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Showing posts from January, 2023

The first flying boat

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  The first flying boat Well… it was only a matter of time! In an incredible feat for the maritime sector, the first-ever flying boat was recently introduced to the market. The Pioneer of Belfast – developed by Belfast-based Artemis Technologies – is propelled out of the water by a wing-like structure on its underside. Using an electric motor, the Pioneer successfully reduces emissions by up to 90%. And since 90% of global trade is shipped by water, it’s another huge step in the right direction for the UK’s mission towards net zero. This is great for the future of shipping which will reduce energy costs, maintenance costs and the creation of swell which is an issue in well chartered waters.

Radical decarbonization tools - TODAY

  Radical decarbonization tools Deep tech climate startups can radically decarbonize our industries by leveraging two superpowers: 1) science and 2) entrepreneurship. While science provides impactful breakthroughs, entrepreneurship enables their fast implementation for tackling the climate crisis. Deep tech climate startups have already developed ways to grow steaks without an animal ( Mosa Meat ,   Aleph Farms ), build electric airplanes ( Heart Aerospace ), invent multi-day energy storage ( Antora Energy ,   Form Energy ), and develop plastic-eating enzymes ( Epoch BioDesign ,   Beworm ). There are two areas where I believe deep tech startups can make an outsized climate impact: #1. Decarbonizing hard-to-abate manufacturing sectors Concrete, steel, and other manufacturing industries (e.g., plastics and chemicals) form the backbone of our modern society. These industries make up   20% of global greenhouse gas emissions   and, unfortunately, are all   ...

Omnichannel Retail

  Omnichannel Retail Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience and drive better relationships with their audience across points of contact. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate.

5G

  5G In telecommunications, 5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the planned successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most current cellphones. 

Carbon Pricing

  Carbon Pricing A  carbon price  is a cost applied to  carbon  pollution to encourage polluters to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere. Economists widely agree that introducing a  carbon price  is the single most effective way for countries to reduce their emissions.

Longevity Technology

  Longevity Technology Unlocking the longevity dividend will require multi-disciplinary collaboration and a radical rethink of how we approach all of life and not just the end of life.

Ageing Population

  Ageing Population Population ageing is an increasing median age in a population due to declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy. Most countries have rising life expectancy and an ageing population. This is the case for every country in the world except the 18 countries designated as "demographic outliers" by the UN.

AI Drug Discovery

  AI Drug Discovery By embedding data into a high-dimensional space and extracting key relationships,  AI  provides innovative solutions for all stages of early  drug discovery . The market size of  AI -enabled  drug discovery  is projected to reach $1.43bn by 2024, with an annual increase of 40.8%.

Antimicrobial Resistance

  Antimicrobial Resistance Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from the effects of antimicrobials. The term antibiotic resistance is a subset of AMR, as it applies to bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics.

US Healthcare Reform

  US Healthcare Reform One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to improve the quality and safety of health care. In that way, health care reform means better care for everyone. Other  provisions  of the Affordable Care Act help people get health insurance who couldn't before. They also help make coverage more affordable.

Robotic Surgery

  Robotic Surgery Robotic surgery  are types of  surgical  procedures that are done using  robotic  systems. Robotically-assisted  surgery  was developed to try to overcome the limitations of pre-existing minimally-invasive  surgical  procedures and to enhance the capabilities of  surgeons  performing open  surgery .

Personalised Medicine

  Personalised Medicine Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease.

Predictive Healthcare Analysis

  Predictive Healthcare Analysis Predictive analytics  can support population health management, financial success, and better outcomes across the value-based care continuum. ... Instead of simply presenting information about past events to a user,  predictive analytics  estimate the likelihood of a future outcome based on patterns in the historical data.

AI Radiology

  AI Radiology AI in radiology provides information on the technology, the industry, the promises and the challenges of the AI radiology field. Currently, we are on the brink of a new era in radiology artificial intelligence. AI has had a strong focus on image analysis for a long time and has been showing promising results. Therefore, there are great expectations around applying AI to radiological images.

Personalised Insurance

  Personalised Insurance By allowing people to have personalised services, it increases the likelihood they will be more engaged with the services they are providing.

PAYG Social Care

  PAYG Social Care A PAYG (pay as you go) scheme has the big advantage that it could start with lower tax rates, one half or one per cent, for example, but rates would have to increase after about five years and eventually, after 20 years would probably exceed tax rates in the funded scheme – meaning the currently-young would pay more over their working lives. Total contributions, in either case, would be capped, e.g. by applying those increases to basic-rate income tax only. The cap is reasonable because otherwise many people would pay in more than they could ever hope to get back even in the worst case where they required lengthy and extensive social care. The scheme will necessarily be redistributive, being mainly of benefit to people with low incomes and modest wealth. Yet the intention is also to pool a risk across society so that those unfortunate enough to require expensive care are helped with the burden. Given a cap on contributions, everyone should have the possibility of...

