Researchers hope to find new therapies for the ‘devastating and debilitating condition’ (Picture: Getty)
Scottish researchers have launched a bid to develop drugs which could reverse the damage caused by multiple sclerosis.
Pheno Therapeutics has secured more than £5 million of funding to search for new drugs to repair damage to the nervous system and improve symptoms that include problems with balance, speech, vision and movement.
University of Edinburgh professors Siddharthan Chandran and Neil Carragher are among the company founders and the firm will build on their original research.
It aims to develop new therapies for MS by identifying novel molecules that spark the body to repair a protective cover for nerve cells damaged the disease.
MS causes the immune system to attack the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, disrupting the signals travelling to the nerves.
Developing a remyelination process has the potential to slow or arrest the progressive disability MS patients face.
Myelin forms an insulating sheath around neurons (Photo: QAI Publishing/UIG via Getty Images)
The company has secured funding over three years, subject to hitting certain milestones, from investment organisations and a medical research charity.
Pheno Therapeutics co-founder Professor Siddharthan Chandran said: ‘There are no interventions for people with later-stage multiple sclerosis, which is a devastating and debilitating condition.
‘The opportunity for this company is to bring new and repurposed therapeutics to clinical trials and, by doing so, meet an urgent and currently unmet need.’
The university’s commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations, helped to launch the company.
George Baxter, Edinburgh Innovations chief executive, said: ‘Everyone involved is focused on driving the science forward, and we look forward to supporting the team as momentum continues to build, ultimately offering the promise of new treatments.’
Now a top astronomer has said there’s a possibility they were produced by an alien civilisation.
The transmissions are called fast radio bursts and are similar to other signals which have been spotted before.
But the recent burst is believed to be the first with a discernible pattern.
Abraham Loeb of Harvard University said there was a possibility that the signal came from aliens, who may use such bursts to propel ‘light sail’ spacecraft.
However, the astronomer is not saying it’s certain the FRBs were made by extraterrestrials but suggesting we can’t rule out the possibility yet.
‘At the moment we do not have a smoking gun that clearly indicates the nature of FRBs,’ he told CNET.
‘So all possibilities should be considered, including an artificial origin. A civilization might generate a powerful beam of light to propel cargos with a sail and we could observe the leakage of that radiation outside the boundaries of the sail.’
It’s probably not aliens trying to talk to us (Zhou Haodong/Getty)
Usually these bursts come from various different parts of the sky. They’re huge flares of radiation way out in deep space that last just a few milliseconds as they blaze across billions of miles before we detect them here on Earth.
But the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has found that one particular signal – known as FRB 180916.J0158+65 – follows the same kind of pattern.
For four days it will spit out a burst or two every hour. Then it goes quiet for the next 12 days before the pattern resumes.
Various explanations for the transmission have been put forward, such as the FRB being linked to the orbit of another mass – such as a star or a black hole that is periodically interfering with the signal.
Unfortunately, the scientific community doesn’t think we’ve picked up evidence of an alien civilisation among the stars just yet.
Leon Oostrum at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy told New Scientist: ‘If it were an alien beacon I would think it would emit more quickly, because a 16-day period is not efficient for communication.
‘Imagine getting one signal every 16 days – it would take forever to get a message.’
FRB’s were first detected accidentally in 2007, when a burst signal was spotted in radio astronomy data collected in 2001.
Footprints in the Fireclay Caverns at Mount Morgan, near Rockhampton in Australia. Provider: Supplied)(University of Queensland)
The mystery surrounding a number of dinosaur footprints on the ceiling of a cave in Australia has been solved after more than 50 years.
There are nine different sets of dino tracks in a cave in central-eastern Queensland that were first discovered back in 1952.
Now, a chance encounter has led one paleontologist to figure out how they got there.
‘The town of Mount Morgan near Rockhampton has hundreds of fossil footprints and has the highest dinosaur track diversity for the entire eastern half of Australia,’ explained Dr. Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland.
