Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 191

Evidence has been found that there is a new strain of swine flu kicking around in China, and according to health officials, it has the potential of setting off an influenza pandemic.

A paper was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and describes that a team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in China and one in the U.S. have managed to find substantial evidence of a new strain of swine flu. Researchers are worried that this new strain of swine flu could set off another influenza pandemic like the one we saw back in 2009. At the moment, the new strain of swine flu called G4 EA H1N1 hasn't shown the ability to jump from human to human, which is clearly a necessity for the virus to become global.

Researchers are currently rapidly testing domestic swine for viruses with the hope of catching the virus before it makes a jump to humans. The researchers also found that the new G4 strain of the virus contains DNA from 2009's H1N1 strain (swine flu). Researchers have located two people who have active infections of the new strain of swine flu, and evidence has suggested that these people have already developed some level of antibodies. The team of researchers believe this discovery is enough to warrant strict precautionary measures, and very close monitoring of the virus.

As humans age, we, unfortunately, begin to deteriorate, and one of the aspects of us that are affected is our vision. But what if we can slow this decline down?

According to a new study published in the Journals of Gerontology, researchers have found that staring at a deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight. Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) explains that as humans age, our visual system begins to decline, and this is even more prevalent once a person is over 40.

"As you age your visual system declines significantly, particularly once over 40. Your retinal sensitivity and your color vision are both gradually undermined, and with an aging population, this is an increasingly important issue. To try to stem or reverse this decline, we sought to reboot the retina's aging cells with short bursts of longwave light." Researchers know that 40+-year-old humans are already experiencing aging in their retina's, and this is partly due to the cell's mitochondria, which produces energy called ATP.

NASA's $1 billion dollar space probe named Juno entered Jupiters orbit on July 4th, 2016, and now the small space probe has beamed back some of the most breathtaking images of the largest planet in our solar system.

Juno was sent over to Jupiter to observe the gas giants immense clouds and ultimately answer questions regarding how the planet came to be, and it's composition. Recently, Juno has relayed back some images of Jupiter that were captured back on April 10th. The space probe was travelling some 5,375 miles or, 8,650 kilometers over the clouds of Jupiter and at a latitude of about 50 degrees north. The images were processed by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill, and can be found above and in the entirety of this article.

The images showcase several ravaging storms, and it should be noted that most of these storms are so large that they could completely swallow Earth as a whole in a matter of seconds. If you are wondering what Jupiter's atmosphere consists of, it is made up of helium and hydrogen gases. Throughout this trip, Juno became the fastest human-made object of all time as it reached speeds of up to 130,000 mph. If you are interested in checking out more images of Jupiter, you can have a look at NASA's library of images here.

NASA has been recorded the Sun for over 10 years now, and to celebrate that achievement it has released a 10-year time-lapse video.

The video was released onto NASA's "Goddard" official YouTube Channel, and explains that as of June 2020, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been watching the Sun "non-stop" for over a decade. Throughout that time, SDO has captured 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun that equates to a staggering 20 million gigabytes of data.

With all of these images, astronomers and scientists were able to acquire a more deeper understanding of the inner workings of our closest star. The 10-year time-lapse showcases photos that were taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme ultraviolet wavelength that reveals the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the corona. 10 years of images have been complied into a 61 minute video, which showcases both the turbulent beauty of the Sun, as well as its rise and fall in activity of its 11-year solar cycle. Do note, there are timestamps in the description of the video for the viewers accessible pleasure.

A recent announcement from NASA has revealed that the next Mars rover launch date has been delayed and moved to next month.

According to an update posted to the blogs section of NASA's website, the reasoning for the delay was due to a "processing delay encountered during encapsulation activities of the spacecraft". On top of that, NASA also had a "contamination concern in the ground support lines in NASA's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF)". As a result of both of those issues, the space agency is now eyeing a successful launch on July 22nd for the next Mars rover Perseverance.

Perseverance will launch aboard the Atlas V rocket, which was constructed by United Launch Alliance. Time is of the essence, as NASA's window for launching Perseverance to the Red Planet is slowly, but surely coming to a close. NASA has until August 11th to launch the next rover to Mars if it wants to arrive there in February 2021. If the space agency misses this launch window, it will have to wait another 26 months (until 2022) for Earth's and Mars' orbits to be all closer to each other.

