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Nov 4, 2018

In Defense of Elon Musk

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

Elon Musk is an engineer at heart, a tinkerer, a problem-solver—the kind of person Popular Mechanics has always championed—and the problems he’s trying to solve are hard. Really hard. He could find better ways to spend his money, that’s for sure. And yet there he is, trying to build gasless cars and build reusable rockets and build tunnels that make traffic go away. For all his faults and unpredictability, we need him out there doing that. We need people who have ideas. We need people who take risks.

We need people who try.

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Nov 4, 2018

Tour The Moon In 4K

Posted by in category: space

Take a virtual tour of the moon in 4K.

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Nov 4, 2018

Your Cell Phone Could Cause Cancer — Under Very Specific Conditions

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mobile phones

You used to call me on my cell phone.

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Nov 4, 2018

The Science of Aging

Posted by in categories: life extension, science

Isaac does good work. This is no exception.

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Nov 4, 2018

Mining for Rocket Fuel on the Moon

Posted by in categories: solar power, space, sustainability

Over the past few months, I was part of a study funded by the United Launch Alliance and supported by a large group of technologists to determine if we can mine water on the Moon and turn it into rocket fuel, and to do it economically. The final report can be downloaded here.

Why Mine Water on the Moon?

The lunar water would be launched off the Moon and delivered to a “gas station” in Earth orbit. This propellant depot will use solar energy to turn the water into rocket fuel. Then, space tugs can refill their tanks so they can repeatedly boost spacecraft from Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) (where the launch rocket throws them) into Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) where they can begin operating.

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Nov 4, 2018

Microsoft’s Underwater Data Center Is Actually Working, Says CEO

Posted by in category: computing

They’re easy to deploy and keep cool.

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Nov 4, 2018

Exclusive: Grave doubts over LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves

Posted by in categories: physics, space

The news we had finally found ripples in space-time reverberated around the world in 2015. Now it seems they might have been an illusion.

LIGO’s detectorsEnrico Sacchetti

THERE was never much doubt that we would observe gravitational waves sooner or later. This rhythmic squeezing and stretching of space and time is a natural consequence of one of science’s most well-established theories, Einstein’s general relativity. So when we built a machine capable of observing the waves, it seemed that it would be only a matter of time before a detection.

Continue reading “Exclusive: Grave doubts over LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves” »

Nov 4, 2018

Watch the First Knitted Concrete Structure Take Shape

Posted by in category: materials

Soon, we might be able to knit entire buildings.

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Nov 4, 2018

New AI Thinks Like a Scientist to Explain the Physics of Virtual Worlds

Posted by in categories: physics, robotics/AI

This AI can explain the physical laws of virtual worlds.

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Nov 4, 2018

Almost Half of U.S. Births Happen Outside Marriage, Signaling Cultural Shift

Posted by in categories: economics, health, policy

The data show such births in the U.S. and EU are predominantly to unmarried couples living together rather than to single mothers, the report says. The data suggest that societal and religious norms about marriage, childbearing and women in the workforce have changed, said Kelly Jones, the director for the Center on the Economics of Reproductive Health at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.


Births outside marriage have skyrocketed in developed nations, according to a report from the United Nations.

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