Science & Technology News – Page 193

Business, Employment, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Marc Andreessen : It’s time to build

May 4, 2020

IT’S TIME TO BUILD

Marc Andreessen

Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it’s not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it.

Many of us would like to pin the cause on one political party or another, on one government or another. But the harsh reality is that it all failed — no Western country, or state, or city was prepared — and despite hard work and often extraordinary sacrifice by many people within these institutions. So the problem runs deeper than your favorite political opponent or your home nation.

Part of the problem is clearly foresight, a failure of imagination. But the other part of the problem is what we didn’t *do* in advance, and what we’re failing to do now. And that is a failure of action, and specifically our widespread inability to *build*.

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Big Problems, Coronavirus, Employment, Science & Technology News

Here comes the retirement crisis, coronavirus-style

May 4, 2020

Will COVID-19 deepen the retirement crisis? Yes and no — here’s how

The coronavirus crisis may worsen an already impending retirement crisis.

Remember when Americans struggled to save for retirement because they were juggling high housing costs, student loan payments, credit card debt and scanty access to workplace savings? Add in a global pandemic, record unemployment and an economic lockdown. How’s that for a retirement crisis?

The coronavirus poses a threat to many Americans’ health and current financial well-being, but it also has the potential to derail an individual’s future retirement security.

Many Americans were already underprepared for retirement, not having saved enough for their futures by the time they were ready to leave the workforce. The global pandemic may make it even harder to afford to retire. In the past four weeks alone, 22 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits, and people without jobs are not able to contribute to their workplace investment accounts, nor do they have any extra money to put away. People may also have to take distributions or loans from their retirement plans, which lowers their potential returns in the long-run.

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Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Science & Technology News, Tesla

Tesla’s electric cars require far less maintenance than gas-powered vehicles. Here are all the differences between them.

May 3, 2020

Traditional cars come with elaborate maintenance schedules that require owners to develop a close relationship with dealers and mechanics.

Tesla vehicles are mechanically simpler than gas-powered cars. As a result, they require less attention. Tesla also routinely improves its vehicles using over-the-air software updates.

Still, there are some areas of maintenance that Tesla owners need to keep an eye on.

Continue reading… “Tesla’s electric cars require far less maintenance than gas-powered vehicles. Here are all the differences between them.”

Business, Employment, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Skill gap 2020″ 5 soft skills and 10 hard skills companies need now

May 3, 2020

What are the most critical soft and hard skills that organizations are hiring for and training for in 2020?

In the recently released LinkedIn Learning 2020 Workplace Learning Report, LinkedIn analyzed data from 660+ million professionals and 20+ million jobs to map the 15 most in-demand skills. More specifically, they looked at the skills that are in demand relative to the supply of people who have those skills—in other words, the skill gap.

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Cancer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Cancer study stumbles onto potential way to regenerate heart cells

May 3, 2020

New research could lead to a gene therapy treatment for heart disease

Unfortunately for heart attack patients, heart cells don’t naturally replenish, so this vital organ stays permanently damaged. But now, Cambridge researchers have stumbled onto a gene that appears to trigger heart cell regeneration – and they did so by accident, while researching cancer treatments.

After a heart attack, the human heart will patch itself up with scar tissue. That helps keep the organ together, but this tissue doesn’t beat like healthy heart cells do. Over time, this leads to further attacks, heart failure and often death.

Scientists have been experimenting with ways to replenish heart cells, and promising leads so far include bioengineered scaffolds, placental stem cells, and boosting other cells around the heart.

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Automation, Coronavirus, Driverless vehicles, Food, Science & Technology News

Robot deliveries might end up being common, post-Coronavirus Pandemic

May 2, 2020

Having an unoccupied vehicle deliver your food makes a lot more sense now.

Delivery robots helped deliver food and medicine in Wuhan, China, during the coronavirus-related quarantine.

In the United States, autonomous shuttles from the French company NAVYA have been repurposed as delivery robots to transport COVID-19 tests.

Most of these delivery robots still have human controllers keeping track of them and driving them when needed.

