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Dec 14, 2021

Making lasers more efficient, versatile and compact

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, mobile phones

Their inner workings reside in the realm of physics, but lasers make everyday life possible. Talking on a cell phone or googling COVID stats while your apples and oranges are scanned at the checkout counter—lasers at every step.

Lasers emit at specific wavelengths. At one wavelength, laser beams etch patterns on computer chips that define their circuitry. At telecom wavelengths, lasers fire the enormous volumes of data through optical fibers that make ours the information age.

In 2017, a new kind of laser invented by electrical engineer Boubacar Kante, Ph.D., was recognized as one of the breakthrough inventions of the year by Physics World. With his Bakar Fellows support, Kante is preparing to fabricate a prototype of the new laser and demonstrate its potential for a range of applications from microsurgery to satellite telemetry.

Dec 14, 2021

Israeli co. kicks off COVID oral vaccine trial in South Africa

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The first volunteer in a Phase I clinical trial of an oral COVID-19 vaccine developed by an Israeli-American company has been screened and enrolled, according to Oravax Medical, a subsidiary of Oramed Pharmaceuticals.

The trial is taking place in South Africa.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, is based on technology developed by Hadassah-University Medical Center and run by Israeli CEO Nadav Kidron.

Continue reading “Israeli co. kicks off COVID oral vaccine trial in South Africa” »

Dec 14, 2021

Musk Wants SpaceX to Turn CO2 From Atmosphere Into Rocket Fuel

Posted by in categories: climatology, Elon Musk, space travel, sustainability

Billionaire Elon Musk is pushing ahead with an attempt to utilize emissions contributing to climate change, tweeting that his rocket company will launch a program to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to power spacecraft.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Musk announced the project on Dec. 13, shortly after being named Person of the Year by Time magazine.

Dec 14, 2021

Scientists discover planet 10 times size of Jupiter orbiting superhot massive stars

Posted by in category: space

Scientists have discovered a planet 10 times as massive as Jupiter orbiting a pair of stars in another solar system, according to new research.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, points to the discovery of a planet named b Centauri (AB)b or b Centauri b, with an image captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

The planet is 10 times as massive as Jupiter and “one of the most massive planets ever found,” according to the observatory.

Dec 14, 2021

SpaceX Starship: Elon Musk reveals ambitious timeline for getting to Mars

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has big plans to send the Starship to the Moon, Mars and beyond. His latest timeline suggests an ambitious schedule.

Dec 14, 2021

We’ve Found A Unique Giant ‘Tatooine’ Planet That Orbits Two Stars Say Scientists

Posted by in category: alien life

Astronomers just found something unique in the Milky Way–a giant exoplanet in a 200-days orbit around two stars.

In a find that remind us of that binary sunset in the original Star Wars movie, the Tatooine-like “TIC 172900988b” is a Jupiter-sized planet.

Known as a “circumbinary” planet, TIC 172900988b’s existence has been revealed in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal by a team led by Veselin B. Kostov of the SETI Institute.

Continue reading “We’ve Found A Unique Giant ‘Tatooine’ Planet That Orbits Two Stars Say Scientists” »

Dec 14, 2021

A Luxurious Swiss Yacht Is Powered by Two Sustainable Fuels

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability, transportation

And it offers limitless range.

Zurich-based Swiss Sustainable Yachts has unveiled its new luxurious yacht that is powered by not one but two sustainable fuels, solar and hydrogen. Dubbed Aquon One, the yacht has all the amenities that your heart can desire on a yacht and comes with zero guilt, the New Atlas reported.

Even as cars are going the electric way, maritime transportation is yet to see the same kind of enthusiasm. The first electric ship may have made its maiden voyage, however, the limited range offered by electric batteries is a major challenge that still needs to be overcome. The makers of Aquon One couldn’t agree more and therefore, have opted for a hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric propulsion than massive batteries.

Continue reading “A Luxurious Swiss Yacht Is Powered by Two Sustainable Fuels” »

Dec 14, 2021

You Can Only Mine 10 Percent of the Total Bitcoin Supply. Here’s Why

Posted by in category: bitcoin

Only 2.1 million are left.

Bitcoin passed a major milestone on Monday by reaching 90 percent of the total mineable supply as 18.9 million Bitcoin, out of a maximum of 21 million, have been mined and are in circulation in various exchanges.

Recent data show that the remaining mineable Bitcoin amount is at 2.1 million or 10 percent of the total supply. … See more.

Dec 14, 2021

Can an Artificial Intelligence Be Ethical? Researchers Asked AI, and It Sees Both Sides

Posted by in categories: ethics, robotics/AI

Welcome to the future of moral dilemmas.

Not a day passes without a fascinating snippet on the ethical challenges created by “black box” artificial intelligence systems. These use machine learning to figure out patterns within data and make decisions — often without a human giving them any moral basis for how to do it.

Continue reading “Can an Artificial Intelligence Be Ethical? Researchers Asked AI, and It Sees Both Sides” »

Dec 14, 2021

Artificial intelligence can create better lightning forecasts

Posted by in categories: climatology, information science, robotics/AI

Lightning is one of the most destructive forces of nature, as in 2020 when it sparked the massive California Lightning Complex fires, but it remains hard to predict. A new study led by the University of Washington shows that machine learning—computer algorithms that improve themselves without direct programming by humans—can be used to improve lightning forecasts.

Better lightning forecasts could help to prepare for potential wildfires, improve safety warnings for lightning and create more accurate long-range climate models.

“The best subjects for machine learning are things that we don’t fully understand. And what is something in the atmospheric sciences field that remains poorly understood? Lightning,” said Daehyun Kim, a UW associate professor of atmospheric sciences. “To our knowledge, our work is the first to demonstrate that machine learning algorithms can work for lightning.”