Page 8 of 11 FirstFirst ... 567891011 LastLast
Results 106 to 120 of 160

Thread: Good News!

  1. #106
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts

    Natural Organisms in Soil Can Power Lights With This Bio Battery, Which May Be World’s Most Disruptive Technology

    Bioo (pronounced Bee-oh) creates batteries that utilize soil microbes to generate electricity in a simple yet ingenious way.

    When the ground in which the battery is set is irrigated or receives rain, nutrients and microbes in the soil that feed on decaying plant matter leach into the battery where their feeding activity creates protons and electrons. When combined with oxygen flowing in through holes in the battery, the process generates enough electricity to power lights, screens, or small appliances.
    Bioo is using potted plants in much of their research because plants expel the excess energy from their photosynthesis through the roots, which can be captured to power small devices.
    Currently a house is a bit beyond the reach of founder Pablo Vidarte. However, he has created several innovative ways to showcase his ideas and hopefully generate the data and capital needed to scale up.

    One of these showcases is the Living Installation, for which plants are used like biological on/off switches. After receiving a certain radio frequency, Vidarte has discovered that certain potted plants can produce energy through his systems and be used like living electrical switches, powering on lights, screens, music, and even extending wifi, for use in a home or retail environment.
    Unlike solar panels which require batteries to store energy for use when the sun isn’t shining, or wind turbines that stop moving without a breeze, soil microbes never sleep—and never stop generating energy. The flow of power is consistent, even in the middle of a night, or on a windless day. The Bioo panel will also save water beneath a garden or lawn because it is generating extra H20 that is expelled in the soil.
    And the 100% renewable energy panels, which currently can generate 3W per square meter, do not interrupt the natural landscape above the ground. Many city planners are eager to use them for powering lights, especially in parks.

    “The technology itself has the potential to be very, very cheap,” Vidarte says. “After all, it just requires graphite and carbon-based substances that are really easy to obtain, are very abundant, and very cheap, as well.”
    Source

  2. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (3rd November 2020), Aragorn (3rd November 2020), Elen (4th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (3rd November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (3rd November 2020)

  3. #107
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts

    11-Year-old Artist is Spreading Kindness Making Flags of Gratitude for Veterans and Health Workers

    Morris Township is your typical New Jersey town: There’s a fire department and a police department; there’s a medical center, and fun stores, and lively restaurants.

    Thanks to the work of a super creative girl—since the pandemic hit in March, frontline staff in the area have been finding some very special items outside such places of work.

    These ‘Flags of Gratitude’ are all made by 11-year-old Callie Danysh.

    She paints the image for every flag or tile herself, and adds inspirational messages of support and appreciation on each one—so essential workers can know just how grateful we all are for the work they’re doing.



    Around Morristown, Morris Plains, and Morris Township, staff and volunteers at local businesses and organizations have all been finding Flags of Gratitude dedicated to them.

    So far, Callie has made an incredible 2,000 flags to encourage and uplift others—all of which can be seen on the Flags of Gratitude Facebook page.



    Source

  4. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (12th November 2020), Elen (13th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (12th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (12th November 2020)

  5. #108
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts
    Two people who’ve been having quite a bit of fun during lockdown are Dave Grohl and a 10-year-old girl named Nandi. Since August, they’ve been taking each other on in the most epic drum battle. Now? The pair are getting ready to jam on stage some day.
    Nandi Bushell lives with her family in the pretty town of Ipswich in England. A superlative drummer, she’s been playing since she was five-years-old.

    She kicked things off with Dave in summer when she posted a video where she drums to the Foo Fighters’ hit song Everlong.
    Nandi wasn’t expecting one of the world’s biggest rock stars to respond to her fun tweet. But before long, Dave Grohl was posting from the Foo Fighters’ account and matching her rendition beat for beat.
    He then one-upped his new pal, suggesting they battle to Them Crooked Vultures’ Dead End Friends. She matched the rock star’s beats, and then some. “You got me,” Dave had to concede.

    From there, Grohl penned a song just for Bushell. The accompanying video is incredible, with his young daughters, hereby known as “the Grohlettes,” joining him as back-up singers.
    Nandi was overjoyed. She penned Dave a brilliant song right back: called Rock and Grohl. Because there’s no end to her talents, for her accompanying music video she sang and played the guitar, bass, and the keyboard.

    Turns out, Grohl was more than a little impressed by his new friend’s ability to create an electric original tune.

    He responded on Twitter, “I’m down, BUT I’M NOT OUT. Your epic song will definitely be hard to beat, but I think I know just what to do…”
    For more go to the Good News Network


  6. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (12th November 2020), Elen (13th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (12th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (13th November 2020)

  7. #109
    Retired Member Norway
    Join Date
    2nd July 2015
    Location
    Scotland
    Posts
    5,065
    Thanks
    73,935
    Thanked 23,318 Times in 5,067 Posts
    Bringing the world together!


