New Microscopy Tech Offers a Kind of Nano-GPS for Measuring Magnetism of Atoms – IEEE Spectrum

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Gif: Nature Nanotechnology

Researchers at IBM Research Alamaden have developed a new approach to measuring the magnetic field of individual atoms that for the first time gives scientists the ability to put the sensor exactly next to the atom they want to measure, providing them with a strong and direct signal of the magnetic field.The energy resolution that the new technologyprovides is more than 1000 times higher than other microscopic techniques, according to its inventors.

The technique involves purposely placing a "sensor" atomnear thetargetatom to measure the latters magnetic field. These sensor atomsalso known as electron spin resonance (ESR) sensorswere first developed by IBM back in 2015 and are used inside of scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs). STMswhich detect the tunneling of electrons between the an ultra-sharp probe as its scanned across a surfaceallow atom-by-atom engineering, so that the positions of both the sensor and the target atoms can be imaged to locate them with atomic precision.

This latest advance in STMs with ESR technology described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology marks a distinct change from how the magnetic fields of atoms have previously been measured.

We have shown in the paper how to perform a kind of nano-GPSimaging, to detect where other magnetic atoms were located purely by the spin resonance signal on several fixed sensor atoms, says Christopher Lutz, a staff scientist at IBM Research Almaden. We intend to use this to image where magnetic centers are in molecules and nanostructures on the surface.

Prior to this latest work, one of the most notable techniques for measuring the magnetic fields of atoms involved exploiting defects in diamondcalled nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centerswhich can measure the magnetic fields from individual atoms within the diamond crystal.

But with that approach the NV center location is random; it cannot be moved around within the diamond crystal, according to Lutz. He further notes that while the diamond containing the NV can be moved near another object to image it magnetically it is presently limited to about 10 nanometers distance, because it is hard to get an NV center with usable properties close enough to the diamond surface.

Lutz also points out that there had been earlier work at IBM in measuring the magnetic field of atoms in which they demonstrated it was possible to detect a weak magnetic force from an individual atom. However, the signals were very challenging to detect, he says.The signal from the new STM technique is much stronger and more robust. We can sense the magnetic field of other atoms directly, which gives clear measure of their magnetic moments and other magnetic properties.

This additional information on the magnetic properties of atoms complements the other kinds of information that regular STMs give, like the location of atoms on a surface and their tunneling spectrathe conductance as a function of the voltage. (The lattergives information on the an atoms electronic structure.) According to Lutz, this means an energy resolution that is 1000 times as sensitive as other microscopic techniques, making it possible to see weak interactions.

This allows weak interaction like magnetic coupling between well-separated atoms to be measured, he says. It can probe structures non-invasively, from several nanometers away, where they are undisturbed by our probe atom.

The operating principle of these ESR sensors depends on what happens when an atom with unpaired electron spins is placed in a magnetic field. It does something called precess, which means its axis rotates around the magnetic field at a precise frequency. This frequency depends on the field strength and the atom's magnetic moment, which is the strength of the atom's magnetism.

In our experiment, we apply a magnetic field to the microscope, and then apply a high-frequency voltage to the tunnel junction of the microscope, explains Lutz. When the frequency matches the frequency of the spin precession, it drives the spin away from its thermal equilibrium, in which it is mostly aligned with the magnetic field.

This change in orientation is detected bytransferring a single magnetic sensor atom, in this case iron, to the microscope tip.The frequency is swept through the resonance frequency, and a sharp change in tunnel current appears precisely at the resonant frequency. The resonancefrequency moves in response to nearby magnetic atoms.

The physical principle is the same as for magnetic resonance imagingexcept that we detect electron precession instead of nuclear precession, and we address individual atoms instead of billions of them, by positioning the tip over the atom of interest, adds Lutz.

The technical hurdles in achieving these measurements are pretty high. First, high-frequency cabling is needed to bring gigahertz signals to the STM tip in order to drive the atom's spin resonantly. Meanwhile,the STM itself must be maintained in an ultra-high vacuum, at liquid helium temperatures, and in an applied magnetic field of just the right magnitude.

We remain the only group able to perform single-atom ESR in an STM, saysLutz. However, we are studying ways to relax the stringent conditions needed to make it work, in order to make this a more general technique and so other groups can make use of it.

Lutz expects that a few other research groups will be able to perform thismeasurement once they installa gigahertz connection in their STM.

We hope to achieve spin resonance on a wider variety of atom types and surface materials, and to relax the extreme conditions needed for this experiment, so that in time more labs can use it, he says.

IEEE Spectrums nanotechnology blog, featuring news and analysis about the development, applications, and future of science and technology at the nanoscale.

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New Microscopy Tech Offers a Kind of Nano-GPS for Measuring Magnetism of Atoms - IEEE Spectrum

Chi-Hi grad gives tips at CVTC manufacturing show – Chippewa Herald

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EAU CLAIRE Cole Hill knows what he wants to do in a future career. I want to build motors V-8s probably, said the Colfax High School junior who spends time racing at the Red Cedar and Jim Falls tracks.

But just what does one study to prepare to build big engines? Hunter Sullivan of Chippewa Falls, a Chippewa Valley Technical College Machine Tooling Technics student, had some ideas for him at CVTCs annual Manufacturing Show Thursday, March 2.

He told me about their CNC (computerized numerical control) machines and the careers, said Hill, who thinks he will eventually enroll at CVTC, but he is unsure of which program. I havent looked at any other places.

Introducing people like Hill to careers in manufacturing is a big part of CVTCs Manufacturing Show, which drew about 1,600 people to CVTCs Manufacturing Education Center. Wonders of modern manufacturing were displayed and demonstrated in CVTCs Automation Engineering Technology, Industrial Mechanical, Machine Tooling Technics and Welding/Welding Fabrication, as well as Manufacturing, Nano and Industrial Engineering programs.

About 40 manufacturing companies were also represented with display tables highlighting their products and job opportunities.

Sullivan, a 2015 Chippewa Falls Senior High School graduate, connected with Hill as another young man who likes to work with his hands. I just like making things, Sullivan said. I took shop classes in high school with manual lathes and I thought that was pretty cool. But what I learn here is way more than they teach you in high school.

Sullivan is already working in manufacturing, doing some part-time laser cutting work at Riverside Machine. Im not doing CNC work, but hopefully when I finish school they will keep me on as a machinist, he said.

Visitors at the Manufacturing Show were able to take part in hands-on activities like trying their hand at welding, building a tiny flashlight with the help of Manufacturing Engineering Technologist students, or playing with projects like a billiards game made by Automation Engineering Technology students.

This is an opportunity to show off new technology, said CVTC Dean of Manufacturing Jeff Sullivan. The Manufacturing Show brings together alumni and people in the area, and shows off student projects. Our manufacturing partners come in and show the things theyre doing.

Several area high schools sent busloads of students who also toured some area manufacturing companies prior to the show. Other high school students came on their own, or with their parents.

Tim Frank of Menomonie, a CVTC graduate himself, came with his wife and son, Nathan. Hes interested in coming here next year, Frank said. Hes working at a machine shop in Menomonie after school now. He saw this show was available and asked to come.

I really havent decided what program to take, Nathan said. But it will probably be something in the machining area. Its making stuff. Its hands-on.

Dawn Schrankler and her husband brought their daughter, Kelsey, from Neillsville for the show. Were trying to get her interested in more of a selection, said Schrankler. She wants to be a veterinarian assistant, but were trying to broaden her horizons and open her eyes to other areas.

But not all of the people attending the show to explore careers were high school students or even recent high school graduates. People looking for a change of careers found plenty of older CVTC students who followed a similar path.

This program is fantastic, said Casey Schellhorn, an Automation Engineering Technology student who graduated from River Falls High School back in 2010. I wanted more opportunity than I had working in food service. I was looking for something interesting and found this on the CVTC website.

