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Saturn's weird colorful hexagon storm at its pole...
http://i66.tinypic.com/2m2sux3.gif Saturn's Hexagon in Motion This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras, is the first to show the hexagon in color filters, and the first movie to show a complete view from the north pole down to about 70 degrees north latitude. Scientists can see the motion of a wide variety of cloud structures that reside within the hexagon in this movie. There is a massive hurricane tightly centered on the north pole, with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. (More information about that Saturn hurricane is at PIA14947.) Numerous small vortices are also present, which appear as reddish ovals. Some of these vortices spin clockwise while the hexagon and hurricane spin counterclockwise. Some of those smaller features are swept along with the jet stream of the hexagon, as if on a racetrack. The biggest of these vortices, seen near the lower right corner of the hexagon and appearing whitish, spans about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers), approximately twice the size of the largest hurricane on Earth. The differences in this version of the movie, in which different wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to visible to infrared have been assigned colors, show a distinct contrast between the types of atmospheric particles inside and outside the hexagon. Inside the hexagon there are fewer large haze particles and a concentration of small haze particles, while outside the hexagon, the opposite is true. The jet stream that makes up the hexagon seems to act like a barrier, which results in something like the "ozone hole" in the Antarctic. This movie shows a view from directly over the north pole, keeping up with the rotation of the planet so that all the motion seen on the screen is the motion of the hexagonal jet stream or the storms inside of it, without any added motion from the spinning of the planet itself. The original images were re-projected to show this polar view. High-resolution views of the hexagon have only recently become possible because of the changing of the seasons at Saturn and changes in the Cassini spacecraft's orbit. The north pole was dark when Cassini first arrived in July 2004. The sun really only began to illuminate the entire interior of the hexagon in August 2009, with the start of northern spring. In late 2012, Cassini began making swings over Saturn's poles, giving it better views of the hexagon. The eight frames of the movie were captured over 10 hours on Dec.10, 2012. Each of the eight frames consists of 16 map-projected images (four per color filter, and four filters per frame) so the movie combines data from 128 images total. In this color scheme, scientists assigned red to the 0.750-micron part of the light spectrum (near infrared). This part of the spectrum penetrates the high-altitude haze layer to sense the top of tropospheric cloud deck. They assigned green to the 0.727-micron part of the light spectrum that senses the upper tropospheric haze (a near-infrared wavelength corresponding to a methane absorption band). They assigned blue to the sum of blue and ultraviolet broadband filters -- combined, this blue channel covers between 0.400 and 0.500 microns (covering very near ultraviolet to blue in visible light). This part of the spectrum is sensitive to small aerosols. To human eyes, the hexagon and north pole would appear in tones of gold and blue. See PIA14945 for a still image of the area in natural color. |
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http://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M1...bdeH0&pid=15.1 |
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Robits...
Harvard researchers built a living robot out of rat hearts http://i64.tinypic.com/juitxv.jpg What do you get when you mix the heart cells of a rat with silicone from breast implants and then sprinkle in a bit of gold and genetic engineering? No, not Trump's next trophy wife -- you actually get this incredible "living" robot. Developed by a team of researchers at Harvard University, the bio-engineered marvel looks, flexes and swims just like a tiny stingray. The stingray-bot is made up of four distinct layers: a silicone substrate that forms its body, a skeletal system made of gold wire, a second layer of silicone that insulates the skeleton and, finally, 200,000 genetically-engineered rat cells. Those cells are designed to contract when exposed to a specific wavelength of light. When they do, the robot effectively swims in the same undulating manner as its namesake. What's more, the "biological life-form," as lead researcher, Kit Parker, describes it, automatically follows the light source as it swims through the nutrient-rich liquid that keeps its cells alive, allowing it to be remotely controlled. The bio-bot can't survive outside of the lab yet. Even if it didn't need its specialized liquid, the rat cells have no immune system and would be immediately attacked by bacteria and fungal pathogens. Even so, Parker hopes that it will lead others to develop a complete, genetically-engineered heart, among other things. "Roboticists and engineers can see different ways to use biological cells as building materials," Parker told Popular Mechanics. "Marine biologists can take a look to better understand why the muscle tissues in rays are built and organized the way they are." |
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<header class="entry-header"> Space Emerging from Quantum Mechanics
</header> The other day I was amused to find a quote from Einstein, in 1936, about how hard it would be to quantize gravity: “like an attempt to breathe in empty space.” Eight decades later, I think we can still agree that it’s hard. So here is a possibility worth considering: rather than quantizing gravity, maybe we should try to gravitize quantum mechanics. Or, more accurately but less evocatively, “find gravity inside quantum mechanics.” Rather than starting with some essentially classical view of gravity and “quantizing” it, we might imagine starting with a quantum view of reality from the start, and find the ordinary three-dimensional space in which we live somehow emerging from quantum information. That’s the project that ChunJun (Charles) Cao, Spyridon (Spiros) Michalakis, and I take a few tentative steps toward in a new paper. We human beings, even those who have been studying quantum mechanics for a long time, still think in terms of a classical concepts. Positions, momenta, particles, fields, space itself. Quantum mechanics tells a different story. The quantum state of the universe is not a collection of things distributed through space, but something called a wave function. The wave function gives us a way of calculating the outcomes of measurements: whenever we measure an observable quantity like the position or momentum or spin of a particle, the wave function has a value for every possible outcome, and the probability of obtaining that outcome is given by the wave function squared. Indeed, that’s typically how we construct wave functions in practice. Start with some classical-sounding notion like “the position of a particle” or “the amplitude of a field,” and to each possible value we attach a complex number. That complex number, squared, gives us the probability of observing the system with that observed value. Mathematically, wave functions are elements of a mathematical structure called Hilbert space. That means they are vectors — we can add quantum states together (the origin of superpositions in