the educational system in the past, Woolley says, giving her hope the U.S. can do it again.

In 2022 Congress passed a law in line with many of McNutt’s recommendations: the CHIPS and Sciences Act. The statute—which McNutt called a “good start”—promised not only to revive homegrown semiconductor production for computers but also to invest $170 billion in broad research funding over the next five years, as well as to expand STEM education on the K–12, college and graduate levels. Almost two years since its passage, however, budget constraints have instead led scientific agencies to receive less and less support.

The outcome of the upcoming presidential election may shape the future of any broad federal scientific program as well. During the past four years, the Biden administration has supported modest increases to several scientific agencies’ budgets, including those of the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2020, the last year of his term, former president Donald Trump proposed widespread slashes, although those were dismissed by Congress.

Source

When I was a mere lad, probably in middle school, I remember a friend telling me that the Apollo astronauts could see the Great Wall of China from the moon.

If someone told me that now, I’d know almost instinctively that this claim is baloney. Of course, back then when I was a lot less skeptical (and didn’t know anything about optics or physics or ocular biology), my reaction was, “Cool!”

But I do know about those topics now and have some experience dealing with seeing objects from space. So let’s look at just why that claim can’t be true.

The basic problem (as with so many “you can see X from space”-type statements) is resolution. This is a term astronomers use for the ability to distinguish two closely spaced objects, as opposed to seeing them so close together that they merge into a single dot. You likely have experience with this: driving on a highway at night, you’ll see an oncoming car’s headlights as one single light source until the car gets close enough to reveal there are, in fact, two.

Resolution is usually expressed in terms of an angle that is determined by the size of the object and its distance from the observer. For a concrete example, the moon is about 3,500 kilometers wide and 380,000 km away from Earth; do the math and you’ll find that the moon appears to be about 0.5 degrees across (where, as you may recall, a circle—say, the horizon around you—is 360 degrees in circumference).

The average human eye offers a visual resolution of about one arcminute (there are 60 arcminutes in a degree); someone with very keen vision might be able to resolve an object half that size. The moon is much larger than this in the sky, so it looks like a disk with features that are easily seen.

What about the Great Wall of China, though? While it is very long, this structure is actually quite narrow. One of the wider parts might be 10 meters. Can something that size be seen from the moon?

At that distance, the Great Wall would appear as a line one ten-thousandth of an arcminute thick. Resolving that feature would be roughly the equivalent of seeing a human hair from a kilometer away with your unaided eyes. I think you’ll agree that that’s flatly impossible!

But let’s modify the claim somewhat: Say now we’re in low-Earth orbit, watching our planet rolling along from the cupola of the International Space Station (ISS). That’s a perch roughly 400 km above Earth’s surface, so from there the Great Wall would appear about 0.1 arcminute in width. So even then, it’s still too small to see by eye!

There’s still a chance, however. Our eyes can be a little better at seeing objects that are very narrow if they’re very long and have high contrast with the surrounding environment. Orbiting astronauts can see roads across deserts, for example, and the wakes of seafaring ships. Does that help here?

Sadly, no. The Great Wall is made of stone that generally doesn’t contrast well against the terrain, and it tends to curve as it follows the landscape, especially near steep cliffs and hills.

And we know this empirically, too: astronauts have tried to see it but have never reliably done so. (Orbital snapshots that show any details are captured using a telephoto lens, which has a much higher resolution than the human eye.) Even China’s first taikonaut, Yang Liwei, said he couldn’t see it from orbit, and certainly national pride would have motivated him to try.

I’ll note that there may be certain conditions when it really is detectable from orbit. For example, when the sun is low in the sky at sunrise or sunset, the wall can cast a long shadow, revealing its presence. But that’s not really the same as seeing the wall itself, is it?

The Great Wall of China as seen by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from the cupola on the International Space Station in 2018 with the aid of an 800mm super telephoto lens.

ESA/Alexander Gerst

Well then, what about other human-made objects? The Great Wall is long, but we’ve certainly built structures that are bulkier.

The pyramids in Egypt are obvious candidates. The Great Pyramid of Giza is about 230 meters across on each side of its base, making it easily big enough to resolve by eye from low-Earth orbit. The dusty stone doesn’t provide a lot of contrast with the surrounding sand, but more contrast can come from the play of light across the structure itself: at low sun angles, half the pyramid is lit and half is in shadow, distinguishing it against the sandy landscape. One former NASA astronaut, Leroy Chiao, claims to have seen two of the pyramids, while others have reportedly tried but failed.

NASA claims the Three Gorges Dam in China can be seen from space. I haven’t seen any reports of astronauts actually spotting it, but it should be possible. The dam is immense: it’s more than 100 meters across at its base and 2.3 km long. Its tan color contrasts with the blue waters of the Yangtze River it spans and shows up easily in photographs taken by astronauts using a telephoto lens.

It’s worth noting that you don’t necessarily need to resolve an object to see it. Stars are great examples. While they’re huge, some millions of kilometers in diameter, they are also fantastically distant; even the closest (besides the sun) is more than 40 trillion km away. They are all unresolved dots by eye yet easily visible (at least at night). In this case, though, they’re bright. Even something unresolved can be seen if it’s emitting or reflecting enough light.

That’s why city lights can be easily seen from orbit and are likely even visible from the moon under some circumstances. One difficulty is that the brightly lit lunar landscape can ruin the view—astronauts on the moon had difficulty seeing stars through the glare, even though the sky itself was black. Also, Earth in the moon’s sky is far brighter than the moon is from Earth, which can make city lights more difficult to tease out. Perhaps if a lunar astronaut hid in the shadow of a big boulder and Earth was in a thin crescent phase, cities might be faintly visible on our planet’s night side. That would be a fun experiment to try, and I hope future lunar explorers give it a shot.

And while we’re thinking about all this, let’s turn the tables: Can you resolve the ISS from the ground? Its light is certainly visible and can be brighter than Venus at times.

It turns out that the answer is yes (kind of). The ISS is about 100 meters across, which means that it can be slightly less than one arcminute in size when it passes directly overhead and is therefore closest to an observer. So someone with keen vision could see it as just barely more than a dot. I’ll note that with even modest binoculars, you can easily see it as a stubby line; I’ve done so myself.

And finally, while individual human-made objects are difficult to see from space, our effects on the planet are not. In his book An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield wrote that from the ISS, he could see the effects of deforestation in Madagascar as soil was dumped into the ocean. Wildfires, exacerbated by climate change, have plumes that can easily be spotted. And, of course, our cities glow fiercely from just a few hundred kilometers above.

From space we are tiny—but our impact is not.

Source

THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain disorders and a common brain parasite to become frenemies.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology has pioneered the use of a single-cell parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to inject therapeutic proteins into brain cells. The brain is very picky about what it lets in, including many drugs, which limits treatment options for neurological conditions.

As a professor of microbiology, I’ve dedicated my career to finding ways to kill dangerous parasites such as Toxoplasma. I’m fascinated by the prospect that we may be able to use their weaponry to instead treat other maladies.

Microbes as Medicine

Ever since scientists realized that microscopic organisms can cause illness—what’s called the 19th-century germ theory of disease—humanity has been on a quest to keep infectious agents out of our bodies. Many people’s understandable aversion to germs may make the idea of adapting these microbial adversaries for therapeutic purposes seem counterintuitive.

But preventing and treating disease by co-opting the very microbes that threaten us has a history that long predates germ theory. As early as the 1500s, people in the Middle East and Asia noted that those lucky enough to survive smallpox never got infected again. These observations led to the practice of purposefully exposing an uninfected person to the material from an infected person’s pus-filled sores—which unbeknownst to them contained weakened smallpox virus—to protect them from severe disease.

This concept of inoculation has yielded a plethora of vaccines that have saved countless lives.

Viruses, bacteria, and parasites have also evolved many tricks to penetrate organs such as the brain and could be retooled to deliver drugs into the body. Such uses could include viruses for gene therapy and intestinal bacteria to treat a gut infection known as C. diff.

Why Can’t We Just Take a Pill for Brain Diseases?

Pills offer a convenient and effective way to get medicine into the body. Chemical drugs such as aspirin or penicillin are small and easily absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream.

Biologic drugs such as insulin or semaglutide, on the other hand, are large and complex molecules that are vulnerable to breaking down in the stomach before they can be absorbed. They are also too big to pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream.

All drugs, especially biologics, have great difficulty penetrating the brain due to the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells lining the brain’s blood vessels that acts like a gatekeeper to block germs and other unwanted substances from gaining access to neurons.

Toxoplasma Offers Delivery Service to Brain Cells

Toxoplasma parasites infect all animals, including humans. Infection can occur in multiple ways, including ingesting spores released in the stool of infected cats or consuming contaminated meat or water. Toxoplasmosis in otherwise healthy people produces only mild symptoms but can be serious in immunocompromised people and to gestating fetuses.

Unlike most pathogens, Toxoplasma can cross the blood-brain barrier and invade brain cells. Once inside neurons, the parasite releases a suite of proteins that alter gene expression in its host, which may be a factor in the behavioral changes it causes in infected animals and people.