  8. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Elen For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (13th November 2020), Dreamtimer (13th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (13th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (13th November 2020)

  9. #110
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd April 2017
    Location
    Earth I
    Posts
    12,191
    Thanks
    36,640
    Thanked 43,100 Times in 11,915 Posts
    lol, a prodigy!
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

  10. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Emil El Zapato For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (13th November 2020), Dreamtimer (13th November 2020), Elen (13th November 2020), Wind (13th November 2020)

  11. #111
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts
    Awesome. Thanks Elen.

  12. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (13th November 2020), Elen (13th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (13th November 2020), Wind (13th November 2020)

  13. #112
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd April 2017
    Location
    Earth I
    Posts
    12,191
    Thanks
    36,640
    Thanked 43,100 Times in 11,915 Posts
    Something occurred to me this morning and I went looking and found it:

    'BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine set end pandemic, pave way for mRNA-based cancer treatments'


    Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer of Biontech, and Uğur Şahin, CEO and co-founder of the company walk through one of the company's laboratories in file photos provided on Sept. 2, 2020 and Nov. 12, 2020, respectively. (Photos by DPA and DHA)

    A German-Turkish couple has been dubbed the "dream team" that will save humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic that brought the world to its knees since its initial emergence in China. The couple co-founded the firm BioNTech which is making positive strides in developing a vaccine with its U.S. partner Pfizer.

    The duo had already been working on other diseases that needed challenging treatments, like cancer. BioNTech, with the slogan "We will change the paradigm in cancer treatment," was working on vaccines using mRNA (messenger RNA) technology against cancer. The company is now using the same technology in COVID-19 vaccine development, and it will be the first such vaccine on the market if approved.

    BioNTech Chief Executive Uğur Şahin told INBUSINESS in a recent interview that those studies were started at the very beginning of the outbreak when he realized what kind of a threat the world would face while reading an article on the disease’s progression in China.

    The son of a Turkish immigrant working at a Ford factory in Germany’s Cologne, Şahin established BioNTech with his wife and fellow board member Özlem Türeci.

    “I was worried that the epidemic in China could become a global pandemic," said Şahin, as the SARS-CoV-2 met all the criteria of a pandemic.

    “It was from the SARS family that nearly caused a pandemic before. It could spread very rapidly within a short incubation period, had a high penetration, and there were both asymptomatic and severe patients. All of them can be seen in the article describing infections in multiple members of a Chinese family traveling to Wuhan,” he said.

    Wuhan's train lines and international airport connecting it to other major cities in China would accelerate the already rapid spread, and the virus would spread to several parts of the world in just a few weeks, Şahin predicted at the time.

    Thus, in January, the company started working to develop the mRNA technology against the pandemic, the same technology they were already working with for the treatment of cancer and flu. In the first week of March, they created the first vaccine candidates, when they saw a strong immune response against the virus in animal and cell experiments in the laboratory.

    If the COVID-19 vaccine, which will be provided strong support on the production and distribution side by Pfizer, is approved this fall, as expected, it will be the first mRNA vaccine to be proven effective, unless their U.S. rival Moderna, working on a vaccine developed with mRNA technology, succeeds before them. Either way, it will be welcome news for the rest of the world.

    So far, there is no vaccine developed with mRNA and approved to be put on the market.

    There are vaccines that, unlike mRNA, require working with the virus itself. The mRNA technology used by Moderna and BioNTech seeks to turn the human's cells into vaccine factories against the virus, just like cancer drugs that aim to destroy cancer cells by activating the immune system – a subject that Şahin and Türeci have already been working on for many years. The RNA is fragile and can be broken down by many enzymes in the body. The immune system immediately detects foreign RNAs and destroys them before the RNA can trigger the production of a protein against the virus it targets in human cells. However, researchers have modified the mRNA molecule to make it more resistant to the immune system.
    This is the technology at the heart of BioNTech's new research. From this point of view, if the COVID-19 vaccine becomes successful, all other mRNA-based research will find both more support and more resources from the world of science. BioNTech's development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine would not only end the pandemic but herald new treatment possibilities in the field of cancer.

    Shared enthusiasm

    Though sharing the same professional field, the married couple came from different socioeconomic backgrounds. While Şahin is the son of a car factory worker who immigrated to Germany from Turkey’s Iskenderun on the southern border, Türeci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer, is the daughter of a Turkish physician who emigrated to Germany from Istanbul.

    Growing up influenced by her father, Türeci said in an interview with the BBC: "I could not imagine any other profession even when I was a young girl.”

    Şahin studied medicine at the University of Cologne and worked several years at Saarland University Medical Center where he met Türeci who has also studied medicine there and had become a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, a shared interest by both.

