Summary: News: Scientists Say New Treatment Lets Alopecia Patients Regrow Hair | Futurism (01:14) Scientists at Yale announced this week that a common arthritis medication (baricitinib) appears to help alopecia patients regrow their hair. a potential treatment for a widespread autoimmune condition. Baricitinib is used to reduce pain, stiffness, and swelling in adults with rheumatoid arthritis after other treatments have failed. Helps slow the progression of bone and joint damage. It is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors are a group of medications that inhibit activity and response of one or more of the Janus kinase enzymes (JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, and TYK2). These enzymes normally promote inflammation and autoimmunity. Alopecia is a common autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss Affects people of all ages, although it most commonly appears in adolescence or early adulthood. Affects 1 in every 500 to 1,000 people in the United States. There is currently no FDA-approved treatment for the disease. Dr. Brett King, lead author on the study told Yale news:“This is so exciting, because the data clearly show how effective baricitinib is … These large, controlled trials tell us that we can alleviate some of the suffering from this awful disease.” For the study, the researchers conducted two large, randomized trials involving a total of 1,200 people. For 36 weeks, participants were given a daily dose of either 4 milligrams of baricitinib, 2 milligrams of baricitinib, or a placebo. One-third of the patients who received the larger dose grew hair back. The researchers stated that baricitinib thwarts the disease by disrupting the communication of immune cells involved in harming hair follicles. Hopefully this medication will be proven to be safe & effective and approved by regulators. Waymo says fully driverless rides are coming to San Francisco | The Verge (06:47) Waymo plans to start offering rides in its fully autonomous vehicles — without human safety drivers behind the wheel — in San Francisco. They join a waitlist and, once approved, sign non-disclosure agreements to get access to the company’s early technology. As of right now it is only available to employees but will soon grow to include members of the company’s “Trusted Tester” program. The Trusted Tester program is for customers interested in using Waymo’s robotaxis. The vehicles will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Waymo says. Additionally, Waymo is making moves in Arizona.Growing to include downtown Phoenix after operating exclusively in the exurban towns of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Tempe for nearly five years. Waymo has been running fully driverless rides without a safety driver in those towns outside of Phoenix for more than a year now. They must be confident they have enough data to move forward with autonomous taxis.Last year, the company logged the most miles driven autonomously of all the companies permitted to test in the state: 2.3 million miles, a huge increase over 2020, when it had about 629,000 miles driven, and even the pre-pandemic year of 2019, with 1.45 million. The expansion of Waymo’s service area in Phoenix and the imminent launch of driverless rides in San Francisco signal the company’s sense of confidence that its vehicles can operate safely and efficiently in more dense, urban environments. Quantum technology could make charging electric cars as fast as pumping gas | Phys.org (12:10) For a long time, batteries had far lower energy density than those offered by hydrocarbons, which resulted in very low ranges of early electric vehicles.Improvements in battery technologies eventually allowed the drive ranges of electric cars to be within acceptable levels However, despite the vast improvements in battery technology, today's consumers of electric vehicles face another difficulty: slow battery charging speed.Takes about 10 hours to fully recharge at home Even the fastest superchargers require up
