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Jun 29, 2021

The lonely universe: Is life on Earth just a lucky fluke?

Posted by in category: alien life

Are there any individuals out there who, like myself, believe that our wonderful planet probably hosts the only lifeforms to be found anywhere? Should this ideed be the case, it places a colossal responsibility upon humankind. A responsibility, I would maintain, to not only share the gift of Earth-life with the silent, barren worlds which surround us but also to do our utmost to safeguard the splendid variety of life, in all of its myriad forms which inhabit our fecund and bountiful planet. If there are like minded folk out there please respond-I would like to link up with the view to working collaboratively. As this will be an extremely lengthy endeavour, probably lasting for many generations, my own area of interest is in popularising the subject among the young.


Life beyond might not exist — or we just don’t know how to find it.

Jun 29, 2021

A New Type of Cataclysmic Event in the Cosmos: Astrophysicists Detect First Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Mix pair is “elusive missing piece of the family picture of compact object mergers.”

A long time ago, in two galaxies about 900 million light-years away, two black holes each gobbled up their neutron star companions, triggering gravitational waves that finally hit Earth in January 2020.

Discovered by an international team of astrophysicists including Northwestern University researchers, two events — detected just 10 days apart — mark the first-ever detection of a black hole merging with a neutron star. The findings will enable researchers to draw the first conclusions about the origins of these rare binary systems and how often they merge.

Jun 29, 2021

Europe considering concepts for human spaceflight

Posted by in category: space travel

A bumper crop of applications for the ESA’s astronaut corps is providing a boost to proposals for Europe to develop its own human spaceflight capability.


WASHINGTON — A bumper crop of applications for the European Space Agency’s astronaut corps is providing a boost to proposals for Europe to develop its own human spaceflight capability.

ESA announced June 23 that it received 22589 applications in a solicitation that ended June 18. That’s far more than the 8413 applications it received in the previous astronaut selection round in 2018.

Continue reading “Europe considering concepts for human spaceflight” »

Jun 29, 2021

Wow! NASA photographer spots space station crossing the sun during spacewalk (video)

Posted by in categories: energy, space

The mosaic image is a composition of seven subsequent frames taken from Nellysford, Virginia, as the space station traversed the face of the sun at the speed of roughly 5 miles per second, which is about 18000 mph (29000 kph), according to a NASA photo description.

The six-hour and 45-minute spacewalk was the third for Pesquet and Kimbrough in less than two weeks as they completed work on augmenting the space station’s power systems. The iROSA panel deployed on Friday was the second of six new panels to be installed at the station.

Friday’s extravehicular activity (EVA) positioned the second iROSA opposite the first on the far left, or port side of the space station’s backbone truss. Now both the 2B and 4B power channels on the port 6 (P6) truss have the new arrays deployed.

Jun 29, 2021

Billionaire bitcoin investor Tim Draper: 1 question he always asks before investing—and why he sometimes gets ‘3 hours of sleep’

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, finance, space travel

“I’m at [email protected],” he tells CNBC Make It. He gives it out to everyone because he likes helping people and it keeps him on top of his game.

“I end up learning things that I never imagined I’d want to know,” Draper says.

Draper is a legend in the world of venture capital. Since the mid-1980s, he has built a fortune making early investments in companies like Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla and SpaceX.

Jun 29, 2021

Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

Posted by in category: cosmology

Separate collisions of a neutron star and a black hole are detected in a short space of time.

Jun 29, 2021

Sequencing 101: Whole Genome Sequencing for Rare Diseases

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Big fan of long-read sequencing. It helped diagnose my rare disease when conventional sequencing failed.

What’s the Difference between Short-Read Sequencing and Long-Read Sequencing? Like their names suggest, short-read sequencing looks at DNA in short snippets (100−350 base pairs) while long-read sequencing measures long fragments of DNA (tens of thousands of base pairs). Why does that matter? Well, when trying to characterize a human genome that has two copies (one maternal and one paternal), each 3.2 billion base pairs in length — having longer snippets of DNA means you: Need fewer snippets to make up the length of the whole genome and have no gaps where the sequence is unknown Can more easily map how one region of the genome is connected to another region Have the ability to phase or determine which copy of a gene, maternal or paternal, a mutation occurs in.


PacBio long-read sequencing provides the most comprehensive view of genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes.

Jun 29, 2021

Shock find brings extinct mouse back from the dead

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

An Australian mammal thought to have been wiped out over 150 years ago can now be crossed off our list of extinct animals, following a new study.

Researchers compared DNA samples fromeight extinct Australian rodents, as well as 42 of their living relatives, to look at the decline of native species since the arrival of Europeans in Australia.

The study showed the extinctGould’s was indistinguishable from the Shark Bay mouse, still found on several small islands off the coast of Western Australia.

Jun 29, 2021

Mushroom Growing Out of 50-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Ant Reveals New Species of Fungal Parasite

Posted by in category: futurism

Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2021.06.002 Source: https://scitechdaily.com/mushroom-growing-out-of-50-million-…-parasite/.

Jun 29, 2021

6 Tips to Reduce Carcinogenic Barbecue Health Risks

Posted by in category: life extension

Short of ceasing your grilling activity, there’s no way to completely avoid AGEs, PAH, and HCA when enjoying a summer barbecue. That said, there’s plenty you can do to reduce your carcinogen risk while enjoying smokey flavors over the summer.


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Hickory and oak wood and charcoal are the scents of summer. I associate that campfire smell with fireworks, screaming with neighborhood kids while jumping through a lawn sprinkler, and Dad at the grill with a Blue Moon in hand. Barbeque is a wonderful pastime. So help me, nothing will pry it out of my red-blooded American hands, especially not on the Fourth of July.

Continue reading “6 Tips to Reduce Carcinogenic Barbecue Health Risks” »