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Research has found a Brazilian wasp’s venom could destroy tumours of leukaemia, prostate and bladder cancer without harming healthy tissue

Wasp study finds sting in the tail for cancer cells | Science | The Guardian

But there could also be something else afoot. We could be seeing early signs of longer-term changes in the global economy -- changes that could be enormously positive, but also have the potential to upend a lot about how the world works today.

Maybe This Global Slowdown Is Different - Bloomberg View

What's the price of money? What's the interest rate? What is inflation? Let's get real. The bond yields we live with day to day and moment to moment are nominal yields. Another phrase is the current yield. Right now, the all-American, full-faith-and-credit 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is 2.1808 percent. Corporate bond yields as measured by the Moody's Baa Industrial yield are an elevated 5.28 percent. Apple enjoys a pristine 3.15 percent current yield out about 10 years. The benchmark is the U.S. government 10-year. But, that is not the real benchmark. The real yield is just that: The real yield.

It's Time to Get Real on the Still-Negative Real Yield - Bloomberg Business

It's a digital trap that quickly drains the reservoir of relaxation from time off. But there is a way to escape the post-vacation e-mail hangover. What if Harrigan and millions of workers all decided to skip the exhausting, futile ritual of sifting through hundreds of mostly unimportant messages? Why not just disregard the e-mails received while away altogether, forever and always?

The Sensible Case for Totally Ignoring All the E-mails You Miss on Vacation - Bloomberg Business

For the 189 countries for which data are available, median inflation for 2015 is running just below 2%, slightly lower than in 2014 and, in most cases, below the International Monetary Fund’s projections in its April World Economic Outlook. As the figure below shows, inflation in nearly half of all countries (advanced and emerging, large and small) is now at or below 2% (which is how most central bankers define price stability).

Deflationary forces should worry the Fed - MarketWatch

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Prof Jamie Timmons, from King's College London, told the BBC News website: "There's a healthy ageing signature that's common to all our tissues, and it appears to be prognostic for a number of things including longevity and cognitive decline. "It looks like from the age of 40 onwards you can use this to give guidance on how well an individual is ageing.".. The team said "health" and "age" were two separate entities. And while some lifestyle decisions, like spending all day on the sofa, could be bad for your health they do not appear to affect the speed your body ages. The team believe combining lifestyle factors and your biological age would give a more accurate picture of your health.

Test shows how old your body really is - BBC News

Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers from the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School concluded that a drug called modafinil, which is typically used to treat sleep disorders, is a cognitive enhancer. Essentially, it can help normal people think better.

'Smart' drugs are getting a lot smarter - Business Insider

As you can see, unemployment does increase in an actual recession like 2008-09. However in the three subsequent pseudo-recessions the rate of unemployment did not increase. In the most recent case, Japanese consumers bought lots of goods right before the April 1, 2014 sales tax increase, and GDP fell immediately afterwards. Firms didn't lay off workers, knowing that it was simply a timing issue, not an actual recession. Massive natural disasters like the 2011 tsunami also don't impact unemployment in a big, diversified economy.

Pseudo-recessions and actual recessions, Scott Sumner | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

In just two years, the report notes, robo-advisers have boosted their assets from virtually nothing in 2012 to $14 billion by the end of 2014. And they’re just getting warmed up. Over the next 10 years, their assets under management could expand exponentially, to $5 trillion, the report speculates.

Robots could take trillions of dollars of assets from Wall Street - Business Insider

The labor force remained flat in August, meaning the participation rate is still stuck at a low 62.6%, more than three points off of its peak prior to the downturn. Some of that decline can be assigned to retiring boomers, but some remains due to persistently weak demand. The number of involuntary part-timers—those working part-time who want full-time hours—remains highly elevated at 6.5 million, though that trend too is moving in the right direction, down 700,000 over the past year.

Jobs Report: Yes, the unemployment rate is 5.1%. No, we are not at full employment. | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy

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With a more expansive stretch, there’s a better chance that I’ll be around at the precise, random moment when one of my nephews drops his guard and solicits my advice about something private. Or when one of my nieces will need someone other than her parents to tell her that she’s smart and beautiful. Or when one of my siblings will flash back on an incident from our childhood that makes us laugh uncontrollably, and suddenly the cozy, happy chain of our love is cinched that much tighter. There’s simply no real substitute for physical presence.

