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The fast pace of technological changes and innovation continues unabated. Minor ones aside, perhaps the most obvious, the biggest two trends are electric cars and then our increasing dependency on the digital cloud for most everything.

The first is the impressive, strong push by the industry and governments to discontinue gasoline cars and move either to hybrid or to fully electric vehicles. The second is making us not just to keep data there but also, and more importantly, to do all our computer work, transactions, purchases and business directly on the net, without installing software on our computers, except for Internet access. The combined social impacts of these two changes cannot be underestimated. Moreover, merely following is not enough, one has to make the best of it all.

Make the best of the innovations requires adaptation. So, how do you adapt?

The speed of change is nothing new. For the last 25 years or so, we have kept on saying “technological changes are taking place faster than we can adapt to them” – it’s understood. Even those working in the technology field are now finding it hard to follow. It is therefore easy to imagine how the consumer, the layman feels about it!

For a quarter of a century we have just been observing the situation and admitting how hard it was to adapt, without anyone coming up with a solution, not to the change per se of course, but to learning how to adapt quickly, smoothly.

This is a big question, and asking for a formal, structured methodology to address it is easier said than done, I admit.

Countless subjects have become crucial to living well in this modern age. Adapting to technological changes is one of them. This is one of the topics that they don’t teach you at school, for there has simply never been any curriculum set for that. Maybe academics and education authorities should start thinking about it; it is never too late.

There would be no need to establish a full college degree in what I would call “Adapting to Technological Changes”; that would be going overboard. However, setting up an elective course would do nicely. Essentially it all consists of being mentally ready to keep learning new ways, not to be “locked” in what you already know, have learned or are using at some point in time.

One should be constantly prepared to accept the fact that, for example, whatever software application you have learned and are using, you should never take it for granted or think you will be using it as it is for as long as you live, but should be willing to start all over again and again, and learn a new one several times in a lifetime, repeatedly, relentlessly.

I have spoken to computer programmers who have graduated in the 1980s. Most of them are already in their fourth or fifth programming language. College days seem so distant…

Many are the drivers who are over sixty, and who still do not make the best use of the (already old) technology built in their cars such as ABS or automatic gear shifting. How are they going to handle fully-electric cars? Swedish carmaker Volvo has just announced that starting 2019 it will completely stop building gasoline-only cars and France has serious plans to see only electric cars on its roads by 2040.

So next time you see a screen notification on your computer inviting you to upgrade Windows 10 to its new Creators version (expected before the end of this year), or if your Internet provider is after you, nagging to make you change from copper ADSL to fibre optic, just welcome the change and go for it gladly. It is easy and painless once you accept the idea that nothing stays the same for too long in the field of technology. It’s just a state of mind one has to get into.

HONG KONG — It is 2050 and the world revolves around you. From the contents of your fridge to room temperature — digital assistants ensure your home runs smoothly. Your screens know your taste and show channels you want to see as you enter the room. Your car is driverless and your favourite barman may just be an android.

Predictions for an artificial intelligence (AI)-dominated future are increasingly common, but Antoine Blondeau has experience in reading, and arguably manipulating, the runes — he helped develop technology that evolved into predictive texting and Apple’s Siri.

“In 30 years the world will be very different,” he says, adding: “Things will be designed to meet your individual needs.”

Work, as we know it, will be redundant, he says — visual and sensory advances in robotics will see smart factories make real-time decisions requiring only human oversight rather than workers, while professions such as law, journalism, accounting and retail will be streamlined with AI doing the grunt work. 

Healthcare is set for a revolution, with individuals holding the data about their health and AI able to diagnose ailments, he explains. Blondeau says: “If you have a doctor’s appointment, it will be perhaps for the comfort of talking things through with a human, or perhaps because regulation will dictate a human needs to dispense medicine. But you won’t necessarily need the doctor to tell you what’s wrong.”

The groundwork has been done: Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home are essentially digital butlers that can respond to commands as varied as ordering pizza to managing appliances, while Samsung is working on a range of “smart” fridges, capable of giving daily news briefings, ordering groceries, or messaging your family at your request.

Leading media companies are already using “AI journalists” to produce economics and sports stories from data and templates created by their human counterparts.

