Mass Effect Andromeda Had A Playable Prototype For Space Exploration, But It Was Scrapped – TheGamer

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Mass Effect Andromeda almost included a space exploration system that allowed you to manually drive the Tempest.

Mass Effect Andromeda featured a variety of new systems thatiteratedon preexisting ones from the series' original trilogy. For example, a lot of work was put into developing the Nomad, a land vehicle designed for traversing rough terrain on certain planets. Given the amount of flak directed at the first Mass Effect game's Mako, which handled like an anti-gravity go-kart with two missing wheels, the improvements to the Nomad were warmly welcomed by many players.

As it turns out, this wasn't the only transport enhancement that was on the cards during development of Andromeda. According to Dorian Kieken - who was a development director at BioWare during Mass Effect 2 and 3, before becoming franchise development director in the early days of Andromeda - there was also a playable prototype for completely revamped space travel.

I remember playing a pretty good prototype of space exploration back in 2015, Kieken says. You would basically pilot your ship from planet to planet."

I wasn't in the company anymore when that decision [to cut it] was made, but I'm not surprised," Kieken explains. "Not because it was not fun. It was. But it would have likely required a lot of effort to make work, and so, keeping it would have cost other parts of the game.

Related:How Mass Effect Inspired The Games Industry And Beyond

We tried to do too much with Andromeda, from large explorable planets with a ground vehicle to space exploration with tons of planets. Something had to eventually give.

It's fascinating to think about how this could have fared in Andromeda. I personally thought that planet design was one of the game's strongest elements, so having the opportunity to consciously flit between them at the helm of the Tempest instead of fast-travelling via the Galaxy Map could have been brilliant. Hopefully we see this prototype realized in a future Mass Effect game.

In related news, Kieken also told us about a Han Solo-inspired Mass Effect spin-off that was scrapped before Mass Effect 2. While he and several other devs at BioWare thought the idea was solid, there simply wasn't enough bandwidth to focus on it while also working on Mass Effect 2.

Next:Mass Effect 3 Could Have Had A Completely Different Ending

Pokemons Ice-Type Is A Problem. Heres How They Could Fix It

Cian Maher is the Lead Features Editor at TheGamer. He's also had work published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Verge, Vice, Wired, and more. You can find him on Twitter @cianmaher0.

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Mass Effect Andromeda Had A Playable Prototype For Space Exploration, But It Was Scrapped - TheGamer

SpaceX First All-Civilian Mission To Orbit Earth: What You Need To Know – Screen Rant

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SpaceX is launching its first all-civilian multi-day mission to space and back. Here's what you need to know, including eligibility requirements.

SpaceX will launch its first-ever all-civilian mission soon, bringing a few lucky individuals on a multi-day voyage to space and back. Three seats are up for grabs to members of the public, but not everyone will be eligible for the journey. SpaceX has been quite busy of late, from producing over a hundred satellites on a monthly basis to support its Starlink project to launching rockets on space missions.

In 2020 alone, the privatized aeronautics company successfully launched more than 20 space missions. This includes manned space travel, unmanned supply runs and even historic lift-offs, to name a few. Now, SpaceX is plotting a course for yet another historical space odyssey, where its participants won't have to be as wealthy as its CEO to take part.

Related: SpaceX Plans To Deliver 10Gbps Starlink Download Speeds In The Future

According to its mission log, SpaceX will be utilizing a reusable Falcon 9 rocket to launch the world's first commercial astronaut space flight mission, known as Inspiration4. The company is targeting a launch date that's no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2021. As for the voyage itself, it will last for several days, starting with its launch at Complex 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, traveling through a customized flight path that's carefully monitored by SpaceX mission control, before finally landing off the coast of Florida.

Unlike SpaceX's militaristic ventures, one of the purpose ofthe Inspiration4 mission is to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. The mission will be led by decorated pilot and Shift4Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, who will be occupying the Leadership seat. Isaacman will also be donating seats to individuals that meet certain requirements across three categories: Generosity, Prosperity and Hope. To be eligible for the Generosity seat, participantsare asked to donate at least $10 to the St. Jude's hospital fundraising campaign.Besides the grand prize, there will be additionalrewards on offer including hats and autographed posters. Those who don't want to donate can still enter the sweepstakes by fillinginafree entry form. As for the Prosperity seat, participantsneed to sign-up for Isaacman's Shift4Shop ecommerce platform, and post their inspirational business startup story on social media. When it comes to the Hope seat, SpaceX explains this will be allocated to "a St. Jude ambassador with direct ties to the mission."

Regardless of the seat, the entry process will end on February 28, with the finalized crew due to be announced in March. It's worth noting that only legal U.S. residents over the age of eighteen are eligible, and that the winners will have to be physically and psychologically fit to undergo SpaceX's various astronaut and emergency preparedness training before embarking on the mission. While securing a seat might sound unlikely, it's still an indication ofSpaceX moving to the next stagebyallowing civilians to take part in space missions, and not just professional astronautsortheir stuffed toys.

Next: Elon Musk & SpaceX Plan On Drilling For Natural Gas In Texas

Source: SpaceX, Inspiration4

Star Wars Begins The Process Of Making Gray Jedi Canon

Kyle Encina is a writer with over five years of professional experience, covering topics ranging from viral entertainment news, politics and movie reviews to tech, gaming and even cryptocurrency. During his free time, he indulges in composing melodies, listening to inspiring symphonies, physical activities, writing fictional fantasies (stories) and of course, gaming like a madman!

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SpaceX First All-Civilian Mission To Orbit Earth: What You Need To Know - Screen Rant

SpaceX Test Flight Ends in Another Crash – Los Angeles Business Journal

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SpaceX has attempted two high-altitude tests of its Starship rocket.

It was the second high-altitude test for the Starship rocket, which is designed for lunar voyages and interplanetary space travel.

A test conducted in December ended in a fiery explosion, but the company said it had gathered valuable data that would be used to refine future iterations of the rocket.

SpaceX again failed to stick the landing for the second consecutive test. The vehicle came down slightly lopsided and exploded on impact as the company attempted to bring it safely back to the launch pad at its testing site in Boca Chica, Texas.

Weve got a lot of good data on flap control, and again, weve just got to work on that landing a little bit, principal integration engineer John Insprucker said during a webcast of the test flight.

Chief Executive Elon Musk, who quickly tweeted an enthusiastic reaction following the December test flight, said prior to the latest test that he was taking a break from Twitter.

Insprucker said the flight appeared to be going smoothly up until the very end.

This is a test flight, he said. Weve got a lot of data and the primary objective, to demonstrate control of the vehicle in the subsonic reentry, looked to be very good. We will take a lot out of that.

SpaceX has already assembled a new Starship prototype on another launch pad it operates at its Boca Chica facility and appears eager to continue testing.

The Hawthorne-based company had for weeks been seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for the test flight conducted Feb. 2.

An FAA spokesperson told the Washington Post that the company had launched its December test flight without a public safety waiver that the agency had earlier denied. The FAA eventually approved corrective actions taken by SpaceX just prior to its latest launch.

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Star Trek Didnt Invent the Term Warp Drive, This Sci-Fi Story Did – Den of Geek

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The Flight of the Starling is the story of two test pilots trying out this new warp drive, which allows ships to travel close to the speed of light and finally open the door to interstellar travel.