The Myth of Quality Time - The New York Times

Bob Inglis, the former Republican congressman from South Carolina, heads the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University A recent winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, which is given to public officials, he has been pushing for climate change solutions that are consistent with free enterprise and limited government. Environmentalists in the United States would do well to look north at the successes achieved in a Canadian province. In 2008, British Columbia introduced a revenue-neutral carbon tax similar to that being proposed for Washington. The results of the policy have been what advocates promised. The use of fossil fuels in British Columbia has fallen compared with the rest of Canada. But economic growth has not suffered.

The Key Role of Conservatives in Taxing Carbon - The New York Times

Average hourly wages, which despite low unemployment have been stuck at around 2% for years now, are up 2.2% year-over-year. That’s over the past year, but has there been a more recent acceleration in wage growth? Nope. If we take an average of wage growth over the past three months, and compare it to the average over the prior three months, the annualized growth rate is…wait for it…1.9%.

Jobs Report: Yes, the unemployment rate is 5.1%. No, we are not at full employment. | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy

Job gains were particularly weak in goods-producing industries, down 10,000 in construction and 17,000 in manufacturing, which has been hurt by the strengthening US dollar That makes our manufactured goods less competitive abroad and so far this year, factories have added 28,000 workers, well below last year’s pace of 119,000 by this point.

Jobs Report: Yes, the unemployment rate is 5.1%. No, we are not at full employment. | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy

But happiness and happy relationships are something of a two-way street: Are happy relationships really the cause of overall happiness, or are happy people just more likely to form happy relationships? It's difficult to tease that apart, but we have some clues.

A psychologist says this is the best way to gauge happiness - Tech Insider

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Imagine a world where severe storms, tornadoes, and flash flooding are no longer a threat to human life. Or a time when flying from London to Australia takes less than an hour. Picture a future where our understanding of the dawn of time and the fabric of the universe are so sophisticated that time travel becomes more than just theory. All of these emerging technologies are being worked on right now in a lab in Palo Alto, California, where Lockheed Martin, the American aerospace and defence giant, is developing the science it claims could change the world.

Four space technologies that will change the world in your lifetime - Telegraph

"The single biggest predictor of human happiness is the quality of [a person's] relationships."

A psychologist says this is the best way to gauge happiness - Tech Insider

The majority of marriages fail, either ending in divorce and separation or devolving into bitterness and dysfunction. Of all the people who get married, only three in ten remain in healthy, happy marriages, as psychologist Ty Tashiro points out in his book "The Science of Happily Ever After," which was published earlier this year.

Lasting Relationships Rely On 2 Traits - Business Insider

One of the best ways to maximise your focus is to ensure you are hydrated. Even mild dehydration can lead to tiredness, headaches, reduced alertness and diminished concentration.

BBC iWonder - Can food improve your exam performance?

One is more likely to encounter a daily tea drinker in the United States than someone with money invested in the stock market -- and that includes so-called nondirect investments like mutual funds held in 401(k) accounts. Even fewer Americans, about 14 percent, own individual stocks like Apple or Microsoft. About twice as many people own dogs or tablet computers. More smoke cigarettes than own individual shares in publicly traded companies.

Stock market not being felt by most - Business Insider

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Yet even with rock-bottom borrowing costs, the recovery in many countries has been tepid, leaving central bankers little choice but to keep the cash taps on. The ECB and the Japanese central bank are still quantitatively easing; and the Bank of England and the Fed are yet to raise rates, seven years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Whatever the diagnosis for the less-than-impressive post-crisis recovery – the debt overhang from the boom years, chronic underinvestment, weak consumer demand as a result of deep-seated inequality, or some other as yet undiagnosed economic disease – the cure is unlikely to lie with the central banks.

Central banks can do nothing more to insulate us from an Asian winter | Business | The Guardian

Planet Money’s Stacey Vanek Smith notes that bankruptcy is something the US does uniquely right. “In this country, we are really good at going bankrupt, and it may actually be one of our economy's secret weapons,” she said.

Bankruptcy: a business's secret weapon? - Business Insider

It is what has to happen. We have to wash out all the weak hands and all the people who are "scared" and "afraid" and don't even know what they are scared and afraid of. People have to remember that stocks can go down much harder and faster than they go up, and we need lots of traders to say that the worst is just beginning.

The Mindless Selling of a Retest; Oh, China: Jim Cramer's Best Blogs - TheStreet

Thirteen years later that conversation has evolved into what is one of the most highly valued private biotech startups of all time. The company the pair started, Stemcentrx, has raised $500 million and is valued at $3 billion, people familiar with its finances say, a nearly unprecedented value for a company with no revenue, facing the usual R&D obstacles, and that almost no one has heard of before.

