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The Hill
a day ago
- Health
- The Hill
Bipartisan Senate price transparency bill can fix US health care
In the aftermath of Republicans' divisive reconciliation bill, Congress has the opportunity to come together and pass bipartisan legislation to address one of the nation's biggest problems: The broken health care system. Approximately 100 million Americans have health care debt, and one-quarter of insured families avoid care each year due to unknown costs. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, recently introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), can reverse runaway health care costs that are placing a tremendous burden on American families by empowering them to compare and save. Since 2000, hospital prices have increased by 257 percent, which explains why the growth rate in health insurance premiums has outstripped workers' earnings by a ratio of almost 3 to 1 over this timeframe. The Marshall-Hickenlooper bill gives employers and patients the upfront price information they need to protect themselves from overcharges and choose affordable care. It requires the publication of actual prices, including discounted cash and negotiated insurance rates, not estimates, throughout the health care system. And it requires insurers to give patients an advanced explanation of benefits —a breakdown of costs, including their out-of-pocket responsibility — before care is delivered. I joined a letter signed by 40 leading health economists calling on senators to co-sponsor and quickly pass this crucial legislation. Economists understand actual prices are essential to functioning marketplaces that generate fair-market costs. Under the opaque status quo, consumers are essentially required to pay for care with the equivalent of a blank check, giving hospitals and health insurers tremendous market power to overcharge and profiteer. Hidden prices result in wide cost variations for the same care, a sign of market failure. Recent research I conducted for Rice University's Baker Center reveals that mean outpatient hospital prices in Houston vary by nearly 200 percent for the same insurer. A recent study in Health Affairs Scholar shows that colonoscopy rates can vary by seven times for those with the same health coverage. Price transparency corrects this information asymmetry between consumers and providers, putting downward and convergent pressure on prices. It fosters competition and returns excessive health industry profits to patients, businesses, unions, school districts and workers where they belong. Redirecting funds from the health care industrial complex back to the private economy can create an enormous economic stimulus. Employers and employees especially stand to benefit. The average employer-sponsored family health insurance plan now costs $24,000 per year, with workers bearing the majority of the cost through premium deductions and lower wages. One analysis found that about the same amount of employee compensation growth since 2000 has gone to premium costs as to paychecks. Transparency empowers employers to steer workers to high-value care, reducing premium costs and increasing take-home pay. The Marshall-Hickenlooper bill also gives employers access to their claims data and reveals the contractual relationships of their health plan administrators, allowing them to remedy overbilling and spread pricing. My research suggests that lowering annual premiums by just $1,373 per employee can boost the profitability of retail businesses by an average of 12.4 percent. You don't need to be an economist to understand that upfront prices are needed to avoid overcharges and shop for affordable care and coverage. But economists can speak to the significant impact of price transparency on business earnings, worker paychecks and economic dynamism. Actual prices, as required by the Marshall-Hickenlooper bill, can restore affordability, accountability and trust to American health care. That's something people of all political persuasions can support.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Time of India
Shengjia Zhao education qualifications: How a Stanford PhD behind ChatGPT is now leading Meta's superintelligence lab
In 2014, a young student from China walked the sprawling campus of Rice University in Texas, not knowing that a decade later, he would be at the center of one of the most powerful technologies of our time. Shengjia Zhao, then just an exchange student from Tsinghua University, was curious, quiet, and already asking the kinds of questions that don't come with simple answers. Ten years on, he's not just part of the conversation. He's leading it. This July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Zhao's appointment as Chief Scientist of Meta's Superintelligence Lab, a bold new initiative focused on building Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). But Zhao's arrival at this moment wasn't overnight. It was the result of a carefully built academic journey, across continents, across institutions, and across frontiers of knowledge. This is the story of how education powered the rise of the mind behind ChatGPT. The spark at Tsinghua Zhao's story begins at Tsinghua University, often considered China's most prestigious engineering school. It's a place where academic rigor isn't just expected: it's the baseline. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like New Retirement Villages Near Hanoi Senior Living | Search Ads Undo There, Zhao stood out for more than just his grades. Professors recall a student who wasn't content with solving problems; he wanted to know why the problems existed in the first place. He dove into computer science with the intensity of someone who knew the world was on the cusp of something transformative. By the time he graduated in 2016, Zhao had already taken his first step onto the global stage, with an eye toward deeper learning and wider impact. A semester that shifted perspective In 2014, while still a Tsinghua undergraduate, Zhao crossed the Pacific for a semester at Rice University in Houston. It was his first sustained experience outside China, and it would leave a lasting mark. At Rice, Zhao saw a different approach to problem-solving. Lectures often spilled into lab sessions and debates; ideas were tested, challenged, and stretched. More importantly, he learned how to collaborate across cultures, disciplines, and perspectives. That semester wasn't just about coursework, it was a preview of the kind of collaborative, global science that AI research would demand in the years ahead. The Stanford years: Where ideas became breakthroughs When Zhao joined Stanford University's PhD program in Computer Science in 2016, he entered the heart of Silicon Valley's AI revolution. But unlike those chasing start-up fame or quick funding, Zhao stayed close to what he loved: deep research. Over the next six years, he immersed himself in topics that would later become the DNA of generative AI, large-scale model training, reinforcement learning, and multi-modal systems. He was fascinated by how machines could not only process language but learn from it, reason through it, and eventually, converse like humans. He earned his PhD in 2022, not with fanfare, but with the quiet confidence of someone ready to build the next wave of intelligent systems. ChatGPT and the OpenAI chapter Soon after Stanford, Zhao joined OpenAI, the research company behind ChatGPT. While much of the public focus fell on OpenAI's leadership, within the labs, Zhao was one of the lead architects behind the scenes. He contributed directly to the creation of GPT-4, and later, more agile versions like GPT-4.1 and o3. His expertise helped shape how these models learned from human feedback, processed ambiguity, and responded with nuance. If you've ever had a surprisingly thoughtful or helpful interaction with ChatGPT, you've likely experienced the ripple effects of Zhao's work. Colleagues described him as someone who rarely spoke in absolutes but never left a problem half-solved. A new mission at Meta In July 2025, Zhao made headlines again, but this time, not for the model he built, but for the one he would lead. Meta's Superintelligence Lab, announced by Zuckerberg, aims to push beyond current AI into the realm of Artificial General Intelligence, AI that can think, adapt, and reason across domains like a human. And at the helm of this scientific vision? Shengjia Zhao. He now works closely with Alexandr Wang, Meta's Chief AI Officer and founder of Scale AI. Together, they're assembling a world-class team of researchers to reimagine what AI can be: not just as a product, but as a form of intelligence. Zhao's appointment wasn't just about talent. It was about trust. Meta, like other tech giants, understands that the future of AI won't be decided by the loudest voice in the room, but by the one who understands how to listen, learn, and lead. What students can take away Zhao's story is more than a career path, it's a blueprint. He didn't rush success. He built it slowly, layer by layer, across some of the world's most rigorous classrooms and labs. From Tsinghua's discipline, to Rice's openness, to Stanford's depth, Zhao's academic journey reflects a mindset that values learning as the engine of innovation. TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
The Hindu
20-07-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
BioEmu AI reveals protein choreography in biological conditions
Proteins aren't rigid sculptures. They twist, flex, and sometimes unravel — movements essential to understanding their function. Some proteins, like enzymes, open like clamshells to grab molecules. Others such as signalling proteins shift shape to control cell processes. Still others briefly reveal hidden gaps where drugs can bind. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools like AlphaFold have made structure prediction routine, but they typically yield just one stable form, a single frame from what is really a moving picture. A new deep learning system called BioEmu, developed by Microsoft and researchers at Rice University in the US and Freie Universität in Germany, predicts the full range of shapes a protein naturally explores under biological conditions. Known as the equilibrium ensemble, it allows high-resolution protein flexibility modelling at scale, unlike slower, more classical approaches. Described in Science, BioEmu is faster and cheaper, enabling large-scale predictions of protein function. To understand BioEmu's significance, it helps to see what it's up against. The gold standard for modeling protein flexibility is molecular dynamics (MD), which tracks atomic movements at millionths of a billionth of a second using tools like GROMACS or Anton. Despite its ultrafine resolution and accuracy, MD is slow and costly. Simulating motions over microseconds or milliseconds can take tens of thousands of GPU-hours, even on supercomputers. BioEmu sidesteps this bottleneck by relying on an AI diffusion model. To train BioEmu, researchers first fed it real protein structures, from millions of AlphaFold-predicted assemblies, 200 milliseconds of MD simulations spanning thousands of proteins, and half a million mutant sequences from experimental stability measurements. It's like dropping a sugar cube into a glass of water: the original structure, clear and defined, is gradually dissolved. BioEmu's real task is to learn how to run that process in reverse: from noise to a sugar cube. Once trained, it can generate thousands of plausible protein conformations from scratch. BioEmu excelled at benchmarks. It captured large shape changes in enzymes, local unfolding that switches proteins on or off, and fleeting cryptic pockets, temporary crevices that can serve as drug docking sites, like in the cancer-linked protein Ras. It predicted 83% of large shifts and 70-81% of small changes accurately, including open and closed forms of a vital enzyme called adenylate kinase. It also handled hard to predict proteins that don't have a fixed 3D structure and how mutations affect protein stability. Fast but not fully detailed While MD simulates how proteins move over time, including interactions with water and drugs, BioEmu quickly generates snapshots of all the stable shapes a protein is likely to adopt. It can produce thousands of these structures in minutes to hours on a single GPU. But it can't show how a process unfolds. 'If a researcher wants to understand how a drug reaches a hidden binding site, MD can reveal the step-by-step pathway,' says Kalairasan Ponnuswamy, bioinformatician and assistant professor at SRM Institute of Science and Technology. 'BioEmu shows the final shapes, not how the protein gets there.' MD also handles temperature shifts, membranes, and other conditions that BioEmu's static predictions can't yet model. BioEmu also can't model cell walls, drug molecules, pH changes or show prediction reliability like AlphaFold. It's also limited to single chains and can't model how proteins interact, a key part of most biological processes and drug targets. 'It's better seen as a hypothesis-generating tool than a source of final conclusions,' says Ponnuswamy. As the system grows to handle more complex proteins and chemical interactions, researchers may still need experiments or older simulation methods to validate what it proposes. Still, the conceptual advance is clear. If AlphaFold provided the protein world's blueprint, BioEmu sketches its choreography. By capturing flexibility quickly across thousands of proteins, it enables large-scale drug discovery and function studies with fewer resource constraints, Ponnuswamy notes: 'Tasks that took weeks will now take hours.' He does however emphasise the need for proper training and skill-set acquisition. 'Future scientists will not only need a deep grounding in physics and chemistry, they'll also need fluency in machine learning and physical modelling to unlock the true potential of such hybrid approaches.' The researchers see BioEmu and MD as complementary tools. BioEmu can quickly generate a range of plausible conformations, which MD can then explore in detail. This hybrid approach could greatly reduce simulation time while preserving fidelity. Anirban Mukhopadhyay is a geneticist by training and science communicator from Delhi.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Redrawing Texas: the Republican plan to stack the decks for the midterms
Experts, politicians and concerned Texans say their state could be a blueprint for Republican efforts to stave off losses in next year's elections, with some calling the GOP division a 'festering wound' in Texas – all while Donald Trump stacks the deck against potential Democratic inroads. Last month, nearly 150 people showed up at a Tarrant county commissioners court meeting in north Texas. The packed building wasn't used to such a high volume of visitors, but the day's key vote had been hotly contested for weeks. In an unusual move, the commissioners court initiated a redistricting process that both liberal and conservative voters widely criticized. One map, as proposed, would essentially funnel more people of color away from precinct 2 and into precinct 1, thereby creating an opening for a GOP that has historically underperformed with people of color. The map's staunchest critics called the map 'racial gerrymandering', while the county judge, Tim O'Hare, claimed it was just about politics. 'It's purely partisan,' he told a local TV station in the days before the vote. 'At the end of the day, I'm doing it to put another Republican on the commissioners court, period, the end.' At the 3 June meeting, dozens of speakers rose to voice their concerns, and several were kicked out of the meeting by O'Hare. 'Your constituents are telling you that they do not want these maps,' one woman said during the public comment section. She was then removed from the building. The controversial map was approved by a 3-2 vote. Shortly afterward, the Trump administration said it wanted more maps to be redrawn in Texas before the 2026 midterms – and the governor, Greg Abbott, said on Wednesday that a special legislative session called for later this month would pick up that cause. Amid a heated Senate primary race and Trump's slipping approval rating, Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston who has extensively researched the Texas GOP, said 'partisan leaders are always looking for an edge'. 