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Interview with Stephanie Planque from Covalent Bioscience

Reading time 8 min
Views 504

What is ageing? We can define ageing as a process of accumulation of the damage which is just a side-effect of normal metabolism. While researchers still poorly understand how metabolic processes cause damage accumulation, and how accumulated damage causes pathology, the damage itself – the structural difference between old tissue and young tissue – is categorized and understood pretty well. By repairing damage and restoring the previous undamaged – young – state of an organism, we can really rejuvenate it! It sounds very promising, and so it is. And for some types of damage (for example, for senescent cells) it is already proved to work!

Today in our virtual studio, somewhere between cold, rainy Saint-Petersburg and warm, sunny Huston, we meet Stephanie Planque! For those of you who are not familiar with her, here is a brief introduction.

Stephanie Planque was awarded the PhD in 2009 by the University of Texas-Houston Medical School for her advances in applying electrophilic analogs of proteins to decipher the beneficial and harmful functional effects of catabodies. She then expanded her focus to vaccination and therapeutic catabody identification using proprietary electrophilic target analogs. Her work was published in 49 peer-reviewed scientific articles, she has numerous national/international conference presentations. She moved fulltime as a co-founder to Covalent Bioscience in 2018 to focus on rapidly translating their electrophilic vaccine/catabody technologies to clinical reality.

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Total votes 5: ↑4 and ↓1 +3
Comments 0

Affordable as a Bus, Comfortable as a Taxi: A Promising Type of Public Transport for Large and Medium-Sized Cities.Part3

Level of difficulty Medium
Reading time 32 min
Views 1.3K


Translation provided by ChatGPT, link to the original article in Russian

Link to Part 1: «Preliminary Analysis» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 2: «Experiments on a Torus» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 3: «Practically Significant Solutions» (ру / eng )
Link to «Summary» (ру / eng )

1 Playing Diplomacy


1.1 What this work is about


You're reading the third and final article in a series dedicated to minibus route schemes that would allow you to travel reasonably quickly, inexpensively, and most importantly, without any transfers, from any intersection to any other within a large city. You'll see many graphs, formulas, and figures below, but before we get to the technical part, I'd like to discuss the challenge of implementing this idea and invite you to participate in solving it.

1.2 A puzzle for the talented and brave (Eccentrics are welcome: 🎶)


I propose an adventure,
I propose a game,
I propose that you become part of a positive change in the lifestyle of almost a billion people around the planet,
I can't do this alone.
To start, I need your help with the following:
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Total votes 4: ↑3 and ↓1 +2
Comments 4

Affordable as a Bus, Comfortable as a Taxi: A Promising Type of Public Transport for Large and Medium-Sized Cities.Part2

Level of difficulty Medium
Reading time 56 min
Views 1.1K

(Jean-Claude Mézières)

Translation provided by ChatGPT, link to the original article in Russian

Link to Part 1: «Preliminary Analysis» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 2: «Experiments on a Torus» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 3: «Practically Significant Solutions» (ру / eng )
Link to «Summary» (ру / eng )

Experiments on the Torus


This is the second part of a study dedicated to exploring new public transportation movement schemes. In the first part, we examined the simplest non-stop scheme and a single-transfer scheme based on it, which can be implemented in a grid city on a plane. In this part, our city model will be a grid city on a «flat» torus. Unlike a rectangle, a torus has no edge, and the positions of all points on it are absolutely equivalent. Due to the absence of an edge and (transitive) symmetry, calculations for a toroidal city are simpler, and numerical results are nearly identical to those for a rectangular city on a plane. These two conditions make a toroidal grid city an ideal testing ground for new passenger transportation movement schemes. In this article, we will explore two such schemes on the torus, and in the next one, we will return to the plane and adapt the results obtained here for use under the realistic conditions of a rectangular city.

The content of this study is not standalone and presupposes familiarity with the first part of the article. To understand Chapter 2, you will need a level of mathematics that corresponds roughly to the first two years of university; for everything else, high school level should suffice. It can be helpful to have a pencil and a piece of paper at hand while reading. If your browser displays formulas incorrectly, try refreshing the page a few times.
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Total votes 3: ↑3 and ↓0 +3
Comments 0

Affordable as a Bus, Comfortable as a Taxi: A Promising Type of Public Transport for Large and Medium-Sized Cities.Part1

Level of difficulty Medium
Reading time 40 min
Views 1.8K

(Jean-Claude Mézières)

Translation provided by ChatGPT, link to the original article in Russian

Link to Part 1: «Preliminary Analysis» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 2: «Experiments on a Torus» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 3: «Practically Significant Solutions» (ру / eng )
Link to «Summary» (ру / eng )

1. About this series of articles


1.1 Central result


If I haven't made a critical mistake, I have discovered an astonishing passenger transportation scheme with unique characteristics. Imagine this scenario: you are in a big city and need to get from point A to point B. All you need to do is walk to the nearest intersection and indicate the destination on your smartphone or a special terminal installed there. In a few minutes, a small but spacious bus will arrive for you. The bus is designed for easy entry without bending, and you can bring a stroller, bicycle, or even a cello inside. It provides comfortable seating where you can stretch your legs. This bus will take you to the nearest intersection to point B, and you will reach your destination without any transfers. The entire journey, including waiting at the stop, will take only 25-50% more time than if you were traveling by private car. Based on my estimation, in modern metropolises, this type of transportation will be widely adopted, and the cost of a trip on such buses will be similar to the fare of a regular city bus.