‘Earlier examinations of the ceiling footprints suggested some very curious dinosaur behavior; that a carnivorous theropod walked on all four legs. You don’t assume T. rex used its arms to walk, and we didn’t expect one of its earlier predatory relatives of 200 million years ago did either.’
Researchers wanted to determine if this dinosaur did move using its feet and arms, but found accessing research material was difficult.
University of Queensland palaeontologist, Anthony Romilio (University of Queensland)
‘For a decade the Mount Morgan track site has been closed, and the published 1950s photographs don’t show all the five tracks,’ Dr. Romilio said.
Then he happened to meet a local dentist, Dr. Roslyn Dick, whose father found many dinosaur fossils over the years.
‘Our father was a geologist and reported on the Mount Morgan caves containing the dinosaur tracks in 1954. Besides his published account, he had high-resolution photographs and detailed notebooks, and my sisters and I had kept it all,’ Ms Dick said.
‘We even have his dinosaur footprint plaster cast stored under my sister’s Harry Potter cupboard in Sydney.’
Dr. Romilio said the wealth and condition of ‘dinosaur information’ archived by Ms Dick and her sisters Heather Skinner and Janice Millar was amazing.
The pictures of the cave was an amazing find (University of Queensland)
‘I’ve digitized the analogue photos and made a virtual 3-D model of the dinosaur footprint, and left the material back to the family’s care,’ he said. ‘In combination with our current understanding of dinosaurs, it told a pretty clear-cut story.’
The team firstly concluded that all five tracks were foot impressions—that none were dinosaur handprints.
Also the splayed toes and moderately long middle digit of the footprints resembled two-legged herbivorous dinosaur tracks, differing from prints made by theropods.
The prints were made by theropod dinosaurs (University of Queensland)
‘Rather than one dinosaur walking on four legs, it seems as though we got two dinosaurs for the price of one—both plant-eaters that walked bipedally along the shore of an ancient lake,’ Dr. Romilio said.
‘The tracks lining the cave-ceiling were not made by dinosaurs hanging up-side-down, instead the dinosaurs walked on the lake sediment and these imprints were covered in sand.
‘In the Mount Morgan caves, the softer lake sediment eroded away and left the harder sandstone in-fills.’
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A former Amazon executive has said he turns the company’s Alexa smart speakers off when he wants to have a ‘private’ moment.
Robert Fredrick, who used to be a manager at Amazon Web Services, told a BBC Panorama special he switches the Echo speakers off when he’s discussing private matters.
‘I don’t want certain conversations to be heard by humans,’ he told the programme. ‘Conversations that I know for a fact are not things that should be shared then I turn off those particular listening devices.’
Amazon has maintained that humans listen to less than one percent of the recordings made by Alexa, either on dedicated Echo speakers or through the Alexa app.
‘We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously,’ Amazon explained last year.
Robert Frederick, a former Amazon exec appearing on Panorama, said he turns his Alexa off for privacy (BBC)
‘We only annotate an extremely small number of interactions from a random set of customers in order to improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone.’
The Panorama special, which aired last night, explored the extent to which Amazon is able to collect and manipulate the data of its customers to become ever-more successful.
And while most of us would agree that having an Alexa speaker in our house is a handy, time-saving gadget, not everyone agrees.
‘I simply hate the idea of voluntarily putting a bug into my living room, and knowing that that some schmo in Seattle might be listening to it on a headset,’ James Marcus, who worked as a senior editor at Amazon between 1996 to 2001, told Panorama.
Alexa has become a fixture in millions of people’s homes (Getty Images)
The way Amazon’s Echo speakers work is they listen for small snippets of time in order to try and catch the ‘Alexa’ wake word. When that happens, the lights turn blue and Alexa starts recording your command. The command is beamed back to Amazon’s servers which then executes whatever you asked it to do.
‘We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system,’ Amazon maintains.
‘Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow.’
‘While all information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption, and audits of our control environment to protect it, customers can always delete their utterances at any time.’
