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Demis Hassabis & John Jumper awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

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This morning, Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs Sir Demis Hassabis, and Google DeepMind Director Dr. John Jumper were co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking AI system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. David Baker was also co-awarded for his work on computational protein design.

Before AlphaFold, predicting the structure of a protein was a complex and time-consuming process.

AlphaFold’s predictions, made freely available through the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, have given more than 2 million scientists and researchers from 190 countries a powerful tool for making new discoveries. The AlphaFold 2 paper, published in 2021, remains one of the most-cited publications of all time.

AlphaFold’s contributions to science have been widely praised, and among its recognitions are the 2023 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2023 Canada Gairdner International Award, the 2024 Clarivate Citation Laureate award, and the 2024 Keio Medical Science Prize Award.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long shown incredible potential for use in scientific research, and AlphaFold was proof-of-concept. As more scientists adopt AI for use in everything from building data, to simulating experiments, drug design, modelling complexity, discovering novel solutions for extant problems, and building upon existing knowledge, we will continue to see foundational scientific breakthroughs in the years ahead.

In a statement released after informed of the news, Demis Hassabis said:

“Receiving the Nobel Prize is the honour of a lifetime. Thank you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to John Jumper and the AlphaFold team, the wider DeepMind and Google teams, and to all my colleagues past and present that made this moment possible. I’ve dedicated my career to advancing AI because of its unparalleled potential to improve the lives of billions of people. AlphaFold has already been used by more than two million researchers to advance critical work, from enzyme design to drug discovery. I hope we’ll look back on AlphaFold as the first proof point of AI’s incredible potential to accelerate scientific discovery.”

After receiving the news that he won the Nobel Prize, John Jumper released the following statement:

“Thank you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for this extraordinary honor. We are so honored to be recognized for delivering on the long promise of computational biology to help us understand the protein world and to inform the incredible work of experimental biologists. It is a key demonstration that AI will make science faster and ultimately help to understand disease and develop therapeutics. This is the work of an exceptional team at Google DeepMind and this award recognizes their amazing work.

Computational biology has long held tremendous promise for creating practical insights that could be put to use in real-world experiments. AlphaFold delivered on this promise. Ahead of us are a universe of new insights and scientific discoveries made possible by the use of AI as a scientific tool. Thank you to my colleagues over the years, for making possible this moment of recognition, as well as the many moments of discovery that lie ahead.”

For media inquiries, please contact gdm-press@google.com

Robert Pattinson’s Jackass Voices For Mickey 17 Were Bad

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Photo: Valerie Macon (Getty Images)

Parasite and Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho tapped Twilight heartthrob turned serious actor Robert Pattinson to star in his upcoming sci-fi movie Mickey 17 about a guy who gets cloned and killed a bunch in outer space. And Pattinson apparently experimented with some very funky voices for two of the clones, and Bong told him no.

“My initial idea was to do impressions of Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville [from Jackass],” Pattinson told Empire in a new interview. “I love Steve-O’s voice. We did it on the first read-through. And Bong was like, ‘That voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.’ I was like, ‘Is that a good thing?’ He was like, ‘No.’”

Because each copy of the titular Mickey, a down-on-his-luck blue collar worker turned colony ship test subject, is played by Pattinson, he had to find ways to differentiate each numbered version. “I just had this idea that he’s kind of like a dog with a complete lack of self-worth,” he said. “He just keeps turning up, reporting for duty. But then I hope the reveal is that it’s a combination of deep, misguided guilt, and also survival. It’s him just saying, ‘I’ll just keep lowering my expectations the whole time.’” Big mood, as the kids say.

Pattinson eventually settled on an equally unlikely inspiration for Mickey 17 and 18’s voices. “[Mickey 17 is] a little like Stimpy,” he told Empire, referencing the absurdist 90s Nickelodeon about chihuahua and a cat. “When 18 comes in, it’s a little bit more like Ren.” Mickey 17 hits theaters on January 31, 2025, but if you want to study up on Pattinson’s inspirations the The Ren & Stimpy Show is currently streaming on Paramount+.

     



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Stay Warm in Your Cold Office With These Essentials

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Our shopping experts have rounded up cold-office essentials that are designed to keep you warm, raise your body temperature, and help you defrost with a little warm air. 

Get to a comfortable temperature with an electric heating pad. Not only have we found one that will sit perfectly against your office chair, but this heating pad is also great for relieving back pain and cramps. 

A great way to get warm quickly is with a hot beverage. But sometimes, cold environments chill your beverage faster than you can drink it. Not anymore! We found a mug warmer that will keep your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate nice and steamy the entire time you’re drinking it. 

Of course, you can warm up with a blanket, but those can be hard to wear across your shoulders while you’re at a desk. We’ve found a wearable blanket that you can shop below. It’s soft, cozy, and, most importantly, will protect you from the cold conditions of your workspace. Plus, it’s a must-have if you get to the office and realize you forgot a jacket!

Our shopping experts have also found a number of electric blankets and mini space heaters below. 

Don’t let your cold office stress you out. Shop these warm, cozy, cold office-building-busting essentials and save yourself!

Crafting Excellence: Inside EXO’s Guide Training and Operational Excellence

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Behind the scenes insight from EXO Travel

The post Crafting Excellence: Inside EXO’s Guide Training and Operational Excellence appeared first on EXO Travel Blog.

A deep dive into its enhancements – PlayStation.Blog

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Hey everyone, you may be familiar with Nixxes as the developer behind PC ports of PlayStation games, but behind the scenes we have also been hard at work on a project of a very different nature. Working closely with our friends at Guerrilla, we set out to create Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for both PS5 and PC.

