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Google's 'Project Nightingale' secretly gathers personal health information on millions of Americans

Katabella Roberts
The Epoch Times
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 20:13 UTC
Google
© Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Google has been working with one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. to collect and analyze the personal health information of millions of citizens across 21 states, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Tech giant reportedly teamed up with St. Louis-based Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the country, last year, and the data sharing has accelerated since summer.

Code-named Nightingale, the project saw both companies collect personal data from patients, which included lab results, doctor diagnoses, and hospitalization records, as well as patient names and dates of birth.

Google said it plans to use the data to create new software that will improve patient care and suggest changes to their care.
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Reduced oxygen level rewires mitochondria


Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 17:01 UTC
MtDNA Network
© MPI f. Biology of Ageing / Thomas MacVicar
Mitochondria form large networks in the cell. When cells lack oxygen this network is fragmented, mitochondria become fewer and are reprogrammed. (cell nucleus (blue), mitochondria (pink), DNA (green))
Mitochondria burn oxygen and provide energy for the body. Cells lacking oxygen or nutrients have to change their energy supply quickly in order to keep growing. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing have now shown that mitochondria are reprogrammed under depleted oxygen and nutrients. Tumours of the pancreas may also use this reprogramming mechanism to keep growing despite reduced nutrient and oxygen levels. The researchers believe that proteins in this newly discovered signaling pathway could be a good target for therapies against pancreatic cancer, for which no drug is currently available.

Cells adapt to oxygen deficiency by switching their energy supply to glycolysis, in which sugar is fermented without oxygen. This may be necessary in old age, for example, as the cells in the body are often less supplied with oxygen and nutrients. Also, cancer cells can face this problem, because some tumours have poor blood supply and thus little oxygen and nutrients reach the cells.

"It has been known for some time that cells reduce the number of mitochondria when they lack oxygen and switch to glycolysis. We have now discovered that the remaining mitochondria are additionally reprogrammed to meet the new requirements," explains Max Planck Director Thomas Langer.
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Researchers use ultrasound to deliver cancer drugs

Richard A. Lovett
Cosmos Magazine
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:52 UTC
Sound Waves for Cancer Treatment
© WILLOWPIX / GETTY IMAGES
Scientists looking to improve the next generation of cancer treatments have developed a way of using ultrasound to deliver high-potency cancer drugs directly to a tumour.

In the process, they have killed two birds with one stone: developing a method of tracking the drug's progress through the body, and using ultrasound "tweezers" to guide it to where it's needed, thereby minimising chemotherapy side effects.

The method, says Qifa Zhou, a biomedical engineer at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, hinges on the use of microbubbles, long used in imaging blood flow in coronary arteries.

Because these bubbles reflect ultrasound beautifully, cardiologists are able to use them to produce ultrasound images sharp enough to reveal dangerous coronary blockages.

If such bubbles are filled with chemotherapy drugs, they can be tracked the same way, Zhou says: a major improvement on other ways of tracking drug delivery, such as radioactive tracers, which can carry risk to the patient.

"Ultrasound has been used for 40 years," Zhou says. "It's safe and easy."

And, once the bubbles have reached the right location, all that's needed to get the drug out of them is to turn up the ultrasound intensity. That makes them pop, releasing their contents exactly when and where desired.

But that's just the beginning.
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Scientists find Nile River to be older than previously thought


University of Texas, Austin
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 21:12 UTC
The Nile River in Cairo, Egypt
© Nina R.
The Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. UT scientists have found that the river is about six times older than previously thought.
Austin, Texas — Ancient Egyptians considered the Nile river to be the source of all life. The steady northward path of the river has nourished the fertile valleys of northeast Africa for millions of years and in doing so, shaped the course of human civilization.

The Nile's unchanging path, however, has been a geologic mystery because long-lived rivers usually move over time. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have cracked the case by linking the river's flow to the movement of rock in the Earth's deep mantle. In the course of their investigation, they found the eternal river to be much older than anyone realized, with the scientists estimating the age of the Nile to be 30 million years - about six times as long as previously thought.

The research, published on Nov. 11 in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that if it weren't for the mantle movement keeping the river on course, the Nile would have turned west long ago, probably changing the course of history along with it.

"One of the big questions about the Nile is when it originated and why it has persisted for so long," said lead author Claudio Faccenna, a professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. "Our solution is actually quite exciting."

The results should settle a long-running debate about the age of the river and provide evidence that the slow movement of the deep mantle is one of the key forces shaping our Earth's landscape and geological processes. The Earth's mantle is composed of solid rock that flows like a fluid over long periods. Like currents in an ocean, different areas of the mantle have different circulation patterns.
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Camera

'Extinct' "mouse-deer" caught on camera in Vietnam, last sighting was 30 years ago

Harry Cockburn
Independent
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 19:25 UTC
mouse deer Chevrotin
A species of miniature deer roughly the size of a cat, which was thought to have been hunted to extinction in the 1990s has been rediscovered in southeast Asia.

The silver-backed chevrotain is also known as the "mouse-deer" and is so small it could be held in one hand.

Records of the species' existence go back to the stone age, when it was depicted in cave art being chased by hunters.

It has only been recorded once since 1907, with the last sighting in 1990 in Vietnam, and was believed to have gone extinct soon after.

It comes from the Annamite Mountains - a hotspot of diversity. But the species was prized by local hunters satisfying growing demand for bush meat, and who used small snares to catch the rare animals.

