Researchers present a system for testing new traffic management protocols that requires no alteration to network hardware but still works at realistic speeds — 20 times as fast as networks of software-controlled routers. (via WSJ)
A person who sticks to a healthy lifestyle — doesn’t smoke, doesn’t eat processed foods, stays fit with regular workouts, steers clear from carcinogens — and who has no known family history of the disease can get the big C. But why? 66 Percent Of Cancers Due To DNA Errors Scientists at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center shed light on this topic with their new study suggesting that […]
Researchers face a fundamental challenge as they seek to scale up human tissue regeneration from small lab samples to full-size tissues and organs: how to establish a vascular system that delivers blood deep into the developing tissue. Researchers have now successfully turned to plants, culturing beating human heart cells on spinach leaves that were stripped of plant cells. Source
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices edged up on Friday, supported by a fall in Saudi exports to the United States, but overall markets remained under pressure on the back of a world market awash with fuel. Prices for front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.63 per barrel at 0343 GMT, up 7 cents from their last close. In […]
US stock funds suffered their largest redemptions since the Brexit vote in June as Donald Trump’s push to reform healthcare floundered ahead of an expected vote in Congress in the biggest test yet of his young presidency. The quarrel among Republicans over the politically charged healthcare legislation has increased market volatility and flamed investor fears that the US president may struggle to pass tax reforms later this […]
Scientists have developed a new method that can be used to construct custom hybrid structures using DNA and proteins. The method opens new opportunities for fundamental research in cell biology and for applications in biotechnology and medicine. (via WSJ)
Chartbeat and CrowdTangle today announced a major expansion of a tool for measuring how stories are performing on social platforms. The two companies began a beta version of the Offsite Social service in September 2016. Two months later Facebook acquired CrowdTangle. The announcement says that Facebook is now making a “robust” (but unspecified) additional investment in expanding what’s measured and taking the service global including to European […]
Two prominent economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, made national headlines when they reported in 2015 the spike in mortality among midlife white Americans since 1999, higher than the death rates of blacks, Hispanics, and Europeans. This time, Case and Deaton said the steady rise of deaths among white working-class Americans could have its roots to the not-so-rosy opportunities for the less-educated as they enter the job market. […]
Scientists report data from a new study providing evidence that random, unpredictable DNA copying ‘mistakes’ account for nearly two-thirds of the mutations that cause cancer. Their research is grounded on a novel mathematical model based on DNA sequencing and epidemiologic data from around the world. (via WSJ)
Most website visits these days entail a database query — to look up airline flights, for example, or to find the fastest driving route between two addresses. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Most website visits these days entail a database query—to look up airline flights, for example, or to find the fastest driving route between two addresses. But online database queries can reveal a surprising amount of […]
Supercritical carbon dioxide delivers protective molecules to semiconductor surfaces, report researchers in a new article. (via WSJ)
The lungs play an important role in producing blood. Until this discovery, lungs were only associated with breathing, and the bone marrow was thought to be the one responsible for blood production. New research carried out at the University of California San Francisco has found that most of the platelets are actually produced in the lungs, and not in the bone marrow. The study was conducted on […]
AL AIN // The country’s oldest university must change if it is to keep up with the economy, academics say. UAE University in Al Ain climbed from the 101-to-110 bracket in the Times Higher Education Asia rankings last year to 83 this year, but vice chancellor Professor Mohammed Albaili said this was “not sufficient for the UAE, so we have to work together to advance the university”. […]
In 1932, at the age of 52, Pablo Picasso had his first museum exhibition. It was at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, and it contained 460 pieces of art – mostly paintings and drawings. It is, perhaps, telling of Picasso’s character that he was his own curator for this seminal show. Even during his own lifetime, he was filled with enormous self-confidence and made great efforts to promote […]
When Flavio Evers Cassou, an employee of the world’s biggest meatpacker, JBS, dropped off a large cooler of meat at a friend’s home last year in southern Brazil, he could not have foreseen the crisis of confidence it would cause in the industry and the country’s wider corporate sector. The friend in question happened to be Maria do Rocio Nascimento, the chief inspector of products of animal […]
Predicting and acting upon financial fraud is one of the prime areas of application of advanced big data techniques like machine learning (ML). Earlier this week, a case of money laundering known as the Laundromat was uncovered by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) involving a number of global banks active in the UK. Could ML help prevent such incidents? What progress is there on […]
Electronic oscillations in graphene could make a tabletop — or even handheld — source of X-rays a reality, report researchers. (via WSJ)
In this March 21, 2017 photo engineer Volkmar Dohmen stands in front of xenon short-arc lamps in the DLR German national aeronautics and space research center in Juelich, western Germany. The lights are part of an artificial sun that will be used for research purposes. (Caroline Seidel/dpa via AP) Scientists in Germany are flipping the switch on what’s being described as “the world’s largest artificial sun,” hoping […]
To vote, or not to vote, that is the only question on the minds of Trump’s White House and House Republicans this morning. If everything proceeds as planned, the Obamacare vote is currently scheduled for 7pm tonight. That said, the further we press into today without confirmation that Republicans have narrowed the opposition votes from their own party down to 22 or less (as of last night […]
Researchers have developed the next step in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with the first micro-scale self-sustaining cell, which generated power for 13 straight days through symbiotic interactions of two types of bacteria. (via WSJ)
Last week, a colleague received the printer’s proofs for an article that she submitted two years ago. You read that correctly. In the time that it takes to earn a master’s degree, she managed to navigate the labyrinth of academic peer review in order to publish one essay. It’s a success story, if you can maintain your sense of humor. Journal publishing in the humanities […]
Imagine that The New York Times, The Washington Post and PBS launched a joint fact-checking project. That is, roughly speaking, what happened in Norway earlier this week. VG and Dagbladet, Norway’s two largest online news sources by readership, joined forces with NRK, the public broadcaster, to launch Faktisk. The initiative, a team of at least five journalists led by investigative reporter Kristoffer Egeberg, will start publishing by June […]
Credit: American Chemical Society There’s a reason why farmers wear protective gear when applying organophosphate pesticides. The substances are very effective at getting rid of unwanted bugs, but they can also make people sick. Related compounds—organophosphate nerve agents—can be used as deadly weapons. Now researchers have developed a fast way to detect the presence of such compounds in the field using a disposable “lab-on-a-glove.” The report on […]
Finance Ministry officials disclosed results of the first part of an investigation that found 120 Costa Rican companies and corporations linked to cases in the so-called Panama Papers. Ministry and Tax Administration officials have found 79 companies and 41 corporations from the real estate, agricultural, commercial, legal and consultant sectors in the documents so far. Of these, the Ministry has fully identified a total of 69, and the remaining 51 are still […]