Blondeau’s firm Sentient Technologies has already successfully used AI traders in the financial markets. In partnership with US retailer Shoes.com, it created an interactive ‘smart shopper’, which uses an algorithm that picks up information from gauging what you like and what you do not, offering suggestions.

In healthcare, the firm worked with America’s MIT to invent an AI nurse able to assess patterns in blood pressure data from thousands of patients to correctly identify those developing sepsis 30 minutes before the outward onset of the condition more than 90 per cent of the time in trials.

“It’s a critical window that doctors say gives them the extra time to save lives,” Blondeau says, but concedes bringing such concepts to the masses is difficult.

“The challenge is to pass to market because of regulations, but also because people have an intrinsic belief you can trust a doctor, but will they trust a machine?”

For many the idea of mass AI-caused redundancy is terrifying, but Blondeau is pragmatic: humans need to rethink careers and education.

“The era where you exit the education system at 16, 21, or 24 and that is it, is broadly gone,” he explains.

“People will have to retrain and change skillsets as the technology evolves.”

Blondeau disagrees that having a world so catered to your whims and wants might lead to a myopic life, a magnified version of the current social media echo chamber, arguing it is possible to inject “serendipity” into the technology, to throw up surprises.

While computers have surpassed humans at specific tasks and games, predictions of a time when they develop artificial general intelligence enabling them to perform any intellectual task an adult can range from as early as 2030 to the end of the century.

But Blondeau, says, “Like any invention it can be used for good and bad. There will be checks along the way, we are not going to wake up one day and suddenly realise the machines are aware.”

LOS ANGELES — Without a superhero movie or new studio sequel in play, this weekend provided an opening for two smaller films to shine. But as the weekend draws to a close, one is beaming brighter than the other.

That title goes to Lionsgate’s R-rated action comedy “Hitman’s Bodyguard”, which is firing off to $21.4 million during its opening weekend at 3,377 locations. That is a solid opening, especially during a painful summer for the movie business and sleepy month of August. The final tally was fuelled by an aggressive marketing push, and a trio of stars at the centre — Samuel L. Jackson as a notorious hitman, and Salma Hayek as hit equally threatening wife, and Ryan Reynolds as a bodyguard. The film comes courtesy of director Patrick Hughes (“The Expendables 3”) and writer Tom O’Connor.

“’The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ is generating great word of mouth among moviegoers,” said Lionsgate’s distribution president David Spitz. “It has a clear runway in the weeks ahead, and we expect it to play well right into September.”

Meanwhile, “Logan Lucky” — a critical darling from Steven Soderbergh and Bleecker Street — sputtered. The heist comedy, which relied on an unconventional production and marketing strategy, made $7.6 million this weekend from 3,031 theatres. The film was partially funded through foreign pre-sales and partnering with Amazon for streaming rights. The story — penned by Rebecca Blunt, who likely does not exist — centres on a trio of siblings played by Channing Tatum, Riley Keough, and Adam Driver, who attempt to pull off a massive robbery. It’s set at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race.

Of the two, “Logan Lucky” fared better with critics, earning a 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to “Hitman’s Bodyguard”, which has a 39 per cent. But the roles are reversed when it comes to audience reception — “Hitman’s Bodyguard” has a B+ CinemaScore as opposed to “Logan Lucky’s” B.

In the end, “Logan Lucky” came in third for the weekend behind the second frame of “Annabelle: Creation”. The latest in the “Conjuring” universe from Warner Bros. made $15.5 million from 3,542 locations. And “Dunkirk” landed in fourth behind “Logan Lucky” with $6.6 million. The same studio has more cause to celebrate as “Wonder Woman” crosses $800 million worldwide.

“Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” rounds out the top five this weekend with $5.1 million.

Outside of the wide releases, TWC continues its gradual rollout for Taylor Sheridan’s “Wind River”. This weekend it took in $3 million from 694 locations, raising its total past $4.1 million. And major acquisition at Sundance, “Patti Cake$” is struggling to find an audience with $66,000 from 14 locations.

Overall, the summer of hell continues: This season’s box office has slipped to 13.3 per cent behind last year at this point, according to data from ComScore, which also reports the 2017 box office is now pacing 5 per cent behind 2016.