Schellhorn was stationed where he could explain to visitors how to play a miniature billiards game and also the pneumatics, electronics and sensors that made the game work. In all the program areas, other students were present to explain what they do, what they are learning, and the exciting opportunities available to them in manufacturing careers.

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Chi-Hi grad gives tips at CVTC manufacturing show - Chippewa Herald

25 years later, buckyball a big find on small scale – Chron.com

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Photo: SMILEY N. POOL, Staff

1n 2003, a nanotube image is reflected on Rice University professor Richard Smalley, a trailblazing researcher in an ultra-small frontier.

1n 2003, a nanotube image is reflected on Rice University professor Richard Smalley, a trailblazing researcher in an ultra-small frontier.

CONTACT FILED: RICHARD SMALLEY 1/15/03--Rice University professor Rick Smalley stands with a machine to make carbon nanotubes Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 15, 2003, in Houston. (Kevin Fujii/Chronicle)

CONTACT FILED: RICHARD SMALLEY 1/15/03--Rice University professor Rick Smalley stands with a machine to make carbon nanotubes Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 15, 2003, in Houston. (Kevin Fujii/Chronicle)

25 years later, buckyball a big find on small scale

This Houston Chronicle story ran on Oct. 11, 2010. The headline and words are reprinted below.

As is so often the case with great scientific discoveries, Rick Smalley, Bob Curl and Harry Kroto weren't looking for buckyballs when they found them in 1985.

Smalley had built a fancy machine at Rice University that used lasers to vaporize bits of metal. Kroto, meanwhile, wanted to better understand the nature of tiny chains of carbon dust between stars, so he asked his friend Curl if he wouldn't mind sticking a chunk of graphite inside Smalley's machine.

They did, and unexpectedly discovered a unique form of carbon in which 60 atoms clustered neatly into a tiny, soccer-shaped ball. They christened their finding a buckyball - or fullerene - after Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic designs the molecules resemble.

The discovery a quarter century ago won the trio a Nobel Prize in 1996 and is, in no small part, responsible for launching the field of nanotechnology.

Prior to the discovery, scientists - most famously Richard Feynman - had mused about manipulating and controlling atoms to perform special tasks.

But it remained mostly talk until the creation of a buckyball, essentially a tiny protective cage in which scientists could put other atoms, crystallized the possibility of creating particles with special properties.

"That got people thinking about how we could design molecules with tailor-made properties," said Gustavo Scuseria, a Rice chemist who came to the university four years after the discovery in large part because of the excitement it spurred.

"People were talking about nanoscience before, but there was no clear example of what could be a brick builder for nanotechnology. With the buckyball it was evident to everyone that this changed the game."

Latest developments

The buckyball itself hasn't delivered on some of the early hype, but its discovery led scientists to find more useful carbon materials, such as long, skinny carbon nanotubes and more recently, graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms.

The 2004 discovery of graphene by Russian scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, in fact, won the pair the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics last week.

"The principal effect of the fullerene discovery has been the development of intense worldwide interest in the chemistry of elemental carbon with several unusual and interesting new structures discovered," Curl said. "I am happy that our discovery has led to such a great deal of good science."

Carbon nanotubes and graphene are being studied for a raft of new technologies, from flexible TV displays to lightweight spacecraft materials to tiny and powerful semiconductors.

Beyond leading to new forms of carbon, the buckyball led scientists to tinker with the atom-by-atom design of materials for electronics and other purposes. The touch screens of many smart phones, for example, are possible because the use of nanomaterial to "paint" indium tin oxide on the front to create a transparent conductor.

Explosion of products

Nanotechnology also has worked its way into more conventional goods such as washing machines and air conditioners as engineers have embedded tiny bits of silver to take advantage of its antimicrobial properties.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies conservatively estimates that the number of nanotechnology-enabled products has risen from 54 in 2005 to more than 1,000 last year.

After winning the Nobel Prize in 1996, Smalley, who died of leukemia at the age of 62 in 2005, became an evangelist for nanotechnology. He urged President Bill Clinton to increase research funding, and with the help of Clinton's science adviser Neal Lane, the National Nanotechnology Initiative was begun in 2001.

Since then it has provided $14 billion in federal funding for nanotechnology research, with other federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense, providing as much or more.

"There was not a lot of push-back," Lane recalled of Capitol Hill. "It was pretty easy to explain to members of Congress if you can make things on a smaller and smaller scale and build them from the bottom up, you could make some things that might have a major impact on new kinds of medical treatments, new ways of computing and new materials that could revolutionize a lot of areas."

Boon for Houston

The buckyball's discovery was also a financial boon for Houston.

It has led to at least $500 million in federal research funding coming to Rice for its many nanotechnology research programs, said Wade Adams, director of Rice's Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

It's also spilled into other institutions in the Texas Medical Center and the University of Houston, where there are intensive programs to study the use of nanomaterials to treat disease, such as tiny gold shells that burn cancer cells and special drug-delivery devices that carry tumor-killing agents directly into cancers.

Nanotechnology's potential has only begun to be tapped, says Philip Lippel, an advisory board member for NanoBusiness Alliance.

While some technologies are near the market - engineers are counting on nanomaterials to continue the trend of ever-increasingly powerful computer processors and memory chips - others remain in various stages of development.

Medical applications take longer, he said, because they must first be developed in a laboratory and then pass through various phases of safety and effectiveness testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Just the beginning

Longer-term there's also hope nanomaterials may provide leaps to make technologies such as solar energy and water desalinization both efficient and cost-effective.

"I think we are just beginning to see what nanotechnology is capable of," Lippel said. "A lot of good 20th-century engineering solutions to energy, water, communications are going to have their economics changed by nanomaterials."

Lippel sees nanotechnology as a great enabling technology, similar to computing and information technology during the latter half of the 20th century.

But Peter Bishop, a University of Houston future studies professor, isn't ready to go that far, at least not yet.

"I don't put nanotechnology in the same category as some of the more disruptive technologies in our history like machines, coal, railroads, telephone or electricity," he said.

Instead he says nanotechnology will be more of an invisible, under-the-hood technology that provides incremental changes and allows people to do things better. He says nanotechnology may be more like the plastics of the 21st century.

"No one called the middle of the last century the plastics era, but it certainly was an important step forward in materials science," he said.

We'll just have to wait until the buckyball's golden anniversary to settle the question.

UPDATE

In recent years, Houston universities and Texas Medical Center institutions have continued to invest resources in nanotechnology, cementing Houston as a national research hub for all things on the nano scale.

In 2013, Rice university took the logical step creating the Department of Material Sciences and Nanoengineering, two fields that Rice researchers have dominated for years.

Two years later, the university was tapped by the National Science Foundation to establish the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Systems, Houston's first NSF Energy Research Center and the third in Texas.

That same year, the university announced it would invest $49 million in molecular nanotechnology.

The University of Houston launched its first nanotechology spinoff in 2013; Integricote, based in the university's Energy Research Park, produces protective coatings for wood and masonry, based on the work of physicist Seamus Curran.

Several other nanotech-based products for the energy industry are undergoing commercial testing, including an enhanced oil recovery fluid developed by physicist Zhifeng Ren, a pioneer in working with carbon nanotubes recruited from Boston College in 2013, and a "smart" cement, developed by engineer Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, that can alert engineers to potential problems with a well before they become dangerous.

In 2010, Houston Methodist made a major investment in the future of nanotechnology by poaching nanomedicine pioneer Dr. Mauro Ferrari from the University of Texas Health Science Center to run the Houston Methodist Research Institute.

While there, Ferrari has continued to pursue his research including a nano-based technology that has been shown in mouse studies to destroy a lethal-type of breast cancer after it reached the lungs, a stage of the disease once considered untreatable.

Likewise, Ferrari has recruited a crop of highly-regarded scientists to the Institute where they continue to develop new ways to merge nanotechnology and medicine.

