Facebook to now face US antitrust lawsuit; Japan’s Covid-19 mask that glows to show virus; China sets a nuclear fusion record
After a revised filing by the US FTC, Facebook, now Meta Platforms, must face the US government’s monopoly lawsuit alleging that the company abused its dominance and should be broken up, a judge ruled, Bloomberg reports. Japanese scientists have made a mask that glows if the coronavirus is detected. China’s experimental nuclear fusion reactor sets a new record. Facebook to face US antitrust lawsuit Facebook, now Meta Platforms, must face the US government’s monopoly lawsuit alleging that the company abused its dominance and should be broken up, a judge ruled, Bloomberg reports. US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington on Tuesday denied Facebook’s motion to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s revised antitrust complaint, which the agency refiled after the judge in June dismissed the case. Boasberg, who started his opinion by writing, “Second time lucky?,” said the FTC’s allegations are “far more robust and detailed than before.” “The FTC has now alleged enough facts to plausibly establish that Facebook exercises monopoly power,” the judge wrote, according to the Bloomberg report. A Covid-19 mask with ostrich cells that glows when the virus is present Scientists from Kyoto University have developed a face mask made with ostrich antibodies that glow under ultraviolet light when coronavirus is present, Dezeen magazine reports. A removable filter placed in the mask glows when exposed to coronavirus after being sprayed with a chemical liquid and exposed to ultraviolet lights. The efficiency of the filter's detection was confirmed in a clinical trial where test subjects wore the masks for eight hours. Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, leader of the Kyoto University research group, told Dezeen that he came up with the idea after realising that ostriches are highly resistant to disease thanks to their strong immune system. Bolt raises $709 million in funding Bolt, a startup that operates on-demand ride-hailing, shared cars and scooters; and restaurant and grocery deliveries—has raised €628 million ($709 million), at a valuation of €7.4 billion ($8.4 billion), TechCrunch reports. The company will use the money to continue expanding to new geographies and to bring more consumers and partners to its ‘super app,’ according to the report. China’s experimental nuclear fusion reactor sets record China's ‘artificial sun,’ a nuclear fusion reactor, has set a new world record after superheating a loop of plasma to temperatures five times hotter than the sun for more than 17 minutes, according to Space.com, which cites Chinese state media. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST, nuclear fusion reactor maintained a temperature of 158 million degrees Fahrenheit (70 million degrees Celsius) for 1,056 seconds, according to Xinhua News Agency, space.com reports. The core of the real sun, by contrast, reaches temperatures of around 27 million F (15 million C). The achievement brings scientists a small yet significant step closer to the creation of a source of near-unlimited clean energy. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds