Lifeboat Foundation

To develop its drug, Vir “deliberately isolated an antibody that binds to a part of the virus that is very difficult for the virus to mutate,” he said. That piece of the virus is “conserved, not only in all the variants, but in SARS-1… and in a whole family of coronaviruses.”

Vir knew the variant onslaught was coming, said the company’s executive vice president of research and chief scientific officer, Herbert “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D. So far, added Scangos, its premise of targeting a conserved site to maintain efficacy against mutations “seems to be holding true.”

Sotrovimab “appears to retain activity against variants of concern” like alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon and iota, the National Institutes of Health noted in recently updated COVID-19 treatment guidelines. Last week, GSK and Vir provided data suggesting that delta also belongs to that list. Updated lab experiment data posted on the preprint repository bioRxiv showed sotrovimab’s activity against 14 variants including the troubling delta variant—which first surfaced in India and appears to spread more rapidly than the already-speedy alpha—was very similar to that against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Continue reading “GSK and Vir, navigating early antibody pitfalls, tout delta variant-busting data for latecomer sotrovimab” »

“Go forth and conquer,” actor Kate Winslet says.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk is among the high-profile people celebrating Branson’s preparations for space.

“I haven’t seen anything like it,” scientist says of the flashy arachnid from Asia.

“People love to jump to conclusions what such a behavior is good for,” such as attracting prey or deterring predators, says Rainer Foelix, author of the book Biology of Spiders.

“Rather than to speculate, it would be better to study this phenomenon scientifically,” Foelix says.

Continue reading “Disco Spider Pulsates With Color, Baffling Scientists” »

A powerful solar storm is approaching the Earth at a speed of 1.6 million kilometers and this storm will hit the Earth either on Sunday or Monday. According to website Spaceweather.com, the storm that originated from the Sun’s atmosphere can have a significant impact on a region of space dominated by Earth’s magnetic field.

View of celestial lighting

Due to the solar storm, there will be a view of beautiful celestial lighting for the people living at the North or South Pole. The people living closer to these areas can expect to see beautiful aurora at night.

Humans are integrating with technology. Not in the future – now. With the emergence of custom prosthetics that make us stronger and faster, neural implants that change how our brains work, and new senses and abilities that you’ve never dreamed of having, it’s time to start imagining what a better version of you might look like.

From reality-enhancing implants to brain-controlled exoskeletons, breakthroughs in bio-tech have fuelled a new fusion of machinery and organic matter.

New AI tools CLIP+VQ-GAN can create impressive works of art based on just a few words of input.

Breaking — Branson Beats Bezos to Space! Some history of the Virgin Galactic propulsion development, flight analysis and more background with Tim Pickens.

Tim Pickens is an entrepreneur, inventor, innovator, engineer and educator. He specializes in commercial space, technical product development and solutions, and business consulting and strategy for space and technical companies. Pickens’ 25+ years of experience in the aerospace industry, specializing in the design, fabrication and testing of propulsion hardware systems, has earned him a reputation as one of the industry’s leaders in these areas. Early in his career, Pickens served as propulsion lead for Scaled Composites on SpaceShipOne, winner of the $10 million Ansari X Prize. He also worked for small hardware-rich aerospace companies in Huntsville, and later supported the Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo venture.

Continue reading “Branson Beats Bezos to Space History and Flight Analysis with Tim Pickens” »

Watch video from Virgin Galactic showing Richard Branson’s space plane’s engine ignite sending the billionaire into outer space.

As AI toys enter the market, they can be helpful, educational tools for kids but can also pose risks to data privacy.