One such recruit, Dr. Alessandro Grattoni who now leads the Institute's Department of Nanomedicine, recently the launched the first of its kind Center of Space Nanomedicine.

Last year, Grattoni and his team had one of their experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station. That experiment involved testing a device that uses "nano channels" to deliver medication in a super precise manner. Another experiment is set to be launched in April.

- Kim McGuire

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25 years later, buckyball a big find on small scale - Chron.com

Preparing For The End Of Moore’s Law – AlleyWatch

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Recently, in a packed room of over 100 professionals, Nuzha Yakoob shared with the hushed crowd how nature is the greatest innovator. Ms. Yakoobshowcased Festo Roboticsbionic zoo from elephant nose-inspired end-effectors to grippers modeled after chameleon tongues. My personal favorite are the robotic ants that collaborate over the cloudto accomplish specific jobs that would be impossible to do alone. As I left #RobotLabNYC, I musedthat biology holds the keys to unlocking the greatest challenges in computing and robotics.

Since 1965, Moores Law has been the pillar of the modern computing age, which has also led to the greatest growth ofrobotics. However, many are predicting we are reaching the tipping point of the number of silicon wafers that can be stacked on a single chip. The law is named after Gordon Moore, former CEO of Intel, who observed more than 50 years ago that transistors were shrinking so quickly that every year twice as many could fit onto a single chip, leading to exponential growth ofprocessing power. Moores Law was later adjusted to doubling every 18 months (At RobotLabNYC David Rose spoke about exponential growth as driver and disrupter of everything in todays connected world). However, many are observing a slowing of processing power between chip generations indicating that we could be years away from the end of Moores Law.

Its time to start planning for the end of Moores Law, and that its worth pondering how it will end, not just when, saysRobert Colwell, former director of the Microsystems Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA).

Semiconductors are in everything today, but if artificial intelligence is the future silicon may not be the most energy efficient means for compute power. Many designers are taking Ms. Yakoobs approach by looking at biology or the brain as a model of future networks. The best known exampleis aDARPA-funded program, calledSyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics), that is developing aneuromorphic machine technology that scales to biological levels. More simply stated, it is an attempt to build a new kind of computer with similar form and function to a mammalsbrain. The ultimate aim is to build an electronic microprocessor system that matches a brain in function, size, and power consumption. It could recreate 10 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses, consume one kilowatt (same as a small electric heater), and occupy less than two liters of space.

Neuromorphic computing was originally conceived by Caltech Professor Carver Mead. In his 1990 IEEEpaper, Mead wrote that large-scale adaptive analog systems are more robust to component degradation and failure than are more conventional systems, and they use far less power. For this reason, adaptive analog technology can be expected to utilize the full potential of wafer-scale silicon fabrication. In translation, the idea is to utilize analog circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures that we find in our nervous system:

Researchers at Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories announced last month a different approach to mimicking a mammals brain by creating an artificial synapse.The artificial synapse, reported first in Nature Materials, mimics the way abrians synapses learn through crossingsignals. This means that actual processing of information creates energy, not the other way around by consuming energy to compute. Artificial synapses could provide huge energy savings over traditional computing, especially for deep learning applications.

According toAlberto Salleo, co-author of the paper, it works like a real synapse but its an organic electronic device that can be engineered. Its an entirely new family of devices because this type of architecture has not been shown before. For many key metrics, it also performs better than anything thats been done before with inorganics.

This synapse may one day be part of a more brain-like computer, which could be especially beneficial for computing for voice-controlled interfaces like Alexa and autonomouscars. Past efforts in this field have produced high-performance neural networks supported by artificially intelligent algorithms but these are still distant imitators of the brain that depend on energy-consuming computer hardware.

Deep learning algorithms are very powerful but they rely on processors to calculate and simulate the electrical states and store them somewhere else, which is inefficient in terms of energy and time. Instead of simulating a neural network, our work is trying to make a neural network, said Albertos co-author, Yoeri van de Burgt.

The artificial synapse is structured out of inexpensive organic materials, composed of hydrogen and carbon similar to a brains chemistry. The voltages applied to train the artificial synapse are also the same as those that move through human neurons. According to researchers, processing recognition has been in the upper ninetieth percentile.

The idea of using natural materials to run fuel cells is expanding into robotics with new novel microbial components.Researchers at the University of Rochester have taken a century old process on its heels by usingbacteria to generate an electrical current to power robots via a microbial fuel cells (or MFCs). The researchers plan to use MFCs in wastewater to consume bacteria as a way to powernew types of devices.

Weve come up with an electrode thats simple, inexpensive, and more efficient. As a result, it will be easy to modify it for further study and applications in the future, says researcher Peter Lamberg.

The new MFC uses a novel approach leveraging carbon as conductor of electricity.Until Lambergs discovery, most MFCs consisted of metal components or carbon felt that easily corrodes. His solution was to replace the metal parts with with paper coated with carbon paste, which is a simple mixture of graphite and mineral oil. Thecarbon paste-paper electrode is not only cost-effective and easy to prepare; it also outperforms traditional materials.

Jonathan Rossiter, Professor of Robotics at the University of Bristol, has been utilizing the MFC created by the University of Rochester in robots to clean polluted waterways.RossitersRow-bot feeds on the bacteria found in dirty water and uses it for propulsion. Row-bot is still in its conceptual stage, but the University of Bristol plans to develop swarms ofautonomous water robots that operate indefinitely in remote unstructured locations by scavenging its energy from the environment.

The work shows a crucial step in the development of autonomous robots capable of long-term self-power. Most robots require re-charging or refueling, often requiring human involvement, exclaimsRossiter.

We anticipate that the Row-bot will be used in environmental clean-up operations of contaminants, such as oil spills and harmful algal bloom, and in long term autonomous environmental monitoring of hazardous environments, for example those hit by natural and man-made disasters, added co-researcher, Hemma Philamore.

As we enter the new age of computing the rules have yet to bewritten. The lines betweenorganic and inorganic matter areblurring. At a certain point in time, it could be very possible that biologic-inspired machines become aspecies unto themselves.

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Preparing For The End Of Moore's Law - AlleyWatch

How molecular machines may drive the future of disease detection and drug delivery – Science Daily

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How molecular machines may drive the future of disease detection and drug delivery
Science Daily
"This is really big because of the diverse potential applications," says Chris Le, Canada Research Chair and a distinguished university professor of laboratory medicine & pathology. "One outcome of this will be to provide better and earlier disease ...

and more »

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How molecular machines may drive the future of disease detection and drug delivery - Science Daily

This Alphabet-backed lab wants to replace drugs with electrical implants – Wired.co.uk

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If youve ever glanced at the back of a medicine packet, or read through that tightly folded, microprint advice slip that comes wrapped around your blister pack of seemingly innocuous tablets, you could be forgiven for wondering if drug-based medicine is a bit of an imprecise science.

Youve got a headache, so naturally you reach for the paracetamol. An hour later, youre feeling much better. Unless youre very unlucky and suddenly develop a fever, or nausea, or unusual bleeding or bruising (as opposed to the normal, everyday kind). Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRIs) could literally save your life if you suffer from depression. Unless you then drink grapefruit juice, which can effectively boost the dosage of an antidepressant from therapeutic to toxic.

According to Kris Famm, president of Galvani Bioelectronics, about 90 per cent of the work that goes into developing a drug isnt focused on treating a disease, but on working out how to prevent or mitigate the adverse effects the drug might have on other parts of the body. His answer to this problem? Bioelectronics: implants that deliver electrical impulses directly to the nerves that control particular organs, treating a patients condition while bypassing the brain and circulatory system altogether.

More than two billion people suffer from chronic diseases where bioelectronic medicines could one day be part of the therapeutic solution, says Famm. Our bodies use electrical signals in nerves to tune their functions; our society uses the same principles to control devices and systems all around us these worlds will [inevitably] meet.