A form of immunotherapy gaining ground as a way to treat childhood food allergies has shown promise in treating another rising scourge of children and young adults: Type 1 diabetes.

In a small but rigorous clinical trial, British investigators gave patients recently diagnosed with the metabolic disorder a truncated version of the chemical that gives rise to insulin.

After a quarter-century of failed efforts to treat diabetes with an immune therapy, the experimental treatment appeared to quell the immune system’s assaults on the body’s insulin-production machinery. The authors of the new study call their experimental treatment “an appealing strategy for prevention”, both in the earliest stages of Type 1 diabetes and in children who are at high genetic risk of developing the disease.

Over the trial’s 12-month duration, eight newly diagnosed diabetic subjects who got a placebo treatment required steadily increasing insulin doses to maintain glycaemic control. As their immune systems progressively destroyed the pancreatic cells that normally produce the essential hormone, their daily insulin use grew on average 50 per cent.

The 19 subjects who got the experimental immunotherapy, however, continued to produce their own insulin. Among the subjects who got the experimental immunotherapy, the need for added shots of the hormone did not escalate in the year following their diagnosis.

The different metabolic trajectories of subjects in the trial’s control group and its active arm were evident at three months — the earliest point at which a surrogate marker for insulin production was measured.

The report of the early-stage clinical trial, published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, offers some preliminary reassurance that immunotherapy could be used safely in this growing population.

Researchers have been wary of pursuing the strategy in diabetes, worried that it could accelerate or strengthen the immune system’s attack on insulin-producing pancreatic cells, or cause dangerous allergic reactions. In the current study, injections of an immunotherapeutic agent caused no detectable worrisome response — not even redness or swelling at the site of injection — prompting the authors to declare its safety profile “very favourable”.

Recent years have seen progress in the bid to develop chemical mimics of allergens that train and reassure the defenders of the immune system rather than inflame and encourage them. The approach, called antigen-specific immunotherapy, has seen growing success in the treatment of allergies to common foods, such as peanuts, eggs and soy.

Similar to food allergies, Type 1 diabetes is an immune disorder — a disease in which the immune system misidentifies a harmless or even necessary agent (whether ingested peanuts or insulin-making cells in the pancreas) as a threat. The immune system’s assault not only can cause discomfort and danger in the form of itching, swelling or anaphylactic shock. In diabetes, it destroys a function that is essential to the body’s ability to extract fuel from food and to keep freely circulating blood sugar from damaging organs and blood vessels.

Just as lab-produced chemical snippets of peanuts accustom an overactive immune system to the eventual introduction of real peanuts, the researchers hoped that the chemical flag they devised would teach the immune systems of newly diagnosed diabetics to recognise insulin and call off their attack on its source.

By using just a piece of the antigen that typically causes the immune reaction, the approach of such “peptide immunotherapy” aims to inure the immune system to the object of attack while avoiding a full-on allergic response.

At Cardiff University and King’s College London, researchers led by Dr Mohammad Alhadj Ali isolated a compound called a proinsulin C19 A3 peptide. A fragment of the chemical that gives rise to insulin, the peptide (known to chemists by the catchy moniker GSLQPLALEGSLQKRGIV) is called an epitope.

Over six months, they gave 19 subjects with early diabetes injections of the epitope in one of two doses: either every two or every four weeks. The subjects’ glycemic control and insulin use were then tracked for another six months.

The subjects were mostly in their mid- to late-20s, and had all been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the previous 100 days. The study’s recruits were all at a stage of the disorder when the pancreas’ insulin-producing cells were still at least partly intact and capable of producing the hormone in response to food intake. But the immune system’s CD4 and CD8 T-cells had begun to mount their attacks on the beta-cells of the pancreas.

Each year in the United States, some 40,000 people get a new diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, a disorder that can upend a life of carefree eating and reduce life expectancy by a decade. Like many auto-immune disorders, including celiac disease and lupus, the incidence of Type 1 diabetes appears to have risen sharply. Diagnoses of Type 1 diabetes have escalated at an annual average of 4 per cent in recent decades.