Wellness Economy

  Wellness Economy Defined as  industries that enable consumers to incorporate wellness activities and lifestyles into their daily lives,  the wellness economy encompasses 10 varied and diverse sectors.

Remote Patient Monitoring

  Remote Patient Monitoring Remote  patient  monitoring  (RPM) uses digital technologies to collect medical and other forms of  health  data from individuals in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to  health  care providers in a different location for assessment and recommendations.

Opioid Epidemic

  Opioid Epidemic Devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic include increases in opioid misuse and related overdoses, as well as the rising incidence of newborns experiencing withdrawal syndrome due to opioid use and misuse during pregnancy.

Sleep Technology

  Sleep Technology We love sleep. We also love gadgets. And yet it seems at times that we can never have enough of either. Fortunately, there is more sleep tech out there than you could stuff a duvet with, so we’ve rounded up the gadgets that could help get the best night’s sleep of your life… or at least help you doze off into blissful slumber. Of course, nothing can guarantee you a night of bliss in the land of Nod, and if you are really struggling you should see your GP, but if you do think technology can help give you those vital extra minutes in restful sleep, these sleeping aids might just work for you.

3D BioPrinting

  3D BioPrinting Three dimensional bioprinting is the utilization of 3D printing–like techniques to combine cells, growth factors, and biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts that maximally imitate natural tissue characteristics.

Microchip Implants

  Microchip Implants A human microchip implant is typically an identifying integrated circuit device or RFID transponder encased in silicate glass and implanted in the body of a human being.

DNA data storage

  DNA data storage An alternative to hard drives is progressing: DNA-based data storage. DNA—which consists of long chains of the nucleotides A, T, C and G—is life’s information-storage material. Data can be stored in the sequence of these letters, turning DNA into a new form of information technology. It is already routinely sequenced (read), synthesized (written to) and accurately copied with ease. DNA is also incredibly stable, as has been demonstrated by the complete genome sequencing of a fossil horse that lived more than 500,000 years ago. And storing it does not require much energy. But it is the storage capacity that shines. DNA can accurately stow massive amounts of data at a density far exceeding that of electronic devices. The simple bacterium  Escherichia coli , for instance, has a storage density of about 10 19  bits per cubic centimeter, according to calculations published in 2016 in  Nature Materials  by George Church of Harvard University and his...

Medicine and Surgery around Women's Cycle

Recent studies have suggested that the timing of surgery in relation to the menstrual cycle might influence survival of premenopausal women with operable breast cancer. The data of 96 premenopausal patients who underwent primary surgery for operable breast carcinoma between 1975 and 1988 were analysed. At 10 years, disease-free and overall survival rates of patients whose initial surgery was 1-12 days after the starting date of the last menstrual period (follicular phase) were significantly poorer compared with survival of those who underwent operation more than 12 days after the last menstruation (luteal phase) (disease-free survival rate 40 versus 72 per cent, P = 0.002; overall survival rate 40 versus 79 per cent, P = 0.001). These differences in survival remained significant in a second analysis based on the menstrual phase at the time of both initial and definitive operation. Menstrual phase had the greatest impact on the survival of patients with positive axillary nodes (P = 0.00...

Biohacking

Biohacking Body hacking is the application of the hacker ethic to improve their own bodies with do it yourself cybernetic devices or introducing biochemicals into the body to enhance or change their bodies' functionality. It is also known as biohacking, although this term also has other meanings.

Myopia Epidemic

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Myopia Epidemic Myopia is the most common ocular disorder worldwide, it is the leading cause of visual impairment in children, and its incidence is increasing rapidly. 1,2  In 2010, an estimated 1.9 billion people (27% of the world’s population) were myopic, and 70 million of them (2.8%) had high myopia. These numbers are projected to rise to 52% and 10%, respectively, by 2050 (Figure). 1 Figure. Current and projected 2050 myopia prevalence by region.  (Reproduced with permission of Johnson & Johnson Vision and Holden BA, Fricke TR, Wilson DA, et al. Global prevalence of myopia and high myopia and temporal trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(5):1036-1042.)   Figure. Current and projected 2050 myopia prevalence by region.  (Reproduced with permission of Johnson & Johnson Vision and Holden BA, Fricke TR, Wilson DA, et al. Global prevalence of myopia and high myopia and temporal trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(5):1036-10...

