A breakdown of high-profile news stories you may have missed during the week.

Participants serving in the annual Central Asian outreach experience God in new ways when they leave their comfort zones.

NEW CASTLE (Nov. 4, 2022) – The Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, in collaboration with the Lt. Governor’s Office and the Delaware Art Museum, is seeking personal stories and photos from Delaware families who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses. The submissions will be used to create an emotional and educational exhibition […]

This blog describes an efficient way to name the histories saved by the simulation runs in Virtuoso ADE Assembler.(read more)

The world was in turmoil in 2023, rife with stomach-churning news, with the international and U.S. press primarily focused on the same news stories. It seems that the world has never been more interconnected.

Genetic analysis of five individuals preserved as plaster casts in the ruins of Pompeii contradicts established beliefs about the people and their relationships

Genetic analysis of five individuals preserved as plaster casts in the ruins of Pompeii contradicts established beliefs about the people and their relationships

Missing or inaccessible lung function measurements, gathered over time, have the potential to stagnate or impair clinical care decisions being made. This jeopardises patient safety and often contributes to excessive resource utilisation. Data integration is fundamental to clinical decision-making and entails amalgamating lung function data from multiple sources in a user-friendly format. Despite this, current systems for recording lung function data are suboptimal, with copious gaps in the clinical picture arising from missing or inaccessible lung function measurements. This article discusses the importance of data integration for lung function, with a call to action for key stakeholders involved in the performance, management and interpretation of such tests.

In the spirit of the Halloween season, IEEE Spectrum presents a pair of stories that—although grounded in scientific truth rather than the macabre—were no less harrowing for those who lived them. In today’s installment, Robert Langer had to push back against his field’s conventional wisdom to pioneer a drug-delivery mechanism vital to modern medicine.

Nicknamed the Edison of Medicine, Robert Langer is one of the world’s most-cited researchers, with over 1,600 published papers, 1,400 patents, and a top-dog role as one of MIT’s nine prestigious Institute Professors. Langer pioneered the now-ubiquitous drug delivery systems used in modern cancer treatments and vaccines, indirectly saving countless lives throughout his 50-year career.

But, much like Edison and other inventors, Langer’s big ideas were initially met with skepticism from the scientific establishment.

He came up in the 1970s as a chemical engineering postdoc working in the lab of Dr. Judah Folkman, a pediatric surgeon at the Boston Children’s Hospital. Langer was tasked with solving what many believed was an impossible problem—isolating angiogenesis inhibitors to halt cancer growth. Folkman’s vision of stopping tumors from forming their own self-sustaining blood vessels was compelling enough, but few believed it possible.

Langer encountered both practical and social challenges before his first breakthrough. One day, a lab technician accidentally spilled six months’ worth of samples onto the floor, forcing him to repeat the painstaking process of dialyzing extracts. Those months of additional work steered Langer’s development of novel microspheres that could deliver large molecules of medicine directly to tumors.

In the 1970s, Langer developed these tiny microspheres to release large molecules through solid materials, a groundbreaking proof-of-concept for drug delivery.Robert Langer

Langer then submitted the discovery to prestigious journals and was invited to speak at a conference in Michigan in 1976. He practiced the 20-minute presentation for weeks, hoping for positive feedback from respected materials scientists. But when he stepped off the podium, a group approached him and said bluntly, “We don’t believe anything you just said.” They insisted that macromolecules were simply too large to pass through solid materials, and his choice of organic solvents would destroy many inputs. Conventional wisdom said so.

Nature published Langer’s paper three months later, demonstrating for the first time that non-inflammatory polymers could enable the sustained release of proteins and other macromolecules. The same year, Science published his isolation mechanism to restrict tumor growth.

Langer and Folkman’s research paved the way for modern drug delivery.MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital

Even with impressive publications, Langer still struggled to secure funding for his work in controlling macromolecule delivery, isolating the first angiogenesis inhibitors, and testing their behavior. His first two grant proposals were rejected on the same day, a devastating blow for a young academic. The reviewers doubted his experience as “just an engineer” who knew nothing about cancer or biology. One colleague tried to cheer him up, saying, “It’s probably good those grants were rejected early in your career. Since you’re not supporting any graduate students, you don’t have to let anyone go.” Langer thought the colleague was probably right, but the rejections still stung.

His patent applications, filed alongside Folkman at the Boston Children’s Hospital, were rejected five years in a row. After all, it’s difficult to prove you’ve got something good if you’re the only one doing it. Langer remembers feeling disappointed but not crushed entirely. Eventually, other scientists cited his findings and expanded upon them, giving Langer and Folkman the validation needed for intellectual property development. As of this writing, the pair’s two studies from 1976 have been cited nearly 2,000 times.

