Scheifele scores as the Jets beat the Blackhawks 4-2 in Sorensen's first game
Adele became emotional as she told her fans she will miss them “terribly” during her final Las Vegas residency show. The British singer-songwriter, 36, launched Weekends With Adele at Caesars Palace in November 2022 and performed her 100th show on Saturday. Her run of sell-out shows at the venue, which seats around 4,000 people, has been a success but has also taken its toll. In July, she announced she would be taking a “big break” from music after her current run of shows. Videos posted online from her concert on Saturday show the singer getting tearful as she bid farewell to Vegas. “It’s been wonderful and I will miss it terribly and I will miss you terribly”, she said. “I don’t know when I next want to perform again.” She also said she got “closure” when Canadian singer Celine Dion came to watch her perform, admitting that she cried for a “whole week” afterwards. “It was just such a full circle moment for me because that’s the only reason I ever even wanted to be in here”, she added. Adele shared an emotional embrace with Dion after she spotted the singer in the audience during her Las Vegas show last month. In footage shared online, the British star can be seen breaking down in tears as they hug in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which was built for Dion’s residency. The Rolling In The Deep singer has been vocal about her love for Dion over the years, hailing her as “Queen Celine” after attending one of her performances in an Instagram post in 2018. Dion reciprocated the love at the time, sharing a photo to social media of her posing alongside Adele, who was wearing the singer’s merchandise. She wrote: “Wasn’t able to do all my shows, but was thrilled that @Adele came to one of them.... I love her so much!! – Celine xx”. After their encounter at the venue, Adele said in an Instagram post: “Words will never sum up what you mean to me, or what you coming to my show means, let alone how it felt seeing you back in your palace with your beautiful family.”Scheifele scores as the Jets beat the Blackhawks 4-2 in Sorensen's first game
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Darren Rizzi would be an unconventional choice to take over the New Orleans Saints' head coaching job on a permanent basis. That doesn't mean it can't happen. The Saints (4-7) had been on a seven-game skid when Rizzi, the club's special teams coordinator, was promoted. They've since won two straight, and as the club entered its Week 12 bye, prominent players were already discussing their desire to continue improving Rizzi's resume. “He’s definitely had an impact on our football team,” quarterback Derek Carr said after New Orleans' 35-14 victory over Cleveland last weekend. “We want to keep winning so that maybe he gets a chance to be the coach here for a long time. “That’s what we want as players,” Carr continued. "Hopefully, we can continue to have success, keep winning and give him that opportunity.” Before the Saints' demoralizing defeat at Carolina precipitated the firing of third-year coach Dennis Allen , Rizzi had never been a head coach at the NFL or major college level. The north New Jersey native and former Rhode Island tight end got his first head coaching job at Division II New Haven in 1999. He also coached his alma mater in 2008 before moving to the NFL with Miami in 2009 as a special teams assistant. By 2010, he was the Dolphins' special teams coordinator and added the title of associate head coach in 2017 before ex-Saints coach Sean Payton lured him to New Orleans in 2019. A common thread shared by Payton and Rizzi is that both worked under Bill Parcells. Parcells — known best for winning two Super Bowls as coach of the New York Giants — was coaching the Dallas Cowboys when Payton was his offensive coordinator. Rizzi, who grew up a Giants fan during the Parcells era, got to know his childhood idol during his first couple years in Miami, where Parcells executive vice president of football operations. Since his promotion, Rizzi has spoken to both Payton and Parcells. And he has begun to employ motivational techniques reminiscent of Payton, who left New Orleans in 2022 as the franchise leader in wins (152 in the regular season and nine in the postseason — including New Orleans' lone Super Bowl triumph). Payton as a big believer of symbolic imagery and motivational props, from baseball bats distributed before contests that were expected to be especially physical to gas cans left in the lockers of aging veterans whose performance was key to the club's success. Rizzi, who describes himself as a “blue collar” guy, has his own spin on such things. He began his tenure by asking players to accept individual responsibility for the metaphorical hole the team had dug itself and asked them all to embrace the idea of filling it up — one shovelful at a time. He even has brought a shovel — as well as a hammer, tape measure, level and other construction tools — to team meetings to help make his points. Saints tight end Taysom Hill, who also plays on special teams, has gotten to know Rizzi well during a half-decade of working together. Hill doesn't sound surprised to see Rizzi's combination of work ethic, enthusiasm and personal touch resonating across the entire team now. He also made a lot of changes , from weekly schedule adjustments to reconfiguring players' lockers by position. “He has a really good pulse on what we need collectively as a team to get ready for a football game," said Hill, who scored three touchdowns and accounted for 248 yards as a runner, receiver, passer and returner against Cleveland. “Guys have responded to that.” Because Rizzi's first victory came over the first-place Atlanta Falcons , and because the Falcons lost again last week, the Saints now trail Atlanta by just two games with six to play. Suddenly, the idea of the Saints playing meaningful football down the stretch is not so far-fetched. “We’re starting to get our swag back, and that makes me happy,” Rizzi said. ”We’re going to have some downtime now to kind of press the reset button again and see if we can make a push here." When the Saints return to action at home against the Los Angeles Rams on Dec 1, they'll do so with a level of momentum and positivity that seemed to steadily drain out of the club between their first loss of the season in Week 3 through the six straight setbacks that followed. While Saints players have tended to blame themselves for Allen's demise, they've been quick to credit Rizzi for the turnaround. “He’s pointed us and steered the ship in the right direction,” Carr said. “Hopefully, we can just keep executing at a high level for him, because we love him.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Adele bids tearful farewell to her Las Vegas residency: I will miss it terriblyDAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A few days after insurgents in Syria overthrew President Bashar Assad, his ruling Baath party announced it was freezing its activities, marking a stunning change in fortunes for the political group that had ruled for more than six decades. Many members of the party’s leadership have gone into hiding and some have fled the country. In a symbolic move, Syria’s new rulers have turned the former party headquarters in Damascus into a center where former members of the army and security forces line up to register their names and hand over their weapons. Calls are on the rise to officially dissolve the Arab Socialist Baath Party that had ruled Syria since 1963. Many Syrians — including former party members — say its rule damaged relations with other Arab countries and aided in the spread of corruption that brought the war-torn nation to its knees. “The party should not only be dissolved, it should go to hell,” said Mohammed Hussein Ali, 64, who worked for a state oil company and was a party member for decades until he quit at the start of Syria’s anti-government uprising in 2011 that turned into civil war . He never left the country and said he is happy the Baath rule is over. An official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the group that led the insurgent offensive that overthrew Assad, said no official decision has been made on what to do with the Baath party. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, noted that HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has said that officials who committed crimes against the Syrian people over the past decades will be brought to justice and hinted that they include party members. The Baath party, whose aim was to unify Arab states in one nation, was founded by two Syrian Arab nationalists, Michel Aflaq and Salaheddine Bitar, in 1947 and at one point ruled two Arab countries, Iraq and Syria. A rivalry developed between the Syrian branch under Assad and his late father, Hafez, and the one in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, who was removed from power by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In Syria, the Baath party became inextricably associated with the Assad family, which took power in 1970. For decades, the family used the party and its pan-Arab ideology to control the country. Many senior military jobs were held by members of the family’s minority Alawite sect, and party membership was used as a cover to give it a nationalist rather than a sectarian nature. A former soldier and decades-long Baath party member who came to party headquarters to cut his military ties, Abdul-Rahman Ali, said he had no idea it was founded by Aflaq and Bitar. He had always thought that Hafez Assad was the founder. “I am happy. We have been liberated from fear,” said Ali, 43. “Even the walls had ears. We didn’t dare express opinions with anyone.” He was referring to the dreaded security and intelligence agencies that detained and tortured people who expressed criticism of Assad or government officials. Many Syrians were required to join the Baath Vanguards, the party’s youth branch, while in elementary school, where Arab nationalist and socialist ideology was emphasized. It was difficult for people who were not party members to get government jobs or join the army or the security and intelligence services. In 2012, a year after Syria’s uprising began, a paragraph of the constitution stating that the Baath party was the leader of the nation and society was abolished, in a move aimed to appease the public’s demand for political reforms. In practice, however, the party remained in control, with members holding majority seats in parliament and government. Another former soldier, who gave only his first name, Ghadir, out of fear of reprisals as a member of the Alawite sect, said he came from a poor family and joined the party so he could enter the military for a stable income. “You could not take any job if you were not a Baathist,” he said. While few are mourning the party’s fall in Syria, some are concerned that the Sunni majority that now controls the country could carry out a purge similar to the one in Iraq after Saddam’s fall. A de-Baathification committee was formed in Iraq and its main job was purging Saddam loyalists from government and military institutions. The Sunni minority considered it a means of sectarian score-settling by Iraq’s Shiite majority. The Sunni resentment and disenfranchisement that followed helped to drive the rise of extremist groups in the country including al-Qaida and the Islamic State in Iraq. In Syria, a Baath party statement issued three days after Assad’s fall called on all members to hand their weapons and public cars to the new authorities. On Dec. 24, party member and former army colonel Mohammed Merhi was among hundreds who lined up at the former party headquarters and handed over weapons. Merhi said the Baath party should be given another opportunity because its principles are good but were exploited over decades. But he said he might want to join another party if Syria becomes a multiparty democracy in the future. He handed over his Soviet Makarov pistol and received a document saying he can now move freely in the country after reconciling with the new authorities. “I want to become again a normal Syrian citizen and work to build a new Syria,” he said.A group of researchers have found a way to develop FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay (FELUDA), a test developed during the Covid-19 period to diagnose Covid cases, as a point-of-care diagnostic service at a minimal cost for detection of H. pylori and its mutations in dyspeptic patients from rural areas of India, with minimal or no access to diagnostic laboratories. Infections with H. pylori affect over 43 per cent of the world’s population with a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders, including peptic ulcers, gastritis, dyspepsia and even gastric cancer, according to ministry of science and technology. Resistance to clarithromycin, primarily attributed to point mutations in the 23S ribosomal RNA coding gene of H. pylori poses a global threat to public health, by necessitating repeated diagnostic tests and use of multiple courses of different antibiotic combinations for eradication of the same. Integration of novel diagnostic strategies as cost-effective diagnostic tools to detect the presence of H. pylori in human samples, as well as the identification of the antibiotic susceptibility is crucial for its rapid eradication. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-based methodologies are known to enable site recognition and cleavage of the target DNA with exceptional accuracy by designing guide RNAs targeting the respective mutation site in various kinds of DNA samples. Hence, in-depth understanding of H. pylori genetic makeup by CRISPR-based diagnostics (CRISPRDx) could aid in molecular dissection of its pathogenicity and development of targeted therapeutics against different strains. Towards this goal, Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty and Dr. Souvik Maiti’s group at CSIR-IGIB had previously demonstrated the possibility of detecting H. pylori antibiotic resistance mutations using Cas9-based mutation detection strategies. However, CRISPR-Cas9 based biosensing techniques face limitations due to the requirement of NGG PAM sequences at the recognition site while detecting mutations. To encounter this limitation of CRISPR-Cas9 based detection tools in this study, Dr Shraddha Chakraborty (currently a Department of Science and Technology INSPIRE Faculty Fellow at DBEB, IIT Delhi) and colleagues at CSIR-IGIB explored the potential of en31-FnCas9 to successfully detect the presence and identify the 23S rDNA mutation status of H. pylori in gastric biopsy samples from dyspeptic patients, both by in vitro cleavage studies and lateral flow-based test strip assays (FELUDA). Clinical arm of the study was led by Dr Govind K Makharia (Department of Gastroenterology, AIIMS New Delhi), Dr Manas K Panigrahi (Department of Gastroenterology, AIIMS Bhubaneswar) and Dr Vinay K Hallur (Department of Microbiology, AIIMS Bhubaneswar). They used an engineered Cas9 protein having resemblance to Cas9 orthologs isolated from Francisella novicida (en31-FnCas9) but with altered PAM binding affinity. In their paper published in the Microchemical Journal they reported the potential of this en31-FnCas9 to successfully detect the presence and identify the 23S rDNA mutation status of H. pylori in gastric biopsy samples from dyspeptic patients of Indian origin. The study highlights the significance of sequencing-free molecular diagnosis in detecting H. pylori and its antibiotic resistance mutations, thereby emphasizing the need for tailored treatment plans to address global public health concerns associated with antibiotic resistance and gastric cancer risks. The integration of en31-FnCas9-based detection with lateral flow assay (FELUDA) demonstrated rapid visual readout of H. pylori infection and its mutation status in patient samples, enhancing its diagnostic potential in clinical settings. This is the first report of en31-FnCas9 mediated molecular diagnosis of H. pylori mutations implicated in clarithromycin resistance. Successful deployment this methodology in a clinical setup can be helpful in providing accurate and timely reports on the antibiotic resistance pattern of the H. pylori strains isolated from patients, in remote settings allowing for effective management of this global public health concern.