    Before establishing BioNTech in 2008, Şahin and Türeci initially formed Ganymed in 2000, where they tried outlandish treatments for cancer, namely methods that excluded the ones like chemotherapy and focused on strengthening the immune system to fight on its own. The Ganymed was sold to Japanese pharmaceutical giant Astellas for $460 million in 2016.

    When speaking of their research, Türeci, 53, who has described herself as a “Prussian Turk” in several interviews, said at the time the notion of treating cancer with anything other than surgery, radiation and chemotherapy seemed unusual.

    “It took a long time to become accepted that the immune system is a very potent tool to fight cancer,” Türeci said in 2017.

    “I started working in the leukemia department of the University of Cologne, then spent eight years at the University of Saarland dealing with hematology-oncology patients during the day and working in the lab at night. Back then, chemotherapy and radiation therapy were helping patients live longer than a year. However, 95% of patients with metastatic cancer eventually succumbed to the disease. I wanted to improve these possibilities, and it seemed that the only way to bring the science I was working on to patients was to establish my own company,” Şahin said in an interview with INBUSINESS.

    Şahin and Türeci continued to work on the idea of using the immune system against tumors instead of chemotherapy drugs, which are based on the logic of destroying cancerous cells by drowning the body in venom.

    BioNTech's research has been followed with great interest in the scope of incurable diseases since the first years of its establishment and has quickly become known worldwide and followed carefully by pharmaceutical companies. In October 2019, the value of BioNTech, which was offered to the public on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States with a market value of $3.39 billion, has now exceeded $22 billion.

    The company, with its initial public offering, hoped to sell over 13 million shares at a price between $18-20 per share. Instead, they sold 10 million shares at $15-16 per share, earning $150 million. Still, BioNTech's market value is high for a biotech company. Besides, it was the third-largest public offering in the field of biotechnology in the last 10 years.

    Pfizer’s role

    BioNTech has solved the "mass production" issue, which is the most important question of vaccine studies, in which many developed countries from the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, the U.K. and Germany are in a relentless race, with its partnership with Pfizer.

    BioNTech and Pfizer started production when the vaccine was still in the third and final clinical trial phase, where it was tested on 44,000 people.

    Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told INBUSINESS that their goal is to make the vaccine available to the world as soon as possible and in the widest possible way.

    “Assuming that we have obtained legal approval, there will be currently up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020. We expect to produce around 1.3 billion doses by the end of, 2021,” he said. The ongoing phase 3 trials need to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine and to get the necessary approvals.

    Pfizer will pay an additional $563 million to BioNTech if everything goes as planned and a successful vaccine is developed. The two companies continue to negotiate with about 30 countries regarding the procurement of the vaccine. They made a $1.95 billion deal with the U.S. government for a 100 million-dose vaccine option. The deal also includes an option to add 500 million doses. They signed an undisclosed contract with Japan for 120 million, with Britain for 30 million and with the European Union for 200 million doses of the vaccine with an additional option of 100 million doses. In addition, they continue to negotiate with the COVAX initiative, which was created with the World Health Organization (WHO) to deliver the vaccine to the whole world, including poorer countries.

    The Pfizer CEO continued: “We first started working with BioNTech two years ago to develop a better flu vaccine. This study provided us with a great basis for addressing the pandemic in parallel with health authorities around the world. In collaboration with BioNTech, Pfizer is working at an unprecedented pace to develop, test and manufacture the first mRNA-based vaccine in its field that aims to help prevent COVID-19 disease.”

    The Mainz-based company has also cooperated with Fosun Farma in China. If the vaccine gets approved, Fosun and BioNTech will share the revenue from sales in China. Fosun made a $51 million down payment and capital investment in April.

    BioNTech has so far received the largest investment ever seen by a European biotechnology company and raised $325 million from investors, including famous twin investors in Germany, Thomas and Andreas Struengmann. The total investments it received approached $1 billion. Struengmann Brothers were also among the investors of Ganymed.

    Mask to stay a bit longer

    Şahin said that despite the recent positive developments, the struggle against the virus is not over.

    “We have to be patient. A harsh winter awaits us, where infection cases will continue to increase. The only way to deal with this is to stick to social distance rules and wear a mask when several people are in the same room,” he said.

    Şahin added that although they started production of the vaccine this year, he believes that the available doses will be limited and will only be administered to risky groups such as health care workers and the elderly in the first months.

    “I guess that it will take another six months for the vaccines to become accessible to a wider population. If everything goes as planned, normalization of life will begin in May/June of 2021. However, for the pandemic to be fully controlled, it may take another year, above that. I believe that the pandemic can end only when 90% of the world's population becomes immune to the virus, which may take years.”