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Bioelectronics, as a new field of medicine, presents challenges - not least how to power the devices after they are implanted (though in the future Famm suggests we might charge implants wirelessly, as we now can with phones; or even with glucose from the patients body or energy generated by their movements, like a self-winding watch). But the potential advantages over traditional molecular medicine are clear: no side-effects, no long trial-and-error periods adjusting dosages, and all the grapefruit juice you can drink. And Galvani Bioelectronics has some influential backers behind it - the company was launched in 2016 by Googles parent company Alphabet and pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, and backed by investment of up to 540 million over the next seven years.

What is your biggest pet peeve about the health industry and why?

That patents and open, collaborative innovation are at odds. Instead, they can and should reinforce each other towards achieving patient benefits.

What advice can you give someone struggling to change or evolve their organisation?

Start small, but quickly. Early successes give reasons to believe and contagious momentum.

What are you most excited about at WIRED Health this year?

Exchanging ideas and approaches about how to innovate in healthcare bringing together technology, biology, clinical, and system innovation practitioners could challenge and inspire all of us!

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This Alphabet-backed lab wants to replace drugs with electrical implants - Wired.co.uk

Robo Recall Vive Support Added With RoboRevive Mod – UploadVR

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Developed by Epic Games and with a budget that nearly matched the original Gears of War, Robo Recall [Review: 7.5/10] is probably the Oculus Rifts biggest exclusive so far. But a new mod is making sure HTC Vive owners dont miss out.

You may well have heard of CrossVR before. Hes one of the developers behind Revive, a hack that allows Vive owners to play games available on Oculus Home, including exclusive Rift content funded by Oculus itself. It caused quite a stir last year when Oculus released a Home update that unintentionally blocked its access, then quickly backpedalled when it opened up further security concerns.

But CrossVR isnt bringing Robo Recall to Vive using that program. Instead, hes utilising the games mod support for a new release that hes labelled RoboRevive. The mod uses SteamVRs Unreal Egnine plugin.

You can download the mod from GitHub where youll also find detailed instructions to installing it. The modder notes that the Vives control scheme is not perfect, likely due to the differences in buttons between the Oculus Touch controllers that Robo Recall was designed for and the Vive wands HTCs headset uses. Keep in mind that this is simply a foundation that the developer hopes others will build upon to make the game much more compatible with Vive.

Its taken less than a week for modders to get Robo Recall up and running on Vive; the first-person shooter enjoyed a surprise launch last Wednesday for free. Still, its arrival is well timed, as others have already implemented a mod that adjusts the game to better suit 360 degree play. Currently the game is designed for 180 degree Rift setups with two sensors, constantly getting players to face forwards, but this mod changes the game so players can teleport and end up facing the intended direction.

Epic Games is also working on an official fix for this, due to launch later this month.

Tagged with: Epic Games, htc vive, oculus rift, robo recall

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Robo Recall Vive Support Added With RoboRevive Mod - UploadVR

You’re Dead? No Problem – Undark Magazine

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In a large warehouse next to the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, 149 patients occupy large cylinders filled with liquid nitrogen. None are alive; some are just decapitated heads. Yet to adherents of the practice called transhumanism, they arent dead either, but suspended between life and death. When the technology becomes available, the thinking goes, they will, in some shape or form, come back to life.

BOOK REVIEW To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death, by Mark OConnell (Doubleday, 256 pages).

For $200,000, you can have your own body suspended there or if you opt to have only your brain preserved, the cost is $80,000. The facility in Scottsdale, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, is one of three cryopreservation sites in the United States. (A fourth is in Russia.)

What if technology could set us free from our own mortal bodies? If there were a way to expand our mental and physical beings beyond the limitations we were born with? If we could harness science to morph our flesh and bones into a machinelike state?

In the transhumanist school of thought, these are not far out propositions. They are our future.

To adherents of the practice called transhumanism, they arent dead either, but suspended between life and death.

The history, plight, and future of transhumanism are examined in Mark OConnells first book, To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. OConnell, a Slate book columnist and staff writer for the literary website The Millions, defines transhumanism as a total emancipation from biology itself. In this thoughtful and readable book, he aims to understand the motivations of those who are guided by the belief that technology will enable humans to transcend the human condition.

In an attempt to explore what it means to think of ourselves as machines, OConnell takes readers on an all-encompassing tour, meeting artificial intelligence researchers, philosophers, brain-uploading scientists, roboticists with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and grinders (people who implant cybernetic devices into their own skin). He closes with his travels on the immortality bus with Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist author and entrepreneur who ran for president in 2016 on the Transhumanist Party ticket. (He didnt make a dent in the election, but he claimed that winning was not the point he wanted to bring awareness to the concept of conquering death with technology, as he reported to Inverse). OConnell touches on concepts like the singularity the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence along with mind uploading, life extension, and space colonization. He writes in an agreeable, conversational tone, offering his opinions, doubts, and fears along the way.

OConnell makes it clear that he does not fit into the subcultures he observes: In no sense was I among my people. In no sense was this my world. As a self-proclaimed interloper, he connects directly with readers who may know next to nothing about AI, but worry about its implications. Often he closes these sections with reflections about his own uneasy relationship with machines: The effects of technology on my own life were something about which I was profoundly ambivalent; for all I had gained in convenience and connectedness, I was increasingly aware of the extent to which my movements in the world were mediated and circumscribed by corporations whose only real interest was in reducing the lives of human beings to data, as a means to further reducing us to profit.

The flip side of creating machinelike humans is creating humanlike machines, and OConnell is equally fascinated by the astounding but fraught recent strides in artificial intelligence. He visits the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, California, to understand why AI safety has become a pressing issue. While the existential dangers of AI may seem a far-off concern, they are a preoccupation for many Silicon Valley elites, with billions in research funding from tech icons like Elon Musk and giants like Facebook and Microsoft. OConnell observes the DARPA robotics challenge to see just how far robots have evolved, what they are capable of, and what their creators envision for the future.

If transhumanism is the core subject of this book, OConnells explorations of artificial superintelligence and high-tech robotics come off as somewhat confusing detours. Transhumanism, it should be stressed, is one subset of AI not the other way around. Nick Bostrom, one of the most vocal proponents of investing in research to develop safe AI, would likely distance himself from transhumanism, as would many computer scientists and traditional AI researchers. Even within transhumanist thought, there are divides. OConnell does not fully investigate them.

Who are you when your body is part or all machine? If you could choose immortality, would you?

OConnell tries to understand the extreme branches of transhumanism that would turn brains and bodies into virtual machines. But not all transhumanists go so far. Theres a spectrum, and some of the most pressing ethical and scientific dilemmas may lie within it. What does it mean to be half human, half machine, for instance? If we could live longer by using technology to replace parts of our aging, dying bodies, would we? What about fixing certain parts of the brain with artificial replacements? Where is the line? What about the concept of Google Glass, the failed tool intended to literally attach to our line of vision, giving us intelligence in real time? These questions are current and relevant, and it would have been interesting to see OConnell engage them in more depth.

OConnell plays into the presumed fears of readers. While he is sympathetic to the pursuit of a post-human condition, he displays his own doubts. He occupies a safe space, an us versus them world in which they are misguided or outside the bounds of normal society. It is easier to look askance at Istvans extremely problematic idea of implanting microchips in Syrian refugees, to track their whereabouts and whether they are contributing to society, than to explore whether you might choose to have a nonfunctioning piece of your body artificially replaced. It would have been riskier for OConnell to dig into his own thoughts in this murky space. To resist the temptation to highlight the strangeness of his characters. To wrestle not with why they arrived at their conclusions, but with whether there are merits to these ideas. Or to let the characters speak solely for themselves. Many of these people are highly intelligent, capable, and influential; they deserve due respect for philosophies that lie outside what many consider normal.

To Be a Machine raises deep religious and philosophical questions. What does it mean to be human? Who are you when your body is part or all machine? If you could choose immortality, would you?

As OConnell himself admits, he wound up substantially more confused after writing this book. Many readers will likely experience the same mystification. But perhaps thats the point.

