Scientists are raising concerns about a supervolcano in Italy which is “on the brink” of erupting for the first time since 1538. Campi Flegrei, also known as Phlegraean Fields, is an area of supervolcanic calderas in Naples, Italy. If it did erupt again, it could plunge the world into a global winter. An eruption of the scale last seen in 1538 would also result in 100-feet tsunamis and the expulsion of volcanic gases into the stratosphere. The results would kill wildlife and crops across the world, and the possible impacts have been explored in the new journal Communications Earth & Environment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter There’s been an increase in the number of earthquakes in the surrounding area over recent times, which has proved concerning viewing for scientists. New research was undertaken by members of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and University College London (UCL). "Our new study confirms that Campi Flegrei is moving closer to rupture,” said lead author Professor Christopher Kilburn (UCL Earth Sciences). Mauro Antonio Di Vito, director of the INGV’s Vesuvius Observatory, expressed concern about the evacuation from the local area. He added: "These areas have been urbanised without considering the fragility. Buildings need to be better structured and we need a cultural change to really encourage people to do this." Stefano Carlino, also of Vesuvius Observatory, added: "It's the same for all volcanoes that have been quiet for generations. Campi Flegrei may settle into a new routine of gently rising and subsiding, as seen at similar volcanoes around the world, or simply return to rest. "We can't yet say for sure what will happen. The important point is to be prepared for all outcomes." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 7, 2023--

By Mike Scarcella A lawsuit by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against Amazon.com, expected to be filed as

Microsoft is killing off WordPad, its decades-old text editor in Windows. The company will no longer update the software. It will then remove it from a future version of Windows. WordPad has been around since Windows 95. It has stood somewhere between Word, its more fully-featured text editor, and the simplicity of Notepad. “WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows,” Microsoft wrote in a support note. “We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt.” WordPad has always been offered for free, in contrast to Microsoft Word, which requires the payment of a fee or subscription. But it lacked many features of Word such as a spellchecker, too, and is unable to save into some key formats. The support note did not explain why it would be removing the software. It added to a page of deprecated software that notes that “new versions [of Windows] also remove features and functionality, often because they’ve added a newer option”. Microsoft’s announcement came soon after it released new updates for Notepad, which also comes free but does not offer the same formatting or features as WordPad or Word. It will be getting autosave and other new features, after the recent addition of dark mode and other changes. As well as coming under competition from its more full-featured and more simplistic siblings, other third-party options such as Google Docs also offer many of the same tools – and much more besides. WordPad on the other hand has been barely touched in years. It was last updated with Windows 8, more than ten years ago, and even then received only a small redesign. Read More Microsoft makes big changes to takeover of Activision Blizzard SpaceX smashes rocket launch record as Musk eyes historic Starship mission Vodafone users say they can’t call people

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A senior Republican in Congress asked Tesla Tuesday to detail its relationship with Chinese battery

ERIE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 11, 2023--

WASHINGTON Ford Motor Co is recalling 422,000 sport utility vehicles in the U.S. because the video output may

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To unlock Rebirth 2.0 in NBA 2K24, players must join an Affiliation and then reach Veteran 2 REP level to upgrade new builds to 99 OVR.

Alcohol addiction ruins millions of lives every year, but scientists may have found a cure for this terrible affliction. A new treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been trialled in monkeys with impressive results and, if these translate to human trials, the impact could be monumental. A team of neuroscientists and physiologists from across the US tested a new type of gene therapy to see if they could directly target the underlying brain circuitry associated with sustained heavy drinking. As they noted, in the journal Nature Medicine, people suffering from AUD commonly return to alcohol use even if they attempt to quit. This is largely to do with what’s known as mesolimbic dopamine (DA) signalling – meaning how the central nervous system circuit communicates the feelgood neurotransmitter dopamine. A protein called glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is key to keeping these neurons in this reward circuitry functioning. However, experts have found that levels of GDNF are reduced in people with AUD during periods of alcohol abstinence, most notably in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as IFLScience notes. Therefore, the researchers decided to test whether using gene therapy to deliver more GDNF to the VTA could help reinforce this crucial dopaminergic signalling and prevent patients from suffering an alcoholic relapse. The team of scientists explained how alcohol consumption in non-addicts prompts the release of dopamine, creating a pleasurable buzz feeling, but chronic alcohol use causes the brain to adapt and stop releasing so much dopamine. “So when people are addicted to alcohol, they don’t really feel more pleasure in drinking,” Dr Kathleen Grant, a senior co-author of the study, said in a statement. “It seems that they’re drinking more because they feel a need to maintain an intoxicated state.” For their research, Dr Grant and her colleagues used eight rhesus macaque monkeys, who were exposed to increasing concentrations of alcohol over four 30-day “induction” periods. The monkeys then had free access to alcohol and water for 21 hours a day for six months, during which they developed heavy drinking behaviours. This was then followed by a 12-week abstinence phase, with the GDNF treatment performed four weeks in for half of the subjects. The gene therapy was delivered using a a viral vector containing a copy of the human GDNF gene injected directly into the primate’s VTA, according to IFLScience. And the results were truly jaw-dropping. “Drinking went down to almost zero,” Dr Grant said. “For months on end, these animals would choose to drink water and just avoid drinking alcohol altogether. They decreased their drinking to the point that it was so low we didn’t record a blood-alcohol level.” The most exciting aspect of their findings is the suggestion that gene therapy could offer a permanent solution for people with the most severe cases of AUD. This will be a welcome glimmer of hope to many, given that some 29.5 million people were diagnosed with AUD in the US alone in 2021, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Of these 29.5 million sufferers, almost a million (894,000) were aged between 12 and 17. It’ll likely be some time before we know for sure whether the gene therapy can be rolled out in humans, but it’s an important first step in tackling this devastating disorder. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 22, 2023--