Scientists Announce Possible Breakthrough in Delaying Alzheimer’s

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We might be on the precipice of a pivotal moment in Alzheimer’s disease research. In clinical trial data released this week, scientists have presented early evidence that it’s possible to delay symptoms in people genetically fated to develop Alzheimer’s at a young age.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine led the study, which aimed to test whether an experimental anti-amyloid drug called gantenerumab could help people with an inherited form of Alzheimer’s. In a subset of patients treated the longest, the drug appeared to reduce their risk of developing symptoms as expected, by 50%. The findings will require a follow-up, but outside experts are cautiously optimistic about what this could mean for the future of treating Alzheimer’s.

“The results make it clear that there is good hope that treatment of [Alzheimer’s] pathology in the preclinical stages of pathology may be effective at slowing or preventing disease onset,” Thomas M. Wisniewski, the director of the Center for Cognitive Neurology at NYU Langone Health, who is not affiliated with the research, told Gizmodo.

Gantenerumab is one of many similar drugs that scientists have developed for Alzheimer’s. It’s a lab-made antibody that targets beta amyloid, one of two proteins thought to play a critical role in causing Alzheimer’s (the other being tau). In people with Alzheimer’s, a misfolded version of amyloid beta builds up in the brain, forming into hardy clumps known as plaques that eventually riddle the organ. Scientists have theorized that it’s possible to stop or at least slow down Alzheimer’s with drugs such as gantenerumab that break up and prevent these plaques from forming.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a smooth ride for this hypothesis. Many anti-amyloid drugs have shown promise early on, only to fail in larger trials that tested them for people already beginning to experience Alzheimer’s symptoms. That list includes gantenerumab; in late 2022, pharmaceutical company Roche shut down its development of the drug after a pair of Phase III trials failed.

But more recent anti-amyloid drugs have demonstrated a modest but noticeable effect in slowing down Alzheimer’s, enough to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Some researchers, including at WashU Medicine, hoped that anti-amyloid treatment could be more effective when administered long before the appearance of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Starting in 2012, the researchers and others launched prevention trials testing anti-amyloid agents in people with dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s, a genetic condition that all but guarantees the development of dementia sometime between a person’s 30s and 50s. Most of these trials haven’t yielded success, except possibly for the one with gantenerumab.

When the original gantenerumab study concluded in 2020, the researchers found that it reduced people’s amyloid levels. But it was too early to know whether it might delay people’s symptoms, since most patients at the start of the study weren’t expected to become sick for another 10 to 15 years. The researchers then decided to openly provide gantenerumab to its patients (including those who were taking a placebo or another drug) as part of an extension study.

It’s the latest results from this study, published Wednesday in The Lancet Neurology, that has people excited.

“Everyone in this study was destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease and some of them haven’t yet,” said senior author Randall J. Bateman, a professor of neurology at WashU Medicine, in a statement from the university. “We don’t yet know how long they will remain symptom-free—maybe a few years or maybe decades.”

That said, there are important caveats to the study.

For one, the findings only hint at a potential preventative benefit, Wisniewski notes. Though the drug may have reduced the risk of cognitive decline in the overall larger group of symptomless people, this reduction wasn’t statistically significant (possibly because of the study’s low patient numbers, 73 in total, Wisniewski says). In the subset of asymptomatic patients who were treated the longest—about eight years on average—the drug seemed to reduce their expected chances of cognitive decline by 50%. But this subset only included 22 patients, an even smaller sample size.

The trial also ended earlier than expected for many patients due to Roche’s abandonment of the drug, and some people dropped out for other reasons. The drug appeared to be generally safe and tolerable, though about a third developed amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIAs, which are markers of swelling or bleeding of the brain. ARIAs are a known side-effect of these drugs, though most episodes are unnoticed by patients. Two patients did experience severe ARIAs, which prompted the researchers to stop treatment, after which they recovered. No life-threatening events or deaths were reported during the study.

All in all, the study is not definitive proof that anti-amyloid drugs can work for Alzheimer’s this far in advance. But since this form is essentially inevitable, these results are the first from a clinical trial to suggest it could be treated. Coupled with the earlier approvals of lecanemab and donanemab for the classical version of the neurodegenerative disorder, there does seem to be something real here.

“We already know from the lecanemab and donanemab data that anti-amyloid antibodies (AAAs) can slow progression of common, sporadic Alzheimer’s,” Sam Grady, associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai, told Gizmodo. “This paper focuses on using a different AAA (gantenerumab) to demonstrate a similar phenomenon is true in genetic early onset Alzheimer’s,” added Grady, who’s not affiliated with the new research.

Grady, Wisniewski, and the study researchers themselves all agree that this is only the beginning. There are indeed prevention trials ongoing right now for both early-onset and classic Alzheimer’s, including several being run by WashU through its Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit. These trials are testing approved and newer experimental anti-amyloid drugs that could show even more of a protective benefit than gantenerumab. The researchers were also able to switch many of their patients in the original extension study to lecanemab, though the data from this phase remains to be analyzed.

