Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Portable air cleaners aimed at curbing indoor spread of infections are rarely tested for how well they protect people – and very few studies evaluate their potentially harmful effects. That’s the upshot of a detailed review of nearly 700 studies that we co-authored in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.Many respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19 and influenza, can spread through indoor air. Technologies such as HEPA filters, ultraviolet light and special ventilation designs – collectively known as engineering infection controls – are intended to clean indoor air and prevent viruses and other disease-causing pathogens from spreading.Along with our colleagues across…

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR in 2026 will race on a new street course in San Diego, return Chicagoland Speedway to the schedule, move the All-Star race to Dover, Delaware, and end its 38-race season back at Homestead-Miami Speedway.The schedule released Wednesday includes two off weekends on a calendar that stretches from February to November. It begins with the exhibition Clash on Feb. 1 at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for the second consecutive year, with the season-opening Daytona 500 to follow on Feb. 15.The season ends Nov. 8 in Florida at Homestead, which hosted the championship-deciding finale for 18 consecutive…

Texas cannot require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge said Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new requirement, making it the third such state law to be blocked by a court.A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders sought a preliminary injunction against the law, which goes into effect on Sept. 1. They say the requirement violates the First Amendment’s protections for the separation of church and state and the right to free religious exercise. Texas is the largest state to attempt such a requirement, and U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s ruling…

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The paint is finally dry on Plaster Stadium. The new turf has been laid, with its maroon end zones, the Missouri State logo across midfield and “C-USA” emblazoned at the 25-yard lines. All the technological upgrades are completed, ready for the Bears to play their home opener against SMU in less than a month.These are the tangible signposts ushering in a new era for the school’s football program.There are more, less obvious ones that are accompanying Missouri State’s move from the Football Championship Subdivision to the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision, one that comes during perhaps the…

A survey of doctors released Wednesday showed how pervasive medical falsehoods have become — not only online, but also within the walls of medical exam rooms where doctors and patients talk.The survey from the Physicians Foundation, a nonprofit research group, found that 61% of doctors said they encountered patients influenced by misinformation or disinformation a moderate amount or a great deal of the time over the past year.An overwhelming majority of physicians, 86%, said the incidence of such falsehoods among patients had increased over the past five years, a period that includes most of the Covid pandemic, with 50% saying…

A new wave of flippable and foldable phones is shaking up the US smartphone market, long dominated by Apple’s iPhone.The iPhone remains king, but flip phones are spurring innovation and gaining momentum with consumers.”There is quite a bit of buzz around this,” Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee told Business Insider. Still, he said foldables remain niche, representing 1% to 2% of the smartphone market.Companies including Samsung, Motorola, and Google have ventured into foldable or flippable smartphones — Samsung with the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, Motorola with its Razr flip phones, and Google with its Pixel Fold models.In July,…

No, AI doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn to code, at least according to one OpenAI researcher.Szymon Sidor recently sounded off on why, even in a world with ChatGPT, Cursor, and other AI tools, it’s still good for current high school students to learn basic coding.”You should absolutely learn to code,” Sidor said during episode of the company’s podcast from August. “One skill that is at a premium and will continue to be at a premium is having really structured intellect that can break down complicated problems into pieces.”Sidor, who has worked at OpenAI for over eight years, said…

Being overweight or obese has long been linked to a greater risk of developing or dying from breast cancer. New research suggests a reason: Certain breast cancer tumors may feed on neighboring fat cells.The findings may help scientists find ways to treat triple-negative breast cancer, which is notoriously aggressive and has lower survival rates. Moreover, the results may apply to any cancer that uses fat as an energy source, according to the report, published Wednesday in Nature Communications.Triple-negative accounts for about 15% of all breast cancers. It tends to be more common in Black women and women under 40 and…

The clock is ticking until Cadillac joins the Formula 1 grid. Literally.“On the wall of every office that we have is a countdown clock,” team principal Graeme Lowdon told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It’s counting down to two things.”One is the first “fire-up” of the car with its engine, and then the other is free practice at Cadillac’s first official F1 session in Melbourne, Australia in March next year.It will be the start of a new mission for General Motors, and the end of a process to join F1 which included years of negotiations, a change of…

By Charlie Devereux and Michael Francis GoreMADRID (Reuters) -As Madrid sweltered at the peak of one of Spain’s longest-ever heatwaves, the temperature on a street in one of its poorest neighbourhoods – Puente de Vallecas – measured 41.4 degrees Celsius (106.5 Fahrenheit) by early afternoon.A few hundred metres down the street it was 38.6 C.The difference? One section of the street was treeless while the other was shaded by a row of leafy mulberries.According to scientific studies, trees can play a key role in mitigating the often-deadly effects of heatwaves and as temperatures in Spain rise as a result of…