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Dec 17, 2018

An Underwater ‘Ghost Fleet’ of Shipwrecks Is On the Move, and Here’s Why

Posted by in categories: futurism, military

WASHINGTON — The history of maritime vessels in the U.S. is preserved in an unlikely place — at the bottom of a river.

Nearly 200 military shipwrecks — dating as far back as the Revolutionary War and including ships from the Civil War and both World War I and World War II — were deliberately sunk over centuries, in an area of the Potomac River called Mallows Bay, in Maryland. Over time, this so-called ghost fleet of wooden ships has come to serve as habitat for local wildlife.

But is this artificial ecosystem stable? Researchers recently investigated how the shipwrecks have changed over time; their findings, presented here on Dec. 13 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), explained how the bodies of the ships weathered river conditions — in some cases for hundreds of years — and how that might affect the future of the ghost fleet ecosystem. [Mayday! 17 Mysterious Shipwrecks You Can See on Google Earth].

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Dec 17, 2018

WOW: Israeli Company Reports New Method Destroys Cancerous Tumors

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

An Israeli company has announced that it has created a technology that will destroy cancerous tumors.

As The Times Of Israel reports, Alpha Tau Medical has a new treatment called Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy (DaRT). To circumvent the problem of how to prevent alpha particles that kill cancer cells from decaying rapidly, Alpha Tau initiated a method of placing the alpha particles inside a needle containing radium-224, a radioactive isotope. Once the needle is inserted into the tumor, it takes the radium four days to vanish, but during that period the radium transmits “daughter atoms” that spit out alpha particles that rupture the DNA of the cancer cells.

CEO Uzi Sofer told The Times of Israel, “This is the first time in the world that you can treat solid tumors,” with alpha radiation. He asserted that the treatment can be given anywhere; there is no need for a hospital setting, concluding, “It is like going to the dentist.” The whole procedure can take between 30 minutes and two hours.

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Dec 17, 2018

Mathematicians Seal Back Door to Breaking RSA Encryption

Posted by in categories: encryption, mathematics, security

Digital security depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers. A new proof shows why one method for breaking digital encryption won’t work.

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Dec 17, 2018

Israeli spacecraft gets final element before 2019 moon launch

Posted by in category: space travel

At 60,000 km (37,000 miles) above Earth, the spacecraft will split off from the Falcon launch vehicle. It will at first orbit Earth in expanding ellipses and, about two months later, cross into the moon’s orbit. It will then slow and carry out a soft landing which should cause no damage to the craft.

“Our landing site is located somewhere between the landing sites of Apollo 15 and Apollo 17,” Anteby said. “It’s a flat area. But still it has small craters and a lot of boulders.”

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Dec 17, 2018

Type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline: Study finds link

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

New research examines cognitive function and brain atrophy in both people with and without type 2 diabetes over the course of approximately 5 years.

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Dec 17, 2018

An ant colony has memories that its individual members don’t have

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Why your brain is like an ant colony: they both get wiser and more stable by using collective memory for learning.

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Dec 17, 2018

Next-generation of GPS satellites are headed to space

Posted by in categories: government, satellites

DENVER, United States — After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure and versatile.

But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors said.

The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s the first of 32 planned GPS III satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is building the new satellites outside Denver.

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Dec 17, 2018

10 mysteries of the universe: Is Earth in a special place?

Posted by in category: space

The BOSS Great Wall is the hugest object ever found – and at one billion light years across it spells big trouble for our cosmic theories.

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Dec 17, 2018

NASA solar spacecraft snaps first image from inside sun’s atmosphere

Posted by in category: space travel

Just look at it…it’s a photo basically from the inside of the sun!

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Dec 17, 2018

Amazon’s Homegrown Chips Threaten Silicon Valley Giant Intel

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI

In recent years, Google has designed specialized chips for artificial intelligence technology. Facebook and Microsoft, which like most internet companies are major buyers of chips from Intel, have indicated that they are working on similar A.I. chips.


The retailer is now making its own server chips. It’s the latest sign that big internet outfits are willing to cut out longtime suppliers.

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