The plot is straight forward the Starling is launched on its first test-flight, they use the warp drive to accelerate to speeds close to the speed of light, then return to Earth to discover thousands of years have passed in their absence. They land, team up with some future humans, raid a supercomputer defended by some less friendly degenerate future humans, and discover how to put their spaceship into negative space so they travel back in time again. Oh and theres a subplot where the nerdy scientist narrator and nasty bully jock space pilot are vying for the affections of the genius professors shy-yet-pretty niece.

Its an adventure story with a Planet of the Apesesque twist, and extremely of its time. The really meaty bit of the story comes here:

Driven by atomic energy, the generators created a force as the generators of the past created electricity. In some respects the force was electricity, but it was of a higher energy order, containing inherent magnetic properties in a complete union of a kind only vaguely suggested by the term electro-magnetic, in which the two forces involved are more or less mutually exclusive, the one giving rise to the other. The force created in the immediate vicinity of the ship a warp in space a moving warp, which could with fair accuracy be called a ripple in the fabric of space. The ship rode this moving warp or ripple as a surf board rides the moving crest of a wave. The intensity of the force controlled the speed of the warp up to a certain limit.

So we have, from the off, the idea of propelling the ships through a warp in space, created here by powerful electromagnetism.

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Star Trek Didnt Invent the Term Warp Drive, This Sci-Fi Story Did - Den of Geek

10 Jaw-Dropping Space Photos From The Travel Photographer Of The Year 2020 – Forbes

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The total solar eclipse in Svalbard on March 20, 2015.

When this pandemic is all over do you want to have travel experiences that give you a new perspective? So go experience a total solar eclipse. And the aurora borealis. And a dark sky with the Milky Way arcing over your head.

This week has seen the results of the Travel Photographer of the Year 2020 plastered all over the media, but the star turns wereas is so often the casethe images taken not of Earth, but of our sky.

The overall winner was Russian photographer Vladimir Alekseev, whose portfolio featured this articles main imagea total solar eclipse in Svalbard on March 20, 2015. In the morning, a blizzard began, and the sky was covered with clouds, said Alekseev about eclipse day. But an hour before the eclipse, the weather improved, and I managed to capture this amazing moment.

Alekseev also showcased this image, below, of the aurora borealis taken at a reindeer herders camp in Russias Yamal Peninsula.

Northern Lights at the reindeer herders' camp, Yamal Peninsula, Russia.

Another standout night photographer in the competition was 16-year-old American Nayana Rajesh, who ran out a runner-up in the Young Travel Photographer of the Year category.

Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

In Rajeshs portfolio is this photo, above, of Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, while below is a shot of July 2020s Comet Neowise taken from Muenster, Texas.

Due to the global pandemic this was one of the few times this year I was able to shoot the night sky, said Rajesh. I was able to see and photograph Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 about 90 minutes away from my home.

Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 from Muenster, Texas, USA.

Rajesh also showcased this photo, below, taken in Lone Pine, California. It features the Milky Way, which in the northern hemisphere is best seen between May and September.

It was a thrilling experience for me to be under truly dark skies and to be able to see the night sky in all its glory, said Rajesh.

The Milky Way from Lone Pine, California, USA.

Now its back to the aurora borealis with Frances Nicolas Raspiengeas, who was highly commended in the Travel Portfoloo category.

His images included this image, below, of the polar lights from Flakstad beach in Norways Lofoten Islands. He used a headlamp to illuminate the foreground.

Flakstad beach, Lofoten, Norway

Another of Raspiengeas images included this one, below, of the aurora borealis above Senja Island, Norway.

Senja Island, Norway

However, it is surely two images of solar eclipses in Raspiengeas portfolio that really stand out. The first, below, shows the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 at Smith Rock National Park, Oregon, USA.

This is the most technical photo I have taken, and one that I dreamt of achieving for years, said Raspiengeas. I wanted to compose a strong image with meaning, putting the human being back in contemplation before this unique celestial phenomenon.

A total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 from Smith Rock National Park, Oregon, USA.

Not happy with that one, Raspiengeas then created an equally compelling image during totality a couple of years later when he captured this stunning image, below, during the total solar eclipse in Argentina on July 2, 2019.

I wanted to include a human element, though I didnt have any precise idea as to how, said Raspiengeas. I guided my partner by walkie-talkie, until the moment of the totality, and it was there that, during those crucial few seconds, she touched the Sun.

A total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019 from San Juan, Argentina.

Finally in this round-up of the astro-images from the Travel Photographer of the Year 2020 is a stunning capture, below, from Italys Alessio Mesiano.

Commended in the Travel Portfolio category, Mesianos images were all shot in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago if windswept islands in the North Atlantic between the UK and Iceland.

Northern Lights from Vestmanna, Streymoy, Faroe Islands.

You can see the rest of the the winning shots on TPOTY's onlinewinners gallery.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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10 Jaw-Dropping Space Photos From The Travel Photographer Of The Year 2020 - Forbes

Nanotech Announces Brand Protection Win from Canadian Vita – GlobeNewswire

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Figure 1:

Custom Canadian Vita LumaChrome Colour-shifting Authentication Label

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nanotech Security Corp. (TSXV: NTS) (OTCQX: NTSFF) (Nanotech or the Company), a leader in the development of secure and memorable nano-optic security features used in the government and banknote and brand protection markets, has won new brand protection business with Canadian Vita Corp., Canada's leading ginseng supplier. Nanotech will supply custom LumaChrome colour-shifting labels with printed logos and trackable serial numbers for Canadian Vitas ginseng products. Financial terms have not been publicly disclosed.

Counterfeit ginseng products are a major industry problem that can be very harmful to consumers, said Canadian Vita CEO Hieu Tran. LumaChrome labels will help us fight counterfeit products and ensure our Canadian Vita brand remains as a reliable source of safe, premium ginseng products. The labels will confirm Canadian Vita products are authentic and meet quality standards. This collaboration with Nanotech is a major milestone as it has helped Canadian Vita set higher standards in the ginseng industry.

LumaChrome and our other anti-counterfeiting solutions enable companies like Canadian Vita to secure their products and extend brand awareness through their entire supply chain, said President and CEO Troy Bullock. This consumer-packaged goods win continues to validate our strategy of developing a portfolio of products to address the multi-billion-dollar problem of counterfeit consumer goods. We look forward to a long-running, successful partnership with Canadian Vita.

LumaChrome labels offer straightforward authentication through a crisp colour transition when the viewing angle is changed. It is intuitive to use and easy to recognize at a considerable distance, multiple angles, and variable lighting conditions. These striking colour transitions are extremely difficult to simulate, requiring sophisticated production equipment and specialized knowledge in thin-film optics to produce, making it an ideal anti-counterfeit solution. Besides being proven technology used in the banknote industry for years, new LumaChrome formats easily integrate into track & trace, smart packaging, and brand protection applications.

For LumaChrome samples and pricing, contactinfo@nanosecurity.caorclick here.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9dceeb18-a568-482c-8986-4134dfa86e3d

About Canadian Vita

Canadian Vita is Canada's leading ginseng supplier. Their expertise in ginseng farming and processing has allowed them to craft high quality ginseng products. All products that reach customers have gone through stringent inspections from the harvesting to packing stages, to ensure only the best quality ginseng is distributed. With a vision to help empower lives by improving health through traditional herbal supplements, Canadian Vita continues to develop products that make the consumption of ginseng more enjoyable and efficient. With over 35 years of experience, their dedicated team of farmers and researchers exceed industry standards. For more information, visit https://canadianvita.com/.

