Latest news with #BoLi
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Determine Ancient Origins of Cache of 35 Wooden Tools Found in China
A joint team of archaeologists, chronologists, geologists, and paleontologists have successfully dated a hoard of wooden tools recovered nearly a decade ago, Ancient Origins reported. The ancient tools were originally found in two separate excavations at an archaeological site in Gantangqing, southwestern China, between 2015–2016 and 2018–2019. They were found nestled with a variety of plant and animal fossils as well as stone artifacts in low-oxygen, clay-heavy sediment, which kept the wood intact over thousands of years. New dating has shown the tools to be around 300,000 years old, which places their creation near the end of the Early Paleolithic Period, or 'stone age.' It's remarkably rare to find wooden tools outside of Africa or western Eurasia which are older than 50,000 years. Of the 35 tools found, 32 were determined by scientists to have been modified at their base, with some possessing rounded ends while others were equipped with thin or edged chisel-like blades. Most of the tools were manufactured from pinewood, with a small number crafted from hardwood. Also found were two larger digging implements which, it was determined, were designed to be operated with two hands. 'These are unique forms of digging implements not documented elsewhere, suggesting localized functional adaptations,' Bo Li, one of the chronologists who worked on the project, wrote for Ancient Origins. 'There were also four distinct hook-shaped tools—likely used for cutting roots—and a series of smaller tools for one-handed use.' According to Li, 'the find significantly expands our understanding of early hominin woodworking capabilities.' 'The wooden implements from Gantangqing represent the earliest known evidence for the use of digging sticks and for the exploitation of underground plant storage organs such as tubers within the Oriental biogeographic realm. Our discovery shows the use of sophisticated wood technology in a very different environmental context from what has been seen at sites of similar age in Europe and Africa.'Archaeologists Determine Ancient Origins of Cache of 35 Wooden Tools Found in China first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 12, 2025
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Oldest wooden tools unearthed in East Asia show that ancient humans made planned trips to dig up edible plants
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Archaeologists have discovered 35 wooden tools from the Old Stone Age in China which they say show impressive craftsmanship, advanced cognitive skills and offer new insights into what ancient humans might have eaten. The 300,000-year-old tools are the oldest wooden artifacts ever documented in East Asia, according to a study published Thursday (July 3) in the journal Science. They include digging sticks made of pine and hardwood, hooks for cutting roots and small, pointed implements for extracting edible plants from the ground. "This discovery is exceptional because it preserves a moment in time when early humans were using sophisticated wooden tools to harvest underground food resources," study lead author Bo Li, a professor in the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences at the University of Wollongong Australia, said in a statement. The tools date to the early Paleolithic period, also known as the Old Stone Age (3.3 million to 300,000 years ago). Wooden artifacts from this time are extremely rare due to organic decomposition, and only a handful of archaeological sites have yielded similar objects, according to the new study. But most of these objects, including spears from Schöningen in Germany, were designed for hunting — these newfound tools were made for digging. Researchers found the tools buried in oxygen-poor clay sediments on the shores of an ancient lake in Gantangqing, an archaeological site in southwestern China's Yunnan province. The sediments preserved deliberate polishing and scraping marks on the tools, as well as plant and soil remains on some of the edges that gave researchers clues about the tools' function. Related: Pfyn culture flint tool: World's oldest known 'Swiss Army' knife "Our results suggest that hominins at Gantangqing made strategic utilization of lakeshore food resources," the researchers wrote in the study. "They made planned visits to the lakeshore and brought with them fabricated tools of selected wood for exploiting underground tubers, rhizomes, or corms." Such planned visits show that 300,000 years ago, human ancestors in East Asia were crafting and using tools for specific purposes, demonstrating considerable foresight and intention, the researchers wrote. The artifacts also suggest that these early humans had a good understanding of which plants and parts of plants were edible, the researchers noted. "The tools show a level of planning and craftsmanship that challenges the notion that East Asian hominins were technologically conservative," Li said in the statement. This idea is rooted in previous discoveries in East Asia of stone tools that seemed "primitive" in comparison to tools found in western Eurasia and Africa, according to the study. RELATED STORIES —Was it a stone tool or just a rock? An archaeologist explains how scientists can tell the difference —1.5 million-year-old bone tools crafted by human ancestors in Tanzania are oldest of their kind —150,000-year-old stone tools reveal humans lived in tropical rainforests much earlier than thought The researchers dated the tools using a technique developed by Li that uses infrared luminescence and another method called electron spin resonance, which measures a material's age through the number of electrons trapped inside its crystal defects due to exposure to natural radiation. Both produced estimates indicating that the wooden tools were between 250,000 and 361,000 years old. The plant remains on the tools have not been identified because their decomposition is too advanced, but other plant remains at Gantangqing indicate that early humans there ate berries, pine nuts, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit and aquatic tubers, according to the study. "The discovery challenges previous assumptions about early human adaptation," Li said in the statement. "While contemporary European sites (like Schöningen in Germany) focused on hunting large mammals, Gantangqing reveals a unique plant-based survival strategy."
