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Sep 22, 2020

Physicists Just Discovered a Brand New Type of Superconductor

Posted by in categories: energy, physics

Scientists have long theorised that there are other types of superconductor out there waiting to be discovered, and it turns out they were right: new research has identified a g-wave superconductor for the first time, a major development in this area of physics.

Superconductors are materials that offer no electrical resistance, so electricity can pass through them with close to 100 percent efficiency.

That sounds great when you think about the potential of super-efficient power grids that don’t lose energy to heat. But there’s a catch. Materials that are able to act in this way usually need to be cooled to ultra-low temperatures before the actual superconductivity starts happening.

Sep 22, 2020

NASA, Space Force partnership aims to make space exploration safe

Posted by in categories: military, space

Some experts worry that deepening civil-military ties could pose problems.

Sep 22, 2020

RV-size asteroid to get closer to Earth than the moon

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

This asteroid isn’t socially distancing with Earth very well.

Sep 22, 2020

Microsoft exclusively licenses OpenAI’s groundbreaking GPT-3 text generation model

Posted by in categories: ethics, robotics/AI

OpenAI will still let researchers use the model.


Microsoft has expanded its ongoing partnership with San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research company OpenAI with a new exclusive license on the AI firm’s groundbreaking GPT-3 language model, an auto-generating text program that’s emerged as the most sophisticated of its kind in the industry.

The two companies are already entwined through OpenAI’s ongoing Azure cloud computing contract, with Azure being the platform on which OpenAI accesses the vast computing resources it needs to train many of its models, and a major $1 billion investment Microsoft made last year to become OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider. Now, Microsoft is issuing yet another signal of high confidence in OpenAI’s research by acquiring the rights to GPT-3.

Continue reading “Microsoft exclusively licenses OpenAI’s groundbreaking GPT-3 text generation model” »

Sep 22, 2020

Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, information science

While critically ill patients experience a life-threatening illness, they commonly contract ventilator-associated pneumonia. This nosocomial infection increases morbidity and likely mortality as well as the cost of health care. This article reviews the literature with regard to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. It provides conclusions that can be implemented in practice as well as an algorithm for the bedside clinician and also focuses on the controversies with regard to diagnostic tools and approaches, treatment plans, and prevention strategies.

Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are at risk for dying not only from their critical illness but also from secondary processes such as nosocomial infection. Pneumonia is the second most common nosocomial infection in critically ill patients, affecting 27% of all critically ill patients (170). Eighty-six percent of nosocomial pneumonias are associated with mechanical ventilation and are termed ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Between 250,000 and 300,000 cases per year occur in the United States alone, which is an incidence rate of 5 to 10 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions (134, 170). The mortality attributable to VAP has been reported to range between 0 and 50% (10, 41, 43, 96, 161).

Sep 22, 2020

Genius New Device Can Kill 99.9% of an Airborne Virus in The Blink of an Eye

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A new type of air filter has the potential to work faster, cheaper and better than any other, killing virtually all airborne bacteria and viruses in a fraction of a second.

It’s a germaphobes dream, and a bullish weapon against the spread of infectious diseases, some of which, like measles, can remain suspended in the air for hours on end.

Continue reading “Genius New Device Can Kill 99.9% of an Airborne Virus in The Blink of an Eye” »

Sep 22, 2020

Blue Origin targets this Thursday for New Shepard reusable rocket launch with NASA landing system test

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

Blue Origin just announced the timing of its next rocket launch — and it’s surprisingly soon, in just two days, on Thursday, September 24. The launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle will be its thirteenth overall for that category of launch craft, and the seventh in a row for this particular rocket. The payload will include an even dozen commercial cargo items, including a Deorbit, Descent and Landing Sensor Demonstration done in partnership with NASA — basically a highly precise automated landing system that will help NASA land on the moon and eventually Mars.

That payload is unique not just because of the technology involved in the landing system, but also because it’ll actually be mounted to the exterior of the New Shephard’s booster stage, rather than in the capsule that rides atop it. This is the first time that Blue Origin has carried a payload this way, and the company expects it could pave the way for similar future missions, enabling sensing at high altitudes, and experiments made possible through use of equipment exposed to the external environment.

NASA to test precision automated landing system designed for the moon and Mars on upcoming Blue Origin mission

Sep 22, 2020

Unmanned aircraft transport organs in Las Vegas

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI

Las Vegas hosted two successful test flights using unmanned aircraft to carry human organs and tissue last week. On Sept. 17th, MissionGo, a provider of unmanned aviation solutions and Nevada Donor Network, conducted two unmanned flights — one of which was the longest organ delivery flight in Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) history. The first flight involved transport of research corneas fromSouthern Hills Hospital and Medical Center to Dignity Health — St. Rose Dominican, San Martín Campus.

Sep 22, 2020

Jeff Bezos Announces The First Bezos Academy, A Free Preschool For Students From Low-Income Families

Posted by in category: education

Two years after Bezos said he would create a network of preschools, the first of those schools, called Bezos Academy, will open south of Seattle in October.

Sep 22, 2020

NASA publishes Moon landing plan for 2024

Posted by in category: space

Following a series of critical contract awards and hardware milestones, NASA has shared an update on its Artemis program, including the latest Phase 1 plans to land the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon in 2024.