The Cornell Alliance for Science seeks to build “a significant international alliance of partners” to “correct misinformation and counter conspiracy theories” slowing progress on climate change, synthetic biology, agricultural innovations, and other issues. Slashdot reader wooloohoo shares their article about research on Ghana’s first gene-edited crop — a high-yielding sweet potato with increased beta carotone content. “For sweet potatoes, we want…
Tag: illnesses
Coronavirus origins will be investigated by WHO team arriving in China this week
A little over a year after the World Health Organization first announced a string of mysterious illnesses, the agency will travel to their point of origin to investigate how it all started. Source: https://www.livescience.com/who-investigates-coronavirus-origin-china.html
How the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Fought the Pandemic
In a long article titled “Gates versus the Pandemic,” Fast Company looks at the many mitigation efforts launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. – It’s one of the largest funders of the World Health Organization. – It’s partnered with the governments of Norway and India, the World Economic Forum, and the research-charity Wellcome Trust to launch an important group…
Microwave pulses caused bizarre ‘Havana syndrome,’ report suggests
A string of unexplained illnesses in Cuba, China and elsewhere was likely caused by directed, pulsed radio frequency energy, according to a government report. Source: https://www.livescience.com/havana-syndrome-caused-microwave-energy-government-report.html
EU Pushes for ‘Right To Disconnect’ From Work at Home
An anonymous reader shares a report: The coronavirus pandemic has not only upended social life across Europe but dramatically changed the way people work. With ever more people working from home — roughly a third of all employees within the bloc according to the Associated Press (AP) — and needing to be constantly reachable, the boundaries between work and private life…
Scientists Win Historic Nobel Chemistry Prize for ‘Genetic Scissors’
Two scientists have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the tools to edit DNA. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna are the first two women to share the prize, which honours their work on the technology of genome editing. From a report: Their discovery, known as Crispr-Cas9 “genetic scissors”, is a way of making specific and precise changes…
Scientists Say a Mind-Bending Rhythm In the Brain Can Act Like Ketamine
In mice and one person, scientists were able to reproduce out-of-body experiences often associated with ketamine by inducing certain brain cells to fire together in a slow-rhythmic fashion. The findings have been published in the journal Nature. NPR reports: “There was a rhythm that appeared and it was an oscillation that appeared only when the patient was dissociating,” says Dr. Karl…
AI mimics the way doctors think to make better medical diagnoses
Most medical AI systems make treatment recommendations based on correlations between symptoms and illnesses – a new AI system uses causation instead, like doctors do Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251492-ai-mimics-the-way-doctors-think-to-make-better-medical-diagnoses/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Global Coronavirus Cases Hit 20 Million
Global coronavirus cases pushed past 20 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for more than half of all known infections. From a report: The respiratory disease has infected at least four times the average number of people struck down with severe influenza illnesses annually, according to the World Health Organization. The…
Amazon Told Workers Paid Sick Leave Law Doesn’t Cover Warehouses
Amazon workers in southern California’s industrial heartland say the company’s policies are forcing sick employees to work and that warehouses are refusing to comply with a state paid sick leave law meant to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks. From a report: In the Inland Empire region outside Los Angeles, Amazon workers told the Guardian they fear losing their jobs if they are ill…