Hope Reese is a staff writer for TechRepublic, a division of CBS Interactive. She covers the intersection of technology and society, focusing on AI, robotics, and driverless cars.

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Now, consult the best cancer experts in the world – Daily News & Analysis

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Saving lives globally with a computer science degree while sitting in Boston is Gitika Srivastava, and there are many who can vouch for her. How is Srivastava doing it?

Srivastava the founder and creator for Navya, a web portal that brings together India's best oncologists on one platform for patients and their families seeking expert opinion. Since its launch, the website has helped people from over 22 countries, including those from South East Asia and Africa.

Navya's operations are based in India's IT city Bengaluru, and has oncologists on board from across the world. The clinical informatics and patient services organisation helps cancer patients get an expert opinion on cancer diagnosis and decide the treatment option best for them, taking their location into consideration.

The web portal was founded in 2010 by Srivastava, inspired from a personal experience. "In 2007 someone close to me was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, I spent most of my waking hours researching for treatment options. Living in Boston, I realised I was extremely privileged as I had access to technology and several experts. I couldn't help but think of the many people across the world who didn't have this kind of access. I wanted to do something about that," she said.

Considering her background in computer science, Srivastava and her friend, Dr Naresh Ramarajan realised that technology and informatics was the way to go, she says.

"We wanted to take Dr Badwe's (Dr Rajendra Badwe, Director, Tata Memorial Centre) mind from one centre in Mumbai across the world. We wanted to see if we could build a system that can think like an oncologist," says Srivastava.

Anyone can register on Navya, which is a non-profit. For Rs 6,500, they get you an e-consult you need, and the team hopes to bring down this cost soon, as more people use it. The fee is waived for those with a BPL (below poverty line) card, Srivastava tells us. All you have to do is upload your reports and the queries. An analytical system devised by the Navya team organises the reports submitted by patients or their caregivers, which are then sent to top oncologists for an opinion.

It takes as little as a few hours to a maximum of three days for the entire process without the patient having to leave home, as Goa's Panaji resident Cheryl D'souza recently learned. The 27-year-old and her family were under extreme stress when they were informed by the doctor that her mother had cancer but the doctors couldn't confirm if it was stomach cancer or ovarian.

"We took a few opinions, and ordered a repeat preview biopsy which would take another 14 days," Cheryl said. Time was of the essence since her mother's cancer was already stage IV, and not in a condition to travel to consult doctors. Cheryl then turned to Navya. "This happened in November 2016. I uploaded my mother's reports on the website. An hour later a person from the firm called me and asked me a few questions. The next morning I received a report from a medical oncology expert at Tata Memorial Centre confirming that the reports were consistent with ovarian cancer. They also gave me the treatment options," she said. Cheryl's mother was advised to proceed with chemotherapy in Goa.

Navya tied up with the National Cancer Grid (NCG), a Tata Memorial Centre initiative spearheaded by Dr CS Pramesh, a surgical oncologist. NCG connects 96 cancer hospitals and research centres, and now patients can have access to them via navya.care

At the doctor's end, who are on board as consultants with Navya, the patient's reports appear on an app, and the doctors respond in little as 24 hours.

Srivastava says, "Navya is an expert system which uses technology and data to make intelligent treatment decisions for the patient. We have patients who can't afford certain treatments or can't travel to certain places so the options given to them are customised to their needs. Patient preference is a big part of the process."

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Now, consult the best cancer experts in the world - Daily News & Analysis

Local bands can get a chance to perform at Bare in the Woods – Leinster Express

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As festival line ups across the country fill up quickly, new Irish artists are being offered the chance to play at the quickest growing event of the summer, BARE in the Woods in Portarlington.

Taking place at Garryhinch Woods on the Laois Offaly border on June 9-11, BARE in the Woods has already announced hip hop legends House of Pain and Mike Skinner with more headline acts due to be released imminently.

In the meantime, BARE17 is directing new Irish artists to download the Mobstar app and upload an entry for an opportunity to play this years festival.

Mobstar is the first and largest open network of authentic music talent that will allow users and fans to immediately discover, share, engage, follow and directly support their favourite rising talent.

Already, Heroes in Hiding, Craic Appeal, Mind Riot, Scoops, Chasing Abbey, Buniscionn, Wolves of Youth, Exiles, The Revellions, Emma Jai, The Kilo 1977, Dreaming of Jupiter, Montreal State, Not Monsters, Gemma Bradley and Quangodelic have been chosen to play BARE17 through the Mobstar app.

The quality of the acts that have entered through Mobstar so far have been amazingly good. We still have slots to fill over the three-day event, so we are encouraging anyone who would like to find out what its like to play a great Irish festival to download the app and get involved, said Festival organiser, Peter Dunne.

The festival has expanded to a three day event this year.

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Local bands can get a chance to perform at Bare in the Woods - Leinster Express

Indian Man Racially Attacked In New Zealand By A Native Who Asked Him To Go Back To His Country – Indiatimes.com

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Narindervir Singh, an Indian national in New Zealand fell victim to a racist attack last week that he captured on video as evidence. The incident happened in Auckland where a native racially abused Singh and asked him to go back to his country, a media report said on Monday.

Narindervir Singh/Facebook Live Video

Singh filmed the entire tirade from inside his vehicle after the two men got involved in an incident of road rage.

"I gave him a space...that lady gave me the finger. He was driving that car (pointing to a white Holden) and now he's trying to threaten me, giving me bad names," Singh can be heard saying in the video which he live-streamed onto Facebook.

Narindervir Singh/Facebook Live Video

As soon as Singh told the native that he was uploading the video onto Facebook, the abuser got more riled up and swore at Singh asking him to go back to his country.

Before the situation escalated, the abuser had been tail-gating Singh who had simply moved aside to let him pass. But the man stopped his car and hurled derogatory remarks at Singh about Punjabi people, calling them "faggots".

And it didn't end there. As Singh started driving off, the abuser pulled down his pants and flashed his bottoms at Singh.

"It really shocked me and after he (left), I was really shaken.I don't know what to do, it really hurts my heart...The first thing in my mind was that he might hurt me with some weapon," Singh toldNewshub.

The horrific episode didn't end there. When Singh pulled over on a side-street, the white Holden driver stopped and began his racist rant all over again.

A complaint has been filed with the police and investigation is underway.

With inputs from TOI

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Crowdsourced Medicine Is Transforming the Diagnosis of Rare Disorders – NBCNews.com

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CrowdMed detectives represent a broad spectrum of medical backgrounds from surgeons to acupuncturists to patients who have become experts on their own conditions. Cecilie Arcurs / Getty Images

Patients trust their doctors to diagnose them accurately and quickly. But when a patient has a rare condition or non-specific symptoms, getting that accurate diagnosis can become a costly process that takes months or even years.

Maybe crowdsourced medical diagnosis could do a better job. That's the proposition of

Launched in 2013, the San Francisco-based company has helped more than 2,000 patients get closer to finding the right diagnosis. CrowdMed currently has pilot programs underway with four major insurance firms to explore whether crowdsourced medicine can be economically effective for patients and insurers.

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"If you have a condition that doctors see often, say a heart condition or cancer or diabetes, it's not hard to get a diagnosis and get on the right treatment path," says CrowdMed founder and CEO Jared Heyman. If the condition is more unusual, he adds, "you often end up in this cycle where you just get referred from specialist to specialist searching for that needle-in-a-haystack person who might have familiarity with what you have."

Heyman has seen that cycle first-hand. Back in 2003, his sister, Carly, began gaining weight and sleeping all day. It took three years, more than 20 doctors, and over $100,000 in medical bills to figure out she had a rare genetic mutation called fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI). Carly was treated with a hormone patch and her symptoms vanished within a month.

"I saw how ill-equipped the traditional medical system is when it comes to helping people with difficult to diagnose or rare diseases," Heyman says. "I wanted to apply everything I knew about crowdsourcing to healthcare to help people like my sister."

