All posts tagged: restore

China wants to restore the sea with high-tech marine ranches

China wants to restore the sea with high-tech marine ranches

Published by skeptic

A diver swims off the shore of Wuzhizhou Island, where fish populations multiplied tenfold after artificial reefs were introduced.YANG GUANYU/XINHUA/ALAMY Chinese universities are world leaders in applied sciences, from agricultural research to materials science. But fundamental questions aren’t always easy to answer in China’s “quite unique” research and development environment, says Neil Loneragan, president of the Malaysia-based Asian Fisheries Society and a professor emeritus of marine science at Murdoch University in Australia.  The central government’s controlling influence on the development of ranching, Loneragan says, means researchers must walk a tightrope between their two bosses: the academic supervisor and the party chief. Marine biologists want to understand the basics, “but researchers would have to spin that so that it’s demonstrating economic returns to industry and, hence, the benefits to the government from investment,” he says.  Many efforts aim to address known problems in the life cycles of captive-bred fish, such as inadequate breeding rates or the tough survival odds for young fish when they reach the ocean. Studies have shown that fish in these early life …

Scientists Use Human Stem Cells to Restore a Monkey’s Vision

Scientists Use Human Stem Cells to Restore a Monkey’s Vision

Published by José

Image by Getty / Futurism Scientists have successfully used human stem cells to patch a hole in a monkey’s retina, restoring the primate’s vision and marking a successful step forward in the quest to treat age-related vision loss. As detailed in a study published this month in the journal Stem Cell Reports, the team led by Michiko Mandai at the Kobe City Eye Hospital in Japan focused on fixing what’s called a macular hole, an ocular condition associated with aging. As we get older, the vitreous — the gel-like fluid that fills human eyeballs and maintains their rounded shapes — shrinks away from the retina, which sometimes causes a tear in the macula. These injuries are consequential. The macula sits at the center of the retina and is the most active part of the eye, responsible for central vision and light processing. Thus, macular holes cause vision to blur and decline over time, and as New Scientist notes, current fixes — which are only an option in about 90 percent of cases — come at a cost: …

Brain implants to restore sight, like Neuralink’s Blindsight, face a fundamental problem

Brain implants to restore sight, like Neuralink’s Blindsight, face a fundamental problem

Published by José

Elon Musk recently pronounced that the next Neuralink project will be a “Blindsight” cortical implant to restore vision: “Resolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision.” Unfortunately, this claim rests on the fallacy that neurons in the brain are like pixels on a screen. It’s not surprising that engineers often assume that “more pixels equals better vision.” After all, that is how monitors and phone screens work. In our newly published research, we created a computational model of human vision to simulate what sort of vision an extremely high-resolution cortical implant might provide. A movie of a cat with a resolution of 45,000 pixels is sharp and clear. A movie generated using a simplified version of a model of 45,000 cortical electrodes, each of which stimulates a single neuron, still has a recognizable cat but most of the details of the scene are lost.   The reason why the movie generated by electrodes is so blurry is because neurons in the human visual cortex do not …

Should Rachel Reeves restore the Winter Fuel Payment immediately? Vote now | Politics | News

Should Rachel Reeves restore the Winter Fuel Payment immediately? Vote now | Politics | News

Published by skeptic

Winter Fuel Payments are a crucial benefit that were issued to anyone of state pension age in the UK, but under Labour this will change. While many rely on the payout to put towards their heating bills in the coldest months, from this year only state pensioners who are on means-tested benefits will qualify. This means an estimated 10 million people will miss out. The announced cut will save around £1.4bn, but has been met by fierce criticism from MPs and charities alike. So much so the Daily Express’ new crusade to get the Chancellor to reverse her planned cuts has received the backing from MPs across the political spectrum. Should the decision be reversed? Vote in our poll below. If you can’t see the poll, click here. Among those speaking out against the cuts is Dame Priti Patel, who slammed the decision as “shameless and cruel”. An AgeUK petition urging Labour to reverse their planned cuts has also reached more than 325,000 signatures. The petition reads: “Cutting the Winter Fuel Payment this winter, with …

House Passes ‘Electoral Integrity’ Bill To Restore Citizenship Question To Census

House Passes ‘Electoral Integrity’ Bill To Restore Citizenship Question To Census

