25 Sep Covid-19 Long-Term Effects: Some Patients Need Very Long-Term Care

Like many other illnesses, Covid-19 can cause enduring problems. Some victims report serious symptoms weeks and months after infection, even many who were never ill enough to be hospitalized. Nearly 100 different long-term problems, detailed in the chart below, were reported to Indiana University Medical School researcher Natalie Lambert, in a survey of more than 1,500 patients. Some of these issues go well beyond typical Covid-19 symptoms.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.bloomberg.com

25 Sep Most Americans to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by July 2021, CDC chief expects

A top U.S. health official told a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday that he expects COVID-19 vaccinations to take place over many months and that most Americans could be vaccinated by July of 2021 at the latest.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Robert Redfield said he expects there to be about 700 million doses of vaccines available by late March or April, enough for 350 million people. “I think that’s going to take us April, May, June, you know, possibly July, to get the entire American public completely vaccinated,” Redfield told the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.reuters.com

18 Sep Computational modeling explains why blues and greens are brightest structural colors in nature

Researchers from the University of Cambridge used a numerical experiment to determine the limits of matt structural color – a phenomenon which is responsible for some of the most intense colors in nature – and found that it extends only as far as blue and green in the visible spectrum. The results, published in PNAS, could be useful in the development of non-toxic paints or coatings with intense color that never fades.

Structural color, which is seen in some bird feathers, butterfly wings or insects, is not caused by pigments or dyes, but internal structure alone. The appearance of the color, whether matt or iridescent, will depending on how the structures are arranged at the nanoscale.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.cam.ac.uk

18 Sep Microbial life on Venus? Phosphine gas in clouds of Venus detected

Measurements of trace gases in planetary atmospheres help us explore chemical conditions different to those on Earth. Our nearest neighbor planet, Venus, has clouds that are temperate but hyperacidic. Here we report the apparent presence of phosphine (PH3) gas in Venus’s atmosphere, where any phosphorus should be in oxidized forms. Single-line millimeter-waveband spectral detections (quality up to ~15σ) from the JCMT and ALMA telescopes have no other plausible identification.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.nature.com

18 Sep The phosphine discovered in Venus’ clouds may be a big deal. Here’s what you need to know. | Space

A chemical you’ve likely never heard of has burst into the news thanks to scientists’ announcement that they have detected phosphine, which they say may be a sign of life, in the clouds of Venus.

Here’s everything you need to know about phosphine, the strange chemical detected in the atmosphere of Venus.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.space.com

11 Sep Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic never seen before

Using a new machine-learning algorithm, MIT researchers have identified a powerful antibiotic that can kill a wide range of species of pathogenic bacteria, including some that are resistant to all known antibiotics.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.mit.edu

11 Sep A.I. Tool Promises Faster, More Accurate Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

By detecting subtle differences in the way that Alzheimer’s sufferers use language, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed an A.I. algorithm that promises to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s without the need for expensive scans or in-person testing. The software not only can diagnose Alzheimer’s, at negligible cost, with more than 95 percent accuracy, but is also capable of explaining its conclusions, allowing physicians to double check the accuracy of its diagnosis.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.stevens.edu

11 Sep Sensitive robots – New electronic skin can react to pain like human skin

Artificial skin reacts to pain just like real skin, opening the way to better prosthetics, smarter robotics and less invasive options for skin grafts.

Researchers have developed electronic artificial skin that reacts to pain just like real skin, opening the way to better prosthetics, smarter robotics and non-invasive alternatives to skin grafts. The prototype device developed by a team at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, can electronically replicate the way human skin senses pain. The device mimics the body’s near-instant feedback response and can react to painful sensations with the same lighting speed that nerve signals travel to the brain.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.rmit.edu.au

04 Sep Mark Sagar: how humans will interact with machines in ten years

In ten years artificially intelligent robots will be living and working with us, according to Dr. Mark Sagar, CEO of Soul Machines, an Auckland, New Zealand-based company that develops intelligent, emotionally responsive avatars.

Sagar, an AI engineer, is the inventor of a virtual nervous system that powers autonomous animated avatars like Baby X — a virtual infant that learns through experience and can “feel” emotions.

“We are creating realistic adult avatars serving as virtual assistants. You can use them to plug into existing systems like IBM Watson or Cortana — putting a face on a chatbot,” said Sagar.

Within a decade humans will be interacting with lifelike emotionally-responsive AI robots, very similar to the premise of the the HBO hit series Westworld, said Sagar.

But before that scenario becomes a reality robotics will have to catch up to AI technology. “Robotics technology is not really at the level of control that’s required,” he said.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.cnbc.com