The Guardian: Drones to unleash vaccine-laced M&Ms in bid to save endangered ferrets. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwq_-vgyY
Hey, wouldn’t it be fantastic if they mixed up drones/ordinance and sprayed ‘terrorists’ with chocolate and peanut butter?
The Guardian: Drones to unleash vaccine-laced M&Ms in bid to save endangered ferrets. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwq_-vgyYHey, wouldn’t it be fantastic if they mixed up drones/ordinance and sprayed ‘terrorists’ with chocolate and peanut butter?
Could this work on the kids of the Pete Evans, “I’m afraid of chemicals and I don’t even know what they are” cult? They wouldn’t know what they were having never seen confectionery before but once they got that first hit of sugar…
Images (it’s a composite) just before non vital systems were shut down for orbital insertion around Jupiter.
Yummy, who wouldn’t want to grow their own steak or chicken nuggets at home. You too can get involved over at Indiegogo. Tuck in.
This Super Meat Could Be Grown At Home Without Ever Killing An Animal
The race is on to bring lab grown meat to the masses. In 2013, Dutch scientists created a lab-grown burger costing $330,000 (£251,000) and in May, an American company grew a meatball in the lab for $18,000 (£13,700) per pound.
Now, there’s a new player in town and he has pretty wild ambitions.
Professor Yaakov Nahmias, a biochemical engineer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has developed a new culturing method, called SuperMeat, which promises healthier, humane meat that is better for the environment and could help tackle food shortages.
The real selling point, Nahmias said, is his concept’s ability to localise the production of meat: “We can place our meat-generating machines in local supermarkets, in restaurants and even at your own home.”
The company also claims that SuperMeat will stem food shortages because it requires minimal resources to culture. Lab-grown meat uses 99% less land, emits up to 96% less greenhouse gases and uses up to 96% less water than the meat industry today, according to SuperMeat.
So how does it work?
Scientists take a small tissue sample from a chicken, grow and duplicate the cells in a “special nutrient soup”, which then forms miniscule tissue within a unique environment that mimics an organic habitat. The tissues then grow into actual meat.
It it sounds simple, it’s not. The company has already crowdfunded more than $123,000 (£93,400), but that doesn’t even cover the proof of concept. $1m (£761,000) would fund an efficient production method of small chicken tissues. But the scientists say they need $2.5m (£1.9m) to create a cost-efficient prototype that could produce edible meat.
Whatever happened to Soylent Green. That seemed quite promising at one stage.
Planet orbiting Earth’s ‘closest neighbour’ Proxima Centauri could be home to aliens
AUGUST 25, 20166:53AM
ASTRONOMERS have discovered a “second Earth” orbiting our closest star — and it could have exactly the right conditions to sustain alien lifeforms.
Stargazers from the European Southern Observatory spotted the mystery world circling Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star that’s just four light years away, The Sun reports.
The planet is orbiting in the “goldilocks zone” of Proxima Centauri, which means it’s close enough to the star that water would not freeze, but far away enough so that water wouldn’t boil.
This is important because the presence of liquid water is thought to be necessary for the development of life.
Earth-like planet discovered
Now scientists are trying to figure out a way of getting a robotic probe to the planet to see if it is home to alien organisms, although this is not a mission many of us will live to see.
Using current rocket technology, it would take 76,000 years to get to our nearest star.
However, there is hope that “light sail” technology currently under development could allow us to send a robotic probe to the planet in about 25 years.
Dr Guillem Anglada-Escude, from Queen Mary University of London, led an international team of about 30 astronomers during a bid to find the planet, which is called Proxima B.
“Succeeding in the search for the nearest terrestrial planet beyond the solar system has been an experience of a lifetime, and has drawn on the dedication and passion of a number of international researchers,” he said.
“We hope these findings inspire future generations to keep looking beyond the stars. The search for life on Proxima b comes next.”
Dr Mikko Tuomi, from the University of Hertfordshire, added: “According to the findings the planet has a rocky surface and is only a fraction more massive than the Earth.
