upstart writes:Chemotherapy may affect muscle cells at lower doses than previously thought: The cancer therapy may also affect the protein building process, not just cause muscles to degrade:
On behalf of all the staff I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!I am grateful for all the support the community has shown us since we started SoylentNews.org on February 12, 2014.Has it really been that long? Back then, the internet was dominated by HTTP; it would take some time (years?) until we transitioned to Gandhi and then Let's Encrypt!I have been active on the site since we started. Why? It was the spirit of gratitude I saw here to be free from having "corporate overlords"; how people pitched in trying to help. They were looking not at what they could get but rather what they could give! That spirit lives on to this day. Where? I see it in the people who submit stories and journal articles. I see it when people post (and moderate) comments. And lets not forget those who subscribe to the site which pays bills (hosting fees and accounting expenses, primarily). We are all volunteers here; nobody has ever been paid anything for their work here!I'm taking this opportunity to thank all the editors who perform the seemingly thankless task of selecting, reviewing, editing, and posting stories to the site. I hereby invite them to enjoy the long holiday weekend.We will be on a holiday/weekend story schedule from the start of Thursday through the end of Sunday (UTC). Enjoy the well-deserved break! Thank You!Another story will be along presently; this story is in addition to our normal schedule. --martyb/BytramRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
canopic jug writes:The Association for Computing Machinery's publication, ACM Queue, had Kirk McKusick of FreeBSD fame interview Margo Seltzer and Mike Olson about the development of Berkeley DB. The two, along with Keith Bostic, have been awarded the 2020 ACM Software System Award for the database. Berkeley DB is a dual-licensed (AGPL and proprietary), simple, efficient, transactional, nosql database and currently maintained by Oracle.
quietus writes:Most of the readers here are probably aware that the European Union is betting heavily on hydrogen as a clean energy carrier.Related to that, Martin Sandbu wrote an interesting article in the Financial Times, titled The Gordian Knot of Europe's gas dependence.In essence, his thesis in the article was that the best way forward for the EU, from an energy perspective, is to keep investing into its gas fields, combined with conversion of that gas into so-called blue hydrogen, combined with carbon capture.The problem was though, he argued, that all of these three things need to happen together: if there's no market for either, the whole system will be caught in a catch-22 situation.Gas producers will not invest in new fields if there are no takers to convert the gas into hydrogen, and mass market realisation of hydrogen technologies will not take off if there is no ample supply. Carbon capture, of course, is needed so the conversion of gas into hydrogen does not cause further climate change, and the EU can reach its carbon emission targets.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
SomeGuy writes:In the early morning hours of June 24, 2021, half of the 12-story Surfside Florida luxury condominium, Champlain Towers South, came crashing to the ground, killing 98 occupants.In a recent public update, the NIST detailed the lengthy work needed to uncover the causes of this collapse.This includes building design, construction, modification, and deterioration analysis, evidence preservation, remote sensing analysis using data collected with tools such as LIDAR during recovery, material tests on recovered evidence, a geotechnical analysis of the surrounding soil and geologic conditions, as well as detailed structural and failure analysis using computer modeling.Additionally, they will interview people with historic knowledge of construction in south Florida, and continue to accept information from the public that could shed additional light on this tragedy.Although answers from NIST's investigation will not be forthcoming for a number of years, many individuals unrelated to the NIST have combed through publicly available information to find possible causes.While precise triggers leading to the collapse may never be known, most public evidence, as this video demonstrates, points to two key factors: Badly neglected and deteriorated pool deck concrete slab that lead to a pool deck collapse, and resulting damage to three key building support columns that lead to the building collapse minutes later.A timeline based on public witness accounts, details the dramatic events of that morning.In an interesting twist, this USA Today article digs deep in to possible drug related money laundering and corruption surrounding the building's construction.AP News reports a lawsuit that was just filed alleges previous construction next door contributed to the collapse.Most of the media has focused on the lack of "answers" from the NIST and other organizations. Youtuber Jeff Ostroff has compiled an informative explanation of who NIST is, why the NIST is investigating, and why this takes so long.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.