Amazon was the focus of a Panorama special on the BBC (Getty Images)
It’s worth pointing out that Amazon isn’t alone when it comes to analysing recordings from smart speakers.
Google and Apple both have human workers that review audio snippets from their respective voice assistants. But both companies, like Amazon, have insisted these are not associated with any personally identifiable information.
Researchers hope to find new therapies for the ‘devastating and debilitating condition’ (Picture: Getty)
Scottish researchers have launched a bid to develop drugs which could reverse the damage caused by multiple sclerosis.
Pheno Therapeutics has secured more than £5 million of funding to search for new drugs to repair damage to the nervous system and improve symptoms that include problems with balance, speech, vision and movement.
University of Edinburgh professors Siddharthan Chandran and Neil Carragher are among the company founders and the firm will build on their original research.
It aims to develop new therapies for MS by identifying novel molecules that spark the body to repair a protective cover for nerve cells damaged the disease.
MS causes the immune system to attack the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, disrupting the signals travelling to the nerves.
Developing a remyelination process has the potential to slow or arrest the progressive disability MS patients face.
Myelin forms an insulating sheath around neurons (Photo: QAI Publishing/UIG via Getty Images)
The company has secured funding over three years, subject to hitting certain milestones, from investment organisations and a medical research charity.
Pheno Therapeutics co-founder Professor Siddharthan Chandran said: ‘There are no interventions for people with later-stage multiple sclerosis, which is a devastating and debilitating condition.
‘The opportunity for this company is to bring new and repurposed therapeutics to clinical trials and, by doing so, meet an urgent and currently unmet need.’
The university’s commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations, helped to launch the company.
George Baxter, Edinburgh Innovations chief executive, said: ‘Everyone involved is focused on driving the science forward, and we look forward to supporting the team as momentum continues to build, ultimately offering the promise of new treatments.’
Vince Reffet is like a real-life version of Iron Man (XDubai)
Tony Stark is probably the most famous Marvel superhero of all, but over in Dubai a team of engineers and pilots are giving the fictional hero a run for his money.
The company Jetman Dubai managed a remarkable feat this week as one of their pilots successfully transitioned from a ground-level takeoff into high altitude flight.
The pilot, Vince “Jetman” Reffet is strapped in to a wingsuit and attached to four mini jet engines that can propel him over 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) in 30 seconds.
‘After becoming airborne at the aerial centre by Jumeirah Beach, Reffet hovered five metres above the waters of the Arabian Gulf for 100 seconds,’ the company explained in a statement detailing the flight.
‘Having demonstrated his full control of the flight by performing stops, turns and backward moves, he landed smoothly back onto the Skydive Dubai runway.
‘Reffet then took off again and headed south towards Jumeirah Beach Residence, building speed and height. Travelling at an average speed of 240kmh, he climbed 100m in the air in eight seconds, 200m in 12 seconds, 500m in 19 seconds and 1,000m in 30 seconds.
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‘At the end of his three-minute flight, Reffet performed a roll and a loop at 1,800m altitude, before opening his parachute at 1,500m and landing back at Skydive Dubai.’
Thankfully, the team had the presence of mind to shoot some amazing drone videos of this milestone as it occurred. The footage was uploaded to YouTube yesterday and has already amassed over 250,000 views.
He climbed 100m in the air in eight seconds (XDubai)
Dubai’s famous Palm island (XDubai)
Reffet used a parachute to end his flight (XDubai)
‘We are so happy we achieved this incredible flight. It’s the result of extremely thorough teamwork, where each small step generated huge results,’ Reffet said after his successful landing.
‘Everything was planned to the split second, and I was overjoyed by the progress that was achieved. It is another step in a long-term project. One of the next objectives is to land back on the ground after a flight at altitude, without needing to open a parachute. It’s being worked on.’
In the meantime, we can’t stop re-watching the footage of the moment he just takes off and zooms across the water. Iron Man would be proud.
BT is revamping its TV offerings in a big way (BT)
BT has unveiled a revamp of its TV packages, including new flexible bundles which will allow users to change the channels they subscribe to every month.
The TV platform has also fully integrated Now TV from Sky into its packages for the first time.
The telecoms giant and broadcaster says the updates enable it to offer the widest choice of TV shows, films and sport available – including its own BT Sport channels, Sky Sports and streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
It said that the new flexible packages will allow users to upgrade, downgrade or bolt-on additional channels month-to-month as their lifestyle and viewing habits change.
BT confirmed the new range of packages would start at £10 a month, rising to £60 for the all-inclusive VIP package.
Marc Allera, chief executive of BT’s consumer group, said: “Life doesn’t stand still from month to month, so we don’t believe our customers’ TV should either.
‘Our new range of TV packs bring together the best premium services, fully loaded with a wide range of award-winning shows, the best live sports in stunning 4K and the latest must-see films – all with the flexibility to change packs every month – with quick and easy search to find what you want to watch.
‘So now with a click of a button you can take out the Big Sport package to catch the top Premier League fixtures one month and swap it for VIP for a rainy school holiday with the family the next.’
BT announced its search function had also been updated to enable users to search for content across all channels and streaming services for the first time.
Pete Oliver, managing director of marketing for BT’s consumer group, described the range of upgrades as a “game-changer” for customers by offering more choice and freedom in the content they can access from one place.
Technology expert and industry analyst Paolo Pescatore from PP Foresight said the changes weren’t a surprise, as TV providers attempt to fight off competition from the emergence of streaming platforms such as Netflix and others.
‘Aggregation is the holy grail. BT has done a superb job of introducing some novel features and bringing together key services all in one place. This will strongly resonate with users,’ he said.
‘It is set to be a bumper year in video/TV services as all providers seek to differentiate their offerings. More so with the arrival of new video streaming services like Disney+ and others returning and strengthening their respective TV platforms.’ BT confirmed the new packages would launch on February 21.
Mark Zuckerberg says he supports regulation of the tech giants (AFP/Getty Images)
Facebook has said it wants to work with governments on ‘new rules for the internet’, as the social network published a set of recommendations for online content regulation.
The social network has been at the centre of a debate about how internet firms should be made more accountable for the content which appears on their platforms.
Last week, the Government published early proposals for new online harms regulation, including placing broadcasting regulator Ofcom in charge of holding internet companies to account should they fail to uphold a duty of care to users.
Facebook has now published its own recommendations for future regulation, which suggest placing more accountability on companies to do content moderation, which it argues will be a strong incentive for firms to be more responsible.
Sharing the company’s guidelines on Twitter, Facebook’s head of global affairs and communications Sir Nick Clegg said: ‘Facebook wants to work with policymakers to create new rules for the internet.
‘We published a White Paper that offers five principles that could frame content regulation, especially outside the US, that keeps the internet safe and protects free expression.’
Facebook called on regulators to let firms innovate rather than enforcing blanket bans (Chesnot/Getty Images)
The guidelines suggest regulations should ‘respect the global scale of the internet and the value of cross-border communications’ and encourage coordination between different international national regulators, as well as look to protect freedom of expression.
In terms of enforcing new rules, it also calls on regulators to develop an understanding of technology which still allows technology firms to innovate rather than issuing blanket bans on certain processes or tools, and asks regulators to take into account the ‘severity and prevalence’ of harmful content in question, its status in law and efforts already underway to address the content.
Writing in the Financial Times, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said the company supported the need for new online regulation even if it damaged Facebook financially.
‘I believe good regulation may hurt Facebook’s business in the near term but it will be better for everyone, including us, over the long term,’ he said.
‘These are problems that need to be fixed and that affect our industry as a whole. If we don’t create standards that people feel are legitimate, they won’t trust institutions or technology.
‘To be clear, this isn’t about passing off responsibility. Facebook is not waiting for regulation; we’re continuing to make progress on these issues ourselves.