quantum mechanics) and calculate the angle (“dot product”) between them. (We’re skipping over some technicalities here, especially regarding complex numbers — see e.g. The Theoretical Minimum for more.) The word “space” in “Hilbert space” doesn’t mean the good old three-dimensional space we walk through every day, or even the four-dimensional spacetime of relativity. It’s just math-speak for “a collection of things,” in this case “possible quantum states of the universe.” Hilbert space is quite an abstract thing, which can seem at times pretty removed from the tangible phenomena of our everyday lives. This leads some people to wonder whether we need to supplement ordinary quantum mechanics by additional new variables, or alternatively to imagine that wave functions reflect our knowledge of the world, rather than being representations of reality. For purposes of this post I’ll take the straightforward view that quantum mechanics says that the real world is best described by a wave function, an element of Hilbert space, evolving through time. (Of course time could be emergent too … something for another day.) The rest here: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/...tum-mechanics/ |
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This pic is real:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/f...hmoonstill.png Moon passing between Nasa's Deep Space Climate Observatory and Earth. |
Where is all of the great new info we were supposed to be getting about Jupiter?
I read about some of what they expected to find a couple days before the craft entered its orbit, like substances that exist as a gas/liquid/metal all at the same time |
That's a freaky picture. I feel like it's about to fall on us.
I always pictured the moon being bigger than that. Not tons bigger, but a bit bigger. |
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If you took that picture and envisioned the earth as a basketball and the moon as a golf ball, they'd be about 25 yards or so apart right there. |
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Happy birthday Curiosity!
NASA's nuclear powered robot is currently 69.71 million miles away, singing itself happy birthday.... http://i65.tinypic.com/2h6hv85.jpg More: https://curiosity.com/memes/every-ye...y-nasa-goddard |
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Physicist Creates Lab-Sized "Black Hole"
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...ed-black-hole/ Black holes swallow up everything, and nothing escapes. This property, the most iconic characteristic of these mysterious space phenomena, had its first major challenge this week when Techonion professor Jeff Steinhauer posted the results of an experiment. He simulated a black hole in the lab. The idea that perhaps black holes do let some particles escape has been around for a long time now, since 1974 when Stephen Hawking's calculations using quantum methods showed that black holes actually "radiate" particles back into outer space, and eventually disappear entirely. Due to the difficulty of calculating this delicate radiation through the depths of space, Hawking Radiation has remained a theory in the 42 years since, but Steinhauer's new experiment may bring it closer than ever to being proven. In his experiment, the Israeli physicist created a simulated "black hole" capable of sucking in sound. To do this, Stenhauer shot a laser composed of rubidium atoms through an environment cooled to almost absolute zero. The atoms were moving faster than the speed of sound, making it difficult for sound to make its way through the stream. "It's like trying to swim against the river," Steinhauer said. "If the river is going faster than you can swim, you go backwards, even though you feel like you're going forward." This means that part of the sound wave is pushed out of the "black hole," defying the scientific consensus on what may happen in real black holes. The theory of Hawking Radiation is based on "virtual particles," the analogues of particles like photons described by quantum mechanics. Based on Steinhauer's experiment, it's possible that in a black hole, a photon may be sucked in while its partner virtual particle is radiated out into space. This is what Hawking's theory proposes. "What I saw suggests that a real black hole might emit something," Steinhauer said. If this is true, and Hawking Radiation is proven to exist, Stephen Hawking may finally win his first Nobel Prize for his work 40 years ago. Steinhauer's paper is yet to be published, and is up on the pre-publishing platform arXiv.org right now for peer review. The initial reactions have been both positive and skeptical. "The experiments are beautiful," physicist Silke Weinfurtner from the University of Nottingham told The Telegraph. "Jeff has done an amazing job, but some of the claims he makes are open to debate. This is worth discussing." |
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Scientists 3D print the face of a 2000 year old female Egyptian mummy
Verdict - she was freakin hawt, wanna show her my "King Tut" http://www.cbsnews.com/news/egyptian...h-3d-printing/ |
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Haha, I'm just joking. I was never good at Latin. |
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I'm usually good at Rebuses but I'm missing something here.....:hmmm: |
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i 8 Sum Pi. Quote:
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That's awesome. Now we just need Hollywood to cast Scarlett Johansson in her biopic and we can call it a day. |
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I was being facetious, but do you understand what I was getting at? |
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Quantum Computing – Artificial Intelligence Is Here
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PqN_2jDVbOU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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http://img.memecdn.com/mind-blown_o_1091238.jpg |
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Hollywood whitewashing. I absolutely ****ing hate it. |
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C'mon dude, nothing destroys otherwise reasonable arguments like overstating the case to the point of ridiculousness. |
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EDIT: Let's just keep this thread about science. You and I will have plenty of opportunities to debate elsewhere. |
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I was letting it go as humor until you doubled down. But it's pretty ridiculous to complain about whitewashing the backstory for a skull on the basis of the color of the clay used to reconstruct a face, particularly as that's the ONLY backstory meaning there is no prospect for some blockbuster coming out of this tiny story to begin with. |
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When was her last legit starring role, besides that? |
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How did she look? Was she great? Did you get lost in those big brown doe eyes? Is her figure still as sigh-inducing as ever? |
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However, in a pinch Portman is a pretty passable substitute Ryder. |
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Both eminently worth a watch, again for different reasons. |
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But in the end it all boils down to Winona Ryder. |
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The Self-Driving Dilemma: Should Your Car Kill You To Save Others?