In our announcement last month, we shared details of improved features and technology, such as the completely revamped sound mix by Guerrilla’s audio team, support for DualSense controllers, and new motion capture for conversations. Today, I’d like to introduce you to some of the team members at Nixxes to give you more insight into some of the enhancements that have been made in the remaster.

Overhauling nature

Foliage plays a big role in portraying the lush, overgrown ruins of a long-lost civilization in the world of Horizon. Our team of Environment Artists considered the foliage in Horizon Zero Dawn to be an industry standard, and Horizon Forbidden West added to that with significant improvements in visual quality. For the remaster, the team wanted to give the foliage the same care and attention.

Patrick Blankenzee, Senior Environment Artist: “To bring the foliage in the remaster up to the same level of quality as in Horizon Forbidden West, we enhanced the shaders, textures, geometry and foliage interaction. We assessed all the foliage assets in Horizon Zero Dawn and upgraded them with all these new features. We did this for hundreds of plants, bushes, flowers and trees.”

“We looked at the biomes in the original game and compared them to the concept art. We found places that we could enhance and bring closer to the original intent, with the rainforest biome being a good example of this. With powerful procedural technology, we injected new foliage and raised the quality and density to new heights. The riverbanks have also been upgraded with more biodiversity to bring them closer to the original intention as seen in the concept art.”

Julian Hofman, Environment Artist: “Working with the original team over at Guerrilla, we were able to ask questions, and directly compare their latest work on Horizon Forbidden West to the work we were doing for the remaster. This gave us some very specific goals to work towards, like the fresh generation of moss that you can now see Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.”

“For me, the foliage changes make the game feel more alive and make it live up to the incredibly high standards of the Horizon games. The result is a coherent world to replay or experience for the first time.”

Enhancing the living world

The Design team at Nixxes made several key improvements to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. One of the most significant changes is the enhancement of the living world.

Brian van Nunen, Senior Technical Game Designer: “To achieve this, we reviewed all villages, outposts and cities, identifying areas that felt empty or where we could improve realism and immersion.”

“Building the game for PS5 allowed us to leverage the increased amount of memory available, enabling us to significantly boost the number of non-player characters. We added many more places for NPCs to stand, sit, work and fulfil their needs. We gave them more varied schedules to increase movement and liveliness in different areas. We also tried to make creative use of existing animations. For example, there is now a woman feeding geese at the well in Meridian, reusing an existing sowing animation. Additionally, on the bridge to Meridian, we’ve made significant strides in improving the atmosphere and sense of activity.”

Improving terrain and building blocks

Our Tech Art team used the library of next-gen materials that were created for Horizon Forbidden West to enhance the quality of assets used for terrain, objects and buildings significantly in the remaster.

Sander Bronkhorst, Senior Technical Artist: “We began by replacing all the Horizon Zero Dawn terrain materials with their new Horizon Forbidden West counterparts. This was only the first step, as the sequel’s terrain materials didn’t always align with the original aesthetics. To address this, we carefully tweaked and polished each individual terrain material to closely match the look and feel of the original game, while maintaining the visual fidelity of the terrain materials in Horizon Forbidden West.”

“In addition to updating all the terrain textures and materials, we incorporated features like deformable snow and sand. Snow deformation was first introduced in the Frozen Wilds expansion, but in the remaster, you will find this feature outside that area as well.”

“In settlements like Meridian and Daytower, the ground required a more unique aesthetic. Previously, Guerrilla used custom meshes and materials for the floors in these settlements, exclusive to these locations. For the remaster, we initially followed this approach, exploring the possibility of increasing texture resolution and adding parallax mapping to areas such as brick floors. However, after initial tests we concluded that in these specific cases this wasn’t going to give us the visual quality that we were aiming to achieve. Therefore, we decided to completely remake the floors in Meridian and Daytower from scratch. This involved creating new high-resolution textures, setting up new materials, painting blend maps, and creating new high-resolution geometry supporting the shapes from the textures used in the material.”

 “Another aspect of the upgrades to the game environment in the remaster are Building Blocks. To give a bit of context here: Building Blocks are the individual assets that are used for set dressing the world of Horizon Zero Dawn. Think of objects like rocks, plants, utensils and even buildings.”

“Building Blocks can be divided into two categories: natural and man-made. For both types, we increased the resolution of the textures and adjusted the level of detail (LOD) ranges to ensure higher mesh fidelity.”

“We performed a separate pass on all the man-made Building Blocks, creating new high-resolution geometry for assets that would benefit from this. We found that buildings greatly benefited from having more detailed geometry, as most were using brick-like textures on the walls without the shape of the bricks being reflected in the geometry.”

“To address this, we developed custom tools for generating more detailed geometry for these buildings. The artists used these tools to create new geometry, then manually tweaked and adjusted each individual building for the best visual result.”

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Lively conversations

A big change in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is the addition of over 10 hours of additional motion-capture data for characters, directed and captured by Guerrilla at their motion Capture Stage in Amsterdam, making the game’s conversations much livelier and in line with those in Horizon Forbidden West. Implementing this additional data was handled by our technical artists and animators.

Mark Bazelmans, Senior Technical Artist: “Horizon Zero Dawn has almost 300 conversations and well over 3100 dialog options, so we needed to find a way to easily integrate this huge number of updated animations into the conversations. We created a tool with Python to process the almost 2500 mocap files that Guerrilla provided to replace the original animation in the conversations, removing deprecated events and replacing those with the mocap and setup.”“We then focused on creating a pipeline in Maya for our animators to easily load, edit and re-export the individual mocap files for any other edits that were needed, such as finger animation, art direction feedback and fixes. Animators could select the conversation and subsequent dialog option from a list which created the scene from scratch, or simply opened it if it already existed. Our tool referenced the characters and imported the dialogue audio, so the animators could time the movement better and create the camera cuts and layout. Later, we extended this pipeline to also include existing animations for both conversations and cinematics, as some of these also required edits. Our animators could then go into Guerrilla’s DECIMA engine and edit or change the updated conversation.”