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Millions taking one of UK's most common medications could be saved from cancer, study suggests
Taking antidepressants could help the body fight off cancer, a study has suggested. Experts found selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), one of the most common types of the drug, were found to have significantly improved the ability of T cells to fight cancer and suppress tumour growth. T cells are a type of white blood cell that play a major role in helping the immune system identify and kill infections and cancer cells. 'It turns out SSRIs don't just make our brains happier, they also make our T cells happier—even while they're fighting tumours,' said Dr Lili Yang, senior author of the new study at University of California. 'These drugs have been widely and safely used to treat depression for decades, so repurposing them for cancer would be a lot easier than developing an entirely new therapy,' she added. Antidepressants are typically taken for mood disorders as the drug increase levels of serotonin—the brain's 'happiness hormone'—by blocking the activity of a protein called serotonin transporter, or SERT. But the study sought to explore if this process could also influence other parts of the body including digestion, metabolism and immune activity. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Cell noticed that immune cells isolated from tumours had higher levels of serotonin-regulating molecules. Dr Bo Li, another author of the study explained: 'SERT has one job—to transport serotonin. 'SERT made for an especially attractive target because the drugs that act on it—SSRIs—are widely used with minimal side effects.' The researchers tested SSRIs in mouse and human tumour models representing melanoma, breast, prostate, colon and bladder cancer. In lab tests on tumours the researchers found SSRI treatment reduced average tumour size by over 50 per cent and made the cancer-fighting T cells more effective at killing cancer. 'SSRIs made the killer T cells happier in the otherwise oppressive tumour environment by increasing their access to serotonin signals, reinvigorating them to fight and kill cancer cells,' said Dr Yang. The researchers also found SSRIs boosted the effectiveness of existing cancer therapies. They tested a combination of an SSRI and a treatment called anti-PD-1 antibody in mice with cancer. This antibody therapy works by blocking immune checkpoint molecules that normally suppress immune cell activity, therefore allowing T cells to attack tumours more effectively. By adding SSRIs to this researchers significantly reduced tumour size in all treated mice and even achieved complete remission in some cases. People with depression are thought to have low levels of serotonin, though there is scientific debate over this, and SSRIs combat this by boosting these levels. While the study suggested SSRIs could one day be used to help treat cancer others have linked their long term usage to health problems. Some experts suspect that the drugs could be causing too much serotonin to be released, with negative consequences for people's health. Previous studies have linked their use to health issues including heart problems in young people alongside long-term and even permanent sexual dysfunction. Health service figures show antidepressants are one of the most commonly taken medications in the UK. Official data suggests as 8.7 million people in England were prescribed the medication—about 15 per cent of the total population. In the US an estimated one in eight people are currently taking an antidepressant, according to the Centers for Disease Control. More than 400,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK, according to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Zawya
19-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Statement by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Bo Li at the Conclusion of a Visit to Mozambique
Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today in Mozambique at the end of his visit from May 15-17, 2025: 'I am pleased to be in Mozambique for my first visit as IMF Deputy Managing Director. I would like to thank President Daniel Chapo, Finance Minister Carla Loveira, and Central Bank Governor Rogerio Zandamela, as well as other senior officials, for their hospitality and constructive discussions. We discussed opportunities to strengthen our continued partnership through regular policy dialogue and technical assistance. The IMF remains a close partner in supporting the country's efforts to lift the living standards of the Mozambican people. 'During my visit, I also met with the Committee of Central Bank Governors of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to advance efforts to improve cross-border payments within the regional bloc. Member countries remain committed to this joint objective and are making good progress. We also discussed opportunities to further strengthen ongoing technical assistance provided jointly by the IMF and the World Bank on cross-border payments. We look forward to continuing the tight and productive collaboration.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Virtue AI Raises $30 Million in Seed and Series A Funding to Bridge the Critical AI Security Gap
