MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Trump’s HHS Trashes Top African Health Organization as “Fake” and “

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Trump’s HHS Trashes Top African Health Organization as “F

Last week, we broke down a major debacle unfolding in the health research space. To recap: over the past month, concerned researchers have been sounding the alarm about a reprehensible vaccine study which was to be funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the tune of $1.6 million.

According to the trial protocols, obtained by Inside Medicine writer and physician Jeremy Faust from an anonymous American employee at the US Center for Disease Control (US CDC), the research would have followed 14,000 infants in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. The problem? Only 7,000 of those newborns would have received an urgently needed hepatitis B vaccine, in order to compare the two groups. On top of the flagrant ethics violations, the total cost of the research would have exceeded the cost to pay for “over a decade’s worth of Hepatitis B vaccine birth doses [for everyone] in Guinea-Bissau.”

In their interview with Faust, the unnamed CDC employee called it “another Tuskegee,” a reference to the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which hundreds of Black men with syphilis were studied by government researchers — who never informed them of their disease or made them aware of the treatment that had been discovered for it.

“I have read every word of the protocol dated January 14, 2026,” Faust told Futurism in an email. “It is wretched.”

At the time of our writing, the Guardian had reported that officials with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention — the public health agency run by the African Union, not to be confused with the US CDC — stated that the trial had been halted, seemingly by Guinea-Bissau’s public health authorities.

This is where things get weird. In an email responding to our post about the situation, an official from the HHS press office declared that the vaccine trial was still on.

“To be clear, the trial will proceed as planned,” the spokesperson insisted. “Africa CDC, an organization with no affiliation to the US CDC, shared weeks-old communications unrelated to the trial as part of a public-relations campaign aimed to shape public perception rather than engaging with the scientific facts.”

The official also makes it clear that the HHS sees these infants more like lab rats than human beings.

“This research represents the world’s first, and potentially only, opportunity to rigorously evaluate the overall health effects of [hepatitis B],” they continued.

Those comments are astonishing enough. But in followup remarks that they insisted were “on background” — despite the fact that we’d agreed to no such arrangement — they went on to disparage their colleagues at the Africa CDC in coarse terms that were striking even by the standards of the notoriously churlish Trump administration.

“This is a powerless, fake organization attempting to manufacture credibility by repeating its claims publicly,” the spokesperson wrote. “It is not a reliable source, and its statements should be treated accordingly.”

The HHS didn’t respond to repeated requests to explain the outburst.

It’s a stunning comment about the Africa CDC, the official health agency of the African Union, which represents 55 African nations. This isn’t some fly-by-night shell operation — it’sa health organization that served as the COVID-19 testing hub for 48 African countries at the outbreak of the pandemic, and which has coordinated millions of emergency vaccines for infectious diseases ranging from malaria to mpox.

In October, the World Health Organization and the Africa CDC signed a landmark collaboration agreement to “consolidate their partnership” and “accelerate progress toward shared health goals.” Simply put, if there were any serious question of Africa CDC’s legitimacy, the WHO — a specialized agency of the United Nations — would not have signed off on this strategic agreement.

As for the HHS claiming the controversial study is still on, the Africa CDC tells us there’s a press conference this Thursday — so we’ll be watching.

More on Trump admin: CDC Report on Vaccines and Autism Caught Citing Hallucinated Study That Does Not Exist

The post Trump’s HHS Trashes Top African Health Organization as “Fake” and “Powerless” appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Scalable quantum computers closer to reality with new ultra-fa

German scientists have laid the groundwork for the next generation of quantum technologies by developing an ultra-fast, ultra-low-loss optical phase modulator that could enable scalable quantum photonic circuits.

The research team at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (JMU) tackled one of quantum computing’s toughest challenges by discovering a way to precisely control quantum light without destroying the fragile information it carries.

Backed by more than USD 7.7 million (EUR 6.6 million) from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR), the revolutionary project was led by Andreas Pfenning, PhD, a professor who heads the Ferro35 junior research group at the university physics department. 

The new chip, capable of controlling light signals at extremely high speeds with almost no losses, could reportedly speed up the transition of quantum photonics from laboratory experiments to practical, large-scale technologies. 

Controlling quantum light

In classical fiber-optic networks, optical phase modulators are standard parts that encode information onto light by altering its phase at extremely high speeds. But quantum technologies operate under stricter conditions, since even tiny optical losses or excess noise can collapse quantum states. 

“We need components that combine very high speeds with extremely low optical losses,” Pfenning reported. “This combination does not yet exist, and it is essential for complex quantum circuits.”

To tackle the issue, Pfenning and his team pursued a new approach by integrating barium titanate (BTO), a ferroelectric material with outstanding electro-optic traits, into III-V photonics platforms, which are widely used to generate quantum light on chips. 

Andreas Pfenning, PhD, project leader. Image credit: University of Würzburg

To maintain the purity required for ferroelectric behavior, the group then grew its own crystals in-house. The method, also known as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is one of the most precise thin-film fabrication techniques in materials research. 

“For ferroelectric materials, we need an exceptionally clean process environment,” Pfenning explained. “Even the smallest impurities can alter the properties of the crystals.”

The researchers carried out the project in ultra-high-vacuum cleanrooms at the Gottfried Landwehr Laboratory for Nanotechnology. An additional system is currently being installed to specifically support the research activities of the Ferro35 group.

Scalable quantum chips

In addition to the phase modulator, the team is building a full toolkit for photonic quantum circuits, including waveguides, couplers, and integrated quantum light sources. Each component is first simulated, then fabricated, and finally tested. 

“We are building a component library that allows us to design, assemble, and directly manufacture circuits,” Pfenning noted. “In a way, it’s like building with Lego bricks: if the right element is placed in the right position, a functional circuit gradually emerges.” 

According to the professor, the resulting designs can be tested experimentally without delay. This modular strategy also opens the door for hands-on education. It allows students to design and test quantum photonic layouts in a realistic research environment.

While fully scalable quantum computers remain years away, the new technology could find near-term applications. High-speed, low-loss modulators are in strong demand for advanced telecommunications and optical signal processing. 

“Fast, low-loss modulators are also of great interest for telecommunications,” Pfenning concluded in a press release. “Our technology could provide important impulses here as well.”

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com