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Aug 17, 2020

The revolutionary boat powered by the ocean

Posted by in category: energy

The Philippines’ traditional three-hulled boat is being redesigned, to draw its power not from fossil fuels, but from the energy of the waves.

Aug 17, 2020

Microsoft Put Off Fixing Zero Day for 2 Years

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Microsoft Put Off Fixing Zero Day for 2 Years — Krebs on Security.


A security flaw in the way Microsoft Windows guards users against malicious files was actively exploited in malware attacks for two years before last week, when Microsoft finally issued a software update to correct the problem.

Continue reading “Microsoft Put Off Fixing Zero Day for 2 Years” »

Aug 17, 2020

Low Total Cholesterol: Biological Youth Or Increased Mortality Risk?

Posted by in category: biological

Low levels of total cholesterol (TC) are associated with an increased all-cause mortality risk in both old and younger subjects, but low TC is also found in youth, so which is it? In this video, I present data showing that subjects that had high albumin and HDL, but low TC had a similar survival to subjects that had higher TC levels.

Aug 17, 2020

Holes in the fabric of space and time may be responsible for dark matter

Posted by in category: cosmology

Your typical, run-of-the-mill black holes have long ago been eliminated from the running as candidates for dark matter, that mysterious substance that appears to make up a large proportion of the mass in our universe, including our own galaxy.

The reason is simple: ordinary black holes come from the collapse of stars, which means that they were originally formed from what is called baryonic matter, ordinary matter. You are made of baryons and so are black holes.

Aug 17, 2020

NASA’s Asteroid Mission Completes Final Test Before Sampling Run

Posted by in categories: security, space

While we were all busy watching the Perseverance rover head off on its journey to Mars, NASA’s asteroid sample mission has been gearing up for its big moment. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx for short) has completed its final test approach of the surface. The next time it descends, OSIRIS-REx will scoop up pieces of the asteroid Bennu for return to Earth.

NASA launched OSIRIS-REx in 2016, sending it off to intercept 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid about 1,610 feet (490 meters) in diameter. Bennu does get very close to Earth at points in its orbit — there’s even a small chance that it could impact the Earth in the next few centuries. Currently, it’s safely out of the way about 2 AU distant (an AU is the distance between Earth and the sun).

Continue reading “NASA’s Asteroid Mission Completes Final Test Before Sampling Run” »

Aug 17, 2020

‘Cyborg’ technology could enable new diagnostics, merger of humans and AI

Posted by in categories: chemistry, cyborgs, robotics/AI

Although true “cyborgs”—part human, part robotic beings—are science fiction, researchers are taking steps toward integrating electronics with the body. Such devices could monitor for tumor development or stand in for damaged tissues. But connecting electronics directly to human tissues in the body is a huge challenge. Now, a team is reporting new coatings for components that could help them more easily fit into this environment.

The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo.

“We got the idea for this project because we were trying to interface rigid, inorganic microelectrodes with the brain, but brains are made out of organic, salty, live materials,” says David Martin, Ph.D., who led the study. “It wasn’t working well, so we thought there must be a better way.”

Aug 17, 2020

Black dwarf supernovae might be the last event in the universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

The universe may have started with a Big Bang, but it will most likely end in an utterly anticlimactic way, slowly fading to black over trillions and trillions of years. Now, a theoretical physicist at Illinois State University has calculated what might just be the last interesting event that will ever happen – the explosions of stars called black dwarfs, which don’t even exist yet.

The ultimate fate of the universe is still up for debate, but one of the leading hypotheses is that it will undergo a “heat death.” Basically, all the stars will cool down and fizzle out, black holes will evaporate, and the never-ending expansion of the universe will stretch the fabric of reality so far that the remaining subatomic particles will rarely have the chance to whiz within a parsec of each other.

And now, thanks to theoretical physicist Matt Caplan, we have an idea of what might be one of the last things that will ever happen – black dwarf supernovae.

Aug 17, 2020

Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO) – Building a $100M Black Hole Detector

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

A new study makes a compelling case for the development of “NEMO”—a new observatory in Australia that could deliver on some of the most exciting gravitational-wave science next-generation detectors have to offer, but at a fraction of the cost.

The study, co-authored by the ARC Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), coincides with an Astronomy Decadal Plan mid-term review by Australian Academy of Sciences where “NEMO” is identified as a priority goal.

“Gravitational-wave astronomy is reshaping our understanding of the Universe,” said one of the study’s lead authors OzGrav Chief Investigator Paul Lasky, from Monash University.

Aug 17, 2020

First ever observation of ‘time crystals’ interacting

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

For the first time ever, scientists have witnessed the interaction of a new phase of matter known as “time crystals”.

The discovery, published in Nature Materials, may lead to applications in quantum information processing because time crystals automatically remain intact—coherent—in varying conditions. Protecting coherence is the main difficulty hindering the development of powerful quantum computers.

Dr. Samuli Autti, lead author from Lancaster University, said: “Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement. Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact.

Aug 17, 2020

One step closer to implanting electronics in the body

Posted by in categories: chemistry, computing, neuroscience

Dopamine, dopamine, wherefore art thou my dopamine?

Oh wait, I just need to press a button on my computer for that!


The American Chemical Society (ACS) are closer to using electronics in the body, to diagnose tumours and track illnesses: Read about it on OAG.