Month: August 2022

A three-in-one drug combo can help people with a history of heart attacks stay healthy, new research shows. The randomized clinical trial found that people who took the bundled medication, also known as a polypill, went on to experience fewer heart attacks, strokes, or cardiovascular-related deaths than those given standard care. The findings may pave the way for the polypill to become a common heart treatment moving forward.

The basic concept of the polypill has been around for over two decades. Many medical conditions require taking multiple medications, which can be a time-consuming task and added burden for patients. So by taking these individual drugs and putting them into a single pill, the theory goes, you can make it easier for patients to adhere to their treatment. There are already standard treatments for some conditions, such as HIV, that are given as a combination medication. But the original inspiration for the polypill was as a way to improve the treatment of cardiovascular disease. And now, this strategy seems to have passed its biggest test yet with flying colors.

In 2015, the “Secondary prEvention of CardiovascUlar disease in the Elderly”—or SECURE—trial began. It was meant to test out a fixed dose combination of three generic drugs already known to improve heart disease outcomes: aspirin, a common statin known as atorvastatin, and the ACE inhibitor ramipril. The combo drug is manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Ferrer and is approved in the EU and some other countries as Trinomia.

About 2,500 heart attack survivors over the age of 65 were included in the trial, which was sponsored by the EU and conducted in seven European countries. The patients were randomized to either receive Trinomia or standard treatment. They were then tracked over the next five years, with the researchers primarily looking for incidents of cardiovascular-related death, along with nonfatal heart attacks, strokes, and blocked coronary arteries that needed urgent treatment.

Ultimately, 12.7% of patients in the control group experienced at least one of these outcomes, compared to 9.5% of those in the polypill group, amounting to a 24% reduction in risk. When it came to deaths in particular, those who took the polypill were 33% less likely to die than control patients. And other data showed that people on the polypill were more likely to keep taking it as recommended—exactly as hoped. The study’s findings were published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Treatment with a polypill containing aspirin, ramipril, and atorvastatin within 6 months after myocardial infarction resulted in a significantly lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events than usual care,” the authors wrote.

The SECURE trial is the first of its kind to test the polypill for heart attack survivors. Many experts in the field have been waiting for the study’s findings to emerge, and it’s this sort of gold standard data that can lead to the wider acceptance of a novel treatment approach in medicine. Given these results, it’s likely that more countries will decide to approve Trinomia. (Notably, the U.S. has not approved Trinomia, though it has approved other polypills.) So the drug may very well someday become a new standard of care for survivors at risk of future heart complications.

“The SECURE study findings suggest that the polypill could become an integral element of strategies to prevent recurrent cardiovascular events in patients who have had a heart attack. By simplifying treatment and improving adherence, this approach has the potential to reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular disease and death on a global scale,” said senior study author Valentin Fuster, the physician-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York as well as the general director of the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, in a statement released by Mount Sinai.

SpaceX might have its sights set on Mars, but Rocket Lab is seeking to become the first private company to reach Venus and explore its clouds for signs of potential habitability.

Rocket Lab revealed new details about its self-funded mission to the Venusian clouds in a recent paper published in the journal Aerospace. The California-based company is building a small probe that’s designed to fly through the planet’s upper atmosphere for a duration of roughly five minutes and at altitudes between 29 and 37 miles (48 to 60 kilometers) above the surface. The company is hoping to launch its spacecraft in May 2023 and have the probe reach Venus in October of that same year, with a backup launch window in January 2025.

The probe is designed to fly aboard the company’s trusty Electron rocket—the “only reusable orbital-class small rocket” currently in existence, according to the company. Electron will send the probe on a 100-mile (165-kilometer) orbit above Earth; then, the rocket’s high-energy upper stage Photon will perform a series of burns to raise the probe’s orbit to where it can achieve escape velocity from Earth’s gravitational pull.

Rocket Lab is no stranger to audacious feats; the company pulled off a daring stunt in May by using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket mid-air. Sending a probe to Venus, however, is a major step beyond, as the second planet from the Sun is located some 38 million miles (61 million kilometers) from Earth at its nearest proximity. It’s closer to Earth than Mars, but Venus is far less welcoming of spacecraft due to its extremely hot atmosphere and air pressure that’s 90 times higher than that of Earth’s.