Surprisingly, the reasoning behind these findings is based on relatively simple mathematics, and perhaps even a talented high school student, under fortunate circumstances, could have guessed them on their own. The practical significance of the topic and the modest level of mathematical requirements prompted me to make an effort to write the article in such a way that the reader could follow the path of discoveries, learn some research techniques, and gain a successful example to explain to their children the purpose of mathematics and how it can be applied in everyday life.
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Total votes 9: ↑7 and ↓2 +5
Comments 6

«Promising Public Transportation for Large and Medium-Sized Cities» — the main idea in a brief summary

Level of difficulty Easy
Reading time 9 min
Views 1.4K

(source)

Translation provided by ChatGPT, link to the original article.

I recently published a series of articles titled 'As Cheap as a Bus, as Convenient as a Taxi...':

Link to Part 1: «Preliminary Analysis» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 2: «Experiments on a Torus» (ру / eng )
Link to Part 3: «Practically Significant Solutions» (ру / eng )

dedicated to making public transportation in large cities completely seamless, without the need for transfers. In the last article of the series, I extensively described a microbus movement scheme that allows them to operate almost like taxis while accommodating 5-10 passengers at once. Such a transportation system would enable city residents to travel from any intersection to another without any transfers, comparable in time to a personal car journey, and at a cost similar to a regular city bus ticket. However, the feedback from readers indicated that I chose an extremely ineffective way to convey the information, resulting in a failure to effectively communicate the essence of the matter.

I must admit that the previous three articles were written in a way that allowed readers to apply the acquired knowledge in practice or continue the research I started on their own. Unfortunately, my desire to 'teach' resulted in nearly 100 pages of complex mathematical text, which is clearly excessive for readers who simply wanted to familiarize themselves with the idea. Here, I will attempt to rectify this mistake and briefly, yet simply, explain the bus taxi technology.
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Total votes 6: ↑6 and ↓0 +6
Comments 0

It's alive

Reading time 2 min
Views 1.2K

I wonder why IT developer interviews are so strange most of the time. It feels as if the people are looking for computer science teachers, not engineers. All those theoretical questions that have no relation to the working reality. It is strange to be looking for eloquent teachers, who can perfectly explain any term or pattern, and then ask them to do the actual work. Maybe it is the imprint from the years spent in university when the teachers looked like all-knowing gods and seemed to solve any issue in your life. May be, may not. Anyway, these teachers stay in unis and don't do the work.

You know, what would be my universal answer to all interview questions? “I have no idea how and why it works, but I can use it, and I can use it for good”. This is the reality. Actually, no one knows exactly these hows and whys. What is a computer? What is electricity? What is an electron? No one knows for sure. But it works and we use it.

Imagine a famous author, like Stephen King, asked a question about the difference between deus ex machina and Mary Sue. Would his answer change the quality of his books? He may or he may not know all those scientific literature terms, but he can use the language and use it for good.

Every time I turn on my computer it is a wonder. I have no idea what is going on, but it awakes, it becomes alive, and I can communicate with it in its own sublime and subtle language.

Have you ever realised that all these electronic devices are monsters, Frankenstein's monsters? Some pieces of dead matter were put together, and then, with some electricity involved, it suddenly awoke. “It's alive!”. Had Frankenstein any idea why it turned alive? Of course not, or why he was so surprised? Every developer experiences this feeling almost every day. “It's working!”

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Total votes 7: ↑4 and ↓3 +1
Comments 1

Software testers — an endangered species?

Reading time 4 min
Views 1.6K

Nothing and nobody will escape oblivion. Whatever you may say, the history of mankind is a history of automation and the subsequent evolution of workers. This happened both during the first industrial revolution and during the second. The same thing happened with digital revolution. Now machine learning and artificial intelligence are being implemented everywhere. What is the future of software testing?

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Total votes 1: ↑1 and ↓0 +1
Comments 0

Blockchain is the perfect solution to online privacy problem

Reading time 3 min
Views 1.2K

We are increasingly aware of the importance of our personal data. Primarily due to numerous data leaks and the fact of numerous sales of personal information on the black market. Yes, huge corporations like Apple or Samsung prioritize the preservation of sensitive user data. However, they find it difficult to store and use them at the same time. That is why blockchain technology is the perfect tool for solving the online privacy problem.

There are constant news in the media about the problem of personal privacy, which is represented by constant data leaks and the general technological illiteracy of the world population. In the Pew study, nearly 80% of respondents said they are very concerned about how companies are using the data they collect. In MState's study, 24% of respondents stopped using certain apps due to privacy concerns.

Today, an increasing number of people are actively protecting their data by refusing the services of companies and applications that use personal data. This is why Apple, Lyft, Dropbox, and Adobe have started taking a consumer-centric approach to data privacy. Consumers' understanding that their personal data is a commodity is increasing.

