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Jun 25, 2021

Sir Richard Branson gains licence for commercial spaceflights

Posted by in category: space travel

The US Federal Aviation Administration says Sir Richard’s rocket plane can carry paying customers.

Jun 25, 2021

Giant ghostly ‘hand’ stretches through space in new X-ray views

Posted by in category: space

An enormous ghostly hand stretches through the depths of space, its wispy fingers pressing against a glowing cloud.

It sounds like science fiction, but it’s quite real, as imagery gathered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows.

Jun 25, 2021

AI Detects Incredible Stream of Stars That Extends Thousands of Light-Years Across the Milky Way

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

It’s hard to see more than a handful of stars from Princeton University, because the lights from New York City, Princeton, and Philadelphia prevent our sky from ever getting pitch black, but stargazers who get into more rural areas can see hundreds of naked-eye stars — and a few smudgy objects, too.

The biggest smudge is the Milky Way itself, the billions of stars that make up our spiral galaxy, which we see edge-on. The smaller smudges don’t mean that you need glasses, but that you’re seeing tightly packed groups of stars. One of the best-known of these “clouds” or “clusters” — groups of stars that travel together — is the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters. Clusters are stellar nurseries where thousands of stars are born from clouds of gas and dust and then disperse across the Milky Way.

Continue reading “AI Detects Incredible Stream of Stars That Extends Thousands of Light-Years Across the Milky Way” »

Jun 25, 2021

An autonomous drone for search and rescue in forests using optical sectioning algorithm

Posted by in categories: drones, information science, robotics/AI

A team of researchers working at Johannes Kepler University has developed an autonomous drone with a new type of technology to improve search-and-rescue efforts. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes their drone modifications. Andreas Birk with Jacobs University Bremen has published a Focus piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team in Austria.

Finding people lost (or hiding) in the forest is difficult because of the tree cover. People in planes and helicopters have difficulty seeing through the canopy to the ground below, where people might be walking or even laying down. The same problem exists for thermal applications—heat sensors cannot pick up readings adequately through the canopy. Efforts have been made to add drones to search-and–, but they suffer from the same problems because they are remotely controlled by pilots using them to search the ground below. In this new effort, the researchers have added new technology that both helps to see through the tree canopy and to highlight people that might be under it.

Continue reading “An autonomous drone for search and rescue in forests using optical sectioning algorithm” »

Jun 25, 2021

Baltimore spy plane program was invasion of citizens’ privacy, court rules

Posted by in categories: government, law enforcement, surveillance, transportation

The AIR program was run by a company called Persistent Surveillance Systems with funding from two Texas billionaires. The city police department admitted to using planes to surveil Baltimore residents in 2016 but approved a six-month pilot program in 2020, which was active until October 31st.


The city of Baltimore’s spy plane program was unconstitutional, violating the Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search, and law enforcement in the city cannot use any of the data it gathered, a court ruled Thursday. The Aerial Investigation Research (or AIR) program, which used airplanes and high-resolution cameras to record what was happening in a 32-square-mile part of the city, was canceled by the city in February.

Local Black activist groups, with support from the ACLU, sued to prevent Baltimore law enforcement from using any of the data it had collected in the time the program was up and running. The city tried to argue the case was moot since the program had been canceled. That didn’t sit well with civil liberties activists. “Government agencies have a history of secretly using similar technology for other purposes — including to surveil Black Lives Matter protests in Baltimore in recent years,” the ACLU said in a statement Thursday.

Continue reading “Baltimore spy plane program was invasion of citizens’ privacy, court rules” »

Jun 25, 2021

Hyundai Wants to Create an Air Traffic Control System for Drones

Posted by in category: drones

Thousands of drones flying through the air need to be managed so it doesn’t end in disaster.

Jun 25, 2021

Study suggests scientists may need to rethink which genes control aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

“At first, we had a hard time believing the results. Many of these genes are classical hallmarks of aging and yet our results suggested that their activity is more a function of the presence of bacteria rather than the aging process,” said Dr. Shukla.

Notably, this included genes that control stress and immunity. The researchers tested the impact that the antibiotics had on these genes by starving some flies or infecting others with harmful bacteria and found no clear trend. At some ages, the antibiotics helped flies survive starvation or infection longer than normal whereas at other ages the drugs either had no effect or reduced the chances of survival.


NIH scientists discover that bacteria may drive activity of many hallmark aging genes in flies.

Continue reading “Study suggests scientists may need to rethink which genes control aging” »

Jun 25, 2021

Blood test to detect 50 types of cancer ‘accurate enough to be rolled out’

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A simple blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer before any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease is accurate enough to be rolled out as a multi-cancer screening test, according to scientists.… See More.


The test is based on a type of DNA that is shed by tumours into the bloodstream.

Jun 25, 2021

No lab required: New technology can diagnose infections in minutes

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, chemistry

I am waiting for tricorders.


The idea of visiting the doctor’s office with symptoms of an illness and leaving with a scientifically confirmed diagnosis is much closer to reality because of new technology developed by researchers at McMaster University.

Engineering, biochemistry and medical researchers from across campus have combined their skills to create a hand-held rapid test for bacterial infections that can produce accurate, reliable results in less than an hour, eliminating the need to send samples to a lab.

Continue reading “No lab required: New technology can diagnose infections in minutes” »

Jun 25, 2021

This is the hardware you need to run Windows 11

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

You’ll need a 64-bit CPU to test Microsoft’s latest OS.


To install Windows 11, you will need a 64-bit CPU, 4GB of RAM, and an internet connection.