Renowned AI security experts from Stanford, Berkeley, and Illinois unite to solve enterprise AI deployment challenges SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virtue AI, founded by world-leading experts in AI safety and security, today announced $30 million in Seed and Series A funding by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Walden Catalyst Ventures, and joined by Prosperity7 and other existing investors including Factory, Osage University Partners, Lip-Bu Tan, Amarjit Gill and Chris Re. The funding will accelerate Virtue AI's mission to eliminate the traditional tradeoff between AI innovation and security, enabling enterprises to confidently deploy generative AI without worrying about security, safety, and compliance. Virtue AI was born from a critical insight shared by its founding team of AI pioneers—Bo Li, Dawn Song, Carlos Guestrin, and Sanmi Koyejo. After contributing more than 80 combined years to foundational research in AI safety and security, they witnessed firsthand how enterprises were forced to choose between moving quickly with increased risk or implementing cumbersome safety measures that dramatically slowed innovation. The multi-billion dollar AI security market opportunity is expected to expand as agentic deployments proliferate in the enterprise. However, traditional computing security is insufficient for artificial intelligence use cases. As AI transforms industries, organizations face significant deployment risks—from data poisoning and hallucinations to prompt injections and jailbreaking attempts. These vulnerabilities expose companies to cyberattacks while creating regulatory and compliance challenges. "We saw companies struggling with the same challenges repeatedly—subpar evaluation methods, inefficient guardrails, and manual processes that created bottlenecks in AI deployment pipelines," said Bo Li, co-founder and CEO of Virtue AI. "Our team has dedicated decades to solving these exact problems. Virtue AI transforms that expertise into practical solutions that eliminate the false choice between innovation and safety." Virtue AI's comprehensive platform offers integrated solutions that outperform existing alternatives by orders of magnitude, including: VirtueRed: An algorithmic—rather than human-based—red teaming platform that covers over 320 regulation-based and use case based risk categories, such as hallucination, privacy leakage, jailbreaks, and prompt injections, providing reliable, comprehensive risk assessment while significantly reducing testing costs. VirtueGuard: Guardrail models that are over 30 times faster than alternatives while delivering 40-50% better performance across text, image, audio, video, and code in over 90 languages. VirtueAgent: Security agent that automatically interprets both internal company security requirements, policies, and regulatory requirements, eliminating tedious manual processes. The company's technology builds directly on groundbreaking research recognized by the National Security Agency (NSA), including a seminal, award-winning paper by co-founders that addresses multiple vulnerabilities in foundation models. This technical superiority has driven remarkable customer adoption. In just months since its launch, Virtue AI has secured top-tier enterprise customers. Customer Accolades "Uber leverages Generative AI to deliver magical experiences for our end users. We've been collaborating closely with Virtue AI to implement robust content safety guardrails for our Gen AI applications, ensuring they are safe, responsible, and aligned with our community standards," said Kai Wang, the Group product manager on AI Platform, Uber. "At Glean, we're committed to building AI that organizations can trust - secure, reliable, and enterprise-ready. Every company has unique security requirements, and we strongly believe in providing the flexibility to choose the approach that best aligns with those needs. Our collaboration with Virtue AI helps us stay ahead of emerging threats and deliver on our promise to keep users in control and their data protected," said Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean. Redefining Industry Standards "Virtue AI is shaping the future of GenAI security," said Lip-Bu Tan, Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures. "Combining foundational research with advanced algorithms, Virtue AI is tackling the most critical vulnerabilities in AI systems head-on. Their disruptive technology and impressive market traction demonstrate the potential to redefine how organizations across the globe approach AI safety and security." "Built on the fundamental AI safety research of its cofounders, Virtue AI has quickly established a leadership position atop the fast-growing AI red-teaming and guardrails category," said Guru Chahal and James Alcorn, Partners at Lightspeed Venture Partners. "We are thrilled to partner with the team to help them capitalize on a crucial industry inflection moment, as enterprises demand increasingly robust and sophisticated safety solutions for production LLM deployments." With this new funding, Virtue AI will expand its platform capabilities, strengthen its market presence, and continue attracting world-class AI safety talent committed to enabling responsible AI deployment worldwide. For more information about Virtue AI and its safe and secure AI platform, visit About Virtue AI Virtue AI is a leader in safe and secure AI, providing organizations with the tools to red team AI applications, train safe models, and deploy advanced guardrail solutions. Its Virtue AI Platform offers a comprehensive approach to assessing, developing, and maintaining safe, secure, and privacy-preserving AI systems, empowering businesses to harness the full potential of AI with confidence. About Lightspeed Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past 25 years, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Abridge, Affirm, Anthropic, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Glean, Mistral, Moveworks, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $30B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. About Walden Catalyst Ventures Walden Catalyst is a venture capital firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep-tech. The firm is led by Young Sohn and Lip-Bu Tan, deep-tech industry pioneers who between them have invested in more than 600 startups across the globe, of which 138 have gone on to IPO. Walden Catalyst is focused on deep- tech investments and their team of innovators and entrepreneurs are passionate about disruptive technologies and committed to excellence. This translates into unparalleled access to operational expertise, global reach, and a network of industry captains eager to help build and scale the companies of the future. 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