Free TON is a prime example of a secure blockchain. This blockchain has some of the best features compared to Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Stellar. Data security directly depends on the use of blockchain. Each of the above blockchains provides a different level of data protection. Ethereum is the most popular blockchain, but Free TON may soon overtake it. This blockchain is just over a year old, and its capabilities exceed those of all other blockchains.

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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 0

Neural networks in reality

Reading time 2 min
Views 858
The mass of news and articles about artificial intelligence creates the illusion that we are living in a fantastic time. But when you start asking everyone what exactly is useful in real life from these high technologies, the answers come down to some Google features, mobile games and a story about Chinese videos. By the way, oh, these Chinese videos — for some reason, they are constantly shown by the central mass media when they demonstrate Moscow's intellectual technologies.

In words, it seems, all the «intellects» are installed already everywhere, the whole country has long been transferred to neural networks, but only in some kind of demonstration pictures, in diagrams, on fingers. There is a mental dissonance — why not take a video camera and shoot at least a fragment of how Russia's super mega technologies work?

As Nikita Sergeevich said, «science ceases to be self-indulgence when its fruits are applied in the national economy.» And today's artificial intelligence is familiar to us only from games. Many people really want to see something useful in reality. Therefore, we were not too lazy and recorded our video of the operation of neural networks from real objects.

Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 0

Research in rejuvenation biotechnology – where are we now?

Reading time 2 min
Views 1.4K


Certainly this event is an example of some of the people in our longevity community coming in and just taking over a little bit of somebody else's conference to talk about longevity… but really exposing the rest of the community to it. I'm finding that at every event I go to, I'd really love to have conference presentations where I get to talk about some interesting thing about the longevity industry, because there are a lot of really interesting things going on.

But every presentation turns out to be «hey, we exist, please notice us — because this is really, really important.» Everything that you guys think that you are doing in medicine is about to be up-ended, because suddenly we're going to be actually able to stop people from getting sick and incapacitated and debilitated in old age. This is happening right now, the first rejuvenation therapies exist. But nobody notices.
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Total votes 7: ↑6 and ↓1 +5
Comments 0

Future economics for physicists

Reading time 7 min
Views 1.7K

Annotation. This article gives an analogy between the forces of nature and various types of money. A justification for the "money conservation laws" is made. Explanation of the IT-money phenomenon by analogy to physics laws is given, as well as gold and currency money. The transition from the gold and currency to the gold-currency-computing economy is considered. A reasonable assumption is made that the fourth type of money after gold, securities and IT money will be so-called "citation indices" or "ratings", which are similar in their properties to stock indices.


What is money?


This article is an attempt to understand what money is from the physics and econophysics points of view. Econophysics (economics and physics) is an interdisciplinary research field, applying theories and methods originally developed by physicists to solve problems in economics, usually those including uncertainty or stochastic processes, nonlinear dynamics and evolutionary games.

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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 0

Tesla Cybertruck copy was spotted in Moscow. This is a customized… Russian LADA Samara

Reading time 2 min
Views 5.3K
image

Hi Habr! Just noticed that this funny article exists only in Russian, so I’ve decided to translate it to English with some light modifications. Please enjoy!

Few days ago Tesla Cybertruck replica has been spotted on the roads of Moscow. The design of the electric pickup presented by Elon Musk can't be confused with anything else.
Total votes 27: ↑24 and ↓3 +21
Comments 1

Finally, rejuvenation is a thing

Reading time 6 min
Views 3.2K

Preface


What is ageing? We can define ageing as a process of accumulation of the damage which is just a side-effect of normal metabolism. While researchers still poorly understand how metabolic processes cause damage accumulation, and how accumulated damage causes pathology, the damage itself – the structural difference between old tissue and young tissue – is categorized and understood pretty well. By repairing damage and restoring the previous undamaged – young – state of an organism, we can really rejuvenate it! It sounds very promising, and so it is. And for some types of damage (for example, for senescent cells) it is already proved to work!

Today in our virtual studio, somewhere between cold, rainy Saint-Petersburg and warm, sunny Mountain View, we meet Aubrey de Grey, again! For those of you who are not familiar with him, here is a brief introduction.
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Total votes 17: ↑14 and ↓3 +11
Comments 8

Info desk: global Internet initiatives

Reading time 6 min
Views 1.3K


Fiber-optic cables are a great way to bring high-speed Internet right to your home or office. But even in large cities not everyone can enjoy the benefits of it, since apartments far away from everyone, or low-population districts far from downtown, are very reluctantly served by ISPs.

And then there’s small towns and villages, far away from the main Internet “highways”. In poorer countries, Internet is often slow and expensive even in large population centers, while villages are often left without a connection for years. To connect them to the World Wide Web takes the resources of not just normal ISPs, but telecom giants. Solar-powered drones with networking equipment, weather balloons, satellites and other similar projects are not just science fiction, but a reality today (or in the near future). But who’s closer to launch and who’s lagging behind? Let’s find out.
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Total votes 7: ↑6 and ↓1 +5
Comments 1

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