Alexander Georgiev, Animator: Since all mocap footage comes from actors with different height or gender, there was a lot of data that needed to be covered and checked. For example, characters looking up or down too much, shoulders not matching the rest of the pose, arms clipping though clothing and fingers that are too static.”

“To solve this efficiently, we created tools to help us. With these tools we visualized helpers that brought a closer connection between working in Maya and the DECIMA engine. One example was that we could not see the eyes moving the same way as in the DECIMA engine, as that was a complex, automated system. With the toolset we created a head and eye aim helper that made it clearer where the characters were looking, and with that we knew how much we should adjust the head of a certain character.”

“We made small, automated scripts to fix shoulders and arms clipping. All these tools gave the animators a way to focus more on enhancing the acting of the characters to support what they want to say. By developing these tools, we created a strong workflow and were able to significantly speed up our iteration time per conversation.”

Mark Bazelmans, Senior Technical Artist: “Alongside the updated body animation, new facial animations were captured for the conversations. Initially this was deemed a straightforward ‘overwrite and replace’, but after seeing some of the results we decided to build a pipeline to be able to edit the updated facial animations.”

“We created tools in Maya that could process a facial animation file in proprietary format into a Maya scene with literally a talking head including audio. We also wrote our own exporter that could then export a Maya scene back to the same proprietary format.”

“Next to updating the animations in conversations, we did a pass on the camera and lighting setup for both conversations and cinematics. For the cameras, we batch updated the camera setup and values. In most conversations, the automated pass didn’t quite give the desired result because the contrast between the original movement and the new mocap was too big. The new body animations allow broader movements, often leading to characters stepping out of frame or being completely offscreen. Therefore, a manual pass was done by our Camera Layout Artists, aided by our custom DECIMA tools to easily edit cameras and settings.”

“We updated the lighting toolset to be closer to that in Horizon Forbidden West, which allows for editing settings of character and environment lighting across similar shots using a visual representation of shots. Lighting was controlled by a single setup for each character in a conversation that would apply to all dialog options in a conversation. Then our lighting artists could do their magic on a particular shot type and all similar shots of that character would be lit the same, with of course room to edit individual shots if needed. This way lighting had maximum control with as little tweaks as possible.”

Shining new light on Horizon Zero Dawn

The work for world lighting and cinematic lighting was divided between Guerrilla and Nixxes Lighting artists, with Guerrilla providing direction and technical support. The Atmospherics team at Guerrilla recreated the sweeping cloudscapes from Horizon Zero Dawn in the new Nubis cloud system from Horizon Forbidden West. The cherry on the cake was the creation of the set piece volcano cloud in the Frozen Wilds expansion, using a combination of the latest innovations in voxel cloud rendering, first pioneered in the Burning Shores expansion for Horizon Forbidden West, and traditional particle VFX.

It was important to retain the strong mood lighting in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, ensuring a seamless transition when playing both games back-to-back. Nixxes’ Senior Lighting Artists Myvanwy Broers, Niels Iburg, and Lighting Artist Thomas Schrama talk about their approach and workflow:

“A lot of the world lighting had to be rebalanced or re-lit from scratch to reach the same mood and to bring it in line with the slightly updated art direction. Horizon Forbidden West has some workflow improvements that we used for the remaster, making the process quite enjoyable!”

“To use the improved features to their fullest potential, we revised all the atmospherics settings that control the biomes within the game world. This included changing the light intensities to Physically Based Rendering values. This is true for the sun and the moon itself, but also detailed lighting in areas such as caves and ruins that players can explore. Think of fog, the color of the sun, glow intensities and so forth.”

“This meant that after rebalancing the light intensities into PBR, it was necessary to relight entire areas to create the best visual fidelity possible. It was a joy to revisit these iconic environments to do so!”

“To speed up our workflow, we used Guerrilla’s prefab system – an object which contains geometry, particles, sound, and lights that we can place anywhere. All these assets exist as referenced content within a prefab, which means that if the value of a torch light needs adjustment, this will simultaneously happen for every torch in the world. This enables large scale changes, and high iteration speed.”

“Light bakes are an important aspect of the lighting – a system that is versatile enough for each time of day, yet providing the detailed light bounce that Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered needs. The quality of such bakes is adjustable per volume that we set as lighters, which is great when we require the light bounce to be more detailed in an area without affecting the rest. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered uses the improved baking system from Horizon Forbidden West, resulting in at least twice as much detail in the light bounce compared to the original.”

“With lighting in cinematics and conversations, we wanted to match the art direction and visual quality of Horizon Forbidden West. This, combined with all updated animations, motion-capture and camera shots, meant we built all the cinematic lighting in the remaster from scratch. We used a lot of new technology and workflow that was created for the cinematic lighting in Horizon Forbidden West.”

“Horizon Zero Dawn used a lighting rig around each character with roughly two lights. For the remaster we used the upgraded lighting rig from the sequel, which uses five lights in total: one key-light, two profile-lights and two rim-lights. These lights are then tweaked on a per shot basis changing position, orientation, color and intensity.”

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Detailed characters

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features significant upgrades to character models and how they react to lighting. Many enhancements in areas such as detail, skin tones, hair quality, and outfits have been carried over from Horizon Forbidden West.

Patrick Blankenzee, Senior Environment Artist: “Working on the varied cast of characters in the remaster was a big undertaking. We enhanced various shaders to improve the visual quality and made changes to ensure the models react better to the new lighting in the remaster. We gave Aloy’s model – both adult and child – the full cinematic treatment, including peach fuzz, upgrades to hair, eyes and materials.”

