Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 326

Scientists have managed to create a nano-electronic circuit that can vibrate and play guitar notes without any external force.

The scientists from the Lancaster University and University of Oxford have used a tiny suspended wire that is positioned much like a guitar string to showcase their experiment that reveals how a simple nano-device can generate motion by itself. Researchers used a carbon nanotube, a wire with a diameter of about 3 nanometers or to put it into a musicians perspective - about 100,000 times thinner than a normal guitar string.

Researchers mounted the nanotube onto metal supports at each end and then cooled it down to 0.02 degrees. Researchers then passed an electric current through the wire and measured its change in electrical resistance. Much like a normal guitar string when its plucked, the nanotube wire vibrated when the electric current passed through it, what was the surprising part was when the researchers stopped forcing the voltage and the wire continued vibrate by itself.

Its now official, astronomers have managed to locate another Earth-like planet, the news has recently come out of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.

According to PhysicsAstronomy, astronomers using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope managed to discover another Earth located in the Goldilocks zone of our galaxy. The planet is titled Kepler-186f. Its about 500 light-years away from Earth in Cygnus constellation which is a known habitable zone due to its position next to a star and atmospheric pressure that can sustain liquid water on surfaces.

Scientists have recognized that there at least 40 billion Earth-sized planets currently floating around in our Milky Way galaxy. But this is the first time one of these planets has been discovered in the habitable zone of another star. Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published in the journal Science said "We know of only one planet where life survives - Earth. When we hunt for life outside our solar system, we emphasis on discovering planets with features that mimic that of Earth. Discovering a habitable zone planet similar to Earth in size is a major breakthrough."

Humans have undoubtedly created some quite questionable weapons in our time, and nuclear weapons are definitely within the top five of that category. So what exactly happens if one was to be launched at any city on the planet?

Above we have a new video from Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, they explore the affects of a Nuke hitting a downtown city, and how the events of that explosion would roll out on the residents. Firstly, one millisecond after the detonation a 2km wide ball of plasma hotter than the sun erupts from the center of the blast zone, evaporating everything within its radius.

The light that's emitted from the blast is so hot it produces a thermal pulse which burns anything that is able to burn within 500 squared km, or a 13km radius. As the explosion progresses, a bubble of super heated and super compressed air begins to rapidly expand faster than the speed of sound, decimating most already burning buildings, people and anything else in its way. Then a mushroom cloud made from rubble, fire, dust and ash erupts from the center and rises kilometers into the sky, drawing in an abundance of oxygen fueling the already burning fires.

Just in time for Halloween... the world's largest Ouija board has arrived in Salem. Ouijazilla was created by New Jersey-based tattoo artist Rick Schreck, who is also the vice president of the Talking Board Historical Society, of which I did not know existed until just now.

Ouijazilla weighs a hefty 9000 pounds, and so long that the world's largest Ouija board could have five 18-wheel trucks park on top of it. For those unfamiliar with a Ouija board, the "planchet" is the part of the board that you put your hands-on and it moves around -- with the planchet on Ouijazilla a massive 15.5-feet in length and weighs a huge 400 pounds on its own.

In an interview between Schreck and Talking Board Historical Society's director Karen Dahlman, he explained: "The board that I used, actually, to replicate is the 1998 (board) for Hasboro. The glow-in-the-dark board. That's my favorite. ...Ouijazilla is big enough to put, I think, 2,300 of those boards on top of it".

The use of exoskeletons can and will be vast as the technology matures and time passes, with researchers over at the University of Grenoble releasing their results of a trial using a 4-limb robotic system that helps patients with tetraplegia, which is the loss of control of all four limbs.

The most tricky way of using the system is finding a patient with tetraplegia and getting them hooked into the system, with 28-year-old French man 'Thibault' using the suit. It's not a fully-baked and ready-to-use suit just yet, but in its current trial status the researchers along with the patients can train an algorithm that interprets brain signals which then converts them into physical movement.

