Lifeboat Foundation

Exoplanet hunters have found thousands of planets, most orbiting close to their host stars, but relatively few alien worlds have been detected that float freely through the galaxy as so-called rogue planets, not bound to any star. Many astronomers believe that these planets are more common than we know, but that our planet-finding techniques haven’t been up to the task of locating them.

Most exoplanets discovered to date were found because they produce slight dips in the observed light of their host stars as they pass across the star’s disk from our viewpoint. These events are called transits.

Continue reading “NASA Searching for Free-Floating Planets With Artificial Intelligence and Gravitational Microlensing” »

Earth imaging and data specialist Planet Labs on Tuesday announced a new line of imagery satellites, called Pelican, as the company prepares to go public later this year.

The Pelican satellites are meant to upgrade Planet’s existing constellation of 21 SkySat satellites in orbit, with launches beginning in 2022.

“It’s higher resolution, and having more satellites in space means that you actually end up having a higher revisit capability and [Pelican is] being designed for what our users want – which is speed and near-real time understanding about what’s happening,” Planet co-founder and chief strategy officer Robbie Schingler told CNBC.

Toxic chemicals known as PFAS exist in almost 42,000 sites around the U.S., according to research released on Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group.

The research published in the American Water Works Association’s journal Water Science found tens of thousands of potential point sources for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination around the country. Researchers analyzed data collected between August 2016 and March 2021. They found numerous previously unknown PFAS sites in samples of water downstream from manufacturing facilities.

“We don’t as of yet have great information on how frequently these different sources are contributing to the PFAS contamination we’re finding in surface water and drinking water,” lead study author David Andrews told The Hill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXyzgTvZUFw

Blue Origin is set to launch William Shatner on their second crewed spaceflight of its New Shepard rocket. Takeoff is currently scheduled on Wednesday, October 13 at 9:00 am CDT / 14:00 UTC from Corn Ranch, Texas.

New Shepard is designed to take people and payloads to suborbital space and back. It is expected to start sending space tourists this year. Ticket reservations are still on hold.

Continue reading “WATCH LIVE: Blue Origin Launch William Shatner into Space on Jeff Bezos New Shepard Rocket” »

VAN HORN, Texas — William Shatner and three other passengers will launch into space today (Oct. 13) on the second crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, and you can watch all the action live online.

The New Shepard rocket-capsule combo will lift off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, near the West Texas town of Van Horn, at 9 a.m. local time (10 a.m. EDT; 1,400 GMT). A live webcast of the mission will begin about 90 minutes before liftoff, and you can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of Blue Origin. The webcast will also stream live on Bue Origin’s website and on YouTube.

An Austrian-based company is working on a patented propulsion technology for VTOLs (vertical take-off and landing) and has recently shared the first test flight of a prototype aircraft using the unique approach.

Kickstarter campaign offers signed books, photo prints.

For more than 30 years, Roland Miller has used photography to bring new light to the U.S. space program, from visual tours of abandoned launch pads to floating among the laboratories on the International Space Station. Now, Miller is preparing to release his third collection, this one focused on the space shuttle, the winged orbiters that were central to U.S. human spaceflight for three decades.

“Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle” presents Miller’s own interpretation of the iconic spacecraft, based on his effort to capture the fleet in its transition to retirement.

Researchers have identified a subpopulation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that boost the healing of bone fractures and show an ability to differentiate into various cell types.

Their findings are published in the journal Bone Reports in a paper titled, “Bone marrow CD73⁺ mesenchymal stem cells display increased stemness in vitro and promote fracture healing in vivo,” and led by researchers from the University of Tsukuba, in collaboration with the University of Bonn, Germany.

“MSCs are multipotent and considered to be of great potential for regenerative medicine,” the researchers wrote. “We could show recently (Breitbach, Kimura, et al. 2018) that a subpopulation of MSCs, as well as sinusoidal endothelial cells (sECs) in the bone marrow (BM) of CD73-EGFP reporter mice, could be labeled in vivo. We took advantage of this model to explore the plasticity and osteogenic potential of CD73-EGFP+ MSCs in vitro and their role in the regenerative response upon bone lesion in vivo.”

“Lower levels of DHA are associated with inflammation, cardiovascular and brain disorders, such as depression, which are all linked to migraine risk.”

Professor Nyholt said LPE(20:4) was a chemical compound that blocked the production of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anandamide.

Summary: Researchers have identified causal genetic links to three blood metabolite levels that increase migraine risks.

Continue reading “Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels” »