US-based Ukrainian says he completed Everest climb from sea level to summit in 4 days
Mr Andrew Ushakov, a structural engineer, said he did not use Xenon gas. PHOTO: REUTERS
US-based Ukrainian says he completed Everest climb from sea level to summit in 4 days
KATHMANDU - A Ukrainian man who lives in the United States said on May 23 that he had completed a journey from sea level in New York to the summit of Mount Everest in a record four days, saving weeks that mountaineers usually need to get used to high altitudes.
Climbers to the world's highest mountain normally spend up to two months at different high camps to allow their bodies to adjust to the thin air before ascending to the 8,849m peak.
The claim could not be verified independently as there is no authority in Nepal to verify the claims of records by climbers.
However, usually when mountaineers claim a record it is acknowledged or contested by other climbers or mountaineering bodies that specialise in climbing-related information. Such verification often takes some weeks or months.
On May 21, four British climbers who had inhaled Xenon gas in Germany before embarking on the expedition from London, completed their ascent from London to the summit in less than five days. The feat was also not independently verified.
Mr Andrew Ushakov, a structural engineer who is relatively unknown as a climber, said he did not use Xenon gas. He said he embarked on his expedition from New York and scaled the Everest summit on May 19 in slightly less than four days.
Similarly to the Britons, Mr Ushakov slept at home in a hypoxic tent that simulates high-altitude conditions before heading to Nepal, and used supplemental oxygen like other climbers.
Mr Ushakov, 40, told Reuters in Kathmandu that he hoped his feat, which came after two years of preparation and research, would set an example for his six-year-old son to do 'something big' in the future and encourage people to take to mountaineering without having to leave work and family for long.
Mr Ushakov said that in an attempt to make a fast ascent of Everest in 2024, he reached 8,500m but developed a vision problem and failed to complete the climb. He said he broke his arm in Ecuador two months ago when he was hit by an avalanche.
Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, has issued permits to 468 people to climb Mount Everest during the current season ending this month.
About 300 climbers, including the Sherpa guides, have scaled the summit so far. REUTERS
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Straits Times
9 hours ago
- Straits Times
Mirxes, Singapore's billion-dollar biotech firm led by life sciences scholar Zhou Lihan, lists in Hong Kong
Mirxes CEO Dr Zhou Lihan, his wife Yeap Su Phing, parents and two children at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Central after the Singapore biotech firm launched its IPO on May 23. PHOTO: MIRXES – Singapore has produced its first billion-dollar biotechnology start-up, 25 years after it began formally building its life sciences industry. Mirxes, which invented and produces the world's first blood test kit to detect early stage gastric cancer, is helmed by Dr Zhou Lihan, a naturalised Singaporean from the country's maiden batch of life sciences graduates. He arrived on the Lion City's shores as a wide-eyed 15-year-old PRC (People's Republic of China) scholar, navigating life and studies in a foreign country. Today, the 42-year-old is chief executive officer and co-founder of Mirxes (pronounced 'm'raek'sis'). It is the first South-east Asian biotech start-up to achieve a valuation of more than US$1 billion (S$1.29 billion), when on May 23 it launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). The company's market capitalisation is HK$8.29 billion, or US$1.06 billion. It has been trading around HK$30 per share, up 28 per cent from its listing price of HK$23.30. It is also South-east Asia's first biotech firm to list on HKEX. The microRNA-based cancer-detection start-up, which was spun out of Singapore's public sector R&D agency A*Star in 2014, has yet to become a household name in the country. But it is already a big player in the regional biotech industry. Now, the company has reached a critical level in its development where it can build on its success only by leveraging on an expansive fund-raising platform with a mature base of investors familiar with the industry. That is why, instead of listing in Singapore, Mirxes opted to do so first in Hong Kong, Dr Zhou told The Straits Times. He does not, however, discount the possibility of Mirxes listing in Singapore eventually. Dr Zhou's life story in the Republic tracks closely with some of the country's strategic economic policies over the years. 'I left China in 1998 after learning, through the Suzhou-Singapore Industrial Park project, about the opportunity to take on a scholarship to come to Singapore,' the Suzhou-born Dr Zhou told ST in an unmistakably Singaporean accent. Dr Zhou (second from left) with his fellow PRC scholars studying in Singapore's Anglican High School in 1998. PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZHOU LIHAN The project was launched in 1994 for China to adapt the Republic's development experiences to its own context, and for Singapore to develop an external wing to its economy. The PRC scholarship system is a Singapore Government-sponsored scheme for top Chinese teenage students since the 1990s, aimed at having them eventually contribute to economic development and potentially set down roots in the country . Finding love at NUS After going through the local education system at Anglican High School and Temasek Junior College, Dr Zhou enrolled at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2003, among the first batch of life sciences students. The life sciences programme was introduced as part of a government initiative in 2000 to develop the Republic into a regional biomedical hub. 