Month: October 2023

Enlarge / The winning entry: a rodent optic nerve head with astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red), and retinal vasculature (green). (credit: Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson)

Millions of Americans with diabetes (about 1 in 5) face the risk of eventual blindness due to diabetic retinopathy, a condition that affects blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. It's a difficult condition to spot in its earliest stages, since many people don't show immediate symptoms (although one 2021 study identified key biomarkers that potentially could one day help with early identification). By the late stages, the damage is often irreversible.

Hassanain Qambari's research at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia, focuses on early detection and possible reversal of diabetic retinopathy, including taking precise images of the tiny micron-sized vessels in the eye. With colleague Jayden Dickson's assistance, he created the winning image in the 2023 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, depicting an optic nerve head in a rodent in exquisite detail.

Now in its 49th year, the annual competition is designed to highlight "stunning imagery from scientists, artists, and photomicrographers of all experiences and backgrounds from across the globe," according to Nikon's communications manager, Eric Flem, adding, "I am consistently awed by how these advancements make it possible to create art out of science for the public to enjoy." Photomicrography involves attaching a camera to a microscope (either an optical microscope or an electron microscope) so that the user can take photographs of objects at very high resolutions. British physiologist Richard Hill Norris was one of the first to use it for his studies of blood cells in 1850, and the method has increasingly been highlighted as art since the 1970s.

Enlarge / SpaceX said this week that Starship is stacked and ready to fly its second test flight. (credit: SpaceX)

In a remarkably frank discussion this week, several senior SpaceX officials spoke with Ars Technica on background about how working with the Federal Aviation Administration has slowed down the company's progress not just on development of the Starship program, but on innovations with the Falcon 9 and Dragon programs as well.

The SpaceX officials said they want to be clear that the FAA is doing a reasonably good job with the resources it has, and that everyone supports the mission of safe spaceflight. However, they said, the FAA needs significantly more people working in its licensing department and should be encouraged to prioritize missions of national importance.

In recent months, according to SpaceX, its programs have had to compete with one another for reviews at the FAA. This has significantly slowed down the Starship program and put development of a Human Landing System for NASA's Artemis program at risk. Inefficient regulation, the officials said, is decreasing American competitiveness as space programs in China and elsewhere around the world rise.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Rene Wassenbergh | EyeEm)

Some of Netflix’s competitors are reversing a streaming war tactic by licensing their old TV shows and movies to the streamer—boosting its programming offerings but also potentially squeezing its profit margins, analysts say.

Netflix relied heavily on programming that it licensed from other companies when it launched its streaming service in 2007. But after Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and the then-Time Warner launched their own streaming services, they pulled many of their shows from Netflix to avoid feeding a company that had grown into an arch-competitor.

With legacy media groups under pressure to produce streaming profits, however, licensing revenue is looking attractive again—even if it comes from Netflix. This summer, Warner Bros Discovery’s HBO network began licensing a handful of older shows to Netflix, including Insecure, Six Feet Under, Ballers, and Band of Brothers.