Patients log on to the site, answer a series of questions about their symptoms and medical history, and then, if they choose to do so, upload their medical records to the site with identifying information removed. Then the site's so-called "medical detectives" collaborate with the patient and each other to offer suggestions as to what they believe is going on, which patients can then discuss with their doctors.

CrowdMed has its critics, including those who question the efficacy of detectives who can't see a patient in-person and those who believe the site doesn't provide enough data on patient outcomes.

But it also has its fans like Madeleine Gerlach, a 24 year-old in Pacifica, California, who turned to CrowdMed in early 2013 after a series of doctors failed to identify the cause of the severe, intermittent pain she began experiencing the previous year.

Initially, doctors could find nothing wrong with Madeleine, and her pain subsided for a few months. When it returned, Madeleine's doctors attributed the pain to spasms in her pelvic floor, the bundle of muscles, nerves, and connective tissues that support the rectum, bladder, and uterus. They referred her to a pelvic pain center and prescribed painkillers.

Nothing worked.

After learning about endometriosis, a uterine disorder that can cause severe abdominal pain and bleeding and whose nonspecific symptoms make it notoriously difficult to diagnose, Madeleine thought that's what she might have. Her CrowdMed detectives also suggested it was the most likely culprit, but her in-person doctors didn't agree. Madeleine had diagnostic surgery that May, but it didn't reveal enough uterine lining growth for doctors to support endometriosis.

Bolstered by what CrowdMed detectives believed, Madeleine got a second opinion, paid $25,000 out of pocket to have a second diagnostic surgery, and in October it was determined she had stage two endometriosis, shaving years, potentially even a decade, off of the average time to diagnosis.

"Just having the diagnosis gave me everything," Madeleine says. "I was over the moon when I woke up from surgery. I was like 'I'm not crazy. There's actually something wrong with me.'"

Getting a correct diagnosis, even if no medical treatment is available for the condition, is often a triumph for patients who need validation that something is truly wrong, says Ronald DeBellis, chief scientific officer for the National Organization for Rare Disorders, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.

But for patients with rare disorders illnesses that affect fewer than 200,000 people across the entire U.S. getting a proper diagnosis is especially tough. On average, it takes patients with rare disorders seven years to get an accurate diagnosis. In the meantime, as some patients ping-pong from doctor to doctor and undergo repeated batteries of tests, they can run out of money and hope.

"The mental anguish that goes along with this is unbelievable," DeBellis says. "Every time you go to the doctor, you think someone's going to find something" that can help.

CrowdMed seeks to reduce the timeline of a diagnosis by enlisting detectives representing a broad spectrum of medical backgrounds everyone from surgeons to acupuncturists to patients who have become experts on their own conditions. Detectives start with a ranking based on verifiable medical credentials and can move up the CrowdMed ladder by adding suggestions other detectives find valuable, and by becoming the medical detective the patient deems most effective as the case closes.

Moderators, all of whom are licensed physicians, monitor conversation to ensure conclusions are drawn based on peer-reviewed science. Well-supported suggestions from the case's highest-ranked detectives float to the top of the answer pile, as do those that a CrowdMed algorithm determines as having the highest probability of being right. Patients receive a list of potential diagnoses, ranked from most to least probable based on algorithmic assessment and crowd opinion.

But it's not cheap. Patients pay fees of up to $749 per month higher fees buy higher-ranked detectives working on the case and the site reserves a monetary reward of $200 to $1,000 that a patient can divide among the most helpful medical detectives on the case.

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Providing a direct diagnosis isn't CrowdMed's goal. The site and its detectives sidestep liability issues by offering suggestions afflicted users can bring to their in-person doctors, rather than official medical advice. The true aim is to provide patients with new insights they can use along with their medical providers to get answers.

Patients like Madeleine sing CrowdMed's praises, but some in the medical community have doubts.

Jordan Shlain, a primary care doctor in San Francisco, believes that the site offers patients access to experts they may not reach otherwise, but he's concerned that CrowdMed detectives might not have the tools to recognize when a symptom is from a physical condition and when it's a manifestation of a patient's psychology.

On average, it takes patients with rare disorders seven years to get an accurate diagnosis. In the meantime, patients can run out of money and hope. Reza Estakhrian / Getty Images

Difficulty separating physical disorders from somatoform conditions wherein mental illness causes physical symptoms is "definitely a concern and a limitation of not being able to physically examine a patient," says Kyle Walker, a CrowdMed moderator and general practice physician in Ohio.

Walker says that medical detectives, including those from neurology and psychology backgrounds, sometimes suggest somatoform disorders, but patients often aren't open to that possibility.

"More often than not, patients just say, 'Oh I didn't get a diagnosis from CrowdMed' and leave dissatisfied," he says.

Some are also concerned about how patients fare after their CrowdMed case is closed. Hardeep Singh, a patient safety researcher at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, published

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"Imagine the crowd makes a suggestion of this pathway and you get more tests and more tests and a procedure based on those tests and the procedure doesn't go very well," Singh says. "We actually don't know the downstream outcomes of the suggestions coming out of the crowd, which is exactly why we need that evaluation component."

CrowdMed patients are asked to complete a survey within 90 days after case closure to evaluate the site's success Heyman says that "75 percent of the time, if a patient has a medically confirmed diagnosis, it came from us" but medical detectives and moderators generally don't know how specific patients fare after their case is closed.

Crowdsourced medical help could be a boon for patients, and a game changer for insurance companies, since even a small reduction in time to a diagnosis can translate to thousands in saved medical costs. Joseph A. Ladapo, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, published

Ladapo found that after CrowdMed detectives resolved a case, the number of patient healthcare visits by dropped by nearly 50 percent and their average medical costs went down by about $200 per month. The results are preliminary but "very exciting," Ladapo says, adding that sites like CrowdMed could significantly broaden access to medical expertise.

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"I have patients right now in the hospital that have symptoms I have never seen before that are stumping our entire team," he says. "We've brought consultants in and we're all stumped. It would almost certainly represent an improvement to have more people thinking about that patient."

It won't be clear whether CrowdMed will join forces with major insurance policies, and potentially become a larger part of healthcare in general, until the company's pilot programs are over later this year. But online resources that allow patients to research their own symptoms, connect with experts who can offer medical feedback, and provide data and suggestions to in-person physicians are rapidly expanding. It's forcing the medical community to consider how it will evolve to work within a landscape of more empowered patients, Hardeep Singh says.

"I think the physician community is not completely ready," he says. "But I think it's increasingly recognizing that we're in a new era, we're in a new world where we're going to have to change the way we receive this online information. I think this is going to continue. CrowdMed is just the beginning."

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BMC Receives Largest Addiction Medicine Donation In Past Decade – Rhode Island Public Radio

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Officials gathered at the Boston Medical Center to announce the largest private gift in the hospital's history. The $25 million donation will be used to address the opioid addiction and overdose epidemic.

The gift from the Grayken family, of Massachusetts and London, will establish the BMC Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine. Its goal is to provide enhanced research into addiction, offer and track treatment and train doctors and others about substance use disorders. Senator Ed Markey told the Grayken family that the gift will save tens of thousands of lives:

"There's never been an issue like this that is affected our state and our nation. Your leadership today is going to help turn the corner on this disease so children will have to look to the history books to find that there ever was such a scourge."

BMC officials say it's the largest donation for addiction medicine in the US in the past decade.

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BMC Receives Largest Addiction Medicine Donation In Past Decade - Rhode Island Public Radio

Folk ‘Medicine’ Hurts More than Humans – American Council on Science and Health

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ACSH followers are clear about the problems associated with fake science from the promotion of supposed obesity "cures" by Dr. Oz to the nonsense of hydrogen-infused water, we've covered a myriad of pseudoscience. Some, such as supplements containing aristolochic acid, cause life-threatening effects, while others simply cause users to waste their money and avoid more effective treatments. One effect we've not really paid enough attention to, though, is the effect on fauna and flora all over the world. A recent article on Real Clear Science points to several species that are well on the way to extinction because of unfounded beliefs in their health effects.