About Nanotech

With billions of security features in circulation, Nanotechs products include secure and memorable security labels, stripes, patches, and colour-shifting foils for currency authentication and brand protection.

KolourOptikis a patented visual technology that is exclusive to the government and banknote market and combines sub-wavelength nanostructures and microstructures to create modern overt security features with a unique and customizable optical effect. KolourOptik pure plasmonic colour pixels produce full colour, 3D depth, and movement used in security stripes and threads that are nearly impossible to replicate.

LiveOptik is a patented visual technology that utilizes innovative nano-optics one tenth the size of traditional holographic structures to create next generation overt security features customized to our customers unique requirements. LiveOptik delivers multi-colour, 3D depth, movement, and image switches for secure brand protection stripes, threads, and labels that are nearly impossible to replicate.

Additional information about Nanotech can be found at the Companys website http://www.nanosecurity.ca, the Canadian disclosure filings website http://www.sedar.com or the OTCMarkets disclosure filings website http://www.otcmarkets.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Nanotech Announces Brand Protection Win from Canadian Vita - GlobeNewswire

Nanotech Powered Mass Testing Now the Key to Unlocking COVID-19 Lockdowns – PRNewswire

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LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Nano Foundation and pandemic experts say regular use of inexpensive mass lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is the way to beat COVID-19, its variants and future viruses.

As vaccination quickens for vulnerable members of society, the next prize is to get the world's economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra 'test to suppress', and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there are fewer antigens to the virus in the sample vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and 'super-spreaders'.

In what many believe was a game changer in preventing lockdowns across the world, in the UK, community and workplace lateral flow rapid test kits (LFTs) have been mobilised now for door-to-door delivery the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these kits for its "Test to Suppress" strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

Many other countries and industries are now adopting this technology.

Innova Medical the world's largest manufacturer of rapid lateral flow antigen tests is ramping up to 50 million a day by the spring has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the British (Kent), South African, and Brazilian variants, which appear more contagious than the earlier strains.

"As these dangerous strains show signs of increased transmissibility across communities, the global effort to eliminate COVID-19 requires frequent, comprehensive and equitable testing that can detect these emerging strains," said Daniel Elliott, President and CEO of Innova Medical Group.

Elliot added that numerous studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

He said the virus continues to morph its genetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) to generate new and potentially more contagious variants, but Innova's antigen test is effective because it looks for multiple proteins in the virus.

Workplace and community rapid mass testing is already starting to take place to keep economies moving and the entertainment and sports industries are said to be looking at a 'day pass' testing approach using LFT kits, in the same way that temperature checks were made on people using restaurants and pubs between lockdowns.

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We've seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who've got COVID or looking after major events."

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces - healthcare, education, and local authorities, with private companies such as Royal Mail, the DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars also adopting frequent rapid testing.

Globally renowned British doctors' journal, The Lancet, backed this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than 1.5bn in these test kits so far.

Oxford's Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these tests removing infectious people from high-risk environments: "They've found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease."

Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:

"PCR is very good at telling you've had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn't tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or twoto get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes."

He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, "within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can't be done with the swab (PCR) tests" adding that LFTs "detect people with high viral loadsthe very people who are infectious."

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

The not-for-profit organisation's Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: "Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.

"Our own COVIDlytics modelling shows that an intensive front line 'Test to Suppress' campaign using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

"And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population.

"A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it's about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.

"Used alongside vaccines and other preventative methods, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat the virus and it's future variants.

"Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves, their relatives, friends, and colleagues, to keep everyone safe.

"As West Africa reeled under the impact of Ebola (2014-16) the world watched with bated breath to see if the 'beast' would go global, but frequent mass rapid testing was deployed at community level multiple times over a few weeks stopping that terrible disease in its tracks.

"With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world's fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

"We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918, killing up to 50 million people in four waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to."

This means that there will be a revolution in healthcare in the coming years. Healthcare investment is forecast to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

One international investment platform is a Pandemic Protection alternative investment fund operated by Vector Innovation Fund in Luxembourg focused on limiting the effect of long form Covid-19, insulating the world against the impact of future pandemics, whilst minimising any impact on the global economy and healthcare provision and preparedness.

The Vector Innovation Fund is a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) specialising in support for technology companies able to transform global markets, notably in global healthcare, sustainability and longevity. These transformational technologies come from the nanotechnology, biotech, AI and machine learning, medical devices, therapies and digital health sectors.

The World Nano Foundation is a not-for-profit membership organisation with 75,000 subscribers and users in 40 countries working on international commercialisation of nanoscale technologies in 16 industry sectors and collaborates with a wide variety of partners, maximising support and funding bringing advanced technology to the world and commerce. This is supported by many industry and academic groups developing and creating a legacy for nanotechnology innovation.

SOURCE The World Nano Foundation

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Nanotech Powered Mass Testing Now the Key to Unlocking COVID-19 Lockdowns - PRNewswire

World Cancer Day: From Immunotherapy, vaccines to nanotech, new treatments that show promise against disease – Firstpost

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Researchers are also looking into using genetically modified salmonella bacteria to destroy tumours from the inside out where more traditional treatments, notably chemotherapy, cannot penetrate

Representational image. National Cancer Institute/Unsplash

More effective therapies, nanotechnology and even the prospect of vaccinating for certain tumours: battles may slowly be starting to turn in the never-ending war against cancer.

The second leading cause of death globally, cancer accounted for an estimated 9.6 million deaths, or one in six deaths, in 2018.

On World Cancer Day on Thursday, here is a look at some of the more promising developments in treating and preventing the disease.

Immunotherapy breakthroughs

Immunotherapy drugs, which prime the immune system to recognise and destroy cancerous cells, have shown huge promise against previously untreatable cancers over the last decade.

But they vary greatly among different forms of cancer and only work in around a quarter of all patients.

A main focus of research now centres on "increasing the percentage of patients that respond well to immunotherapy," according to Christophe Le Tourneau, director of clinical research at France's Curie Institute.

One promising avenue is the development of antibodies capable of recognising a specific protein found in cancerous cells, "which would help the body to destroy those cells," Axel Kahn, president of the League Against Cancer, told AFP.

He said research had shown that administering medication or toxins helped destroy cancer cells after antibodies discover them.

Research is also ongoing into immunotherapy after chemotherapy, with the initial treatment creating mutations in cancer cells that may render them easier for the immune system to spot and hunt down.

Another technique known as checkpoint inhibitor therapy has also shown promise.

When proteins contained within cancer cells bind with immune cells, they send an "off" signal to the rest of the immune system, disabling the body's natural defences.

Checkpoint inhibitor therapy essentially blocks this binding, allowing killer immune T-cells to seek and destroy the pathogen.

This technique has already significantly improved prognoses for some melanomas and lung cancers, and other trials are underway.

Such treatment may offer also hope to the 10-15 percent of breast cancer sufferers who receive a so-called "triple-negative" prognoses tumours that contain neither hormonal nor HER2 protein receptors.

HER2-positive breast cancer tends to grow more quickly than other forms but it is equally more treatable.

