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This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Amazon that covers “energy-efficient launch system for aerial vehicles,” meaning Amazon could be working on a way to fling your packages into the air—or space.

While at first a weird concept, it makes sense in context. This whip-like approach could shoot satellites into space as part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper low-Earth satellite constellation or Amazon drones that would zoom off to deliver packages.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment on the patent and we’ll update this story once we get a response.

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Emerging technologies and new strategies are opening a revitalized era in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). New discovery capabilities, along with the rapidly-expanding number of known planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, are spurring innovative approaches by both government and private organizations, according to a panel of experts speaking at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle, Washington.

New approaches will not only expand upon but also go beyond the traditional SETI technique of searching for intelligently-generated , first pioneered by Frank Drake’s Project Ozma in 1960. Scientists now are designing state-of-the-art techniques to detect a variety of signatures that can indicate the possibility of extraterrestrial technologies. Such “technosignatures” can range from the chemical composition of a planet’s atmosphere, to laser emissions, to structures orbiting other stars, among others.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the privately-funded SETI Institute announced an agreement to collaborate on new systems to add SETI capabilities to radio telescopes operated by NRAO. The first project will develop a system to piggyback on the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) that will provide data to a state-of-the-art technosignature search system.

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When you think of 3D printing, you probably imagine a structure being created layer by layer, from the bottom up. Now, researchers from Switzerland’s Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) say they have developed a completely new way of creating 3D objects that offer remarkable resolution “in record time.”

As EPFL News reports, the method draws on the principle of tomography — the technique for displaying a representation of a cross section through a solid object, using x-rays or ultrasound. To make an object, a photosensitive resin is illuminated from multiple angles, with the accumulation of light helping to solidify the resin. In other words, the object forms a solid structure within the resin in one go, rather than segment by segment, as is the case with traditional 3D printing.

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Acarbose and Metformin are commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, but now they are also being tested for anti-aging effects, and according to the researchers these two FDA approved drugs have big promise.

In mice testing Acarbose and Metformin were demonstrated to increase health, lifespan, and longevity of the animals. These two drugs are now being tested in monkeys that have a similar physiology, reproductive system, and aging pattern as humans, in research being conducted at Texas Biomedical Research Institute which is supported by a pilot grant provided by the San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center.

“I think this type of research can change what life is like for geriatric people,” said Corinna Ross, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Southwest National Primate Research Center at Texas BioMed.

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Lifespan.io

 A new study published in mSystems, a journal from the American Society for Microbiology, shows that the skin and mouth microbiomes are better predictors of age than the gut microbiome.

A very broad study

The authors used a very large population that is highly impressive among studies of this kind. Previously, a team containing some of the same researchers had done a gut microbiome study of over four thousand people from multiple countries [1]. This time, the researchers took skin, saliva, and fecal samples from roughly 2,000, 2,500, and 4,500 people, respectively; this study was done with nearly 9,000 people in total, and the team stated that it was the most comprehensive microbiome study done to date. The team used a “random forest” machine learning approach to determine what microbiota were and were not predictive of age [2].

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