OXFORD, United Kingdom and GERMANTOWN, Md., Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc (NASDAQ: BRNS) (“Barinthus Bio”), today announced the promotion of Geoffrey Lynn, M.D., Ph.D. to Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), effective as of December 1, 2024. Dr. Lynn succeeds Nadège Pelletier, Ph.D. who decided to pursue alternative opportunities closer to home after having served as Barinthus Bio’s CSO since early 2023. Barinthus Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapeutic candidates that guide T cells to control disease. “Dr. Pelletier’s strong vision and leadership have resulted in a robust preclinical pipeline of promising leads for targeting autoimmune and other inflammatory diseases. She has played a pivotal role in the new company structure and across all R&D activities,” said Bill Enright, Chief Executive Officer of Barinthus Bio. “We’re very grateful for Dr. Pelletier’s contributions to our growing pipeline and expect a smooth transition with the appointment of Dr. Lynn. As co-inventor of the SNAP-TI technology, he is a natural successor into the CSO role.” Dr. Pelletier will remain with the Company until the transition of responsibilities to Dr. Lynn is complete. “This is an incredibly exciting time for Barinthus Bio. We have achieved functional cures with VTP-300 in patients with chronic hepatitis B, and VTP-1000, our first product candidate developed using the SNAP-TI technology, recently entered the clinic in a Phase 1 trial for individuals with celiac disease,” said Dr. Lynn. “Dr. Pelletier has put Barinthus in a strong position with a compelling pipeline of assets, including our first program in the autoimmune disease space, and I look forward to building on this momentum while also exploring new opportunities to build value.” Dr. Lynn is a seasoned biotech innovator and executive with over 15 years of experience leading immunotherapeutic R&D from discovery through early development. Prior to joining the Company, Dr. Lynn led Avidea Technologies, Inc. as CEO and Founder from its launch at Johns Hopkins FastForward in 2017 through to its acquisition by Barinthus Bio in 2021. Dr. Lynn holds a M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (US), as well as a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. About Barinthus Bio Barinthus Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: BRNS) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapeutic candidates designed to guide the immune system to overcome chronic infectious diseases and autoimmunity. Helping people living with serious diseases and their families is the guiding principle at the heart of Barinthus Bio. With a focused pipeline built around its proprietary platform technologies, Barinthus Bio is advancing immunotherapeutic product candidates in infectious diseases and autoimmunity, including: VTP-300, that utilizing its ChAdOx/MVA platform designed as a potential component of a functional cure for chronic HBV infection and VTP-1000, utilizing our SNAP-Tolerance Immunotherapy (SNAP-TI) platform and is designed to treat people with celiac disease. Barinthus Bio is also conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial for VTP-850, a second-generation immunotherapeutic candidate designed to treat recurrent prostate cancer. Barinthus Bio’s differentiated technology platforms and therapeutic approach, coupled with deep scientific expertise and focus on clinical development, uniquely positions the company to navigate towards delivering treatments that improve the lives of people with chronic infectious diseases and autoimmunity. For more information, visit www.barinthusbio.com . Barinthus Bio’s Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Barinthus Bio within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, which can generally be identified as such by use of the words “may,” “will,” “plan,” “forward,” “encouraging,” “believe,” “potential,” “expect,” and similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, express or implied statements regarding Barinthus Bio’s future expectations, plans and prospects, the terms and timing of the anticipated officer transition. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on Barinthus Bio management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties related to the success, cost and timing of Barinthus Bio’s pipeline development activities and planned and ongoing clinical trials, including the risk that the timing for preliminary, interim or final data or initiation of its clinical trials may be delayed, the risk that interim or topline data may not reflect final data or results, Barinthus Bio’s ability to execute on its strategy, regulatory developments, the risk that Barinthus Bio may not achieve the anticipated benefits of its pipeline prioritization and corporate restructuring, Barinthus Bio’s ability to fund its operations and access capital, Barinthus Bio’s cash runway, including the risk that its estimate of its cash runway may be incorrect, global economic uncertainty, including disruptions in the banking industry, the conflicts in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and other risks identified in Barinthus Bio’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Barinthus Bio cautions you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Barinthus Bio expressly disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. IR contacts: Christopher M. Calabrese Managing Director LifeSci Advisors +1 917-680-5608 ccalabrese@lifesciadvisors.com Kevin Gardner Managing Director LifeSci Advisors +1 617-283-2856 kgardner@lifesciadvisors.com Media contact: Audra Friis Sam Brown, Inc. +1 917-519-9577 audrafriis@sambrown.com Company contact: Jonothan Blackbourn IR & PR Manager Barinthus Bio ir@barinthusbio.com