Scientists investigate a tricky moral dilemma that machines will have to grapple with when cars drive themselves. <iframe width="692" height="419" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nBkQQ6czRJI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> In a split-second, the car has to make a choice with moral—and mortal—consequences. Three pedestrians have just blindly stumbled into an oncoming crosswalk. With no time to slow down, your autonomous car will either hit the pedestrians or swerve off the road, probably crashing and endangering your life. Who should be saved? A team of three psychologists and computer scientists, led by Jean-François Bonnefon at the University of Toulouse Capitole in France, just completed an extensive study on this ethical quandary. They ran half a dozen online surveys posing various forms of this question to U.S. residents, and found an ever-present dilemma in peoples' responses. "Most people want to live a world in which everybody owns driverless cars that minimize casualties," says Iyad Rahwan, a computer scientist with the team at MIT, "but they want their own car to protect them at all costs." This isn't just a trivial riddle or a new take on the trolley problem thought exercise. Now that computers are driving large metal machines that can kill, they'll have to be programmed to make these kinds of decisions. "It's a rather contrived and abstract scenario, but we realize that those are the sorts of decisions that autonomous vehicles are going to have to be programmed to make," says Azime Chariff, a psychological researcher with the team at the University of Oregon. "It's also a big challenge to the widescale adoption of autonomous vehicles, especially when there's already a basic fear about entrusting a computer program to zip us around at 60 miles an hour or more," he says. "So we conducted a series of online experiments to gauge how people were thinking about these ethical scenarios and how comfortable they would be to buy autonomous vehicles that were programmed in various ways." The survey results are outlined today the the journal Science. The scientists used the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform to conduct their surveys between June and November 2015, and paid 25 cents for each survey. Only American residents were polled. Whether the choice was between their own car fatally crashing itself to save two, three, or ten pedestrians, "what we found was that the large majority of people strongly feel that the car should sacrifice its passenger for the greater good," says Bonifan. "Even when people imagined themselves in the car, they still say that the car should sacrifice them for the greater good. And even when people imagine being in a car with a family member or even with their own child, they still said the car should kill them for the greater good." The numbers here were stark. In one survey, where the choice was between saving the car's passenger or saving a crowd of ten pedestrians, more than 75 percent of respondents agreed that sacrificing the autonomous vehicle's passenger was the more moral choice. In short, "most people agree that from a moral standpoint, cars should save the [maximum number of people] even if they must kill their passengers to do so," Bonifan says. There is a big "but" coming. When given the option of hypothetically buying a self-driving car that's utilitarian (it saves the greatest number of people) or one that's selfish (programmed to save its passenger at all costs) people are quick to buy the selfish option. When it comes to utilitarian cars, "they tell us that it's great if other people get these cars, but I prefer not to have one myself," says Bonifan. Economists call this feeling a social dilemma. It's a bit like how most people view paying taxes. Yeah, everyone should do it. But nobody is too keen on doing it themselves. What if Selfish Is Better? When considering these thorny questions about whom self-driving cars should and should not kill, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, which is that autonomous vehicles have the potential to drastically reduce the number of car accidents and traffic-related deaths by eliminating human error, be it drunk drivers, distracted drivers, or good drivers who just make a mistake."Just in the United States last year, there were nearly 40,000 traffic fatalities and about 4.5 million with serious injuries," says Chariff at the University of Oregon. "Depending on how you calculate it, the dollar cost of those accidents approaches $1 trillion a year." Just because the numbers say that self-driving cars will be safer, though, doesn't mean people are ready to trust computers to take the wheel. Here, Bonifan and his colleagues suggest their findings could be useful to policymakers hoping to ensure the safest possible implementation of self-driving cars while still encouraging people to accept them. "These cars have the potential to revolutionize transportation, eliminating the majority of deaths on the road (that's over a million global deaths annually) but as we work on making the technology safer we need to recognize the psychological and social challenges they pose too," says Rahwan at MIT. Oddly enough, "the best strategy for utilitarian policy-makers may, ironically, be to give up on utilitarian cars," writes Joshua Greene, a psychologist at Harvard University (who wasn't involved in the study), in an essay accompanying the paper. "Autonomous vehicles are expected to greatly reduce road fatalities. If that proves true, and if utilitarian cars are unpopular, then pushing for utilitarian cars may backfire by delaying the adoption of generally safer autonomous vehicles." Curious how you might approach these ethical self-driving car scenarios? The scientists published an interactive website today for you to explore them. |
My mom once told me, "Never swerve for anything smaller than a cow."
