Undiagnosed Nerve Disorders May Be Widespread Among Americans, Doctors Warn

A constant feeling of strange tingling and numbness along a person’s legs might be much more common than assumed in some parts of the U.S., new research out Wednesday suggests. Researchers have found evidence that a substantial majority of older adults in Flint, Michigan are experiencing neuropathy, an uncomfortable…

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A Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming bundle will soon be available in the US

Disney has expanded its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a streaming bundle sometime this summer. The companies have announced that they’ll soon give people the option to pay for Disney+, Hulu and Max subscriptions together in the US. Hulu on Disney+ recently came out of beta, a few months after Disney took full ownership of the former late last year. An ad-free bundle with the two services costs $20, while a Max subscription without ads costs $16 a month. An offering with all three will most likely be cheaper than $36, and viewers will have the option to get their ad-supported versions if they want to pay even less. 

Disney’s ESPN is also working with Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Fox Sports, to launch a streaming sports service, the companies announced back in February. The joint service will stream sporting events from all the networks the companies own, including games from the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA.

“This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention,” said JB Perrette, the CEO and President for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Global Streaming and Games. Indeed, subscribers might be less inclined to give up a bundle of three if ever they decide to cull the services they’re paying for. As The New York Times notes, Disney has seen good results from its Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, so we can probably expect it to come up with more offerings like it. 

The companies have yet to reveal pricing and an exact release date for their new product, but they said it will be available for purchase on any of the streaming platforms’ websites. Subscribers might also get notifications to get the bundle for an additional payment if they already have any of the services, similar to how Disney+ members get asked if they want to pay $2 more for Hulu content. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-disney-hulu-and-max-streaming-bundle-will-soon-be-available-in-the-us-033155312.html?src=rss

Undiagnosed Nerve Disorders May Be Widespread Among Americans, Doctors Warn

A constant feeling of strange tingling and numbness along a person’s legs might be much more common than assumed in some parts of the U.S., new research out Wednesday suggests. Researchers have found evidence that a substantial majority of older adults in Flint, Michigan are experiencing neuropathy, an uncomfortable…

Read more…

10 Standout Sci-Fi Movies to Stream on Tubi

If you don’t mind commercials—and frankly, most streaming services these days have them—Tubi has one of the most vast libraries of genre films and TV, including horror, cult favorites, and sci-fi. Here are 10 picks to get you started, including all-time classics and more recent releases.

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On X-Men '97, Professor X and Magneto Fiddle While Rome Burns

Marvel’s mutants are locked in a world of fighting—fighting to survive, fighting to push back against hate. But they’re also just as often fighting among themselves, and this week’s penultimate episode of X-Men ‘97 is no exception… except mutantdom’s two biggest drama queens couldn’t have picked a worst time for…

Read more…

A Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming bundle will soon be available in the US

Disney has expanded its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a streaming bundle sometime this summer. The companies have announced that they’ll soon give people the option to pay for Disney+, Hulu and Max subscriptions together in the US. Hulu on Disney+ recently came out of beta, a few months after Disney took full ownership of the former late last year. An ad-free bundle with the two services costs $20, while a Max subscription without ads costs $16 a month. An offering with all three will most likely be cheaper than $36, and viewers will have the option to get their ad-supported versions if they want to pay even less. 

Disney’s ESPN is also working with Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Fox Sports, to launch a streaming sports service, the companies announced back in February. The joint service will stream sporting events from all the networks the companies own, including games from the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA.

“This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention,” said JB Perrette, the CEO and President for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Global Streaming and Games. Indeed, subscribers might be less inclined to give up a bundle of three if ever they decide to cull the services they’re paying for. As The New York Times notes, Disney has seen good results from its Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, so we can probably expect it to come up with more offerings like it. 

