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Oct 20, 2020

Virgin Galactic test flight scheduled to launch this fall

Posted by in category: space travel

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The president of Virgin Galactic gave state lawmakers an update Monday on the company’s progress toward commercial spaceflight.

Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses said the first test space flight from Spaceport America will happen sometime this fall, which is the final step before taking paying customers into space.

Oct 20, 2020

U.S. space mining policies may trigger regulatory ‘race to the bottom,’

Posted by in categories: law, policy, space

In a newly published policy paper, a pair of Canadian scientists warn that the United States is angling to establish itself as the de facto gatekeeper of the moon and other celestial bodies.

Earlier this year, NASA published a new set of rules for lunar mining and other space activities, dubbing the voluntary guidelines the “Artemis Accords.”

Aaron Boley and Michael Byers, authors of the new Science paper, argue that the Artemis Accords are part of a concerted effort by the U.S. and NASA to set a legal precedent for space-based resource extraction.

Oct 20, 2020

Headless Box-Stacking Robot Ready to Be Enslaved for $250,000

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Watch this video. You’ll want to remember where you were when the uprising truly began.

Oct 20, 2020

University Chancellor Predicts “Higher Forms of Life” on Europa

Posted by in category: alien life

Big Tentacle

Grady believes creatures could be living in glacial oceans underneath a hard shell of ice that’s up to 15 miles thick on Jupiter’s frigid moon.

Scientists have long suspected the existence of these deep subsurface oceans on Europa — and maybe even life. In fact, NASA announced in August that it’s completing the final designs for a Europa-bound spacecraft called Europa Clipper, which will look for signs of life.

Oct 20, 2020

Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Recent experiments show that particles should be able to go faster than light when they quantum mechanically “tunnel” through walls.

Oct 20, 2020

Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer Reveals Rare Disorder

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

An odd lump on Elizabeth Cowles Johnston’s breast prompted a Friday morning call to her primary care physician Rebecca Andrews at UConn Health.

Dr. Andrews quickly fit her in, and upon checking the lump sent her to Dr. Alex Merkulov, Section Head of Women’s Imaging at the Beekley Imaging Center at UConn Health for a mammogram and ultrasound. The following Monday she had a biopsy of her breast and by that Wednesday she had the diagnosis of breast cancer.

“It was all very quick,” says Johnston.

Oct 20, 2020

Scientists Claim to Discover New Organ in Human Skull

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

“It seems like they may be onto something,” Dr. Valery Fitzhugh, a Rutgers University pathologist who didn’t work on the study, told the NYT. “If it’s real, it could change the way we look at disease in this region.”

The fourth pair of salivary glands are better hidden than the other three, which are right beneath our skin and can be manipulated through the surface. So unless doctors were explicitly looking for them, it’s feasible to see how the easily-damaged glands went undiscovered all this time.

Continue reading “Scientists Claim to Discover New Organ in Human Skull” »

Oct 20, 2020

This Molten Salt Reactor Is the Next Big Thing in Nuclear

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

It’s fast, cheap, safe, and eats up waste. What’s not to like?


A new molten salt reactor design can scale from just 50 Megawatts electric (MWe) to 1,200 MWe, its creators say, while burning up nuclear waste in the process.

☢️ You like nuclear. So do we. Let’s nerd out over nuclear together.

Continue reading “This Molten Salt Reactor Is the Next Big Thing in Nuclear” »

Oct 20, 2020

New species of Tardigrades has been discovered

Posted by in category: futurism

A new species of tardigrade.

Oct 20, 2020

Fusion-Drive Spacecraft: Express Solar System Travel, If We Figure It Out

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, space travel

Step One: Harness nuclear fusion. Step Two: Go fast. Very, very fast.