A mission like this to Venus would signal a new era of planetary exploration, in which private companies, and not just government space agencies, make attempts to explore distant bodies. Rocket Lab is also slated to launch twin spacecraft to Mars in 2024 as part of a subcontract with the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Two other private space companies, Impulse Space and Relativity Space, recently announced a joint venture to launch a mission to Mars as early as 2024.

Rocket Lab’s self-funded science mission sounds noble, and possibly even important, but there’s more to this mission than sniffing the Venusian atmosphere for possible biosignatures. It’s possible that Rocket Lab is using the mission to test its spacecraft in anticipation of national space agencies, like NASA or the European Space Agency, wanting to further outsource similar projects. And as the Rocket Lab study points out, the mission will also put its Photon spacecraft to the test and demonstrate the success of a “high-performance, low-cost, fast-turnaround deep space entry mission delivering Decadal-class science with small spacecraft and small launch vehicles.” Though not stated in the study, this technology could eventually be leveraged to support commercialized supply chains (or other linkages) between celestial bodies, such as supporting colonists on Mars. Rocket Lab also wants to initiate a campaign of smaller missions to explore Venus, the paper says.

NASA hasn’t sent a dedicated probe to Venus since the Magellan program, which arrived at the planet in 1989 and wrapped up science operations in 1994. That is set to change later this decade, as NASA’s DAVINCI mission is scheduled to launch to Venus in 2029. The probe will plunge through Venus’ atmosphere prior to landing on its surface. DAVINCI is one of three upcoming Venus missions, as Venus is very hot right now, both literally and figuratively.

Indeed, Venus boasts temperatures that reach up to 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius), while featuring a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and a volcanic landscape. The planet is not fit for habitability today, but scientists believe it may have started off with similar conditions to Earth and over time became the hellish world it is today.

In September 2020, a group of scientists claimed that Venus may have signs of life in its clouds based on a detection of what might be phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere. Phosphine is considered a biosignature gas on Earth. That’s the main driving force behind Rocket Lab’s mission to Venus—to help gather further evidence of potential life in the Venusian clouds. “We’re sending our Photon spacecraft to Venus in search of life,” Rocket Lab wrote on Twitter. However, the phosphine detection was largely met with skepticism, with scientists raising doubts over the data, among other quibbles.

Rocket Lab’s search for life in Venus’ clouds may turn up empty, but a mission to the planet’s atmosphere could answer key questions about its past. A 2019 study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies suggested that Venus may have once had oceans on its surface for about 2 to 3 billion years, indicating potentially habitable conditions during its early history. Either way, and should Rocket Lab successfully make it to Venus, it’ll set a new standard for private space ambitions.

More: NASA’s DAVINCI Mission Will Plunge Through the Hellish Atmosphere of Venus

One day in 2014, 32-year-old musician AJ Luca texted her friend with some sad and shocking news. “Gina Marie’s mom,” the message began, “just died on the kitchen floor.” Immediately, without hesitation, Luca’s friend replied with her condolences. Gina Marie’s mom, Marie LaRosa, was a successful businesswoman who founded a large resort company with her husband. She died suddenly, of old age, while cooking. Gina Marie took over the family business after both of her parents passed. And all of this makes sense—none of this is weird—if you ignore the fact that Gina Marie and her mom are Sims.

It’s safe to say that New Jersey-based Luca has always been invested in her Sims. Her (real life) friend immediately knew what Luca’s text about Marie LaRosa meant—and sent commiserations, even though Marie was just a bunch of pixels in one of the best-selling video game series of all time. “My husband and my parents are on a first-name basis with my Sims,” Luca says, “I talk about them like they’re humans.” When catching up with family in the evening, Luca might say something like, “Cash Covington married Alysha today!”

