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Oct 27, 2020

SpaceX signs deal with LeoLabs to track Starlink satellites in orbit

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

SpaceX is ready to offer Starlink internet in northern United States and southern Canada. The company currently operates approximately 888 internet-beaming satellites in low Earth orbit. SpaceX plans to deploy thousands of satellites to provide broadband coverage globally by 2021. To track the satellites in orbit SpaceX signed a deal with LeoLabs, the company announced the partnership today October 27. —“LeoLabs is pleased to announce a commercial agreement with SpaceX to support tracking of Starlink satellites during the initial on-orbit phase of missions,” LeoLabs representatives wrote in a press release. “Under this partnership, SpaceX utilizes LeoLabs Launch and Early Orbit service to track all Starlink satellites beginning immediately after deployment, providing SpaceX with rapid orbital location and identification support during the first few days of new missions.”

SpaceX and LeoLabs have been working together since March this year. Through LeoLabs’ advanced tracking system, SpaceX obtains detailed data rapidly about where each Starlink satellite is located in space. LeoLabs states it delivers data within 1-hour after a Starlink satellite passes over one of its radar stations on Earth.

“LeoLabs is excited to work with SpaceX as they launch the world’s largest constellation of satellites to provide global broadband internet access,” the Chief Executive Officer at LeoLabs Dan Ceperley wrote in a statement released by the company. “Our global radar network and software platform allow LeoLabs to acquire an entire batch of Starlink satellites faster than any other organization in the world and provides SpaceX with a level of certainty that was previously not available,” he added.

Oct 27, 2020

NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid That’s Worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000

Posted by in category: space

Forget water on the moon, NASA has now struck gold.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a rare, heavy and immensely valuable asteroid called “16 Psyche” in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroid Psyche is located at roughly 230 million miles (370 million kilometers) from Earth and measures 14 miles (226 kilometers) across, about the size of West Virginia. What makes it special is that, unlike most asteroids that are either rocky or icy, Psyche is made almost entirely of metals, just like the core of Earth, according to a study published in the Planetary Science Journal on Monday.

Oct 27, 2020

The Internet of Things brings a web of promises and perils to the smart grid, experts say

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, internet

‚The innocuous microwave on a shelf in a laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash., is anything but ordinary.

“Weird,” is how Penny McKenzie, a cybersecurity engineer at the laboratory, describes the device.

The microwave arrived at PNNL with the capability to be controlled through a connected to the internet, a connection McKenzie and her colleagues declined when they plugged it into the wall.

Oct 27, 2020

Multifunctional skin-mounted microfluidic device able to measure stress in multiple ways

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, mobile phones, neuroscience

An international team of researchers has developed a multifunctional skin-mounted microfluidic device that is able to measure stress in people in multiple ways. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their device and how it could be useful.

Prior research has shown that can damage a person’s health. It can lead to diabetes, depression, obesity and a host of other problems. Some have suggested that one of the ways to combat stress is to create a means for alerting a person to their heightened stress so that they might take action to reduce it. To that end, prior teams have developed skin-adhesive devices that that collect sweat samples. The tiny samples contain small amounts of cortisol, a hormone that can be used as a marker of stress levels. In this new effort, the researchers have improved on these devices by developing one that measures more than just cortisol levels and is much more comfortable.

The researchers began with the notion that in order to convince people to wear a full time, it had to be both useful and comfortable. The solved the latter issue by making their device out of soft materials that adhere gently to the skin. They also used a skeletal design for their microfluidic sweat-collection apparatus—a flexible mesh. They also added more functionality. In addition to cortisol, their device is able to measure glucose and vitamin C levels. They also added electrodes underneath that are able to measure sweat rate and electrical conductivity of the skin, both of which change in response to stress. They also added a wireless transmitter that sends all of the data to a nearby smartphone running the device’s associated app.

Oct 27, 2020

Best way to detect ‘deepfake’ videos? Check for the pulse

Posted by in category: futurism

With video editing software becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s sometimes difficult to believe our own eyes. Did that actor really appear in that movie? Did that politician really say that offensive thing?

Some so-called ‘deepfakes’ are harmless fun, but others are made with a more sinister purpose. But how do we know when a video has been manipulated?

Researchers from Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science have teamed up with Intel Corp. to develop a tool called FakeCatcher, which boasts an accuracy rate above 90%.

Oct 27, 2020

Recording Brain Activity Through the Mouth

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Neuroscientists introduce a new tool to detect hippocampal activity.

Oct 27, 2020

Effect predicted by Albert Einstein spotted in a double-star system

Posted by in category: space

This effect, known as gravitational redshift, is critical for maintaining GPS on Earth.


Gravitational redshift, an effect predicted by Albert Einstein that is crucial for maintaining the Global Positioning System (GPS) on Earth, has been observed in a star system in our galaxy.

Oct 27, 2020

NASA scientists spot ‘really unexpected’ molecule in atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan

Posted by in category: space

NASA is prepping its Dragonfly mission to go look for signs of life on the enticing moon.

Oct 27, 2020

If a robot is conscious, is it OK to turn it off? The moral implications of building true AIs

Posted by in categories: ethics, robotics/AI

Philosophers say now is the time to mull over what qualities should grant an artificially intelligent machine moral standing.

Oct 27, 2020

90,000-year-old Human Hybrid Found in Ancient Cave

Posted by in category: futurism

Researchers have just discovered the remains of a hybrid human.