Arguments about past presidents shape the nation’s understanding of itself and hence its unfolding future. In recent years, biographies by nonacademics have rescued some presidents from progressive academia’s indifference or condescension: John Adams (rescued by David McCullough), Ulysses S. Grant (by Ron Chernow), Calvin Coolidge (by Amity Shlaes). The rehabilitation of those presidents’ reputations have been acts of justice, as is Christopher Cox’s destruction of Woodrow Wilson’s place in progressivism’s pantheon. In “Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn,” Cox, former congressman and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, demonstrates that the 28th president was the nation’s nastiest. Without belaboring the point, Cox presents an Everest of evidence that Wilson’s progressivism smoothly melded with his authoritarianism and oceanic capacity for contempt. His books featured ostentatious initials: “Woodrow Wilson Ph.D., LL.D.” But he wrote no doctoral dissertation for his 18-month Ph.D. He dropped out of law school. His doctorate of law was honorary. But because of those initials, and because he vaulted in three years from Princeton University’s presidency to New Jersey’s governorship to the U.S. presidency, and because he authored books, he is remembered as a scholar in politics. Actually, he was an intellectual manque using academia as a springboard into politics. His books were thin gruel, often laced with scabrous racism. His first, “Congressional Government,” contained only 52 citations, but he got it counted as a doctoral dissertation. He wrote it while a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, yet he only once visited the U.S. Capitol 37 miles away. “I have no patience for the tedious toil of ‘research,’” he said. “I hate the place,” he said of Bryn Mawr, a women’s college that provided his first faculty job. He thought teaching women was pointless. Cox ignores the well-plowed ground of Wilson’s domestic achievements — the progressive income tax, the Federal Reserve. Instead, Cox braids Wilson’s aggressive white-male supremacy and hostility toward women’s suffrage. His was a life defined by disdaining. For postgraduate education, Johns Hopkins recruited German-trained faculty steeped in that nation’s statism and belief in the racial superiority of Teutonic people. Wilson’s Johns Hopkins classmate and lifelong friend Thomas Dixon wrote the novel that became the silent movie “The Birth of a Nation.” Wilson made this celebration of the Ku Klux Klan the first movie shown in the White House. During the movie, the screen showed quotes from Wilson’s “History of the American People,” such as: “In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences.” And: “At last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan ... to protect the Southern country” and Southerners’ “Aryan birthright.” Wilson’s White House gala — guests in evening dress — gave “The Birth of a Nation” a presidential imprimatur. The movie, which became a national sensation, normalized the Klan and helped to revive lynching. Though the term “fascism” is more frequently bandied than defined, it fits Wilson’s amalgam of racism (he meticulously resegregated the federal workforce), statism, and wartime censorship and prosecutions. Dissent was “disloyalty” deserving “a firm hand of stern repression.” Benito Mussolini: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Wilson: “I am perfectly sure that the state has got to control everything that everybody needs and uses.” Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to “mobilize the mind of America.” The committee soon had more than 150,000 employees disseminating propaganda, monitoring publications and providing them with government-written content. The committee was echoed in the Biden administration’s pressuring of social media to suppress what it considered dis- or misinformation. Cox provides a stunning chronicle of Wilson’s complacent, even gleeful, acceptance of police and mob brutality, often in front of the White House, against suffragists. And of the torture — no milder word will suffice — of the women incarcerated in stomach-turning squalor, at the mercy of sadists. “Appropriate,” Wilson said. An appropriate judgment from the man who dismissed as empty verbiage the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. Historian C. Vann Woodward, author of “The Strange Career of Jim Crow,” said white-male supremacy was the crux of Southern progressivism. Wilson’s political career demonstrated that it was not discordant with national progressivism’s belief that a superior few should control the benighted many. John Greenleaf Whittier, disillusioned by Daniel Webster’s support of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, wrote of Webster: “So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn / Which once he wore!” True, too, of Wilson.Vladislav Goldin and Nimari Burnett each scored 17 points to lead Michigan to a 112-64 win over Western Kentucky in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sunday. Sam Walters scored 13 points off the bench, Tre Donaldson had 12 points and 11 rebounds, Danny Wolf had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Roddy Gayle Jr. added 11 points for Michigan (10-3). The Wolverines tied a program record with 19 made 3-pointers (on 40 attempts) and held a 54-27 rebounding advantage. Don McHenry scored 18 points, Julius Thedford had 11 points and Enoch Kalambay added 10 points in defeat for Western Kentucky (9-4), which shot just 5 of 25 from 3-point range. Michigan set the tone with a dominant first half, taking a 59-31 lead into the intermission in a sterling offensive performance. The Wolverines shot 57.6 percent from the field overall (19 of 33) and made 11 of 21 shots from 3-point range (52.4 percent) in the first half. It was season high for both points and 3-pointers made in a half for the Wolverines. Michigan also had a 27-9 rebounding advantage at intermission. The second half was more of the same, with Michigan opening up a 72-37 lead with 16:11 remaining in the game after a 3-pointer by Wolf. Michigan later took a 41-point lead at 87-46 with 10:23 to go after a 3-pointer by Walters. With 6:05 left, Wolf hit a 3-pointer to put Michigan over the 100-point mark and give the Wolverines a 50-point lead at 102-52. Michigan jumped on Western Kentucky from the beginning, taking a 13-2 lead just 2:41 into the game. Western Kentucky managed a run to cut its deficit to 18-14, but Michigan answered with a 10-2 run to take a 28-16 lead with 11:56 to go in the first half. The Wolverines built a 49-27 lead with five minutes remaining until halftime. --Field Level MediaResearchers Report New Opportunities to Improve Quality of Life for People with Non-Malignant Blood DisordersCHICAGO (AP) — Mark Scheifele snapped a third-period tie and Kyle Connor had two assists, helping the Winnipeg Jets beat Chicago 4-2 on Saturday in the first game for interim Blackhawks coach Anders Sorensen. Mason Appleton had a goal and an assist as the Jets picked up their second straight win after a four-game losing streak. Nino Niederreiter and Gabriel Vilardi also scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 12 saves.