Gina Marie and her mom were characters Luca created in The Sims 3, but when she bought a gaming laptop to play The Sims 4 in 2017, she made a new family: The Holts. Elementary school teacher Amy O’Grady married detective Jon Holt, and together they had five children: master painter Sadie, programmer Jon David, famous athlete Bobby, pro-gamer Paul, and veterinarian Andrea. Today, Amy and Jon have eight grandchildren. All it took was five years of Luca’s life.

For half a decade, Luca has been playing with the same Sims family—which has expanded through marriage to include the Covingtons and the McDermotts. As someone who has never played with the same Sim for longer than a week (and as someone who has forced more than one Sim to swim themselves to death) I am fascinated by Luca’s gameplay—and the gameplay of 21-year-old substitute teacher Shannon, who is also based in New Jersey.

Shannon (who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons) has been playing with the same Sims family for seven years. While Luca periodically turns off the game’s aging feature so that Jon and Amy Holt do not die, Shannon doesn’t—meaning the first man and woman of her Sims family, John and Laura Jones, have long since passed. “She got electrocuted while fixing the dishwasher, I still remember it,” Shannon says of Laura’s passing, “It was very sad.”

There are now 11 generations of Joneses. Shannon uses the (non-Sims related) ancestry app Quick Family Tree to keep track of her characters, and also shares the family’s progress on her social media accounts @simmingshannon. Here viewers leave comments like, “bruh why did this make me emotional.” Unsurprisingly, Shannon herself is emotionally attached to her Sims.

“I’m always taking pictures of them, and I have this huge wall in their house that’s just full of family photos from every generation. It is emotional, you get a little attached,” Shannon says. She calls playing the Sims an “escape” and “a way to explore different parts of life in a safe space before going out into the real world.” In the future—the real world—she hopes to have a big family of her own.

The wifi password is a power both desired and feared: Everyone wants to know it, but forget it, and you’re toast. Why Microsoft and Apple make it difficult to find wifi passwords on Windows and Mac isn’t clear (this is valuable information, after all). But, rest assured, those passwords are available to you if you’re prepared to click through some menus.

It isn’t only your computers that hide the wifi passwords: You can also see these passwords on your iPhone and Android devices as well. The next time someone asks for the wifi, as long as one of your device is connected to it, you can help.

How to see your wifi password on Windows

Microsoft hides your wifi passwords away behind various settings screens. How you get there, though, differs slightly depending on your platform. If you’re running Windows 11, hit Start, type control panel, then head to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center. If you’re on Windows 10, hit Start, then head to Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network and Sharing Center.

From here, on any platform, click on your particular wifi connection next to Connections, then, in Wi-Fi Status, click Wireless Properties. Now, open the Security tab, then make sure the Show characters box is checked. Once that’s done, you’ll see your network’s password. You can no share it with a friend or write it down and put it on the fridge.

How to see your wifi password on Mac

Apple does things a bit differently than Windows. You don’t necessarily view the password for the network you’re currently connected to; instead, the OS saves each wifi password you connect to in your device’s keychain, available to access whenever and wherever. You could share the wifi password from your old apartment to a subletter, or spill on the code for that coffee shop that really doesn’t like handing out the wifi.

To find it, open Keychain Access on your Mac (the quickest way is to search for it with Command + Space). Type your wifi network name into the search bar, then click the network when it appears in your list. With the network highlighted, click the (i) at the top of the window, or right-click on the network and choose Get Info, then click the checkbox next to Show password. Enter your Mac’s login password, and Keychain Access will reveal the wifi password in turn.

  

In 2016 Purdue University announced an income-share agreement program as a guinea pig experiment in which students could get money for college in exchange for a cut of their future earnings. “Back a Boiler,” it was called, in a nod to the school’s Boilermaker nickname. University president Mitch Daniels talked up the idea in testimony to Congress. 

Intrigued, other university leaders wanted in. “We’re looking at what Purdue University is doing now, and we are thinking about it,” said Sheila Bair, then president of Washington College. In subsequent years, Purdue’s program won a think tank’s award for most innovative public policy proposal, and at least 14 other colleges or universities launched similar initiatives.

