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Monday, February 2, 2026
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Interval Training Exercise Might Make You Look Younger

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interval training

A new study focused on showing how high-intensity interval training can help us.

Exercise, exercise, exercise! This is what we hear every day. Although many people know the benefits working out brings to them, they don’t do it. A lot of researchers proved that exercising regularly is the best medicine for us. No matter if we are too tired or we want to lose weight, it is better to work out than to take drugs.

A new study focused on showing how high-intensity interval training can help us. You probably heard about this high-intensity interval training. These workouts involve short bursts of highly intense aerobic activity followed by moderate exercise. This type of interval training is apparently the best for our health.

Interval training is the type of workout that is known for reversing age-related changes. People who practice this training help their cells produce more proteins. After that, the proteins give them more energy. This is the thing that helps people feel and look younger.

In order to see which type of exercise is best for people, researchers analyzed women and men. These people were from 2 age groups. The “young group” was composed of people between 18 and 30. The “older group” had people between 65 and 80.

Researchers put all of the participants in 3 mixed groups.All of the groups contained both young and old, women and men. Each group received a different type of training. The training program took 3 months. The first group did interval training exercises. The second group focused on strength training while the last group combined both.

The team that conducted this study mentioned that they wanted to see to which type of training do people respond better. It was observed that all types of training improve overall fitness. The difference between these training sessions was at the cellular and muscle levels.

Those who did strength training had more defined and bigger muscles. This is also great for older people because they lose their muscle mass as they get older. People who had interval training exercises were the ones that benefited at the cellular level. The study showed that exercise is important and that it helps treat some health conditions and also prevent others.

What is your opinion about this study? Did you try this type of workout?

Image source: Pixnio

Scientists Improve DNA Data Storage

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three DNA strands

Scientists further improve DNA data storage processes.

Data storage is gradually becoming a real problem, as users continue to generate massive quantities that may even outstrip the capabilities of hard drives to capture it. Data centers holding data collected by Facebook and Amazon are already extremely large, but even those are only a short-term solution to a problem getting bigger each day.

However, scientists are trying to discover more innovative ways to store data. One such method involves DNA data storage, which can provide safe long-term storage, or at least as long as humanity is still around. As scientists became increasingly proficient at decoding DNA, they found a way to store data inside it.

Now, two researchers working at the New York Genome Center found a way to expand the capacities of DNA data storage to its theoretical maximum. They used a previous coding scheme meant for noisy communication channels to actually store an entire operating system and several movies into DNA, at an unprecedented density of 215 petabytes per each gram of DNA. This means that the world’s entire data can be stored in one room using this method.

However, the synthesizing and decoding of DNA is not entirely 100 percent accurate, as it eventually leads to some data loss and errors. Therefore, the researchers used Fountain codes, to compensate for the loss of data. The researchers first converted the data into a string of binary information, which was then compressed into a master file and split into shorter strings of binary code.

The code was then packaged into droplets using the Fountain code, which ended up as a digital list of 72,000 DNA strands, each one being 200 bases long. The strands were then sent to Twist Bioscience, the company responsible for synthesizing the data into actual DNA. They were also able to successfully decode the information stored within by using modern technology used in DNA sequencing. The new DNA data storage method worked so well that the decoded information did have any errors.

However, the current problem with DNA storage data is that it costs $7000 to store 2 megabytes of data and $2000 to decode it. While the cost is gradually going to decrease, the synthesizing and decoding processes are quite slow. Nonetheless, DNA data storage may be used for large long-term archives.

Image source: Public Domain Pictures

Mozilla Buys Pocket, a Mobile Bookmarking Tool

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Mozilla features

Mozilla has acquired Pcket, a mobile bookmarking tool.

Mozilla, most commonly known as the developer of the Firefox browser, has recently acquired Pocket, a bookmarking mobile app. Pocket initially started as Firefox extension called Read It Later, which was used to allow users to save online articles so that they can be read offline later.

This is an interesting turn of events for both companies considering their previous history and the fact that this is Mozilla’s first ever acquisition, as it seeks to expand its services to mobile users. A few years ago, the team behind Pocket was gradually expanded in order to develop a suite of new apps for all major mobile platforms. The two services joined forces once more in 2015 when Pocket became the browser’s main bookmarking tool.

After the acquisition deal is finalized, Pocket will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Mozilla as it attempts to establish a foothold on mobile devices, an area with which the company has previously struggled. Mozilla had lost much of its steam in the smartphone era as it was focused on developing its own Firefox OS, which the company recently abandoned and finally decided to release an iOS version of their once-popular browser.

However, the company seems ready and willing to establish a foothold in that market with a different approach. The recent acquisition of the bookmarking tools also comes with the 10 million pre-existing Pocket users, alongside new ad revenue opportunities, a premium service with a subscription model as well as analytic tools for publishers.

Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s chief business and legal officer stated that the two companies share a user-first mentality, which is the main driving force behind their products. More than six years ago, when Pocket was still known as Read It Later, Evernote volunteered to purchase it. However, the deal was rejected as the soon to be Pocket app would become a feature of Evernote and not separate product.

According to Nate Weiner, the CEO of Pocket, the recent acquisition by Mozilla won’t involve an immediate change into their business model or their products. He revealed that Pocket will help Mozilla with the development of its “context graph” project. It consists in a recommendation online engine which can be integrated into a browser.

What do you think about Mozilla’s acquisition of Pocket, the mobile bookmarking tool?

Image source: Mozilla

NASA Prepares Two Future Asteroid Missions

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asteroid in space.

NASA is preparing for two future asteroid missions.

In its endeavor to explore outer space as much as possible in order to better understand the world around us, NASA has announced two new asteroid missions in the coming decade. The mission will involve learning more about asteroid found in Jupiter’s gravity as well as those located in the solar system’s asteroid belt.

The first of the two asteroid missions part of the Discovery Program is titled Lucy and is scheduled to launch in 2021 towards Jupiter. Scientists calculated that it will arrive in its orbit in 2025, where it will begin studying Trojan asteroids trapped in the planet’s gravity. Its mission will last between 2027 and 2033 as it will explore up to six Trojan asteroids in two groups.

One group leads and the other one trails Jupiter in a 12-year circuit around the sun. The Trojan asteroids are of interest to scientists because they are relics of a previous era in the history of our solar system. The Lucy spacecraft is designed to help scientists learn as much as possible from the analysis of six asteroids.

The Lucy spacecraft will be developed by Lockheed Martin, while the overall mission will be managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Maryland.  According to NASA’s statement, the development of the spacecraft will cost around $450 million.

The second mission announced as part of NASA’s Discovery Program will consist in exploring a particular asteroid found in the solar system’s asteroid belt. This specific asteroid known as Psyche garnered the attention of scientists because it is a unique metal asteroid which has never been visited before.

The Psyche mission is scheduled to launch in 2023 and has quite a long way to go considering that the 16 Psyche asteroid is located at three times the distance between Earth and the sun. Furthermore, the asteroid itself is quite large in size, measuring a diameter of 130 miles.

What makes it particularly interesting to scientists is the fact that it mostly comprised of metals such as iron and nickel, unlike other asteroids which have rocky or icy bodies. Scientists are eager to learn if the asteroid is the exposed core of a former planet.

Image source: Wikimedia

CDC Says Flu Vaccine Has 48% Effectiveness This Season

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nurse giving a vaccine to a girl

CDC finds that the flu vaccine is 48 percent effective this season.

The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new report which states that the flu vaccine has only a 48 percent rate of efficiency in combating the flu virus during this season of the disease.

The current flu season, which is still expected to continue for a few more weeks, has been marked by the predominance of the influenza A (H3N2) strain of the virus. Experts initially estimated that the efficiency of the flu vaccine in combating that particular strain of the virus was just 43 percent compared to the 73 percent effectiveness of the vaccine against the influenza B virus strain.  However, the report found that overall protection of the vaccine was rated to be at 48 percent.

The CDC report is based on data collected between November 28 and February 4 from more than 3,100 adults and children who were part of the Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network.  The CDC has routinely used data from this network to estimate the effectiveness of a vaccine during a particular season of the virus.

Previous CDC reports revealed that during the2015-2016 flu season, the flu vaccine was 47 percent effective in combating the virus, while the 2014-2015 season saw a major decline in the effectiveness of the virus, to just 19 percent.

According to the scientists, the low effectiveness rate from two years ago was caused by the predominant state of the H3N2 virus strain, for which that current vaccine was not well suited. Fortunately, researchers were able to correctly anticipate that the same strain will remain predominant during this season, which allowed to develop a vaccine which was better suited to combat the virus.

In a separate but related report, the CDC revealed that the US saw an increase in the activity of the flu virus in the middle of December, and remained high until early February. Researchers expect that that flu season will continue for a few more weeks, but it will begin to drop in activity. The increased activity of the virus led strength to the recommendation of doctors to get vaccinated.

What do you think about the report’s findings? Have you received a flu vaccine this season?

Image source: Free Stock Photos

Human Activity Changes Climate 170 Times Faster than Nature

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Planet Earth

Human activity has 170 times more impact on climate change than nature.

Climate Change is recognized by almost the entire world as a real and dangerous threat, but not many specific details were known regarding how much does human activity does increase the effects of climate change, although it is considered its main cause.

For the first time, scientists were able to develop a mathematical equation which they believe can accurately describe the impact that human activity has on the planet’s climate. Using this equation, the researchers were able to determine that our activity speeds up climate change by a factor of 170 times than the natural process.