In a new study, a global team of researchers hijacked the system Toxoplasma uses to secrete proteins into its host cell. The team genetically engineered Toxoplasma to make a hybrid protein, fusing one of its secreted proteins to a protein called MECP2, which regulates gene activity in the brain—in effect, giving the MECP2 a piggyback ride into neurons. Researchers found that the parasites secreted the MECP2 protein hybrid into neurons grown in a petri dish as well as in the brains of infected mice.

A genetic deficiency in MECP2 causes a rare brain development disorder called Rett syndrome. Gene therapy trials using viruses to deliver the MECP2 protein to treat Rett syndrome are underway. If Toxoplasma can deliver a form of MECP2 protein into brain cells, it may provide another option to treat this currently incurable condition. It also may offer another treatment option for other neurological problems that arise from errant proteins, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The Long Road Ahead

The road from laboratory bench to bedside is long and filled with obstacles, so don’t expect to see engineered Toxoplasma in the clinic anytime soon.

The obvious complication in using Toxoplasma for medical purposes is that it can produce a serious, lifelong infection that is currently incurable. Infecting someone with Toxoplasma can damage critical organ systems, including the brain, eyes, and heart.

However, up to one-third of people worldwide currently carry Toxoplasma in their brain, apparently without incident. Emerging studies have correlated infection with increased risk of schizophrenia, rage disorder, and recklessness, hinting that this quiet infection may be predisposing some people to serious neurological problems.

The widespread prevalence of Toxoplasma infections may also be another complication, as it disqualifies many people from using it for treatment. Since the billions of people who already carry the parasite have developed immunity against future infection, therapeutic forms of Toxoplasma would be rapidly destroyed by their immune systems once injected.

In some cases, the benefits of using Toxoplasma as a drug delivery system may outweigh the risks. Engineering benign forms of this parasite could produce the proteins patients need without harming the organ—the brain—that defines who we are.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years.

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

The southern polar vortex is currently showing rare signs of extreme instability, leading to fears that it could collapse, bringing both icy blasts and extreme heatwaves to the southern hemisphere. Likewise, the northern polar vortex had yet another wild winter this year, and with climate change set to intensify these perilous polar patterns, we could be in for some increasingly dramatic weather in the years to come.

The polar vortices are strong stratospheric air currents that circulate over the Arctic and Antarctic during the winter months, trapping cold air above the poles. They are surrounded and enclosed by the jet streams, which act like barriers that prevent this icy polar air from spreading into the mid-latitudes.

However, every now and then, the stratosphere above the Arctic experiences a dramatic increase in temperature and pressure, destabilizing the northern polar vortex and causing it to split, change direction or collapse. When this occurs, the jet stream tends to become warped, allowing icy Arctic winds to encroach further south than they usually would, while warm air is drawn into the polar region.

When the polar vortex destabilizes, icy polar air moves into the mid-latitudes. Image credit: zombiu26/Shutterstock.com

Known as sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), this phenomenon caused the big freeze that gripped parts of the US in 2019. In early 2024, fluctuations in stratospheric pressure caused the northern polar vortex to change direction twice, bringing cold snaps to the northern hemisphere, although neither event was strong enough to significantly alter the shape of the jet stream.

Down in Antarctica, however, SSWs are much less common, with the only known instance occurring in 2002. Yet that could be about to change, with a series of stratospheric temperature increases since last month raising fears that the southern polar vortex could be about to split.

The first of these was detected in mid-July, when wind speeds in the vortex slowed from their typical velocity of 300 kilometers per hour to just 230 kilometers per hour (186 to 143 miles per hour). This was accompanied by a temperature spike of about 20 degrees Celsius (36 Fahrenheit) above the average.

While these fluctuations were insufficient to trigger an SSW, they were followed by a second slowdown as temperatures rose once again in early August. This event has resulted in cold Antarctic air escaping from the polar region and blasting parts of Australia, New Zealand, and South America with wet and icy weather.

At the same time, warm air from the mid-latitudes has been able to push south into Antarctica, triggering a record-breaking heatwave.

It’s currently unclear how the situation will play out, with some predictions suggesting the southern polar vortex may soon stabilize, while other models hint at a drastic collapse. In the latter scenario, a destabilized jet stream will most likely disrupt another weather system called the southern annular mode, sending it into what’s known as a negative phase.

This would then result in an exceptionally dry and hot summer across Australasia and South America.

At present, scientists are uncertain what causes the polar vortices to destabilize in such a manner, although there’s growing evidence to suggest that rising global temperatures due to human-induced climate change may be involved. For instance, a study published this month provides evidence that declining Antarctic sea ice is associated with slower stratospheric wind speeds, highlighting the role that rising ocean temperatures play in messing with the polar vortices.

Furthermore, while Arctic sea ice has been in drastic decline for years, the situation at the southern pole was until recently thought to be relatively stable. Yet a worrying decline over the past few years has suggested that both poles may now be in a state of extreme flux, with possibly massive implications for the polar vortices.

Source

Antibiotics are often hailed as miracle drugs, capable of curing once-deadly infections and saving countless lives. However, the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans, animals, and agriculture have severe and often overlooked consequences. While the world is acutely aware that such practices drive antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a more insidious danger lies beneath the surface. The true peril is the profound disruption antibiotics cause to the microbiome — a disruption that ripples out to affect every organ and function of our bodies.

The human body is home to a vast, intricate community of microorganisms collectively known as the microbiome. This includes bacteria, fungi and viruses. Astonishingly, our bodies host approximately 38 trillion microbial cells, outnumbering our own cells, which total around 30 trillion. This means we are more microbial than human. The gut microbiome, in particular, plays a crucial role in maintaining our health.

It aids in digestion, supports the immune system, produces essential nutrients like vitamin K and certain B vitamins, and protects against pathogens. The diversity and balance of these microbial communities are vital for our well-being.

While antibiotics are essential for treating bacterial infections, their irrational use can wreak havoc on the microbiome. Antibiotics do not discriminate between harmful pathogens and beneficial bacteria. When we take antibiotics, especially the broad-spectrum ones, they wipe out a large portion of the gut bacteria. This disruption, known as dysbiosis, can have severe and long-lasting effects. Even a single course of antibiotics can produce dysbiosis that lasts for months or even years.

Dysbiosis can cause more severe conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. A healthy microbiome is essential for a robust immune system. Dysbiosis can impair immune function, making the body more susceptible to infections and autoimmune diseases. The gut microbiome also plays a crucial role in regulating metabolism.

The gut microbiome interacts with various organs through complex networks known as gut-organ axes. These interactions influence the overall health and functioning of the body. The gut-brain axis links the gut microbiome with the brain, where dysbiosis can alter neurotransmitter levels and brain chemistry, affecting mood, cognition, and mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. The gut-liver axis involves the transport of bacterial metabolites and toxins from the gut to the liver. Dysbiosis can increase gut permeability (‘leaky gut’), allowing more toxins to reach the liver and exacerbating liver conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The gut-skin axis involves the influence of the gut microbiome on skin health, where dysbiosis can exacerbate conditions like acne, eczema, and psoriasis by altering systemic immune responses and skin barrier function. The gut microbiome influences metabolic processes, including energy harvesting from food and the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. Dysbiosis can disrupt these processes, contributing to conditions like obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

Beyond the gut, the microbiome also plays crucial roles in other parts of the body. The skin microbiome protects against harmful microorganisms and supports skin health. The respiratory tract microbiome helps defend against respiratory infections and maintains respiratory health. Antibiotic use can potentially lead to respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The genitourinary microbiome, which includes the vaginal and urinary microbiomes, protects against infections and maintains urinary and reproductive health. Dysbiosis in these areas can result in conditions like bacterial vaginosis and urinary tract infections.

One particularly concerning aspect of antibiotic use is its impact on colonisation resistance. This is the ability of the native gut microbiome to protect against colonisation by pathogenic microorganisms. Beneficial bacteria consume available nutrients, limiting resources for pathogens. By occupying adhesion sites on the gut epithelium, commensal bacteria prevent pathogens from attaching and establishing themselves. Antibiotic use can reduce colonisation resistance, allowing harmful bacteria to take hold and proliferate, increasing the risk of infections.

Given the profound impact of antibiotics on the microbiome and the long-term health consequences of dysbiosis, it is crucial to use antibiotics judiciously. Implementing alternative practices, such as better hygiene, vaccination, and the use of bacteriophages, can reduce the reliance on antibiotics.

Antibiotics have revolutionised medicine, but their misuse poses serious threats. The concept of medicine being a poison when misused is particularly relevant here. In the right hands, these miracle molecules cure infections and save lives. However, if misused, they disrupt the microbiome and contribute to a host of health problems, essentially becoming poisons. Antibiotics are a prime example of the medicine-poison paradox. Preserving the balance of our microbiome is essential for maintaining our health. We must carefully consider our use of antibiotics before taking them.