So Purdue’s announcement in June that it was suspending the Back a Boiler program came as a thunderclap in the world of income-share agreements, or ISAs, and could signal the beginning of the end of experiments involving college students splitting their future paychecks with investors. 

The number of schools offering ISAs is sliding down the far side of the bell curve as several other accredited colleges or universities have ended or paused their programs. It’s a sign of fraught times for these schools and for the training boot camps that offer ISAs, with lawsuits mounting, federal and state governments imposing restrictions, and students reporting mixed satisfaction.

Purdue’s pause points to bigger problems in the ISA industry. One reason Back a Boiler has been suspended is that program servicer Vemo Education went out of business, says Brian Edelman, president of the Purdue Research Foundation. (Two other Vemo clients—Messiah University and Colorado Mountain College—also reported that the company has shut down, though the company doesn’t appear to have made a formal announcement. It did not respond to inquiries asking for confirmation.) 

A year ago, Vemo was sued by 47 former students of a for-profit coding academy called Make School; the students alleged that Vemo and Make School colluded to run a high-cost ISA program that violated state and federal laws forbidding unfair or deceptive business practices and false advertising. The students had agreed to repay 20 to 25 percent of their pre-tax income each month for three and a half years or more, with monthly payments as high as $2,500; some students signed contracts under which they would owe as much as $270,000. 

There’s another reason for Back a Boiler’s pause: clampdowns by the federal government on certain schools that offer ISAs. In a consent order last September issued by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against several private ISA providers, the bureau concluded that the schools had violated federal law by falsely telling users that ISAs weren’t loans and don’t create debt. A sample contract on the Back a Boiler website, for example, notes that “This is not a loan or credit.” 

In March, the Department of Education told accredited colleges and universities that, following on that order, they also must treat ISAs as loans, which have stricter rules requiring that students be allowed to pay them off early to save money. The protection bureau’s order interrupted the Purdue Research Foundation’s conversations with investors about an additional round of ISA funding, and Purdue decided to pause the program, Edelman said. 

It’s not just Purdue: Seven other accredited colleges or universities that once offered ISAs told The Hechinger Report that they’ve either paused or ended their programs. Only four of the fifteen schools contacted said they’re continuing; three schools didn’t respond to inquiries.

The strength and durability of cement has made it a staple building material around the world, but engineers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have finally come up with a way to manufacture it at a lower cost by swapping in some recycled materials.

Making concrete uses a fairly simple recipe. A binding agent, which is usually a paste-like material called portland cement, is mixed with water and aggregates: a combination of sand, rocks, and gravel. Adjusting the amount of the various ingredients can alter the properties of the concrete, making it stronger or lighter as needed, but some of the items on the ingredient list, like larger stones and gravel, can increase the price, particularly in parts of the world where those materials aren’t always readily available.

One way to help reduce the cost of making concrete is to replace the aggregate with other materials, including used rubber tires that have been ground up into small particles. The idea kills two birds with one stone, as it’s also a smart way to recycle the millions of worn down rubber tires removed from vehicles every year. But to date, engineers have only managed to create concrete that meets required strength standards using a combination of rocks and rubber.

The problem, as the engineers at RMIT University hypothesized in a recently published research paper, is that the rubber alternate has too many pores. During the initial mixing process, the water fills the pores in the rubber particles, but when it eventually dries and that water evaporates, what’s left is countless voids and gaps between the rubber and the cement around it, weakening the bond and reducing the strength and quality of the concrete.

The solution to replacing all of the aggregate material in concrete with recycled tire rubber was to place the wet ingredients into steel molds that compress the mixture with pressure to eliminate all of the rubber’s pores. After drying, the resulting concrete exhibited a much stronger bond between the hardened cement and the rubber particles, giving it a 97% increase in compressive strength, and a 20% boost in tensile strength.

That’s a big increase, but still not quite enough for the rubber tire concrete to be used as a reliable structural element, so the researchers are looking into other ways to reinforce and strengthen it even further. And while the new approach may increase manufacturing costs, in the long run, it should still prove to be a more cost effective alternative to traditional concrete. That’s because, in addition to using cheaper source materials, it results in a lighter material that’s easier and cheaper to ship.