“We looked at the original concept art of Aloy as a child and aimed to make changes to her outfit, hair and skin, to match the look envisioned in the concept art, as well as bring the model up to par with the quality of the improved model for adult Aloy.”

“In Horizon Zero Dawn, only the character model for Aloy reacts to environmental elements like weather. For the remaster we wanted to give all companion characters the same level of interaction to bring that cinematic feel to the whole world. For example, you will now see both Aloy and her companions react to warm and cold weather.”

On behalf of the teams at Nixxes and Guerrilla, we cannot wait for you to experience Aloy’s journey (again) with all the visual enhancements, upgraded features and tech improvements.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is available for pre-order now and launches on October 31 on PS5 and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store). Account for PlayStation Network required on PC.

Existing owners of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition can upgrade to the digital version of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for $9.99. Check out the previous announcement PS Blog post for all the upgrade details.


Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered: A deep dive into its enhancements



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How Vitamin A Deficiency Promotes Leaky Gut and Alzheimer's

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Your gut microbiome plays a crucial role in your overall health, including brain function. Recent research has uncovered a fascinating connection between vitamin A, gut health and Alzheimer’s disease risk. A study using mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms reveals that vitamin A deficiency leads to significant changes in the gut microbiome.1

These alterations contribute to increased intestinal permeability, often referred to as “leaky gut,” and promote inflammation throughout the body. The researchers found that mice fed a vitamin A-deficient diet had lower diversity in their gut bacteria compared to those receiving adequate or supplemental vitamin A.

Specifically, vitamin A deficiency led to an increase in proinflammatory bacteria like Parabacteroides and Tannerellaceae, while reducing beneficial anti-inflammatory bacteria such as Akkermansia and Verrucomicrobiales. This shift in microbial balance creates an environment that’s more conducive to inflammation and contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Leaky Gut and Inflammation: A Gateway to Alzheimer’s?

Your intestinal barrier serves as a critical defense mechanism, preventing harmful substances from entering your bloodstream. The study demonstrated that vitamin A deficiency significantly increased intestinal permeability in the genetically engineered mice. This was evidenced by elevated levels of D-lactate and diamine oxidase in their blood, both indicators of a compromised intestinal barrier.2

As a result of this increased permeability, proinflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were found at higher levels in the vitamin A-deficient mice. These inflammatory markers are known to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease progression. For instance, TNF-α stimulates the production of amyloid-beta peptides, the primary component of the plaques found in Alzheimer’s patients’ brains.

IL-1β has been linked to increased brain amyloid-beta deposition, while elevated IL-6 levels are associated with cognitive decline and amyloid-beta aggregation. By maintaining adequate vitamin A levels, you help preserve your intestinal barrier function and reduce systemic inflammation, lowering your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.3

Vitamin A’s Impact on Cognition and Amyloid-Beta Pathology

The study’s findings highlight the significant impact of vitamin A on cognitive function and Alzheimer’s-related brain changes. Mice fed a vitamin A-deficient diet for 12 weeks showed impaired cognition in maze tests compared to those receiving adequate or supplemental vitamin A.4

Further, the vitamin A-deficient mice exhibited increased amyloid-beta deposition in their hippocampus, a key brain region involved in memory formation. This suggests that maintaining proper vitamin A levels helps preserve your cognitive abilities and slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As noted by bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov:5

“It took only 12 weeks of vitamin A restriction to establish AD pathology, while the same amount of time supplementing vitamin A was sufficient to produce strong beneficial effects. Crucially, vitamin A restriction elevated biomarkers of gut permeability (D-lactate and DAO), which matches with the post I just did on endotoxin/LPS [lipopolysaccharide] being a major causative factor in AD.

Conversely, vitamin A supplementation was effective at restoring the gut barrier, and subsequently preserving cognition even in animals with already established AD.”

In other animal studies, vitamin A deficiency also led to increased production of amyloid-beta peptides and tau phosphorylation — two hallmarks of AD. Interestingly, vitamin A can directly block the production and clumping of amyloid-beta, helping to prevent the formation of harmful plaques in your brain.6

Interestingly, while vitamin A supplementation showed benefits compared to deficiency, excessive supplementation (at the upper tolerable intake level) resulted in slightly higher amyloid-beta deposition than the normal intake group.

This underscores the importance of maintaining optimal vitamin A levels without overdoing it. Your body’s vitamin A status influences Alzheimer’s pathology through multiple mechanisms, including its effects on gut health, inflammation and direct impacts on brain function.

Optimizing Your Vitamin A Intake for Brain and Gut Health

Given the study’s findings, ensuring adequate vitamin A intake supports both gut and brain health. Vitamin A plays essential roles in neuronal plasticity, cognitive function and maintaining immune homeostasis in your intestines. To optimize your vitamin A status, focus on consuming a variety of vitamin A-rich foods.

Good sources include liver, egg yolks, butter from grass fed cows, and orange and yellow vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots. These foods provide either preformed vitamin A or provitamin A carotenoids that your body can convert to active vitamin A.

While supplementation may be beneficial if you’re deficient, it’s important not to exceed recommended intake levels, as the study suggests potential negative effects from excessive supplementation. If you’re concerned about your vitamin A status, consider having your levels tested before starting any supplementation regimen.

The Role of Vitamins and Minerals in Combating Alzheimer’s

While there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s disease, research is uncovering how essential micronutrients help delay its progression. Let’s explore how specific vitamins and minerals, beyond vitamin A, could be your allies in maintaining cognitive function and potentially staving off neurodegenerative decline.