'Because I spent most of my formative years in Singapore, all my friends and family are in Singapore. I even met my wife in NUS on shuttle bus A2, heading from the arts faculty to (university hostel) Prince George's Park,' Dr Zhou recalled with a laugh. Dr Zhou (top row, second from left), with Associate Professor Too Heng-Phon (far right) and fellow researchers from Prof Too's lab during their university days in 2008. PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZHOU LIHAN His wife, a Malaysian-born Singaporean, was an NUS arts student whom he got to know better in the students' union , he explained. They have a son and a daughter, aged eight and three, respectively. The family, including Dr Zhou's parents who have also moved from Suzhou to Singapore , were at HKEX in the central business district to witness Mirxes' IPO launch on May 23. Mirxes' history dates back to Dr Zhou's days at NUS, where he obtained his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in 2012. During his PhD studies, he, fellow scientist Zou Ruiyang and their mentor, Associate Professor Too Heng-Phon, developed the technology to detect microRNA (micro ribonucleic acid), the smallest genetic material ever found in living things. Dr Zhou with his mentor, Prof Too, on his graduation day in 2007. PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZHOU LIHAN Their research, which the trio took with them to A*Star when they joined the agency in 2010, proved so ground-breaking that they set up an enterprise three years later with the agency's support and a government grant to commercialise their technology. Thus, Mirxes was born: a three-person start-up with Dr Zhou as CEO, Dr Zou as chief technology officer, and Prof Too as chief scientific adviser, aimed at developing an accurate, affordable and easily accessible early detection system for various cancers and other diseases. In the decade since, Mirxes has grown into a 350-strong company with a presence in China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States, and partnerships with global biotech giants including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. Dr Zhou (left) and Mirxes' co-founder, Dr Zou Ruiyang, at the biotech startup in the initial years after it spun off from A*Star. PHOTO: MIRXES The firm's flagship invention, GastroClear, in 2019 became the world's first molecular blood test approved for early detection of gastric cancer in high-risk populations. It was developed in close collaboration with the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium. The test – available in Singapore for less than $150 at public hospitals or around $250 in private clinics – is less expensive and invasive than an endoscopy, the traditional diagnostic procedure for stomach cancer, which can cost between $400 and $3,000. GastroClear has an 87 per cent accuracy, better than any other blood-based tests for the detection of gastric cancer. Patients who test positive are recommended to undergo an endoscopy for more specific results. The test is less expensive and invasive than an endoscopy, the traditional diagnostic procedure for stomach cancer, which can cost between $400 and $3,000. PHOTO: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM Listing in Hong Kong Months of careful consideration preceded Mirxes' decision to list in Hong Kong over Singapore. Ultimately, it came down to two key factors. 'Firstly, our flagship product GastroClear is focused on stomach cancer, a very Asian disease,' Dr Zhou said. 'China alone accounts for half of all stomach cancer cases worldwide.' The Hong Kong platform provides a gateway into mainland China, the biggest market not just for stomach cancer tests, but also for the scale and speed of cancer clinical trials to accelerate the firm's research and development efforts. 'So listing in (the Chinese territory of) Hong Kong makes sense, because the investors here will understand our product's value to them.' Secondly, he added, HKEX's dedicated biotech listing regime has built up an investor base that 'understands how to look at biotech firms' financials without getting scared off'. Mirxes is still in the red, reporting net losses exceeding US$92 million for 2024 – 30 per cent more than the previous year. It is already generating revenue, although the US$20 million it reported for 2024 is a 16 per cent drop from that in 2023. 'People get worried that Mirxes is losing money,' Dr Zhou said. 