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Feb 18, 2019

China to test magnetized plasma artillery

Posted by in categories: energy, military

The Chinese military is looking to procure test systems for magnetized plasma artillery, according to a notice on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) weapon and equipment procurement website weain.mil.cn last week.

Released on Wednesday and due expire on Thursday, the notice invites tenders for a theory-testing and a launch system for magnetized plasma artillery.

Although the weapon sounds as if it comes from a sci-fi movie, it will probably not shoot high-energy plasma but ultra-high velocity cannon shells.

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Feb 18, 2019

Toilet Seat Could Save Your Ass

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Our morning routine could be appended to something like “breakfast, stretching, sit on a medical examiner, shower, then commute.” If we are speaking seriously, we don’t always get to our morning stretches, but a quick medical exam could be on the morning agenda. We would wager that a portion of our readers are poised for that exam as they read this article. The examiner could come in the form of a toilet seat. This IoT throne is the next device you didn’t know you needed because it can take measurements to detect signs of heart failure every time you take a load off.

Tracking heart failure is not just one test, it is a buttload of tests. Continuous monitoring is difficult although tools exist for each test. It is unreasonable to expect all the at-risk people to sit at a blood pressure machine, inside a ballistocardiograph, with an oximeter on their fingers three times per day. Getting people to browse Hackaday on their phones after lunch is less of a struggle. When the robots overthrow us, this will definitely be held against us.

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Feb 18, 2019

Experts: United States Should Build a Prototype Fusion Power Plant

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, nuclear energy

The United States should devote substantially more resources to nuclear fusion research and build an ambitious prototype fusion power plant, according to a new report.

The report is the work of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Its conclusion: it’s more important than ever for the U.S. and the world to explore roads to practical fusion power.

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Feb 18, 2019

A cell-killing strategy to slow aging passed its first test this year

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Are tired-out cells what make people old? A new generation of drugs is designed to wipe them out.

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Feb 18, 2019

France Becomes First Country In Europe To Ban All Pesticides Linked To Bee Deaths

Posted by in category: food

The excessive use of pesticides has brought about numerous disastrous effects on the environment, and among them, it has recently drastically reduced the bee population in various areas of the world. Yet, not many countries took remedial measures, even after realizing the dangers, but this was not the case with France.

It is on track to becoming the first European country to ban five pesticide varieties, as scientists believe that these neonicotinoids are extremely dangerous since they kill bees.

However, while bee-keepers and environmentalists are extremely happy with this decision, sugar beet and cereal farmers are not very excited about it, since they are afraid that in this way, their crops will be more prone to pests and insects.

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Feb 18, 2019

Scientists May Have Finally Found the Universe’s Missing Matter

Posted by in category: futurism

It’s always the last place you look.

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Feb 18, 2019

Why Twisted Light Holds the Key to Radically Faster Internet

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, internet

With this new nanophotonic device, scientists might have just unlocked how to harness the data transfer potential of “twisted light”.

How Ferroelectricity Could Change the Way We Store Data- https://youtu.be/watch?v=IwT_ECJ1TEY

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Feb 18, 2019

3 Technologies That Could Create Trillion Dollar Markets Over the Next Decade

Posted by in category: futurism

3 technologies that have the potential to create trillion dollar markets over the next decade.

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Feb 18, 2019

In France, the Force is strong with lightsaber dueling

Posted by in categories: computing, weapons

BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, France (AP) — Master Yoda, dust off his French, he must.

It’s now easier than ever in France to act out “Star Wars” fantasies, because its fencing federation has borrowed from a galaxy far, far away and officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport, granting the iconic weapon from George Lucas’ saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.

Of course, the LED-lit, rigid polycarbonate lightsaber replicas can’t slice a Sith lord in half. But they look and, with the more expensive sabers equipped with a chip in their hilt that emits a throaty electric rumble, even sound remarkably like the silver screen blades that Yoda and other characters wield in the blockbuster movies.

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Feb 18, 2019

Biggest supermoon of the year is here this week

Posted by in category: space

Stargazers will get a close-up look at Earth’s natural satellite this week thanks to the brightest supermoon event of the year.

A supermoon phenomenon occurs when a full moon, on its oval-shaped orbit, is at its closest to us, known as perigee, which is about 356,000 kilometres as measured from the centre of the Earth to the centre of the moon.

It takes place when the moon’s orbit brings it to the closest point to Earth while at the same time bathed in sunlight, giving the moon its bright appearance.

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