Bitcoin adoption and use continues to grow a lot every year. Since 2012, Bitcoin has gained the attention of the mainstream media; one way is the WannaCry ransomware created in May 2017. Adoption growth has not only happened for consumers, but also for many companies, who are looking to make use of all of the advantages of Bitcoin. Among Millennials, cryptocurrencies were a popular choice to invest $10,000 in, in a March 2018 survey of 1,000 Americans. Specifically, the survey found that 9.19% of Millennials (18-34) would invest the $10,000 in cryptocurrencies, compared to 4.04% of Generation Xers (35-54) and 3.08% of Baby Boomers (55+).
Bitcoin remains by far the most popular choice, followed by Ethereum and Litecoin. Specifically, 76% of the Millennials in the survey said that they would invest the $10,000 in Bitcoin, 12% in Ethereum and 12% in Litecoin. Although the real time price and trading in bitcoin varies with market demand.
As of 2021, El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt the Bitcoin as a legal tender.
Bitcoin has often been criticized for its unstable price, its network's high electricity consumption, and for its high transaction fees. Additionally, it has been criticized for having characteristics in common with Ponzi and pyramid schemes.
Andrew Fire
Andrew Zachary Fire (born April 27, 1959 in Palo Alto, California) is an American biologist. He is a professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. Fire was given the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference. The research was conducted at Carnegie Institution for Science and published in 1998.
Fire completed high school at age 15. He wanted to study at Stanford University, where he would later work, but was not accepted. He studied at the University of Californiaat Berkeley. Fire graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics at 19, and earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1983.
In 2006, Fire and Craig Mello shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work first published in 1998 in the journal "Nature". The paper reports that tiny snippets of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) effectively shut down specific genes, and so caused the destruction of messenger RNA (mRNA) with sequences matching the dsRNA. As a result, the mRNA cannot be translated into protein.
Fire and Mello found that dsRNA was much more effective in gene silencing than the previously described method of RNA interference with single-stranded RNA. Because only small numbers of dsRNA molecules were required for the observed effect, Fire and Mello proposed that a catalytic process was involved. This hypothesis was confirmed by later research.
The Nobel Prize citation, issued by Sweden's Karolinska Institute, said: "This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information". The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted Nick Hastie, director of the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, on the scope and implications of the research:
Stanley Cohen
Stanley Cohen (November 17, 1922 – February 5, 2020) was an American biochemist of Jewish descent. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986. His research helped people understand how cancer starts and how to design anti-cancer drugs.
He was also, with Herbert Boyer, one of the first to do any kind of genetic engineering.
Cohen majored in chemistry and biology at Brooklyn College. He received a bachelor's degree in 1943, and worked as a bacteriologist at a plant that processes milk. Later in 1945, he received an M.A. in zoology from Oberlin College. He also received a Ph.D. from the department of biochemistry at the University of Michigan in 1948.
In the 1950s, Cohen worked with Rita Levi-Montalcini at Washington University in St. Louis. He isolated the nerve growth factor and then discovered the epidermal growth factor. In 1959, he began teaching biochemistry at Vanderbilt University.
Cohen also received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1983 and the National Medal of Science in 1986.
Cohen died on February 5, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 97.
Nephron
Nephrons are tiny tubules (miniature tubes) which make up the smallest working part of the kidney. In other words, they are the smallest level where the kidney removes waste, excess salt and excess water. Each nephron starts in the cortex of the kidney, then goes into the medulla of the kidney, before coming back to the cortex, then goes through the medulla into the pelvis. In the pelvis, the nephrons join up with the ureter.
In humans, a normal kidney has between 800,000 and 1.5 million nephrons.
Each nephron consists of a cup-shaped structure at one end called the Bowman's capsule. It extends into a long urinary tubule,that is surrounded by a network of renal capillaries. The urinary tubules of nephrons in each kidney join to form a common tube called the ureter.
Inside the Bowman's capsule,is a network of blood capillaries called glomerulus. The Bowman's capsule and glomerulus together form the Malphigian capsule or Malphigian body.
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada () is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa.
The parliament has three parts.
The governor general summons and appoints each of the 105 members of the upper house on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, while the 308 members of the lower house are directly elected by Canadian voters, with each Member of Parliament representing a single electoral district.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (born as "Máxima Zorreguieta"; 17 May 1971) is the wife of King Willem-Alexander,
She was born Máxima Zorreguieta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17 May 1971. Máxima is the daughter of Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta Stefanini, a farmer and a politician (died 2017). He was the under-secretary of Agriculture under Jorge R. Videla's military dictatorship. She studied in Northlands School, in Argentina. She has two brothers, a sister and three half-sisters by her father's first wife.
She graduated with a degree in Economics from the Universidad Católica Argentina in 1995 before working for large international companies in Finance in Argentina, New York and Europe.
In June 2018, her sister Inés Zorreguieta, committed suicide by hanging herself at her Buenos Aires apartment, aged 33.
She has been serving as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) since 2009.
Máxima met the crown prince in April 1999 in Sevilla, Spain, during the Seville Spring Fair. This is an important annual event, to which many people from other countries come and dress in typical Spanish Andalusian costume. In an interview, they stated that he introduced himself only as "Alexander," so that she did not know he was a prince. She thought he was joking when he told her he was a Prince. They agreed to meet in New York, where Máxima was working for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, two weeks later. Their relationship apparently began in New York, but the Princess did not meet the Prince's parents, Queen Beatrix and Claus von Amsberg, for some time.
The news of the couple's relationship and eventual marriage plans caused controversy in the Netherlands. Máxima's father had been the Minister of Agriculture during the regime of former Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla, a military dictator who ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1981 and who was responsible for many atrocities against civilians (non-military people). An estimated 10,000–30,000 people disappeared during this and later military regimes. Democracy was restored to Argentina in 1983.