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Those grant thieving lying scientists just made all their research available to the public. They'll say anything to get funding.... Wait...what?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/funder/nasa/ NASA just made all the scientific research it funds available for free NASA just announced that any published research funded by the space agency will now be available at no cost, launching a new public web portal that anybody can access. The free online archive comes in response to a new NASA policy, which requires that any NASA-funded research articles in peer-reviewed journals be publicly accessible within one year of publication. “At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air, and space.” The database is called PubSpace, and the public can access NASA-funded research articles in it by searching for whatever they’re interested in, or by just browsing all the NASA-funded papers. “Making our research data easier to access will greatly magnify the impact of our research,” said NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan. “As scientists and engineers, we work by building upon a foundation laid by others.” Right now, there are some 861 research articles in the database, and you can expect that number to keep rising as NASA-funded researchers get on board with the new policy. As you’d expect, there’s an enormous spread of research already on offer, ranging from exercise rountines to maintain health during long-duration space missions, to the prospects for life on Titan, and the risk of miscarriage for flight attendants exposed to cosmic radiation. All of this is now free for researchers or anybody with an interest in science to check out and download – a welcome change from when much of the content was locked behind a paywall. But not all NASA-funded research can be found in the archive. As the space agency indicates, patents and material governed by personal privacy, proprietary, or security laws are exempt from having to be included in PubSpace. NASA’s move comes in response to a 2013 request from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which directed major science-funding agencies to come up with ways of increasing access to the results of publicly funded research. It also follows a growing general trend towards more openness in science research and academia more broadly. With frustration stemming over the commercial control wielded by the companies who own most academic publishing, some researchers are bypassing established journals altogether by uploading their work directly to the internet. Others are illegally sharing scientific papers online in a dramatic bid to spread knowledge. At the same time, there are calls in Europe to make all published science funded by the public free. The same logic is what’s behind NASA’s new portal – but even the space agency itself could benefit from the initiative, which will help it keep track of all the research it’s funding more easily. “This’ll be the first time that NASA’s had all of their publications in one place, so we estimate what our publication rate is for the agency, but this will actually be able to tell us what it is,” NASA Deputy Chief Scientist Gale Allen told Samantha Ehlinger at FedScoop. “And we’ll be able to show even further what we’re doing with taxpayer dollars.” |
AI is already better than humans, and it's not even close....
A.I. DOWNS EXPERT HUMAN FIGHTER PILOT IN DOGFIGHT SIMULATION http://i67.tinypic.com/24xgiz8.jpg In the military world, fighter pilots have long been described as the best of the best. As Tom Wolfe famously wrote, only those with the "right stuff" can handle the job. Now, it seems, the right stuff may no longer be the sole purview of human pilots. A pilot A.I. developed by a doctoral graduate from the University of Cincinnati has shown that it can not only beat other A.I.s, but also a professional fighter pilot with decades of experience. In a series of flight combat simulations, the A.I. successfully evaded retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Gene "Geno" Lee, and shot him down every time. In a statement, Lee called it "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible A.I. I've seen to date." And "Geno" is no slouch. He's a former Air Force Battle Manager and adversary tactics instructor. He's controlled or flown in thousands of air-to-air intercepts as mission commander or pilot. In short, the guy knows what he's doing. Plus he's been fighting A.I. opponents in flight simulators for decades. But he says this one is different. "I was surprised at how aware and reactive it was. It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. It moved instantly between defensive and offensive actions as needed." The A.I., dubbed ALPHA, was developed by Psibernetix, a company founded by University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate Nick Ernest, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. According to the developers, ALPHA was specifically designed for research purposes in simulated air-combat missions. The secret to ALPHA's superhuman flying skills is a decision-making system called a genetic fuzzy tree, a subtype of fuzzy logic algorithms. The system approaches complex problems much like a human would, says Ernest, breaking the larger task into smaller subtasks, which include high-level tactics, firing, evasion, and defensiveness. By considering only the most relevant variables, it can make complex decisions with extreme speed. As a result, the A.I. can calculate the best maneuvers in a complex, dynamic environment, over 250 times faster than its human opponent can blink. After hour-long combat missions against ALPHA, Lee says,"I go home feeling washed out. I'm tired, drained and mentally exhausted. This may be artificial intelligence, but it represents a real challenge." The results of the dogfight simulations are published in the Journal of Defense Management. |
Harvard researchers built a living robot out of rat hearts
http://i63.tinypic.com/97jh4g.jpg What do you get when you mix the heart cells of a rat with silicone from breast implants and then sprinkle in a bit of gold and genetic engineering? No, not Trump's next trophy wife -- you actually get this incredible "living" robot. Developed by a team of researchers at Harvard University, the bio-engineered marvel looks, flexes and swims just like a tiny stingray. The stingray-bot is made up of four distinct layers: a silicone substrate that forms its body, a skeletal system made of gold wire, a second layer of silicone that insulates the skeleton and, finally, 200,000 genetically-engineered rat cells. Those cells are designed to contract when exposed to a specific wavelength of light. When they do, the robot effectively swims in the same undulating manner as its namesake. What's more, the "biological life-form," as lead researcher, Kit Parker, describes it, automatically follows the light source as it swims through the nutrient-rich liquid that keeps its cells alive, allowing it to be remotely controlled. The bio-bot can't survive outside of the lab yet. Even if it didn't need its specialized liquid, the rat cells have no immune system and would be immediately attacked by bacteria and fungal pathogens. Even so, Parker hopes that it will lead others to develop a complete, genetically-engineered heart, among other things. "Roboticists and engineers can see different ways to use biological cells as building materials," Parker told Popular Mechanics. "Marine biologists can take a look to better understand why the muscle tissues in rays are built and organized the way they are." |
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PHILAE FOUND!