Olympic champion cyclist Marchant taken to hospital after collision on trackThe Rangers endured what was a chaotic Friday that included a booting of former captain Jacob Trouba to the Ducks and an historic extension for goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin . Somehow in the middle of both deals, they played a game that night, beating the Penguins 4-2 at Madison Square Garden, and turning a new page in welcoming former Duck Urho Vaakanainen to the mess in Trouba’s wake. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to make a difference to the 25-year-old on his third NHL team in seven years. “Shock at first, then excited,” Vaakanainen, who was acquired along with a conditional fourth-round pick in 2025, said on Saturday after Rangers practice in Tarrytown. “First thought is like awesome. Rangers is an Original Six team,” he continued. “Obviously, a big team and I’m super excited to be here. First thoughts were obviously a big shock. You don’t really expect to get traded but when I heard the Rangers, I was hype.” The new energy will certainly be welcomed by the Rangers, who have taken a complete downhill turn after building a cushion on a 5-0-1 run that quickly spiraled after a 1-6 stretch that the team brought into Friday’s game. Trouba’s trade was a first step toward a new start, and head coach Peter Laviolette believes Friday’s events helped quiet things down around his team that lacked motivation, a sense of fight and a leadership figure. “I think so. It’s always a tough day. Jacob is a terrific teammate and person. Did a really good job here with the New York Rangers,” the head coach said on Saturday. “It’s an emotional day for everyone in short. I thought we were able to get past that. I thought we had a pretty decent morning skate and it transferred to the game last night.” However, it’s unknown where the Rangers’ new piece will fit at the moment. Vaakanainen, who took a red eye flight to New York, could be found on the Rangers ice on Saturday afternoon already getting himself acclimated to the system. However, the Rangers are receiving the defender on injury reserve with an upper-body injury. He was wearing a green non-contact jersey with No. 18. Vaakanainen is unaware of the timeline of his return, but feels he is “getting closer” as he can currently shoot and pass the puck routinely. Laviolette was also vague on the timeline, saying it was “somewhere” between a day-to-day and week-to-week status. “We’ll get to that when we get there,” Laviolette said when asked if Vaakanainen will stay with the group or go off to one of the team’s affiliates. “Right now, he’s on the IR and out on the ice. That’s a good thing for us.” Vaakanainen, a Finland native who was drafted 18th overall in 2017 by Boston, believes he can bring “steady defense” to the Rangers while being “reliable” and one that will “play hard.” His seven NHL seasons have been plagued by injuries and he has tallied one goal and 24 assists across 141 games. This season, Vaakanainen had only played in five games for the Ducks, averaging nearly 14 minutes on the ice. He put up one assist and seven blocks. Despite the injury and coming into a Rangers team six points away from the first place Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division standings, Vaakanainen isn’t coming into the group completely blind. He has a familiar face in fellow Finland native Kaapo Kakko, who he played World Juniors with in 2019. “It’s been a long time since I played with him, but pretty good player,” Kakko said on Saturday. “Good D-man ... pretty good player.” The lefty has the potential to slot in as an inexpensive Rangers depth piece with a $1.1 million cap hit to switch up a stalling defense. He will become a restricted agent this summer. Yet, rather more importantly, the Rangers got themselves away from what was a toxic situation with Trouba.Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers. The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship. The USS Zumwalt is seen at the Huntington Ingalls shipyard Nov. 21 in Pascagoula, Miss. “It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production. People are also reading... 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Last year, The Washington Post reported that among the documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was a defense department briefing that confirmed China had recently tested an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon called the DF-27. While the Pentagon previously acknowledged the weapon's development, it had not recognized its testing. One of the U.S. programs in development and planned for the Zumwalt is the “Conventional Prompt Strike." It would launch like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would travel at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target. The weapon system is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army. Each of the Zumwalt-class destroyers would be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles for a total of 12 hypersonic weapons per ship. In choosing the Zumwalt, the Navy is attempting to add to the usefulness of a $7.5 billion warship that is considered by critics to be an expensive mistake despite serving as a test platform for multiple innovations. The USS Zumwalt is seen at the Huntington Ingalls shipyard Nov. 21 in Pascagoula, Miss. The Zumwalt was envisioned as providing land-attack capability with an Advanced Gun System with rocket-assisted projectiles to open the way for Marines to charge ashore. But the system featuring 155 mm guns hidden in stealthy turrets was canceled because each of the rocket-assisted projectiles cost between $800,000 and $1 million. Despite the stain on its reputation, the three Zumwalt-class destroyers remain the Navy’s most advanced surface warship in terms of new technologies. Those innovations include electric propulsion, an angular shape to minimize radar signature, an unconventional wave-piercing hull, automated fire and damage control and a composite deckhouse that hides radar and other sensors. The Zumwalt arrived at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August 2023 and was removed from the water for the complex work of integrating the new weapon system. It is due to be undocked this week in preparation for the next round of tests and its return to the fleet, shipyard spokeswoman Kimberly Aguillard said. A U.S. hypersonic weapon was successfully tested over the summer and development of the missiles is continuing. The Navy wants to begin testing the system aboard the Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028, according to the Navy. The U.S. weapon system will come at a steep price. It would cost nearly $18 billion to buy 300 of the weapons and maintain them over 20 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Critics say there is too little bang for the buck. “This particular missile costs more than a dozen tanks. All it gets you is a precise non-nuclear explosion, some place far far away. Is it really worth the money? The answer is most of the time the missile costs much more than any target you can destroy with it,” said Loren Thompson, a longtime military analyst in Washington, D.C. US Navy intercepts Houthi missiles aimed at American ships in Gulf of Aden The U.S. Navy intercepted Houthi missiles and drones targeting two warships and three merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden. But they provide the capability for Navy vessels to strike an enemy from a distance of thousands of kilometers — outside the range of most enemy weapons — and there is no effective defense against them, said retired Navy Rear Adm. Ray Spicer, CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute, an independent forum focusing on national security issues, and former commander of an aircraft carrier strike force. Conventional missiles that cost less aren’t much of a bargain if they are unable to reach their targets, Spicer said, adding the U.S. military really has no choice but to pursue them. “The adversary has them. We never want to be outdone,” he said. The U.S. is accelerating development because hypersonics have been identified as vital to U.S. national security with “survivable and lethal capabilities,” said James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies. “Fielding new capabilities that are based on hypersonic technologies is a priority for the defense department to sustain and strengthen our integrated deterrence, and to build enduring advantages,” he said. Rising Costs Hit Military Families Hard: Here’s How You Can Help Rising Costs Hit Military Families Hard: Here’s How You Can Help Image Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock The financial challenges facing U.S. military households are a significant concern throughout the year. Holidays such as Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, or Veterans Day highlight the ongoing struggles that service members face, particularly amid rising costs for everyday essentials. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey shows a troubling trend: Military personnel and their families are finding it more difficult to cover basic household expenses such as food, housing, and transportation than the average American. Our analysis examines how service members are faring in today’s economy compared to civilian households, highlighting the states where military families report the greatest challenges in managing their finances. As we enter Giving Season, we’ve also highlighted meaningful ways to support service members and their families through charitable contributions, offering an opportunity to make a direct impact on those who serve our nation. Financial Challenges Facing Service Members Service members are struggling more financially than the average American. Image Credit: Upgraded Points According to recent Household Pulse Survey data, members of the armed services are experiencing financial strain at higher rates than the general U.S. population. Over 40% of service members report difficulty covering their usual household expenses, compared to 36.6% of all U.S. adults. The data also shows heightened anxiety among service members regarding rising prices. Nearly 80% of military personnel express stress about recent price increases, significantly higher than the 71.8% of all U.S. adults who share similar feelings. Furthermore, 81.8% of service members are concerned about future price hikes, reflecting widespread uncertainty about inflation’s long-term impact on household budgets. States Where Service Members Struggle To Cover Costs More than half of service members in certain states have difficulty covering basic household expenses. Image Credit: Upgraded Points Across the U.S., the financial burden on service members varies significantly from state to state, primarily influenced by local economic conditions. According to the most recent data, Utah leads with 53.7% of service members reporting difficulty covering basic household expenses, closely followed by Louisiana (52.9%) and Alaska (52.8%). Other states where over half of service members are struggling include Indiana (52.0%), Tennessee (51.2%), New York (50.8%), and Florida (50.3%). A key issue service members frequently raise is that their Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) has not kept pace with the rapidly rising cost of housing. In states where service members face the greatest financial difficulties, such as Utah, Indiana, Tennessee, and Florida, home price increases have far exceeded the national average, exacerbating the strain on household budgets. Another critical factor affecting military families is the employment challenges military spouses face. According to the Department of Defense, the military spouse unemployment rate was 21% in 2023, compared to a national rate of 3.6% that year. Many military bases are located in rural or remote areas, limiting job opportunities for spouses, particularly in specialized fields. Additionally, frequent relocations make it difficult for spouses to sustain long-term careers, especially for those in professions requiring state-specific occupational licenses that can be difficult to transfer. Service members are also more likely to report financial struggles in states with higher-than-average unemployment rates, such as Louisiana, Alaska, and New York. Conversely, the state unemployment rate is below average in 9 of the 10 states where service members report the least financial difficulty. This suggests that strong local employment opportunities, particularly for spouses, significantly ease the financial burden on military households. How You Can Help: Top Military and Veteran Charities Photo Credit: Bumble Dee / Shutterstock One of the most impactful ways to support service members, veterans, and their families who are facing financial hardships is through donations to reputable charities. These organizations are dedicated to addressing the unique challenges faced by military families and veterans, providing vital assistance in areas like housing, medical expenses, scholarships, and career training. To help guide your generosity, we’ve compiled a list of top-rated charities based on scores from Charity Navigator , CharityWatch , and GuideStar , which assess organizations on criteria such as impact, efficiency, accountability, and transparency. Here are some of the best charities supporting military families and veterans in need: 1. USO For over 80 years, the USO has provided crucial support to active-duty service members and their families. From financial assistance programs to community-building initiatives, the USO helps service members stay connected to loved ones while addressing their most pressing needs during deployments and transitions. 2. Homes For Our Troops This charity is focused on providing specially adapted homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans. It helps veterans regain independence. Homes For Our Troops also provides financial planning and household budgeting to ensure long-term stability for the recipients. 3. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Dedicated to advocating for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, IAVA works to improve government policies and programs that support military families. Its advocacy ensures veterans have access to financial resources, healthcare, and education opportunities. 4. Fisher House Foundation This foundation builds “comfort homes” near military and VA medical centers, allowing families to stay free of charge while a loved one is hospitalized. By reducing travel and lodging expenses, Fisher House eases financial stress during difficult times. 5. Hope For The Warriors Offering a range of programs focused on financial stability, wellness, social support, and education, Hope For The Warriors provides critical support to service members, veterans, and their families. Its services include direct financial assistance for transitioning service members and veterans in need, career training and job placement, and scholarships for spouses. 6. Semper Fi & America’s Fund Semper Fi & America’s Fund assists wounded, ill, and injured service members and their families through direct financial assistance and case management during hospitalization and recovery. The organization also provides educational support, career assistance, and health and wellness services. 