Lifeboat Foundation

No, it’s not a DeLorean, but it’s still pretty sweet.

Federal officials are disappointed to find that the monoclonal antibody drugs they’ve shipped across the country aren’t being used rapidly.

These drugs are designed to prevent people recently diagnosed with COVID-19 from ending up in the hospital. But hospitals are finding it cumbersome to use these medicines, which must be given by IV infusion. And some patients and doctors are lukewarm about drugs that have an uncertain benefit.

Doctors hope that as word gets out, more people will end up trying these drugs. They are provided to health systems free by the federal government, but it costs money to administer the medication. At first, Medicare set a price that would require many patients to pay a $60 copay, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services later found a way to waive that fee.

Continue reading “Low Demand For Antibody Drugs Against COVID-19” »

Get your cutoff jean shorts and wrist guards ready. Thundrblades introduces electric, carbon fiber, glow-in-the-dark inline skates.

For now, the company’s new Metal Jet printers make key fobs and other doodads. But one day they could create car parts.

Apple’s first passenger car could include its own breakthrough battery technology.

Apple is actively working on various automotive projects that could ultimately lead to an “Apple Car” and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle.

When it comes to the semiconductor industry, silicon has reigned as king in the electronics field, but it is coming to the end of its physical limits.

To more effectively power the electrical grid, locomotives and even electric cars, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists are turning to diamond as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor.

Diamond has been shown to have superior carrier mobility, break down electric field and thermal conductivity, the most important properties to power electronic devices. It became especially desirable after the development of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for growth of high-quality single crystals.

There they go again. Just a few months ago the US Department of Energy tapped a startup called Group14 Technologies for a multi-million dollar R&D grant to usher in a new generation of high performance EV batteries, and now here comes Group14 with another $17 million in series B funding spearheaded by the South Korean battery expert SK Materials. If you guessed that means scaling up production for the mass market, you’re right on the money. The bigger question is why the Energy Department is determined to support the US electric vehicle industry, considering that White House policy has been aimed at supporting the US oil industry. Any guesses?

This October, I left the comfortable embrace of Earth’s gravity, taking to the skies aboard a “zero-gravity flight.”

Even Apple wants to get into the automobile business it seems.

(Reuters) — Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The iPhone maker’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch. At one point, Apple drew back the effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals. Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla Inc, returned to oversee the project in 2018 and laid off 190 people from the team in 2019.

Continue reading “Exclusive: Apple targets car production by 2024 and eyes ‘next level’ battery technology” »