Industry and military scientists are moving forward in the quest to develop solid-state lasers for use as weapons by warfighters of the future
By John McHale
Even the most casual observer of military technology is aware of the U.S. Air Force’s big-ticket program-the Airborne Laser, which eats up most of the Department of Defense funding on laser technology and is nearing completion.
A deadly fungus is spreading through banana plantations, and the cloned bananas we eat are defenseless. In labs around the world, scientists are trying to find ways to genetically alter the fruit to make it resistant.
[Images: Rawpixel]
The world’s biggest astrophotography competition includes some jaw-dropping images of the Moon, Sun, distant galaxies and much more.
Einstein dubbed the idea of quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance.” Now for the first time ever, scientists have taken a picture of it.
» Subscribe to Seeker!http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker
» Watch more Elements! http://bit.ly/ElementsPlaylist
Today we understand quantum entanglement as when a pair of particles that cross paths and interact with each other can become connected and stay that way, even when the particles are spaced very far apart.
Once particles are intertwined in this way, changes to one particle can immediately shape the other particle, an odd scientific phenomenon that has been proven through experiments with atoms and molecules, and more recently through entangled objects of even larger scales.
Quantum entanglement is a key part of quantum mechanics, which forms the basis for fields such as quantum computing and cryptography, so there is considerable interest in advancing our understanding of it.
The current menu of space-friendly foods uses processing and water-reduction strategies to make these meals shelf stable. For example, a shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, and strawberries can be freeze dried; beef stew, candied yams, and brown rice can be thermostabilized; beef steak and turkey can be irradiated; and brownies, bread products, and beverage powders can be brought up in a low-moisture or dried form.
As tasty as this feast sounds, this packaged food system does not meet the five-year shelf life required for a Mars mission, nor will it feed generations there in the years to come. How will space food therefore have to change if we are ever to colonize other planets?
Using existing space technologies, it will take up to 32 months to travel to Mars. How can you feed a crew for that three-year trip?
The universe is looking younger every day, it seems.
New calculations suggest the universe could be a couple billion years younger than scientists now estimate, and even younger than suggested by two other calculations published this year that trimmed hundreds of millions of years from the age of the cosmos.
The huge swings in scientists’ estimates—even this new calculation could be off by billions of years—reflect different approaches to the tricky problem of figuring the universe’s real age.
Lava flow records and sedimentary and Antarctic ice core data show evidence of planetary magnetic field activity 20,000 years before the beginning of the last pole reversal.
Earth’s magnetic field—which creates our planet’s north and south pole—is far from fixed. In fact, the field is quite active; sometimes it weakens, and even reverses, causing Earth’s polarity to switch. These periods of instability don’t happen very often, though—only about every 100,000 to million years. That’s part of why this phenomenon has largely remained a mystery for scientists. However, a recent study may help researchers better understand how long and how complicated Earth’s magnetic field reversals really are.
Scientists are reporting the first use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR to try to cure a patient’s HIV infection by providing blood cells that were altered to resist the AIDS virus.
The gene-editing tool has long been used in research labs and a Chinese scientist was scorned last year when he revealed he used it on embryos that led to the birth of twin girls. Editing embryos is considered too risky, partly because the DNA changes can pass to future generations.
Wednesday’s report in the New England Journal of Medicine, by different Chinese researchers, is the first published account of using CRISPR to treat a disease in an adult, where the DNA changes are confined to that person.
A fifty-year-old hypothesis predicting the existence of bodies dubbed Generic Objects of Dark Energy (GEODEs) is getting a second look in light of a proposed correction to assumptions we use to model the way our Universe expands.
If this new version of a classic cosmological model is correct, some black holes could hide cores of pure dark energy, pushing our Universe apart at the seams.
University of Hawai’i astrophysicist Kevin Croker and mathematician Joel Weiner teamed up to challenge the broadly accepted notion that when it comes to the Universe’s growing waistline, its contents are largely irrelevant.