'Redistricting gives them the clearest opportunity to increase their strength and numbers. Tarrant county is the last big urban purple county and Republicans definitely want to plant their flag deeply there,' he continued. Bob Stein, a gerrymandering expert at Rice University in Houston, echoed Rottinghaus's comments. 'Republicans are afraid they're going to lose upwards of three to four seats in Louisiana, California and New York and probably New Jersey,' he said. 'In fact, some of the privileged stuff I get to see says it could be a complete sweep. So what they want to do is get going now, and what you're seeing in Tarrant county is the effect of that.' Multiple experts and politicians interviewed for this story pointed out how Texas isn't as conservative as one might think. Rather, Texans just don't vote enough. A little over 60% of eligible Texas voters cast ballots in the 2024 election, which was six percentage points lower than the total in 2020. Most recently, fewer than 8% of Tarrant county voters cast ballots in May's local elections. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, received more votes in Tarrant county in 2018 than the Republican senator Ted Cruz, and both Joe Biden and recent Cruz challenger Colin Allred also won Tarrant county in their respective races. All of this spells trouble for the GOP as it prepares for 2026, especially in light of a GOP primary race that has already gotten personal. Senator John Cornyn, who has been in office since 2002, is being challenged by the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, whose controversies include an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and an impeachment on charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, harassment and abuse of office. Cornyn, who is typically seen as a more traditional Republican, has attacked Paxton's character, using terms such as 'conman' and 'fraud' to describe his opponent. Paxton, for his part, has cast Cornyn as an establishment figure out of touch with Texas. 'The split in the Republican party will definitely be on full display in this election,' Rottinghaus said. 'The establishment Republicans are very worried about losing the seat. You can see that in all the polling. You can see that in their attitudes and actions in how they're giving money and which staff are supporting which candidate. I mean, this is a wound that's been festering for a long time. It has not been sutured closed, and it may never be.' The worry from the GOP, Rottinghaus added, is that a Paxton primary win could pave the way for a Democrat to mount a successful challenge in 2026. Ken Shimamoto, a Fort Worth resident who opposed his county's recent redistricting, is following the Cornyn-Paxton primary race and displeased by what he sees. But he was not surprised. 'Everybody hates Ted Cruz, but Cornyn seemed the more reasonable senator until Paxton mounted his challenge,' he said. 'And ever since then, it seems like Cornyn has been bending over backwards to appease Donald Trump.' Some of Cornyn's bending has been overt, such as posting a photo of himself reading Trump's book The Art of the Deal with a one-word caption: 'Recommended.' Other efforts have been less obvious but far more insidious. Three days after Paxton announced his challenge, Cornyn asked the Department of Justice to investigate the East Plano Islamic Center's plans to build a community around a mosque. Without evidence, the senator claimed such a project could constitute religious discrimination. Despite widespread criticism (the Council on American-Islamic Relations called Cornyn's complaint 'factually baseless'), the justice department opened an investigation – only to close it roughly a month later. To Texans like Shimamoto, as well as the political scientists interviewed for this story, there's a clear tie between gerrymandering and races like the Cornyn-Paxton fight. Only the most extreme candidates win in a primary, which means conservatives must run further right if they hope to triumph or keep the seat they already have. 'We've been gerrymandered to death,' said Allison Campolo, who lives in Fort Worth and is running to be chair of the Tarrant county Democratic party. 'That really drives down engagement. It prevents people from knowing what their elected representatives are doing and how it affects them.' At the same time, politicians like Cornyn, Paxton and even Trump are unpopular in Texas. Recent polls show a majority of Texans disapprove of Trump, while only 29% of the state's residents currently approve of Paxton's performance. For Cornyn, that number is 24%. Theoretically, this is good news for people upset about redistricting efforts or unhappy with their current leadership – but only if they vote. 'Texans have to continue to vote and make their voices heard,' said Democratic House representative Marc Veasey, whose district includes part of Fort Worth. On redistricting, Veasey said that it was already being challenged in court on the basis that it violates both the constitution and the Voting Rights Act. To defend against the lawsuit, the commissioners court once again voted 3-2 to hire a law firm called the Public Interest Legal Foundation – the same firm that led the redistricting process. As disheartening as this may be, Veasey urged Texans to 'not give up', saying: 'Texans can continue to tune in, not out. Continue to fight, vote, and make your voices heard.'
