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The CEO of SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment.


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The chief executive of satellite operator SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment, but that the structure of the industry might hinder such deals.

Speaking at the Satellite Innovation conference here Oct. 5 Steve Collar addressed growing perceptions that the industry is ready for a wave of deals like the unsolicited proposal by telecom magnate Patrick Drahi last week to acquire Eutelsat for $3.2 billion. While Eutelsat rejected the deal, it appeared to leave the door open for a revised, higher offer.

While not addressing that specific deal or others, Collar said he thought some kind of industry consolidation was possible. “I think it’s more likely than it’s ever been,” he said. “But, it’s been likely in the past and hasn’t happened.”

The goal of tackling global warming by turning carbon dioxide into fuel could be one step closer with researchers using a supercomputer to identify a group of “single-atom” catalysts that could play a key role.

Researchers from QUT’s Centre for Materials Science, led by Associate Professor Liangzhi Kou, were part of an international study that used theoretical modelling to identify six metals (nickel, niobium, palladium, rhenium, rhodium, zirconium) that were found to be effective in a reaction that can convert into sustainable and clean energy sources.

The study published in Nature Communications involved QUT researchers Professor Aijun Du, Professor Yuantong Gu and Dr. Lin Ju.

Microscopic tardigrades have thrived on Earth for more than 500 million years, and may well outlive humans, but the tiny creatures don’t leave behind many fossils.

Hiding in plain sight, the third-ever tardigrade fossil on record has been found suspended within a piece of 16-million-year-old Dominican amber.

The find includes a newly named species, Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus, as a relative of the modern living family of tardigrades known as Isohypsibioidea. It’s the first tardigrade fossil from the Cenozoic, our current geological era that began 66 million years ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has put Big Tech giant Facebook on notice following the massive crash on Monday, warning them that he is going to set the Internet free from their authoritarian grip.

Speaking on behalf of Putin, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the fault the massive Internet shutdown earlier this week highlights the dangers of giving a ‘liberal’ authoritarian California-based company control over the world’s Internet. He said Russia is preparing to make the internet sovereign again.

“Much to our happy surprise, the rheumatoid arthritis totally disappeared in animals that received a vaccine,” says Chakravarti. “Sometimes there is no better way than serendipity. We happened to hit a wrong result, but it turned out to be the best result. Those kinds of scientific discoveries are very important in this field.”


Researchers from the University of Toledo have discovered a prospective new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. The vaccine-based treatment strategy proved successful in preliminary animal studies and the researchers are looking to conduct more clinical trials in the future.

The research hinges around a protein called 14−3−3 zeta. Ritu Chakravarti, lead author on the new study, has been studying 14−3−3 zeta for several years due to its suspected role in a number of autoimmune conditions.

The initial hypothesis was this protein played a significant role in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. If it was triggering the disease then knocking out the gene in arthritis mouse models should prevent the condition arising in the first place.

“In the preliminary data … there is a suspicion of an increased risk of heart inflammation, when vaccinated with Moderna,” the Danish Health Authority said in a statement.

It referred to data from a yet unpublished Nordic study, which would now be sent to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for further assessment. Final data was expected within a month, it added.

Sweden and Denmark said they now recommended the Comirnaty vaccine, from Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), 0 instead.