The world of UFOs just got a little more interesting this week, with the Senate Intelligence Committee requesting the Pentagon for a detail, and unclassified report on "unidentified aerial phenomena" otherwise known as UFOs.

According to a former employee and UFO investigator for Britain's Ministry of Defense, Nike Pope, US senators were disturbed by what they saw. Pope explained in an email to Fox News: "I welcome this long-overdue development. It suggests that those senators who received last year's classified briefing on UFOs were disturbed by it and weren't satisfied with the current DOD position, i.e. simply stating that the mystery objects encountered by naval aviators remain unidentified".

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in his report attached to the 2020-2021 Senate Intelligence Authorization Act, "instructed the director of national intelligence, the secretary of defense and other agency heads to compile data on 'unidentified aerial phenomenon'", reports Fox News.

Currently, the biggest particle accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider, and when CERN decided they were going to build, it was a very large job to take on their shoulders.

Now, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, wants to build a new one that is much larger, and of course, costs much more money. The Large Hadron Collider cost about $4.75 billion to construct, and took almost a decade before the construction was complete. CERN built the largest atom-smasher, which has a circumference of 17-miles, and while that might sound big - it isn't enough. Now, a report has come out on Nature detailing that CERN is pushing to build a new particle accelerator that is 62-miles in circumference.

The new project is titled Future Circular Collider, and just from the sheer measurements, we can already tell that it's going to be more than double the size of the current largest particle collider. With the size more than doubled, we can expect that the prize will also be more than doubled. According to the Nature article, CERN expects this new particle collider will cost $23 billion to construct, and at the moment, there is no blueprint on how long it would take until it would be finished.

Back in 2011, researchers stumbled upon a woolly mammoth that died around 28,000 years ago. Since then, researchers have carried out a series of experiments on the specimen, some of which have seen cells extracted from the mammoth.

Scientists from Kindai University in Japan have successfully extracted remnants of DNA from the extinct animal bones. The idea behind the DNA extraction is to eventually restore the animal back to a living state by extracting the nuclei from the mammoths cells and transplanting them into mouse oocytes. According to the report, scientists were able to do this successfully, and the 28,000-year-old cells started to show "signs of biological activities."

According to study author, Kei Miyamoto from the Department of Genetic Engineering at Kindai University, "This suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated." The researchers do acknowledge that recreating the mammoth is still "very far" away, and that is without even going into the ethical side of the debate surrounding genetic engineering. If you are interested in reading more about this, check out this link here.

If you are after a new pet, and think that a dog could fit your needs, then look no further than Boston Dynamics' robotic dog called Spot.

Spot is quite well known, and has picked up quite a lot of attention over the past few years. Boston Dynamic's has announced this past Tuesday that Spot is ready to be sold. Unfortunately, it's only ready to be sold to businesses at this stage, but businesses can put a preorder down for Spot for a mere $74,500. Marc Raibert, chairman and founder of Boston Dynamics, said, "The combination of Spot's sophisticated software and high-performance mechanical design enables the robot to augment difficult or dangerous human work."

Spot isn't the typical run of the mill dog, it can run about 5.2 feet per second, has cameras for eyes, is dust and water-proof, while also being able to operate in temperatures ranging from -4 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. On top of all that, Spot has 360-degree range of vision, and can also remind people to socially distance. Boston Dynamics believes Spot will be ready to ship within 6 to 8 weeks. For more information, check out this link here.

Mars is commonly known as the Red Planet, and that is due to the iron oxide prevalent on Mars' surface, which gives it that red tinge.

Now, astronomers have spotted the Red Planet having an outer glow of green. In a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, it's detailed the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has observed the atmosphere of Mars and has observed a green glow. This green glow is a result of Sunlight charging oxygen atoms in the atmosphere of Mars. When oxygen atoms are charged to higher energy levels, they eventually fall back to their resting state, and as a result of that transition, a green glow is produced.