‘But I believe clearer rules would be better for everyone. The internet is a powerful force for social and economic empowerment. Regulation that protects people and supports innovation can ensure it stays that way.’
Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The social network said it wanted its recommendations to spark further debate about the issue of online regulation, and confirmed it planned to publish more papers on the subject of elections and privacy later this year.
‘If designed well, new frameworks for regulating harmful content can contribute to the internet’s continued success by articulating clear ways for government, companies, and civil society to share responsibilities and work together,’ Facebook’s vice president of content policy, Monika Bickert said.
‘Designed poorly, these efforts risk unintended consequences that might make people less safe online, stifle expression and slow innovation.’
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A former Amazon executive has said he turns the company’s Alexa smart speakers off when he wants to have a ‘private’ moment.
Robert Fredrick, who used to be a manager at Amazon Web Services, told a BBC Panorama special he switches the Echo speakers off when he’s discussing private matters.
‘I don’t want certain conversations to be heard by humans,’ he told the programme. ‘Conversations that I know for a fact are not things that should be shared then I turn off those particular listening devices.’
Amazon has maintained that humans listen to less than one percent of the recordings made by Alexa, either on dedicated Echo speakers or through the Alexa app.
‘We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously,’ Amazon explained last year.
Robert Frederick, a former Amazon exec appearing on Panorama, said he turns his Alexa off for privacy (BBC)
‘We only annotate an extremely small number of interactions from a random set of customers in order to improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone.’
The Panorama special, which aired last night, explored the extent to which Amazon is able to collect and manipulate the data of its customers to become ever-more successful.
And while most of us would agree that having an Alexa speaker in our house is a handy, time-saving gadget, not everyone agrees.
‘I simply hate the idea of voluntarily putting a bug into my living room, and knowing that that some schmo in Seattle might be listening to it on a headset,’ James Marcus, who worked as a senior editor at Amazon between 1996 to 2001, told Panorama.
Alexa has become a fixture in millions of people’s homes (Getty Images)
The way Amazon’s Echo speakers work is they listen for small snippets of time in order to try and catch the ‘Alexa’ wake word. When that happens, the lights turn blue and Alexa starts recording your command. The command is beamed back to Amazon’s servers which then executes whatever you asked it to do.
‘We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system,’ Amazon maintains.
‘Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow.’
‘While all information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption, and audits of our control environment to protect it, customers can always delete their utterances at any time.’
Amazon was the focus of a Panorama special on the BBC (Getty Images)
It’s worth pointing out that Amazon isn’t alone when it comes to analysing recordings from smart speakers.
Google and Apple both have human workers that review audio snippets from their respective voice assistants. But both companies, like Amazon, have insisted these are not associated with any personally identifiable information.
Windows 10 has had another problematic update (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Windows 10 has been plagued with several bad updates and the latest appears to be so heinous it’s actually deleting some people’s files.
In fact, Microsoft has pulled the KB4524244 security patch for its operating system off the web so that no-one else can download it. The decision came after reports started to emerge of PCs freezing up or failing to boot or indeed losing files.
In some cases the update also causes the ‘Reset this PC’ feature to fail for those wanting to wipe their machines clear.
Vince Reffet is like a real-life version of Iron Man (XDubai)
Tony Stark is probably the most famous Marvel superhero of all, but over in Dubai a team of engineers and pilots are giving the fictional hero a run for his money.
The company Jetman Dubai managed a remarkable feat this week as one of their pilots successfully transitioned from a ground-level takeoff into high altitude flight.
The pilot, Vince “Jetman” Reffet is strapped in to a wingsuit and attached to four mini jet engines that can propel him over 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) in 30 seconds.
‘After becoming airborne at the aerial centre by Jumeirah Beach, Reffet hovered five metres above the waters of the Arabian Gulf for 100 seconds,’ the company explained in a statement detailing the flight.
‘Having demonstrated his full control of the flight by performing stops, turns and backward moves, he landed smoothly back onto the Skydive Dubai runway.
