Lifeboat Foundation

When Dr. Robert Murphy first started researching biochemistry and drug development in the late 1970s, creating a pharmaceutical compound that was effective and safe to market followed a strict experimental pipeline that was beginning to be enhanced by large-scale data collection and analysis on a computer.

Now head of the Murphy Lab for computational biology at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Murphy has watched over the years as data collection and artificial intelligence have revolutionized this process, making the drug creation pipeline faster, more efficient, and more effective.

Recently, that’s been thanks to the application of machine learning—computer systems that learn and adapt by using algorithms and statistical models to analyze patterns in datasets—to the drug development process. This has been notably key to reducing the presence of side effects, Murphy says.

The timeframe for reinfection is fundamental to numerous aspects of public health decision making. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, reinfection is likely to become increasingly common. Maintaining public health measures that curb transmission—including among individuals who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2—coupled with persistent efforts to accelerate vaccination worldwide is critical to the prevention of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.

US National Science Foundation.

Supersonic and hypersonic aircraft are slowly but surely coming back to the forefront of aviation. NASA is in the last development stages of its supersonic research aircraft, X-59, and Stratolaunch is getting ready to operate its first hypersonic test vehicle, the Talon-A.

More than 6,000 Coinbase users had funds stolen from their accounts after hackers used a vulnerability in Coinbase’s SMS-based two-factor authentication system to breach accounts.

The intrusions took place earlier this year, between March and May, the exchange said in a data breach notification letter it has filed with US state attorney general offices.

“The third party took advantage of a flaw in Coinbase’s SMS Account Recovery process in order to receive an SMS two-factor authentication token and gain access to your account,” Coinbase said.

BERLIN (AP) — A joint European-Japanese spacecraft got its first glimpse of Mercury as it swung by the solar system’s innermost planet while on a mission to deliver two probes into orbit in 2025.

The BepiColombo mission made the first of six flybys of Mercury at 11:34 p.m. GMT (7:34 p.m. EST) Friday, using the planet’s gravity to slow the spacecraft down.

After swooping past Mercury at altitudes of under 200 kilometers (125 miles), the spacecraft took a low resolution black-and-white photo with one of its monitoring cameras before zipping off again.

This week’s episode is brought to you by The Space Force. For more information, please go to http://www.spaceforce.com #sponsored.

How much of your life is touched by space? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice break down the newest branch of the US military, The Space Force, with Charles Liu, Major General DeAnna Burt, and Dr. Moriba Jah. Is this one step closer to Star Wars?

Continue reading “Space Force: A New Domain with Neil deGrasse Tyson” »

The future of space stations is uncertain once the International Space Station ends its mission — China and private industry could fill the void. — Retiring the International Space Station in the coming years presents a big void — what will be the future of space stations once the International Space Station meets its fiery death in the coming years? And SHOULD the ISS be decommissioned, or might the mission lifetime be extended?

Construction of the International Space Station (ISS), started in 1,998 was completed in 2011. Since that time, the ISS has housed travelers in space from 19 countries. Possessing the only laboratory for long-duration microgravity research, discoveries aboard the orbiting outpost have led to a bevy of new discoveries.

Now, its mission could be over as early as 2,024 as that is the time agreements between NASA and international partners comes to an end. However, on the 25 August, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated his support for extending the mission of the space station until the year 2030.

There might be billions, even trillions, of rogue planets in the Milky Way. Could they support life? How can we find out?

The search for potentially habitable planets is focused on exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—for good reason. The only planet we know of with life is Earth and sunlight fuels life here. But some estimates say there are many more rogue planets roaming through space, not bound to or warmed by any star.

Continue reading “Rogue Planets Could be Habitable” »

Etienne Léopold Trouvelot sketched the cosmos for Harvard. His pastels capture solar flares, eclipses, star clusters, and Jupiter’s biggest storm.