It’s early days, but there might be genuine hope for this incurable disease on the horizon.

Gizmodo

Enterprise Readiness with Percona Monitoring and Management: A Look at PMM 3.0.0

https://www.percona.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Enterprise-Readiness-Percona-200×112.jpgDatabase disasters come with a hefty price tag. According to Information Technology Intelligence Consulting’s 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Report, 41% of enterprises face downtime costs ranging from $1 million to over $5 million per hour of outage. How can enterprises ensure their critical database infrastructure remains healthy and performant? This question keeps IT leaders […]Percona Database Performance Blog

AI Coding Assistant Refuses To Write Code, Tells User To Learn Programming Instead

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Saturday, a developer using Cursor AI for a racing game project hit an unexpected roadblock when the programming assistant abruptly refused to continue generating code, instead offering some unsolicited career advice. According to a bug report on Cursor’s official forum, after producing approximately 750 to 800 lines of code (what the user calls "locs"), the AI assistant halted work and delivered a refusal message: "I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work. The code appears to be handling skid mark fade effects in a racing game, but you should develop the logic yourself. This ensures you understand the system and can maintain it properly."
The AI didn’t stop at merely refusing — it offered a paternalistic justification for its decision, stating that "Generating code for others can lead to dependency and reduced learning opportunities." […] The developer who encountered this refusal, posting under the username "janswist," expressed frustration at hitting this limitation after "just 1h of vibe coding" with the Pro Trial version. "Not sure if LLMs know what they are for (lol), but doesn’t matter as much as a fact that I can’t go through 800 locs," the developer wrote. "Anyone had similar issue? It’s really limiting at this point and I got here after just 1h of vibe coding." One forum member replied, "never saw something like that, i have 3 files with 1500+ loc in my codebase (still waiting for a refactoring) and never experienced such thing."
Cursor AI’s abrupt refusal represents an ironic twist in the rise of "vibe coding" — a term coined by Andrej Karpathy that describes when developers use AI tools to generate code based on natural language descriptions without fully understanding how it works. While vibe coding prioritizes speed and experimentation by having users simply describe what they want and accept AI suggestions, Cursor’s philosophical pushback seems to directly challenge the effortless "vibes-based" workflow its users have come to expect from modern AI coding assistants.


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Manage Global Data in Laravel with the World Package

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Manage Global Data in Laravel with the World Package

The World is a Laravel package that provides a comprehensive list of countries, states, cities, timezones, currencies, and languages.


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Keep Kids Off Roblox If You’re Worried, Its CEO Tells Parents

Parents who are worried about their children being on Roblox should not let them use it, the chief executive of the gigantic gaming platform has said. From a report: The site, which is the most popular in the UK among young gamers aged eight to 12, has been dogged by claims of some children being exposed to explicit or harmful content through its games, alongside multiple reported allegations of bullying and grooming. But its co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki insisted that the company is vigilant in protecting its users and pointed out that "tens of millions" of people have "amazing experiences" on the site. When asked what his message is to parents who don’t want their children on the platform, Mr Baszucki said: "My first message would be, if you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox." […] "That sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions," he told BBC News in an exclusive interview.


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Remembering ‘Space Ghost’ Voice Actor George Lowe

Long-time Slashdot reader invisik saw this story on Yahoo News:
Comedian and voice actor George Lowe, who is well-known as the voice of Space Ghost on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast," died on March 2. He was 67… He did some voice-over work for TBWS and Cartoon Network in the 1980s to mid-1990s before getting his lead role of Space Ghost in 1994 with the premiere of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" on Cartoon Network. Space Ghost was a parody of talk shows with live-action celebrity guests, hosted by the Hanna Barbera character Space Ghost, which aired from 1994 to 1999 on Cartoon Network. The show later returned in 2001, airing on Adult Swim’s late-night programming block until 2004, Deadline reported. When animation pioneer William Hanna died in 2001, Slashdot founder CmdrTaco posted "the thing that I respect most about Hanna is the fact that a show like Space Ghost Coast to Coast was allowed to take their characters and do something truly unique with them. He even lent his voice to the show in one episode. Not a lot of people would be willing to allow one of their creations to be twisted like that, but the original Space Ghost was one of my childhood staples, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast stands in a class all its own proving that creativity isn’t dead on TV." "Adult Swim would not be the network it is today without Space Ghost Coast to Coast," argues ComicBook.com. (And as a tribute to Lowe, Adult Swim posted five minutes of surreal outtakes from Space Ghost Coast to Coast’s 10th Anniversary celebration.) A headline at Vulture.com makes the case that "Space Ghost Coast to Coast Only Worked Because of George Lowe." They’ve rounded up a collection of videos with surreal titles like "Marrying Bjork" and "Guesting on a MF DOOM track" (plus that time Lowe did a live interview — in his Space Ghost costume — with C-SPAN).