Officially opening for business in the UAE and to the public in Jordan as of earlier this year, Tesla is, however, not an uncommon sight for Jordanian motorists. Operating in a governmental fleet car capacity in Jordan and in collaboration with the Silicon Valley manufacturer, Tesla is set to become the next big thing on the local motoring landscape. 

Benefitting from a comparably favourable import duty and tax regime as electric and hybrid cars do in the Kingdom, greater brand exposure and consumer demand for electric vehicles, not to mention an admittedly small but soon to expand charging station network, the upstart American electric car maker is in relative terms, likely to prove a bigger hit in Jordan.

Dramatic and futuristic

Longest serving of a current three model line stable, the Model S first arrived in 2012, and has been expanding regularly updated in terms of power-train and technology. A large and low all-electric high performance luxury four-door, the Model S competes with an eclectic range of cars, all the way from premium saloons to luxury flagships and high-end supercar exotics in terms of outright acceleration. But with its slinky coupe-like low roofline, body-style and frameless windows, and considerable length and width, the Model S, however, closely resembles so-called ‘four-door-saloons’. 

In terms of deign aesthetic, body style and combination of sporting ability and luxurious appointment, the Model S slots in best among the Aston Martin Rapide, Audi A7, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class and Porsche Panamera.

Lightly redesigned to feature a less conventional front design with only a small slit-style grille to both differentiate it from traditional internal combustion engine cars and further emphasise its futuristic direction, the revised Model S line-up circa 2016 also saw the introduction of the brand’s new P100D flagship variant, as recently driven on Jordanian roads.

Dramatic yet relatively understated for so extreme a car, the P100D differs little aesthetically from the rest of the swooping and stylish Model S range. Not just the most powerful Tesla yet, the Model S P100D ranks heavy hitting and astronomically expensive hypercars as among the world’s fastest accelerating road cars ever, and is arguably the world’s quickest such current regular production car.

Violent yet silent

Built as an electric car from ground up rather than adapted, the Model S features extensive use of lightweight aluminium to offset its dual electric motors’ and large battery pack’s weight, with the latter positioned across its floor to keep major weights low and concentrated within the wheelbase to enhance balance and body control through corners. Tesla’s most powerful battery pack yet at 100kwh, the P100D drives all four wheels through two electric motors with single-speed automatic gearbox. Positioned over the axles, the front motor develops an estimated 259BHP and 277lb/ft torque, and the more powerful rear motor produces 503BHP and 525lb/ft. Meanwhile a regenerative braking system harnesses kinetic energy to help charge the batteries and reduce mechanical brake wear. 

In the absence of official published combined, or total, power ratings from Tesla, the Model S P100D has been estimated to produce anywhere from between 680BHP to around 800BHP, but 762BHP seems to be the most often quoted figure. Meanwhile epic and immediate sledgehammer-like torque unofficially rated at 791lb/ft (and in excess of 900lb/ft according to one Motor Trend magazine dynometer test), slams one back into the seat and ensures beguilingly violent but silent acceleration from standstill.

Notable for the sheer surging immediacy of its torque and power output, g-force generated and seamless delivery, the P100D is officially rated as completing the 0-100km/h sprint in just 2.7-seconds. Motor Trend magazine have, however, clocked a 0-97km/h time in under 2.3-seconds, albeit from a rolling start and not absolute standstill.

Aggressive yet efficient

Aggressive, responsive and swift like scant few cars, and with no gear change interruptions, the P100D’s best performance is, however, to be had at relatively lower speed. Overtaking at what seems like warp speeds when one engages Ludicrous mode to access its full potential, the P100D is capable of an electronically limited 250km/h top speed. More than powerful enough in normal driving mode, ludicrous mode increases driveline wear and with increased power, reduces driving range.

Not just one of the world’s fastest accelerating cars, the P100D offers the longest driving range of any regular production electric car, with a combined cycle rating of 507km by the US Environmental Protection Agency (as driven with 21-inch wheels). This can be increased with slower driving and gentler inputs, or significantly reduced with more aggressive driving and higher speed.

Delivering peak performance when its battery is running relatively cool, there is a law of diminished return when one is too aggressive too often in a short space of time. However, with so much brute force available, one hardly notices a drop off, and on launch, the one feels P100D’s always active stability and traction controls scrambling to regular and harness the P100D’s prodigious output into forward motion instead of wheel-spin.