Stemcentrx, Backed By Peter Thiel, Fights Cancer Stem Cells | MIT Technology Review

Their plight illustrates a largely overlooked side effect of oil and gas production that has worsened with the past decade's drilling boom: spills of wastewater that foul the land, kill wildlife and threaten freshwater supplies.

The dark side of the drilling boom is becoming clearer - Business Insider

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The research, from the University of Lincoln, adapted the Ainsworth “strange situation” test, developed in the 1970s to observe just how attached children, and sometimes dogs (idiots), are to their caregivers. They found that when you put a cat in an unfamiliar room it does not look for reassurance from its owner or seem to miss them if they are absent. There’s one potential explanation for this, it strikes me: cats, unlike children and dogs (idiots), are territorial – put them in a strange room and they will be too busy freaking out to look for reassurance. But that doesn’t matter. The myth of the independent cat who sees humans as nothing more than handy food dispensers is firmly entrenched. As a cat owner, I am deluded enough to think that my cat loves me. And I have been racking my brain, and asking everyone I know, to come up with hard evidence of this fact.

How do you know your cat loves you? Let me count 25 ways | Fay Schopen | Comment is free | The Guardian

The U.S. Federal Reserve risks triggering "panic and turmoil" in emerging markets if it opts to raise rates at its September meeting and should hold fire until the global economy is on a surer footing, the World Bank's chief economist has warned.

World Bank chief economist warns Fed to delay rate rise

It seems like a crazy urban legend: In China, drivers who have injured pedestrians will sometimes then try to kill them. And yet not only is it true — it’s fairly common; security cameras have regularly captured drivers driving back and forth on top of victims to make sure that they are dead. The Chinese language even has an adage for the phenomenon: “It is better to hit to kill than to hit and injure.”

Chinese drivers kill pedestrians intentionally - Business Insider

He added: “Mrs Merkel’s position was not just a message of EU cohesion, but was also an intelligent proposal for the German economy because Syrian immigrants are appropriate to the German needs – the shrinking of population and the need for skills – 40% of the Syrians are graduates.”

Cameron’s moral failure over refugees ‘will cost him Europe negotiation’ | World news | The Guardian

The automotive is currently facing the strongest changes in its history, says a study from management consulting firm McKinsey. Besides technological innovation, the changing role of the suppliers will greatly alter the industry. Page 1 of 2 The study identifies five technological trends that will keep automotive engineers busy over the decade ahead. These are Electrification. By 2030, the market share of vehicles with some kind of electrical powertrain will rise to 65 percent up from 2 percent in the present time. The rise will be driven by sales of hybrid electric vehicles. Connectivity. By 2025, fifty million vehicles will be connected. Currently, about 18 millions have access to the Internet. Autonomous driving and software complexity. Software will be the distinguishing feature of cars. And the complexity of the software will further increase. Whereas today the cars contain only some 100 millions lines of code, the market watchers expect the software content to grow to 300 millions lines of code. Internet-based production organisation, aka Industry 4.0 or Industrial Internet. The digitisation of industrial production enables further cost reductions. The costs for quality control can be reduced by as much as 20% through data-based real-time production process monitoring and, as a consequence, fewer rejects. New materials. The content of lightweight construction materials such as high-tensile steel, aluminium and carbon-fibre reinforced polymers will increase from 21 to 67 percent.

These five trends drive automotive innovation - Electronics Eetimes

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The only true way to get hurt is to think you know it all and never take any of your winnings off the table. For every stock in your portfolio there should be a price you're willing to pay and a price you're willing to sell. That's just common sense, Cramer added. The markets take stocks up and down for all sorts of irrational reasons. When you have solid gains, take them.

Jim Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Revisiting My 5 Time-Tested Investing Rules - TheStreet

While China is "the third largest destination for U.S. exports ($124 billion annually, or 7.6% of total goods), we estimate that U.S. companies in aggregate have only 1.6% direct revenue exposure to China," the Sept. 9 report said.

25 U.S. Stocks Most Exposed to China's Growth Woes - TheStreet

You have to hand it to Russia. At a time when Western leaders respond to crises with agony, contradiction and recrimination, the Kremlin displays clarity, consistency and resolve... The formula of imperial extension and economic stagnation can only last so long.