‘Reffet then took off again and headed south towards Jumeirah Beach Residence, building speed and height. Travelling at an average speed of 240kmh, he climbed 100m in the air in eight seconds, 200m in 12 seconds, 500m in 19 seconds and 1,000m in 30 seconds.
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‘At the end of his three-minute flight, Reffet performed a roll and a loop at 1,800m altitude, before opening his parachute at 1,500m and landing back at Skydive Dubai.’
Thankfully, the team had the presence of mind to shoot some amazing drone videos of this milestone as it occurred. The footage was uploaded to YouTube yesterday and has already amassed over 250,000 views.
He climbed 100m in the air in eight seconds (XDubai)
Dubai’s famous Palm island (XDubai)
Reffet used a parachute to end his flight (XDubai)
‘We are so happy we achieved this incredible flight. It’s the result of extremely thorough teamwork, where each small step generated huge results,’ Reffet said after his successful landing.
‘Everything was planned to the split second, and I was overjoyed by the progress that was achieved. It is another step in a long-term project. One of the next objectives is to land back on the ground after a flight at altitude, without needing to open a parachute. It’s being worked on.’
In the meantime, we can’t stop re-watching the footage of the moment he just takes off and zooms across the water. Iron Man would be proud.
Mark Zuckerberg says he supports regulation of the tech giants (AFP/Getty Images)
Facebook has said it wants to work with governments on ‘new rules for the internet’, as the social network published a set of recommendations for online content regulation.
The social network has been at the centre of a debate about how internet firms should be made more accountable for the content which appears on their platforms.
Last week, the Government published early proposals for new online harms regulation, including placing broadcasting regulator Ofcom in charge of holding internet companies to account should they fail to uphold a duty of care to users.
Facebook has now published its own recommendations for future regulation, which suggest placing more accountability on companies to do content moderation, which it argues will be a strong incentive for firms to be more responsible.
Sharing the company’s guidelines on Twitter, Facebook’s head of global affairs and communications Sir Nick Clegg said: ‘Facebook wants to work with policymakers to create new rules for the internet.
‘We published a White Paper that offers five principles that could frame content regulation, especially outside the US, that keeps the internet safe and protects free expression.’
Facebook called on regulators to let firms innovate rather than enforcing blanket bans (Chesnot/Getty Images)
The guidelines suggest regulations should ‘respect the global scale of the internet and the value of cross-border communications’ and encourage coordination between different international national regulators, as well as look to protect freedom of expression.
In terms of enforcing new rules, it also calls on regulators to develop an understanding of technology which still allows technology firms to innovate rather than issuing blanket bans on certain processes or tools, and asks regulators to take into account the ‘severity and prevalence’ of harmful content in question, its status in law and efforts already underway to address the content.
Writing in the Financial Times, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said the company supported the need for new online regulation even if it damaged Facebook financially.
‘I believe good regulation may hurt Facebook’s business in the near term but it will be better for everyone, including us, over the long term,’ he said.
‘These are problems that need to be fixed and that affect our industry as a whole. If we don’t create standards that people feel are legitimate, they won’t trust institutions or technology.
‘To be clear, this isn’t about passing off responsibility. Facebook is not waiting for regulation; we’re continuing to make progress on these issues ourselves.
‘But I believe clearer rules would be better for everyone. The internet is a powerful force for social and economic empowerment. Regulation that protects people and supports innovation can ensure it stays that way.’
Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The social network said it wanted its recommendations to spark further debate about the issue of online regulation, and confirmed it planned to publish more papers on the subject of elections and privacy later this year.
‘If designed well, new frameworks for regulating harmful content can contribute to the internet’s continued success by articulating clear ways for government, companies, and civil society to share responsibilities and work together,’ Facebook’s vice president of content policy, Monika Bickert said.
‘Designed poorly, these efforts risk unintended consequences that might make people less safe online, stifle expression and slow innovation.’