5 September 2016 http://i.imgur.com/KsJRXWJ.jpg Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The images were taken on 2 September by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly show the main body of the lander, along with two of its three legs. The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation, making it clear why establishing communications was so difficult following its landing on 12 November 2014. “With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail,” says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team, the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from Rosetta yesterday. “After months of work, with the focus and the evidence pointing more and more to this lander candidate, I’m very excited and thrilled that we finally have this all-important picture of Philae sitting in Abydos,” says ESA’s Laurence O’Rourke, who has been coordinating the search efforts over the last months at ESA, with the OSIRIS and Lander Science Operations and Navigation Center (SONC, CNES) teams. Philae was last seen when it first touched down at Agilkia, bounced and then flew for another two hours before ending up at a location later named Abydos, on the comet’s smaller lobe. After three days, Philae's primary battery was exhausted and the lander went into hibernation, only to wake up again and communicate briefly with Rosetta in June and July 2015 as the comet came closer to the Sun and more power was available. However, until today, the precise location was not known. Radio ranging data tied its location down to an area spanning a few tens of metres, but a number of potential candidate objects identified in relatively low-resolution images taken from larger distances could not be analysed in detail until recently. While most candidates could be discarded from analysis of the imagery and other techniques, evidence continued to build towards one particular target, which is now confirmed in images taken unprecedentedly close to the surface of the comet. At 2.7 km, the resolution of the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera is about 5 cm/pixel, sufficient to reveal characteristic features of Philae’s 1 m-sized body and its legs, as seen in these definitive pictures. “This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search,” says Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta Mission Manager. “We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour.” “This wonderful news means that we now have the missing ‘ground-truth’ information needed to put Philae’s three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is!” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. "Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta's landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta's touchdown site,” adds Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the OSIRIS camera. The discovery comes less than a month before Rosetta descends to the comet’s surface. On 30 September, the orbiter will be sent on a final one-way mission to investigate the comet from close up, including the open pits in the Ma’at region, where it is hoped that critical observations will help to reveal secrets of the body’s interior structure. Further information on the search that led to the discovery of Philae, along with additional images, will be made available soon. |
That is so ****ing cool...
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“Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.” ― Albert Einstein |
Why Russian Astronauts Pee on a Bus Tire Before Launching Into Space, and Other Pre-Flight Rituals
Imagine it: you're an astronaut and launch day for your first spaceflight has arrived. Years of intense study and training have culminated in this moment. You're suited up and ready to go. In mere minutes, you'll be getting strapped into your spacecraft and blasting into the cosmos. So, how do you spend these final precious moments on Earth? If you're flying from the U.S., you'll probably play poker. If you're flying aboard a spaceflight leaving from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, you'll be ordered to pee on the back-right tire of a bus. It's tradition. Such rituals, many of which pay homage to the launch-day behavior of spaceflight pioneers, help to soothe frayed nerves on a day filled with excitement, according to former NASA astronaut Paul Lockhart. Lockhart, who piloted two Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station during 2002, recalls participating in "comforting actions that make what you’re doing approachable, so that you’re more calm." Though some of these traditions have a high quirk factor, they also provide a sense of stability and make astronauts feel linked to those who have traveled before them. “People become very comforted in doing the same routine before launch," says Lockhart. "And sometimes that has to happen two or three times for a single mission, because your launch could be delayed if there was weather or if a system failed." For spaceflights leaving from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the pre-launch traditions begin with a hearty breakfast and a celebratory sheet cake—regardless of the time of day or night. "The breakfast is a tradition that’s been held since probably the early days of the space program," says Lockhart. A few hours before launch, the astronauts, dressed in their crew shirts and slacks, gather for a feast of steak and eggs, accompanied by a celebratory cake. The breakfast serves as a last-minute photo op, as well as an opportunity for the crew members to line their stomachs with sustaining fare for the long flight ahead. But nerves often get in the way of nourishment. In his memoir, Riding Rockets, Mike Mullane, who flew three Space Shuttle missions between 1984 and 1990, recalls a communal loss of appetite on launch day: "Most of us ate nothing or very lightly. I had a piece of toast." For Mullane, the standard steak, eggs, and coffee was not on the menu. "One bite of that fare and I would have vomited. Nobody drank coffee. That would have been bladder suicide," he wrote. Since the early days of NASA's manned flight program, the breakfast has been an exercise in seeming calm while freaking out on the inside. "Launch breakfasts always have an air of studied casualness," writes Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 11 mission, in his book Carrying the Fire. On the morning of that fateful mission to the moon, "anyone overhearing our conversation would think that we five were slightly bored at the prospect