Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 358

President Donald Trump has just tweeted that he will be signing a new Executive Order (EO) that will "temporarily suspend immigration" into the United States over the coronavirus outbreak.

President Trump tweeted: "In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" We don't know what the US government will do in the form of halting immigration for now, but I'm sure that will be detailed very shortly.

We should expect some big backlash over his new move, and some more details on the actions that President Trump's upcoming Executive Order will bring.

If you thought the future of controlling your smartphone, TV, thermostat or car with just thoughts, was far away -- think again, it's far closer than you think.

According to new work by researchers from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, the issues surrounding the brain-computer interface (or BCI) in order to control and use prosthetic devices with their thoughts.

The researchers have created a new AI algorithm that stops devices from needing to be re-calibrated in order to understand the human brain and its ever-changing neuronal activity. A normal BCI would have to be calibrated to a specific body part -- in most cases, a limb that is missing -- but now scientists and researchers have worked out how to use those same brainwaves to control virtually any device in the world.

We are all aware of the number of people in hospital that are using, or require respiratory support is high right now over the coronavirus outbreak, with many companies changing their manufacturing output into helping out in any way they can with COVID-19.

This has now seen engineers from both the Formula 1 engine maker Mercedes-AMG HPP and the University of London working out a way to make continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices in bulk. CPAP machines are used to help treat patients with sleep apnea, but it can help people who are experiencing severe breathing problems -- which then free up the valuable ventilators for those who are quite ill.

In just 10 days the team were able to make it happen, where they reverse-engineered an original product -- and then making a new design, getting it tested and thrown through regulatory approval right into full-scale production all in under 10 days. Impressive stuff.

A new class action lawsuit has been brought on by Florida-based law firm Berman Law Group against the Chinese Communist Party, with over 10,000 people signing the class action lawsuit seeking $4 trillion -- yes, trillion with a T.

The $4 trillion lawsuit has family members that have contracted, and died of COVID-19 as well as healthcare workers who have gotten sick and died from COVID-19, as they didn't have personal protective equipment. 60 Minutes Australia talked with the chief stategist behind the lawsuit in Florida, Jeremy Alters.

Alters said that China should take accountability for the human loss and economic destruction that has knocked the world onto its knees, telling a 60 Minutes reporter: "We are now in the depth of this economic and human crisis that could have been mostly prevented, if not all prevented".

In space, no one can hear you scream -- from finding out you've tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus, that is.

There are now concerns that coronavirus might have spread to the International Space Station (ISS) after a senior Russian official was at last week's launch to the ISS has tested positive for COVID-19.

Deputy head of Energia Rocket and Space Corporation Evgeniy Mikrin has tested positive for COVID-19, after being present at the launch of the Soyuz MS-16. He was in-person at the launch in Baikonur Cosmodrome, southern Kazakhstan, just under two weeks ago on April 9.

COVID-19 coronavirus detection might be getting easier, with a new project in the works that is training dogs to sniff out coronavirus.

The new project is the only one in the world training dogs to sniff out coronavirus, with the Medical Detection Dogs charity, the London School of Hygiene, as well as the Tropical Medicine and Durham University. The dogs will be given clothes and fabric worn by coronavirus patient, to see if the dogs can pick up a particular odour that would eventually be able to sniff out and identify someone with coronavirus.

Dr Claire Guest, CEO and founder of the Medical Detection Dogs charity explained: "There have already been so many fantastic achievements in the dogs' work to detect human disease, and I believe they can be trained to sniff out Covid-19. When resources and testing kits are low, hundreds of people can't be tested in one go. But the dogs can screen up to 750 people really quickly. By identifying those who need to be tested and self-isolate, they can stop the spread".

You probably would have guessed that one of NASA's goals is to get some samples of Mars back on Earth for further examination, but how is the space exploration company going to do that exactly?

Well, it won't be easy, that's for sure, and it also will take quite a lot of time - years in fact. According to the projects lead scientists who discussed the plan in a virtual meeting that was reported by Nature, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning on landing a second spacecraft next to the first spacecraft (Mars Perseverance) to hand off the samples.

This is how it will work. Mars Perseverance will land in the Jezero crater on Mars, February 2021. Perseverance will perform sampling by using a drill to dig into the soil and retire enough samples to fill thirty small tubes. Once the samples are collected, it will store them on the rover.

If you thought 4-6 weeks of social distancing and shelter-in-place quarantine laws over the spread of coronavirus was bad, the United States might need to keep its social distancing orders in place right into 2022.

The news is coming from researchers out of the Harvard School of Public Health, with researchers explaining: "Intermittent distancing may be required into 2022 unless critical care capacity is increased substantially or a treatment or vaccine becomes available".

The massively extended duration of social distancing in the United States would have "profoundly negative economic, social and educational consequences" according to the study, but it would reduce the strain on the US health care system, and start contact tracing and quarantines. The cost? Virtually everything else it seems.

The thought of someone being able to influence your dream while you are asleep is an unsettling one, but it's completely possible regardless of how you feel about it.

In fact, MIT researchers and scientists have already successfully done it. According to OneZero's Tessa Love, who revealed that MIT scientists are currently working on a Dream Lab that can "hack" people's dreams through sounds and smells. The MIT scientists are concentrating on hypnagogia, which is the experience of the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. The scientists believe through their research that they can influence our sleeping minds so that when we wake up, we feel we are "better".

Dream Lab researcher Adam Horowitz said, "People don't know that a third of their life is a third where they could change or structure or better themselves. Whether you're talking about memory augmentation or creativity augmentation or improving mood the next day or improving test performance, there are all these things you can do at night that are practically important."

If you thought the fear of coronavirus was bad, think again: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that coronavirus can travel through the air by at least 13 feet -- twice as far as current social distancing guidelines.

The research was conducted by a team from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and was recently posted in the CDC's own Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal. The report reads: "The aerosol distribution characteristics ... indicate that the transmission distance of [COVID-19] might be 4 m (more than 13 feet)".

The CDC's new report is also pretty scary, warning that coronavirus can linger on shoes and acts like a carrier for COVID-19. Researchers talked about samples taken from the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China -- where they said: "Furthermore, half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive. Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers".