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a16z, a venture capital firm known for its large fund sizes and for shaking up the VC game when it piled into the industry back in 2009, is cooking up a new strategy to potentially bolster its deal flow, according to a recent report. It’s creating a fund-of-funds to invest in smaller venture capital pools, giving it visibility on the next generation of breakout tech companies. a16z did not respond to requests for comment on this story. The trend of large funds — traditionally more focused on…

Four remarkable cosmic scenes were recently imaged by four NASA space observatories—the Webb Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Hubble Space Telescope—to showcase the objects as never before.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeThese powerful telescopes, alongside a few others, including the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatory, recently had their imagery compiled by NASA image scientists, to produce unique portraits of well-known objects.The observatories…

The dialectic of zest. Credit: Gender, Work & Organization (2023). DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13017 Organizations must enable midlife women to thrive in the workplace by taking inspiration from societies such as China and Japan to encourage positive conversations around the impact of menopause, a new study reveals. But as they support…

This image shows the L1688 region in the Ophiuchus constellation. New stars are born in the colorful clouds of gas and dust seen here. The infrared observations underlying this image reveal new details in the star-forming regions that are usually obscured by the clouds of dust. The image was produced with data collected by the VIRCAM instrument, which is attached to the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The observations were done as part of the VISIONS survey, which will allow astronomers to better…

A new study reveals that left-leaning individuals are generally more altruistic and more likely to be generous internationally, while right-leaning people tend to be more altruistic towards their own country. The study also found that the quality of national governance impacts generosity, with individuals in countries with high-quality governance exhibiting different behaviors based on their political orientation.The results from a survey of 46,000 individuals in 68 countries indicate that a tendency towards altruism is…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study has discovered that people who believe individuals are to blame for living in poverty are more likely to oppose laws aimed at preventing weight discrimination—suggesting some UK adults think the two issues are connected. Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) canvassed almost…

It goes without saying that the cameras on self-driving cars can't see around the corners of buildings. The ORCa computer vision system, however, could one day allow them to do so … with a little help from shiny objects that they can see.Its name an acronym for "Objects as Radiance-Field Cameras," ORCa is being developed by scientists from MIT and Rice University.Putting it simply, the technology analyzes distorted reflections on the surface of glossy objects in order to get a clearer picture of what is being reflected,…

Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of Twitter have moved in opposite directions since Elon Musk’s takeover last fall. A Pew Research poll published today found that Republicans are more likely to see the social platform in a positive light than two years ago, while Democrats’ views have moved on a divergent path. Although the results reflect what already appeared to be common sense — Republicans like it when the platform’s new leader amplifies far-right views while Democrats don’t — this is some of the first hard data…

On April 28, NASA astronaut Steve Bowen and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi did work outside the International Space Station to prepare for the installation of more new solar arrays to augment the station’s power system.Moving ahead with space station power upgrades.Some VIPs hear about some very important missions.And new eye-popping views of Earth from space …A few of the stories to tell you about, This Week at <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt"…

Indian startups plan to oppose the draft views prepared by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for submission to a committee that is examining the need for a separate law on competition in digital markets. According to these startups, the industry body is batting for Big Tech platforms, people in the know said.In a draft note circulated among its members, the IAMAI flagged several observations made in a December 2022 report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on anticompetitive practices by…