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Jun 6, 2019

First-ever spider glue genes sequenced, paving way to next biomaterials breakthrough

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

UMBC postdoctoral fellow Sarah Stellwagen and co-author Rebecca Renberg at the Army Research Lab have published the first-ever complete sequences of two genes that allow spiders to produce glue—a sticky, modified version of spider silk that keeps a spider’s prey stuck in its web. The findings appeared in Genes, Genomes, Genetics.

The innovative method they employed could pave the way for others to sequence more silk and glue , which are challenging to sequence because of their length and repetitive structure. Better understanding of these genes could move scientists closer to the next big advance in biomaterials.

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Jun 6, 2019

Metal foam stops .50 caliber rounds as well as steel – at less than half the weight

Posted by in categories: materials, military

Researchers have demonstrated that vehicle armor using composite metal foam (CMF) can stop ball and armor-piercing .50 caliber rounds as well as conventional steel armor, even though it weighs less than half as much. The finding means that vehicle designers will be able to develop lighter military vehicles without sacrificing safety, or can improve protection without making vehicles heavier.

CMF is a foam that consists of hollow, metallic spheres—made of materials such as or titanium—embedded in a metallic matrix made of steel, titanium, aluminum or other metallic alloys. In this study, the researchers used steel-steel CMF, meaning that both the spheres and the matrix were made of steel.

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Jun 6, 2019

Scientists identify gene that helps people live to a ripe old age

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Researchers at Amsterdam’s UMC have identified a rare gene that halves people’s chances of developing dementia in old age.

People with the genetic variant, which occurs in around 1% of the population, are also more likely to live longer. The researchers studied 16 different sample populations in Europe and North America, including a number of people over the age of 100, for the study published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

The discovery could potentially be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative illnesses such as frontotemporal and Lewy body dementia.

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Jun 6, 2019

Boston Dynamics prepares to launch its first commercial robot: Spot

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Spot the robot will go on sale later this year.

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Jun 6, 2019

Swarm of ladybugs so large it registers on National Weather Service radar in California

Posted by in category: futurism

A swarm of ladybugs moving through San Diego County was so large it registered on the National Weather Service’s (NWS) weather radar Tuesday night, CBS Los Angeles reports. The NWS office in San Diego tweeted out a video of the radar that looked to be showing precipitation but was in fact what they called a ladybug “bloom.”

“The large echo showing up on SoCal radar this evening is not precipitation, but actually a cloud of ladybugs termed a ‘bloom,’” the tweet read.

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Jun 6, 2019

Carnegie Mellon Robot, Art Project To Land on Moon in 2021

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

CMU becomes space-faring university with payloads aboard Astrobotic lander.

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Jun 6, 2019

Massive ladybug swarm over California shows up on radar

Posted by in category: futurism

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A huge blob that appeared on the National Weather Service’s radar wasn’t a rain cloud, but a massive swarm of ladybugs over Southern California.

Meteorologist Joe Dandrea says the array of bugs appeared to be about 80 miles (129 kilometers) wide as it flew over San Diego Tuesday.

But Dandrea tells the Los Angeles Times that the ladybugs are actually spread throughout the sky, flying at between 5,000 and 9,000 feet (1,525 and 2,745 meters), with the most concentrated group about 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide.

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Jun 6, 2019

Most-detailed-ever simulations of black hole solve longstanding mystery

Posted by in category: cosmology

An international team has constructed the most detailed, highest resolution simulation of a black hole to date. The simulation proves theoretical predictions about the nature of accretion disks—the matter that orbits and eventually falls into a black hole—that have never before been seen.

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Jun 6, 2019

Official LHC Results Have Finally Confirmed The Structure of Mysterious Pentaquarks

Posted by in category: particle physics

New results from the Large Hadron Collider have confirmed it. The mysterious five-quark subatomic particle — the pentaquark, only discovered a few years ago — really is composed of two sets of quarks.

One is a meson, a type of particle that contains a quark and antiquark pair; the other is a three-quark baryon: the subatomic particle that makes up most of the normal matter in the Universe, including protons and electrons.

This confirms that quarks aren’t just chucked together like a loose bag of marbles, but instead are structured more similarly to the way protons and neutrons are bound in an atomic nucleus — what the researchers call a ‘molecular’ state.

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Jun 6, 2019

Jeff Bezos’ Space Firm Debuts Video of Cushy Space Tourist Capsule

Posted by in category: space travel

Those padded walls will help in low gravity, no doubt, and in the crew capsule, all six people get a window seat. “You’ll listen to the countdown and then feel the engine ignite and rumble under you as you climb through the atmosphere,” reads a description from Blue Origin. The capsule is 530 cubic feet.

The first crewed Blue Origin flight will simply reach the edge of space — a landmark called the Kármán Line — and then return. This the company’s reusable suborbital flight system, will launch the crew capsule to its destination before it descends to Earth, landing softly in the Texas dirt, thanks to parachutes. Blue Origin is also working on a heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to reach Earth orbit, called New Glenn, but that’s unlikely to fly before 2020.

The video — seen above — was shot by an Amazon representative and sent to Inverse. There’s no denying, it looks remarkably comfortable.

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