7. Wounded Warriors Family Support (WWFS) WWFS supports families of those wounded or killed in combat through programs like medical travel grants, meal and housekeeping assistance, in-home care services, and family retreats. By addressing these families' immediate and ongoing needs, WWFS alleviates the financial burdens of those suffering from recent tragic events. For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, see Rising Costs Hit Military Families Hard: Here’s How You Can Help on Upgraded Points . Methodology Photo Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock Upgraded Points conducted the analysis using the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey Phase 4.0–4.2 , covering the period from January 9, 2024, to September 16, 2024. Service members were defined as adults currently serving in the U.S. armed forces (Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard) and their spouses. This analysis focuses on 3 key questions from the survey: Difficulty Covering Household Expenses: Respondents were asked, "In the last 7 days, how difficult has it been for your household to pay for usual household expenses, including but not limited to food, rent or mortgage, car payments, medical expenses, student loans, and so on?" We defined difficulty as either "very difficult" or "somewhat difficult.” Stress Due to Price Increases: Respondents were asked, "How stressful, if at all, has the increase in prices in the last two months been for you?" We defined stress as either "very stressful" or "moderately stressful." Concern About Future Price Increases: Finally, respondents were asked, "In the area you live and shop, how concerned are you, if at all, that prices will increase in the next 6 months?" We defined concern as either "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned." Statistics with fewer than 50 survey responses were omitted from the analysis. Additional statistics on home prices were sourced from Zillow’s Home Value Index , and unemployment rates were sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates . For complete results, see Rising Costs Hit Military Families Hard: Here’s How You Can Help on Upgraded Points. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) — For Gaza’s women, the hardships of life in the territory’s sprawling tent camps are compounded by the daily humiliation of never having privacy. Women struggle to dress modestly while crowded into tents with extended family members, including men, and with strangers only steps away in neighboring tents. Access to menstrual products is limited, so they cut up sheets or old clothes to use as pads. Makeshift toilets usually consist of only a hole in the sand surrounded by sheets dangling from a line, and these must be shared with dozens of other people. Alaa Hamami has dealt with the modesty issue by constantly wearing her prayer shawl, a black cloth that covers her head and upper body. “Our whole lives have become prayer clothes, even to the market we wear it,” said the young mother of three. “Dignity is gone.” Normally, she would wear the shawl only when performing her daily Muslim prayers. But with so many men around, she keeps it on all the time, even when sleeping — just in case an Israeli strike hits nearby in the night and she has to flee quickly, she said. Israel’s 14-month-old campaign in Gaza has driven more than 90% of its 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of them are now living in squalid camps of tents packed close together over large areas. Sewage runs into the streets , and food and water are hard to obtain. Winter is setting in. Families often wear the same clothes for weeks because they left clothing and many other belongings behind as they fled. Everyone in the camps searches daily for food, clean water and firewood. Women feel constantly exposed. Gaza has always been a conservative society. Most women wear the hijab, or head scarf, in the presence of men who are not immediate family. Matters of women’s health — pregnancy, menstruation and contraception — tend not to be discussed publicly. “Before we had a roof. Here it does not exist,” said Hamami, whose prayer shawl is torn and smudged with ash from cooking fires. “Here our entire lives have become exposed to the public. There is no privacy for women.” Wafaa Nasrallah, a displaced mother of two, says life in the camps makes even the simplest needs difficult, like getting period pads, which she cannot afford. She tried using pieces of cloth and even diapers, which have also increased in price. For a bathroom, she has a hole in the ground, surrounded by blankets propped up by sticks. The U.N. says more than 690,000 women and girls in Gaza require menstrual hygiene products, as well as clean water and toilets. Aid workers have been unable to meet demand, with supplies piling up at crossings from Israel. Stocks of hygiene kits have run out, and prices are exorbitant. Many women have to choose between buying pads and buying food and water. Doaa Hellis, a mother of three living in a camp, said she has torn up her old clothes to use for menstrual pads. “Wherever we find fabric, we tear it up and use it.” A packet of pads costs 45 shekels ($12), “and there is not even five shekels in the whole tent,” she said. Anera, a rights group active in Gaza, says some women use birth control pills to halt their periods. Others have experienced disruptions in their cycles because of the stress and trauma of repeated displacement. The terrible conditions pose real risks to women’s health, said Amal Seyam, the director of the Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza, which provides supplies for women and surveys them about their experiences. She said some women have not changed clothes for 40 days. That and improvised cloth pads “will certainly create” skin diseases, diseases related to reproductive health and psychological conditions, she said. “Imagine what a woman in Gaza feels like, if she’s unable to control conditions related to hygiene and menstrual cycles,” Seyam said. Hellis remembered a time not so long ago, when being a woman felt more like a joy and less like a burden. “Women are now deprived of everything, no clothes, no bathroom. Their psychology is completely destroyed,” she said. Seyam said the center has tracked cases where girls have been married younger, before the age of 18, to escape the suffocating environment of their family’s tents. The war will “continue to cause a humanitarian disaster in every sense of the word. And women always pay the biggest price,” she said. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel launched its assault in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 250 others. With large swaths of Gaza’s cities and towns leveled, women wrestle with reduced lives in their tents. Hamami can walk the length of her small tent in a few strides. She shares it with 13 other people from her extended family. During the war, she gave birth to a son, Ahmed, who is now 8 months old. Between caring for him and her two other children, washing her family’s laundry, cooking and waiting in line for water, she says there’s no time to care for herself. She has a few objects that remind her of what her life once was, including a powder compact she brought with her when she fled her home in the Shati camp of Gaza City. The makeup is now caked and crumbling. She managed to keep hold of a small mirror through four different displacements over the past year. It’s broken into two shards that she holds together every so often to catch a glimpse of her reflection. “Previously, I had a wardrobe that contained everything I could wish for,” she said. “We used to go out for a walk every day, go to wedding parties, go to parks, to malls, to buy everything we wanted." Women “lost their being and everything in this war," she said. "Women used to take care of themselves before the war. Now everything is destroyed.” Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