Hefty at 2250kg, the P100D’s large ventilated disc brakes are supplemented with regenerative braking to add an additional and reassuring layer of stopping force that shaves off momentum immediately on lift-off. A less aggressive regenerative brake mode, however, allows for a more fluent driving experience where one doesn’t need to keep riding the accelerator pedal as often.

Seamless delivery

Brutally quick, technologically advanced and smooth, the Models S P100D’s may not be as outright visceral in character as a light and lithe petrol-powered sports car, but in that is not what it is meant to do. Instead, it delivers is a superbly silent and effortlessly versatile driving experience that large luxury cars are meant to. 

And in comparison with most hybrid cars, its all-electric drive-line is smoother and more seamlessly fluent than the petrol-electric integration issues often associated with hybrid cars. In terms of practicality, the Model S serves well as a commuter car with its long range, low charging costs, relatively quick recharge times and availability of charging points along the Amman-Aqaba route, but cannot match the quick convenience and availability of refuelling a petrol or diesel vehicle

With a big footprint, aerodynamic form, low centre of gravity and optional adaptive air suspension it rides smooth, reassuring stability and refinement at speed. A comfortable long distance cruiser, the P100D is agile and confident through fast sweeping corners.

Turning in crisply with front wheels gripping hard and its electric-assisted steering providing quick, precise and clinical responses, the P100D’s air suspension provides taut body control. Through corners and over choppy roads, one can almost feel just how low the P100D’s centre of gravity is.

Meanwhile, its adaptive air suspension provides a mostly smooth and comfortable ride, but with a sporty set-up and low profile front 245/35R21 and 265/35R21 rear tyres, can feel on the firm side over bumps at low speed.

High tech luxury

With dual motor four-wheel-drive, and stability systems allocating power front and rear, the P100D provides good grip through corners, but given its immense and instant torque delivery, one should progressively feed power through the accelerator to not lose rear traction when powering out of corners. Effortlessly capable and precise when overtaking and poised through corners, the P100D’s low roof line, vast width and low profile tyres, however, make it tricky to maneuver in narrow and confined spaces. 

That said, its bird’s eye view camera, large reversing monitor and parking sensors with precise distance readout in centimetres, help immensely. Also useful to aid visibility is the P100D’s blind spot alert system, which is integrated with its Autopilot system, which in turn was disengaged during test drive.

Luxurious and well appointed with two-tone leather and carbon-fibre trim panels, the P100D is also highly well equipped with luxury, safety and driver-assistance features. With supportive and well-adjustable seats in front, the P100D’s various settings, information, connectivity, entertainment and other features are access through a huge, user-friendly and logical portrait-style 17-inch touchscreen.

Highly refined inside, the Model S is also a practical car with front and rear luggage room for up to 894-litres, 60:40 folding rear seats, adjustable ride height, and optional rear-facing third row child seats with five-point harnesses. Rear legroom and width are good, but for tall adults, rear headroom is less than ideal owing to the rakishly low roofline. Centre console storage is generous, but cup-holders could be better positioned, and a folding rear seat armrest would be welcome.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Dual front & rear three phase, four pole AC electric motors

Battery: 100kwh lithium-ion

Gearbox: 1-speed automatic

Driveline: four-wheel-drive, open differentials

Axle ratio, F/R: 9.34:1/9.73:1

Power – front motor, BHP (PS) [kW]: 259 (262) [193]*

Power – rear motor, BHP (PS) [kW]: 503 (510) [375]*

Power, combined, BHP (PS) [kW]: 680-762 (690-772) [507-568]*

Torque – front motor, lb/ft (Nm): 277 [375]*

Torque – rear motor, lb/ft (Nm): 525 [712]*

Torque, combined, lb/ft (Nm): 791 (1072)*

0-97km/h: 2.5-seconds

0-100km/h: 2.7-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Energy consumption, city/highway: 37/32kW-hrs/160km* 

