Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 105

The director for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been asked if he thinks Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, is "crazy".

The question came from US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and was aimed at CIA Director William Burn's who spoke at a House Intelligence Committee hearing. According to the head of the CIA, he doesn't believe Putin is crazy, but instead is becoming increasingly insulated and hardened in his views, which makes him "extremely difficult to deal with".

According to Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, who is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, estimates measure Russian casualties to be somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000. However, Berrier noted that this estimation was made with "low confidence". Additionally, director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that the US hasn't seen any notable movement from Russia's nuclear force despite concerning warnings from Putin.

Russian forces have already attacked and captured the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

The target of the latest attack was the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT), resulting in the destruction of the lab and its neutron generator. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, says the inventory of radioactive material was small, and no radiation release has been detected following the site's destruction.

The lab was used for research and provided medical isotopes for health care workers. Grossi has said he is ready to meet with Ukrainian and Russian officials to ensure the safety of atomic sites as the war escalates. Other facilities are at risk of damage in addition to any one of Ukraine's fifteen nuclear power plants, such as nuclear-waste storage sites in Kyiv that have already been damaged.

Musk believes that increasing nuclear energy output is "critical to national and international security."

Musk also went on to taunt "those who (mistakenly) think this is a radiation risk" by asking them to say what they thought was the worst location, and that he would then go there and eat locally grown food on television. Musk mentioned going to Japan shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and doing the same thing, and claimed the radiation risk is significantly lower than most people believe.

The tweet has come in the days following a Russian attack on Europe's largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which meets 20 percent of Ukraine's energy needs alone. According to the World Nuclear Association, 440 nuclear power plants across 33 countries generated 2553 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the global energy consumption.

A study on the brain changes titled "SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank" has been published in the journal Nature.

Researchers found that, on average, middle-aged and older adults who had been afflicted with COVID-19 had tissue shrinkage in areas of the brain related to the sense of smell. Another effect most prevalent among older adults was increased difficulty in completing complex mental tasks after having COVID-19, compared to individuals who had not contracted the disease.

The researchers had access to brain scans before and after people became infected with COVID-19, allowing them to distinguish between expected brain changes and those resulting from COVID-19.

Elon Musk expects "slight delays" on the road to Starship's first orbital test flight.

It is not the first time Starship has been delayed, with previous delays coming from an ever-shifting deadline for a programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The expected delay comes after Musk has redirected SpaceX resources to assist Ukraine in its ongoing defense against the Russian invasion.

Musk has been in contact with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy since sending Starlink equipment to Ukraine to help the country maintain an internet connection amidst the conflict.

Reports of destruction of the world's largest plane, the Antonov An-225, came earlier this week.

A tweet by ELINT News confirms the destruction of the An-225 cargo plane, showing video of the aircraft under a damaged hangar amongst destroyed military equipment at Gostomel airport north of Kyiv in Ukraine. The plane, named Mriya ("dream" in Ukrainian), was built during the Soviet era and was 275 feet long with a wingspan of 290 feet.

It was purchased by Antonov after the collapse of the Soviet Union and used to transport enormous air cargo, such as the two 138-feet wind turbines it transported in 2010 from China to Denmark, the longest pieces of air cargo ever. It was at Antonov's facility at Gostomel for maintenance when the Russian attack on the site began. The Ukrainian government has since vowed to rebuild the aircraft once the war is over.

The project will be coordinated by the United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).

Uploaded to the AFRL YouTube channel is the above video on the Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). The plans in the video entail a probe that will patrol cislunar space, the expansive area around Earth that extends beyond the Moon's orbit.

An assortment of private satellite companies are sharing images of the Russian invasion into Ukraine taken from space.

Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 satellite captured high-resolution images of a 40-mile-long (64 kilometers) Russian convoy moving into Ukraine on February 28th, four days after the invasion began. The company has since georegistered the data from its satellite imagery to generate a 3D model of the area around the convoy.

The video stitches together its satellite imagery into one continuous view, conveying the scope of the massive convoy. According to Maxar, the data "has an absolute accuracy in all directions of 3 meters [10 feet], which means that objects seen in the video are physically within that 3 meters zone in the real-world. This unique view, created with space-based data, allows viewers to have a better understanding of the on-the-ground situation when the area is not readily accessible."

Nuclear experts have given their assessment of the possible dangers to Nature.

Russian military forces have captured Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant near Enerhodar in the southeast of Ukraine. A building at the plant had been struck by shelling and caught fire, but the fire was extinguished without any direct harm to the reactors. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that the detectors at the site continue to report normal radiation levels.

Zaporizhzhia's reactors have a modern VVER (the Russian acronym for water-water energetic reactor) design. Each reactor is enclosed in a pressurized steel vessel, in turn, housed within a massive reinforced-concrete containment structure. Michael Bluck, director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, says the plant has multiple safety backup systems.

The identity and owner of the rocket has been a subject of the debate since its crash course towards the moon was confirmed.

Calculations of the rocket's trajectory by astronomer Bill Gray indicated that the rocket would strike the Moon's surface on March 4th at 12:25 UTC on the far side of the Moon, where it couldn't be directly observed to occur. Gray estimated that the impact would result in a crater about "10 or 20 meters across."

The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on heightened alert.

The Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) have three-stage rocket motors fueled by solid propellants. They have a range of over 6,000 miles (9,660 kilometers) and cruising speeds of 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kilometers per hour, or Mach 23), making them capable of delivering a nuclear payload to almost any major city in the world within thirty minutes. They were developed in the 1960s as a strategic deterrent weapon.