Triple-negative breast cancer is, however, "usually more aggressive (but) the treatment options available today are not sufficiently effective", according to the Arc Foundation cancer research centre near Paris.

One study with the drug durvalumab published this month in Nature Medicine showed that the antibody was somewhat effective at shutting off tumours' ability to evade the immune system.

'Vaccinate' for tumours?

Trials are also underway exploring the efficacy of certain candidate vaccines that can help treat tumours.

The French biotech firm Transgene is developing a treatment combining immunotherapy and a viral vector vaccine a modified virus that delivers anti-cancer instructions to the body.

A similar trial is underway to treat patients with cancer of the ear, nose or throat.

The Oncopole Toulouse cancer treatment centre, conducting the research, said the treatment acts as a kind of "facial recognition service" for the immune system to detect cancerous cells and learn how to destroy them similar to how some vaccines work.

Predicting effective treatment

Analysing the structure and, increasingly, the genetic make-up of cancer plays a major role not only in prognosis how likely it is that a patient will recover but also in what treatment options are available.

"It's really the main issue: it's not worth giving certain treatments to people who won't benefit from them and it's absolutely crucial that those who will benefit receive them, said Eric Solary, scientific director at the Arc Foundation.

A better understanding of certain mutations in cancer cells as well as how immune cells behave are helping doctors make ever-more accurate treatment choices.

Nanotechnology

Another area of growing interest is the possible use of nanocapsules microscopic coatings of metal or fat on existing drug molecules.

The idea according to Solary is to better distribute medicine around the patient's body by allowing it to "go directly into tumour cells and avoiding damaging normal cells".

In the same vein, researchers are also looking into using genetically modified salmonella bacteria to destroy tumours from the inside out where more traditional treatments, notably chemotherapy, cannot penetrate.

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World Cancer Day: From Immunotherapy, vaccines to nanotech, new treatments that show promise against disease - Firstpost

Moringa May be an Essential Tool in the Fight Against the Global Pandemic – Baystreet.ca

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The global moringa products market could be worth up to $8.4 billion by 2026 from $5 million in 2019. All thanks to its anti-depressant, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties that can play a vital role in curing various diseases, such as those seen with the pandemic. In fact, according to Facts and Factors, Various parts of the moringa tree such as bark, fruit, root, leaves, flowers, and seeds are used to make medicine and various products with health beneficial and medicinal properties. It is a fast-growing and drought-resistant tree full of minerals and supporting vitamins. Plus, moringa can help reduce blood sugar, lower cholesterol, treat depression, anxiety, and stress, in addition to its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Its medicinal qualities could be of great importance to companies fighting the current health pandemic, like Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX).

Its also good news for companies like Arev NanoTec Brands Inc. (CSE: AREV)(OTC: AREVF)

AREV produces functional ingredients through its proprietary extraction systems and methods. Its applying nanotech methods to create premium ingredients for products that have an increased bioavailability. Then, it sells product to targeted natural health, medical, functional food, nutraceutical, sport nutrition markets.

Most recently, Arev NanoTec Brands provided an update on its continued work with natural materials, specifically Moringa. The company has been working with several plant, fungi and marine biomass including functional mushrooms, hops, frankincense, myrrh, Kampot pepper, sea cucumber, ginseng and Moringa.

Much of this work has been focused on the best way to extract actives and researching target compounds present in each of the natural phyto-matierials. As a result, the company has chosen Moringa to be the candidate for molecular screening for its antiviral properties.

The company has secured organic supply from Priceless Farms in Uganda which is working with AREVs Cambodian subsidiary to establish Moringa as a permaculture crop on its 12 hectare parcel of land near Phnom Penh. The company will continue to update shareholders as progress is made on what is anticipated to be a fast moving initiative.

Mike Withrow CEO of AREV NanoTec stated We are encouraged by the recommendations of our growing Scientific Advisory Board. They have gone to work quickly and introduced the company to key influential people. The advisory board has been integral in coming up with the direction to explore Moringa.

Moringa Could be Beneficial to Top Pharmaceutical Companies

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Gritstone Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next generation cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies, today announced that the companies have entered into a collaboration, option and license agreement to research and develop a vaccine-based immunotherapy as part of Gileads efforts to find a curative treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced that theSingapore Health Sciences Authority(HSA) has approved the interim authorization of its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 (COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna) for use under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR). Todays authorization is another important step in the global fight against COVID-19, saidStphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer ofModerna. I want to thank theSingapore Ministry of Healthand the HSA for their collaboration and for the confidence they have demonstrated in COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna with this decision.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and BioNTech announced results from in vitro neutralization studies of sera from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The sera neutralized SARS-CoV-2 with key mutations present in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and South Africa variants, as measured by studies conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). The results were published on the preprint serverbioRxivand submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. To study the effect of these mutations, three engineered viruses with key mutations were tested against the panel of human sera from 20 participants in thepreviously reportedPhase 3 trial who had been immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Of the three recombinant variants, one has a mutation common to both the U.K. and South Africa variants (N501Y), one has mutations common to the U.K. variant (69/70+N501Y+D614G), and the third has mutations common to the South Africa variant (E484K+N501Y+D614G). The sera from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine neutralized all the SARS-CoV-2 strains tested.

Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, announced that the company has executed a binding Heads of Terms agreement with the government ofSwitzerlandto supply six million doses of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, to the country. The government ofSwitzerlandis working proactively to ensure a sufficient supply of our vaccine that could protect its citizens from COVID-19, saidJohn J. Trizzino, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Business Officer ofNovavax. Addressing this global public health crisis requires collaboration, and we appreciate their partnership to provide an urgently needed vaccine to stem the pandemic.

Legal Disclaimer / Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Winning Media is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Winning Media is only compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation. Pursuant to an agreement Winning Media has been paid three thousand five hundred dollars for advertising and marketing services for Arev NanoTec Brands Inc. by a third party. We own ZERO shares of Arev NanoTec Brands Inc. Please click here for full disclaimer.

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Moringa May be an Essential Tool in the Fight Against the Global Pandemic - Baystreet.ca

Global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches Market by Trends, Dynamic Innovation in Technology and Key Players| Unidym, Nanocyl, Cnano, canatu,…

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According to a new report published by Reports Monitor, titled, Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatchesmarket: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021 2027, the market was valued at USD xx million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD xx million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of xx% during the forecast period. The main goal of the report is to estimate the size of the Global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches Market and the growth potential across different segments and sub-segments. The report provides a detailed analysis of the major factors influencing the market growth, including the drivers, restraints, lucrative opportunities, industry-specific challenges, and recent developments.

TheMajorPlayers Covered in this Report:Unidym, Nanocyl, Cnano, canatu, nanointegris, Toray, Shenzhen Nanotech Port Co. Ltd, Foxconn, Hanao Co., Ltd& More.

Get a Sample PDF Report:https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request_sample/1201371

Some of the major factors driving the growth of the Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches market are the rise in the geriatric population, as well as collaborations and partnerships, to facilitate drug development. Additionally, the increase in healthcare expenditure has significantly contributed to market growth. An increase in the number of pipeline drugs and huge growth potential from emerging economies are more likely to provide lucrative opportunities for the market to expand.

The end users/applications and product categories analysis:On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into-Single-walled Nanotubes (SWNTs)Double wall NanotubesMulti-walled Nanotubes (MWNTs)

On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches for each application, including-Electronics & SemiconductorsAdvanced MaterialsChemical & PolymersBatteries & CapacitorsAerospace & DefenseEnergyMedical

The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the size of the Global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches Market began with collecting data on the revenues of key vendors through secondary sources like company websites, annual reports, press releases, financial data, investor presentations of companies, articles, news, white papers, certified publications, and government publishing sources. Furthermore, the report considers the vendor offerings to determine the Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches market segmentation.

Grab Your Report Discount! Please click Here@https://www.reportsmonitor.com/check_discount/1201371

The report forecasts revenue growth at all geographic levels and provides an in-depth analysis of the latest industry trends and development patterns from 2020 to 2027 in each of the segments and sub-segments.

North America (U.S., Canada) Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy) Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia) Latin America (Brazil, Mexico) Middle East & Africa

The global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches market forecast is studied from 2021 to 2027. The research study includes a thorough analysis of the current research and clinical developments in the market globally. The report presents a market definition along with the list of leading players and analyses their strategies to determine the competitive outlook of the market. The report also studies the drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges of the global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches market. The study provides the historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to five main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. The market for Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches is partially consolidated and competitive in nature, with the presence of leading players.

For More Details On this Report:https://www.reportsmonitor.com/report/1201371/Carbon-Nanotube-CNT-Masterbatches-Market

To conclude, the Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches Industry report mentions the key geographies, market landscapes alongside the product price, revenue, volume, production, supply, demand, market growth rate, and forecast, etc. This report also provides SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.

Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911 (U.S.)+44 203 318 2846 (U.K.)Email: sales@reportsmonitor.com

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Global Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Masterbatches Market by Trends, Dynamic Innovation in Technology and Key Players| Unidym, Nanocyl, Cnano, canatu,...

Did a Supermassive Black Hole Influence the Evolution of Life on Earth? – Scientific American

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In 1939, Albert Einstein published a paper in Annals of Mathematics, arguing that black holes do not exist in nature. A quarter of a century later, Maarten Schmidt discovered quasars as powerful sources of light at cosmological distances. These enigmatic point-like sources were explained in the mid-1960s by Yakov Zeldovich in the East and Ed Salpeter in the West as supermassive black holes that are fed with gas from their host galaxies. When gas flows towards the black hole, it swirls like water going down the drain. As the gas approaches a fraction of the speed of light at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) around the black hole, it heats-up by rubbing against itself through turbulent viscosity.

Consequently, its accretion disk glows brightly, radiating away about a tenth of its rest mass and exceeding by orders of magnitude the total luminosity from stars in its host galaxy. High feeding rates make quasars visible all the way out to the edge of the visible Universe. Decades later, astronomers found that almost every galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center, which is starved most of the time but bursts sporadically for merely tens of millions of years during each burst. The quasars resemble a baby that tends to remove food off the dining table as soon as it is fed by virtue of becoming too energetic.

This year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel for providing conclusive evidence that a black hole, albeit starved at the present time, lurks also at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This monster, weighing four million Suns, is dormant right now, glowing as the feeble radio source Sagittarius A* (abbreviated SgrA*), which is a billion times fainter than it would have been if it was fed as generously as a quasar.

Even though SgrA* is dim right now, we have clues that it must have experienced episodes of vigorous feeding in the past. This is not a surprise, given that a gas cloud approaching the Galactic center or a star passing within ten times the horizon scale of SgrA* (which translates to roughly the Earth-Sun separation), would get spaghettified by the strong gravitational tide there and turn into a stream of gas that triggers a quasar-like flare.

The smoking gun evidence for recent feeding episodes of SgrA* by massive quantities of gas is that young stars around SgrA* orbit in preferred planes. This implies that these stars formed out of planar gas disks, just like the planets in the Solar system plane or the stars in the Milky Way disk. Since the age of the stars near SgrA* is less than a percent of the age of the Milky Way galaxy, major accretion episodes from disruption of gas clouds must have occurred at least a hundred of times around SgrA*, based on the Copernican principle that the present time is not special. Indeed, a pair of giant blobs of hot gas, called the Fermi bubbles, are observed to emanate from the Galactic center along the rotation axis of the Milky Way, implying a recent accretion episode around SgrA* that could have powered them. Theoretical calculations imply that in addition to disruption of massive gas clouds, individual stars are also scattered into the vicinity of the black hole and get tidally disrupted once every ten thousand years. The intense feeding from the resulting debris streams could lead to the brightest flares from SgrA*. Such tidal disruption events of stars are indeed observed in other galaxies at the expected rate.

Would the resulting flares of SgrA* have any implications for life on Earth? In principle, they could, since they carry damaging X-ray and Ultraviolet (XUV) radiation. In collaboration with my former postdoc, John Forbes, we showed in 2018 that the XUV radiation emitted during such flares has the capacity to evaporate the atmospheres of Mars or Earth if the Solar system had only been ten times closer to the center of the Milky Way. But even at larger distances, the XUV radiation could suppress the growth of complex life, creating an effect similar to stepping on a lawn so frequently that you inhibit its growth.

At the current location of the Sun, terrestrial life is safe from XUV flares of SgrA*. However, recent studies indicate that the birthplace of the Sun may have been significantly closer to the Galactic center and that the Sun migrated to its current location through gravitational kicks. The exposure to past XUV flares from SgrA* at closer distances, could have harmed complex life during the early evolution of the Earth. This might explain why the oxygen level in the Earths atmosphere rose to its currently high level only after two billion years, perhaps only after the Earth was sufficiently far away from SgrA*. In collaboration with Manasvi Lingam, I am currently exploring this possible connection between terrestrial life and the migration of the Sun away from the Galactic center.

Traditionally, the Sun was thought to be the only astronomical source of light that affected life on Earth. But it is also possible that the black hole, SgrA* played an important role in shaping the history of terrestrial life. A surprising realization of this sort is similar to figuring out that a stranger might have impacted your family history before you were born. If a link between SgrA* and terrestrial life can be established, then this supermassive black hole might trigger a second Nobel Prize.

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Did a Supermassive Black Hole Influence the Evolution of Life on Earth? - Scientific American

Anthony Davis’ evolution to winning ‘multiple’ Lakers titles – The Athletic

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LOS ANGELES Anthony Davis says hes the happiest hes ever been.

But he isnt satisfied.

In an interview with The Athletic ahead of his first Super Bowl commercial the premise of the Michelob Ultra ad, which also features Serena Williams, Peyton Manning and Brooks Koepka, centers on the slogan, Do you win because you are happy? Or are you happy because you win? Davis said his first season with the Lakers, capped by winning the 2019-20 championship in the Orlando bubble, was everything he envisioned it would be.

Im very happy, Davis said over Zoom when asked to answer the commercials proposition. This has been a fresh start (in Los Angeles). I think the answer to the question can go both ways, but I definitely won last year because I was happy.

This was what Davis had wanted when he requested a trade from New Orleans in 2019: to compete for titles with...

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Anthony Davis' evolution to winning 'multiple' Lakers titles - The Athletic

‘It’s the norm’: Colfax-Mingo part of Iowa wrestling evolution – Local 5 – weareiowa.com

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"To think of where we started and where we are now, it's kind of hard to believe we got so big so fast," junior Kylie Doty said.

