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Aug 13, 2018
Bayer shares plunge after Monsanto cancer ruling
Posted by Bill Kemp in category: biotech/medical
Shares in German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer tumbled more than 10 percent as markets opened Monday, as investors reacted to a shock US ruling against freshly-acquired Monsanto.
Stock in the Leverkusen-based group fell 10.4 percent to 83.61 euros ($95.19) around 9:25 am (0725 GMT), after a California jury on Friday awarded a dying groundskeeper damages of almost $290 million, saying Monsanto should have warned buyers that its flagship Roundup weedkiller could cause cancer.
While observers have predicted thousands of other claims could follow, Bayer said the jury’s findings went against scientific evidence and that other courts might “arrive at different conclusions”.
Aug 13, 2018
Biomimetic micro/nanoscale fiber reinforced composites
Posted by Bill Kemp in categories: biological, engineering, evolution, nanotechnology
Over hundreds of millions of years of evolution, nature has produced a myriad of biological materials that serve either as skeletons or as defensive or offensive weapons. Although these natural structural materials are derived from relatively sterile natural components, such as fragile minerals and ductile biopolymers, they often exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties due to their highly ordered hierarchical structures and sophisticated interfacial design. Therefore, they are always a research subject for scientists aiming to create advanced artificial structural materials.
Through microstructural observation, researchers have determined that many biological materials, including fish scales, crab claws and bone, all have a characteristic “twisted plywood” structure that consists of a highly ordered arrangement of micro/nanoscale fiber lamellas. They are structurally sophisticated natural fiber-reinforced composites and often exhibit excellent damage tolerance that is desirable for engineering structural materials, but difficult to obtain. Therefore, researchers are seeking to mimic this kind of natural hierarchical structure and interfacial design by using artificial synthetic and abundant one-dimensional micro/nanoscale fibers as building blocks. In this way, they hope to produce high-performance artificial structural materials superior to existing materials.
Aug 13, 2018
Flat-pack homes and profit-sharing retrofits are making sustainable housing affordable
Posted by Bill Kemp in categories: habitats, sustainability
Wealth-generating, flat-pack solar houses and a profit-sharing scheme that incentivises retrofitting are bringing sustainable living to people who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
“One of the biggest problems that we see right now is (the creation of) a big gap between the lower and the middle classes. Everyone is talking about this growing inequality gap,” said Bart Glowacki, co-founder of SOLACE, a start-up based in Warsaw, Poland, set up with the aim of making sustainable housing widely affordable.
Tighter mortgage controls, job insecurity and high student debts in Europe has meant that it is increasingly difficult for young people to buy their own homes.
Aug 13, 2018
‘Brainprint’ Can Identify You With 100% Accuracy
Posted by Mary Jain in category: neuroscience
Aug 13, 2018
Steven A: Garan from UC Berkeley gave this future-focused talk at the recent Ending Age-Related Diseases 2018 conference in NYC
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
To learn more about the conference and see more talks like this please visit us at: https://www.leafscience.org/ending-age-related-diseases-2018/
Aug 13, 2018
Researchers discover volcanic heat source under major Antarctic glacier
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: futurism
A researcher from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and five other scientists have discovered an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica.
The discovery and other findings, which are critical to understanding the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, of which the Pine Island Glacier is a part, are published in the paper, “Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier,” in the latest edition of Nature Communications.
Assistant Professor Brice Loose of Newport, a chemical oceanographer at GSO and the lead author, said the paper is based on research conducted during a major expedition in 2014 to Antarctica led by scientists from the United Kingdom. They worked aboard an icebreaker, the RRS James Clark Ross, from January to March, Antarctica’s summer.
Continue reading “Researchers discover volcanic heat source under major Antarctic glacier” »
Using satellite images of Lombok from the days following the Aug. 5 quake, scientists from NASA and the California Institute of Technology’s joint rapid imaging project made a ground deformation map and measured changes in the island’s surface.
In the northwest of the island near the epicenter, the rupturing faultline lifted the earth by a quarter of a meter. In other places it dropped by 5–15 centimeters (2−6 inches).
NASA said satellite observations can help authorities respond to earthquakes and other natural or manmade disasters.
Aug 13, 2018
6 Ways The Centuries-Old Art of Origami is Bringing us The Future
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: futurism, innovation
Scientists are using the Japanese art of origami to inspire various technological innovations, including a bulletproof shield and a deep-sea grabber.
Aug 13, 2018
Sunlight Might Be the Key to Turning Our Oceans Into Drinkable Water
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: futurism
The Department of Energy is betting big on a new technology to turn saltwater into freshwater.