Professor Alim-Louis Benabid, president of the Clinatec Executive Board, a CEA laboratory, and Professor Emeritus from the University of Grenoble, France, said in a press release: "Ours' is the first semi-invasive wireless brain-computer system designed for long term use to activate all four limbs".

NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have addressed the public in a recently concluded Q&A session at SpaceX's HQ.

The Q&A was held at the SpaceX HQ in California where NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine and SpaceX founder Elon Musk stood next two two astronauts and answered some questions regarding their upcoming mission plans. While the talk was quite lengthy, Musk and Bridenstine were asked about the upcoming Crew Dragon project, and according to the administrator after some more testing the first crewed "Demo-2" test flight could launch as early as Q1 of 2020.

Musk also touched on the subject and said that drop tests are about to commence and SpaceX's team will be evaluating its "Mark 3" parachute design. The "Mark 3" design has replaced what was once nylon cords with much stronger "xylon" material.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stepped out of the shadows and has called for the world's biggest carbon polluters to be taxed a fixed amount for their carbon emissions.

According to the IMF, the world's biggest carbon polluting nations should all agree on a worldwide tax that prices carbon emissions at $75 per ton. The IMF also says that this tax should be in place for the next 10 years to ensure the survival of the planet and to keep climate change at safe levels.

A report was released ahead of next week's annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. In this report the IMF acknowledges that increase of pricing for carbon emissions from the current global average cost of $2 to $75 by 2030 could have catastrophic market effects. The report says that could prices would more than triple, electricity pricing could increase by 30% in Canada and Australia and gasoline prices could be raised anywhere between 5 and 15%.

Elon Musk is probably the most passionate man on this planet when it comes to traversing the stars, with the SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder having some interesting words to say during a recent event at the SpaceX HQ.

Musk was joined by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at the SpaceX HQ in Hawthrone today, with Musk updating the world on the commercial crew launch program that SpaceX is collaborating with NASA on. During the chat, Musk talked about the state of the program, and what is coming next.

There was a Q&A session after the event, where Musk said that what the SpaceX team learned from the Crew Dragon parachute development program is open to the world -- making it available to anyone who wants it. Musk said that literally any of SpaceX's own IP is open to NASA and can feed it out as they want.

NASA are moving along quite nicely with their Mars 2020 rover mission as the space exploration company has announced a new milestone achievement.

NASA has recently completed testing the Mars 2020 spacecraft separation test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. In the above image, we see can see engineers and technicians working on the assembly of the rover and according to Ryan van Schilifgaarde, a support engineer for Mars 2020 assembly at JPL, "Firing the pyrotechnic devices that held the rover and descent stage together and then doing the post-test inspection of the two vehicles was an all-day affair".

He continued and said "With this test behind us, the rover and descent stage go their separate ways for a while. Next time they are attached will be at the Cape next spring during final assembly." Since this test has been a success, the descent stage and the rover will be moved off to Cape Canaveral, Florida, this winter. Before both parts are shipped, engineers and technicians will also test the batteries for the rover, while also evaluating the computer and mechanical systems in simulated Mars-like conditions.

Back in March, NASA were planning on doing the first all-female spacewalk but unfortunately had to cancel due to a lack of correct spacesuits aboard the flying lab. Now, NASA and both astronauts have announced a spacewalk will commence on October 21st.

The first planned spacewalk was cancelled due to the spacesuits not correctly fitting rookie astronaut Anne McClain. Since the astronauts are in micro-gravity their bodies slightly stretch, and even though the suits were fitted in a pool before take-off, the measurements can be a little bit off once they get out to the lab.

Since the fitting issue of the suits has now been resolved and the safety of the astronauts has been upheld to the highest extent, both Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have announced via Twitter that they will participate in replacing the solar batteries aboard the lab. Koch and Meir say that they have five spacewalks planned for the future and that any combination of astronauts aboard the station will be participating. The astronauts will be replacing old nickel-hydrogen batteries with brand new next-gen lithium-ion batteries that are expected to last the remainder of the International Space Stations life.