“It is the closest possible exoplanet to us and may be the closest to support life outside the solar system.”
British researcher Nick Pope, who used to run the Ministry of Defence’s UFO investigation department, said the development was a game-changer.
“This game-changing discovery may help us answer the question of whether or not we’re alone in the universe — one of the biggest and most profound questions we can ask,” he said.
“Many people believe there are aliens out there and now it’s possible that they’re our galactic next door neighbours.
“Every effort should be made not just to find out more about this planet, but to look for evidence of life — and maybe even intelligent life.”
Proxima Centauri is part of a triple system of stars in the constellation of Centaurus. It is the faintest of the three, which also include a much brighter pair of stars known as Alpha Centauri A and B.
From Earth, the system appears as a single bright star — the third brightest visible in the night sky.
Astronomers made the discovery, reported in the journal Nature, after studying Proxima Centauri using a special instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla in Chile’s Atacama desert.
The High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher was able to measure the tiny “wobble” in the star’s position caused by its interaction with the planet’s gravity.
Shifts in the star’s light spectrum showed that at times the star was approaching Earth at around human walking pace and at other times receding at the same speed.
From this data the scientists were able to infer the presence of a planet around 1.3 times more massive than the Earth orbiting at a distance of 7.5 million kilometres.
Because red dwarfs can mislead planet hunters by giving false signals linked to “star spots” — the equivalent of sun spots — the scientists had to be sure of their findings.
Initial hints of a planet were observed in March 2000 and it took another 15 years before sufficient evidence was available to justify announcing the discovery to the world.
Co-author Dr John Barnes, from the Open University, said: “Once we had established that the wobble wasn’t caused by star spots, we knew that there must be a planet orbiting within a zone where water could exist, which is really exciting.
“If further research concludes that the conditions of its atmosphere are suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make.”
He said: “If further research concludes that the conditions of its atmosphere are suitable to support life, this is arguably one of the most important scientific discoveries we will ever make.”
We’ve found the home world of the reptilian overlords!
But seriously, this is really freaking amazing.
Whatever happened to Soylent Green. That seemed quite promising at one stage.
People like me refused to get into the vat.
even if you can get the satellite there in 25 years, signals and commands would be a 9 year round trip. You wouldn’t want to need to make a quick right hand turn to avoid a meteor shower, lol.
but its ■■■■■■ intriguing to contemplate what might be possible.
Edit: Ok, there won’t be any course changes, lol. This seems to be a set-and-forget, one-off option. Speed the thing up to 20% of light speed via ridiculously powerful laser beams (the first 200 million kilometers from earth is the acceleration zone, by which time the target will be like hitting a cd on the moon surface) , hope its on target and wait and see:
From Cosmos Magazine:
A tremendous design challenge is constructing a highly reflective light sail just atoms thick. If even a tiny fraction of the laser energy were absorbed, the sail would be destroyed. (That same destructive potential may make governments nervous about allowing such a facility to be constructed.)
But all of the power delivered to the spacecraft will count for nothing if the probe itself is too massive.
Starshot plans to develop a new style of probe that weighs only a gram. A Starchip will include a camera, electronics to transmit and receive signals and a power supply – perhaps a slowly decaying radioactive source such as americium, which is found in home smoke alarms.
One issue, though, is by travelling at a fifth of the speed of light to reach the star in our (and Milner’s) lifetime, the craft will have only minutes to explore the alien solar system before flying by.
As the New Horizons flyby of Pluto showed us, this sort of mission can still be incredibly valuable, even though it would be wonderful to slow down and explore at leisure.
Will Breakthrough Starshot let humanity prove itself an interstellar civilisation? Only time will tell – although the wait may be shorter than we could have dreamed before yesterday’s announcement.
I did read the article the other day but when the article tells me in the first sentence that the closest star to the Earth is proxima centauri, when it’s clearly the sun, it annoys me. The author is even from The Sun!
Wow, this is some pretty amazing stuff. Puts the 3D Chocolate printer to shame.
Infertile Mice Give Birth—Thanks to 3D Printed Ovaries
THE NEWEST FERTILITY TREATMENT
What’s the newest method for treating infertility? 3D printing.
It seems there is no end to what 3D printing technology can create. This time, a group of scientists from Northwestern University managed to print a fully functional ovary that they implanted into mice that had their ovaries removed.
The team produced the ovaries from material similar to jello combined with living cells. Not only did the 3D printed ovaries allow the mice to resume their monthly cycle, they also managed to successfully give birth.
The process is explained in the press release, “The researchers used a 3D printer to create a scaffold to support hormone-producing cells and immature egg cells, called oocytes. The structure was made out of gelatin – a biological material derived from the animal protein collagen. The scientists applied biological principles to manufacture the scaffold, which needed to be rigid enough to be handled during surgery and to provide enough space for oocyte growth, blood vessel formation and ovulation.”
BIOPROSTHESIS
While the study was conducted on mice, researchers have every intention of expanding it one day to develop a way to create an ovary bioprosthesis for women. This could restore fertility to women who survived cancer, a disease which raises the risk of infertility as adults, or help women who suffer from a host of other diseases and conditions.
“One of the biggest concerns for patients diagnosed with cancer is how the treatment may affect their fertility and hormone health,” said lead study author Monica M. Laronda, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “We are developing new ways to restore their quality of life by engineering ovary bioprosthesis implants.”
The materials used in the experiments are currently already used in humans, applied with a scalable 3D printing method and manufacturing techniques inspired by human biology.
even if you can get the satellite there in 25 years, signals and commands would be a 9 year round trip. You wouldn't want to need to make a quick right hand turn to avoid a meteor shower, lol.but its ■■■■■■ intriguing to contemplate what might be possible.
Edit: Ok, there won’t be any course changes, lol. This seems to be a set-and-forget, one-off option. Speed the thing up to 20% of light speed via ridiculously powerful laser beams (the first 200 million kilometers from earth is the acceleration zone, by which time the target will be like hitting a cd on the moon surface) , hope its on target and wait and see:
From Cosmos Magazine:
A tremendous design challenge is constructing a highly reflective light sail just atoms thick. If even a tiny fraction of the laser energy were absorbed, the sail would be destroyed. (That same destructive potential may make governments nervous about allowing such a facility to be constructed.)
But all of the power delivered to the spacecraft will count for nothing if the probe itself is too massive.
Starshot plans to develop a new style of probe that weighs only a gram. A Starchip will include a camera, electronics to transmit and receive signals and a power supply – perhaps a slowly decaying radioactive source such as americium, which is found in home smoke alarms.
One issue, though, is by travelling at a fifth of the speed of light to reach the star in our (and Milner’s) lifetime, the craft will have only minutes to explore the alien solar system before flying by.
As the New Horizons flyby of Pluto showed us, this sort of mission can still be incredibly valuable, even though it would be wonderful to slow down and explore at leisure.
Will Breakthrough Starshot let humanity prove itself an interstellar civilisation? Only time will tell – although the wait may be shorter than we could have dreamed before yesterday’s announcement.
Currently reading ‘Proxima’ by Stephen Baxter. First book of a series.
One of the missions is a self-aware ship, shaped as a light sail, that gets to Proxima Centauri super fast by the power of lasers blasted from the surface of Mercury.
Hurry outside now and if you have a view of the low western horizon, venus (the brighter one) and jupiter clearly visible about a thumb width vertically apart.
Oooooh a Venus set.
First time into this thread.
I looked at the OP - “Scientists “freeze”” light inside a crystal for one minute"" and thought well fark me, I’ve been doing this with the kitchen fridge for years. The light in the beer fridge outside in the sunroom is busted (probably overuse) so I can’t observe this strange sciency phenomenon most of the time.
I managed to take this last night just on dusk. I think its Venus top right, Jupiter and several moons bottom left. I really would like to get a telescope one day.
http://i68.tinypic.com/zlapfq.jpgI managed to take this last night just on dusk. I think its Venus top right, Jupiter and several moons bottom left. I really would like to get a telescope one day.
Yep definitely is Jupiter and its four Galilean moons on the left. Great pic. You’d be awesome at astrophotography.
Probably just a microwave turning on in the telescopes cafeteria… or maybe…
Mysterious SETI signal sends alien-hunting telescopes scramblingBy Shannon Hall
Are you there, ET? Recent news of a spike in radio signals that could fit the profile for an intelligent, extraterrestrial source has SETI astronomers across the globe swinging their radio dishes in hopes of confirming the detection. Although so far they have all come back empty-handed, two observatories will follow up on the tantalising signal again tonight.
The signal was detected on May 15, 2015 by a radio telescope operated by the Russian Academy of Science. It appeared to come from the star HD 164595, a sun-like star located roughly 95 light-years from Earth. The system has only one known planet: a warm Neptune, so called because it is gaseous like Neptune but orbits its star in only 40 days. But the star probably has other planets — perhaps rocky ones — as well.
The researchers speculate that such a bright signal, if real, could have been produced by a radio beacon built by an intelligent civilisation.
If that beacon is transmitting radio waves in all directions, the energy it would need to produce is a whopping 10 (little 20) watts, says Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in California. “That’s a big energy bill even if you’re getting a bulk discount from your local supplier,” he jokes. “It’s hundreds of times more than all the energy falling on the Earth from sunlight.”
That means the hypothetical beings responsible might be what SETI scientists call a Kardashev Type II civilisation, so advanced that they can tap all of the energy being produced by their host star.
If instead the beacon was targeted at Earth, then the power needed drops to 10 (little 13) watts, Shostak says. “That is more or less the total amount of energy used by humankind — all the cars, all the planes, all the electronic devices, everything,” Shostak says. “This is not a high-school science project.”
That would make the senders a Kardashev Type I civilisation, able to harness all the starlight that falls on its home planet.
Jumping to conclusions?
Although it’s fun to speculate, it’s far more likely that the signal isn’t an extraterrestrial beacon at all, but actually earthly interference. Radio telescopes have been known to pick up rogue signals – everything from flushing toilets to cell phones. Just last year, astronomers at the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia traced a mysterious type of radio signal to two on-site microwave ovens.
“In SETI part of the problem is that you have a civilisation that is producing signals that can mess you up all the time – and that civilisation is called humanity,” Shostak says.
So before astronomers jump to any conclusion, they’re attempting to detect the signal again. Last night, the SETI Institute used the Allen Telescope Array in northern California to track the star. They saw nothing, but will observe again tonight.
That lack of detection doesn’t close the book on an extraterrestrial civilisation just yet. “You can’t say because you didn’t find something that there’s nothing there,” Shostak says. “Say Captain Cook sailed around all day in the South Pacific and he didn’t find any new islands. That doesn’t prove that there are no new islands, it just proves that he didn’t find any that day.”
A civilisation might also try to send signals at multiple frequencies, says Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI International, a group that wants to send messages to ET as well as detect their signals. Perhaps last night, they simply weren’t broadcasting at the same frequency we initially detected.
Read more: SETI looks at red dwarf stars in its search for ancient aliens
“If you really want to communicate a lot of information there are advantages to sending at optical frequencies,” he says. “So we are planning to observe the star from our optical SETI observatory in Panama this evening. We tried last night but the weather didn’t cooperate.”Still, Vakoch is not particularly optimistic that they will find anything. “I think the likely outcome of this is that there’s no indication that it’s ET, but it provides a critical preparation for a day we may really discover intelligence out there,” he says. “We can speculate as much as we want about whether there’s intelligence out there in the cosmos, but unless we find something interesting and do a rigorous follow-up, we’ll never know.”
“Baffling” “signal” “from HD 164595” is probably none of the above.
All of humanity use 1000 watts?
OK.