Source

The Demand for Innovation and Efficiency

In today’s online business landscape, it’s all about staying sharp with innovation and efficiency. 58% of companies worldwide are planning to boost their technology spending. Nevertheless, the MIT Technology Review Insights 2023 survey shows that 64% of global tech leaders claim that candidates for internal IT positions and engineering roles do not possess the necessary skills or experience.

ManpowerGroup reported in 2024 that 75% of U.S. companies face a significant shortage of qualified talent. Companies seek IT specialists with specialized skills and are not interested in a lengthy hiring process.

IT Outsourcing: A Strategic Solution

The fastest way to snag the right specialists is IT outsourcing. Companies can dive into a global talent pool, accessing niche skills that might be hard to find or pricey locally. Furthermore, there is an overlooked aspect: outsourcing firms usually compete with each other to provide more value and have global experience, which means they are always up-to-date with the latest technology and techniques.

That’s why IT outsourcing is seen as a driver of innovation.

Top Global IT Outsourcing Hubs: Poland and Ukraine

Poland and Ukraine are among the hottest IT outsourcing hubs globally. Despite challenges, Ukraine’s IT outsourcing scene is booming because the industry is a significant player in its economy. Experienced IT service providers such as Asabix have the depth of global expertise to provide top-notch products that align with industry best practices.

Outsourcing Across Industries

Global outsourcing is a strategic move for many software development industries. For instance, the financial sector often outsources to enhance cybersecurity and keep online transactions running smoothly. Businesses are upgrading their online presence with new websites, while manufacturers use third-party software to heighten production processes and aim for world-class quality.

Evolving Outsourcing Models

The classic outsourcing model is the go-to project model, where the whole project is handed off to an external service provider. They take charge of everything — from planning and development to testing and roll-out.

Nowadays, more flexible outsourcing models are popping up, such as:

– Staff Augmentation: This model allows companies to enhance their in-house teams by bringing in external specialists. It offers the flexibility to scale up or down quickly based on project demands, paying professionals only when needed without long-term commitments. It is a swift way to access specialized skills not available internally.

– Dedicated Team: This involves a dedicated group of outsourcing pros working exclusively on your projects, as offered by Asabix. Businesses can expand their teams as necessary for the project, creating a long-term partnership that is fully integrated into internal processes.

Meeting Business Needs with Flexible IT Outsourcing

IT outsourcing models are becoming more flexible in meeting business needs. Companies can choose what best supports collaboration and continuity, from project-based gigs to long-term deals. New project management tools for outsourcing are being created every year, and data privacy approaches are getting better. Despite the complex regulations for protecting data, advanced strategies are being put in place to ensure ongoing data security and compliance in collaboration with external IT teams.

The Future of IT Outsourcing

The IT outsourcing industry’s growth worldwide is improving the business landscape. By leveraging extra IT resources, companies are boosting their competitiveness through innovation and faster time to market. Looking for talented and dedicated experts? Take advantage of IT outsourcing with Asabix!

Source

As a career-long tech and sports CEO and advisor, Peter Moore is a long-time major player in Silicon Valley — including stints as head of Sega, Microsoft's Xbox division, Electronic Arts' sports division, and CEO of his hometown of Liverpool's soccer team. He currently serves as SVP and GM of Unity Technologies' Sports and Live Entertainment division.

Recently, Moore was headed to the airport to pick up his daughter when he felt "a little lightheaded and a little faint," he toldKTLA reporter Rich DeMuro. "Like a typical male, I thought, I'll go to Starbucks. That'll fix it.'"

His Apple Watch began to ping with "low heart rate" warnings. Moore did an ECG using the Watch, which informed him that his heart rate had dropped to 32 beats per minute. A more typical reading when not active would be between 50 and 60 bpm.

He pulled over and called his wife, who told him to stay put. She came and got him and took him to a nearby hospital.

Once there, according to Moore, "the doctor kind of theatrically ran in and said, This is not good. This is not good. You need a pacemaker right now.'" Moore underwent surgery immediately to implant a pacemaker, and now reports that he "feels great."

Pay heed to warnings from health wearables

Omid Yousefian, the cardiac electrophysiologist at Sansum Clinic Cardiology who treated Moore, said his Apple Watch played "a big role in saving his life." While the Apple Watch cannot detect a heart attack, it can alert users to unusual changes in their heart rate and rhythm, referred to as atrial fibrillation.

Moore "was notified by his watch that his heart rate is slow and he correlated that with the symptoms that he had," said Yousefian. "He didn't wait. He didn't sit. He came to the hospital directly. So he made a very smart move."

The Apple Watch has been credited innumerable times by users who said that the warnings it provided often made them aware of hidden health issues they didn't know they had. Basketball legend Sean Elliott recently credited the device with forcing him to go see a cardiologist, who was able to correct a heart rhythm issue with Elliott that could have lead to more serious damage over time.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this little device," Moore said. He praised the Apple Watch and other wearables for the value they can provide, particularly in "literally informing you about your health in real-time. And in my instance, I think, saving my life."

Source

Popular artificial sweetener erythritol has been linked to increased risks of blood clots, heart attack and stroke, according to new research led by Cleveland Clinic. The Ohio-based not-for-profit medical institute published the study in the European Heart Journal on Thursday.

Researchers have found that the sugar substitute, which is often blended with stevia, poses a higher risk of heart disease.

Erythritol is a non-calorific sweetener commonly used in more than a hundred types of products, including yoghurt, ice cream, diet sodas, and protein bars. In contrast to sugar, it results in more active blood platelets, increasing the risk of blood clots, according to the study.

As the research was based on just 20 patients, experts outside of the study say that people should maintain caution while interpreting its results, per USA Today. However, the World Heart Organisation issued a warning in 2023 that artificial sweeteners like aspartame and stevia were linked to a greater risk of Type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death in adults.

Dr. Stanley Hazen, a cardiologist and chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, said, “After drinking an erythritol-sweetened drink, you're at heightened risk for clotting, and your platelet function changes – and this was seen in every subject who was tested.”

Hazen explained that people should consume natural sweeteners like sugar and honey in moderation instead of artificial sweeteners because natural sources don't pose a risk of clotting. “This adds to the growing body of evidence that artificial sweeteners in general, but especially sugar alcohols like erythritol, appear to promote or foster an enhanced clotting risk,” he added.

The study is based on a larger cardiovascular study, also led by Hazen in 2023, which tested blood samples from more than 1,100 people who underwent heart risk assessment over three years. A follow-up study included another group of 2,100 non-emergency patients. The research also linked erythritol to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

Source

•     The plan aims to help tackle bullying and sleep concerns, among other issues.

•     There has been a 52% rise in children's screen time, a government report found.

A group of schools in London have joined together to announce a smartphone ban.

The ban will affect over 13,000 students at more than a dozen of the 20 government-funded middle and high schools in the borough of Southwark.

The kids are largely aged between 11 to 14, but a handful of schools have said they will roll out the program to all pupils from September onwards in a bid to tackle mental health issues, bullying, sleep concerns, and inappropriate access to graphic content.

Headteachers made the announcement shortly after a government report found that between 2020 and 2022, there was a 52% rise in children's screen time, and almost a quarter of young people used their smartphones in a way that's consistent with addiction.

Mike Baxter, the principal of the City of London Academy, Southwark, led the initiative with Matt Jones, the executive principal of Ark Globe Academy, to collaborate with local schools to cut smartphone use.

Power in numbers

For Baxter, the most effective way to get rid of smartphones is by acting with other schools.

"Unless you're working collectively, you become the standout school, and you become the school that parents may not want to go to," he said, explaining that for many people, a ban isn't an attractive idea because they want their children to have these devices.

He said one of his top reasons for driving the initiative is to help young people become socially rounded and more concerned with how they're interacting with people in the real world, as opposed to on their smartphones.

Baxter said the schools that he works in are generally in deprived areas.

"Those are the communities that need every chance possible to get the best possible exam results, to network and to get the work experience they need," he said, "and hours and hours spent on TikTok and Instagram doesn't provide them with that holistic education."

Children of lower socio-economic means are more negatively affected by being reliant on their smartphones, said Baxter. This is because they may need to network and socialize more than their peers who have family connections to help them secure career opportunities when the time comes, he added.

He felt students needed to be taught that the world is about human interaction so they can become adults with resilience in the workplace.

Baxter's passion also comes from being a dad, who doesn't want to feel the need to buy a smartphone when his child turns 10 or 11 just because that's what everyone else does.

Parents have to come to the school to collect confiscated smartphones

The district's ban varies between schools, but in Baxter's, every phone — smartphone or not — needs to be put into a pouch and turned off.

If a teacher ever does see a phone, they will always take it, regardless of context, as Baxter said there is no reason for a pupil to have their phone with them unless they plan on using it.

When the phone is a so-called "brick" or "dumb" phone, it's confiscated for one week and then returned to the student. For smartphones, parents have to come to collect it after school, which Baxter said they would be made aware of.

It's not all on schools

However, the burden shouldn't only fall on schools. Baxter says parents should refrain from buying their younger children smartphones altogether.

He said moms and dads have been instrumental in setting up group chats with like-minded parents and guardians eager to avoid buying these devices for kids.