'But if we want to be competitive globally, we have to invest in R&D and innovation. But that's something that our South-east Asian investor base is not yet familiar with.' HKEX's investors, on the other hand, are no strangers to promising yet still-loss-making start-ups. Hong Kong in 2018 started allowing yet-to-be-profitable biotech firms to list on its main board under the exchange's Chapter 18A regulations, to attract companies in cutting-edge industries. Since then, more than 70 such firms – which would otherwise not have qualified to list – have launched their IPOs in the city, gaining access to much-needed funds to grow their fledgling technologies and innovations . Mirxes CEO Dr Zhou Lihan (right) with a Hong Kong Stock Exchange representative at the IPO ceremony in Hong Kong on May 23. PHOTO: MIRXES The 18A rules recognise these start-ups' potential for growth, granting them access to capital as long as they have one core product past the concept phase, HK$1.5 billion in expected market value, and two years of financial records, among other criteria. In Asia, biotech start-ups that have yet to bring in revenue can also choose to list on subsidiary boards that cater to such firms, like China's ChiNext, Singapore's Catalist and Korea's Kosdaq. But the drawbacks include lower trading volumes and hence lower funding , and less visibility . Rebuilding ties in China HKEX's listing reforms, like Chapter 18A, have over the years opened new pathways for a broader range of companies around the world to raise funds in the city. It is on track to be the world's top IPO destination by the end of 2025, according to Swiss investment bank UBS. Its IPO market has raised HK$76 billion so far in 2025, more than seven times that in the same period a year ago, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on May 25. The city is further cementing its status as a leading fund-raising hub for the tech and biotech sectors. In early May, it set up a scheme to streamline the IPO process for such firms, offering them 'a more efficient pathway' to listing and allowing them to file confidentially to avoid drawing competitors' attention. But some companies seeking a Hong Kong listing may still face a lengthy approval process from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, under rules introduced in March 2023 that also pertain to firms with principal business operations in mainland China. Mirxes, which has laboratories in Hangzhou, filed to list in Hong Kong in July 2023. One of Mirxes' laboratories in Singapore. It has a presence in China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States. PHOTO: MIRXES Dr Zhou said that while his China background is 'definitely helpful' in bringing Mirxes to the world's second-biggest economy, 'honestly, I had to rebuild all my connections there as I had left China as a secondary school student'. These days, he is a 'weekend dad', travelling around mainland China, Hong Kong and South-east Asia for work and seeing his family in Singapore only on weekends. 'Most people – my parents included – will not be able to fully comprehend the technical details of what we do at Mirxes,' Dr Zhou said. The firm will allocate some of its IPO funds to promote awareness and the use of GastroClear in China and South-east Asia. The cash will also fund ongoing research into its colorectal and multi-cancer detection tests, among other plans. Reflecting on Mirxes' journey from fledgling start-up to IPO, Dr Zhou said the listing 'would not have been possible without the Singapore Government's strong support and consistent investment in life sciences over the years'. 'It proves a point that our Singapore technologies and companies are as good, if not better, than others,' he said. 'But we tend to be a little too humble, and not as patient .' The vibrant ecosystem of biotech firms in Boston or San Francisco, for example, was built up over 50 years, the CEO noted. 'In Singapore, we started only some 20 years ago … We are reaching a point where we should see more companies like Mirxes taking their next steps .' Dr Zhou hopes Mirxes' IPO will go a long way in enhancing the company's global credibility. 'If the public sees that this biotech firm has been vetted, has gone public, and everything about it is transparent and fully disclosed, that will add a layer of trust,' he said. 'And in the healthcare business, trust is very important.' Magdalene Fung is The Straits Times' Hong Kong correspondent. She is a Singaporean who has spent about a decade living and working in Hong Kong. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
9 hours ago
- Straits Times
Small but mighty: Study shows S'pore's seagrasses rank among top global carbon stores per hectare
Seagrass meadows in the Central Indo-Pacific region, which includes Singapore and Malaysia, can lock up an average of 86 metric tonnes of carbon per hectare – equivalent to the annual emissions from 22 cars. PHOTO: NATIONAL PARKS BOARD SINGAPORE – Singapore's seagrass meadows may be small, but the remaining patches of the ocean's only flowering plant here are punching above their weight when it comes to their ability to store carbon, a new study has found. Seagrass meadows in the Central Indo-Pacific region, which includes Singapore and Malaysia, can lock up an average of 86 metric tonnes of carbon per hectare – equivalent to the annual emissions from 22 cars. This is more than twice the global average of 38 metric tonnes per hectare, the study found. The research, which quantified carbon stocks in seagrass ecosystems globally, was done by researchers from academic institutions and organisations across the globe, including the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore-based International Blue Carbon Institute. Published in research journal Nature in May, the study identified the lagoons and small deltas of the Indo-Pacific as being among the top five regions globally with the highest organic carbon storage potential, alongside