Designing a society that can adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence and allow everyone to thrive as these changes unfold is likely to be one of our most significant challenges in the coming years and decades. It will require an emphasis on retraining and education for those workers who can realistically undertake the necessary transition, as well as an improved safety net – and perhaps an entirely new social contract – for those who will inevitably be left behind.
From fast food to farming, Covid-19 has accelerated the rise of the worker robots. This in turn will put more jobs at risk and makes the need to reframe society ever more urgent.
In the spring, a team of University of Virginia and Virginia Tech scientists shared some exciting news: The vaccine they are developing showed promising results in early animal trials not only for COVID-19, but for other coronaviruses.
If that trend continues through further testing, this vaccine could help contain both current and future variants of the COVID-19 virus — including the Delta variant currently plaguing the United States, and other variants that might crop up in the coming months and years. It could even protect against other coronaviruses, including viruses that cause the common cold. And, it could cost as little as $1 a dose.
What if we had a vaccine that would work for any COVID-19 variants that might pop up – and even for some coronaviruses that cause the common cold? UVA and Virginia Tech scientists are working on it.
SpaceX is building the most powerful spacecraft ever with the Starship. When completed, clients are waiting to put it to different uses as it is a very versatile spacecraft and this is because SpaceX is making it to be 100 percent reusable. However, for SpaceX, the Starship is its vehicle to explore the unknown parts of the solar system. How is SpaceX making sure the Starship is fit for the long journeys the spacecraft is destined for? Join us as we examine SpaceX’s insane plan to travel all over the Solar system! When the Starship is ready, SpaceX would have the most powerful spacecraft in its hands. When the upper stage, the Ship, and the lower stage, the Super Heavy, are stacked together, the Starship will stand an impressive 120 meters tall, with a diameter of nine meters and total payload to lower earth orbit of over 100 tons. The booster is the Super Heavy, a colossal steel structure that is 70 meters tall. It will lift a gross mass of over 3 million kg by producing a thrust of 72 MN. The booster relies on 32 Raptor engines that SpaceX is designing in-house. The rocket engines will use propellants made of sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, of which the booster can store 3,400 tons. SpaceX designed reusability into the Super Heavy so it can be used for multiple mission launches. The booster was to return to earth and land on its six legs but to reduce costs and turn around time, SpaceX ditched the legs, instead, coming up with the radical idea of catching the Super Heavy with a pair of arms, known as the Mechazilla, on the launch tower. It will be aided on its return journey by a system of four grid fins. The upper stage or the Ship is the part of the Starship that will go to and return from space. It is a 50 meters tall spacecraft that can carry both cargo and passengers to earth’s orbit and beyond. It will rely on six Raptor engines both for propulsion and landing since it is also completely reusable. The Ship also uses methane and oxygen propellants, of which it can store 1,200 tons, but it has an ingenious proposed method of getting more fuel when out there in space, as we shall see later. While the Ship will also be caught by the Mechazilla, on its return to earth, SpaceX is retaining the legs so that it can land on other planets or the moon where there is no Mechazilla. Out of the 50-meter height of the Ship, 18 meters of it will be available to configure either for cargo or passenger transport, making it the largest usable payload volume of any current or in-development launcher. If you ever wonder what I like to do when not making these videos, I like taking road trips. I also look forward to taking flights to see my folks and reconnect with my roots. Sometimes, I hang out with friends over a few chilled beers. I felt I was just having fun, until a pal hooked me up to Wren, which helped me to see how much my fun activities were adding carbon emissions to the air. It was easy to calculate my carbon footprint on Wren website because I just answered some questions about the stuff I do and it calculated how much I am costing the environment in dollars! However, Wren gave me a chance to offset my environmental debit by donating the amount to projects that plant trees and protect rainforests around the world! You can make the contribution a monthly thing and you will get updates from Wren on the projects you support. You can sign up today and start learning and compensating. If you sign up with my referral link in the video description, you will be supporting 5 extra acres of rainforest! So hurry and let’s save our planet, our only home! The Starship is not a product that will struggle for business as many people are waiting on it. One of its most prominent suitors is NASA, which is confident enough to put 2.9 billion dollars into its development.