The paper details that the altitude of these charged oxygen particles are anywhere between 80km and 120km, depending on the pressure of CO2. Dr. Manish Patel, co-author of the study said, "By looking at the altitudes of where this emission is, you can actually tell the thickness of the atmosphere and how it's varying. So, if you were to keep observing this phenomenon, you could see the height of the atmosphere change, something it does for example when it heats up during dust storms. This is an issue we face when we try to land on Mars because we're never quite sure just how thick the atmosphere will be when we plough through it to get to the surface."

As the United States begins to slowly reopen in select locations, many people are wondering what places pose the greatest risk for contracting the coronavirus.

Public health experts have taken a survey and ranked common places such as bars and public pools on a scale of 1-10, ten being the greatest risk. According to these four health experts, there are five factors when considering how dangerous a location is; if it's outdoors or indoors, proximity to others, exposure time, likelihood of compliance, and personal risk level.

The public health experts generally agreed that outdoor activities are much safer than indoor activities, and that is mostly due to the virus being less concentrated outside than inside. While outdoors is generally safer, activities such as basketball, or a music concert are still considered risky as the activity is likely to break social distancing guidelines.

A former NASA scientist has released an informative animated video that shows how fast Earth is rotating relative to the Sun, the Milky Way galaxy, and the Cosmic Microwave Background.

The simple animation video found above was created by planetary scientists, and former NASA scientist James O'Donoghue, who wanted to put all of this information into context with a simple and informative video. According to O'Donoghue, "People often talk about how we are standing on a ball (Earth) which rotates at great speed, and that this ball orbits another at an even greater speed. Sometimes this is extended to how fast we orbit the centre of our Milky Way."

O'Donoghue also said, "In all the confusion of big numbers and directions, I simply wanted to put all this information into context in a single frame so people could understand where they're headed - and how fast." Looking at the video, we can on the left-hand side the numbers that show the speed of Earth's rotation (1030 mph). Below the Earth is the Sun, and how fast the Earth rotates in comparison to the Sun, the same goes for the Milky Way galaxy, and then finally the Cosmic Microwave Background that was produced by the Big Bang.

This past Sunday, the US Surgeon General took to his personal Twitter to urge everyone to wear face coverings.

US Surgeon General, Jerome Adams addressed the idea that face coverings, or masks are infringing on everyone's freedom of choice right. Adams said that while many people feel like the masks, or coverings are infringing on their freedoms, that wearing the masks actually promotes your freedom.

Adams' way of thinking is that the more face coverings being worn by Americans, the less asymptomatic viral spread, which means more places reopening, and the rate of which they open being faster. Adam's even went onto say, "Exercise and promote your freedom by choosing to wear a face covering!". The Surgeon General isn't the only medical professional urging people to adopt face masks, the Centers for Disease and Prevention has also pushed for everyone to adopt a face covering if they are venturing outside of their house and to a place that makes social distancing guidelines difficult to follow e.g a grocery store.

Australia is expected to launch its "next-generation" hybrid rocket that will take satellites into low Earth orbit in 2022.

A new announcement out of the University of Queensland has revealed that Australia is currently moving toward launching its own domestically-made hybrid rocket. This hybrid rocket is expected to take satellites into low Earth orbit, and will be completely constructed of components made in Australia - meaning that Australia won't have to out-source components from a different country.

University of Queensland's Dr. Ingo Jahn said, "Rather than buying products from overseas, the rockets and components will be manufactured in Australia, and this is an essential step towards developing a space launch vehicle industry in Queensland with many expected flow-down benefits to our manufacturing industries". The teams focus is developing and validating fuel systems, which according to Jahn, is "one of the most complex engineering challenges".

I think I've read everything I need to about COVID-19 coronavirus now, as a spiritual healer who helped people with coronavirus in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has died of COVID-19.

The spiritual healer kissed peoples hands to cure them of coronavirus, has died of coronavirus. Vice.com reports that the "Baba" or "self-styled holy man was apparently a black magic healer from the Ratlam district". He cured people by kissing their hands.

Ratlam's District Magistrate Ruchika Chauhan told VICE on a phone call: "He got himself tested for coronavirus after he began having severe symptoms, and passed away immediately. From the contact tracing we have done so far, seven of his family members and thirteen followers have tested positive. We are investigating the transmission and trying to contain it".

