On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke at a company investor day focused on autonomy, relaying news that Tesla had switched to a self-driving computer designed by in-house engineers and dropping some big promises about what, exactly, the future of its Autopilot feature and autonomous driving will look like. And boy, it’s a doozy. This being Musk, who is well-known for sensationalism and spectacle—and with the New York Times reporting that Tesla is expected to announce a first-quarter loss this Wednesday when it is already burning through billions, giving the event curious timing—there’s a lot to unpack. Advertisement Here’s some of the stuff that Musk said on Monday, ranked using our proprietary “How many Elons out of five Elons” system. The new Tesla micro-chip is “the best chip in the world... objectively” During the event, Musk showed off Tesla’s new “full self-driving computer” or FSD Computer, which … [Read more...] about Stuff Elon Musk Said About Tesla Autonomous Cars on Monday, Ranked
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Investigation Into 170 U.S. Stem Cell Clinics Finds Some Scary Trends
Medical clinics that provide largely unregulated stem cell treatments are popping up all over the U.S. But a new study out Thursday suggests that these clinics aren’t all the same, and some might be more likely to give patients unsafe or useless treatments than others. Previous studies have broadly tried to gauge what the direct-to-consumer stem cell industry looks like in the U.S. and Canada. These clinics claim that conditions such as lower back pain or sports injuries can be treated through the transplantation of stem cells, the building blocks of our body that mature into various types of cells. By using these cells, the theory goes, you can regenerate parts of the body that might not heal otherwise, or at least speed up the healing process. Advertisement The authors behind this new study, all based at Arizona State University (ASU), decided to focus on a smaller slice of stem cell clinics closer to home. They looked at the online marketing of nearly 170 stem cell clinics … [Read more...] about Investigation Into 170 U.S. Stem Cell Clinics Finds Some Scary Trends
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Consults ‘Fat Flush’ Diet Quack About ‘Cell Phone Toxicity’
Goop published an interview about “protecting yourself from wifi & cellphone toxicity” today with a nutritionist whose genre of “detoxification” diet advice has been called “tantamount to fraud” by an actual doctor. Nutritionist Ann Louise Gittlemen is basically your mom’s version of Food Babe—a fearmongering opportunist who uses buzzwords like “organic” to freak people out about modernity. She’s most famous for her utterly unhealthy detox plan, the Fat Flush Cleanse. But she has expanded into a new genre of terrible advice. Advertisement Here is a sampling of some of the very wrong things Gittlemen says, published by Goop: The bad news, unfortunately, is that cell phone radiation has been associated with many types of cancer, the best known being brain tumors. The longer the hours of use, and years of use, the greater the risk. This is not true. Linking cell phone radiation with cancer is a great way to … [Read more...] about Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Consults ‘Fat Flush’ Diet Quack About ‘Cell Phone Toxicity’
Scientists Create Fully Functional Eggs from Skin Cells
Using skin cells extracted from mice, researchers in Japan have produced fully functional egg cells that were used to produce healthy mouse pups. Should the method work in humans, it could introduce powerful new ways of treating infertility—and even allow same-sex couples to produce biological offspring. This is the first time ever that scientists have produced functional mammalian eggs entirely within the confines of a petri dish. In a new study published in Nature Research, Katsuhiko Hayashi and colleagues from Kyushu University in Japan describe a new technique in which viable “artificial eggs” can be generated with stem cells, and then fertilized to produce healthy and fertile mouse pups. It’s also the first time that eggs have been produced entirely outside of a mouse. Advertisement Egg cells are the only type of cell in the body capable of dividing and producing all of the distinct and highly specialized cells in an organism. Scientists have tried to … [Read more...] about Scientists Create Fully Functional Eggs from Skin Cells
‘Immortalized’ Stem Cells Could Be the Key to Mass-Produced Artificial Blood
The need for more blood donations is a seemingly never-ending problem. Between interruptions to the donation process, fear of needles, rare blood types, and a general lack of awareness, life-saving blood supplies are difficult to keep stocked. But a team of researchers has found a way to manufacture artificial blood that could make a major impact on millions. Advertisement Scientists working at the University of Bristol and NHS Blood and Transplant recently published their research in the journal Nature. They’ve shown that a virtually unlimited blood supply can be achieved through a process of “immortalizing” stem cells at an early stage. Previously, researchers have been able to synthesize blood by isolating a type of stem cell that manufactures red blood cells and manipulating it to do its work in a lab. Unfortunately, the stem cells tend to become exhausted when they’ve produced around 50,000 red blood cells. An average bag of blood contains about a … [Read more...] about ‘Immortalized’ Stem Cells Could Be the Key to Mass-Produced Artificial Blood