Stimulating STEM Innovation & Securing U.S. High-Tech Economy — Kimberly A. Reed, Fmr President and Chairman Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Kimberly A. Reed just finished up a 2-year term as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM — https://www.exim.gov). She was the first woman to lead EXIM in the agency’s 87-year history, was the first recipient of EXIM’s highest honor, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Award, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 on a strong bi-partisan basis.
EXIM provides loans, guarantees, and export credit insurance for the export of U.S. goods and services from enterprises ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses in a multitude of sectors including infrastructure, power, agriculture, transportation/aviation, health care, commodities, industrial, and technology.
Ms. Reed was recognized for successfully navigating Congress to re-open EXIM after four years of dormancy and transforming the mission and impact of the 515-person independent federal agency.
Ms. Reed also spearheaded EXIM’s historic, longest-ever Congressional re-authorization of seven years and a significant new mandate, the Program on China and Transformational Exports, which focuses on industries including biomedical sciences, biotechnology, wireless communication (5G), renewable energy, financial technologies, artificial intelligence, and the space industry.
#Israel is on the verge of finalizing a #COVID19 vaccine whose creators believe could offer better protection against variants than its international counterparts such as #Pfizer. In an interview with ‘The Jerusalem Post’, the father of Israel’s BriLife coronavirus vaccine, Prof. Shmuel Shapira, predicted that when the country’s #vaccine is ready, “it will be better” than what its citizens have today.
HEALTH AFFAIRS: The father of the BriLife initiative explains Israel’s strategic imperative to have its own vaccine.
Boston-based company Regent has taken US$465 million in pre-orders for its super-fast electric “Seaglider.” Using the wing-in-ground effect, this 180-mph (290-km/h) beast promises twice the range of an electric aircraft, and a revolution in coastal transport.
“The speed, comfort, and navigation systems of an aircraft with the convenience, maneuverability, and affordability of a boat,” reads the Regent press release, marking approximately the first time boats have ever been called affordable or maneuverable.
So, what is this thing? Well, it’s the latest incarnation of a ground-effect vehicle, or GEV – with a couple of twists. GEVs are aircraft designed to fly so low (within one wingspan of the water’s surface) that they ride on an air pressure cushion between the wing and the surface, giving them extra lift and radically boosting their efficiency. They can’t – or at least, don’t – fly outside the ground effect, enabling them to be certified and registered as boats in certain areas.
Indeed, as Gizmodo’s report highlights, many experts believe that these researchers have not actually found evidence of dinosaur DNA. They told the news outlet, for example, that—even under the best circumstances—DNA couldn’t last more than three million years. Let alone more than 100 million. And that the chemicals may have been staining inorganic matter that only looks cellular in nature.
As of now, the most ancient DNA that scientists have been able to sequence was that of a million-year-old woolly mammoth. And the youngest dinosaurs are at least 65 million years old. But if future experiments do confirm this evidence as real, then that really changes things. At least in our fantasies, where reanimated dinosaurs and Ian Malcolms abound.
For a long time fixed wing VTOL drones were tricky to work with, but with the availability of open source flight control and autopilot software this has changed. To make experimentation even easier, [Stephen Carlson] and other researchers from the RoboWork Lab at the University of Nevada created the MiniHawk, a 3D printed VTOL aircraft for use a test bed for various research projects.
Some of these project include creating a longer wingspan aircraft by combining multiple MiniHawks in mid-flight with magnetic wing-tip mounts, or “migratory behaviors”. The latter is a rather interesting idea, which involves letting the craft land in any suitable location, and recharging using wing mounted solar panels before continuing with the next leg of the mission. With this technique, the MiniHawk could operate on mission almost indefinitely without human intervention. This is a departure from some other solar planes we’ve seen, which attempt to recharge while flying, or even ditch batteries completely, which limits operation to sunny weather conditions.
The design is open source, with all the relevant information and files available on GitHub. This looks like a fun craft even if you don’t plan on doing research with it, and [Stephen] also created an FPV specific canopy cover.