    Production line

    Before BioNTech, founded in 2008, started working to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 in January, there were mainly vaccines to be used in cancer treatment with mRNA technology in the production line. Vaccine candidates for the treatment of prostate, advanced melanoma, HPV, head and neck cancer and ovarian cancer (BNT111, BNT113, BNT114, BNT112 and BNT 115) in Phase 1. Others (advanced melanoma and HPV positive head and neck cancer) are about to move on to the second stage. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has supported some of its research for treatments in the field of HIV and tuberculosis, joint work with Pfizer to develop a seasonal influenza vaccine, and ongoing research in the preclinical phase with the University of Pennsylvania for more than 10 infectious diseases.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

  14. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Emil El Zapato For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (23rd November 2020), Dreamtimer (23rd November 2020), Elen (24th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (23rd November 2020)

  15. #113
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts
    This isn't new news but it's still good news.


  16. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aianawa (28th November 2020), Aragorn (28th November 2020), Elen (28th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (28th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (28th November 2020)

  17. #114
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd April 2017
    Location
    Earth I
    Posts
    12,191
    Thanks
    36,640
    Thanked 43,100 Times in 11,915 Posts
    Those are some big cats. Where is it?
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

  18. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Emil El Zapato For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (28th November 2020), Dreamtimer (29th November 2020), Elen (29th November 2020), Wind (29th November 2020)

  19. #115
    Retired Member Norway
    Join Date
    2nd July 2015
    Location
    Scotland
    Posts
    5,065
    Thanks
    73,935
    Thanked 23,318 Times in 5,067 Posts
    Parleys Canyon is a canyon located in the U.S. state of Utah. The canyon provides the route of ... The mountain pass at the top of the canyon is known as Parleys Summit

  20. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Elen For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (29th November 2020), Dreamtimer (29th November 2020), Emil El Zapato (29th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (29th November 2020)

  21. #116
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd April 2017
    Location
    Earth I
    Posts
    12,191
    Thanks
    36,640
    Thanked 43,100 Times in 11,915 Posts
    thank ya' kindly ma'am ...
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

  22. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Emil El Zapato For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (29th November 2020), Dreamtimer (29th November 2020), Elen (29th November 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (29th November 2020)

  23. #117
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts

    Mycotecture

    Stanford Designer is Making Bricks Out of Fast-Growing Mushrooms That Are Stronger than Concrete

    Phil Ross doesn’t use the mushroom, or fruiting body of the reishi; he uses mycelium, the fast-growing fibrous roots that make up the vast majority of fungus lifeforms.

    Mycelium grows fast, and is incredibly durable, waterproof, non-toxic, fire-resistant, and biodegradable.

    Ross uses it to build bricks by growing mycelium in bags of delicious (to mushrooms) sawdust, before drying them out and cutting them with extremely heavy-duty steel blades.

    This works because mushrooms digest cellulose in the sawdust, converting it into chitin, the same fiber that insect exoskeletons are made from.

    “The bricks have the feel of a composite material with a core of spongy cross grained pulp that becomes progressively denser towards its outer skin,” explained Discover Magazine. “The skin itself is incredibly hard, shatter resistant, and can handle enormous amounts of compression.”



    Phil has built an arch and plans to build a house next.


  24. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (11th December 2020), Elen (12th December 2020), Emil El Zapato (11th December 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (11th December 2020)

  25. #118
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts
    Ethereal Sounds Are Emanating From the World’s First ‘Piano’ Made From Plants

    The remarkable instrument uses flora as biological antennas, capable of perceiving changes in frequency when they are touched.

    This change in frequency is translated into a voltage, which is conducted by the plants, as they are natural conductors of electricity.

    The voltage is transformed into sound and activates the input of current from the electrical network into the circuit, giving rise to a magical show of light and music.

    The installation was created by a biotech company named Bioo that makes electricity from nature.



    Bioo, named by the European Parliament as one of the most innovative companies in Europe, has the overall aim of making sustainable electricity from nature, and is also responsible for creating a biological battery powered from soil that “nourishes from nature without harming it.”


  26. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (11th December 2020), Elen (12th December 2020), Emil El Zapato (11th December 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (11th December 2020)

  27. #119
    Retired Member United States
    Join Date
    7th April 2015
    Location
    Patapsco Valley
    Posts
    14,610
    Thanks
    70,673
    Thanked 62,025 Times in 14,520 Posts
    If the mycotecture house is orientated properly, folks will have feng shui fungus.

  28. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Dreamtimer For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (11th December 2020), Elen (12th December 2020), Emil El Zapato (11th December 2020), Gio (11th December 2020), Wind (11th December 2020)

  29. #120
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd April 2017
    Location
    Earth I
    Posts
    12,191
    Thanks
    36,640
    Thanked 43,100 Times in 11,915 Posts
    Really Interesting ... a next step in progress.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

  30. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Emil El Zapato For This Useful Post:

    Aragorn (11th December 2020), Elen (12th December 2020), Wind (11th December 2020)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •