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Oct 3, 2019

Falling Fireballs Crashed in Chile Last Week. They Weren’t Meteorites, Experts Say

Posted by in category: futurism

O.o.


Chilean officials are investigating a curious collection of burning objects that fell onto parts of the country last week.

Oct 3, 2019

Mysterious fireball that crashed and burned wasn’t a meteor

Posted by in category: futurism

Something bright came in hot enough to spark several fires in Chile recently, and it looks like it wasn’t natural.

Oct 3, 2019

What if the world’s tyrants and dictators took life extension treatments and prolonged their regimes indefinitely?

Posted by in category: life extension

Should we stop this whole life extension thing while we still can in order to prevent this potential problem? Yeah… no. Here’s why.

Oct 3, 2019

Would a robot pet enhance your life?

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

We all know that dogs are a man’s best friend, but has the world really come to this?

On a particularly blustery day in New York City, I found myself (as one with the income bracket of a writer sporadically does) on the Upper East Side, amidst tribes of cooler-than-thou high school students, dedicated dog walkers and women wearing hats that looked like a Shar-Pei had potentially suffered in the making of it.

Nonetheless, I braved the chilly air and found solace in the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the design institution that is part of the Smithsonian. Upon entering, visitors are greeted with a magic wand-looking pen tool, that serves as an interactive notekeeper for items you are interested in. “How innovative.” Perfect for a museum about innovation, am I right? With my magic wand in hand, I entered the Narnia of objects, with the first stop being an exhibition titled “Access and Ability.” Featuring “artifacts” designed for people with disabilities, I was surprised to find among the various innovations, a very cute-looking puppy that I instinctively wanted to pet. But I did not, for fear of being arrested, a la Ocean’s 12.

Oct 3, 2019

Major molten salt nuclear fuel test completed

Posted by in categories: engineering, nuclear energy

The Netherlands’ Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) has completed a major milestone irradiation test of molten nuclear fuel salts in its High Flux Reactor at Petten 37 mi (60 km) north of Amsterdam. The first test of its kind since the ones carried out at Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the 1960s, its purpose is to learn more about the safe operation of a future Molten Salt Reactor (MSR).

First developed in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s, MSRs differ from conventional light-water nuclear reactors in a number of significant ways that make them potentially a safer and more efficient alternative. This is because, though a light-water reactor and an MSR work on the same principle of nuclear fission, they have a fundamentally different engineering design.

Oct 3, 2019

Glimpse: Man’s Best Friend, Forever? We May Love Robot Dogs As Much As the Real Thing

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

They may not have fur, but we love them anyway.

Oct 3, 2019

Sugar-coated RNAs could ‘alter the face of biochemistry as we know it’—if they’re real

Posted by in category: chemistry

Never-before-seen chemical modifications set biochemists abuzz.

Oct 3, 2019

Room for improvement in drug dosage timing in hospitals

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Too many hospitals provide medications according to the practicalities of their staffing schedules rather than the ideal dosing times for their patients, according to a new study led by experts at Cincinnati Children’s.

The study, published Oct. 1, 2019, in PNAS, was led by David Smith, MD, Ph.D., Divisions of Pediatric Otolaryngology and Pulmonary Medicine; Marc Ruben, Ph.D.; and John Hogenesch, Ph.D., Co-Director, Center for Circadian Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s.

The study examined the daily distribution of approximately 500,000 doses of 12 drugs in 1,486 inpatients at a major U.S. children’s hospital.

Oct 3, 2019

Beyond quantum supremacy: the hunt for useful quantum computers

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Some researchers have raised the possibility that, if quantum computers fail to deliver anything of use soon, a quantum winter will descend: enthusiasm will wane and funding will dry up before researchers get anywhere close to building full-scale machines. “Quantum winter is a real concern,” Preskill says. But he remains upbeat, because the slow progress has forced researchers to adjust their focus and see whether the devices they already have might be able to do something interesting in the near future.


Researchers search for ways to put today’s small noisy quantum systems to work. The hunt for useful quantum computers.

Oct 3, 2019

What created this ‘ghost particle’ from space found on Earth?

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

Last summer, scientists found a “ghost particle” in Antarctica. Now we know more about where it came from: a mysterious galaxy 3.8 billion light-years away.