Wrestling practice at Colfax-Mingo High School looks like many others. The wrestlers file in, tape some ankles, warm up and practice. Except, there is one difference.

"Here at Colfax-Mingo, it's the norm to have girls involved in wrestling," Head Coach Erin Hume told Local 5.

To be fair though, it is slowly becoming the norm across the state.

Back in January, 476 girls competed at the IWCOA Girls High School State Championship.

"To think of where we started and where we are now, it's kind of hard to believe we got so big so fast," junior Kylie Doty said.

That weekend showed more than just how far girls wrestling has come.

"It's only going to help the sport here in Iowa and across the United States," Hume said. "To see more people involved, and female wrestlers is one way to grow it."

But at Colfax-Mingo, it is about more than just growing a sport.

"The more options we give them the more likely they are to be involved and feel connected to the school," Hume said.

It also provides a connection to the generations of girls that follow.

"I remember when I was just a small little girl here and there was no one else that was a girl," Doty said. "Having a role model is the best thing you can have."

"If they want to leave the program in a better place, and have it be a part of them and see it grow once they're done, then it's up to them to be the role model to the younger girls on the team," Hume said.

The 15 girls on last year's Tigerhawk team and the 10 this year are trying to provide a foundation for a sport and future girls to grow from.

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'It's the norm': Colfax-Mingo part of Iowa wrestling evolution - Local 5 - weareiowa.com

Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better – SciTechDaily

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Mathematical modeler and statistics. Credit: Image is provided by the Anthro Illustrated project (https://anthroillustrated.com)

Current reforms to end the rat race between scientists can help; but are they enough?

Science is societys best method for understanding the world. Yet many scientists are unhappy with the way it works, and there are growing concerns that there is something broken in current scientific practice.

Many of the rules and procedures that are meant to promote innovative research are little more than historical precedents with little reason to suppose they encourage efficient or reliable discoveries. Worse, they can have perverse side-effects that harm both science and scientists. A well-known example is the general preference for positive over negative results, which creates a publication bias giving the false impression that certain effects exist, where in reality the dissenting evidence simply fails to be released.

Arizona State University researchers Thomas Morgan and Minhua Yan, working with ASU graduate Leonid Tiokhin, now at University of Technology Eindhoven in the Netherlands, have developed a new model, published this week in Nature Human Behaviour, to better understand the challenges facing the scientific process and how we can make it better. They focused on the priority rule: the tendency for the first scientist to document a finding to be disproportionately rewarded with prestige, prizes and career opportunities while those in second place get little to no recognition.

Many scientists have sleepless nights worrying about being scooped fearing that their work wont be considered novel enough for the highest-impact scientific journals because a different group working on the same topic manages to publish first. The priority rule has been around for centuries. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz haggled over who invented calculus. And in the 19th century, Charles Darwin rushed to publish On the Origin of Species to avoid being scooped by Alfred Russel Wallace.

Rewarding priority is understandable and has some benefits. However, it comes at a cost, Tiokhin said. Rewards for priority may tempt scientists to sacrifice the quality of their research and cut corners.

The idea is that competition encourages scientists to work hard and efficiently, such that discoveries are made quickly, said Morgan, a research affiliate with theInstitute of Human Originsand associate professor with theSchool of Human Evolution and Social Change.But if everyone is working hard, and you need to come in first to be successful, then theres a temptation to cut corners to maximize your chances, even if it means the science suffers.

This is partly why some academic publishers, such as PLOS and eLife, now offer scoop protection, allowing researchers to publish findings identical to those already published within a certain timeframe. The problem is that science and publishers currently dont have a good idea about whether these reforms make sense.

To figure out how exactly the preference for priority affects science, and whether recent reforms offer any solution for its potential drawbacks, the collaborators developed an evolutionary agent-based model. This computer model simulates how a group of scientists investigate or abandon research questions, depending on their own results and the behavior of other scientists they compete against.The benefit of an evolutionary simulation is that we dont need to specify in advance how scientists behave. We just create a world in which success is rewarded, and we let selection figure out what kinds of behavior this favors, Morgan said. We can then vary what it means to successful for instance, whether or not its critical to come first and see how selection changes the behavior of scientists in response. We can also measure the benefit to society are scientists being efficient? Are their findings accurate? And so on.

The researchers found that a culture of excessive rewards for priority can have harmful effects. Among other things, it motivates scientists to conduct quick and dirty studies, so that they can be first to publish. This reduces the quality of their work and harms the reliability of science as a whole.

The model also suggests that scoop protection, as introduced by PLOS and eLife, works.

It reduces the temptation to rush the research and gives researchers more time to collect additional data, Tiokhin said. However, scoop protection is no panacea.

This is because scoop protection motivates some scientists to continue with a research line even after several results on that topic have been published, which reduces the total number of research questions the scientific community can address.

Scoop protection reforms in themselves, while helpful, are not sufficient to guarantee high-quality research or a reliable published literature. The model also shows that even with scoop protection, scientists will be tempted to run many small studies if new studies are cheap and easy to set up and the rewards for negative results are high. This suggests that measures that force scientists to invest more heavily in each study, such as asking scientists to preregister their studies or get their research plans criticized before they begin collecting data, can help.

We also learned that inefficiency in science is not always a bad thing. On the contrary inefficiencies force researchers to think twice before starting a new study, Tiokhin said.

Another option is to make large-scale data collection so straightforward that there is less incentive to skimp on data, alternatively, reviewers and journals could be more vigilant in looking out for underpowered studies with small sample sizes.

This project is an example of metascience, the use of the scientific method to study science itself.

It was a great pleasure to be part of this project. I got to use my modeling skills not only to make specific scientific discoveries, but also to shed light on how the scientific procedure itself should be designed to increase research quality and credibility. This benefits the whole scientific community and ultimately, the whole society, said Yan, a graduate student in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Reference: Competition for priority harms the reliability of science, but reforms can help by Leonid Tiokhin, Minhua Yan and Thomas J. H. Morgan, 28 January 2021, Nature Human Behaviour.DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01040-1

Written by Julie Russ (ASU) and H.G.P van Appeven (Eindhoven University of Technology).

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Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better - SciTechDaily

Lincoln, Darwin, and ID in a Nutshell – Discovery Institute

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Congratulations to the author of the recent book from Discovery Institute Press, Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell, for an excellent write-up by World Magazine editor Marvin Olasky:

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. Lincolns words have stood the test of time, while Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell (Discovery, 2020) shows why Darwinism and its neo variants fall short. Authors Thomas Lo, Paul Chien, Eric Anderson, Robert Alston, and Robert Waltzer explain that life could not have emerged from a chemical soup, because it only exists via secret ingredient: information. Cells are intricate machines. Irreducible complexity is an unavoidable complication. Junk DNA is not junk. Our surroundings, and chemical elements themselves, are fine-tuned for life.

The comparison between Lincoln and Darwin is noteworthy. The words of the former are immortal, of the latterincreasingly evident in their mortality. The Nutshell book is an easy-to-digest introduction to a profound subject. There was an urgent, long-standing need for such a book, and here it is!

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Lincoln, Darwin, and ID in a Nutshell - Discovery Institute

U of A researchers start bug fight club to study weapon evolution – AZFamily

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U of A researchers start bug fight club to study weapon evolution - AZFamily

Why the theory of human evolution needs a tweak, once again – Genetic Literacy Project

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Recent archaeological digs in Africa found evidence of Middle Stone Age tools dating to just 11,000 years ago, about 20,000 years after these tools were traditionally believed to have stopped being produced. This means groups of ancient humans moved to using newer tools at different speeds, and that early human hunters lived in relative isolation from each other.