the Mediterranean, Colombia, Florida and South Africa. Organic carbon refers to carbon that comes from living things. While seagrass meadows are known to be natural carbon sponges that can soak up planet-warming carbon dioxide, there is still much uncertainty and knowledge gaps about these ecosystems, making their conservation challenging. The aim of the study, said the researchers, was to provide policymakers with greater understanding about the factors that affect the carbon storage potential of seagrass meadows. This could help guide the 'development, integrity and reliability of climate change policy, and financing to support seagrass conservation and restoration', they said. What are seagrasses? Seagrasses are aquatic plants that take in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. This carbon is locked up in the plants' roots and underground stems, and the soil they grow in. Being anchored to the seafloor by their roots, these habitats can also 'trap' carbon-containing particles, such as bits of dead plants or animal faeces, carried by the currents, said Dr Siti Yaakub, senior director of the International Blue Carbon Institute and a co-author of the paper. As more of these particles eventually settle on the seabed, they get trapped in structures of the seagrass. As these layers accumulate, the carbon gets buried by new layers of sediment and moves deeper into the earth, said Dr Siti. Burrowing animals in the seafloor, such as clams and worms, also help bring the carbon to deeper layers of the sediment, she added. These characteristics make seagrass meadows a promising ally in humanity's fight against climate change. A separate study, also published in Nature in 2021, estimated that seagrasses are 40 times more efficient at capturing organic carbon than land forest soils. However, different environmental conditions and types of seagrass could affect how much carbon is stored at a particular site , resulting in a large variation globally . For example, Dr Siti said seagrass meadows near big rivers tend to contain a higher carbon content in the seabed due to the discharge of river sediment and carbon-rich organic matter. Heavy rain can also affect seagrass growth, as the rainfall could stir up sediment and prevent sunlight from reaching the plant. Similarly, high levels of nutrients in waters can cause algae blooms that reduce water clarity. Nutrient levels can go up when fish feed and waste materials are released from fish farms into the sea. The study is one of the first to map out the potential of seagrass meadows around the world to act as natural sponges that can soak up planet-warming carbon dioxide, Dr Siti said. S'pore's underwater carbon banks Through an analysis of 2,171 soil cores retrieved from seagrass beds around the world, the researchers found that the region's seagrass meadows had one of the world's highest carbon stocks on a per-hectare basis. 'As a region, we do have a slightly higher-than-average carbon stock because there is a lot of seagrass in shallow sheltered coastal waters that are also adjacent to river systems, so there's a good source of allochthonous (external) inputs,' said Dr Siti. 'If we lose all this seagrass with high carbon stocks, we will not be able to recover the carbon that is lost. It will take many decades to restore it.' Singapore is home to 12 of the 72 known species of seagrass globally, with some of the country's largest meadows found at Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin, Pulau Semakau, Cyrene Reef and Changi Beach, said Dr Siti. Seagrass meadows in the Republic also act as shelters and nursery areas for numerous animals like seahorses, and serve as the primary food source for sea turtles and dugongs. The biggest threats to seagrass meadows in Singapore are coastal development and high sedimentation. Large amounts of sediment in the water can result in low light levels reaching the plant. A healthy ecosystem should have a balance of both sediment input and output to avoid erosion – which may result in the unearthing of buried carbon or burying of seagrass. But changes to coastlines from land reclamation projects may alter the dynamics of water and sediment movement. 'If you change the coastal environment such that it increases the rate of erosion, and block off sediments coming in from rivers, it becomes a double whammy, because sediments are now being washed away with no supply to replenish these systems,' Dr Siti noted. Efforts to protect seagrass meadows have been ramped up since 2007, when the National Parks Board (NParks) began working with Seagrass-Watch – the world's largest scientific seagrass assessment and monitoring programme – to monitor the health of seagrass on Singapore's shores. Singapore in 2024 also launched its first seagrass restoration project, in an effort by NParks and NUS. The project was fully funded by OCBC Bank. Dr Samantha Lai, deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre Coastal and Marine branch, said the board has also been working with NUS and NParks volunteers on separate projects that aim to study the health and conservation needs of seagrasses. Moving forward, Dr Siti said that a better understanding of the seasonal growth cycles of seagrass can help with better planning during dredging and reclamation activities to minimise stress on the seagrass population. 