Lifeboat Foundation

Big biotech company Amgen Inc. is joining the race to discover new drugs that can treat the novel coronavirus, the latest drugmaker redirecting resources toward the pandemic.

Amgen, which is partnering with Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. in the effort, is an unlikely hunter of antiviral treatments. The company, a pioneer of biotechnology, is best known for its drugs for cancer, with other products targeting high cholesterol, kidney disease and migraines.

What is Universal Basic Income (UBI) and how could it help us deal with the coronavirus outbreak? What if… we gave people free money?

The idea of a basic income is that everybody would receive a modest amount paid each week or each month without conditions, paid equally to every man and every woman with a smaller amount to pay for every child.

Continue reading “Coronavirus and the Case for Universal Basic Income | WIRED UK” »

The Army is looking at its Plasma Acoustic Shield System as a checkpoint defender, for now. But the original idea – and the long-term goal of the project – is to have it be the first baby step towards a portable, lethal laser weapon.

The effort, by the U.S. Army’s Advanced Energy Armaments Systems Division and Stellar Photonics, has a lot in common with another military laser project: the Pulsed Energy Projectile being developed by Mission Systems for the Marines. But there are three key differences. The current PEP is a big (450 lb) chemical laser with a limited number of shots, whereas PASS is a small solid-state laser that just needs electricity. The PEP creates plasma by vaporising the outer layer surface it hits (such as your shirt), whereas PASS can create plasma in mid-air by focusing to a point. And PEP fires a single pulse, whereas PASS uses a double pulse which Stellar claim is far more efficient at creating a shockwave.

You can get some idea from the Small Business Initiative Proposal the company submitted in ‘04 for a “Man-portable Integrated Laser Assault Rifle”:

:ooooo.

China’s military and paramilitary forces have been employing lasers with increasing frequency since at least 2018.

By Patrick M. Cronin and Ryan D. Neuhard for The Diplomat.

Infectious disease

Protein mapping finds 69 potential treatments for COVID-19.

Many are FDA-approved drugs that could be repurposed.

NASA, one of SpaceX’s biggest customers, also prohibits its employees from using Zoom, said Stephanie Schierholz, a spokeswoman for the U.S. space agency.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston office on Monday issued a warning about Zoom, telling users not to make meetings on the site public or share links widely after it received two reports of unidentified individuals invading school sessions, a phenomenon known as “zoombombing.”

Investigative news site The Intercept on Tuesday reported that Zoom video is not end-to-end encrypted between meeting participants, and that the company could view sessions.

Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield is spending lockdown searching for a better test for COVID-19, rewiring his stove, and talking to Euronews about what isolation means — and how to deal with it.

Dozens of other teams around the world have potential vaccines in development.

But the Pittsburgh research is the first study on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate to be published after critique from fellow scientists at outside institutions.

Continue reading “Potential coronavirus vaccine ‘generates enough antibodies to fight off virus’” »