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Aug 12, 2021

Everything you need to know about the ExoMars’ rover, the ESA’s bid to find life on Mars

Posted by in categories: alien life, transportation

The rover will dig deeper into Mars than any previous mission in search of ancient life.


The rover, set for launch in 2,022 will bring to a head a decades-in-development program that has suffered a series of setbacks. If all goes well, the Rosalin Franklin rover may be scientists’ best shot at getting a definitive answer about whether there was ever life on Mars and what its fate can tell us about our own planet.

What is the Rosalind Franklin rover?

Continue reading “Everything you need to know about the ExoMars’ rover, the ESA’s bid to find life on Mars” »

Aug 12, 2021

This new discovery could allow dentists to regenerate the roots of teeth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Circa 2019


To figure out how the body changes over time, researchers are increasingly looking to understand epigenetics, the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. This scientific endeavor extends to teeth as well.

Yang Chai, associate dean of research at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, reported in a recent article how he and colleagues discovered that epigenetic regulation can control tooth root patterning and development.

Continue reading “This new discovery could allow dentists to regenerate the roots of teeth” »

Aug 12, 2021

Cygnus cargo ship arrives at International Space Station with its biggest NASA haul ever

Posted by in category: space

The Northrop Grumman ship S.S. Ellison Onizuka is packed with more than 4 tons of supplies.


A Northrop Grumman-built Cygnus cargo ship just made its biggest delivery yet for NASA at the International Space Station.

Aug 12, 2021

New Driverless Semi Truck Demo

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

We’ve seen a lot of electric vehicle growth and success stories in the past several years, but one area that’s been a bit of a letdown has been the semi truck market. Unfortunately, we still don’t have the Tesla Semi, and it was recently delayed until 2,022 and a big side area of that market that “futurists” have long been excited about is potential self-driving trucks. Platoons of self-driving semi trucks are especially exciting since tight, train-like caravans of semi trucks would use far less energy than the current system, and those trucks could much more easily be cost-competitive electric trucks with zero tailpipe emissions. Anyway, though, we’re getting ahead of ourselves again.

Aug 12, 2021

Elon Musk-approved Render Shows Two Starships, uh, Exchanging Fluids

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

Starships are nothing but mammals.

Aug 12, 2021

Antibiotic resistance: Alternating between drugs not the answer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

In a new study, researchers have shown that antibiotic cycling — which involves doctors switching between antibiotics to overcome antibiotic resistance — may be an ineffective and unsustainable strategy.


New research sheds light on the potential limitations of ‘antibiotic cycling’ as a way of combatting antibiotic resistance.

Aug 12, 2021

Magnetizable Concrete in Roads Could Charge Electric Cars While You Drive

Posted by in categories: particle physics, sustainability, transportation

Last month, Indiana’s Department of Transport (INDOT) announced a collaboration with Purdue University and German company Magment to test out whether cement with embedded magnetized particles could provide an affordable road-charging solution.

Most wireless vehicle charging technologies rely on a process known as inductive charging, where electricity pumped into a wire coil creates a magnetic field that can induce an electric current in any other nearby wire coil. The charging coils are installed at regular intervals under the road, and cars are fitted with a receiver coil that picks up the charge.

But installing thousands of miles of copper under the road is obviously fairly costly. Magment’s solution is to instead embed standard concrete with recycled ferrite particles, which are also able to generate a magnetic field but are considerably cheaper. The company claims its product can achieve transmission efficiency of up to 95 percent and can be built at “standard road-building installation costs.”

Aug 12, 2021

Hyperion’s Insane New Hydrogen-Powered EV Supercar Has a 1,000-Mile Range—and Can Recharge in 5 Minutes

Posted by in category: space

Developed with ex-NASA engineers and current space technologies, the XP-1 also offers a blistering sub-3-second sprint to 60 mph.

Aug 12, 2021

Forget Flying Cars. The World’s First Flying Motorcycle Is Coming

Posted by in category: space travel

😀


The Speeder’s design team said the sci-fi sky-bike recently passed flight tests. They expect it to be commercially available by 2023.

Aug 12, 2021

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk details orbital refueling plans for Starship Moon lander

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

After a much-anticipated GAO denial of Blue Origin and Dynetics protests over NASA’s decision to solely award SpaceX a contract to turn Starship into a crewed Moon lander, an in-depth (but heavily redacted) document explaining that decision was released on August 10th.

Aside from ruthlessly tearing both companies’ protests limb from limb, the US Government Accountability Office’s decision also offered a surprising amount of insight into SpaceX’s HLS Starship proposal. One of those details in particular seemed to strike an irrational nerve in the online spaceflight community. Specifically, in its decision, GAO happened to reveal that SpaceX had proposed a mission profile that would require as many as 16 launches to fully fuel a Starship Lander and stage the spacecraft in an unusual lunar orbit.

After around 24 hours of chaos, confusion, and misplaced panic, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk finally weighed in on the GAO document’s moderately surprising indication that each Starship Moon landing would require sixteen SpaceX launches.