Range, at constant 105km/h, 21-inch wheels: 520km

Range, combined, EPA estimate, 21-inch wheels: 507km

Battery charging time: 6.3-9.5-hours*

Battery charging time, “supercharger”: 75-minutes*

Height: 1417-1460mm*

Width, with mirrors/mirrors folded: 2187/1964mm

Length: 4978mm

Wheelbase: 2960mm

Track, F/R: 1662/1700mm

Ground clearance: 116-160mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.24*

Curb weight: 2250kg*

Weight distribution, F/R; 51:49 per cent*

Headroom, F/R: 986/897mm

Legroom, F/R: 1085/897mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1466/1397mm

Luggage volume, front and rear: 894-litres

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Steering ratio: 14.1:1

Lock-to-lock: 2.3-turns

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbone/multilink, adaptive air dampers

Brakes, F/R: 355mm/365mm ventilated discs, regenerative braking

Tyres, F/R: 245/35R21/265/35R21

*estimates

It is not just humans who will be affected by the Great American Eclipse coming on August 21 — expect animals to act strangely too.

Anecdotal evidence and a few scientific studies suggest that as the moon moves briefly between the sun and the Earth, causing a deep twilight to fall across the land, large swaths of the animal kingdom will alter their behaviour.

Eclipse chasers say they have seen songbirds go quiet, large farm animals lie down, crickets start to chirp and chickens begin to roost.

Elise Ricard, public programmes supervisor at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, recalled the eerie silence that accompanied the start of a total eclipse early on a June morning in 2012.

“I was sitting on a beach with my back to the jungle, and if you know anything about jungles, they are not usually quiet,” she said. “But to suddenly hear all those noisy birds get quiet as the eclipse got close, that was a powerful sensory experience.”

Doug Duncan, director of the Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has had a few strange run-ins with animals over his many years of eclipse chasing.

He saw a line of lamas gather together to see a total eclipse with him and his fellow astronomers in Bolivia.

When he was viewing a different eclipse from a boat near the Galapagos Islands, he saw dozens of whales and dolphins swim to the surface of the ocean five minutes before the eclipse began. They hung out there until five minutes after the eclipse, before returning to the watery depths, he recalled.

Totality — the time when the face of the sun is fully covered by the moon — only lasts a few minutes, but scientists say it is still capable of affecting animals who use light cues to help them decide what to do and when.

“Certain stimuli can overrule normal behaviour without affecting an animal’s daily physiological rhythms,” said Joanna Chiu, who studies animal circadian clocks at the University of California, Davis. “It is not surprising that the eclipse will temporarily affect animal behaviour, but it is unlikely to affect their internal clock or their behaviour in the long run.”

University of Toledo biology professor Elliot Tramer reported that seabirds on the north coast of Venezuela were affected by a total eclipse that passed through the area in 2008.

Brown pelicans and frigatebirds that had been foraging over the water before the eclipse left the bay 13 minutes before totality and did not return until 12 minutes after the solar disk was fully revealed.

He concluded that although total solar eclipses are short, they can still interrupt normal avian daytime behaviour.

In another study published in the Journal of Fish Biology in 1998, a team of researchers found that fish also respond to changes in light during an eclipse.

After observing reef fish during a total eclipse that swept over Pinta Island in the Galapagos, the authors found that daytime fish sought shelter in the reef during totality while nocturnal fish were more likely to leave the cover of their daytime habitats.

Yet another study in Veracruz, Mexico, found that some orb-weaver spiders will start to dismantle their webs during totality, and then rebuild them when the sun’s face is revealed once again.

But there is always more to learn, so it should come as no surprise that a few experiments to document animal behaviour are in the works for the Great American Eclipse.

Jonathan Fram, an assistant professor at Oregon State University, plans to use a series of bio-acoustic sonars to see whether zooplankton in the path of totality will rise in the water column as the sun is obscured by the moon.

Across the ocean, an enormous number of animals hide in the deep, dark waters during the day, and then swim upward during the cover of night to take advantage of the food generated in the sunlit part of the ocean.

“It’s the biggest migration on the planet, and most of us don’t even know it is happening,” said Kelly Benoit-Bird, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is not involved with Fram’s study.

