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Air Force lieutenant general Steve Kwast believes a “Kitty Hawk” moment will begin a new era in space. But while the U.S. still leads every other country in space, Kwast cautions that edge is whittling away.

“In my best military judgement China is on a 10-year journey to operationalize space. We’re on a 50-year journey,” Kwast told CNBC.

Kwast, who is also the commander and president of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, says the United States must “bring together the right talent to accelerate the journey” in a Manhattan Project-like meeting of minds. He says this would push the space industry to an moment like Wright Brothers had when they completed the first successful airplane flight in 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina…

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Researchers from Empa have developed a flexible material that generates electricity when stressed. In future, it might be used as a sensor, integrated into clothing or even implanted in the human body, for instance, to power a pacemaker.

Flexible, organic, thin – properties that aren’t usually associated with power plants or sensors. But a new material developed by Empa researchers is exactly that: a thin, organic, flexible film that generates if stretched and compressed. This film could be incorporated into control buttons, clothing, robots or even people, and monitor activities, record touches or generate electricity when stressed to power implanted devices such as pacemakers, for example.

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IBM has announced a milestone in its race against Google and other big tech firms to build a powerful quantum computer.

Dario Gil, who leads IBM’s and artificial intelligence research division, said Friday that the company’s scientists have successfully built and measured a processor prototype with 50 , known as qubits.

Gil says it’s the first time any company has built a quantum computer at this scale.

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Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes, immune cells which have a powerful arsenal of cytotoxic weaponry that they can use against tumors.

Unfortunately, tumors protect themselves using a protective microenvironment that shields them from attack from NK cells. This microenvironment promotes tumor growth and survival and has an immunosuppressive effect that blunts the attempts of NK cells to infiltrate the tumor and destroy it. That was until now and this new discovery.

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Space tourism will take-off in 2018. As the race between spaceflight companies Virgin Galactic and SpaceX heats up, those who can afford it will be able to travel to low Earth orbit and possibly even around the moon.

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In late 2018, tourists will be heading into space and there is a race on to get them there. Virgin Galactic will at last take paying customers beyond the stratosphere. But their efforts might be eclipsed by SpaceX, a company planning to send two tourists around the Moon. Taking them farther into space than any human since 1972.

There is a new breed of would-be astronauts for whom the sky is no limit. But it is not in everyone’s reach. Multi-millionaire entrepreneur, Per Wimmer will be one of the first tourists to go into space with private company, Virgin Galactic.

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