Image by Peter Dazeley via Getty / FuturismTreatmentsA high-end medical practice is offering clients the purported service of scrubbing their blood of microplastics.In an interview with Wired, Clarify Clinics CEO Yael Cohen said that her London facility's bespoke blood-filtering service — which is otherwise known as apheresis and generally used for plasma donation or other so-called therapeutic plasma exchange procedures — is so comfortable that some patients doze off during it."Once it’s running, you feel nothing. It’s very comfortable," Cohen told the magazine of its Clari procedure, which costs more than $12,000 per session. "Patients take calls, do Zooms, watch movies, sleep. The ones who sleep are my favorite."People who come to the facility located off Harley Street, home to London's storied high-end district, reportedly seek reprieve from everything from chronic fatigue and brain fog to long COVID and Lupus.Though Cohen and her clinic claim the ability to help ease those ailments, the jury is still out as to how bad microplastics actually are for the human body. While studies in recent years have established links between microplastics and damage to human cells and hearts, that research was all, as Wired notes, observational. Thus far, the only thing we know definitively is that these mysterious particles have been found nearly everywhere researchers have looked, from our blood and guts and brains to archaeological digs and Mount Everest.While there don't appear to be any studies about the effectiveness of the Clari procedure, there's a pretty strong body of evidence suggesting that therapeutic plasma exchange in general is a safe and effective treatment for some autoimmune and neurological disorders.In a similar vein, the desire to get those foreign and synthetic particulates out of one's blood, and to clean one's blood in general, makes some degree of sense. According to Cohen, longevity influencer Bryan Johnson's interest in so-called "total plasma exchange" — a more extreme apheresis procedure he used to get his son's blood filtered into his own — where all of the body's plasma is removed and replaced with proteins and antibodies, has been a big boon for her business."He’s a big platform, and he is spending a lot of time and energy finding the things that move the needle the most," the CEO said of Johnson, a former Futurism investor who's no longer involved with the site.Though it doesn't appear that Wired shelled out for its reporter, Matt Reynolds, to get his blood scrubbed, the journalist did get his microplastics levels tested to see what the fuss was about. In a fingerprick sample of blood, Reynolds had about 190 microplastic particles per millimeter, which is apparently on the lower end of the scale.Pleased with the results, the reporter emailed Cohen. In response, she pointed out the stark truth: that he still has "around a million particles in [his] circulatory system!"More on microplastics:  Chewing Gum Is Flooding Your Mouth With MicroplasticsShare This Article

Here are hints -- and the answer -- for today's Wordle No. 1,395 for April 14.

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In Brief Posted: 4:43 PM PDT · April 13, 2025 Image Credits:Getty Images UK founders grow frustrated over dearth of funding: ‘the problem is getting worse’ According to Dealroom data cited by the Financial Times, British start-ups raised just £16.2 billion last year, far less than the more than £65 billion raised by their counterparts in Silicon Valley during the same period. In fact, the U.S. appears to be pulling further ahead each year. In 2024, 57% of global venture capital funding went to U.S. startups — the first time that share has exceeded 50% in over a decade, per Dealroom. This widening gap is part of a years-long trend that U.K. founders have taken note of, the FT reports, and it’s prompting many to consider relocating abroad. “Recognizing that most venture funding comes from the U.S., we set up as a Delaware corporation, the preferred and familiar structure for American investors,” said Mati Staniszewski, co-founder of the London-based AI company ElevenLabs, in an interview with the FT. Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder and CEO of the AI start-up Cleo, told the FT that he already spends four months a year in San Francisco and is seriously considering a permanent move. “You get to a certain size where there is no capital in the U.K. And the problem is getting worse,” he said. “Honestly, the U.K. is kinda f***d if it doesn’t address [the problem].” Topics Venture

The Canterbury Green has been home to four congregational churches in its history. Originally established in 1711, a modest frame church was built here and in 1736, a new meetinghouse was constructed as a more permanent building. The rustic structure was deemed insufficient for a wealthy rural community, so in 1805, a stately, Federal style edifice was built. Designed by Thomas Gibbs, a local architect/builder who also designed other nearby high-style Federal homes, the building was destroyed by fire in December, 1963. Within a year, this church was constructed on the ground of its 1805 building. While designed and constructed during the mid-20th century, the town clearly wanted its new church to contribute to the village’s Colonial character, having this Colonial Revival style church serve as the new anchor to the green.