Sustainability Times
14-07-2025
- Science
- Sustainability Times
'It's Like Armoring Your Home': Breakthrough Coating Transforms Ordinary Windows Into Powerful Energy-Saving Shield for Every Household
IN A NUTSHELL 🌟 Rice University researchers developed a groundbreaking glass coating that reflects heat and reduces energy costs. researchers developed a groundbreaking glass coating that reflects heat and reduces energy costs. 🔬 The coating is made from a tough layer of boron nitride and carbon, offering resistance to UV light and temperature swings. and carbon, offering resistance to UV light and temperature swings. 💡 This innovation uses pulsed laser deposition at room temperature, making it cost-effective and versatile for various substrates. at room temperature, making it cost-effective and versatile for various substrates. 🏙️ Suitable for urban environments, the coating is poised to transform energy efficiency in cities like New York and Beijing. In an era where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly crucial, a collaborative research team has unveiled a groundbreaking solution that could significantly cut energy costs. Researchers from Rice University, along with partners from institutions in the United States and China, have developed an innovative glass coating that promises to enhance energy savings and reduce heat loss through windows. This new coating not only reflects heat but also stands strong against environmental challenges, marking a significant advancement in sustainable building technologies. Revolutionary Coating for Glass Exteriors The newly developed coating, a product of international collaboration, features a thin yet robust layer composed of boron nitride and carbon. This combination is key to its ability to reflect heat while being resistant to the damaging effects of ultraviolet light and temperature variations. Remarkably, this coating is also scratch-resistant, adding to its durability. Although the energy savings of 2.9 percent might seem modest at first glance, it becomes substantial when considering the over four billion square feet of windows installed annually in the United States. The potential for reduced energy consumption is immense, highlighting the coating's role in fostering more energy-efficient buildings. Professor Pulickel Ajayan of Rice University emphasized the transformative impact of this innovation, noting, 'Although pure boron nitride shows almost similar emissivity to glass, when you add a little amount of carbon into it, the emissivity lowers significantly ⎯ and this changes the game altogether.' This statement underscores the potential of this technological breakthrough in redefining energy consumption norms in architecture. 'They Said It Was Impossible—Now Robots Grow 1.2 Million Strawberries a Year': Inside Dyson's Sci-Fi Mega-Farm Shocking the Entire Agriculture Industry The Creation Process: A Game-Changer The development of this coating involved an advanced technique known as pulsed laser deposition. This process uses high-energy laser bursts to strike a boron-nitride target, creating a plasma vapor that settles onto the substrate. Remarkably, this entire process unfolds at room temperature, contrasting with the high temperatures typically required for other coatings. This not only simplifies the production process but also reduces costs associated with energy consumption during manufacturing. Boron nitride, a less expensive raw material compared to traditional components like silver or indium tin oxide, adds to the economic feasibility of this coating. While researchers caution against making premature cost comparisons, they highlight the potential for using diverse substrates such as polymers, textiles, and even biological surfaces. This versatility could open new avenues for the application of this coating technology across various industries. 'This Defies Everything We Knew': Sun-Powered Sponge Turns Saltwater Into Freshwater Without Using a Single Watt of Electricity Commercial Potential and Future Applications Beyond its technical successes, this coating's potential for commercial scalability is promising. Techniques like roll-to-roll chemical vapor deposition could facilitate its mass production, revolutionizing the market for energy-efficient building materials. Critical to its commercial success is ensuring that the coating meets or exceeds the optical clarity and durability of existing products. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong conducted rigorous evaluations to confirm the coating's properties, deeming it 'an excellent solution for densely built environments.' Shancheng Wang from the university highlighted its suitability for metropolitan areas, noting, 'The transparency level and promising low emissivity make carbon-doped coated glass a competitive energy-saving option for cities like Beijing and New York.' Such endorsements bolster the coating's potential as a leading option in the global push towards energy efficiency. 'China's Runway Disintegrates on Impact': Revolutionary Super-Soft Material Now Shields Planes and Passengers From Catastrophic Crashes, Shocking Aviation Experts Implications for Global Energy Consumption As nations worldwide strive to minimize energy consumption and reduce emissions, innovations like this glass coating play a pivotal role. By mitigating heat loss, especially in colder climates where heating predominantly relies on fossil fuels, such technologies contribute to significant energy savings and a reduction in carbon footprints. The widespread adoption of these coatings could lead to transformative changes in how buildings are designed and maintained, aligning with global sustainability goals. This coating's development also reflects a broader trend towards collaborative, cross-border research efforts to address pressing global challenges. The study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, serves as a testament to the potential of international cooperation in driving technological advancements that benefit society at large. As we look towards a future where energy efficiency is paramount, the question remains: how will innovations like this transform our approach to sustainable architecture and urban planning in the years to come? 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