In February, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough set up a WhatsApp group with this exact intention. Within 24 hours thousands wanted to join. The two suggested people set up local groups, and soon, there were over 60 Smartphone Free Childhood WhatsApp groups, sparking a national campaign.

Since they wouldn't be using their phones during school breaks and at other points, the ban meant pupils would get two to three hours extra each day to connect with the world around them. But he was less sure about what happens when the students get home.

Baxter's school will ask parents to buy more simplistic phones. He doesn't agree with waiting for the government to address the issue of children spending too much time on their phones.

"Human beings have got a huge amount of agency to change the world around them. And that's what schools are doing, that's what parents are doing," he said.

Source

Sunday, 11 August

• Who: Rocket Lab
• What: Electron rocket
• When: 11:15 UTC
• Where: Mahia, New Zealand
• Why: Rocket Lab will use an Electron rocket to launch the third satellite of Capella Space's Acadia series called Acadia 3. The mission will be called "A Sky Full of SARs" after the nature of the satellite, that is, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sat. The constellation will eventually contain 30 satellites and will be used for imaging the Earth.

Monday, 12 August

• Who: SpaceX
• What: Falcon 9
• When: 02:00 - 02:50 UTC
• Where: California, US
• Why: SpaceX will use a Falcon 9 to launch two satellites for Space Norway as part of the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM). The satellites will be put into a special orbit that will cause them to linger over the Arctic so they can provide services for longer periods of time. These ASBM satellites will provide constant broadband coverage over the North Pole and high-latitude areas.

Thursday, 15 August

• Who: CNSA
• What: Long March 3B/E
• When: 01:30 UTC
• Where: Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China
• Why: The rocket will be carrying an unknown payload into orbit

• Who: Roscosmos
• What: Soyuz 2.1a
• When: 03:20 UTC
• Where: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
• Why: Rocosmos, Russia's space agency, will launch a Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the 89th Progress cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station to ensure those aboard have everything they need.

• Who: ISRO
• What: SSLV
• When: 03:47 UTC
• Where: Dhawan Space Centre, India
• Why: ISRO, India's space agency, will launch the SSLV rocket on its third developmental flight; the mission is called SSLV-03. The mission will place the EOS 8 Earth observation satellite into orbit. Secondary payloads into the CubeSats Space Rickshaw and IITMSat. BlackSky was going to include its satellites but pulled out and XPoSat moved its satellites to another launch.

Recap

• The first mission we got last week was a Starlink mission. SpaceX used a Falcon 9 to launch 23 Startlink satellites (Starlink-184 / Starlink Group 11-1) into orbit from California, US. The first stage of the rocket performed a landing on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

• The second mission of the week was another Falcon 9 launch but this time carried the Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS carrying 3,720 kilos of supplies to ensure astronauts have everything they need. The first stage of the Falcon 9 performed a landing for reuse.

• The final launch that we saw was a Chinese Long March 6A carrying the first group of 18 SpaceSail Polar Orbit satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. These satellites will provide broadband internet services globally.

That's it for this week, be sure to check in next time!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years.

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

The arrival of August in the Arctic typically hints that autumn, with its dwindling daylight and cold weather, will soon return.

But on a recent afternoon, Sandy Gordon and her four children plunged into the silty waters of the Canada’s Mackenzie River, escaping a searing heatwave that has descended on the town of Inuvik.

“We absolutely love it when it’s nice and hot,” she said. “It’s so nice to be able to enjoy a true summer.”

Seasonal change in the north is rapid and, for local people, summer marks a brief reprieve from months of bitter cold. But a heatwave that is currently hovering over the community 130 miles (209km) north of the Arctic Circle threatens to shatter its all-time heat record.

While the warmth has brought joy, it also comes with a set of lingering worries, including the threat of wildfires and thawing permafrost, leading some to wonder if the growing trend of balmy weather might come with too steep a cost.

Brothers Rocky Gordon, left, and William cool off in the Mackenzie River during a heatwave. Photograph: Leyland Cecco/The Guardian

On Wednesday, just past the northernmost traffic lights in North America, a digital thermometer slowly climbed, eventually reaching 35C (95F) – and passing an all-time record of 33C set last year. Families left the NorthMart grocery store clutching boxes of popsicles and ice cream. A weather alert from Environment Canada classified the heat as “severe”, warning of “significant threat to life or property”.

The unseasonably warm temperatures mark the fourth heatwave of the season. While some dream of escaping work and leaping into nearby lakes and rivers, others aren’t thrilled.

“Winter absolutely sucks. I hate it,” said Kamdyn Alexie. “But at the same time, heat in the mid-30s isn’t so great either.”

Unlike more southern cities, where the hottest temperatures peak late afternoon, a midnight sunset in Inuvik means the heat persists well into the evening, offering little relief. The town is surrounded by forest, but the spruce and fir are dwarf-like compared with other regions, and offer little shade. Nor was the community, which sits on more than 1,000ft (305 metres) of permafrost, built with heatwaves in mind.

< View the area map image on the source page. >

The recent heatwave amplifies what residents say has been a difficult summer. Inuvik, located in a drainage of the Mackenzie River, has experienced low water levels due to prolonged droughts in British Columbia and Alberta, which feed the mighty river. Barges carrying food and supplies have been unable to traverse the waterways that link up northern outposts.

Alexie described a recent visit to visit to Hay River, a community nearly 800 miles away from Inuvik, where drought-like conditions had transformed a popular park into a “terrifyingly ugly” spectacle, with vegetation growing in areas typically covered by water.

For Gordon’s children, splashing through the river, the heat was a welcome counter to winter’s dark, months-long deep freeze, where temperatures have reached as low as -56C.

“We’ve made it here 10 times this year. It’s not often we get the chance to be here in August,” she said. “But I do worry, when it gets this hot and stays hot, about wildfires.”

In recent years, Canada’s record-breaking wildfire seasons have enveloped a region of the country historically spared from widespread destruction. And with the trend of warmer temperatures and prolonged periods of dry weather expected to continue in the Canadian north, so too is the risk of frequent and more intense wildfire seasons.

Last year, swaths of the Northwest Territories erupted in flames, forcing three-quarters of residents from their homes.

At one point, a fire burned less than 8 miles from Inuvik.

Warm weather has proven helpful to the Arctic’s largest greenhouse – but sustained temperatures mean the community garden requires watering multiple times a day. Photograph: Leyland Cecco/The Guardian

“We were all kind of on edge, waiting to hear whether we were going to need to pack a bag and escape. We’d just watched Yellowknife, the territory’s capital city, evacuate and we didn’t know if we were next,” said the deputy mayor, Natasha Kulikowski. “The sense of anxiety and panic was high. And so with this heat and the fires happening so recently, it’s hard to fully forget that feeling.”

This week, more than half of the territory was facing “extreme” fire risk, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System.

Research over the years has shown that Canada is warming at a rate faster than the global average and in the Arctic, the warming is happening even faster.

The increased warming in northern latitudes is not yet fully understood, but scientists say the retreat of glaciers and disappearing sea ice both contribute to a feedback loop of warming, a significant factor contributing to Canada’s disproportionate temperature increase.

“As someone who loves heat, I’m so happy to have nice weather and to be outside. But the other day, when I was out picking berries, I could hear and feel the ground crunching under my feet because it’s so dry,” said Kulikowski. “And so when I look at it from a broader environmental perspective, it’s hard to come to any conclusion but this: it’s devastating.”

Source

That outlook quickly proved accurate — and would end up defining almost the entire month in the Golden State, which would see little relief from unrelenting heat.

As the first heat wave kicked off, utility officials on July 2 initiated the year's first planned power shutoffs in some Northern California counties, trying to avoid dangerous fire starts in the scorching weather.

Then, record after record across the state shattered. Palm Springs saw its hottest day ever, hitting 124 degrees July 5. Redding hit an all-time high of 119 degrees July 6. Palmdale and Lancaster had almost a week straight of days at or above 110 degrees, more than doubling the cities' previous streaks.

Tragic outcomes, too, began to mount. Several wildfires that erupted in the extreme heat destroyed homes and sent families fleeing. A motorcyclist died while touring Death Valley.

Without much of a reprieve, a second heat wave then broiled the state's interior. While not as intense or as long as the first, it would still fuel the Park fire's explosive growth across Butte and Tehama counties. Within a matter of days, the blaze would become one of the largest wildfires in California history.

It was a historic month for extreme heat, and now climate data have confirmed just how unprecedented it was: July 2024 was officially California's hottest on record.

July's average temperature across the Golden State was 81.7 degrees, surpassing the prior record from July 2021 by almost two degrees, according to data published Thursday by the National Centers for Environmental Information, a division of NOAA. The agency's statewide climate data goes back to 1895.

"July’s heat was remarkable not only for its sheer intensity ... but also for its duration," Daniel Swain, a UCLA Climate Scientist wrote in a blog post anticipating the release of Thursday's data. "Temperatures remained extremely elevated for weeks on end and did not substantially cool off at night, especially in the foothill thermal belts."

Meteorologists and climate scientists said the mark doesn't necessarily come as a surprise, but falls into the globe's path of dangerous warming driven by human-caused climate change.