The companies have yet to reveal pricing and an exact release date for their new product, but they said it will be available for purchase on any of the streaming platforms’ websites. Subscribers might also get notifications to get the bundle for an additional payment if they already have any of the services, similar to how Disney+ members get asked if they want to pay $2 more for Hulu content. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-disney-hulu-and-max-streaming-bundle-will-soon-be-available-in-the-us-033155312.html?src=rss

On X-Men '97, Professor X and Magneto Fiddle While Rome Burns

Marvel’s mutants are locked in a world of fighting—fighting to survive, fighting to push back against hate. But they’re also just as often fighting among themselves, and this week’s penultimate episode of X-Men ‘97 is no exception… except mutantdom’s two biggest drama queens couldn’t have picked a worst time for…

Read more…

Lego's New Avengers Set Lets You Recreate One of the Coolest Shots in the MCU's History

There are certainly things to like about Avengers: Age of Ultron. There are certainly things that are… less likely for you to like, that have certainly aged in the last nine years. But one thing that will be forever burned in the minds of Marvel fans? That slow-mo shot from the opening as the assembled Avengers leap…

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Bryan Fuller Has Departed Friday the 13th Prequel Series Crystal Lake

Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake hasn’t aired a single episode and it already has a body count. The series, set for streaming on Peacock through A24, will no longer have Bryan Fuller—the Hannibal creator who’s no stranger to leaving projects early, including American Gods and Star Trek: Discovery—guiding…

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Google DeepMind’s latest medical breakthrough borrows a trick from AI image generators

Much of the recent AI hype train has centered around mesmerizing digital content generated from simple prompts, alongside concerns about its ability to decimate the workforce and make malicious propaganda much more convincing. (Fun!) However, some of AI’s most promising — and potentially much less ominous — work lies in medicine. A new update to Google’s AlphaFold software could lead to new disease research and treatment breakthroughs.

AlphaFold software, from Google DeepMind and (the also Alphabet-owned) Isomorphic Labs, has already demonstrated that it can predict how proteins fold with shocking accuracy. It’s cataloged a staggering 200 million known proteins, and Google says millions of researchers have used previous versions to make discoveries in areas like malaria vaccines, cancer treatment and enzyme designs. 

Knowing a protein’s shape and structure determines how it interacts with the human body, allowing scientists to create new drugs or improve existing ones. But the new version, AlphaFold 3, can model other crucial molecules, including DNA. It can also chart interactions between drugs and diseases, which could open exciting new doors for researchers. And Google says it does so with 50 percent better accuracy than existing models.

“AlphaFold 3 takes us beyond proteins to a broad spectrum of biomolecules,” Google’s DeepMind research team wrote in a blog post. “This leap could unlock more transformative science, from developing biorenewable materials and more resilient crops, to accelerating drug design and genomics research.”

“How do proteins respond to DNA damage; how do they find, repair it?” Google DeepMind project leader John Jumper told Wired. “We can start to answer these questions.”

Before AI, scientists could only study protein structures through electron microscopes and elaborate methods like X-ray crystallography. Machine learning streamlines much of that process by using patterns recognized from its training (often imperceptible to humans and our standard instruments) to predict protein shapes based on their amino acids.

Google says part of AlphaFold 3’s advancements come from applying diffusion models to its molecular predictions. Diffusion models are central pieces of AI image generators like Midjourney, Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3. Incorporating these algorithms into AlphaFold “sharpens the molecular structures the software generates,” as Wired explains. In other words, it takes a formation that looks fuzzy or vague and makes highly educated guesses based on patterns from its training data to clear it up.

“This is a big advance for us,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told Wired. “This is exactly what you need for drug discovery: You need to see how a small molecule is going to bind to a drug, how strongly, and also what else it might bind to.”

AlphaFold 3 uses a color-coded scale to label its confidence level in its prediction, allowing researchers to exercise appropriate caution with results that are less likely to be accurate. Blue means high confidence; red means it’s less certain.

Google is making AlphaFold 3 free for researchers to use for non-commercial research. However, unlike with past versions, the company isn’t open-sourcing the project. One prominent researcher who makes similar software, University of Washington professor David Baker, expressed disappointment to Wired that Google chose that route. However, he was also wowed by the software’s capabilities. “The structure prediction performance of AlphaFold 3 is very impressive,” he said.

As for what’s next, Google says “Isomorphic Labs is already collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to apply it to real-world drug design challenges and, ultimately, develop new life-changing treatments for patients.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-deepminds-latest-medical-breakthrough-borrows-a-trick-from-ai-image-generators-194725620.html?src=rss