'For example, if there is dredging involved, there should be measures taken to contain the sediment plumes so that they don't spread to areas with seagrass and stress them out even more,' Dr Siti said. At the global level, the study provided some insight into the carbon storage potential of seagrass meadows in the region, she added. However, the large variation also shows that countries need to more closely study the quantity of carbon being sequestered in their own meadows. This is especially if they intend to tap the carbon storage abilities of these habitats in their plans to tackle climate change, she said. 'The issue with seagrass is that it's not very well mapped. For example, estimates of seagrass cover in Indonesia range between 300,000ha and three million ha, which is a huge range. This results in big uncertainty in calculating the climate mitigation potential of seagrass with respect to their climate commitments. But there are efforts under way to better understand seagrass cover and map them globally ,' Dr Siti said. Singapore can contribute to deepening this understanding, said local experts. Dr Ow Yan Xiang, a seagrass scientist and senior research fellow at the St John's Island National Marine Laboratory who was not involved in the latest research, said: 'This study shows that Singapore has one of the highest data density and sampling efforts for seagrass carbon stocks. Also, our seagrass population is holding steady, despite the region's seagrass declining at an average of 4.7 per cent per year.' The high data density refers to Singapore contributing a high amount of data, in proportion to its small coastline. Dr Siti said: 'This places Singapore at the forefront of carbon mitigation efforts because one, we have influence in climate negotiations, and two, we have the resources and expertise to facilitate or help other countries deploy natural climate solutions.' Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Business Times
a day ago
- Business Times
Harvard's US-funded defense projects totaled US$180 million in recent years, study shows
[WASHINGTON] When the Trump administration cut federal funding to Harvard University, it abruptly ended an estimated US$180 million that the federal government had poured into US military projects at Harvard in recent years, according to an analysis from a defense software company. The Trump administration announced in April that it was moving to freeze US$2.2 billion in grants and US$60 million in contracts to Harvard University. President Donald Trump said he was trying to force change at Harvard – and other top-level universities across the US – because in his view they have been captured by leftist 'woke' thought and become bastions of antisemitism. Some of the grants paid for military-specific medical research, studies on countering weapons of mass destruction and research on lasers, among numerous other topics, Reuters found. The abrupt halt stopped years-long projects and upended programs spread across several universities, not just Harvard. In 2025 alone, an estimated 103 grants totaling about US$14 million will grind to a halt, according to an analysis by Govini, a defense software company. For example, US officials ended Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor Katia Bertoldi's US$6 million Pentagon-funded project developing shape-changing structures with military applications two weeks ago, despite being at a critical juncture in its research cycle. 'We've been in year three, so we set up all the tools, and now we're really gaining momentum, and now it stops,' Bertoldi said. Funded through the Department of Defense's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, she was developing technology based on origami that would lead to reconfigurable antennas, and deployable shelters like field hospitals. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Since 2020 the Pentagon, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and every branch of the US military have given Harvard 418 grants valued at US$180 million, according to the analysis by Govini. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth 'directed the termination of several programs, contracts and grants that were not aligned with the Department's priorities to cut wasteful spending, implement the President's orders, and reallocate savings to mission-critical priorities,' a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters. The bulk of those grants went to military medical research, basic scientific research and applied scientific research, Govini found, with the Army providing the most funding. The administration has frozen approximately US$3 billion in federal grants to Harvard, with Trump complaining on Truth Social that Harvard has hired 'Democrats, Radical Left idiots and 'bird brains'' as professors. On Monday (May 26), Trump said he is considering redirecting billions of dollars of previously awarded scientific and engineering research grants from Harvard to trade schools. Harvard has sued to restore the funding, calling the cuts an unconstitutional attack on its free-speech rights. The research cancellations affect extensive collaborative networks. Bertoldi's project included researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Georgia Tech. Scientists warn these cuts may have strategic implications as China has heavily invested in research. Bertoldi said, 'In China, as far as I know, colleagues that moved back to China, there's a lot of support for this type of research.' REUTERS