Of California's hottest months on record, the top three occurred in the last seven years.

Globally, July also saw two of the hottest days in recorded history, hitting an average surface temperature of 17.15 degrees Celsius, or 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit, on both July 22 and 23, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Interestingly, for the first time in 13 months, global temperatures did not set a new record high for the respective month, with the average temperature for July coming in approximately 0.04 degrees Celsius behind the record from July 2023. However, July 2024 still became the second-warmest month globally on record.

"The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. "The overall context hasn’t changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero."

Halfway through the year, the world's temperatures would need to fall drastically to not become — once again — the warmest year on record, the climate agency reported.

In California and the West, NOAA officials warned that the region is favored to again see above-average temperatures in August, with "significant wildland fire potential," according to the agency's climate report released Thursday.

It remains to be seen if August could rival the early-July prolonged heat wave, which proved a main factor in shattering California's monthly heat records, as well as several other records across the state.

“We’ve had heat waves before that were maybe a week or so, but this one was just so persistent," said Andrew Gorelow, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, which provides forecasts for much of southeastern California.

Death Valley, the national park known for its sweltering temperatures, also recorded its hottest month on record, with average high temperatures hitting 121.9 degrees, according to park officials. Temperatures reached at least 120 degrees on all but seven days in the month, and the hottest day, July 7, hit 129 degrees.

"Six of the 10 hottest summers have come in the last 10 years, which should serve as a wake up call,” Mike Reynolds, Death Valley National Park superintendent, said in a statement. “Record-breaking months like this one could become the norm as we continue to see global temperatures rise."

The historic month saw a variety of new records across California:

• In Los Angeles County, both Lancaster and Palmdale set a record for the most consecutive days over 100 degrees — 25 in a row, from July 2 to 26, beating the prior record of 23 days, according to the National Weather Service.

• July was also both Lancaster and Palmdale's hottest month on record. Lancaster had an average high of 104.9 degrees, 2 degrees higher than the record set in August 2022. Palmdale's July average temperature was 105.4 degrees, also 2 degrees higher than the record set in July 1961.

• Sanberg, in the Los Angeles County mountains, hit its hottest month on record, with an average monthly temperature of 93.5 degrees. The prior record was 92.5 degrees, set in July 2021.

• Palm Springs, which hit its hottest day in history, also had its hottest month, with an average high of 114.9 degrees — beating the record from last July.

• In the Central Valley, Merced, Madera, Fresno and Bakersfield also recorded their hottest month in known history, with average temperatures breaking records set from 1931 to 2021, according to the National Weather Service.

• Several regions in the Sacramento Valley, including Red Bluff, Redding and Modesto, hit their hottest July on record this year, according to the National Weather Service.

Source

The study published in Nature Mental Health on Friday has identified for the first time the biological pathways through which poor organ health may lead to poor brain health, which may in turn lead to poor mental health.

The research led by the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with the University College London and the University of Cambridge, studied a subset of 18,083 people in the UK Biobank cohort.

Among these, 7,749 people had no clinically diagnosed major medical and mental conditions, while 10,334 had a lifetime diagnosis of one of the four common mental disorders including schizophrenia (67), bipolar disorder (592), depression (9,817) and generalised anxiety disorder (2,041).

They were aged between 40–70 years (with a mean age of 53.7 ) at the time of recruitment in 2006–2010 where researchers also separately assessed the health of their seven organ systems: the lungs, muscles and bones, kidneys, liver, heart, and the metabolic and immune systems. As well as physical assessments, the participants also undertook questionnaires for environmental and lifestyle factors.

For each of the seven organ systems, the researchers found that poorer organ health was significantly associated with higher depressive symptoms.

Similarly, poor organ health scores, except kidney and lung scores, were significantly associated with higher anxiety symptoms.

Poorer health scores of all organs, except the kidneys, were significantly associated with higher neuroticism (participants with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder).

“The musculoskeletal system consistently showed the strongest associations with the three mental health measures, followed by the immune, metabolic and hepatic [liver] systems,” according to the research.

The researchers found a consistent relationship for each reduction in musculoskeletal health, a consistent worsening of mental health symptoms.

Physical–mental health associations were modest for heart and lung systems and the weakest for the kidney system, they found.

The researchers then investigated whether the association between organ and mental health is mediated by the brain by gathering brain imaging data through participants undergoing an MRI between 4–14 years later.

For each person, a score was calculated for the volume of each brain gray matter (GM) region and the brain’s white matter tract – the fiber pathways that connect different components of the neural system. The participants then undertook an online assessment for mental health outcomes.

The researchers found “multiple significant pathways through which poor organ health may lead to poor brain health.” Across the three mental health measures, they found the volume of brain gray matter had the largest impact on depressive symptom severity, while the influence was weakest on anxiety.

They found the extent to which brain structure mediates physical–mental health varies across organ systems. “In general, the brain showed a strong mediating effect on organs that had strong direct effects on mental health outcomes; namely, the musculoskeletal and immune systems.”

The lead author, Dr Ye Ella Tian, a research fellow in the University of Melbourne’s department of psychiatry, said “by integrating clinical data, brain imaging and a wide array of organ-specific biomarkers in a large population-based cohort, we were able to establish for the first time multiple pathways involving the brain as a mediating factor and through which poor physical health of body organ systems may lead to poor mental health.”

The authors also assessed 14 lifestyle factors commonly associated with physical and mental health, including smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity, poor nutrition and sleep, finding most were significantly associated with all three mental health measures.

The authors noted several limitations of the study. They acknowledged brain imaging and mental health assessments not available at the first study wave of the UK Biobank, when physical health was assessed.

Because of the sequence of participant assessment, they were unable to assess pathways where poor mental health may lead to poor physical health via influencing brain structure, or other combinations. They noted the relationship between physical and mental health is likely bi-directional.

They also acknowledged the UK Biobank cohort was predominantly white British participants and further work is needed to assess the generalisability of findings across the adult lifespan and in a diversity of ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Dr. Matthew Ahmadi, a research fellow at the University of Sydney’s faculty of medicine and health who was not involved in the research, said “the authors thorough integration of several lifestyle and health factors, brain imaging, organ-specific biomarkers and analytical modelling allowed them to identify potentially key pathways that the brain, physical health, and organ function may directly and indirectly impact mental health through biological pathways”.

Source

The number of people affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February, and will likely be announced as early as Wednesday with the company's fourth-quarter results, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Reuters exclusively reported the job cut that San Jose, California-based Cisco announced in February, prior to the company announcing it.

The company employed around 84,900 people as of July 2023, according to its annual filing. That number does not account for the February layoffs.

Cisco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Its shares fell nearly 1% after Reuters first reported the cuts. The stock was down over 9% this year as of Thursday's close.

Cisco, the largest maker of the routers and switches that direct internet traffic, has been grappling with sluggish demand and supply-chain constraints in its mainstay business.

That has pushed the company to diversify with moves such as its $28-billion buyout of cybersecurity firm Splunk, which it completed in March. The acquisition will reduce its reliance on one-time equipment sales by boosting its subscription business.

The company has been trying to incorporate AI products in its offerings and in May reiterated its target of $1 billion worth of AI product orders in 2025. In June, it launched a $1-billion fund to make investments in AI startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI. The company said at the time it had made 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments in the last several years.

The layoffs are the latest in the tech industry, which has been cutting costs this year to offset big investments in AI.

Over 126,000 people have been laid off across 393 tech companies since the start of the year, according to data from tracking website Layoffs.fyi.

Earlier in August, chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) cut over 15% of its workforce, or some 17,500 people, as it tried to turn around its money-losing manufacturing business.

Source

Welcome to Edition 7.06 of the Rocket Report! There has been a lot of drama over the last week involving NASA, the crew of Starliner on board the International Space Station, and the launch of the Crew-9 mission on a Falcon 9 rocket. NASA is now down to a binary choice: Fly Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home on Starliner, or send two astronauts to orbit on Crew-9, and return Wilmore and Williams next February on that spacecraft. We should know NASA's final decision next week.

 

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Firefly inks another big Alpha contract. Firefly Aerospace said Wednesday that it has signed a multi-launch agreement with L3Harris Technologies for up to 20 launches on Firefly’s Alpha rocket, including two to four missions per year from 2027 to 2031, depending on customer needs. The new agreement is in addition to Firefly’s existing multi-launch agreement with L3Harris for three Alpha missions in 2026. What is not clear is exactly what satellites L3Harris wants to launch.

 

Putting skins on the wall ... "Firefly continues to see growing demand for Alpha’s responsive small-lift services, and we’re committed to providing a dedicated launch option that takes our customers directly to their preferred orbits," said Peter Schumacher, Interim CEO at Firefly Aerospace. This represents another significant win for the Alpha rocket, which can lift about 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit. Under terms of a separate agreement announced in June, Lockheed purchased 15 launches from Firefly, with an option for 10 more, through the year 2029. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

 

Electron pushing launch cadence. Rocket Lab announced Wednesday that it has scheduled the launch for its 52nd Electron mission, which will deploy a single satellite for American space tech company Capella Space. The mission is scheduled to launch during a 14-day window that opens on August 11 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

 

Getting to ten much faster ... Should this launch take place at the opening of this window, this Electron flight would occur just eight days after the most recent Electron mission on August 3. This upcoming mission for Capella will be Rocket Lab’s tenth mission for 2024, equaling the company’s annual launch record set in 2023. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

 

PLD Space to start work on launch site. PLD Space plans to start building launch facilities for its Miura 5 rocket in October from the Diamant site at Guiana Space Centre, cofounder and Chief Business Development Officer Raúl Verdú said this week, Space News reports. Diamant has been dormant for decades after once being used for the French rocket of the same name, and “in the area where we are there is nothing,” Verdú said, “we have to do everything from scratch.”

 

Lots of things to build ... PLD Space, Germany’s Isar Aerospace and a handful of other small European launchers are working with France’s CNES space agency to convert the site into a multi-use facility. In June, the Spanish company announced a 10 million euro ($11 million) investment plan for 15,765 square meters of space at Diamant, divided between a launch zone and a preparation area comprising an integration hangar, clean room, control center, commercial and work offices. CNES is providing common infrastructure such as roads and electricity networks. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

 

Japanese firm raises $21 million. Interstellar Technologies announced a new fundraising round that brings its total capital and government funding to $117 million, Payload reports. After building and launching a suborbital rocket called Momo, the company is building its first orbital rocket, dubbed ZERO, with a goal of flying in 2025. This rocket is intended to carry 800 kg of payload to low-Earth orbit, and be cheaper than Rocket Lab’s Electron, COO Keiji Atsuta said.

 

Big help from Japan ... Interstellar’s latest round was led by Japanese VC fund SBI and NTT Docomo, the country’s leading mobile firm. Previously, it received a large amount of funding, $96 million, from the Japanese government. “The Japanese government has explicitly expressed its support for private rockets due to the growing importance of the space industry, and being selected for this support program has significantly accelerated our business,” Interstellar CEO Takahiro Inagawa said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

 

Cross-border deal benefits Nova Scotia spaceport. The Canadian government says it has completed negotiations with the United States on an agreement that would allow the use of US space launch technology, expertise, and data for space launches in Canada, the AP reports. Maritime Launch Services, the company developing Canada’s first commercial spaceport in northeastern Nova Scotia, called the agreement a major step forward for the industry.

 

US rockets could launch from Canada ... Ottawa has said it hopes to position Canada as future leader in commercial space launches. The country has geographical advantages, including a vast, sparsely populated territory and high-inclination orbits. The agreement, which is yet to be signed, will establish the legal and technical safeguards needed while ensuring the proper handling of sensitive technology, the government said in a news release. (submitted by JoeyS-IVB)

Crew-9 launch delayed five weeks to work Starliner issues. During a news conference on Wednesday, NASA officials, for the first time, publicly discussed divisions within the agency about whether the Starliner spacecraft is really reliable enough to return two veteran astronauts—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—back to Earth from the International Space Station. The space agency also confirmed key elements exclusively reported by Ars over the last week, chiefly that NASA has quietly been working for weeks with SpaceX on a potential rescue mission for Wilmore and Williams and that the Crew-9 mission launch has been delayed to September 24 to account for this possibility.

 

From eight days to eight months ... NASA has been studying various contingencies, but officials appear to have settled on two different options for bringing the two astronauts back to Earth. They could still fly back on Starliner if NASA engineers become more comfortable with the uncertainty about the thruster performance, and if so, they would do so during the second half of this month or the first part of September. Alternatively, NASA could launch the Crew-9 mission with a complement of two rather than four astronauts, and Wilmore and Williams would join that "increment" on the space station and fly back to Earth in February 2025.

 

Rocket Lab test-fires Archimedes engine. The launch firm has successfully hot-fired its new rocket engine Archimedes for the first time, it said Thursday. Rocket Lab’s engineers completed the hot fire test at the company’s Engine Test Complex within NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. According to Rocket Lab, the Archimedes performed well and ticked off several key test objectives, including reaching 102 percent power.

 

Fast rocket, faster development ... This gives the company confidence in the design of the engine, which will power the medium-lift Neutron rocket. "Taking a new staged combustion liquid rocket engine from cleansheet design to hot fire in just a couple of years is industry-leading stuff," Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said in the news release. The company is working toward the debut launch of Neutron in mid-2025, but a launch any time next year would be impressive.

 

China begins launching megaconstellation. A Long March 6A rocket delivered 18 Qianfan satellites into polar orbit following liftoff Tuesday from the Taiyuan launch base in northern China's Shanxi province. Qianfan translates to "Thousand Sails," and the 18 satellites launched Tuesday are the first of potentially thousands of spacecraft planned by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), a company backed by Shanghai's municipal government, Ars reports. Unfortunately, an issue with the rocket's upper stage created many pieces of debris.

 

A potential Starlink competitor ... Chinese officials have long signaled their interest in deploying a satellite network, or maybe several, to beam broadband Internet signals across China and other nations within its sphere of influence. Two serious efforts are underway in China to develop a rival to SpaceX's Starlink network, which the Chinese government has banned in its territory. One of these is Qianfan, and Shanghai officials only began releasing details of this constellation last year. A filing with the International Telecommunication Union suggests the developers of Shanghai-based megaconstellation initially plan to deploy 1,296 satellites at an altitude of about 1,160 kilometers (721 miles). (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)

 

Polaris Dawn launch date reset to late August. SpaceX is now targeting August 26 for the launch of Polaris Dawn, a crewed flight to Earth orbit that will feature the first-ever private spacewalk, Space.com reports. Those four crewmembers are billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who will command the mission; pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are SpaceX engineers.

 

Going for record heights ... Polaris Dawn will take the quartet to Earth orbit on a free-flying mission that does not link up with the International Space Station. The planned private spacewalk is not the only way this mission will make history: Polaris Dawn will orbit our planet at an altitude of about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), taking the crew farther from Earth than any mission since the Apollo era. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Exploration Upper Stage is way late and way over budget. The NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket is seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget, a new report from the space agency's inspector general finds. However, beyond these headline numbers, there is also some eye-opening information about the project's prime contractor, Boeing, and its poor quality control practices, Ars reports.

 

Lack of a trained workforce... At the Michoud Assembly Facility in southern Louisiana, where the Exploration Upper Stage is being manufactured, federal observers have issued a striking number of "Corrective Action Requests" to Boeing. "According to Safety and Mission Assurance officials at NASA and DCMA officials at Michoud, Boeing’s quality control issues are largely caused by its workforce having insufficient aerospace production experience," the report states. "The lack of a trained and qualified workforce increases the risk that the contractor will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not adhere to NASA requirements and industry standards." (submitted by EllPeaTea)

 

New Glenn making moves at the Cape. On Thursday, Blue Origin used the test module of the first stage of its New Glenn rocket to simulate recovery operations at Port Canaveral, Florida. "The operation validated our tooling and procedures for recovering our first stage from the landing vessel, bringing us another step closer to our first launch," the company said on the social media site X. The 200-foot-tall simulator was quite the striking object to see towering over the port.

 

Recovery rehearsal soon ... In an additional post, the chief executive of Blue Origin, Dave Limp, added, "The mobile harbor crane, remotely operated lift tool or 'ROLT,' and the breakover fixture work in tandem to lift and reorient the booster from vertical to horizontal so we can transport it back for refurbishment and re-flight. Coming soon: a full recovery rehearsal with our landing vessel." It's exciting to see Blue coming out with more and more information about the large rocket before its debut within the next few months.

Next three launches

August 9: Falcon 9 | Starlink 8-3 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 12:13 UTC

August 10: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-7 | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 11:21 UTC

August 11: Electron | "A Sky Full of SARs" | Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand | 11:15 UTC

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years.

2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of July): 3,313 news posts

Nearly a third of employed job seekers now report concerns about unexpected layoffs, increasing from 28% in the fall of 2023 and 24% in the spring of 2023.

In the survey of 1,002 U.S. adults in the spring, employed job seekers said the top reasons for their job search were better compensation (46%) and work/life balance (41%) and better growth opportunities in their industry (41%).

In addition, 44% said their biggest fear was not receiving a salary increase or raise they deserve at their current company.

Many employed job seekers seem to feel unfulfilled as well. More than half described their current work as having a “job” that earns money rather than having a “career” that not only earns money but also provides enjoyment and pride. Generation Z workers were most likely to report feeling this way, at 74%, though about half of millennial and Gen X workers agreed.

“The only benefit I get from the job is a paycheck. No added value to my life or my personal growth or professional development,” one job seeker wrote in the survey responses.

With the unemployment rate jumping to 4.3% in the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, economists told HR Dive the labor market is now “in a perilous spot” and “at an inflection point.” Several signs indicate a slowdown, they said, including that job loss may be on the rise.

Although the economy may be fluctuating, workers still expect competitive pay, according to a Payscale report. Transparent pay practices and meaningful raises are now essential to attracting and retaining talent, but many organizations aren’t keeping up, Payscale’s CPO said.