Scientists have known for decades that changes in light can affect these animals’ migration patterns. For example, most of these deep-water migrants will not swim as close to the surface as usual during a full moon. Still, a total eclipse provides an ideal natural experiment that can help researchers learn how important light cues are to different critters, Benoit-Bird said.

Fram, who works on a project known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, will be able to get data from six bio-acoustic sonars off the Northwest coast — three that are directly in the path of totality and three that are not. This should allow researchers to see how much the sun has to dim to affect changes in the zooplankton’s movements.

Children who do not get enough sleep may be more likely to develop diabetes than kids who typically get enough shuteye, a UK study suggests. 

That is because each additional hour of sleep children get at night is associated with a lower body weight, more lean muscle mass and less accumulation of sugars in the blood, researchers report in Paediatrics. Obesity and elevated blood sugar are risk factors for type 2 diabetes, which happens when the body cannot properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. 

“These findings suggest increasing sleep duration could offer a simple, cost-effective approach to reducing levels of body fat and type 2 diabetes risk early in life,” senior study author Christopher Owen of St George’s, University of London, said by e-mail. 

Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes because it was so rare in children. But today, it is a common childhood health problem, in large part because millions of kids worldwide are overweight or obese, do not get enough exercise, and eat too many sugary and fatty foods. 

For the current study, researchers examined survey data on sleep habits and lab results from tests of risk factors for diabetes in 4,525 UK children age 9 or 10. 

On average, the kids slept 10.5 hours on school nights, although sleep duration ranged from 8 to 12 hours. 

Children who got less sleep in the study were more likely to have a risk factor for diabetes known as insulin resistance, when the body does not respond normally to the hormone. 

Kids who slept less were also more likely to be extremely overweight or obese and have more body fat, the study also found. 

Kids 6 to 12 years old should get 9 to 12 hours of sleep a night, according to the American Academy of Paediatrics. Not getting enough sleep is associated with an increased risk of injuries, high blood pressure, obesity and depression. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how insufficient sleep might lead to diabetes in children. Researchers also relied on kids to accurately recall and report what time they went to bed and woke up, which might not accurately reflect how much sleep they really got. 

Even so, it’s possible that insufficient sleep might negatively impact children’s appetites and ability to regulate blood sugar, said Stacey Simon, a paediatric sleep psychologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado. 

“When kids are going to bed very late or sleeping on an irregular schedule, they may also be skipping meals, eating at irregular times, or be less likely to exercise during the day,” Simon, who was not involved in the study, said by email. 

Insufficient sleep can affect levels of hormones that control appetite, making kids hungrier and increasing cravings for sweet and salty snacks, said James Gangwisch, a psychiatry researcher at Columbia University in New York who wasn’t involved in the study. 

“Getting enough sleep helps keep our appetite in check and is protective against insulin resistance,” Gangwisch said by e-mail. 

Beyond making sure kids have regular bedtime, parents should also focus on what is known as sleep hygiene, said Femke Rutters of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. 

This can include things like limiting screen time before bed and making sure the bedroom is totally dark at night, Rutters, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

SAN DIEGO — A diabetes drug developed by a San Diego biotech company from a venomous lizard’s saliva reduces Parkinson’s disease symptoms, according to a recently study published.

The placebo-controlled study of 62 patients found the drug, exenatide, provided statistically significant effectiveness in preserving motor control. It may actually slow down disease progression, although this has to be confirmed with more research.

For Parkinson’s patients, the trial represents stronger grounds to expect more effective treatments.

The study was published in The Lancet by researchers led by Thomas Foltynie and Dilan Athauda, both of University College London in London. While the study wasn’t particularly large, with 62 patients, it was placebo-controlled and is in line with a previous clinical study published in 2014.

Exenatide was found in Gila monster saliva by Dr John Eng, an endocrinologist at Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in New York. The venomous lizard, native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, delivers excruciating pain with its bite.

San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals licensed the discovery in 1996. Further development yielded exenatide, sold under the brand name Byetta.

The drug became a hit, providing a major reason for Amylin’s 2012 purchase for $7 billion by Bristol-Myers Squibb. As for Amylin, the company was disbanded and no longer exists.

Exenatide/Byetta reduces insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes, allowing for better control of blood glucose. There’s evidence that Parkinson’s disease is also related to problems with insulin signaling.