The equation used to determine the impact of human activity was published in The Anthropocene Review, and developed by a team of researchers led by Will Steffen, an expert in climate change and a professor at the Australian National University.

Steffen, together with his colleagues and co-researcher, Owen Gaffney, from the Stockholm Resilience Center, developed what they are calling the “Anthropocene Equation” in order to determine the price impact of human activity on climate change. Their work serves as a strong argument against any climate change deniers claiming that the climate changes independent of our activity as a way to downplay any responsibility we have to address the issue.

In their study, the researchers note that while for the overwhelming part of our planet’s history, approximately 4.5 billion years, astronomical and various geophysical factors had the most influence on Earth. However, just in the past six decades, human activity led increasingly rapid change in climate leading to the period known as the Anthropocene. Human activity now rivals and even supersedes some of the forces of nature in shaping in the planet.

According to the scientists, the equation was developed by obtaining a clear picture of the rate of changes in the life-support system of the planet which includes aspects like the overall atmosphere, oceans, wetlands, forests, ice sheets, as well as the diversity of life. In their equation, scientists believe that current geophysical and astronomical forces tend to be zero due to their slow nature or incredible rarity, which have less impact than the overall human activity.

What do you think about the study’s findings?

Image source: Wikipedia

Google DeepMind AI Agents Faced Off In A Competition

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ai agents

Google DeepMind researchers studied two competing AI agents to see how they would react to “social dilemmas”.

Google DeepMind researchers have been studying an ages-old problem. The behavior of two competing entities. Only they have taken the issue one step further. And had two AI agents face each other. Their purpose? To see how they would react.

The field of artificial intelligence has been marking a progress. The area has greatly evolved in recent years. And as it is, most expect artificial intelligence or AI to become a common occurrence.

AI computer agents or simply AI agents are given their own task. They could come help manage day-to-day systems. For example, the traffic light succession. Or they may be used for more complex procedures.

But what could happen if their tasks conflict with another AI’s? What would be their reactions? That is what they Google DeepMind researchers set out to determine.

Research results were revealed earlier this week. They were published on February 09. And the research paper was titled as follows. “Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning in Sequential Social Dilemmas”. Google DeepMind researchers also offered additional details in a blog post. This was released on the official project page.

The research team decided to test out the following. They sought to analyze the reaction of the two AI agents in a “social dilemma”. A series of such events was used.

A “social dilemma” is a generic term. It is used in situations in which an individual can profit if they are selfish. Or when both parties loose if they are being selfish.

Google’s DeepMind tests were somewhat more simple than that. They placed the AI agents in quite basic video games. Gathering and Wolfpack were used. According to the releases, the study results were interesting. But perhaps not surprising.

Just like humans, the AI agents had a context-dependent behavior. They were seen to be more antagonistic or cooperative. And all in accordance with the situation.

In Gathering, for example, they played along nicely. But only whilst the apple stocks were high. As they started dwindling, the AI agents started zapping one another. And research also noted the following. A “cleverer” AI was also introduced in the game. And this latter decided that zapping was the way to go from the very beginning.

In contrast, Wolfpack revealed a different result. The cleverer the AI, the more it collaborated with the others. This is because learning to work together needs more computational power. But it will also help track and also herd the game prey.

The computational requirements could also theoretically explain the more aggressive behavior. Zapping is considered a more challenging task. Especially when compared to apple gathering. And the zapping actions also take up more power, when compared to the other.

As such, what were the study results? As in life, it all depends on the context. And most importantly, on the rules. The AI agents based their behavior on the rules they were offered. For Gathering, the zapping rules offered a higher reward. As such, the AI chose this path.

In contrast, in Wolfpack, the rules were more rewarding when they are collaborating. As such, the AI agents chose to work together. The bottom line for following studies?

Scientists will be faced with a future challenge. They will have to make sure that the AI agents know the rules. And also that these are the right ones.

Google’s DeepMind team stated as follows in their blog post. This research could help them better understand multi-agent AI systems. And also determine how to better control them. As it is, most such systems will depend on a continuous cooperation.

More details on both the study and the games involved can be found in the official Google DeepMind blog post. The research paper can also be found in the same location.

Image Source: Pixabay

Madagascar Gecko Species Sheds Its Scales to Evade Predators

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gecko shedding scales

A new gecko species shed its scale to evade predators.

Most animals use some sort of natural camouflage to avoid predators, thanks to the characteristics of their skin or fur. However, a new gecko species from Madagascar has a unique way of escaping its predators by shedding its scales.

The newly discovered Madagascar gecko species, called Geckolepis, is the first new species to be discovered in the last 75 years. The lizards have large scale similar to those of fish. However, what makes them fascinating is the ability to shed them when they come in contact with high levels of friction such as a predator’s mouth or even a scientist’s hand.

