Gadfin, or “wings” in Aramaic—its flagship aircraft hovers like a UAV and folds out wings to fly like a plane—is hoping to connect Israeli hospitals with drone supply networks and has its sights set on providing essential services in remote Third World locations.
This is great 💯
The Finnish space start-up #ICEYE released its rapidly growing archive of tens of thousands of radar satellite images to the public, the company announced in Helsinki today.
The ICEYE archive includes nearly 18,000 #radar images in various modes taken with ICEYE’s SAR satellite constellation between mid-2019 and now, the company said. The images are released for non-commercial use.
“The ICEYE SAR #satellite #constellation is here for the global community of decision makers, data users, and more, to improve our shared world around us all,” said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and co-founder of ICEYE. “The ICEYE Public Archive opens up a unique view of the world, which we invite you to explore together with us.”
The ICEYE archive is provided as a downloadable file through the ICEYE website, the company said, showing the locations and time of imaging for each thumbnail in the archive. After downloading the file, users can open it with their Geographic Information System (GIS) program of choice, making exploring the world of radar satellite imaging accessible for all.
Astroscale raised an additional funding of $51 million from a group of investors, bringing the total capital raised to $191 million, the Japanese orbital debris removal company said today.
This latest round makes Astroscale the most funded on-orbit services and logistics company globally and most funded space venture in Japan, the Tokyo-based company said.
The investment raised since its founding in 2013 has allowed Astroscale to establish a global footprint across five countries and grow to over 140 team members, Astroscale said. “Each of the five global offices are working in concert to achieve the Astroscale mission of safe and sustainable development of space for future generations.”
Luxembourg, 13 October 2020. – Astroscale raised an additional funding of $51 million from a group of investors, bringing the total capital raised to $191 million, the Japanese orbital debris removal company said today.
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) reportedly paused a clinical trial testing its COVID-19 antibody treatment candidate because of a “potential safety concern.”
The New York Times reported that Eli Lilly’s testing site researchers were notified of the pause by emails sent by government officials (it is a government-sponsored trial) and the company later confirmed it. A spokesperson from the company told The Hill that “Safety is of the utmost importance to Lilly. We are aware that, out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has recommended a pause in enrollment.”
Eli Lilly’s trial was comparing its therapy to a placebo, while all study participants also received the experimental drug remdesivir, which has been used in treating COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. The company’s therapeutic uses monoclonal antibodies in an effort to block the virus from infecting cells.
In 1978, NASA scientist Donald Kessler warned of a potential catastrophic, cascading chain reaction in outer space. Today known as “Kessler Syndrome,” the theory posited that space above Earth could one day become so crowded, so polluted with both active satellites and the detritus of space explorations past, that it could render future space endeavors more difficult, if not impossible.
Last week, the CEO of Rocket Lab, a launch startup, said the company is already beginning to experience the effect of growing congestion in outer space.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said that the sheer number of objects in space right now — a number that is growing quickly thanks in part to SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, Starlink — is making it more difficult to find a clear path for rockets to launch new satellites.
GE Healthcare has received 510k clearance from US FDA for its Ultra Edition package on Vivid cardiovascular ultrasound systems, which come with features based on artificial intelligence (AI) that allows clinicians to get quicker and more exams repeatedly. Although methodical evaluations of heart function are necessary in echocardiography, such evaluations can be time-consuming and difficult to get. Quality acquisition of data and operator skill are essential factors to get precise and thorough exams. Given that patients undergo subsequent monitoring exams, the reproducibility of the exam evaluations is essential to monitoring improvement or progress of the disease.
Flexible spikes
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein enables viral entry into host cells by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is a major target for neutralizing antibodies. About 20 to 40 spikes decorate the surface of virions. Turoňová et al. now show that the spike is flexibly connected to the viral surface by three hinges that are well protected by glycosylation sites. The flexibility imparted by these hinges may explain how multiple spikes act in concert to engage onto the flat surface of a host cell.
Science, this issue p. 203.
By Beata Turoňová, Mateusz Sikora, Christoph Schürmann, Wim J. H. Hagen, Sonja Welsch, Florian E. C. Blanc, Sören von Bülow, Michael Gecht, Katrin Bagola, Cindy Hörner, Ger van Zandbergen, Jonathan Landry, Nayara Trevisan Doimo de Azevedo, Shyamal Mosalaganti, Andre Schwarz, Roberto Covino, Michael D. Mühlebach, Gerhard Hummer, Jacomine Krijnse Locker, Martin Beck.