All previous archaeological and anthropological discoveries in Africa have supported the belief that humans in Africa stopped using simple points and scraper tools and developed more complex weapons, tools and craft appliances about 30,000 years ago. However, researchers from Germanys Max Planck Institute have published their new findings in the journal Scientific Reports claiming the latest evidence gathered at sites in Senegal, on the West coast of Africa, are fueling a rethink of the passage of human evolution.

The new paper suggests some ancient people living in Africa 11,000 years ago were still using simple tools, while other groups had developed more advanced technologies 20,000 years previously. This directly challenges the traditional theory that humans evolved in a linear fashion, making technological advances together, and proves humans evolved at greatly different rates around Africa, and the world.

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Why the theory of human evolution needs a tweak, once again - Genetic Literacy Project

We’re Teaching Robots to Evolve AutonomouslySo They Can Adapt to Life Alone on Distant Planets – Singularity Hub

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Its been suggested that an advance party of robots will be needed if humans are ever to settle on other planets. Sent ahead to create conditions favorable for humankind, these robots will need to be tough, adaptable and recyclable if theyre to survive within the inhospitable cosmic climates that await them.

Collaborating with roboticists and computer scientists, my team and I have been working on just such a set of robots. Produced via 3D printer and assembled autonomously, the robots were creating continually evolve in order to rapidly optimize for the conditions they find themselves in.

Our work represents the latest progress towards the kind of autonomous robot ecosystems that could help build humanitys future homes, far away from Earth and far away from human oversight.

Robots have come a long way since our first clumsy forays into artificial movement many decades ago. Today, companies such as Boston Dynamics produce ultra-efficient robots which load trucks, build pallets, and move boxes around factories, undertaking tasks you might think only humans could perform.

Despite these advances, designing robots to work in unknown or inhospitable environments, like exoplanets or deep ocean trenches, still poses a considerable challenge for scientists and engineers. Out in the cosmos, what shape and size should the ideal robot be? Should it crawl or walk? What tools will it need to manipulate its environment, and how will it survive extremes of pressure, temperature and chemical corrosion?

An impossible brainteaser for humans, nature has already solved this problem. Darwinian evolution has resulted in millions of species that are perfectly adapted to their environment. Although biological evolution takes millions of years, artificial evolutionmodeling evolutionary processes inside a computercan take place in hours, or even minutes. Computer scientists have been harnessing its power for decades, resulting in gas nozzles to satellite antennas that are ideally suited to their function, for instance.

But current artificial evolution of moving physical objects still requires a great deal of human oversight, requiring a tight feedback loop between robot and human. If artificial evolution is to design a useful robot for exoplanetary exploration, well need to remove the human from the loop. In essence, evolved robot designs must manufacture, assemble, and test themselves autonomously, untethered from human oversight.

Any evolved robots will need to be capable of sensing their environment and have diverse means of movingfor example using wheels, jointed legs, or even mixtures of the two. And to address the inevitable reality gap that occurs when transferring a design from software to hardware, it is also desirable for at least some evolution to take place in hardware, within an ecosystem of robots that evolve in real time and real space.

The Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE) project addresses exactly this, bringing together scientists and engineers from four universities in an ambitious four-year project to develop this radical new technology.

As depicted above, robots will be born through the use of 3D manufacturing. We use a new kind of hybrid hardware-software evolutionary architecture for design. That means that every physical robot has a digital clone. Physical robots are performance-tested in real-world environments, while their digital clones enter a software program, where they undergo rapid simulated evolution. This hybrid system introduces a novel type of evolution: new generations can be produced from a union of the most successful traits from a virtual mother and a physical father.

As well as being rendered in our simulator, child robots produced via our hybrid evolution are also 3D printed and introduced into a real-world, creche-like environment. The most successful individuals within this physical training center make their genetic code available for reproduction and for the improvement of future generations, while less fit robots can simply be hoisted away and recycled into new ones as part of an ongoing evolutionary cycle.

Two years into the project, significant advances have been made. From a scientific perspective, we have designed new artificial evolutionary algorithms that have produced a diverse set of robots that drive or crawl, and can learn to navigate through complex mazes. These algorithms evolve both the body-plan and brain of the robot.

The brain contains a controller that determines how the robot moves, interpreting sensory information from the environment and translating this into motor controls. Once the robot is built, a learning algorithm quickly refines the child brain to account for any potential mismatch between its new body and its inherited brain.

From an engineering perspective, we have designed the RoboFab to fully automate manufacturing. This robotic arm attaches wires, sensors, and other organs chosen by evolution to the robots 3D printed chassis. We designed these components to facilitate swift assembly, giving the RoboFab access to a big toolbox of robot limbs and organs.

The first major use case we plan to address is deploying this technology to design robots to undertake clean-up of legacy waste in a nuclear reactor, like that seen in the TV miniseries Chernobyl. Using humans for this task is both dangerous and expensive, and necessary robotic solutions remain to be developed.

Looking forward, the long-term vision is to develop the technology sufficiently to enable the evolution of entire autonomous robotic ecosystems that live and work for long periods in challenging and dynamic environments without the need for direct human oversight.

In this radical new paradigm, robots are conceived and born rather than designed and manufactured. Such robots will fundamentally change the concept of machines, showcasing a new breed that can change their form and behavior over timejust like us.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: NASA

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We're Teaching Robots to Evolve AutonomouslySo They Can Adapt to Life Alone on Distant Planets - Singularity Hub

Chris Horn: A rundown on the evolution of batteries – The Irish Times

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A school field trip in 1971 set me on my career to become an engineer. We visited what was then the largest engineering project ever undertaken in the history of the State, by the ESB at Turlough Hill in Co Wicklow.

A half kilometre-length tunnel was constructed deep through the granite between a man-made reservoir on the summit and the lower lake, driving hydroelectric turbines. Fully operational since 1974, Turlough Hill is, in essence, a massive battery recharged by using otherwise surplus power on the national grid to pump water up to the reservoir. The power station then can rapidly come on line to generate electricity at times when the grid is under stress. It thus smooths the national power generation and demand. The capacity is about 1,500MW hours. As a comparison, our record national demand was over 5,000MW in a peak surge just last December.

Our need for energy storage systems is increasing as we switch to renewable power sources, such as wind and solar. Today renewables supply up to about 40 per cent of our national power. Because of the need to balance load over weather vagaries, the ESB has recently announced two battery storage projects: one at Inchicore, Dublin, and the other at Aghada, Cork. In conjunction with Fluence (a joint venture between Siemens and AES) these batteries can together provide about 100MW hours before requiring recharging.

Energy storage has become a part of our everyday lives. We have all become much more aware of improvements in battery technology as we seek out the latest laptops, smartphones and devices. A significant proportion of their weight is the battery, and we all want lighter devices. The time available between recharging also influences our purchasing decisions, but multiple recharges reduce the life of the battery and it is often not possible to replace the battery in smart devices.

