Many years after, the young dreamer has surpassed his imagination. He is now a lead engineer on InSight — NASA’s spacecraft which recently landed on Mars. He is in charge of the mission’s robotic arm mechanism.
Read more
General Motors recently announced plans to double its investment in electric vehicles and that’s just fine with Elon Musk. 60 Minutes, Sunday. https://cbsn.ws/2L0D2pw&h=AT27OxLLrIvSTagOUUaqQ8rb_hlgmnx14C…svvYFzIR1X
Read more
China has launched the first mission to land a robotic craft on the far side of the Moon, Chinese media say.
The Chang’e-4 mission will see a static lander and rover touch down in Von Kármán crater, located on the side of the Moon which never faces Earth.
The payload blasted off atop a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Read more
Sounds of Mars
Posted in space
BREAKING: Humans have never before heard the sound of wind on Mars until now! Listen to #SoundsOfMars as recorded by NASA InSight as Martian winds swept over our lander. Best with headphones or a subwoofer. https://go.nasa.gov/2BWeong&h=AT2phR-fnwaC50oFKYLmQGoDEJ8_fV…fWhAfd9mNw
Read more
A new way to make arrays of nanofibers that gets its inspiration from polar bear fur, lotus leaves, and gecko feet could lead to coatings that are sticky, repellant, insulating, or light emitting.
“This is so removed from anything I’ve ever seen that I would have thought it was impossible,” says Joerg Lahann, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan and senior author of the paper, which appears in Science.
Polar bear hairs are structured to let light in while keeping heat from escaping. Water-repelling lotus leaves are coated with arrays of microscopic waxy tubules. And the nanoscale hairs on the bottoms of gravity-defying gecko feet get so close to other surfaces that atomic forces of attraction come into play.
Read more
Today, we want to highlight results from human trials in which stem cell transplants have been shown to reduce age-related frailty.
Age-related frailty and stem cell transplants
Currently, there are no specific approved therapies to address age-related frailty, which can cause elderly people to suffer potentially fatal falls and injuries. There has been considerable interest in stem cell therapies to combat frailty in recent years, and the results we will discuss today are from one of the more advanced human clinical trials exploring mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplants [1].
Read more