Looking for help with today's New York Times Wordle? Here are hints, clues and commentary to help you solve today's Wordle and sharpen your guessing game.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Making sense of the world around you  Unlocking a knowledge bank Excels in surprising spots  A few familiar pitfalls  It’s somewhat unnerving to hear an AI talking in an eerily friendly tone and telling me to clean up the clutter on my workstation. I am somewhat proud of it, but I guess it’s time to stack the haphazardly scattered gadgets and tidy up the wire mess.  My sister would agree, too. But jumping into action after an AI “sees” my table, recognizes the mess, and doles out homemaker advice is the bigger picture. Google’s Gemini AI chatbot can now do that. And a lot more.  Recommended Videos The secret sauce here is a recent feature update called Project Astra. It has been in development for years, and finally started rolling out earlier this month. The overarching idea is to serve an all-seeing, all-hearing, and overtly intelligent AI on your phone.  Related Google hawks these superpowers under a rather uninspiring name: Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing. Developed at the company’s DeepMind unit, the company began its development as a “universal AI assistant.” It’s a shame the final name isn’t as aspirational.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. Let’s start with the access situation. The capability is now available for Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 users. But if you have an Android phone with a Gemini Advanced subscription to go with it, you can access the new toolkit.  That would be a $20 per month, by the way. I tried it on the two aforesaid phones and now have it ready to roll on my OnePlus 13, as well. The nicest part? You don’t have to go through any technical hoops to access it.  A power/volume button combo, or screen corner swipe to summon Gemini is all you need. Doesn’t matter what app you are running, you can access the new camera and screen-sharing chops as an overlay in every corner of the OS. Making sense of the world around you  I started by pointing the camera at a painting, and asked about it. Gemini Live was able to accurately detect it as a Madhubani style painting, decoding the bold use of colors and depiction of animals.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. It then proceeded to give me a brief history lesson and the variations that have developed over the years. The information was accurate, down to the most granular level. Thankfully, you can also choose to have a text-based back-and-forth with Gemini, if you’re in a place where voice conversations could be awkward.  What I like the most about Gemini Live’s new camera and screen sharing avatar is that it’s not exceedingly chatty. You can interrupt it at any given moment, which only adds to the “natural” appeal of the conversations.  I tried Gemini in a variety of scenarios. I was not prepared for it. The answers it provides are usually succinct, as if it wants to give you a chance (or even nudge) to ask a follow-up question instead of giving an overwhelmingly long answer. It excels in a whole range of topics and visual scenarios, but there are a few pitfalls. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. It can’t use Google Lens yet, which means Gemini can’t compare the images it sees on your phone’s screen against matching results on the web. Moreover, it can’t access information in real-time if you ask Gemini to look up the latest developments around a topic or personality. I asked it about plant species, restaurant listings, picking up data from notice boards, and making sense of my medical prescription for a recent bout of flu. Gemini fared pretty well, more so than I’ve ever experienced the AI chatbot perform so far.  Unlocking a knowledge bank Next, I pushed Gemini to make sense of complex academic material. I put a book on Machine Learning in the camera frame. Gemini Live not only recognized it, but also proceeded to give me an overview of the book’s contents and its core subjects.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. Curiously, I started flipping through the pages and landed on the chapter list. The AI recognized the progress, stopped talking, and asked me whether I was interested in any particular chapter now that I was checking out the topic list.  I was taken aback by surprise at this moment. I asked it to break down a few complex topics, and the AI did a respectable job, even going beyond the scope of on-page material and pulling information from its expansive knowledge bank.  For example, when I asked it about the contents of the introductory page on Bhisham Sahni’s seminal novel, Tamas, the AI correctly picked up the mention of the Sahitya Akademi Award. It then went on to mention details that were not even listed on the page, such as the year it won the prestigious literary honor and what the book is all about.  On the flip side, the Hindi language readout by Gemini Live was horrible. It was not just the poor accent, but the fact that Gemini was uttering pure gibberish and no-words repeatedly. While trying to read Urdu, Persian, and Arabic, it did a considerably better job, but often mixed up words from random lines.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends.  On my first attempt with Urdu poetry, it recognized not only the Urdu text, but also gave an accurate summary of the poem. The biggest challenge, once again, was narration. Hearing an anglicized version of Urdu really hurt my ears.  Excels in surprising spots  AI is a fantastic problem-solving tool, and there are numerous benchmarks to prove it. I tested it against physics problems dealing with thermodynamics, electrochemical equations, and statistical problems appearing in a handwritten notebook. Gemini Live did a fantastic job at such tasks.  