Published by skeptic

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times, The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a measure that would add a citizenship question to the next U.S. census, as part of the latest efforts by conservatives to “protect America’s democracy and electoral integrity.” The legislation, known as the “Equal Representation Act,” was led by Rep. Chuck Edwards, (R-N.C.), who spoke on the floor Wednesday regarding the need to ensure only American citizens are counted when apportioning congressional seats and Electoral College votes. It passed in a vote of 206-202 along party lines. The measure would direct the Census Bureau to add a question to the once-a-decade census asking whether or not the respondent is a citizen of the United States. It asks that only citizens be considered when determining how many lawmakers each state gets in the House of Representatives, as well as how many Electoral College votes each of the 50 states receives. The measure creates new reporting requirements for data gathered from the citizenship question, noting that “the citizenship makeup of …

DNC votes to restore New Hampshire’s delegates for this summer’s convention

DNC votes to restore New Hampshire’s delegates for this summer’s convention

Published by skeptic

The Democratic National Committee voted Tuesday to reinstate New Hampshire’s delegates ahead of this summer’s convention in Chicago, ending months of fighting over the state’s 2024 presidential primary.   “We as a committee and as a national committee have gone through a difficult number of weeks and months of getting to this point, and I know that New Hampshire has gone through a difficult number of weeks and months where some things we’d like to have seen take place did not,” Jim Roosevelt, the co-chair of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, said during a meeting on Tuesday. “As it happens, all that is behind us now. We have worked out compliance with our rules and with the charter.” New Hampshire, which has a state law on the books requiring it to hold the first presidential primary, had refused to comply with a new Democratic calendar that moved South Carolina to the front of the line. As a result, President Joe Biden did not file to appear on the ballot for New Hampshire’s unsanctioned Jan. 23 …

Scientists restore impaired brain cells in Timothy syndrome patients : Shots

Scientists restore impaired brain cells in Timothy syndrome patients : Shots

Published by skeptic

This image shows a brain “assembloid” consisting of two connected brain “organoids.” Scientists studying these structures have restored impaired brain cells in Timothy syndrome patients. Pasca lab, Stanford University hide caption toggle caption Pasca lab, Stanford University This image shows a brain “assembloid” consisting of two connected brain “organoids.” Scientists studying these structures have restored impaired brain cells in Timothy syndrome patients. Pasca lab, Stanford University Scientists have found a way to restore brain cells impaired by a rare and life-threatening genetic disorder called Timothy syndrome. A type of drug known as an antisense oligonucleotide allowed clusters of human neurons to develop normally even though they carried the mutation responsible for Timothy syndrome, a team reports in the journal Nature. The approach may help researchers develop treatments for other genetic conditions, including some that cause schizophrenia, epilepsy, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. “It’s immensely exciting because we now have the tools,” says Dr. Sergiu Pasca, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and the study’s senior author. “It’s the beginning of a …

I am resigning from the Tory party and crossing the floor. Only Labour wants to restore our NHS | Dan Poulter

I am resigning from the Tory party and crossing the floor. Only Labour wants to restore our NHS | Dan Poulter

Published by skeptic

Alongside serving my ­constituents as their MP, during the junior doctors’ strike I have spent more than 20 night shifts over the past year or so ­working as a mental health doctor in a busy hospital A&E department. It has been a truly life-changing experience. Working on the frontline of a health service under great strain left me at times, as an MP, struggling to look my NHS colleagues, my patients and my constituents in the eye. Throughout the small hours, my clinical colleagues and I cared for many patients suffering from serious psychosis who would routinely be waiting several days, rather than hours, in a windowless room in A&E for a mental health bed. When beds finally became available, they would often be with a private healthcare provider hundreds of miles from their homes and the vital on-hand support from their friends and families. I saw countless people at potential risk of suicide and others in crisis with a dual diagnosis of alcohol or drug dependence, together with severe mental illness. The chaos of …

F.C.C. Votes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules

F.C.C. Votes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules

Published by skeptic

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to restore regulations that expand government oversight of broadband providers and aim to protect consumer access to the internet, a move that will reignite a long-running battle over the open internet. Known as net neutrality, the regulations were first put in place nearly a decade ago under the Obama administration and are aimed at preventing internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or degrading the delivery of services from competitors like Netflix and YouTube. The rules were repealed under former President Donald J. Trump, and have proven a contentious partisan issue over the years while pitting tech giants against broadband providers. In a three-to-two vote along party lines, the five-member commission appointed by President Biden revived the rules that declare broadband a utility-like service regulated like phones and water. The rules also give the F.C.C. the ability to demand broadband providers report and respond to outages, as well as expand the agency’s oversight of the providers’ security issues. Jessica Rosenworcel, the chairwoman of the F.C.C. and …