Vitamins C and E: Your Antioxidant Shield

Your brain is particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress, which is why antioxidants like vitamins C and E are crucial for cognitive health. Vitamin C, beyond its well-known immune-boosting properties, has shown remarkable effects in animal studies of neurodegenerative diseases.7

In Parkinson’s disease models, oral vitamin C significantly reduced the loss of dopaminergic neurons and decreased inflammation. For AD, vitamin C’s antioxidant effects, combined with vitamin E and selenium, improved synaptic and cognitive functioning.8 Vitamin E, another powerful antioxidant, has been found at lower levels in the cerebrospinal fluid and serum of AD patients. Studies have shown that higher vitamin E intake is associated with a lower incidence of AD.

In mouse studies, vitamin E deficiency worsened lipid peroxidation and caused amyloid-beta accumulation in the brain, while supplementation increased cholinergic neurotransmission and decreased inflammation. The combination of vitamins C and E creates a potent antioxidant defense for your brain cells, slowing the progression of cognitive decline.9

B Vitamins: Your Brain’s Metabolic Support Team

The B-complex vitamins also play crucial roles in your brain’s health and function. Vitamin B12 deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of developing AD, with lower B12 levels associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers that promote tau hyperphosphorylation and amyloid-beta production. Supplementation with B12 and folate has shown improved cognition and reduced inflammation in AD patients.10

Vitamin B6 is essential for neurotransmitter production and homocysteine regulation. While its effects on cognitive decline in healthy older adults may be subtle, B6 deficiency in animal studies has been shown to exacerbate oxidative stress, amyloid-beta deposition and neuronal death.11

Vitamin B3 (niacin) is crucial for DNA repair and energy metabolism. In animal studies, niacin supplementation reduced tau phosphorylation and improved cognitive performance. Vitamin B1 (thiamin) is vital for glucose metabolism in your brain. Thiamin deficiency has been linked to increased amyloid-beta production, while supplementation has shown promise in delaying cognitive decline in AD patients.12

Minerals: The Unsung Heroes of Brain Health

While vitamins often take the spotlight, minerals play equally important roles in your brain health. Iron, for instance, is crucial for oxygen transport and neurotransmitter production. However, iron overload leads to oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. An imbalance of iron in your body can lead to ferroptosis, a programmed cell death pathway known to play a role in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.13

Zinc, however, is essential for numerous enzymes and plays a role in neurotransmitter release. Zinc deficiency has been linked to cognitive decline, while proper levels help protect against amyloid-beta toxicity.14

Selenium, another important mineral, has shown neuroprotective effects in animal studies, potentially through its antioxidant properties. Magnesium is involved in numerous biochemical reactions in your brain, and increased dietary intake has been associated with a decreased incidence of cognitive impairment.15

It’s worth noting that imbalances in these minerals can also affect your gut health, leading to leaky gut. By maintaining proper mineral balance, you’re not only supporting your brain health directly but also indirectly by promoting a healthy gut-brain axis.

More Ways Your Gut Microbes Influence Alzheimer’s Risk

A study analyzed genetic data from thousands of people to identify specific gut microbes that help protect against or increase vulnerability to Alzheimer’s.16 The researchers found that the abundance of certain bacterial genera in the gut was genetically linked to Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Specifically, higher levels of bacteria like Eubacterium, Eisenbergiella and Prevotella were associated with lower Alzheimer’s risk. On the flip side, greater amounts of Collinsella, Bacteroides and Veillonella correlated with increased risk. These findings provide some of the strongest evidence yet that your gut microbiome composition plays a role in brain health and cognitive decline as you age.

While more research is needed, this study opens up exciting possibilities for using gut bacteria analysis or probiotic therapies as part of Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment strategies in the future.

Butyrate-Producing Bacteria Protect Your Brain

Several of the bacterial genera found to be protective against Alzheimer’s in this study are known to produce butyrate, an important short-chain fatty acid (SCFA).17 Butyrate has anti-inflammatory properties and helps maintain the integrity of your gut lining. The researchers identified Eubacterium, Eisenbergiella and related bacteria as potentially beneficial. These microbes metabolize dietary carbohydrates into butyrate in your colon.

By reducing inflammation and supporting gut barrier function, butyrate-producing bacteria help prevent harmful substances from entering your bloodstream and affecting your brain. This adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that nurturing beneficial gut bacteria through your diet and lifestyle support cognitive health.

Inflammation-Promoting Bacteria Linked to Higher Alzheimer’s Risk

On the other hand, some of the bacterial genera associated with increased Alzheimer’s risk in this study are known to have proinflammatory effects.18 For example, Collinsella was identified as a particularly significant risk factor. Previous research has found higher levels of Collinsella in the guts of people with inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

This genus increases the production of inflammatory compounds and reduces the expression of proteins that maintain a healthy gut barrier. Similarly, some Bacteroides species secrete lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an inflammatory molecule that contributes to dysfunction of the gut lining and neuroinflammation.19

By promoting chronic low-grade inflammation, these types of bacteria increase vulnerability to neurodegenerative processes over time, highlighting the complex interplay between your gut microbiome, systemic inflammation and brain health.

Intriguingly, this study also uncovered connections between gut bacteria and known genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers found that the abundance of certain bacterial genera was correlated with variants in the APOE gene, one of the strongest genetic risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer’s.20

For instance, people carrying the high-risk APOE ε4 allele tended to have higher levels of Collinsella. This suggests there may be interactions between your genetic predisposition and the composition of your gut microbiome that influence Alzheimer’s risk.

While more research is needed to understand these relationships, the findings point to the gut microbiome as a potential avenue for personalized prevention strategies. In the future, it may be possible to tailor dietary and probiotic approaches based on both genetic risk factors and gut bacteria profiles to optimize brain health as you age.

