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Aug 20, 2020

Gmail down — Google says services for some users will return in the ‘near future’

Posted by in category: futurism

Gmail users are unable to send emails and attach files. The outage was at its peak at 12:00 pm with more than 2,700 users reported issues. Business Insider noted Google Drive was unable to upload files, download files or share them.

Aug 20, 2020

Kepler’s supernova remnant: Debris from stellar explosion not slowed after 400 years

Posted by in categories: cosmology, materials

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to record material blasting away from the site of an exploded star at speeds faster than 20 million miles per hour. This is about 25,000 times faster than the speed of sound on Earth.

Kepler’s supernova remnant is the debris from a detonated star that is located about 20,000 light years away from Earth in our Milky Way galaxy. In 1604 early astronomers, including Johannes Kepler who became the object’s namesake, saw the supernova explosion that destroyed the star.

Continue reading “Kepler’s supernova remnant: Debris from stellar explosion not slowed after 400 years” »

Aug 20, 2020

Deep learning will help future Mars rovers go farther, faster, and do more science

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, robotics/AI, science, space

NASA’s Mars rovers have been one of the great scientific and space successes of the past two decades.

Four generations of rovers have traversed the red planet gathering , sending back evocative photographs, and surviving incredibly harsh conditions—all using on-board computers less powerful than an iPhone 1. The latest , Perseverance, was launched on July 30, 2020, and engineers are already dreaming of a future generation of rovers.

While a major achievement, these missions have only scratched the surface (literally and figuratively) of the planet and its geology, geography, and atmosphere.

Aug 20, 2020

SpaceX Starship’s Raptor engine just reached all-new power levels

Posted by in category: space travel

The Raptor engine, designed to power the ship that will send humans to Mars and beyond, has been racking up impressive test results.

Aug 20, 2020

Watch a tiny robot powered by alcohol

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Beetle-size machine can climb, crawl, and carry heavy objects—all without batteries.

Aug 20, 2020

Supernova could explain extinctions at the end of the Devonian period

Posted by in categories: cosmology, existential risks

Aug. 18 (UPI) — New research suggests harmful cosmic rays from a nearby supernova might have caused the extinction events that form the boundary between the Devonian-Carboniferous periods.

Around 360 million years ago, a lengthy period of biodiversity declines culminated in a series of extinction events that saw 19 percent of all families and 50 percent of all genera disappear.

Scientists have previously unearthed a diversity of Late Devonian plant spores that show evidence of being burnt by ultraviolet light, signs of a prolonged ozone-depletion event.

Aug 20, 2020

SpaceX is now a $46 billion ‘unicorn’

Posted by in categories: business, Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led company that recently became the first business in history to send astronauts into Earth’s orbit, is parlaying its successes into big money.

Aug 20, 2020

New P2P botnet infects SSH servers all over the world

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Botnet is hard to detect and with no centralized control server, harder to take down.

Aug 20, 2020

In Quantum Physics, Even Humans Act As Waves

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Quantum physics just keeps getting weirder, even as it gets more fascinating.

Aug 20, 2020

These drugs carry risks and may not help, but many dementia patients get them anyway

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government

Nearly three-quarters of older adults with dementia have filled prescriptions for medicines that act on their brain and nervous system, but aren’t designed for dementia, a new study shows.

That’s despite the special risks that such drugs carry for older adults—and the lack of evidence that they actually ease the dementia-related behavior problems that often prompt a doctor’s prescription in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. In fact, some of the drugs have been linked to worse cognitive symptoms in old adults.

The study looks at several classes of psychoactive drugs, including ones that the federal government has actively encouraged nursing homes to limit using in residents with dementia. The new study suggests a need to reduce prescribing to people living at home with dementia, too.