of another empty day." After breakfast and the cake that no one eats, astronauts don their launch suits and, with minutes to spare before the van arrives to transport them to the launch pad, sit down to play cards. Lockhart explains the rules of the game: "It’s not a game of who has the best hand, it’s who has the worst hand," he says. "And you can’t leave until the commander has the worst hand at poker. So you sit there playing cards and you’re saying, 'Come on, let’s hurry up, you need to win by losing so that we can go.'" Sometimes, if the cards aren't falling as they should, this game of bad-on-purpose poker can come perilously close to messing with the launch schedule. "I recall one time we got everything completed about one minute before we had to walk out the door," says Lockhart. "But it all came out in good order." Following the termination of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, manned launches from Kennedy Space Center are on hold. Until at least 2017, when stateside human spaceflight launches are projected to resume, American astronauts fly from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where a whole other set of pre-launch traditions is in place. Most of the Russian rituals pay tribute to Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who, in 1961, became the first human to go to space. The preparations kick off about two weeks before launch, when the astronauts visit Gagarin's old office in Star City and sign a guest book. Five days to a week before launch, the astronauts, now staying at Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, go to a grove on the Avenue of the Cosmonauts and plant a tree. Every space traveler who has flown from Baikonur, going all the way back to Gagarin, has planted a tree at this grove. In the 48 hours before launch, the Gagarin homages really ramp up. Two days before leaving earth, crew members get a haircut. On the night prior to launch, it's time to watch the 1969 movie White Sun of the Desert, a high-action tale set during the Russian civil war. When the new day dawns, crew members depart the Cosmonaut Hotel, signing their room doors as they leave. All of this mimics the pre-launch behavior of Gagarin prior to his historic 1961 flight aboard the Vostok. Once the crew has left the hotel, each member participates in a newer tradition: prayers and blessings performed by a Russian Orthodox priest. A man in gold-accented black robes flings holy water onto each space traveler while pushing a golden cross into their face. Every crew member is invited to receive the blessing, regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American, Muslim woman who traveled to the ISS as a self-funded space traveler in 2006, recalls in her memoir that "the Russians had asked me if I had any objection to participating in a Christian ceremony, and I replied that a prayer in any language and any religion is still a prayer." The blessing is one of the few Russian traditions not linked to Gagarin. According to the European Space Agency, it was established in 1994, when Soyuz TM-20 mission commander Alexander Viktorenko requested that the rocket be blessed prior to departing for the Russian space station Mir. Ever since, the blessing has been performed on the rocket, the crew, and even members of the media, who get doused in holy water after assembling on the desert steppe. Following the blessing, crew members board a bus to the launch pad. But it's not a direct journey—there is a mandatory bathroom break along the way. According to the ESA, Gagarin was on his way to the launch pad in 1961 when he realized he needed to urinate one last time. The bus was stopped, and Gagarin got off, headed to the back-right tire, and relieved himself. As a tribute, each bus trip to the Baikonur launch pad now incorporates a stop, during which crew members pee on the back-right bus tire. “Much is made of this as a tradition, but really, if you’re going to be locked in a rocket ship, unable to leave your seat for quite a few hours, it’s just common sense,” writes retired astronaut Chris Hadfield in his book An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. The only problem is that, when clad in a launch suit, one cannot simply unzip one's fly. Hadfield writes that “the suit techs on board had to help us undo all the tricky fasteners they’d painstakingly closed not an hour before, so we were able to urinate manfully on the tire without spoiling our plumage.” Women are excused from participating in the urination ritual, but may bring a vial of their own urine to pour on the tire if they so desire. All of these rituals help calm nervy space travelers, but what of the astronauts' families who are tasked with nervously watching their loved ones launch into space? They, too, participate in traditions designed to keep the acknowledge the specialness of the experience while keeping worrying to a minimum. “For the shuttle launches, the family are taken down to the launch control center," says Lockhart, who, in addition to flying for NASA, served as an "astronaut escort" at Kennedy Space Center, during which he accompanied families on launch days. According to Kennedy tradition, children are rounded up in front of a whiteboard, given markers, and allowed to draw anything they like. "They do this to keep the children occupied while the countdown process is occurring," says Lockhart. "NASA covers that whiteboard with plastic and it becomes wall art. So if you go over to the launch control center at Kennedy Space Center, and you walk through the halls, you’ll find dozens of these whiteboards that have been drawn by the children." The whiteboards provide a fascinating kid's-eye view into what it's like to have a family member blast off into space. "You get a big perspective of a young child who is six or seven and who doesn’t really understand what’s happening," says Lockhart. "Then you’ll get the art from the teenage sons and daughters, or maybe someone who’s just entered into college, and their drawings portray what’s happened to their family. Some of them are really enlightening." Following a successful launch, families visit the launch director's office and place their loved one's mission patch on the door. Then, they are invited to participate in one last tradition of unknown origin: tucking into a meal of beans and cornbread alongside NASA crew. "My wife did not like this one," says Lockhart. "The kids are running everywhere, and they serve the family cornbread and some sort of cold beans. Who knows why." |
Eating the bruised fruit...