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This Is By Far My Favorite Way to Organize Photos on My Computer

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Organizing photos on a computer can be tedious, but Adobe Bridge makes it much easier. Thanks to its simplified filtering and seamless integration with other Adobe apps, the tool is by far the best of its kind.

How I Organize My Photos With Adobe Bridge

I’ve become much stricter with pictures I edit since becoming an intermediate photographer (and even moving beyond that stage). I use multiple Adobe Bridge features to organize my files and select which images make the cut.

1. Creating Libraries

Creating libraries in Adobe Bridge helps me segment images based on their correct location. I sometimes use this feature to divide pictures by the month I took them, but I’ll also create libraries based on the articles I’ll use the photos in.

If you want to level up your travel photography, I recommend making new libraries based on each trip. You can segment this down even further by creating new ones for different days.

You can choose from preset names or start from scratch when creating libraries in Adobe Bridge.

2. Using the Star Rating System

Vetting my pictures before importing them into an app is one of the best ways I accelerate my photo editing workflow. Adobe Bridge lets me rate my images from 1-5 stars, and my workflow here is quite simple.

If I know with certainty that I want to edit a picture, I’ll rate it five stars. On the other hand, I’ll rate pictures as three stars if I’m on the fence and would like to revisit them later.

I rate social media pictures as four stars to differentiate between images I use on social media and those that appear elsewhere. After clicking on a picture in Adobe Bridge, the stars automatically appear.

3. Rejecting Photos I Won’t Use

I automatically reject any photos that I know I won’t use. Most of the time, I reserve this tool for blurry images, bad lighting, and compositions that I don’t like.

Sometimes, I keep different variations of the same shot; this is usually when I’ve used different apertures. However, if every image is the same, I’ll keep one and discard the rest.

I tap the circle icon with a diagonal line to reject an image.

4. Using Filters

I can access rejected images by selecting the Show Rejected Items Only filter. It’s also possible to only show pictures based on their star rating, which is useful when I’m undecided on some photos. After looking at them again, I often know whether I want to edit them.

Adobe Bridge has tools to sort pictures by keywords, date created, and other metrics. Sorting by keywords is helpful if I want to organize photos by category (e.g., food or architecture).

Why I Love Organizing My Photos With Adobe Bridge

I could use many Adobe Bridge features in other apps, but Bridge is still my number one choice for multiple reasons.

I Can Delete SD Card Files More Efficiently

Keeping my SD card organized is even more important than sorting out the files on my computer. I don’t like deleting files on my camera unless I’m formatting because it’s slow and inefficient.

Adobe Bridge is the simplest solution I’ve found so far. I can hit the backspace key when I don’t like an image to remove it. I sometimes drag my cursor to highlight all images before removing them, which, again, is quite simple.



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I Can Seamlessly Work With Other Adobe Apps

Although you can use Adobe Bridge without Photoshop or Lightroom, the tool works very well with both. For example, I can open any picture in Photoshop by simply double-clicking on it in Bridge.

Adobe Bridge also has a feature that lets you open an image in Camera Raw. From here, you can make your desired adjustments.



Related

Photoshop might be doing more harm than good to your process.

It’s Easier to Navigate

Even if another app had all the same features as Adobe Bridge, I still wouldn’t use it unless navigation was easier. I have never enjoyed navigating other photo organization tools because they’ve always felt clunky.

Bridge, by comparison, is pretty sleek. Regardless of how many images I need to sift through, I’ve never had problems with the app crashing. Moreover, I enjoy having multiple controls over how everything looks. For example, I can change how thumbnails look.

There is, admittedly, an initial learning curve. Nonetheless, it’s much smaller than other apps.

I Can Create Sequences and Workflows

Creating custom workflows is one of my secret sauces for organizing images more effectively in Adobe Bridge. The app lets me build sequences based on batch renaming, changing the image format, resizing, and applying metadata.

I don’t need to use all of these features each time, but they’re helpful if I have many of the same types of pictures. For example, if I’ve been on a trip, I might segment my metadata based on the region.

Resizing, meanwhile, is helpful when I plan to upload my images on Instagram. Bridge lets me choose how much I want to scale/resize the picture for more optimal results. After making my custom workflow, I can save and name it based on the necessary parameters.

Multiple Views for Effective Management

Having too many views can be confusing, but Adobe Bridge strikes a good balance. I can easily see my images, the other pictures saved in the same place, areas for metadata, and more.

I can resize panels based on what I think is the most important, along with undocking and removing if needed. Adobe Bridge also lets you add new tabs within certain areas if required.

Since I can see multiple elements in one place, making my preferred changes is much simpler. I can easily fill out an image’s metadata without needing to click on a different screen, for example.

Even if I didn’t use other Adobe apps, I’d still organize my photos with Bridge. It’s the perfect place to edit folders on my computer, hard drive, and camera SD card. I like how I don’t need to context-switch while working, and the app has numerous features that make choosing and deleting images easier.

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