Putting the upcoming scheduled test launch of the Minuteman III ICBM on hold is an attempt by the U.S. to "demonstrate that we have no intention in engaging in any actions that can be misunderstood or misconstrued." Putin's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, remarked that a third World War would be a nuclear conflict, contributing to heightened tensions between Russia, the U.S., and European nations.

Aether Diamonds is a startup founded in 2018 by Ryan Shearman, Daniel Wojno, and Robert Hagemann to produce the diamonds.

Aether Diamonds has become the first manufacturer to create diamonds using atmospheric carbon sustainably. Aether claims each carat sold equates to 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere. Aether's carbon capture methods involve direct air capture and long-term carbon sequestration. This kind of manufacturing would help fight climate change while allowing the diamond industry to distance itself from conflict diamonds.

In 2021, Aether Diamonds produced hundreds of carats of diamonds and began shipping them to customers mid-way through the way. In 2022, Aether plans to make thousands of carats worth. The company has received B Corp Certification, having demonstrated high social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Of over 100,000 applicant companies in the last decade, about 4,000 have received the certification.

The Infinity Train is being designed by the Australian mining company Fortescue.

The zero-emissions electric train will serve to reduce the company's carbon footprint, powering its massive batteries by rolling down hills instead of relying on external charging systems that would likely derive power from less-sustainable sources. The announcement of its development comes following Fortescue's acquisition of UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).

The development comes following space partnerships with multiple other nations being severed.

Dmitry Rogozin, the Director-General of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, announced that Roscosmos would no longer be selling rocket engines to companies in the United States. According to Rogozin, 122 RD-180 engines have been delivered to the U.S. from Russia since the 1990s, of which 98 have been used for Atlas launch vehicles.

Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced last week that all science and research cooperation with Russia would be stopped immediately.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) similarly announced that its partnerships with Russia would be paused. One such cooperation between the two countries involves the German eROSITA black hole telescope aboard the Russian Spektr-RG satellite. The space telescope is making the largest-ever map of black holes in the universe and has been placed in safe mode to protest Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Melinda French Gates has recently opened up about her divorce from Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates, revealing some reasons why the divorce was necessary.

Melinda Gates sat down for an interview with CBS where she described her divorce with Bill Gates as an accumulation of "many things", and one of those was Bill Gates' meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Melinda Gates said during the interview, "It was many things, but I did not like that he'd had meeting with Jeffrey Epstein". French Gates goes on to explain that had only met with Epstein once and that she regretted it, describing Epstein as "abhorrent".

"I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards. So my heart breaks for these young women," said French Gates. While French Gates has given new details about the lead-up to the divorce, the exact relationship between Bill Gates remains quite unclear, with many of the details of their dealings yet to be disclosed. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

Russian military is currently battling Ukrainians around Europe's largest nuclear power plant located in the city of Enerhodar.

Reports from numerous sources indicate that Russian forces are currently fighting for control over the city, as the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant provides Ukraine with about one-third of its energy. ABC reports that Dmitri Orlov, the Mayor of Enerhodar, has taken to social media within the last couple of hours to announce that Russian troops have approached the power plant, and "as a result of continuous enemy shelling of building and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is on fire!"

Additionally, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has warned that the situation was "critical", and urged military forces around the power plant to be cautious of the site. Above is a livestream of the nuclear power plant where you can see smoke billowing from buildings around the site. Scrubbing through the livestream I was able to find a close-up of a building that was on fire.

Russian forces are continuing their advance into Ukraine, and now reports indicate that military forces are currently battling around Europe's largest nuclear reactor.

A Russian military convoy was spotted heading towards the city of Enerhodar, located on the Dnieper River in Ukraine's south, and now reports indicate that a battle has broken out for control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the biggest nuclear plant in Europe.

Read more: Russia bombs Europe's largest nuclear power plant, fire breaks out

The remarkable artificial arm, known as the Atom Touch, was made by Atom Limbs.

Atom Limbs is making what they call "the first artificial human arm" in the form of the Atom Touch. It will have near-full human range of motion, restore a basic sense of touch and be non-invasively mind-controlled, according to the Atom Limbs website. It is slated for 2023 availability, and you can sign up for updates or apply for the Atom Preview Program on the website.

Tyler Hayes, the CEO of Atom Limbs, explained to Interesting Engineering that the inspiration for the device came from learning about how the healthcare system has failed people with limb loss. Only one in five people choose to wear prosthetics due to the poor quality and usability of the available options. Atom Limbs was thus born to "revolutionize the $800B+ physical disability industry" and make high-quality prosthetics for the more than 65-million limb-different individuals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) report is the latest in its weekly installments regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 1st, 2022, the WHO reported that the reported number of new COVID-19 cases globally dropped by 16 percent in the previous week, following a month-long decline in new infections. The number of deaths has also fallen by 10 percent, following a decrease seen in the week prior. There have been more than 10 million new cases and about 60,000 deaths worldwide in the last week.

According to the WHO, the omicron variant is the overwhelmingly dominant variant, accounting for 99.5% of the virus sequences in the world's largest publicly accessible database, with only 0.3% from the delta variant. Other variants such as beta, gamma, lambda, and mu have not been reported in the last month, although the WHO notes there are surveillance challenges in many countries.