For starters, take a look at this animal which most of us have never heard of the pangolin. Pangolins are anteaters (though they'll extend their diets to termites too) that are denizens of Africa and Asia. They're covered by protective scales, which give them rather a prehistoric look. While the scales may protect them from most predators, they are also the cause of their downfall since ground up scales are believed to be beneficial for lactating mothers and cure cancer and asthma.

Yet other folk beliefs center around sea horses. According to folk beliefs, ground up dried seahorses can benefit those afflicted with impotence, wheezing and bed wetting. They're found in shallow tropical and temperate waters world wide. Although they don't really look it, sea horses are indeed fish, renowned for their upright mode of swimming as well as the fact that it's the male that incubates the eggs in a pouch on his abdomen. Over 150 million of these creatures are harvested each year mostly for use in traditional Chinese medicine, but also for the pet trade and for curios.

And then there are the bears not the usual black, grizzly or polar bears that we're used to thinking of, but the already endangered Asian black bears and sun bears. They're inhabitants of dense forests of Southeast Asia habitats that are disappearing rapidly. They are agile climbers and feast on honeycombs, honey and insects. These animals are valued for their bile supposedly a panacea in traditional Chinese medicine. But either the bears are killed to obtain their gall bladders, or they're kept in captivity so the bile can be harvested via cannula not a humane practice.

These are but three of the less-known animals whose existence is threatened by beliefs that have no place in any modern pharmacopeia. And of course there are the more familiar ones most of us have heard about:

elephants poached for their tusks, rhinos for their horns, tigers for their bile and penises and many more.

So the next time you hear that "the Chinese have used X for 5,000 years" as a testament to the utility of some nostrum, think about more than the lack of any data supporting such beliefs, and consider what at least some of the effects may be on wildlife.

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The Medicine Shoppe will sponsor 34th annual Times Leader Spelling Bee – Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

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WILKES-BARRE The marathon-long rounds of the Times Leaders annual regional spelling bee may have come to an abrupt end without the help of a few local business owners.

Owners of The Medicine Shoppe locations in Wilkes-Barre and Dallas banded together to help fund the event, which has been a Times Leader tradition for more than three decades.

This years bee, the 34th annual, will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at The Woodlands Inn & Resort, Route 315, Plains Township. Twenty-one spellers from across Northeastern Pennsylvania will compete locally for a chance to spell on the national stage.

The first-place winner of the bee will receive a trip to Washington, D.C., during the week of Memorial Day, during which he or she will meet other top spellers from across the country, tour the capital and compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

We learned last summer that we wouldnt be able to hold this years bee unless a benefactor stepped forward, and we are so very grateful to The Medicine Shoppe pharmacies in Wilkes-Barre and Dallas for their generous sponsorship, said Times Leader features writer Mary Therese Biebel, who is coordinating the 2017 regional bee with arts and entertainment editor Sarah Haase.

By sending a speller to Washington for the National Bee, the Medicine Shoppe is helping that young scholar have the experience of a lifetime, Biebel said.

Times Leader Media Group Publisher Mike Murray said he is grateful for The Medicine Shoppes support of the bee, which has had a major impact on some past participants lives.

Its a pleasure this year to welcome The Medicine Shoppe as a co-sponsor of the TL Spelling Bee, said Murray. Thanks to their generosity, we are able to continue to build upon a tradition that has been part of the area for over three decades and look forward to its continued success.

Biebel said this years contestants can be inspired by Sukanya Roy, a speller from Abington Heights Middle School who won the regional bee three times and, on her third trip to Washington in 2011, won the national bee.

That was phenomenal, Biebel said.

Gary Karwaski, owner of The Medicine Shoppe in Dallas, said he believes education is key to a successful future a notion that was instilled within him since he was young.

Personally, when I was a child, my parents didnt have a lot of money, he said. My dad went to eighth grade, and I think my mother did too. I always knew how they struggled their whole life, and they would say when I was young, Youre going to college, youre going to college. It was expected. I always instill that into my children. Education helps you, and it makes things a heck of a lot easier.

Karwaski said he was surprised to learn that the bee may not have continued if it hadnt found a sponsor.

I had no idea that was the case, he said. That makes me feel pretty good.

Peg Freeman, owner of The Medicine Shoppe in Wilkes-Barre, has always had trouble spelling, so shes excited to encourage youngsters to start learning the craft.

Im an adult whos 66 years old and has a tough time spelling every day, she said. With our phones, you dont need to spell. Everything is checked for you. (I think) its important to learn how to spell.

Last years winner, Peter Khoudary from Good Shepherd Academy in Kingston, will once again participate in the bee. Khoudary, of Dallas, was eliminated in the third round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee last year with the word niacin.

http://timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_MedSlogobluetag-page-001-1.jpg

Jamison Bessoir, of Abington Heights Middle School, competes in the Times Leader Spelling Bee at The Woodlands Inn & Resort in Plains Township last March.

http://timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL030716SpellingBee3-1.jpgJamison Bessoir, of Abington Heights Middle School, competes in the Times Leader Spelling Bee at The Woodlands Inn & Resort in Plains Township last March. Sean McKeag File Photo | Times Leader

Peter Khoudary, of Good Shepherd Academy, wins the Times Leader Spelling Bee last March.

http://timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL030716SpellingBee4-1.jpgPeter Khoudary, of Good Shepherd Academy, wins the Times Leader Spelling Bee last March. Sean McKeag File Photo | Times Leader

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Urban Animal showed me how to get strong with a medicine ball – austin360 (blog)

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Laura Cisneros showed me how to strengthen my core with a medicine ball. PAM LeBLANC/American-Statesman

I met fitness trainer Laura Cisneros down at The Rock along the Butler Trail this morning, to find out how she gets those rock hard abs. She busted out a 6-pound Dynamax medicine ball and put me through a workout Im pretty sure Ill feel tomorrow. I crunched, I tossed, I engaged my abs and lats and tried to keep my knees from wobbling.

Cisneros, who runs a fitness program called Urban Animal, says medicine balls come in handy for athletes of all types looking for an all-over warm up or cool down. On their own, they can help increase power, strength and cardio fitness.

Im a swimmer, but my core is my weak link. I need this. Youre trying to train a whole range of motion and get your joints to work sequentially, she told me. Thats where the power comes from. First, a warning. You have to pay attention to what youre doing, or you might take a medicine ball to the gut.At least thats what I heard. You cant just go through the motions or youll eat vinyl. Youve got ball coming at you and youve got to deal with that, Cisneros says.

Cisneros heads a training program called Urban Animal. PAM LeBLANC/American-Statesman

And honestly, I never played ball sports. Glancing up to see a big ball flying at my face makes me want to duck . With Cisneros help, though, itll turn me into an animal. She ran me through a series of exercises, including one where I flopped on my belly (Superwoman style) and tossed a ball back and forth with her, and another that made me feel like I was flinging a bucket full of water at someone. Now Im going to show you how to put it all together and it will kill you, she said. Who can resist that? We combined five exercises she showed me in what she called a hub and wheel routine, where I did reps of each individual exercise, alternating with a basic ball toss. Cisneros heads up a training program called Urban Animal. The 45-minute high intensity training sessions take place at Sanchez Elementary School; session times are 6:15 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 5:45 p.m. Monday and Friday. Cost is $100 a month for unlimited classes.

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Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine’s Mini Medical School to focus on global health, international medicine – Augusta Free Press

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Fourth-year students from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine pose outside Yonsei University in Wonju, South Korea in 2016. The students spent a month at the Wonju College of Medicine.

Participants can travel around the world in two evenings during the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicines spring Mini Medical School, which will explore issues relating to global health and international medicine.