Source

The US-based carrier accused the cybersecurity company of "negligence", saying it was forced to cancel thousands of flights because of the outage and had lost at least $500m (£392m) as a result.

CrowdStrike had denied it was solely responsible for Delta's flight disruptions, which it said continued after other carriers came back online.

Delta has since been hit by a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of affected passengers.

The global glitch originated from CrowdStrike on 19 July, after it had sent out a corrupted software update to its huge number of customers.

Microsoft estimated that 8.5 million Windows devices around the world were disabled as a result.

Delta Airlines’ services were impacted for days after the outage, even after other airlines appeared to have recovered. Delta cancelled around 7,000 flights over five days until 24 July, and is now being investigated by the US Department of Transportation over the disruptions.

The airline has since blamed CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the disruptions, and has threatened legal action against the two companies.

Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft have rejected the claim that they are responsible for the disruptions at Delta.

Delta's CEO Ed Bastian wrote in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that what happened was “unacceptable”.

“Our customers and employees deserve better,” Mr Bastian wrote, adding that the technology meltdown affected 1.3 million of Delta's customers.

CrowdStrike said on Sunday that it would defend itself “aggressively” should Delta take legal action against it.

Microsoft also said it would fight back, and added that its preliminary review shows Delta, unlike its competitors, was operating with an outdated IT infrastructure.

In response, David Boies, an attorney representing Delta, wrote in a letter to CrowdStrike on Thursday that “there is no basis - none - to suggest that Delta was in any way responsible for the faulty software that crashed systems around the world”.

He added that Delta Airlines had invested billions of dollars in its technology, and said it struggled to restore operations because of its reliance on Microsoft and CrowdStrike.

In response, a CrowdStrike spokesperson accused Delta of pushing "a misleading narrative".

Delta is facing its own legal challenges after the outage, after a lawsuit was filed against it on behalf of passengers whose flights were cancelled.

The legal action stated that “no other US airline had cancelled one-tenth as many flights".

It also claimed that Delta failed to properly compensate passengers, and that it had asked passengers to sign waivers releasing Delta of all legal claims.

Many airlines rely on Microsoft’s Office365 for scheduling. The CrowdStrike outage had crashed those systems, forcing them to resort to manual scheduling.

CrowdStrike has since been sued by its shareholders, who accused the company of making "false and misleading" statements about its software testing. CrowdStrike has denied the allegations.

Source

China’s domination of electric cars, which is threatening to start a trade war, was born decades ago in university laboratories in Texas, when researchers discovered how to make batteries with minerals that were abundant and cheap.

Companies from China have recently built on those early discoveries, figuring out how to make the batteries hold a powerful charge and endure more than a decade of daily recharges. They are inexpensively and reliably manufacturing vast numbers of these batteries, producing most of the world’s electric cars and many other clean energy systems.

Batteries are just one example of how China is catching up with — or passing — advanced industrial democracies in its technological and manufacturing sophistication. It is achieving many breakthroughs in a long list of sectors, from pharmaceuticals to drones to high-efficiency solar panels.

Beijing’s challenge to the technological leadership that the United States has held since World War II is evidenced in China’s classrooms and corporate budgets, as well as in directives from the highest levels of the Communist Party.

A considerably larger share of Chinese students major in science, math and engineering than students in other big countries do. That share is rising further, even as overall higher education enrollment has increased more than tenfold since 2000.

Spending on research and development has surged, tripling in the past decade and moving China into second place after the United States. Researchers in China lead the world in publishing widely cited papers in 52 of 64 critical technologies, recent calculations by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reveal.

China’s advances in battery research have helped it gain a dominant position in electric vehicles. Credit...Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

Last month, China’s leaders vowed to turn the nation’s research efforts up another notch.

A once-a-decade meeting of China’s Communist Party leadership chose scientific training and education as one of the country’s top economic priorities. That goal received more attention in the meeting’s final resolution than any other policy did, except strengthening the party itself.

China will “make extraordinary arrangements for urgently needed disciplines and majors,” said Huai Jinpeng, the minister of education. “We will implement a national strategy for cultivating top talents.”

A majority of undergraduates in China major in math, science, engineering or agriculture, according to the Education Ministry. And three-quarters of China’s doctoral students do so.

By comparison, only a fifth of American undergraduates and half of doctoral students are in these categories, although American data defines these majors a little more narrowly.

China’s lead is particularly wide in batteries. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 65.5 percent of widely cited technical papers on battery technology come from researchers in China, compared with 12 percent from the United States.

A CATL battery factory in Ningde, China, last year.Credit...Qilai Shen for The New York Times

Both of the world’s two largest makers of electric car batteries, CATL and BYD, are Chinese.

China has close to 50 graduate programs that focus on either battery chemistry or the closely related subject of battery metallurgy. By contrast, only a handful of professors in the United States are working on batteries.

Undergraduates in the United States are becoming interested in battery research, said Hillary Smith, a battery physics professor at Swarthmore College. But, she added, “they are going to compete for a very few spots if they want to do battery research, and most will have to choose something else.”

The roots of China’s battery successes are visible at Central South University in Changsha, a city in south-central China and a longtime hub of China’s chemicals industry.

Central South University has nearly 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students on an extensive, modern campus. Its chemistry department, once in a small brick building, has moved to a six-story concrete building with labyrinths of labs and classrooms.

Zhu Fangjun, a doctoral student, shows the equipment in a chemistry lab at Central South University in Changsha.Credit...Keith Bradsher/The New York Times

In one lab, which is filled with glowing red lights, hundreds of batteries with new chemistries are tested at the same time. Electron microscopes and other advanced equipment occupy other rooms.

“For us, the experimental equipment is sufficient to meet everyone’s testing needs,” said Zhu Fangjun, a doctoral student.

Peng Wenjie, a professor, has set up a battery research company nearby that employs more than 100 recent doctoral and master’s program graduates and over 200 assistants. The assistants work in relays for each researcher so that the testing of new chemistries and designs continues 24 hours a day.

“There are many people on site to do the tests, so the efficiency is very high,” Professor Peng said.

China’s broadening expertise in manufacturing has created an active debate in other countries, notably the United States, over whether to invite Chinese companies to build factories or whether to try to duplicate what China has accomplished.

The College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Central South University in Changsha, China, has extensive laboratories for battery research.Credit...Keith Bradsher/The New York Times

“If the U.S. wants to build up a supply chain quickly, the best way is to invite Chinese companies, and they will set it up very quickly and bring technology,” said Feng An, the founder of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a nonprofit research group in Beijing and Los Angeles.

Manufacturing makes up 28 percent of China’s economy, compared with 11 percent in the United States. China’s hope is that investments in scientific education and research will translate into efficiency gains that will help lift the entire economy, said Liu Qiao, the dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University.

“If you have a large manufacturing sector,” he said, “it’s easy to improve productivity levels.”

China’s manufacturing prowess has become a geopolitical issue, however. The government subsidies and policies that have helped fuel the factory boom have left many other countries wary of buying more of China’s exports.

The European Union has imposed formidable provisional tariffs on electric vehicles from China. In the United States, which has also used tariffs to effectively block China’s E.V. companies, political and commercial pressure has impeded ventures with Chinese battery makers.

Peng Wenjie, a professor at Central South University in Changsha, China, in a chemistry lab with rubber safety gloves used for conducting chemical experiments.Credit...Keith Bradsher/The New York Times

Still, China’s battery companies are looking for ways to produce in the United States for the American market. Building and equipping an electric-car battery factory in the United States costs six times as much as in China, said Robin Zeng, the chairman and founder of CATL.

The work is also slow — “three times longer,” he said in an interview.

The United States still leads China in overall research spending, in terms of dollars spent and also in terms of the share of each country’s economy. Research and development represented 3.4 percent of the American economy last year after several years of increases.

But China is at 2.6 percent and rising.

“What happens when China passes the U.S. in R&D and they have the manufacturing base?” asked Craig Allen, the president of the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents American companies doing business in China.

Source

In 2022, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas left their jobs developing artificial intelligence at Google. They said the tech giant moved too slowly. So they created Character.AI, a chatbot start-up, and raised nearly $200 million.

Last week, Mr. Shazeer and Mr. De Freitas announced that they were returning to Google. They had struck a deal to rejoin its A.I. research arm, along with roughly 20 percent of Character.AI’s employees, and provide their start-up’s technology, they said.

But even though Google was getting all that, it was not buying Character.AI.

Instead, Google agreed to pay $3 billion to license the technology, two people with knowledge of the deal said. About $2.5 billion of that sum will then be used to buy out Character.AI’s shareholders, including Mr. Shazeer, who owns 30 percent to 40 percent of the company and stands to net $750 million to $1 billion, the people said. What remains of Character.AI will continue operating without its founders and investors.

The deal was one of several unusual transactions that have recently emerged in Silicon Valley. While big tech companies typically buy start-ups outright, they have turned to a more complicated deal structure for young A.I. companies. It involves licensing the technology and hiring the top employees — effectively swallowing the start-up and its main assets — without becoming the owner of the firm.

