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Aug 21, 2020

China is aiming to attract partners for an international lunar research station

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

China has developed a vision for an international lunar research station and is seeking international involvement in the project.

Objectives include construction and operation of human[ity]’s first sharing platform in the lunar south pole, supporting long-term, large-scale scientific exploration, technical experiments and development and utilization of lunar resources’, according to a presentation to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) earlier this year.

The presentation also states an intended shift from independence to cooperation in space on the part of China. International involvement in Chinese lunar missions has so far been limited to a handful of contributed payloads, mainly to the Chang’e-4 lunar far side mission.

Continue reading “China is aiming to attract partners for an international lunar research station” »

Aug 21, 2020

How to Build a Time Machine in Just 4 e²Q=X Easy Steps

Posted by in category: time travel

Granted, we’re not very good at it. We’re only moving in one direction at a fixed rate — but we’re never in the same moment twice. And while time’s arrow seemingly puts spacetime second helpings out of reach, humans have a habit of breaking the rules.

What if we could do an about-face and discover what came before? Or push past our present pace to see what comes next? Astrophysicist Ron Mallett from the University of Connecticut says he’s got the theoretical receipts to take on time travel.

Wondering how to build a time machine? It takes just 4e2Q=X easy steps! Simple, right?

Aug 21, 2020

Physicists Say They’ve Found Evidence of Elusive Axion Particle

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

While axions are not currently a proposed direct explanation for dark matter, they could’ve set the stage for the creation of dark matter in the early stages of our universe.

Scientists are undeniably excited by this third possibility, though they’re also urging restraint due to the other potential explanations.

“I’m trying to be calm here, but it’s hard not to be hyperbolic,” Neal Weiner, a particle theorist at New York University, who was not involved in the research, told The New York Times. “If this is real, calling it a game changer would be an understatement.”

Aug 21, 2020

The realism of magic

Posted by in category: education

“In the 18th century and since, Newton came to be thought of as the first and greatest of the modern age of scientists, a rationalist, one who taught us to think along the lines of cold and untinctured reason. I do not see him in this light. I do not think anyone who has pored over the contents of the box he packed up when he finally left Cambridge in 1696 and which, though partly dispersed, have come down to us, can see him like that. Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and the Sumerians, the last great mind who looked out at the intellectual and visible world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago.”

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Probably not very many people could identify the author of this passage. In fact it was John Maynard Keynes, writing in an essay from the late 1930s, “Newton the Man”, which was read as a lecture some months after Keynes had died in April 1946 by his brother Geoffrey Keynes. Based on a study of Newton’s papers, which Keynes was the first to see before some were sold in 1936, the 20th century’s greatest economist described the founder of modern science as a magician.

Aug 21, 2020

Calorie Restriction vs. Rapamycin: Which Is Better at Extending Maximal Lifespan?

Posted by in category: food

Here’s my latest video!


Maximal lifespan in calorie restricted (CR) mice can range from 45 — 55 months. In this video, I present data for 3 studies on rapamycin-can it beat CR for maximal lifespan?

Aug 21, 2020

€1.1bn Franco-UK renewable energy project stalled by Brexit

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Plans for a €1.1 billion project to build crucial new underwater electrical connections between France and the UK have been delayed by Brexit, as the French energy commission has said it poses “too much uncertainty”.

Aug 21, 2020

Trio Of B-2 Stealth Bombers Deployed To The Island Of Diego Garcia As Seen From Space

Posted by in category: military

“On August 11th, 2020, U.S. Air Force sent a trio of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers halfway around the world from their home at Whiteman AFB in Missouri to the remote island outpost of Diego Garcia located deep in the Indian Ocean. The unannounced deployment is part of the Air Force’s new unpredictable bomber deployment strategy and comes at a time where tensions in Asia vis-à-vis China have peaked.”

#Satellitetech


The B-2s flew direct from the U.S. to the remote outpost in the Indian Ocean and have already executed missions over Asia.

Continue reading “Trio Of B-2 Stealth Bombers Deployed To The Island Of Diego Garcia As Seen From Space” »

Aug 21, 2020

You Could Win $25K Worth of 3D Printing Services

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, materials

A start-up based in Berkeley, California, polySpectra, is attempting to make better materials for 3D printing. Their inaugural material, COR Alpha, promises to be a stronger and more durable material for digital light processing (DLP) printing. If it’s a compelling fit for your project, you could win $25,000 worth of 3D printing services from polySpectra.

In an attempt to spur the development of 3D printed projects with COR Alpha, polySpectra is holding the Make It Real 3D Printing Challenge. The challenge calls for submissions of designs that could benefit from the new material. The winner will receive $25,000 worth of polySpectra’s 3D printing services in the form of mentoring, design consultation, functional prototyping, qualification, testing and fabrication. Applications are due September 28.

Aug 21, 2020

US Army Researchers Creating Robot Tech Directly Inspired by T-1000 Villain from “Terminator 2”

Posted by in categories: drones, robotics/AI

By Elias Marat

Researchers for the U.S. Army are hoping to formulate a new shape-shifting material that can heal itself on its own in hopes to achieve the kind of futuristic killing technology famously depicted in the 1991 science-fiction film, Terminator 2.

In fact, the film’s villain, the T-1000, directly provided the inspiration to one of the Army engineers working on a project to develop “soft robotic” drones and unmanned aircraft based on flexible, self-repairing and self-reconfiguring materials, reports Military.com.

Aug 21, 2020

Google Maps will show wildfire boundaries in near real time

Posted by in category: satellites

A new feature on Google search and Maps will give users near-real-time information on wildfires in the US. Data from NOAA satellites allows Google to update wildfire boundaries on its maps hourly.