AFU vs CFU: The Probiotic Measurement Controversy

Navigating the world of probiotics can be overwhelming, especially when faced with countless options, each claiming to be the best. You may have come across probiotics boasting high colony-forming units (CFUs). It’s a common belief that the higher the CFU count, the better the probiotic. However, I want to shed some light on this misconception and help you understand what truly makes a high-quality probiotic supplement.

CFUs are indeed a unit of measurement used to determine the number of viable bacterial cells in a probiotic. When you browse the shelves at your local health store, you’ll notice a wide range of CFU counts, with some supplements advertising numbers as high as 100 billion or more. It’s easy to assume that these sky-high CFU counts are the ultimate indicator of a superior product, but that’s not the whole story.

While CFUs are important, they are just one piece of the puzzle. A probiotic’s effectiveness depends on several factors, including the specific bacterial strains used, the delivery mechanism, and the existence of clinical studies supporting its efficacy.

Let’s take a closer look at how CFUs are measured. In a microbiology lab, a bacterial culture is added to an agar plate, and after a few days, the colonies that grow are counted. However, it’s crucial to understand that not all these colonies will survive the journey through your digestive system. Many probiotic bacteria are sensitive to stomach acid and bile, which means that a significant portion of the CFUs you swallow may not even reach your gut alive.

As if all this wasn’t already confusing enough, we have a new variable to contend with. You may have noticed that some probiotic companies use AFU (Active Fluorescent Units) instead of the more traditional CFU (Colony-Forming Units) to measure the bacteria in their products. I want to shed some light on why this practice can be misleading and potentially detrimental to your health goals.

When you’re looking for a probiotic to support your gut health, you want to ensure that you’re getting a product filled with live, active bacteria that can colonize your gut and provide the benefits you’re seeking.

This is where the CFU measurement comes in. CFU is the gold standard in the industry, counting only the viable bacteria that can grow, multiply, and form colonies within your digestive system. It’s a direct reflection of the bacterial cells that are alive and ready to work their magic. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends buying only probiotics that list the CFU at the end of the product’s shelf life.21

Now, let’s talk about AFU. While AFU offers a more rapid assessment of bacterial populations compared to traditional CFU methods, it presents significant limitations in accurately determining probiotic potency. Unlike CFU, which exclusively counts viable bacteria capable of forming colonies, AFU detects a broader spectrum of cells, including those that may be injured, non-viable, or even dead.

This overestimation can mislead consumers and healthcare professionals about a product’s actual probiotic content. Additionally, the reliance on fluorescence for bacterial detection can introduce variability and potential inaccuracies in the final count. Consequently, AFU might not be the most reliable indicator of a probiotic’s efficacy.

You might be wondering why a company would choose to use AFU instead of CFU. Unfortunately, the answer often lies in marketing. Higher numbers look more impressive on the label, making the product appear more potent and effective than it really is. However, those dead or inactive bacteria won’t do anything for your gut health. They’re just taking up space in the capsule, and you’re not getting the full value of what you’ve paid for.

This is a significant issue in the supplement industry, as it can mislead consumers who are trying to make informed decisions about their health. Regulatory bodies such as the FDA and EFSA recognize CFU as the standard measurement for probiotics, so when a company deviates from this norm, it’s essential to question their motives and be cautious.

If you come across a probiotic using only AFU count, don’t be afraid to ask questions. A reputable company should be transparent about their labeling and willing to explain what these numbers mean. They should ensure that you, as the consumer, understand the difference between AFU and CFU and how it impacts the product’s effectiveness.

At the end of the day, using AFU instead of CFU can inflate the perceived potency of a probiotic, leading you to believe you’re getting more than you are. It’s crucial for companies to be honest and clear in their labeling, so you can make an informed decision and get the most bang for your buck.

As you continue your journey to better gut health, remember to look for probiotics that use CFU as their primary measurement. If a company isn’t being transparent about their labeling or relies heavily on AFU, it might be time to look for a more trustworthy product that prioritizes your well-being over marketing tactics.

Although complex carbs and foods with fiber nourish these bacteria you need to be very careful about using them until you have increased your cellular energy. This is because most people have far more dangerous disease-causing bacteria and the same food that nourishes Akkermansia will nourish the disease-causing bacteria. This will increase endotoxin and cause you to get sick.

In my new book, “Your Guide to Cellular Health,” which comes out in October, I review a green, yellow, red, classification system of carbs. Green are carbs like white rice and dextrose that nearly everyone can tolerate as they are absorbed in the upper intestine and do not stimulate endotoxin production.

Red carbs are typically what are considered some of the healthiest food. However, they have fibers that need to be avoided by most unless they have a pristine gut that has very low pathogenic bacteria.

Maintaining a Healthy Gut Ecosystem Is Key to Brain Health

A flourishing gut ecosystem is home to a diverse array of microorganisms that work in harmony to protect your health. Nurturing beneficial oxygen-intolerant bacteria, including crucial species like Akkermansia, strengthens your intestinal defenses and fosters an environment that promotes overall wellness. This ties directly to the findings discussed earlier, where certain bacterial genera were found to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease.

These beneficial bacteria ferment dietary fibers to produce SCFAs, particularly butyrate. As mentioned, butyrate-producing bacteria like Eubacterium and Eisenbergiella were associated with lower Alzheimer’s risk. Butyrate nourishes your colonic epithelial cells, reinforcing the intestinal barrier. SCFAs also stimulate mucin production, creating a protective shield against harmful bacteria.

A reduction in oxygen-intolerant bacteria leads to increased intestinal permeability, or leaky gut. This allows toxins, undigested food particles and harmful microbes to enter your bloodstream, triggering systemic inflammation and chronic health issues.

Oxygen-intolerant bacteria are vital for converting indigestible plant fibers into beneficial fats. They thrive in an oxygen-free environment, which requires adequate cellular energy to maintain. However, factors like seed oil consumption, exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in plastics and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) impair this energy production, making it difficult to sustain the ideal no-oxygen gut environment.

Moreover, a leading cause of death is, in my view, endotoxemia resulting in septic shock. This occurs when you secrete endotoxin from facultative anaerobes, also known as oxygen-tolerant bacteria, which shouldn’t be in your gut. These pathogenic bacteria produce a highly virulent form of endotoxin, or LPS, which can cause inflammation if they cross your compromised gut barrier into systemic circulation.

Thus, leaky gut or a disturbed microbiome is one of the fundamental causes of all disease, including neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s. Improving mitochondrial function and maintaining a healthy gut ecosystem promote beneficial bacteria growth while reducing harmful endotoxin effects, helping to mitigate factors contributing to dementia and other chronic diseases.

Further, as the featured study suggests, by maintaining optimal vitamin A levels, you also help support a healthy gut microbiome, reduce inflammation and lower your risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

NASA — Europa Clipper is a space mission crafted with one…

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Our solar system was built on impacts — some big, some small — some fast, some slow. This week, in honor of a possible newly-discovered large crater here on Earth, here’s a quick run through of some of the more intriguing impacts across our solar system.

1. Mercury: A Basin Bigger Than Texas

Mercury does not have a thick atmosphere to protect it from space debris. The small planet is riddled with craters, but none as spectacular as the Caloris Basin. “Basin” is what geologists call craters larger than about 186 miles (300 kilometers) in diameter. Caloris is about 950 miles (1,525 kilometers) across and is ringed by mile-high mountains.

For scale, the state of Texas is 773 miles (1,244 kilometers) wide from east to west.

2. Venus: Tough on Space Rocks

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Venus’ ultra-thick atmosphere finishes off most meteors before they reach the surface. The planet’s volcanic history has erased many of its craters, but like almost any place with solid ground in our solar system, there are still impact scars to be found. Most of what we know of Venus’ craters comes from radar images provided by orbiting spacecraft, such as NASA’s Magellan.

Mead Crater is the largest known impact site on Venus. It is about 170 miles (275 kilometers) in diameter. The relatively-flat, brighter inner floor of the crater indicates it was filled with impact melt and/or lava.

3. Earth: Still Craters After All These Years

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Evidence of really big impacts — such as Arizona’s Meteor Crater — are harder to find on Earth. The impact history of our home world has largely been erased by weather and water or buried under lava, rock or ice. Nonetheless, we still find new giant craters occasionally.

A NASA glaciologist has discovered a possible impact crater buried under more than a mile of ice in northwest Greenland.

This follows the finding, announced in November 2018, of a 19-mile (31-kilometer) wide crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier – the first meteorite impact crater ever discovered under Earth’s ice sheets. 

If the second crater, which has a width of over 22 miles (35 kilometers), is ultimately confirmed as the result of a meteorite impact, it will be the 22nd largest impact crater found on Earth.

4. Moon: Our Cratered Companion

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Want to imagine what Earth might look like without its protective atmosphere, weather, water and other crater-erasing features? Look up at the Moon. The Moon’s pockmarked face offers what may be humanity’s most familiar view of impact craters.

One of the easiest to spot is Tycho, the tight circle and bright, radiating splat are easy slightly off center on the lower-left side of the full moon. Closer views of the 53-mile (85 kilometer)-wide crater from orbiting spacecraft reveal a beautiful central peak, topped with an intriguing boulder that would fill about half of a typical city block.

5. Mars: Still Taking Hits

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Mars has just enough atmosphere to ensure nail-biting spacecraft landings, but not enough to prevent regular hits from falling space rocks. This dark splat on the Martian south pole is less than a year old, having formed between July and September 2018. The two-toned blast pattern tells a geologic story. The larger, lighter-colored blast pattern could be the result of scouring by winds from the impact shockwave on ice. The darker-colored inner blast pattern is because the impactor penetrated the thin ice layer, blasting the dark sand underneath in all directions.

6. Ceres: What Lies Beneath

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The bright spots in Ceres’ Occator crater intrigued the world from the moment the approaching Dawn spacecraft first photographed it in 2015. Closer inspection from orbit revealed the spots to be the most visible example of hundreds of bright, salty deposits that decorate the dwarf planet like a smattering of diamonds. The science behind these bright spots is even more compelling: they are mainly sodium carbonate and ammonium chloride that somehow made their way to the surface in a slushy brine from within or below the crust. Thanks to Dawn, scientists have a better sense of how these reflective areas formed and changed over time — processes indicative of an active, evolving world.

7. Comet Tempel 1: We Did It!

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Scientists have long known we can learn a lot from impact craters — so, in 2005, they made one themselves and watched it happen.

On July 4, 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft trained its instruments on an 816-pound (370-kilogram) copper impactor as it smashed into comet Tempel 1.

One of the more surprising findings: The comet has a loose, “fluffy” structure, held together by gravity and contains a surprising amount of organic compounds that are part of the basic building blocks of life.

8. Mimas: May the 4th Be With You

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Few Star Wars fans — us included — can resist Obi Wan Kenobi’s memorable line “That’s no moon…” when images of Saturn’s moon Mimas pop up on a screen. Despite its Death Star-like appearance, Mimas is most definitely a moon. Our Cassini spacecraft checked, a lot — and the superlaser-looking depression is simply an 81-mile (130-kilometer) wide crater named for the moon’s discoverer, William Herschel.

9. Europa: Say What?

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The Welsh name of this crater on Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa looks like a tongue-twister, but it is easiest pronounced as “pool.” Pwyll is thought to be one of the youngest features we know of on Europa. The bright splat from the impact extends more than 600 miles (about 1,000 kilometers) around the crater, a fresh blanket over rugged, older terrain. “Fresh,” or young, is a relative term in geology; the crater and its rays are likely millions of years old.

10. Show Us Your Greatest Hits

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Got a passion for Stickney, the dominant bowl-shaped crater on one end of Mars’ moon Phobos? Or a fondness for the sponge-like abundance of impacts on Saturn’s battered moon Hyperion (pictured)? There are countless craters to choose from. Share your favorites with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com





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Area students get hands-on trying construction jobs – WTOL

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Area students get hands-on trying construction jobs  WTOL



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End of days? Is the insurance industry about to collapse?

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End of days? Is the insurance industry about to collapse? | Insurance Business America















Industry stakeholders consider the unthinkable

Catastrophe & Flood

By
Daniel Wood

The extreme losses being experienced by the insurance industry have some industry stakeholders considering the unthinkable: will the industry collapse? Regulators and insurance leaders in Australia were asked this question at a government inquiry’s public hearing.

The inquiry is looking at insurance unaffordability and unavailability due to climate-driven disasters, like the 2022 floods that cost the industry AU$6.3 billion – a country record.

While its hearings were underway, in the United States, Florida was hit by the first of back-to-back hurricanes. Estimates suggest the total insurance cost of hurricanes Helene and Milton could be a jaw dropping US$55 billion.

In late September, heavy rainfall in Nepal caused floods and landslides. The United Nations reported that more than 200 people died and 4,500 were rescued. The capital city, Kathmandu was inundated. Insurance losses, however, were relatively low.

Meanwhile, Canada has experienced its most destructive summer in history with CA$7 billion in losses from floods and wildfires. The UK, particularly Wales, is currently experiencing flooding. Rainfall was unusually high in September and 2023 was that country’s wettest year ever.

In this context, questioning the insurance industry’s survival doesn’t seem far-fetched.

She said to Christopher Wallace, CEO of the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC), if this collapse happens, would state backed insurers and reinsurers, like the ARPC, be the only ones left?

Wallace said that his conversations with government and the insurance sector inform him that there is “enormous momentum” around “shared thinking on how to reduce disaster risk in the community.”

“The long term solution is to reduce the risk, not just to address the insurance premium,” said Wallace.

Insurers can “just walk away from the market”

The Actuaries Institute’s CEO, Elayne Grace, was the next industry stakeholder to face questions.

“Is there a risk that the insurance industry could actually collapse if the climate crisis continues, especially without a dramatic reduction in emissions?” asked the chair.

“The insurance industry provides one-year policies,” said Grace. “In that sense, they are just being exposed, they can always walk away from the market.”

However, the CEO was concerned that this means it will fall on governments to deal with climate-driven disasters. Like Wallace, she said it was important for the government, insurers and the community to work together to reduce risk.

Insurance peak body says industry is sustainable “at this point in time”

“What is the most dire scenario facing the insurance industry if emissions don’t come down and if governments don’t intervene?” asked Faruqi, this time to Kylie Macfarlane, chief operating officer of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).

“I’d say first that the insurance industry is very competitive and sustainable at this point in time,” said Macfarlane. “It is there to create a safety net for Australians to cope with the day-to-day calamities that happen.”

However, she said the insurance industry has paid out over AU$20 billion in extreme weather claims since Australia’s Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20.

Insurtech says parametrics could be the answer

Faruqi asked her question again.

“Is the very survival of the insurance industry under serious threat as well, given our greenhouse gas emissions strategy, unless things change?” she said.

This time Jonathan Barratt, CEO of the insurtech, CelsiusPro Australia, was answering. He said “indemnity style” insurance is facing issues.

“I think the parametric solutions should be encouraged because they offer an alternative risk transfer method,” said Barratt.

He said more reinsurers and insurers are getting involved in parametrics.

System pressures

“Would you agree that there is a real risk that the insurance industry itself goes down?” asked Faruqi once more, this time to academics from Melbourne’s Monash University.

“I think that there’s obviously a lot of pressure on the system, on private insurers,” said Dr Antonia Settle. “As to whether they go down or not, whether insurers collapse, I think there’s probably a bit more nuance going on there.”

Settle lectures on households and financial risks.

“I think the issue is more about their market shrinking and them relying ever more on state subsidies,” she said.

“The market is failing”

As well as considering the prospect of total industry collapse, the hearing also looked at the implications of what many see as the current situation of partial collapse.

California has seen insurers exit the home insurance market completely because of fire risks. Australia has similar coverage challenges for flood, fire and cyclone risks in a growing number of locations where insurance is unavailable or unaffordable.

Tyrone Shandiman, chair or the Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby (ACIL) and managing director or an insurance brokerage, said the “the market is failing” and called for more government intervention.

He was asked by Labor Party Senator Tony Sheldon – the inquiry’s deputy chair – to highlight why he sees the insurance sector as failing?

“I spoke to a pensioner up in Townsville who had to sell her unit because she was being charged $16,000, or 40%, of her pension for insurance,” said Shandiman. “How is that not market failure?”

He said ACIL has data that shows some consumers are paying up to 20 times as much for insurance as others. Many people in high risk areas, said Shandiman, are now choosing not to take out insurance against these perils and then need government help.

“Climate ghettos” on the increase

Karl Mallon said this growing problem is probably creating “climate ghettos” in the developed world.

Mallon is Sydney-based CEO of The Climate Risk Group.

“In the most extreme situations, we’ll need to see property buybacks, which means properties need to be taken off market,” he said. “They’re not safe and they’re not financially viable, and property rights need to be withdrawn and reallocated to safer places.”

He referred to New Zealand where property buybacks have been adopted after some serious flood events.

Do you think the insurance industry is going to collapse? Please tell us your thoughts below.

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