Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Eight children in the U.K. have been spared from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person in vitro fertilization technique, scientists from Newcastle University reported on Wednesday.The technique, which is banned in the U.S., transfers pieces from inside the mother’s fertilized egg – its nucleus, plus the nucleus of the father’s sperm – into a healthy egg provided by an anonymous donor.The procedure prevents the transfer of mutated genes from inside the mother’s mitochondria – the cells’ energy factories – that could cause incurable and potentially fatal disorders.Mutations in mitochondrial DNA can affect multiple organs, particularly those that require…

Acute lymphocytic leukemia is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in children, although it is rare. It begins in the bone marrow and rapidly progresses.Long-term survival rates exceed 90%, but many survivors face lifelong health challenges. Those include heart conditions, mental health struggles and a greater chance of developing a second cancer.Overall cancer rates in the U.S. have declined since 2002, but childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia rates continue to rise. This trend underscores the need for prevention rather than focusing only on treatment for this disease.A growing body of literature suggests exposure to the types of chemicals emitted from…

Fast-growing Swedish AI vibe coding startup Lovable has become Europe’s latest unicorn. Only eight months since its launch, the startup has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. Like Cursor and other platforms that help developers write code and build apps by harnessing the coding and reasoning abilities of large language models, Stockholm-based Lovable helps people use natural language to create websites and apps. The startup’s trajectory so far has charted straight towards the sky, with the company claiming it now has more than 2.3 million active users. Those users are using…

MONACO (AP) — Women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich was provisionally suspended for a positive doping test on Thursday.Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said Chepngetich tested positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent in March and “opted for a voluntary provisional suspension while the AIU’s investigation was ongoing.”The Kenyan runner set the world record by almost two minutes at the Chicago Marathon last October in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds. It was her third win in Chicago.She also won the marathon at the 2019 world championships in Qatar, where the women’s race started at midnight to avoid…

It is the world’s most popular sport and yet there is still debate over what it should actually be called.Is it football or soccer?U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the topic while at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last Sunday. He joked that he could pass an executive order to bring the United States in line with much of the rest of the world and ensure that from now on Americans refer to it as football.“I think I could do that,” he said with a smile during an interview with host broadcaster DAZN.It was a light-hearted comment,…

I have to admit: When I was assigned to write my first story about the blockbuster weight loss drug Ozempic in 2023, I groaned. Yes, weight loss drugs always generate feverish interest, but historically, they’ve both fed on and fueled an unhealthy cultural obsession with thinness and have inevitably become tabloid fodder. So many weight loss medications of yore have also turned out to have truly scary side effects. So I was skeptical, to say the least.Two years and dozens of interviews and articles later, I must say: I had it completely wrong. These medications have changed people’s lives in…

At Robinhood, nearly all of the engineers are vibe coders.That’s according to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who said on the 20VC podcast that the company’s human-written code was hard to distinguish from AI-generated code. Among the company’s engineers, “close to 100%” are using AI code editors, he said.When asked what percentage of Robinhood’s new code is AI-generated, Tenev said that it was around 50%. That’s a higher percentage than what Microsoft and Google have previously said, with CEOs Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai estimating around 30%.Tenev acknowledged that the 50% metric was imprecise, thanks to the upgrowth of “agentic” code…

As gig workers’ incomes have dropped, some Uber and Lyft drivers are turning to apps like GigU, Maxymo, and Mystro to help them work smarter — and dodge the lowest-paying rides.”They weed out the garbage offers that they’re sending you,” said Sergio Avedian, a driver and senior contributor to the Rideshare Guy, a gig driver advocacy blog and YouTube channel. “The cherry-pickers always make more money.”Some of the apps have recently encountered roadblocks in the form of rideshare giants Uber and Lyft, which argue that using the third-party apps runs afoul of their terms of service.Doug Feigelson, the CEO of…

31-year-old venture capitalist Sam Awrabi has raised $10 million to exclusively invest in AI startups, calling the technology “the dominant force of our lifetime.”AI advancements will be “bigger than both mobile and web combined,” Awrabi said, in part because “the average person’s productivity will be increased 50% to 75% in the coming years.”Awrabi’s AI Fund I will operate within his VC firm, Banyan Ventures, named for the tree whose prop roots enable it to spread. The fund specializes in AI infrastructure and software startups that have had the technology at their core since inception.On the infrastructure front, Awrabi said startups…

A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations.I call these transactions “acquihires on steroids,” and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you’re a Big Tech company, you can’t do big acquisitions as easily anymore because of antitrust scrutiny. So, instead, you pay handsomely to hire the top talent and license the technology, leaving the remaining business and employees to soldier on alone.Crucially, Big Tech is not technically acquiring these startups, so the deals are not subject to…