Comment: This is just the latest in reappearances from 'extinct' species:

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Satellite

NASA chief Jim Bridenstine doubles down on claim that Pluto is a planet

Stacy Liberatore
Daily Mail
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:54 UTC
pluto

Pluto was downgraded from the ninth planet to a dwarf planet 13 years ago – but a NASA expert refuses to accept the change. Jim Bridenstine reignited the debate by stating Pluto should be a planet because it has an ocean under its surface, organic compounds on its surface and its own moons.
Pluto was downgraded from the ninth planet to a dwarf planet 13 years ago - but a NASA expert refuses to accept the change.

Jim Bridenstine reignited the debate by stating Pluto should be a planet because it has an ocean under its surface, organic compounds on its surface and its own moons.

He also noted that if experts are going to follow the true definition of a planet, which states it needs to clear its orbit around the sun, then we 'could really undercut all the planets'.

Comment: See also:

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Researchers find 150km wide caldera off Philippines coast, possibly the largest known on Earth

Michael Daly
Stuff.co.nz
Fri, 08 Nov 2019 21:47 UTC
Apolaki on the crest of Benham Rise, undersea in the Philippines, could be the largest caldera on Earth.
© GNS SCIENCE
Apolaki on the crest of Benham Rise, undersea in the Philippines, could be the largest caldera on Earth. It's about 150km wide.
A team including members from GNS Science have identified an ancient mega-volcano that could have the largest known caldera on Earth.

The feature is on the crest of Benham Rise, an oceanic plateau off the Philippines coast. A caldera is a depression created when a volcano collapses after the emptying of its magma chamber in an eruption, or the withdrawal of the magma.

About 150km in diameter, the caldera is comparable to the biggest impact craters on Earth and bigger than any other known calderas on this planet. It's more comparable is size to calderas elsewhere in the solar system.

Compared to the 150km wide feature on Benham Rise, the caldera at Taupō is about 35km wide, and the one at Yellowstone about 60km.

A paper on the discovery has been published in the journal Marine Geology. Authors include Jenny Barretto and Ray Wood from GNS Science, who were key scientists in a technical working group on Benham Rise for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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Butterfly

Nature not tech better at mitigating air pollution - study

Laura Arenschield
Ohio State News
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:28 UTC
smoke tree

Plants may be better than technology at mitigating air pollution, a new study shows.
Adding plants and trees to the landscapes near factories and other pollution sources could reduce air pollution by an average of 27 percent, new research suggests.

The study shows that plants - not technologies - may also be cheaper options for cleaning the air near a number of industrial sites, roadways, power plants, commercial boilers and oil and gas drilling sites.

In fact, researchers found that in 75 percent of the counties analyzed, it was cheaper to use plants to mitigate air pollution than it was to add technological interventions - things like smokestack scrubbers - to the sources of pollution.

Comment: Learning from and incorporating the efficiency (not to mention beauty) of nature in all aspects of our lives would have untold benefits in a myriad of ways:

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Info

New liquid crystals could lead to next-generation displays

Walt Mills
Penn State University
Thu, 07 Nov 2019 23:38 UTC
Blue-phase liquid crystal
© Khoo Lab/Penn State
Close-up image of a mm-size Blue-phase liquid crystal during its formation stage.
University Park, Pa. — A new technique to change the structure of liquid crystals could lead to the development of fast-responding liquid crystals suitable for next generation displays — 3D, augmented and virtual reality — and advanced photonic applications such as mirrorless lasers, bio-sensors and fast/slow light generation, according to an international team of researchers from Penn State, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan.

"The liquid crystals we are working with are called blue-phase liquid crystals," said Iam Choon Khoo, the William E. Leonhard Professor of Electrical Engineering, who is the corresponding author for this article. "The most important thing about this research is the fundamental understanding of what happens when you apply a field, which has led to the development of Repetitively-Applied Field technique. We believe that this method is almost a universal template that can be used for reconfiguring many similar types of liquid crystals and soft matter."

Blue-phase liquid crystals typically self-assemble into a cubic photonic-crystal structure. The researchers believed that by creating other structures they could develop properties not present in the current form. After nearly two years of experimentation, they realized that by applying an intermittent electrical field and allowing the system to relax between applications and to dissipate accumulated heat, they could slowly coax the crystals into stable and field-free orthorhombic and tetragonal structures.
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Brain

New evidence disproves a 25-year-old belief about the brain's Information Centre

Ingrid Spilde
sciencenorway.no
Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:35 UTC
The researcher at the Nobel prize-winning institute in Trondheim initially thought his findings were a mistake. Actually, he had stumbled upon evidence that a 25-year-old belief about the brain was wrong. A discovery which may help in the hunt for Alzheimer's answers.
Doan
© Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Thanh Pierre Doan (at the microscope) found that the model of his supervisor Menno Witter (standing behind the microscope) was wrong
PhD candidate and physician Thanh Pierre Doan has been working on his experiments for months. But he's growing increasingly frustrated.

His results are wrong.

Doan is investigating the intricacies of the parts of the brain that keep track of memory, place and time. His task is to look more closely at how the signals from our senses flow into these brain parts.

A recognized model states that there are two parallel streams of information:

One stream includes visual sensory impressions that travel to the sense of place, and the second stream is of other impressions that go to the lateral entorhinal cortex - the area that integrates our sense of time with the content of our memories.

Doan dyes rat brain cells to get a picture of where the information pathways are. But the data coming out of the experiments aren't matching the model.

Instead of finding two parallel streams, Doan's results show that almost all the information whizzes directly into the lateral entorhinal cortex, the time-sense part of the brain.

It appears that the lateral entorhinal cortex is an information supercentre for everything coming in from the entire sensory system and the brain.

It's like the brain version of all roads leading to Rome.
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