SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission for NASA has its astronauts.
NASA and its international partners have officially assigned the astronauts to fly on SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission in spring of 2021, the U.S. space agency announced today (July 28). The mission will be SpaceX’s second operational Crew Dragon flight to the International Space Station, following the upcoming Crew-1 astrononaut mission, which is slated to launch in September.
Photo: courtesy of china national space administration
Tianwen-1, China’s first Mars probe, has smoothly flown more than 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, leaving Earth’s gravitational field, and entering planned interplanetary orbit, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Tuesday.
According to a press release the CNSA provided to the Global Times on Tuesday, the spacecraft is operating properly. Flight control and data communication is underway in an orderly and clear fashion.
Space tourists won’t be able to take their phones aboard, but the spaceship includes a giant mirror so they can watch themselves float around and 16 cameras in the cabin to catch all the action.
Use this interactive launch guest packet to learn more about the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch and download all the printable resources available for launch.
Coronavirus Success Story: How Rwanda Is Curbing COVID-19 : Goats and Soda They’ve got roughly the same population. But Ohio has over 1,000 new cases a day while Rwanda has had 1,500 cases … since March. Among its strategies: free random testing and robot caregivers.
In this state of science video, we talk about how the company Higher Steaks has created the world’s first lab-grown bacon. This adds to humanity’s arsenal of lab-grown meat and is a step towards sustainability both in terms of saving the planet and in terms of the decreasing pig supply.
Virgin Galactic, a British aerospace and space travel company within the Virgin Group, today revealed the cabin interior of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity in a virtual event streamed live on YouTube.
Superconducting giant atoms are realized in a waveguide by coupling small atoms to the waveguide at multiple discrete locations, producing tunable atom–waveguide coupling and enabling decoherence-free interactions.
If you are interested in brain computer interfaces (BCI), then you need to listen to this very exciting podcast!
I have only been aware of this DARPA NNN (Next-generation Non-surgical Neurotechnology) program since mid-March, and it is my number one topic of interest. I am interested in it because I have a plan for mind uploading to extend my life indefinitely — otherwise known as superlongevity in our group — but I have no interest in allowing anyone to drill holes in my head! DARPA is looking at ways for non-invasive methods of connecting the thoughts in our brains to computers. Over time, this could be a method to capture the thoughts and memories and emotions within my mind and transfer them into a computer substrate. And, to be clear, this mind upload will, in fact, be me.
Naturally, DARPA is not developing this so that I can upload my mind. This is part of their wounded warrior project, where they are trying to rehabilitate soldiers who have had the misfortune to have lost a limb. In addition to the non-invasive neural technology, they are working on haptics to provide a feedback loop for the sense of touch and temperature. They are also working on what they describe as third wave AI to support this technology.
The interview is with Dr Al Emondi, who has had a fascinating career in technology. He is the DARPA program manager in the Biological Technologies department.
I will always admire DARPA for its world-changing technology innovations!
Roche’s Actemra failed to meet its primary and secondary endpoints in a late-stage study involving hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 associated pneumonia. The drug also failed to hit a key secondary endpoint of reduced patient mortality.
Genentech, the South San Francisco-based Roche subsidiary, launched the Phase III COVACTA study of Actemra, a rheumatoid arthritis drug, in March for this indication. The COVACTA study marked the first global study of Actemra (tocilizumab) plus standard-of-care in this setting. Actemra is an IL-6 inhibitor. The IL-6 protein triggers the body’s immune and inflammatory response to fight infections. But, in the case of those patients where their immune system overreacts, such as in some COVID-19 patients, inhibiting IL-6 could keep the body from attacking itself.
This morning, Genentech announced that COVACTA did not meet its primary endpoint of improved clinical status in hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19 associated pneumonia. In addition, the key secondary endpoints, which included the difference in patient mortality at week four, were not met. However, there was a positive trend in time to hospital discharge in patients treated with Actemra, the company said. The median time to discharge for Actemra patients was 20 days, compared to 28 days for placebo patients. Genentech did say, however, that the difference cannot be considered statistically significant as the primary endpoint of the COVACTA study was not met.