As the head of MIT’s Langer Lab, he often shares these same stories of rejection with early-career students and researchers. He leads a team of over 100 undergrads, grad students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists, all finding new ways to deliver genetically engineered proteins, DNA, and RNA, among other research areas. Langer’s reputation is further bolstered by the many successful companies he co-founded or advised, like mRNA leader Moderna, which rose to prominence after developing its widely used COVID-19 vaccine.

Langer sometimes thinks back to those early days—the shattered samples, the cold rejections, and the criticism from senior scientists. He maintains that “Conventional wisdom isn’t always correct, and it’s important to never give up—(almost) regardless of what others say.”

Associates at VPI share their stories in honor of National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. Find out how you can help #CurePetCancer, visit www.CurePetCancer.com

Genetic analysis of five individuals preserved as plaster casts in the ruins of Pompeii contradicts established beliefs about the people and their relationships

I just got a very nice compliment on Twitter for my origin stories. Compliments are nice, of course. To semi-quote Twain, we do like compliments. All of us do. Novelists, burglars, congressmen, all of us in the trade. But it also got me thinking about why most origin stories are so terrible, and what to … Continue reading Origin Stories

h2From Character Flaws to Neurodivergence: Jia Sung's Journey to ADHD Diagnosis/h2 As a child, Jia Sung faced challenges in school. Her report cards

Today, directors and producers are not willing to risk shooting a film with a fresh story; instead they are relying on the already successful or best-selling novels to base their movie on.

Instagram is enhancing the way users can share and interact with Stories by introducing a new set of interactive sticker options. Recognized as a dynamic platform for content sharing, Instagram Stories allows the blending of text, images, and videos to craft engaging

प्लेटफॉर्म- नेटफ्लिक्स 'लस्ट स्टोरीज 2' एक एंथोलॉजी यानि की संकलन है, जहां 4 कहानियां हमें 'लस्ट' यानि की वासना के अलग अलग रूप को दिखाती है। ये कहानियां अलग-अलग किरदारों को दिखाती है, जिसके अलग-अलग अनुभव और अलग

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2017]

Oakland, CA : AK Press ; [Albany, NY] : Institute for Anarchist Studies, [2015]

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2021]

[s.l.] : The White Horse Press, 2023.

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2020]

American translator Daisy Rockwell on introducing Usha Priyamvada’s ‘Fifty-Five Pillars, Red Walls’ — a novel that had fell by the wayside — to a new generation of readers in English

Keeping it short and so sweet at the 90th Annual Academy Awards.

Tucked into a new boutique hotel, Amaraanth, The Lab is Goa’s latest cocktail address. Try red amaraanth, a local curry and sarsaparilla in cocktails with meaningful backstories that spotlight the local culture

LaRochelle, David, author

Hinds, Gareth, 1971- author, illustrator

These people could inspire you to take up a hobby or learn a skill this New Year, no matter how old you are

The odyssey of Dakshina Murthy Krishna Kumar and Choondarathna on their scooter has gone viral on social media

Check out yours truly on an episode of Atlas Systems’ Transformation Stories. A hands-on leader and change-maker with 20 years of experience, Rob Larsen remains at the forefront of software-led innovation – in financial services and the larger enterprise world. In this all-new conversation with Atlas Systems, Larsen offers insights into finding the right pace […]

Edmonton, Alberta : Brush Education Inc., [2023]

Toronto : Canadian Scholars, 2024.

London : The Folio Society, 1986

[France] : Memento Films, [2016]

[Hong Kong] : Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Hong Kong : Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, [1999]

Hong Kong : The Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, [1999]

Actor Anushka Shetty talks about her new Telugu film ‘Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty’, signing her first Malayalam film ‘Kathanar’ and why she felt the need to pause and reboot

Moving away from folktale retellings and mythology, the duo shows children navigating mundane everyday issues

We're talking CSS-in-JS, Token CSS, Matuzo being suspended from Twitter, trying out Mastodon, testing out stable diffusion, stories on the web, and Jake Albaugh's new social network.

Writer Balakumaran talks to Suganthy Krishnamachari about the diverse subjects of his novels and the joy in capturing human emotions.

Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.

Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.

Konkona Sen Sharma's short Mirror in Lust Stories 2 is a rare thing: A feminist film that is also very, very funny, states Sreehari Nair.

Archana Mohan on her upcoming book A Sad-Happy School Day, fostering inclusivity in classrooms and Bookosmia, a publishing platform for young people and a children-led movement to embrace neurodiversity

London : G. Routledge & Co., Farringdon Street., 1853 (London : Savill & Edwards, Printers, 4, Chandos-street, Covent Garden)

Avid watch collectors gather in Chennai to revel in the mechanics that determines the minutes and seconds of each day. Meet the Madras Watch Collectors Group