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Lysins Unlimited: Phages’ Secret Weapon

Instead of recruiting whole phages into phage therapy armies, antibacterial campaigns may simply requisition the organisms’ battle-tested cell-wall-breaching enzymes.

It was 1917 when Felix d’Herelle, at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, first proposed using bacteriophages (or phages)—viruses that infect bacteria—as a therapy for human bacterial infections. Although used for decades in parts of Europe, notably Russia, Poland, and the Republic of Georgia, phage therapy is only permitted in the United States under the “compassionate use” umbrella—when there is nothing else available.

The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria that defy traditional antibiotics has forced clinicians to seek alternative measures to curb deadly infections. Two cases made headlines in recent years. In 2016, the life of Thomas Patterson, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, was saved by phage therapy after he developed a deadly Acinetobacter baumannii infection. (The story is recounted in The Perfect Predator, the book that Patterson co-authored with his wife, epidemiologist Steffanie A. Strathdee, PhD.) Last year, the life of an English teenager was saved after she developed an infection following a lung transplant for cystic fibrosis.


Lysins, phage enzymes that can undermine bacterial cell walls, have enormous potential as therapeutics. They may even race ahead of therapies that rely on whole phages, which may arouse resistance.

Female Astrophysicist Helped Build 1st Atomic Bomb

Female #Astrophysicist Helped Build 1st #AtomicBomb

Today marks 75 years since the 1st use of #nuclear weapons in #war-time, when the #US dropped the 1st atomic bomb on #Hiroshima, #Japan. One of the very few female #scientists who worked on the #ManhattanProject went on to become a researcher in high-energy #physics, #astrophysics, #cosmology, & diatomic molecular #spectroscopy.

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Photograph of Leona Woods Marshall at the University of Chicago on 1946 December 2.

Soldiers could teach future robots how to outperform humans

The researchers fused machine learning from demonstration algorithms and more classical autonomous navigation systems. Rather than replacing a classical system altogether, APPLD learns how to tune the existing system to behave more like the human demonstration. This paradigm allows for the deployed system to retain all the benefits of classical navigation systems—such as optimality, explainability and safety—while also allowing the system to be flexible and adaptable to new environments, Warnell said.


In the future, a soldier and a game controller may be all that’s needed to teach robots how to outdrive humans.

At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin, researchers designed an algorithm that allows an autonomous ground to improve its existing systems by watching a human drive. The team tested its approach—called adaptive planner parameter learning from demonstration, or APPLD—on one of the Army’s experimental autonomous ground vehicles.

“Using approaches like APPLD, current soldiers in existing training facilities will be able to contribute to improvements in simply by operating their vehicles as normal,” said Army researcher Dr. Garrett Warnell. “Techniques like these will be an important contribution to the Army’s plans to design and field next-generation combat vehicles that are equipped to navigate autonomously in off-road deployment environments.”

France sends jets and ships to tense eastern Med

France is deploying two Rafale fighter jets and a naval frigate in the eastern Mediterranean because of tensions between Greece and Turkey.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Turkey to halt oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the area. A Turkish survey ship began such a mission on Monday, angering Greece.

Mr Macron told Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that the French military would monitor the situation.

SpaceX, ULA win huge defense contracts totaling more than $650 million

The Space Force’s announcement last week that United Launch Alliance and SpaceX will launch expensive spy satellites and other military payloads brings a long and often fierce battle for government funds to an end — at least for now.

Why it matters: This type of government money — particularly in light of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic — is key for space companies that often work on thin margins.

The state of play: ULA was awarded the bulk of the funds — $337 million — for two missions due to launch in 2022, with SpaceX winning $316 million for one mission launching that year.

SpaceX will build an enclosed Rocket Mobile Service Tower for U.S. National Security Missions

Featured Image Source: SpaceX

The Department of the U.S. Air Force awarded SpaceX a National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service contract valued at $316 million. The military launches will be conducted by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, between 2022 and 2027. One of the requirements for the Phase 2 contract is that SpaceX must have the capability to do a vertical payload integration at their launch site. SpaceX President, Gwynne Shotwell, told reporters–

“The only modifications we need are an extended fairing on the Falcon Heavy, and we are going to have to build a vertical integration capability. But we are basically flying the rockets that they need.”

Another nation ratifies UN nuclear ban treaty

Saint Kitts and Nevis became the 44th country to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Sunday, the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Six more ratifications are now needed to bring the treaty into force.

The Caribbean nation’s foreign minister, Mark Brantley, said in a statement that the bombing of Nagasaki was the apogee of human cruelty and inhumanity.

He said his country, as a small nation committed to global peace, can see no useful purpose for nuclear armaments. He called on all nations to work towards peace and mutual respect for all mankind.