While the Wuhan district in China was under quarantine, news surfaced of robots delivering food and, later, medical supplies. Meanwhile, in the United States, the French company NAVYA configured its autonomous passenger shuttles in Florida to transport COVID-19 tests to the Mayo Clinic from off-site test locations. As the weeks of stay-at-home orders and recommendations slip into months, the delivery robots that were seen as a joke, fad, or nuisance have in some instances found a way into the public consciousness as important tools to combat the spread of coronavirus. The question is, will their usefulness extend post-lockdown?

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Coronavirus, Great New Product, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Avoid touching anything with this $18 antimicrobial hand tool

May 2, 2020

Save 28% on a device that you can use to press buttons, open doors and pull levers. If only 2018 could see us now.

Since the start of the coronavirus, I’ve had the immortal words of Sgt. Apone ringing in my head, when he admonished the Colonial Marines in the movie Aliens: “Nobody touch nothin’.” Good advice when exploring a deserted space colony, and good advice when venturing outdoors during a global pandemic. I never imagined I’d ever write these words, but here goes: If you want to avoid having to press buttons, open doors and generally touch stuff with your bare hands, add a hand tool to your key ring. Right now, you can get CleanKey’s Antimicrobial Brass Hand Tool for $18 when you use discount code CHEAP10 at checkout.

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Engineering, new technology, quantum computing, Science & Technology News

Hot qubits break one of the biggest constraints to practical quantum computers

May 2, 2020

Most quantum computers being developed around the world will only work at fractions of a degree above absolute zero. That requires multi-million-dollar refrigeration and as soon as you plug them into conventional electronic circuits they’ll instantly overheat.

But now researchers led by Professor Andrew Dzurak at UNSW Sydney have addressed this problem.

“Our new results open a path from experimental devices to affordable quantum computers for real world business and government applications,” says Professor Dzurak.

The researchers’ proof-of-concept quantum processor unit cell, on a silicon chip, works at 1.5 Kelvin—15 times warmer than the main competing chip-based technology being developed by Google, IBM, and others, which uses superconducting qubits.

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Coronavirus, Future, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

The coronavirus butterfly effect: Six predictions for a new world order

May 1, 2020

The world may soon pass “peak virus.” But true recovery will take years—and the ripple effects will be seismic. Parag Khanna and Karan Khemka forecast the aftershocks.

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect describes a small change that can have massive, unpredictable consequences. An insect flaps its wings and, weeks later, causes a tornado.

The coronavirus is more like an earthquake, with aftershocks that will permanently reshape the world.

If we are lucky, the world will pass “peak virus” within the next six months. But the economy, governments, and social institutions will take years to recover in the best-case scenario. Indeed, rather than even speak of “recovery,” which implies a return to how things were, it would be wise to project what new direction civilization will take. That too will be a bumpy ride. The next 3-5 years will remind us that COVID-19 was the lightning before the thunder

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Coronavirus, Employment, Science & Technology News, Software Development

7 careers that are even more viable during the pandemic outbreak

May 1, 2020

We’re living in unusual times.

With the pandemic in full-force all around the United States, there’s been a massive shift not only in where we work but in how we work.

While it’s true that remote work is challenging and there is a new reality for most, some employment categories will likely see an upswing in terms of greater needs, more positions available, and even higher pay.

These jobs will be in particularly high demand over the next few weeks and months.

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Coronavirus, Farms, Food, Science & Technology News

Pork and beef prices surge as meat plants shutter due to coronavirus

May 1, 2020

Hundreds of meat plant workers across the country have fallen ill with the coronavirus, leading to a slowdown in output and surge in prices.

By the numbers, per Bloomberg: The price of wholesale pork rose by 7.2% to 55.86 cents a pound Thursday — the largest increase in more than two years. Choice-grade beef prices rose to a one-month high of $2.36 a pound, climbing for six straight days through Thursday.

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Coronavirus, Report, Science & Technology News, Trending

Exclusive: Mary Meeker’s coronavirus trends report

April 30, 2020

Bond Capital, a Silicon Valley VC firm whose portfolio companies include Slack and Uber, told its investors this morning via email that the coronavirus’ high-speed spread and impact has similarities to the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Why it matters: Bond’s best-known partner, Mary Meeker, is a former bank analyst renowned for her annual Internet Trends Report, which many investors and entrepreneurs use as a touchstone for where tech is now and where it’s going. Today’s 28-page report to Bond’s limited partners, obtained by Axios, shares some structural similarities.

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