By removing its scales, the new gecko species basically becomes naked and remains so for a few weeks until they regenerate. The scientific community was aware of the existence of such gecko species for around 150 years. However, they have proven quite difficult to study. Nonetheless, the researchers persevered and were able to study them in detail and the mechanism that triggers the shedding of their scales.

The official name of gecko species, Geckolepis megalepis, revealed in a study published in the journal PeerJ, on Tuesday. This species of gecko has the largest scales among its other members of the genus.  According to the lead author of the study, Mark Scherz, a herpetology researchers from Germany, the gecko is able to escape from predators more easily due to the size of its scales. Gecko species with smaller scales have a much harder time evading predators.

Despite the excitement of the discovery of a new species of gecko, the animals are only threatened by the increased human activity on the island, which has led to major deforestation. The geckos live in small and fragmented regions on the island, and their survival depends on the preservation of its environment.

For their study, the researchers were able to capture three gecko specimens in the northern region of Madagascar known as the Ankarana Reserve. They were able to classify as an entirely new species after an extensive analysis of its size, shape, scales distribution, and other distinguishing features of its skeleton. They also discovered that regenerating the lost scales, comes at a high metabolic cost for the gecko.

Image source: Frank Glaw

New Balance RunIQ Smartwatch Is Now Available

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RunIQ Smartwatch

New Balance RunIQ smartwatch is now available on online retailers.

Despite the claims of analysts that the smartwatch market is in decline, established companies, as well as less-known firms, continue to unveil new devices each year. Among these is New Balance, which has announced that its new RunIQ smartwatch is now available.

The smartwatch was first announced at the Consumers Electronics Show 2017 which gained a moderate amount of attention from consumers despite the countless number of similar devices. This was mainly due to its tag, claiming that the smartwatch is made by runners for runners.

The RunIQ fitness smartwatch, for those who want more functionality than that of a fitness tracker, was developed by New Balance in collaboration with a number of other companies like Intel, Strava, and Google, which garnered the interest of many users, curious about what the device can bring to the table.

The RunIQ does not disappoint if you are mainly going to use the smartwatch for its fitness functions as it includes everything that a runner might need during a training or just a casual run. The device comes with a heart-rate sensor, built-in GPS, as well as an interval function. For those interested in more advanced functions, you should know that the smartwatch also includes several trackers for pace, distance, and course.

The RunIQ has a water-resistant body, in which you can find an Intel Atom Z34XX CPU, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality similar to all other smartwatches. The design of the watch is also sports oriented, as it features a strap which allows your skin to breathe and sweat thanks to the gaps inside it. However, the watch can still be worn throughout the day casually, not only during exercises.

New Balance included three physical buttons on the side of the device. One button opens the RunIQ app, the second one is used as the home button, while the last one can be used for various functions like music control or lap change.

The watch will run at first on Android Wear 1.5, but it will very likely be upgraded to Android Wear 2.0 once the OS will be released.  The watch costs $299 and it’s currently only available on the New Balance website.

What do you think about the new RunIQ smartwatch?

Image credit: New Balance

Brain-Stimulating Activities Help Older People Stay Sharp

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brain-stimulating activities

Brain-stimulating activities are the ones that can help seniors defeat the aging process.

Our brain needs to be stimulated every day if we want to decline the aging process. Although it might seem easy when you are young, the older you get the harder it is to keep your mind sharp. Brain-stimulating activities are the ones that can help seniors defeat the aging process.

A new study showed that older people who engage in brain-stimulating activities like using the computers are less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment in more than 4 years. Mild cognitive impairment is a medical condition that it is developed at an older age. People who develop MCI experience a decline in thinking skills and memory.

Despite the fact that they suffer from memory loss or decline of thinking skills, people who developed MCI are able to so their activities. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic mentioned that it is important to engage in brain-stimulating activities even when we are older because it helps us decline the risk of developing MCI.

There are many studies which focused on this topic but none of these studies followed the patients in the long run. This research was a long one that analyzed older people for a longer period of time. This way it is easier for researchers to see if these brain-stimulating activities have an effect on reducing the risk of MCI.

In order to conduct this study, researchers analyzed more than 2,000 elderly people. These people were from Minnesota and they had an average age of 77. Before starting the study the researchers tested all the participants to see if they have any cognitive problems. After that, the researchers made the same tests every 15 months.

Due to the fact that they repeated the same tests, it was easier for the researchers to see what changed in that period of time. The findings showed that the participants who engaged in a brain-stimulating activity at least once a week were 30% less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment during this study.

The researchers were not able to find out the reason for which these activities help seniors reduce the risk of MCI. This is why they mentioned that they are going to make more studies focusing on this topic.

What is your opinion about this study? Do you think that brain-stimulating activities can reduce the risk of MCI?

Image source: Pixabay

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