A recent study in Ecuador has revealed that the spread of dengue fever is not limited to urban areas, as previously thought. In fact, the disease is spreading rapidly in rural areas with high population density, where access to government services and amenities is limited. This misunderstanding of what constitutes an urban or rural area…
health on The Soothsayer / page 12
A team of researchers from Seoul National University, Stanford University, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology has made a groundbreaking discovery in camera technology. They have developed a metasurface-based folded lens system that enables unprecedented manipulation of light, paving the way for the creation of slimline cameras for use in smartphones and augmented/virtual…
A newly identified breakdown product of chlorine-based water treatments, chloronitramide, has been found in tap water systems across the United States. The substance, which is electrically charged and potentially toxic, has been detected in 40 samples from 10 water treatment systems, with concentrations exceeding the threshold allowed for other harmful breakdown products. While the health…
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. The chatbot has become an essential tool for businesses, with over 92% of Fortune 500 companies using it. However, OpenAI is facing internal drama, including the exit of co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and a lawsuit from…
Anthropic, a leading AI startup, has secured an additional $4 billion from Amazon, solidifying their partnership and cementing Amazon’s position as a minority investor. The deal requires Anthropic to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division. This strategic move is expected to accelerate the development of…
Researchers from China and Spain have developed a nanoflake-based breath sensor that can detect lung cancer with unprecedented accuracy. The sensor, made from platinum-loaded nanoflakes, can detect isoprene levels in exhaled breath, a biomarker for lung cancer. The device has shown promising results in clinical trials, distinguishing between healthy individuals and lung cancer patients with…
Researchers warn that generative AI models, trained on their own synthetic content, may collapse and produce nonsensical responses. This could exacerbate bias and lead to a loss of nuance in AI-generated text. Experts suggest that using a combination of human-generated and AI-generated data for training can help prevent this collapse. Forecast for 6 months: In…
A team of researchers from the USA and Cameroon has developed a non-invasive device that can detect malaria without requiring a single drop of blood. The device, called Cytophone, uses photoacoustic flow cytometry to rapidly identify malaria-infected red blood cells. Initial testing in 30 Cameroonian adults diagnosed with uncomplicated malaria showed promising results, with 95%…
Researchers in South Africa have updated the country’s health-research ethics guidelines to include a new section on heritable human genome editing, a technique that involves introducing genetic changes to sperm, eggs, or embryos, which will be passed down through successive generations. This move has sparked concerns globally, as it could put South Africa one step…
A UK-based health technology start-up, Siloton, has made a significant breakthrough in the development of a portable optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. This innovative technology uses photonic integrated circuits to miniaturize expensive and fragile optical components, making it possible to capture high-quality images of the human retina. The system has the potential to revolutionize the…