The Mini Medical School, titled Bringing Global Health Home, will be held April 5 and 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.both nights. The school, located at 2 Riverside Circle in Roanoke, will serve as the classroom.

With growing awareness and concern about worldwide health disparities, we thought it timely to host an event focusing on these and related issues and how they impact health care here at home, said Dave Trinkle, associate dean for community and culture at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. We will hear from local organizations, faculty members, and some of our students who have traveled internationally and been in the trenches when it comes to global health and international medicine.

The Mini Medical School kicks off April 5 with a presentation by Thomas Kerkering, professor of medicine at the school and chief of infectious diseases at Carilion Clinic. During his 35-year career, Kerkering traveled internationally to put his expertise to work. One of his notable global health-related projects was Ebola work for the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone in 2014.

Kerkerings presentation, What is Global Health, will provide attendees with an introduction to the topic as well as current issues in the field. He will be followed by a series of short presentations by local organizations that are engaged in international medical outreach and education. These will include: TEAM Malawi, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Churchs Haiti Project, Orphan Medical Network International, Second Presbyterian Church, Kimoyo Ltd, and Global Health Educators.

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Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine's Mini Medical School to focus on global health, international medicine - Augusta Free Press

Why Medical Students Are Demanding Our Schools Stand Up For The Affordable Care Act – Huffington Post

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In uncertain times, conviction is the currency by which we measure the worth of our institutions. And right now, our medical schools need to prove their worth. They should do so by publicly endorsing efforts to save and augment the Affordable Care Act.

You are likely familiar with the fundamentals of the law and the routes it provides to affordable health insurance. For tens of millions of our patients, this means the difference between sickness and health, and even life and death.

Estimates suggest that increased coverage prevents nearly 44,000 deaths every year. The law also discards the barbaric practice of denying insurance for pre-existing conditions and offers profound advantages for womens health care. And students might appreciate that they can stay on their parents insurance until age 26, saving hundreds or thousands of dollars.

To a greater or lesser extent, this is common knowledge. But the perspective held by a growing number of medical students is somewhat foreign to most people outside the profession, and even some people within. To understand it, we should recall how the United States approached medicine until just a few years ago.

Most developed countries have a national health care system. For them, medicine is something of a social creed. But in the United States, health care is an individual aspiration. There is no overarching societal desire to ensure everyone has access.

That mentality also permeates the practice of medicine. We focus on the patient in front of us and tend to lose track of the larger world beyond the office or hospital walls. If a patient does not have insurance, that is just the way it is, and we move on.

However, because of the Affordable Care Act, we are the first generation of medical students raised with a different mentality. Our classes reverberate with a new conceptual framework that is to drive our era of medicine: the idea that health care, rather than being a distant dream for many, might be there for everyone. It suggests, finally, a national alignment with the philosophy of endless compassion intrinsic to medicine.

That philosophy underpins our aspirations as future physicians. We spend our formative years not only crafting our knowledge, but also grasping for that impossible goal of limitless empathy. It should come as no surprise, then, that we rose quickly to the Affordable Care Acts defense. Within weeks of Trumps election, a student-led movement called #ProtectOurPatients claimed nearly 5,000 members and supporters across 150 medical schools and every state. We rallied our classmates, delivered petitions to Congress, and laid siege to congressional phone lines to support our patients.

So why do we now ask our universities to stand by the ACA? Because something as simple as a public statement, seemingly mere words on paper, gathers energies that cannot otherwise be harnessed.

My fellow students at Georgetown saw this recently when our faculty condemned the executive order on immigration, explicitly calling for a unified front against that abomination. It is always eye-catching when a major institution breaks from seasoned neutrality to defend its values.

Of course, you might think Obamacare is a less clear-cut ideological battle. To some extent this is true. There is ample room to debate its flaws and the appropriate remedies. But the cold, indifferent idea of repeal or anemic replacement is fundamentally incompatible with the principles of medicine.

To put it bluntly, show me a medical school that doesnt embrace the call of philanthropy and fraternity, that doesnt demand we elevate the neediest among us, and Ill show you where not to study medicine.

But I am willing to bet that school does not exist. I am willing to bet that every medical university is born from that ethos of endless compassion, carefully molded into establishments of service and sacrifice. The foundations rise from an agape love for our patients and communities. Thirty million people suddenly robbed of health care does not align with a single pillar of that practice.

Having been made in this image, there is an indisputable moral obligation for these institutions to oppose grievous violations of decency. We saw it with the travel ban. Now we need to see it in health care. The outrage over ruthless discrimination that brought to bear the strength of our communities is the same outrage we have felt for years as the Affordable Care Acts opponents spread lies about death panels and mythical economic destruction, lies that may literally cost tens of thousands of people their lives.

Universities can remain neutral when rational debate flourishes on all sides. But until then, the ACA deserves a strong defense. Medical schools should denounce repeal efforts and stand by our patients with the same compassion the schools instilled in us.

A version of this piece first appeared in The Hoya.

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Why Medical Students Are Demanding Our Schools Stand Up For The Affordable Care Act - Huffington Post

Study finds racial disparities in top medical society membership – Yale News

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Black and Asian medical school students are less likely to be selected for membership in a prestigious medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha (AA), than white medical school students, according to a Yale-led study. The disparity suggests bias in the AA membership selection process, which could negatively affect opportunities for minority medical school students, note the researchers.

The study was published March 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Studies have demonstrated racial and ethnic inequities in medicine, including disparities in the receipt of awards, research funding, and promotions. Yet few studies have examined the link between race and ethnicity and opportunities for medical school students.

Medical students are eligible for AA membership if they rank in the top quartile of their class and are selected by a committee at their institution. Society membership is important because members are more likely to get into the residency program of their choice, and more likely to attain the rank of full professor, dean, or department chair than nonmembers, the researchers said. Yale is one of the few medical schools in the United States that does not offer AA membership.

To investigate, the Yale research team analyzed data from the Electronic Residency Application Service, the official service that medical students in the United States use to apply to residency programs. Their analysis included 4,655 U.S. medical students from 123 medical schools during the 2014-2015 academic year who applied to one of 12 residency programs at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The researchers found that the odds of AA membership for white students were nearly six times greater than black students, and nearly two times greater than Asian students.

In our fully adjusted model which takes into account measures of professionalism, leadership, research, and standardized test scores underrepresented minorities are still less likely to be AA members, said first author Dr.Dowin Boatright, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program scholar.

The study did not, however, find a significant difference in AA membership between white and Hispanic students, which the researchers attributed to a too-small sample size of Hispanics.

The findings suggest potential bias in the AA membership selection process, which could limit opportunities for black and Asian medical students. For example, non-members may be automatically screened out by competitive residency programs that use membership as a filter, Boatright noted.

We look at the pipeline of physicians entering into medicine, and theres talk about how we need to increase the number of underrepresented minorities that are becoming physicians, said Boatright. This study shows there is some systematic bias at the level of medical schools that has not been addressed.

Understanding the reasons for and addressing bias in all aspects of medical education, including the selection process for AA membership, is critical if we are to address the crucial issue of eliminating bias in medical education and enhancing diversity in the physician workforce, said Dr. Patrick OConnor, the Dan and Amanda Adams Professor and chief of general internal medicine and a study author. This study sheds light on potential bias related to an important metric by which students at many U.S. medical schools may be evaluated.

Other study authors include Dr. David Ross, Edward Moore, and senior author Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

This work was supported by funds from Dr. Rosemarie Fisher, associate dean of graduate medical education at the Yale School of Medicine and designated institutional official for Yale New Haven Hospital. Ross and Moore are co-founders of Scutmonkey Consulting, LLC.

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Study finds racial disparities in top medical society membership - Yale News

Liberty Media CEO Dismisses NBC Formula One Fee As A ‘Popcorn … – Forbes

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Liberty Media CEO Dismisses NBC Formula One Fee As A 'Popcorn ... - Forbes