Cloning

Cloning Cloning is the process of producing individuals with identical or virtually identical DNA, either naturally or artificially. In nature, many organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. Cloning in biotechnology refers to the process of creating clones of organisms or copies of cells or DNA fragments.

Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism The most common  types  of procedures that patients pursue during  medical tourism  trips are elective cosmetic surgery, dentistry, organ transplantation, cardiac surgery and orthopedic surgery. [Post Pandemic or via Remote Surgery] This is a way to save money when getting medical operations done or get access to medical operations when the local waiting lists are too long.

Carbon Capture & Storage

  Carbon Capture & Storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) before it is released into the atmosphere. The technology can capture  up to 90%  of CO 2  released by burning fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes such as cement production. CO 2  can be captured using different methods. The main ones are: post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel. Post-combustion technology removes CO 2  from the flue gases that result from burning fossil fuels. Pre-combustion methods – carried out before burning the fossil fuel – involve  converting the fuel into a mixture of hydrogen and CO 2 .  Oxyfuel technology  produces CO 2  and steam by burning fossil fuels with almost pure oxygen. Post-combustion and oxyfuel equipment can be fitted to new plants or retrofitted – in other words, added to existing power stations that were originally built without it. Pre-co...

Renewable Energy

  Renewable Energy The most popular renewable energy sources currently are: Solar energy . Wind energy . Hydro energy . Tidal energy . Geothermal energy . Biomass energy .

Biofuels

  Biofuels Biofuel is fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. Since biomass technically can be used as a fuel directly, some people use the terms biomass and biofuel interchangeably. Biofuels created away from traditional fossil fuels so that we have a circular fuel system.  We need to make sure that we do not take away supply to the food system.

Sustainable Food systems

  Sustainable Food systems A  sustainable food system  (SFS) is a  food system  that delivers  food  security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate  food  security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised.

Circular Economy

  Circular Economy A  circular economy  is an alternative to a traditional linear  economy  (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.
  Climate Migration Environmental migrants are people who are forced to leave their home region due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment. These changes compromise their well-being or secure livelihood, and include increased drought, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns.

Energy Poverty

  Energy Poverty Energy poverty  is defined as lacking access to the affordable sustainable  energy  service. Geographically, it is unevenly distributed in developing and developed countries. In 2015, there are estimated 1.2 billion people have no access to  electricity , with approximate 95% distributed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Simple sources to energy will not be available physically or can't be used legally.

Land Degradation

  Land Degradation Land degradation  is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the  land . It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the  land  perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.

Biodiversity Loss

  Biodiversity Loss Climate change .  Changes in climate  throughout our planet's history have, of course, altered life on Earth in the long run — ecosystems have come and gone and species routinely go extinct. ... Deforestation  and  habitat loss . Image: Nelson Luiz Wendel / Getty Images. ... Overexploitation . ... Invasive species . ... Pollution . We need to determine which areas we are extinction the planet and find a solution.

Natural Resource Scarcity

  Natural Resource Scarcity Water . Freshwater only makes 2.5% of the total volume of the world's  water , which is about 35 million km3. ... Oil . The fear of reaching peak  oil  continues to haunt the  oil industry . ... Natural gas. ... Phosphorus . ... Coal . ... Rare earth elements . Natural resources will become harder to find and recycle and full circle lifecycle will important to maintain our current resources.

Energy Storage

  Energy Storage Energy storage  is the capture of  energy  produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between  energy  demand and  energy  production. A device that stores  energy  is generally called an accumulator or  battery . Energy Storage will be portable as well as stationery, so that where energy can be made cheaply it will be shipped where it is more expensive or difficult to carry out due to location or restrictions.

Deforestation

  Deforestation Deforestation  is the permanent removal of trees to make room for something besides forest. This can include clearing the land for agriculture or grazing, or using the timber for fuel, construction or manufacturing. Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land surface, according to the World Wildlife Fund. We need to populate our homes more with plants, trees or anything that can generated oxygen for the planet. Moss can be used to clean the air and generate oxygen for the planet.

Ocean Economy

  Ocean Economy Offshore oil and gas,  maritime  equipment and construction, seafood, container shipping, shipbuilding and repair, cruise tourism, port activities, and offshore wind. The ocean is an untapped resource for production, living and harvesting.

Waste Management

  Waste Management Liquid  waste . Liquid  waste  refers to all grease, oil, sludges, wash water,  waste  detergents and dirty water that have been thrown away. ... Solid  Waste . Solid  waste  is any  garbage , sludge, and  refuse  found in industrial and commercial locations. ... Organic  Waste . ... Recyclable  Waste . ... Hazardous  Waste . Serious monies will be made by cleaning up the ocean changing plastics into reusable hydrocarbons which can be repurposed or used as a fuel.