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When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.
Still, most companies are in the early stages of understanding what the circular economy means and how they […]
Once ingested, a tiny device called Soma positions itself against the stomach wall and injects insulin into the bloodstream.
Credit: Frankel Traverso
Here was the challenge for bioengineers: Find a way to for patients to take drugs — like insulin or monoclonal antibodies used to treat cancers and other diseases — without injections.
The medicines are made of molecules too big to be absorbed through the stomach or intestines; in any event, the drugs would be quickly degraded by the body’s harsh digestive system.
Now, a team of scientists may have found a solution that delivers these drugs in a capsule a person can swallow. Their inspiration? A tortoise that always rights itself after rolling over.
The test device, called Soma, is shaped like the tortoise’s shell. Inside is a miniature post made of insulin. After the tiny device positions itself against the stomach wall, the post pops out and injects insulin. The device then travels through the colon and eventually is eliminated by the patient.
British exporters risk their goods sitting in quarantine and not being paid for unless a Brexit deal can be found by the end of next week.
Prime Minister Theresa May is spending Thursday in Brussels, seeking concessions to her Brexit deal that can win the support of both the EU and the U.K. parliament. Unless she resolves that conundrum, Britain is on course to tumble out of the bloc on March 29, losing the benefits of EU membership, including beneficial trade terms with countries on the other side of the globe.
“For many companies, it’s not 50 days away, hard Brexit happens nine days from now,” Stephen Phipson, chief executive of the EEF manufacturing lobby group, said. “Those are the first ships that are going to land post-March 29 in southeast Asia. If products get loaded on the ships, exporters have no idea when they land whether they’ll be on a 20 percent tariff regime. Will they need rules of origins certificates?”
Phipson’s remarks hammer home the real-world implications of the limbo that companies faces as lawmakers squabble over the shape of Brexit. Britain […]
New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
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On Tuesday, New Mexico’s newly elected Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered the withdrawal of the “majority of National Guard troops currently deployed to the state’s southern border with Mexico,” according to ABC News affiliate KVIA. In a statement released to the news media, Lujan Grisham said she rejected Trump’s insistence that there is a pressing security crisis at the border, pointing out that the border towns in her area are some of the safest communities in the country.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that around a dozen National Guard troops will remain in Hidalgo and Luna Counties, with Lujan Grisham reserving the right to add more after a further assessment by military officials. Lujan Grisham ordered troops working in New Mexico to return to their homes. However, she says she is is not ignoring constituents who are concerned with asylum-seekers who need assistance, and will continue to figure out the best way to help them. She’s just not interested in being a part of Donald […]
Associate Supreme Court Samuel Alito
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Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump took office, a Republican federal judge in Alabama handed down an absolutely shocking opinion.
The legal claims in Lewis v. Bentley are, to be fair, a bit of a stretch. After the majority-black city council in Birmingham, Alabama, enacted an ordinance raising the minimum wage in Birmingham, the state legislature passed a law invalidating that ordinance. Every state lawmaker who supported this law was white, as was the governor who signed it. The plaintiffs in Lewis claim that this state law was enacted with racist intent — which would make it unconstitutional — rather than simply out of a desire to maintain conservative labor policy throughout the state.
Yet Judge R. David Proctor, a George W. Bush appointee, did not simply dismiss this case. He handed down an opinion that, if embraced by higher courts, would eviscerate virtually any civil rights plaintiff’s ability to challenge a facially neutral law that was enacted in order to harm people of color. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
