Tag: repurposed

Could Open-Source Medicine Prepare Us For The Next Pandemic?

“A new, Linux-like platform could transform the way medicine is developed — and energize the race against COVID-19,” reports Fast Company, while arguing that the old drug discovery system “was built to benefit shareholders, not patients.” Fast Company’s technology editor harrymcc writes:
Drug development in the U.S. has traditionally been cloistered and profit-motivated, which means that it has sometimes failed to tackle…

Curiosity keeps rolling as team operates Mars rover from home

The NASA Curiosity mission team is keeping the rover moving and working on the surface of Mars while they #stayathome. Find out how they’re managing it. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/curiosity-keeps-rolling-as-team-operates-mars-rover-from-home…

IBM is Deploying Its Watson AI to Help Governments Answer People’s Covid-19 Questions

Digital Trends reports:
IBM’s question-answering Watson A.I. is most famous for whooping the butt of human champions on quiz show Jeopardy. Now, IBM has repurposed its famous creation to help government agencies, health care organizations, and academic institutions around the world cope with the massive overload of questions that citizens have about the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first time that Watson…

Facebook Will Donate 720,000 Masks and 1.5 Million Gloves to Healthcare Workers

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Facebook plans to donate 720,000 masks — a combination of the coveted N95 respirators and more basic surgical masks — and 1.5 million pairs of gloves to health care workers around the world. Facebook officials said they bought the masks for their offices’ emergency disaster kits following wildfires in California. Facebook has already donated 375,000 masks…

Pixar CG Pioneers Pat Hanrahan and Edwin Catmull Share $1M Turing Award

The 2019 Turing Award, one of the highest honors in computing, was today awarded to Pat Hanrahan and Ed Catmull, founding members of Pixar who helped shape the future of computer graphics. From a report: The two will share a $1M prize and, of course, the satisfaction of receiving this prestigious award for doing something they clearly love. The award has…

Why Are HIV Drugs Being Used To Treat the New Coronavirus?

Gizmodo’s Ed Cara explains why HIV drugs are being used to treat the new coronavirus. An anonymous reader shares the report: On Tuesday, the Japanese government announced it will begin clinical trials to test treatments for the deadly new coronavirus that’s engulfed China and spread to over two dozen countries. Rather than new drugs, they’ll be studying existing medications already used…

Japanese Robot Could Call Last Orders on Human Bartenders

Japan’s first robot bartender has begun serving up drinks in a Tokyo pub in a test that could usher in a wave of automation in restaurants and shops struggling to hire staff in an aging society. From a report: The repurposed industrial robot serves drinks in is own corner of a Japanese pub operated by restaurant chain Yoronotaki. An attached tablet…

Worried About 5G’s Health Effects? Don’t Be

There are real concerns about the way 5G is being deployed in the US, including security issues, the potential to interfere with weather forecasting systems, and the FCC steamrolling local regulators in the name of accelerating the 5G rollout. But concerns over the potential health impacts of 5G are overblown. From a report: If you weren’t worried about prior generations of…

Microsoft Plans To Bring Internet Access To 40 Million People By 2022

Almost 30 years after the World Wide Web was first invented, there are still billions of people that don’t have access to any sort of internet connectivity. Microsoft wants to change that by using its 2017 Airband Initiative to streamline efforts to build out internet access across Africa, Latin America and Asia. “Moving forward, the company plans to connect 40 million…