On this day in history in 1971, Apollo 15 lunar module “Falcon” landed on the Moon. Astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin spent 66 hours, 54 minutes, 53 seconds on the lunar surface. More on Apollo 15:
Ever wanted to drive on the Moon? Apollo 15, the fourth crewed mission to land on the Moon, was the first Apollo mission to utilize a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).
Shiver me timbers: Security researchers have demonstrated that it’s possible to spy on what’s visible on your screen by intercepting electromagnetic radiation from video cables with great accuracy, thanks to artificial intelligence. The team from Uruguay’s University of the Republic says their AI-powered cable-tapping method is good enough that these attacks are likely already happening.
Back in the analog video era, it was relatively straightforward for hackers to reconstruct what was on a screen by detecting the leakage from video cables. But once digital protocols like HDMI took over, that became much trickier. The data zipping through HDMI is much more complex than old analog signals.
However, those digital signals still leak some electromagnetic radiation as they transmit between your computer and display. By training an AI model on samples of matching original and intercepted HDMI signals, the researchers were able to decode those leaks into readable screen captures.
“These spots are a big surprise,” said Dr. David Flannery. “On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.”
Did Mars once have life billions of years ago? This is what NASA’s Perseverance (Percy) rover hopes to figure out, and scientists might be one step closer to answering that question with a recent discovery by the car-sized robotic explorer that found a unique rock with “leopard spots” that have caused some in the scientific community to claim this indicates past life might have once existed on the now cold and dry Red Planet. However, others have just as quickly rushed to say that further evidence is required before jumping to conclusions.
Upon analyzing the rock using Percy’s intricate suite of scientific instruments, scientists determined that it contained specific chemical signatures indicative of life possibly having existed billions of years ago when liquid water flowed across the surface. However, the science team is also considering other reasons for the rock’s unique appearance, including further research to determine if the findings are consistent with potential ancient life.
The unique features of the rock include calcium sulfate veins with reddish material between the veins which indicate the presence of hematite, which is responsible for the Red Planet’s rusty color. Upon further inspecting the reddish material, Percy identified dozens of off-white splotches at the millimeter-scale with black material surrounding it, hence the name “leopard spots”
For thousands of years, scholars pondered the question of how anything can move in our world. The problem seemed to have been solved—until the development of quantum mechanics.
Putting 50 billion transistors into a microchip the size of a fingernail is a feat that requires manufacturing methods of nanometer level precision—layering of thin films, then etching, depositing, or using photolithography to create the patterns of semiconductor, insulator, metal, and other materials that make up the tiny working devices within the chip.
The process relies heavily on solvents that carry and deposit materials in each layer—solvents that can be difficult to handle and toxic to the environment.
Now researchers led by Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts, have developed a nanomanufacturing approach that uses water as the primary solvent, making it more environmentally compatible and opening the door to the development of devices that combine inorganic and biological materials.
AI can revolutionize healthcare and boost economic outcomes. But it comes with a lot of risks, too.
StandardAero will build and help test engines for the Overture supersonic airliner, which Boom Supersonic hopes to have in the air by 2029.
One would not be wrong to note that Toyota’s hydrogen engine exhibits enormous performance characteristics. This engine has the capacity to develop one hundred and fourteen horsepower and one hundred and forty Newton meters of torque and, as such, can be used in different car types.
The power-to-weight ratio is also impressive, at 125 horsepower per ton and CO2 emissions of 144 g/km, the thermal efficiency of the engine is 44%, far higher than any traditional gasoline engine. This high efficiency concerns better fuel economy and fewer emissions. The fueling system can also be said to be one of the peculiarities of the hydrogen engine that Toyota uses.