NASA has recently announced the company that will be transporting it's water-hunting VIPER rover to the Moon.

VIPER stands for "Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover", and the purpose of the mission is to see if the Moon has any traces of water, specifically on the Moon's South Pole. VIPER discovering a source of water on the Moon is an extremely important step for the overall success of NASA's Artemis mission, which will take the next American man, and the first American woman to the lunar surface by 2024.

NASA has selected Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic to build the $199.5 million dollar water-hunting rover. Astrobotic CEO John Thornton commented on the landing the contract, saying, "It is an enormous honor and responsibility to be chosen by NASA to deliver this mission of national importance. Astrobotic's lunar logistics services were created to open a new era on the Moon. Delivering VIPER to look for water, and setting the stage for the first human crew since Apollo, embodies our mission as a company."

A black hole that is located 600 million light-years from Earth has been rediscovered to have a regular "heartbeat".

The new findings were discovered by researchers from the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, as well as researchers from Durham University, UK. The report was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and details a black hole that was first detected to have a "heartbeat" back in 2007. Since then, astronomers haven't been able to pick up a signal from the black hole as our Sun was blocking it out.

Now, researchers used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray satellite, and have confirmed that the black hole is still beating like a heart. So why does this black hole beat like a heart? According to Professor Chris Done, in Durham University's Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, who collaborated on the research, "The main idea for how this heartbeat is formed is that the inner parts of the accretion disc are expanding and contracting." Done also said, "The only other system we know which seems to do the same thing is a 100,000 times smaller stellar-mass black hole in our Milky Way, fed by a binary companion star, with correspondingly smaller luminosities and timescales."

I still remember where I was, and what I was doing on December 21, 2012 -- the day the world was meant to end. It was the last day of my 10 years of managing a computer store in my home state, and shifting into working full-time for TweakTown. But man, I was off by 8 years... the end of the world is on June 21, 2020.

Yeah -- sorry folks, the world is ending on June 21, 2020 -- around 10 days from now.

Why? How? Well, that's because the Gregorian calendar being introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII made important changes that was used by the Julian calendar. The biggest thing here is that it removed 11 days from our year, to better reflect the time it takes the pale blue dot we call Earth to orbit around the Sun.

A new study has indicated that constantly thinking about negative thoughts could increase the risk of a person developing dementia.

According to the UCL-led study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, researchers looked at over 292 people over the age of 55 and found that 'repetitive negative thinking' (RNT) is linked to subsequent cognitive decline, as well as the deposition of harmful brain proteins that are linked to Alzheimer's. Lead author Dr. Natalie Marchant, a UCL Psychiatrist said, "Depression and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors for dementia. Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with those disorders are more likely to develop dementia.".

Marchant also says that from the research, scientists believe that chronic negative thinking patterns that occur over longer periods of time could increase the risk of dementia. Marchant also explains that the evidence gathered doesn't suggest that short term negative thinking would increase the chances of one developing dementia. The researchers behind the study now hope that RNT is further investigated as a potential risk factor for dementia and that other tools that can break someone's negative thinking pattern/s are also explored as treatments.

It's always a blast when astronomers spot another planet that is really similar to Earth, as most planets out there are baron wastelands that are either too hot or too cold.

Luckily, astronomers are really good at finding planets, and sometimes with a little bit of luck, they find one that is really similar to Earth. According to a new report in MIT Technology Review, astronomers have located a new planet that is likely an exoplanet, and it's called KOI-456.04. This planet is just under two times the size of Earth, and shares about 93% of the same light our planet receives.

The team managed to locate this planet with the old Kepler Space Telescope, and pulled the diamond in the rough out using algorithms that study a star's brightness. The algorithms target a star and constantly observe it waiting for it to dim, and once it does dim, it indicates an object, and sometimes a planet has passed in front of it. While I previously do say that KOI-456.04 is a planet, I must be accurate; scientists are 85% sure that KOI-456.04 is a planet, but for that to be confirmed, studies have to hit the 99% mark. Once that mark is hit, KOI-456.04 is officially an exoplanet.