It even excelled at creative chores, too. My sister, who is a fashion designer, presented one of her sketches in the camera view, and asked for feedback as well as improvements. Gemini Live started with praising the design, drew parallels with a few fashion brands’ design ideology, and made a handful of recommendations.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. When prodded further, the AI also advised my sister on the best tools for converting hand-drawn sketches into digital concepts. It followed those words of guidance by providing helpful information on the software stack and where one could find learning material.   When I put a couple of Duracell batteries in the camera view, it not only recognized them accurately, but also told me the hyperlocal e-commerce platforms that can deliver them to me within minutes. The services – named Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart — are only available in India and mostly reserved for urban locales. Even in a dimly lit room, it was able to identify a pair of wired earphones in the first attempt. Situation awareness is its strong suit.  Compared to your usual Gemini chat or what you find in the AI overviews section of Google Search,  the Gemini Live conversations take a more cautious approach to doling out knowledge, especially if it’s sensitive in nature. I noticed that topics such as food recommendations and medical treatment are handled with an increasingly cautious approach, and users are often nudged to find the right expert resource. A few familiar pitfalls  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. My overwhelming takeaway is that Gemini’s “Project Astra” makeover is mighty impressive. It’s a glimpse into the future of what smartphones can achieve. With a few improvements, integrations, and cross-app workflows, it can make Google Search feel like an outdated relic. But for now, there are a few glaring flaws. On a few occasions, I did notice that the memory system goes haywire. When asked the AI to identify a fitness band in the camera view, it correctly recognized it as the Samsung Galaxy Fit 3. But when I pushed a follow-up question, it erroneously perceived the device as a fitness band from Huawei.  It can also blatantly lie. And quite confidently, I might say. For example, when I told it to summarize my review of the wearable device, the AI responded that Digital Trends hasn’t reviewed it yet. In reality, the article was published a week ago.  Next, I asked it to go through a few articles on my author page after I enabled screen sharing. Gemini did a decent job at explaining the stories, but occasionally stumbled at contextual understanding. For example, it incorrectly mentioned that only Intel and AMD can make NPUs that qualify for the Copilot+ badge.   Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. The article, on the other hand, clearly mentions that Qualcomm was the first to meet that criteria, ahead of the competition. And that it was only late last year that AMD and Intel could finally level up and meet that AI chip baseline with a new portfolio of processors.  Midway through the conversation about an article, it again ran into a memory issue. Instead of summarizing the story that was being discussed, it went back to talking about the first article that it saw via screen sharing. When I interrupted it mid-way through the narration, Gemini fixed its mistake.  Another issue I noticed with narration of non-English languages is that Gemini Live randomly changed the voice and pace midway through the narration. It was quite jarring, and the pronunciation was absolutely mechanical, far different from its human-like English conversational skills.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends. The machine vision struggles are also apparent against stylistic fonts. On a few occasions, it confidently spat out wrong information, and when asked to correct itself, the AI expressed inability to find the latest information on that topic. Those scenarios are rare, but the Gemini errors are here to stay.  To sum it all up, I think Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing is one of the biggest leaps AI has made so far. It is one of the most practically rewarding implementations of generative AI so far. All it needs is a dash of diversity and a fix for its “confident liar” syndrome.  Things are definitely on the right track now, and overwhelmingly so, but still a few crucial milestones away from being the perfect AI companion of techno-futuristic dreams. Editors’ Recommendations

Sai Chiligireddy said he looks for four values when interviewing technical candidates. Sai Chiligireddy 2025-04-14T00:00:02Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Sai Chiligireddy has worked for Amazon for about 8 years and has conducted over 100 interviews. Good candidates communicate ideas clearly and understand their role in the business, he said. Prep is essential since problem solving in 30-45 minutes can be stressful. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sai Chiligireddy, an engineering manager at Amazon's Seattle office. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment history.I joined Amazon nearly eight years ago as a software engineer and, after five years at the company, rose to an engineering management position.During my time at the company's Vancouver and Seattle offices, I have conducted over 100 technical interviews. I've also been a hiring manager and made the final call for new hires on my team after going through the full process of phone screenings, on-site assessments, and technical rounds.In my experience, Amazon evaluates candidates on two main areas: core technical competencies and Amazon leadership principles, a set of 16 values important to the company, such as "bias for action" and "disagree and commit."There are four questions I ask myself every time I'm in the room with a candidate:1. Can I collaborate with them if they join my team?The overarching question I always keep in mind is whether this is someone I can collaborate with. I try to gauge if someone is a good communicator — do they share their ideas clearly and justify their choices?In technical interviews, I like when people explain why they chose a certain solution and why they think it's a good fit for what we are solving. When the solution or approach a candidate takes is suboptimal — but they are able to justify their choice — we are OK with it.2. Do they understand the bigger picture?The second thing I'm looking for is someone who clearly understands why their solution fits into the overall business problem or organization.I once interviewed a candidate who only had one year of experience but had a clear understanding of the company's product and how their work fits into the goals of the overall organization. He was able to clearly explain what their product is used for and what business valueIt blew my mind and made me rethink how I view my own day-to-day tasks. I started looking at my purely technical tasks and thinking about what value my work delivers for customers.3. Are they perfectionists?Another value candidates I like have in common is that they don't aim for a perfect solution right away. They focus on starting and actively improving the solution and avoiding unnecessary complexities. They're also open to feedback and are willing to change their approach to new use cases or constraints.I tend to be a perfectionist, and this is another value I have learned from conducting interviews.4. Are they prepared?Candidates that stand out to me come prepared. They've gone through a lot It's easy to tell when a candidate hasn't practiced for a technical interview, whether it is writing code in a document without any auto-filling features or writing code on a board like we used to require pre-pandemic. If you haven't touched a marker in a couple of years, it's difficult to write on a whiteboard.They also come prepared to talk about leadership skills. A lot of people who do well have done their homework. They prepare notes in terms of what our leadership principles are and one to two examples of how they have honed those principles in the past.They also bring questions for the hiring manager. I love when people ask about what sort of projects we work on, what challenges we face, and what can their career journey look like once they join the company. Recommended video

GTA 6 – will the price be daylight robbery? (Rockstar Games) The Monday letters page thinks that The Last Of Us Complete is a bad idea for Sony and gamers, as a reader laments the death of GAME physical stores. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk Comparatively cheap I don’t think there should be any doubt that GTA 6 is going to cost at least $100/£100. It’s the way the industry’s going and Rockstar Games know they can charge literally whatever they want and that game would sell. If it was £200 and looked like GTA 1 it’d still sell, at least for a little time, until word got out.I think that Nintendo has just been a bit unlucky in having to go first in announcing their prices but I suspect that within a year or two they will be seen as being the cheap option as usual. Mario Kart World is still less than Call Of Duty and EA Sports is already and Donkey Kong costing less shows to me that Nintendo will try to make all of their games as cheap as possible, depending on how much they cost to make. They might never discount their games but they’ve never tried to rip people off with the base price. I know they don’t look like they’re being the generous ones at the moment, but when GTA 6 gives Ubisoft and EA the courage to make everything £100 I think that will change. As was said in the Reader’s Feature over the weekend, this is all a response to games costing more to make. And it’s the dumbest most unhelpful response imaginable – and also the most predictable one.Tolly The only way is up In response to Taylor Moon’s post over the weekend, he is pretty much spot on about the pricing. You know Rockstar is going to release GTA 6 at at least £80… but the only way to force the prices down a bit is to not buy it or any others that seem to be overpriced. Once they realise a lot of people are not buying they will drop the prices.People just need to either pay it and stop moaning about it or wait it out, out of principle, and if enough people do that it will force a price rethink… but will people do it? I doubt it, people like to moan about pricing but will soon cough up when the Switch 2 is released. And that is why the prices are going up and will probably hit £90 regularly before you know it.Stew Digital future I’m in two minds about the Switch and Switch 2 not supporting analogue shoulder buttons but I think overall it’s a good thing. Racing games are really the only genre that suffers and yet not only is the Switch 2 unlikely to have a Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport equivalent but if you were that into serious racing games you’d just buy a wheel (or, more likely, just play it on a PC).I’ve played a lot of games where it’s obvious the trigger buttons are not reacting instantly, when all you want is a simple, digital on/off style response. If I was a controller designer and a Nintendo developer told me they wanted digital shoulder buttons I don’t think I’d argue with them either; they are the experts after all. I’m more curious what these new buttons at the back of the Pro Controller 2 are going to be for, because I haven’t heard of any game that actually uses them. Was there one, in anything you played, GC?Everwayne GC: They weren’t used for anything we’ve played. We think they idea is they have no function by default and it’s always up to you to program them in whatever way you want. Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk Competing with yourself I’m probably one of many people who checked out the remastered version of the Mafia game released on Game Pass recently. I found it equal parts enjoyable and frustrating but came away looking forward to the next game, which I envisioned as being properly open world, with much more ability to interact with its setting.The news that it’s to be released towards the end of the year, possibly fairly close to GTA 6, seems to me to be terrible luck. If the developers improve on all the obvious areas they needed to from the last game (which I believe they will) the one thing I really feel the game needs is a clear path to find an audience. I can’t believe it will have that now. while everyone is basically waiting around for firm information on GTA 6’s release date. So my fear is that the game is about to get swallowed up again through no fault of its own. I hope I’m wrong about that because it has huge potential.Chris GC: The irony is that publisher Take-Two also owns Rockstar Games. Switching priorities Do you think what is happening with the US and tariffs will means it will be harder for those outside the US to get a Switch 2? With a 90 day reprieve for Vietnam and Cambodia (where the Switch 2 is made) it means Nintendo just might send as many units as they can to the US now, in order to stockpile in the US. Meaning there are less available elsewhere, who they can supply with later shipments.As a business this would make the most sense in order to do as much as possible to maintain control over what they’re able to charge, but will mean an item that is harder to stock.Simon GC: That does seem likely, and reports suggest Nintendo has already shipped over a million consoles to the US. However, it’s almost certainly not something they’ll discuss openly. Bad introduction That £100 The Last Of Us set is an absolute disgrace. As you pointed out, the games can easily be bought for half that price right now and the digital edition doesn’t give you anything extra on top anyway. I know it’s just Sony taking advantage of interest in the series, because of the show, but what kind of message is this sending casual and non-gamers?That video games are ridiculously expensive and then, once you realise you’ve been conned, that publishers love to rip you off and take advantage of you not being 100% clued in to how the industry works? If I was a new gamer buying that and found out I think I’d just never vow to buy a video game again, or at least revert to only indie games/only heavily discounted sales. I know it’s just businesses being businesses but how short sighted can you be? If I was in charge of Sony I would’ve made the set unusually cheap, thrown in a few extras, and then tempted people into trying out some other Sony first party titles. This has basically the opposite effect. They’ll be so skint after buying this one compilation they’ll probably never buy another game all year, and they’ll think twice about that one.Focus You’ll miss them when they’re gone Having to sell off their office furniture is such a sad and pathetic end for GAME. I know that’s what happens to any business in the end but it’s strangely upsetting to hear about. They were far from perfect but I think we could have done a lot worse for our major high street store.Now they’re effectively gone – does anyone bother using their website? – and it’s virtually impossible to wander into a high street shop and just browse some video games. You’re more likely to be able to find some old SNES game in a retro shop than you are the latest copy of Assassin’s Creed or whatever. It’s a shame and I really don’t think we’re gained anything from their fall.Pauldle Arcade at some homes As an arcade racer fan, the nicest surprise from the Switch 2 reveal was that Ridge Racer and F-Zero GX would be available day one.The 32-bit consoles are credited with bringing the arcade into the home but in truth the home ports fell somewhat short of their arcade big brother’s quality. Ridge Racer on Switch 2 is the first time an arcade perfect port will be available on home consoles. Digital distribution takes with one hand, in delisting the digital-only release of the excellent PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 port of Daytona USA, but gives with the other, with Virtua Racing and Ridge Racer on Switch. To be fair, there’s a good selection of legitimate ways to access classic games now in the home. The Arcade Archives selection on console, Ridge Racer is the first release of the second wave of those, labelled Arcade Archives 2. Capcom have done great work and there’s Antstream Arcade. But, obviously, there’s lots of gaps and it would be nice if it wasn’t so spread out. Virtua Racing is still exclusive to Switch, I believe.Simundo Inbox also-rans All this talk about Capcom being super rich now but all I want to see from them is a Resident Evil 9 reveal, it’s been ages? Do you think it will be unveiled and released this year?KorbieGC: A reveal this year is pretty likely, but we’d say a launch had a less than 50% chance. I see the rumours about Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Switch 2 came true, but I’m interested as to whether this will be Square Enix and Nintendo as best buddies again. They seem natural allies to me, much more than Sony, but will we see exclusives and preferential treatment? (I know no one knows, I’m just thinking out loud).Zade More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk The small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Nature, Published online: 09 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08876-5A study using time-resolved cryogenic electron microscopy reveals the swinging lever mechanism of myosin, providing information on the molecular basis behind the production of force and movement by myosin.