The new clinical study improves on the previous study because it is placebo-controlled, according to an accompanying commentary in The Lancet. But the study has limitations that prevent it from being considered definitive.

“Whether exenatide acts as a novel symptomatic agent or has neuroprotective effects on the underlying Parkinson’s disease pathology remains unclear, but Athauda and colleagues’ study opens up a new therapeutic avenue in treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” the commentary stated.

Christian Weyer, M.D., a former Amylin executive, said one of the most interesting parts of the study was exenatide’s potential for modifying the course of Parkinson’s disease. Weyer is now president of Chula Vista’s ProSciento, a clinical services provider.

Patients were measured on motor skills after getting 48 weeks of injections, either with exenatide or placebo. The treated group showed an advantage of 4 points on a 132-scale test, which was statistically significant.

Exenatide mimics the action of a hormone, and such drugs often show disease-modifying properties, said Weyer, who was Amylin’s senior vice president of research and development.

“It’s not conclusive that exenatide has the potential for disease modification, but I was impressed by the fact that the endpoint of the test was in the off-medication period, so you actually assess whether there’s an effect even after the treatment had been stopped,” Weyer said.

Finding the perfect stereo earphones for your smartphone is impossible. They simply do not exist. Which is quite unfortunate, since many of us depend on this important accessory that does not only allow hands-free communication, but also significantly reduces the health hazard associated with holding the phone set close to your head during long conversations. I am not even mentioning the use of it while driving in your car, given that none of us should be doing this in the first place, of course…

Stereo earphones are useful not just with smartphones but with laptops too. Most if not all of the new computers models are fitted with Bluetooth connectivity that allows you to listen to music through the earphones, making the accessory even more important to have.

Perfect implies countless characteristics. Convenience, comfort, lightweight, good aesthetics, reasonable price, and battery power for at least 12 hours without recharge. Add to that quality of sound that should be good enough not only for speech but for music too; and naturally wireless connectivity that is reliable and does not let you down in the middle of an important conversation or creates nerve-breaking hiccups when listening to Bach’s or Ed Sheeran’s music. I have yet to find such an accessory. There is always something missing in the checklist to perfection!

Yesterday I thought I had found the Holy Grail of stereo earphones. I saw on the net that Revols have opened the floor for pre-ordering their new set. They present it as “The Last Earphones You’ll Ever Need”, which somewhat is a passé slogan; but never minds. The Revols set does not only satisfy most of the above characteristics, it also comes with an innovative extra feature and not a minor one: it moulds itself to you ear’s shape on first use and therefore becomes custom-made for you, bringing utmost comfort. As for the audio quality in it, it comes courtesy of Onkyo, the great Japanese reference in terms of premium music sound.
No need to say more.

I felt enthusiastic about it and was about to order one when I saw the $300 price tag. This is half the price of a high-end smartphone or of a typical laptop computer. Is it justified? It is hard to tell, and of course it depends on your budget and on the importance you give to the subject. For most of the population, however, this is what you would call a very expensive accessory. So much for perfection…

Samsung has a set that is almost as good as Revols’, for one third of the price of the latter, it is the company’s best-selling Gear Circle. Admitted, it does not have the custom moulding-to-your-ear feature and the quality of the music sound it produces is only acceptable.

Bose, another well-known maker of high definition sound equipment, also proposes superb stereo earphones, at about the same high price as Revols. Bose QuietControl set does not feature custom-fit design, but has the company’s famous noise-cancelling technology that almost completely isolates you from external noise.

Apart from the esoteric Revols, the refined Bose, and the good-enough Gear Circle, there are tens if not hundreds of Bluetooth stereo earphones models on the market, typically in the $20 to $60 price range. Just log on Amazon and give it a try by searching, you’ll be lost and will find it hard to choose.

Many hesitate before paying more than that. However important the ear set may be for you, it is still nothing but a small accessory that can be easily lost or stolen. Keeping the cost reasonable may be the sensible way to go.

Besides, if listening to quality music matters a lot, you can still do it with an additional set of wired earphones or even headphones. These produce superb sound and do not cost an arm and a leg.

And you thought paying for the smartphone or the laptop was the end of the story!