These transactions are being driven by the big tech companies’ desire to sidestep regulatory scrutiny while trying to get ahead in A.I., said three people who have been involved in such agreements. Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft are under a magnifying glass from agencies like the Federal Trade Commission over whether they are squashing competition, including by buying start-ups.

“Large tech firms may clearly be trying to avoid regulatory scrutiny by not directly acquiring the targeted firms,” said Justin Johnson, a business economist who focuses on antitrust at Cornell University. But “these deals do indeed start to look a lot like regular acquisitions.”

In a statement, Google said it was “thrilled” that Mr. Shazeer was returning alongside some of his colleagues and declined to comment on antitrust scrutiny. On Monday, a federal judge issued a landmark ruling that found Google had violated antitrust law by abusing a monopoly in online search.

A Character.AI spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the announcement of the Google deal. The Information earlier reported on the deal’s details.

Since the A.I. boom took off in late 2022, it has transformed tech deals. Investors initially raced to pour money into A.I. start-ups at high valuations. That led to an unusually frenzied pace, with start-ups such as Anthropic raising large sums frequently and agreeing to various funding conditions, such as using chips and cloud computing services from the companies that invested in them.

That excitement cooled as it became clear that some high-profile A.I. start-ups would not succeed, creating an opportunity for big tech companies to swoop in with nontraditional deals.

Microsoft kicked off the trend in March when it agreed to pay the A.I. start-up Inflection more than $650 million to license its technology and hire almost all of its employees, including its founder, Mustafa Suleyman. Mr. Suleyman, an A.I. veteran, now leads Microsoft’s consumer A.I. business.

In June, Amazon inked a similar deal with the A.I. start-up Adept, bringing on many of its employees, including its founder, David Luan.

Microsoft’s annual developer conference in May. In March, the company struck a $650 million deal with the chatbot start-up Inflection, but did not buy the company.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

Amazon paid Adept at least $330 million to license its technology, with much of the money going toward paying back the $414 million that the start-up had raised from investors, three people with knowledge of the transaction said. Amazon also offered a $100 million retention bonus to Adept employees who joined, the people said.

Regulators are watching. The F.T.C. is working on a broad study of A.I. deals between start-ups and Microsoft, Amazon and Google, the agency said in January. It is also investigating whether Microsoft should have notified regulators about the Inflection deal, which would have subjected the arrangement to more immediate scrutiny, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

On Thursday, Britain’s antitrust regulator said it was investigating an investment deal that Amazon had made with Anthropic.

Silicon Valley has embraced the unusual deals because start-up founders can continue working on their technology with the resources of a large company, without worrying about making money on their own.

The transactions can also provide a fast return for investors. Investors in Character.AI, which was privately valued at $1 billion, made a two-and-a-half-times return from the Google licensing deal after just two years. With the Adept and Inflection deals, most investors got their money back, people familiar with the transactions said.

Yet the transactions have also left behind orphaned corporate entities, stranding remaining employees at start-ups where the founders and investors have moved on. Those employees do not get to partake in the financial spoils of these deals.

That has caused consternation among some tech investors and entrepreneurs.

“If you build a company and you take on money from investors, every person involved deserves to be rewarded,” said Sebastian Thrun, an A.I. researcher and serial entrepreneur known for founding Google’s self-driving car project. “This is why Silicon Valley emerged. If you water things down, it will be hard for the ecosystem to survive.”

Matt Turck, an investor at the venture firm FirstMark Capital, said he hoped these types of deals would not continue because they created “a messy structure that breaks down the alignment” of founders, employees and investors.

It is unclear how the left-behind companies will fare. At Character.AI, Dominic Perella, the general counsel, has become the interim chief executive. The start-up has said it is “committed to serving our users through innovative new products.”

At Adept, teams working on product, sales and other areas did not join Amazon, a person familiar with the agreement said. Amazon hired only the researchers who built Adept’s A.I. technology. The start-up’s former head of engineering, Zach Brock, has since taken over as chief executive, and the company is trying to license its technology to other firms, according to a recent pitch sent to prospective partners that was viewed by The New York Times.

Inflection has also hired a new chief executive, but just two employees stayed on while the rest — roughly 70 people — joined Microsoft.

Inflection used the $650 million licensing fee from Microsoft to reimburse its investors, who had poured $1.5 billion into the company.

More of these deals may surface. Many A.I. start-ups have raised huge sums on wildly ambitious goals, and large acquirers remain eager to pay for the best talent, ideas and products. At the same time, some of the start-ups are struggling to make money and to compete with the bigger players, so they may be more willing to entertain deal talks.

“Founders and investors realize that not every high-profile A.I. start-up with great founders is going to be the next OpenAI or Google,” Mr. Turck said.

Source

Also known as cobalamin, vitamin B12 is involved in several key processes, such as amino acid metabolism, cell renewal, and the synthesis of DNA and RNA. It helps produce red blood cells and bone marrow, lowers blood cholesterol levels, and maintains regular nerve function. Additionally, vitamin B12 helps convert nutrients into energy, which helps us lead an active lifestyle.

Vitamin B12 also plays a role in the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, hormones that are released in response to stress. By supporting the synthesis of these hormones, vitamin B12 can help reduce stress and fatigue, boost energy levels, improve concentration, and enhance cognitive function. Our bodies do not produce vitamin B12 on their own, so it becomes necessary to make sure we get enough, either through a healthy diet or additional supplements

What is considered a low level of B12?

Vitamin B12 deficiency can be diagnosed when blood tests show levels below the ideal range of 200 to 950 picograms per millilitre (pg/ml). Levels below 200 pg/ml indicate a deficiency, while levels above 950 pg/ml indicate an excess.

12 signs of vitamin B12 deficiency

Vitamin B12 deficiency occurs when there is insufficient intake or the body has difficulty absorbing or storing it properly. One manifestation of vitamin B12 deficiency is pernicious anaemia, a specific type of anaemia that develops gradually. This slow progression allows the body to adapt, which can be dangerous because it masks more serious underlying issues that may not be immediately detectable through symptoms.

The bodily symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency are:

1.     Weakness and fatigue
2.     Pallor
3.     State of confusion, irritability, depression
4.     Decline in concentration
5.     Weight loss
6.     Shortness of breath
7.     Dizziness
8.     Accelerated heartbeat
9.     Enlarged liver and spleen
10.     Tingling in hands and feet
11.     A feeling of weakness in arms and legs
12.     Muscle weakness

Vitamin B12 deficiency and migraine headaches

Vitamin B12 deficiency is often found in individuals suffering from intense and chronic headaches. This correlation was highlighted by a study published in the official journal of the Brazilian Academy of Neurology, Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria.

Specifically, the study noted that a deficiency of vitamin B12, along with excess homocysteine in the blood, can damage the cells that make up the walls of blood vessels. This damage increases levels of free radicals, which may be linked to the onset of migraine episodes.

The research found that people with chronic migraines and frequent, intense headaches tend to have lower levels of vitamin B12 compared to those with less frequent and less severe episodes. This deficiency may also be exacerbated by the increased use of analgesics (pain-relieving medication), which can reduce the absorption of vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 for athletes

Vitamin B12 is essential for athletes due to its critical role in producing red blood cells, which transport oxygen to muscles. As athletes push their bodies harder, their muscles require more oxygen to perform at their best.

B12 also aids in converting food into glucose, the body's primary energy source, which is especially important for athletes to maintain energy levels during workouts. Additionally, it supports the proper functioning of the nervous system, helping to prevent neurological damage that can result from intense physical activity.

Vitamin B12 in children

Since vitamin B12 is crucial for producing red blood cells, maintaining adequate levels from an early age is essential for proper development. The vitamin supports key metabolic processes and the formation of bone marrow, making it vital during growth. A varied and healthy diet is always recommended to ensure sufficient intake during this critical phase.

High vitamin B12

While vitamin B12 deficiency is more common, having excessive amounts in the body is rarer but can be a warning sign of underlying health issues. High vitamin B12 levels can occur from overeating B12-rich foods or taking supplements without medical supervision.

Symptoms of elevated B12 levels may include difficulty breathing, chest tightness, rapid heartbeats, palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, swelling, itching, or skin rashes.

If these symptoms arise, it's crucial to consult a doctor, who will likely recommend reducing the intake of B12-rich foods and may implement other therapies as needed.

Where is vitamin B12 found?

•     meat
•     liver
•     fish
•     shellfish
•     shellfish
•     milk
•     eggs

Tempeh, made from fermented soybeans, and kombucha are among the few plant foods in which vitamin B12 is present, but they do not contain enough of it to meet our requirements.

Vitamin B12 and the vegetarian or vegan diet

Vegetarians and vegans are at higher risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, as this nutrient is not sufficiently available from plant-based foods alone. To maintain a healthy diet while following vegetarian or vegan practices, it's crucial to consult experienced nutritionists and take vitamin B12 supplements. Regularly checking blood levels is also important to ensure adequate intake, as vitamin B12 cannot be obtained in sufficient quantities from an exclusively plant-based diet.

Source