Are spotty fruits and vegetables safe to eat? <iframe width="637" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mn5N60PCAjs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> |
NASA Approves 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission
http://i63.tinypic.com/jfykyb.jpg NASA is moving forward with a spring 2018 launch of its InSight mission to study the deep interior of Mars, following final approval this week by the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was originally scheduled to launch in March of this year, but NASA suspended launch preparations in December due to a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). The new launch period for the mission begins May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing scheduled for Nov. 26, 2018. The next launch opportunity is driven by orbital dynamics, so 2018 is the soonest the lander can be on its way. "Our robotic scientific explorers such as InSight are paving the way toward an ambitious journey to send humans to the Red Planet," said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in Washington. "It's gratifying that we are moving forward with this important mission to help us better understand the origins of Mars and all the rocky planets, including Earth." The SEIS instrument -- designed to measure ground movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom -- requires a perfect vacuum seal around its three main sensors in order to withstand harsh conditions on the Red Planet. Under what's known as the mission "replan," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will be responsible for redesigning, developing and qualifying the instrument's evacuated container and the electrical feedthroughs that failed previously. France's space agency, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), will focus on developing and delivering the key sensors for SEIS, integration of the sensors into the container, and the final integration of the instrument onto the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is contributing the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) to InSight's science payload. NASA's budget for InSight was $675 million. The instrument redesign and two-year delay add $153.8 million. The additional cost will not delay or cancel any current missions, though there may be fewer opportunities for new missions in future years, from fiscal years 2017-2020. InSight's primary goal is to help us understand how rocky planets formed and evolved. Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said, "We've concluded that a replanned InSight mission for launch in 2018 is the best approach to fulfill these long-sought, high-priority science objectives." CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall added, "This confirmation of the launch plan for InSight is excellent news and an unparalleled opportunity to learn more about the internal structure of the Red Planet, which is currently of major interest to the international science community." The InSight Project is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. |
Well, it was nice knowing you guys...
http://www.space.com/34070-earth-vul...id-strike.html Quote:
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Science, bitches.....
Auto-GCAS Saves Unconscious F-16 Pilot—Declassified USAF Footage This newly declassified video footage from the head-up-display of a U.S. Air Force Arizona Air National Guard F-16 records the dramatic moment when its unconscious pilot is saved from certain death by the aircraft’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS). <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WkZGL7RQBVw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The event is considered the fourth confirmed "save" of an aircraft by the system since Auto-GCAS was introduced into the Air Force F-16 fleet in late 2014. Developed over almost three decades by Lockheed Martin, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, the system is designed to automatically execute a ground-avoiding maneuver if it detects an impending collision. Aimed at reducing accidents caused by controlled flight into terrain by 90%, the system completed research and development under Air Combat Command’s Fighter Risk Reduction Program in 2010. It began transitioning to the Block 40/50 F-16 fleet in September 2014 as part of the M6.2+ Operational Flight Program (OFP) software update. Auto-GCAS continuously compares a prediction of the aircraft’s trajectory against a terrain profile generated from onboard terrain elevation data. If the predicted trajectory touches the terrain profile, which is indicated at the 26 sec. mark on the video at the moment when the two chevrons on the HUD come together, the automatic recovery is executed by the Auto GCAS autopilot. The automatic recovery maneuver consists of an abrupt roll-to-upright and a nominal 5-G pull until terrain clearance is assured. In this instance, an international F-16 student pilot was undergoing basic fighter maneuver training with his USAF instructor pilot in two separate F-16s over the U.S. southwest. The student rolled and started to pull the aircraft but experienced G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) as the F-16 hit around 8.3g. With the pilot now unconscious, the aircraft’s nose dropped and, from an altitude of just over 17,000 ft., entered a steepening dive in full afterburner. After only 22 sec., the F-16 was nose-down almost 50 deg. below the horizon and going supersonic. The shocked instructor called “2 recover!” as the student passed 12,320 ft. at 587 kt. Two seconds later, with the nose down in a 55-deg. dive, altitude at 10,800 ft. and speed passing 613 kt., the worried instructor again calls “2 recover!” In a little less than another 2 sec., as the now frantic instructor makes a third call for the student pilot to pull up, the Auto-GCAS executes a recovery maneuver at 8,760 ft. and 652 kt. The student pilot at this point comes around and pulls back on the stick, momentarily increasing Gs beyond the Auto-GCAS standard recovery level of 5 to 9.1. Minimum altitude by now is around 4,370 ft., with as little as 2,940 ft. indicated on the radar altimeter. From loss-of-control to recovery takes just under 30 sec. The Edwards AFB-based 416th Flight Test Sqdn.—which evaluated, perfected and tested the system prior to fleet release—is currently working on a follow-up Automatic Integrated Collision Avoidance System (Auto-ICAS) that combines the recently developed Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System (Auto-ACAS) with the ground protection provided by Auto-GCAS. By making the air-to-air collision avoidance system "ground aware," the Auto-ICAS will provide the world’s first all-aspect automatic protection system for a production aircraft. The 416th is also working on a Hybrid Flight Control Computer that will enable older analog F-16s to use digital applications like Auto-ACAS. VIDEO BELOW: During a 1-hr., 20-min. flight on the Air Force Research Laboratory/NASA F-16 testbed in 2010, Guy Norris observed a variety of scenarios, many flown at extremely low altitudes and high speed, designed to show how the automatic ground collision avoidance system will prevent mishaps while allowing the full range of tactical flying without triggering nuisance fly-ups. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ebs6dtuJdvc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> |