If you are operating under standard fantasy league rules, the fantasy playoffs are just two weeks away and the trade deadline is just a few days away. If you're a team on the bubble, you need to make a move to push yourself into the postseason. However, making trades with your league mates can be a headache. Everyone wants way more than their players are worth. They don't want to get better in a trade. They just don't want you to get better. If that sounds like your league mates, maybe you'd prefer the waiver wire. While the upside of the waivers isn't as high, they are much less likely to give you a brain aneurysm. Here are eight players to consider adding from waivers ahead of Week 13: NFL News: NFL flexes Thursday night game for first time, tabs Chargers and Broncos to play in Week 16 Fantasy players to add in Week 13 *All roster numbers are via Yahoo NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more. WR Noah Brown , Washington Commanders (Rostered in 10% of leagues) Although Terry McLaurin is going to dominate headlines after his last-second 86-yard touchdown, Noah Brown has quietly earned nearly as many targets as McLaurin recently. In the past seven games, Brown has earned 42 targets. McLaurin has seen only 38. Brown appears to have earned a lot of trust from quarterback Jayden Daniels, and the Commanders will need to lean on their passing game after their tough loss to Dallas. RB Jaylen Warren , Pittsburgh Steelers (Rostered in 59% of leagues) It's been the case for a while, but Jaylen Warren, when healthy, is more efficient than Najee Harris. Warren earned five fewer carries than Harris against Cleveland, but outgained him, received more targets, and found the end zone. As the Pittsburgh Steelers fight for the top spot in their division, Warren could continue seeing his usage increase. The Steelers face a lackluster Cincinnati defense in Week 13, meaning Warren could be in for big production coming off a few extra days of rest. TE Zach Ertz , Washington Commanders (Rostered in 48% of leagues) Over his last seven games with the Commanders, Ertz has tallied at least 10 PPR points in five of them. He's earned at least seven targets in four of his last five as well. While Ertz has produced some duds throughout the season, with three games with under six PPR points, he provides a level of consistency that has been hard to come by at the tight end position this year. He's definitely worth an add. QB Drake Maye , New England Patriots (Rostered in 19% of leagues) Patriots rookie Drake Maye may not be winning many games, but he's certainly winning fantasy managers games this season. Since taking over as the starter for New England, he has yet to score fewer than 10 fantasy points in any game. That high a floor is spectacular for anyone who needs a fill-in during bye weeks. The only issue? Maye's bye week comes in Week 14. TE Austin Hooper , New England Patriots (Rostered in
Editor ’ s note : Besides following tech developments, our author is a musical composer (Juilliard-trained). He has provided a musical composition for you to listen to while reading this column. This piece is called “Just the Bassics.” Emergent technology refers to innovations or technological advancements that are either in the early stages of development or have recently become viable but have not yet reached widespread adoption or maturity. These technologies often arise from breakthroughs in research or the convergence of existing technologies and, once fully realized, have the potential to significantly impact industries, economies, or societies. Emergent technologies are characterized by novelty; they represent new concepts or applications that have yet to be widely implemented. They have disruptive potential, often capable of fundamentally changing systems, processes, or market dynamics. As research progresses, these technologies may evolve rapidly, potentially creating new industries or transforming existing ones. However, due to their novelty, their long-term implications, scalability, and societal impact remain uncertain, with risks and rewards still being assessed. Examples of emergent technologies include quantum computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and 5G networks. All show significant promise but are still evolving. Let’s explore one of them—quantum computing—in more detail. Though quantum computing is still in its infancy, its disruptive potential makes it a prime example of emergent technology. Quantum computing is a technological breakthrough that promises to revolutionize how we solve complex problems. Unlike traditional computers that use binary bits (0s and 1s) to process information, quantum computers harness the unique properties of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement, to process vast amounts of data simultaneously. The key difference between quantum computing and classical computing lies in using quantum bits or qubits. While classical bits can only represent a state of either 0 or 1, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to superposition. This ability to represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously allows quantum computers to perform many calculations in parallel, offering enormous processing power. Additionally, quantum entanglement enables entangled qubits to influence each other instantaneously, no matter the distance between them. This can dramatically speed up computations by making certain types of calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. The implications of quantum computing are profound, with the potential to transform multiple industries. One of the most notable applications is in cryptography. Current encryption methods, which protect sensitive data across the internet, rely on the computational difficulty of factoring large numbers. Quantum computers, with their superior processing power, could break this encryption, rendering traditional cybersecurity methods obsolete. This has led to significant research in quantum-resistant encryption to secure data in the quantum age. In pharmaceutical research, quantum computers could simulate molecular structures with far more accuracy than classical computers, potentially speeding up the process of discovering new drugs and treatments for diseases. In the realms of logistics, transportation and artificial intelligence that are currently too complex for classical systems to handle effectively, quantum computers could play a pivotal role. Furthermore, quantum computers could revolutionize material science, allowing for the development of new materials with unique properties that could have broad applications in energy, electronics, and beyond. Despite its immense promise, quantum computing is still in its developmental stages. Quantum systems are delicate and prone to errors due to interference from their surroundings, which can disrupt the quantum state of qubits. As a result, researchers are working on developing quantum error correction methods to ensure stable, reliable computations. The scalability of quantum computers remains another challenge. While we have seen significant progress with companies like Google and IBM demonstrating small-scale quantum computers, building large-scale systems that can solve real-world problems is still a distant goal. Additionally, quantum computers currently require extremely cold environments to operate, which adds complexity to their development and application. The rapid pace of research and innovation in quantum computing means that we are likely to see significant breakthroughs in the coming years. As these systems evolve, they have the potential to solve problems that were once thought impossible, opening up new frontiers in science, technology, and industry. The transition from theoretical concepts to practical, scalable quantum computers is one of the most exciting challenges facing researchers today. Quantum computing is undoubtedly an emergent technology—one that is still evolving but holds the potential to change the world. While the full extent of its capabilities remains to be seen, it will clearly play a central role in shaping the future of technology and innovation. How soon will that be? We’ll explore that question in next week’s column.