Putin is driving Russia on a road to ruin - MarketWatch

Now consider the state of countries that suffered huge crises since 2007. McKinsey notes that none has deleveraged overall. Yet non-financial private sectors have deleveraged in some cases, notably the US, UK and Spain. The financial sector has also deleveraged substantially in the US, though not in Spain or the UK. In these cases, however, the rise in government debt has been bigger than the decline in private gross debt. Indeed, gross debt has risen relative to GDP in all the high-income economies examined by McKinsey, with the exception of Israel. In many high-income economies, even private indebtedness has continued to rise: Canada and France are two noteworthy examples of this experience.

How addiction to debt came even to China - FT.com

Dr Paul Kelley, clinical research associate at the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at Oxford University, called for schools to stagger their starting times to work with the natural biological rhythms of their students. It would improve cognitive performance, exam results and students’ health (sleep deprivation has been linked with diabetes, depression, obesity and an impaired immune system).

Why you should start work at 10am (unless you're in your 50s) | Life and style | The Guardian

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Greece isn't out of the financial woods by any means. Yet it's turned out to be a winning investment since the end of 2014, the top debt performer in the euro zone since January and the best of all assets in the world since July.

Greece, the World's Best Investment. No Joke. - Bloomberg View

The Nazis sought to capitalise on Von Cramm’s sporting prowess, but he loathed them and rejected their overtures to join the party. “Hitler?” he said. “He’s nothing but a house painter.” Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo, went to great lengths in his efforts to change Von Cramm’s mind, tearing up the mortgages that were held by Jewish banks on Von Cramm property. “Now you are free,” Göring said. “One more reason not to join you,” Von Cramm replied.

The Joy of Six: US Open finals | Jacob Steinberg | Sport | The Guardian

I have a very smart trader friend who believes that everything that every market has done or will do is overwhelmingly related to this question. Rising stock market? Low commodity prices? High-yield bubble? It's all about the Fed. While I do not attribute quite that kind of overwhelming influence to this one source, I will say that if you are in the camp that that nothing else really matters but the Fed, you've got to be out of stocks and in cash right now.

Is China More Important Than the Fed in Moving This Stock Market? - TheStreet

Poor diet has emerged as the biggest contributor to early death around the world, according to new analysis from the leading authorities on the global disease, with red meat and sugar-sweetened beverages among the foods implicated in 21% of global deaths.

Poor diet is killing us - Business Insider

One 2015 study in the British Medical Journal analyzed all the best available research on the association between sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened drinks, juices, and Type 2 diabetes. What they found was startling: Regular consumption of sugary drinks was associated with diabetes — but so was consumption of diet drinks.

Why diet soda is (probably) bad for you, according to science - Vox

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Shanghai-based EDO has turned on the company's 5.6 inch WQHD flexible AMOLED panel which is the first of its kind in China. WQHD stands for a 2560x1440 resolution with 525 ppi.

EDO unveils 5.6-inch WQHD flexible AMOLED panel - Electronics Eetimes

The MPEG-H 3D Audio system that will be associated to UHDTV, provides a range of additional options for television viewers. For instance, users can set sound characteristics and volume independently on different terminal devices and enjoy the sound in what Fraunhofer calls 3D quality. But wait: Isn’t stereo or 5-channel sound already 3D? The Fraunhofer researchers have a different vision in mind. Thanks to 3D sound, TV users get the feeling of being amidst the action – they do not only see a football game like they were themselves in the stadium but they also get the acoustic impression of being present in the arena

Next-gen TV in the offing - with surprising sound options - Electronics Eetimes

Bayern Munich's chief executive has warned of a growing "transfer tsunami" if the Bundesliga cannot compete with the Premier League's spending power. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge wants Germany's TV rights deal to be worth closer to the record £5.136bn the Premier League will receive over the next three years. Premier League clubs spent a record £870m on transfers this summer, compared to £290m in the Bundesliga.

BBC Sport - Premier League spending 'will increase transfer tsunami'

Roughly 14 million people – or one out of every ten American workers—are currently involved in designing, building, operating and overseeing the nation’s transportation, waterways, and energy systems, according to the Brookings Institution.

Here’s an easy way to create millions of middle class jobs - Business Insider

The devastating cost of carrying excess pounds in middle age has been highlighted in a new study which shows every extra point of BMI speeds up the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by nearly seven months... Now US researchers from the government-affiliated National Institute on Ageing have found that even having a BMI (Body Mass Index) just one point over a safe level, speeds up the onset of dementia for people aged 50 or over.

Connection between obesity and dementia - Business Insider