When selling an electric vehicle (EV), showroom staff are frequently quizzed on the quality of the battery. We may be concerned by the length of time needed for a recharge, and have range anxiety over how long a charge can last. Colder and hot climates impact battery range, as power is used to keep the passenger cabin comfortable with heating or air conditioning. The lifetime of the battery controls the secondhand and resell value of an EV: as the capacity of a battery diminishes with multiple recharges, then so does the available range.

We can also worry about the physical safety. It is only a few years ago that the newly introduced Boeing Dreamliner was making headlines as its lithium-ion batteries spontaneously caught fire in parked aircraft leading to fleet groundings, Boeing pausing production and a Federal Aviation Administration safety review.

As we move to EVs, in the past year alone there have been well over a dozen reports of lithium-ion based battery fires, unrelated to collisions or accidents, when a parked EV or an EV being recharged has spontaneously caught fire. Following numerous battery fires, the Hyundai Kona EV underwent a worldwide recall in October 2020, followed by General Motors of the Chevy Bolt EV in November 2020. And if you have a boat trailer, be extremely careful not to dip your EV battery into the sea or a lake when loading or unloading!

Some commodity traders describe lithium as the new white gold, as worldwide demand has accelerated due to EV batteries. Tesla has gone as far as to assert it will control its supply by owning its lithium mining operations. Cobalt is also used in most of the current generation of EV batteries, and accounts for a significant proportion of their cost. The Democratic Republic of Congo controls much of the worlds cobalt production and there have been allegations of child labour and human rights abuses in its mining operations.

The EV industry is keen for myriad reasons to move to new battery technologies. A decade-old Stanford University spinout, QuantumScape, announced in December its new solid state battery technology for EVs using a flexible ceramic electrolyte. Current lithium-ion batteries in contrast use a liquid electrolyte. QuantumScape claims just a 15-minute charging time, but nevertheless a battery lifetime more than double that of current battery technology. The company went public last September and is now valued at about $16 billion (13.3 billion).

Meanwhile, Chinas Contemporary Amperex Technology has announced a new EV battery technology with a 16-year or two million kilometre lifetime. In conjunction with Volkswagen, it is now building a plant at Erfurt, Germany, due to enter production later this year.

Ford, BMW and Hyundai are working with Solid Power, a Colorado based start-up, using a sulphide electrolyte solid state battery. Toyota, Samsung, Panasonic and LG Energy (a spin-off from South Koreas largest chemicals company) are all also rumoured to be researching solid state EV batteries.

The EU has just announced 2.9 billion support for a 11.9 billion European Battery Innovation project, with 42 collaborating companies and 12 member states (Ireland was not one of the proposer countries).

Energy storage technology is likely to remain a fruitful area of research and innovation for some considerable time.

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Chris Horn: A rundown on the evolution of batteries - The Irish Times

Complex Mechanics of the Evolution of the Universe: The Secrets of 3000 Galaxies Laid Bare – SciTechDaily

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Completion of the Australian-led astronomy project sheds light on the evolution of the Universe.

The complex mechanics determining how galaxies spin, grow, cluster and die have been revealed following the release of all the data gathered during a massive seven-year Australian-led astronomy research project.

The scientists observed 13 galaxies at a time, building to a total of 3068, using a custom-built instrument called the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral-Field Spectrograph (SAMI), connected to the 4-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales. The telescope is operated by the Australian National University.

Overseen by the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), the project used bundles of optical fibers to capture and analyze bands of colors, or spectra, at multiple points in each galaxy.

The results allowed astronomers from around the world to explore how these galaxies interacted with each other, and how they grew, sped up, or slowed down over time.

The SAMI instrument inside the Anglo Australian Telescope being readied for action. Credit: ngel R. Lpez-Snchez (AAO-MQ)

No two galaxies are alike. They have different bulges, haloes, disks, and rings. Some are forming new generations of stars, while others havent done so for billions of years. And there are powerful feedback loops in them fuelled by supermassive black holes.

The SAMI survey lets us see the actual internal structures of galaxies, and the results have been surprising, said lead author Professor Scott Croom from ASTRO 3D and the University of Sydney.

The sheer size of the SAMI Survey lets us identify similarities as well as differences, so we can move closer to understanding the forces that affect the fortunes of galaxies over their very long lives.

The survey, which began in 2013, has already formed the basis of dozens of astronomy papers, with several more in preparation. A paper describing the final data release including, for the first time, details of 888 galaxies within galaxy clusters was published today (February 2, 2021) in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The nature of galaxies depends both on how massive they are and their environment, said Professor Croom.

For example, they can be lonely in voids, or crowded into the dense heart of galactic clusters, or anywhere in between. The SAMI Survey shows how the internal structure of galaxies is related to their mass and environment at the same time, so we can understand how these things influence each other.

Research arising from the survey has already revealed several unexpected outcomes.

One group of astronomers showed that the direction of a galaxys spin depends on the other galaxies around it, and changes depending on the galaxys size. Another group showed that the amount of rotation a galaxy has is primarily determined by its mass, with little influence from the surrounding environment. A third looked at galaxies that were winding down star-making, and found that for many the process began only a billion years after they drifted into the dense inner-city regions of clusters.

A/Prof Julia Bryant from the University of Sydney inside the SAMI instrument at the top end of the Anglo Australian Telescope. Credit: Scott Croom/University of Sydney

The SAMI Survey was set up to help us answer some really broad top-level questions about galaxy evolution, said co-author Dr Matt Owers from Macquarie University in Australia.

The detailed information weve gathered will help us to understand fundamental questions such as: Why do galaxies look different depending on where they live in the Universe? What processes stop galaxies forming new stars and, conversely, what processes drive the formation of new stars? Why do the stars in some galaxies move in a highly ordered rotating disk, while in other galaxies their orbits are randomly oriented?

Professor Croom added, The survey is finished now, but by making it all public we hope that the data will continue to bear fruit from many, many years to come.

Co-author Associate Professor Julia Bryant from ASTRO 3D and the University of Sydney said: The next steps in this research will make use of a new Australian instrument which weve called Hector that will start operation in 2021, increasing the detail and number of galaxies that can be observed.

When fully installed in the AAT, Hector will survey 15,000 galaxies.

Reference: The SAMI Galaxy Survey: the third and final data release by Scott M Croom, Matt S Owers, Nicholas Scott, Henry Poetrodjojo, Brent Groves, Jesse van de Sande, Tania M Barone, Luca Cortese, Francesco DEugenio, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Julia Bryant, Sree Oh, Sarah Brough, James Agostino, Sarah Casura, Barbara Catinella, Matthew Colless, Gerald Cecil, Roger L Davies, Michael J Drinkwater, Simon P Driver, Ignacio Ferreras, Caroline Foster, Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, Jon Lawrence, Sarah K Leslie, Jochen Liske, ngel R Lpez-Snchez, Nuria P F Lorente, Rebecca McElroy, Anne M Medling, Danail Obreschkow, Samuel N Richards, Rob Sharp, Sarah M Sweet, Dan S Taranu, Edward N Taylor, Edoardo Tescari, Adam D Thomas, James Tocknell and Sam P Vaughan, 1 February 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab229

The final data release paper has 41 authors, drawn from Australia, Belgium, the US, Germany, Britain, Spain and The Netherlands.

The full data set is available online through Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO)Data Central.

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Complex Mechanics of the Evolution of the Universe: The Secrets of 3000 Galaxies Laid Bare - SciTechDaily