Paralyzed Man Regains Use of Arms and Hands After Experimental Stem Cell Therapy
http://i66.tinypic.com/rivzag.jpg Incredibly, Kris Boesen, who was paralyzed from his neck to his toes after a car accident, is regaining movement after receiving a stem cell injection into his spine. Keck Medical Center of USC today announced that a team of doctors became the first in California to inject an experimental treatment made from stem cells, AST-OPC1, into the damaged cervical spine of a recently paralyzed 21-year-old man as part of a multi-center clinical trial. On March 6, just shy of his 21st birthday, Kristopher (Kris) Boesen of Bakersfield suffered a traumatic injury to his cervical spine when his car fishtailed on a wet road, hit a tree and slammed into a telephone pole. Parents Rodney and Annette Boesen were warned there was a good chance their son would be permanently paralyzed from the neck down. However, they also learned that Kris could possibly qualify for a clinical study that might help. Leading the surgical team and working in collaboration with Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center and Keck Medicine of USC, Charles Liu, MD, PhD, director of the USC Neurorestoration Center, injected an experimental dose of 10 million AST-OPC1 cells directly into Kris' cervical spinal cord in early April. "Typically, spinal cord injury patients undergo surgery that stabilizes the spine but generally does very little to restore motor or sensory function," explains Liu. "With this study, we are testing a procedure that may improve neurological function, which could mean the difference between being permanently paralyzed and being able to use one's arms and hands. Restoring that level of function could significantly improve the daily lives of patients with severe spinal injuries." Two weeks after surgery, Kris began to show signs of improvement. Three months later, he's able to feed himself, use his cell phone, write his name, operate a motorized wheelchair and hug his friends and family. Improved sensation and movement in both arms and hands also makes it easier for Kris to care for himself, and to envision a life lived more independently. "As of 90 days post-treatment, Kris has gained significant improvement in his motor function, up to two spinal cord levels," said Dr. Liu. "In Kris' case, two spinal cord levels means the difference between using your hands to brush your teeth, operate a computer or do other things you wouldn't otherwise be able to do, so having this level of functional independence cannot be overstated." Doctors are careful not to predict Kris' future progress. "All I've wanted from the beginning was a fighting chance," said Kris, who has a passion for fixing up and driving sports cars and was studying to become a life insurance broker at the time of the accident. "But if there's a chance for me to walk again, then heck yeah! I want to do anything possible to do that." Qualifying for the Study Because the window for performing the surgery was tight, everything needed to go according to schedule in order for Kris to qualify. Once Kris made the decision to pursue enrollment in the study, dozens of doctors, nurses, rehabilitation specialists and others sprang into action. Because he would need to provide voice confirmation of his desire to participate in the study, Kris had to be able to breathe without a ventilator. Weaning a patient from assisted breathing generally is a three-week process. He did it in five days with the help of a respiratory care team. He signed the paperwork and began a week of assessments, scans and other pre-surgery tests. In early April, a surgical team from Keck Hospital of USC carefully injected 10 million AST-OPC1 cells directly into Kris' cervical spine. Nearly six weeks later, Kris was discharged and returned to Bakersfield to continue his rehabilitation. Doctors reviewed his progress at seven days, 30 days, 60 days and 90 days post-injection, and Kris can look forward to detailed assessments after 180 days, 270 days and one year. Rodney and Annette Boesen say they are amazed at the level of collaboration and cooperation that enabled their son to participate in the study. "So many things had to happen, and there were so many things that could have put up a roadblock," marvels Rodney. "The people at Keck Medical Center of USC and elsewhere moved heaven and earth to get things done. There was never a moment through all of this when we didn't think our son was getting world class care." About the Study The pioneering surgery is the latest example of how the emerging fields of neurorestoration and regenerative medicine may have the potential to improve the lives of thousands of patients who have suffered a severe spinal cord injury. The stem cell procedure Kris received is part of a Phase 1/2a clinical trial that is evaluating the safety and efficacy of escalating doses of AST-OPC1 cells developed by Fremont, California-based Asterias Biotherapeutics. . AST-OPC1 cells are made from embryonic stem cells by carefully converting them into oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), which are cells found in the brain and spinal cord that support the healthy functioning of nerve cells. In previous laboratory studies, AST-OPC1 was shown to produce neurotrophic factors, stimulate vascularization and induce remyelination of denuded axons. All are critical factors in the survival, regrowth and conduction of nerve impulses through axons at the injury site, according to Edward D. Wirth III, MD, PhD, chief medical director of Asterias and lead investigator of the study, dubbed "SCiStar." "At the 10 million cell level, we're now in a dose range that is the human equivalent of where we were when we saw efficacy in pre-clinical studies," says Wirth. "While we continue to evaluate safety first and foremost, we are also now looking at how well treatment might help restore movement in these patients." To qualify for the clinical trial, enrollees must be between the age of 18 and 69, and their condition must be stable enough to receive an injection of AST-OPC1 between the fourteenth and thirtieth days following injury. Keck is one of six sites in the U.S. authorized to enroll subjects and administer the clinical trial dosage. The first early data results from a group of patients in this study will become available on September 14, 2016. |
VIDEO: Watch Evolution Take Place Before Your Eyes
Bacteria evolve resistance to extreme doses of antibiotics in just a few days. Evolution is often thought of as an exceedingly slow process, requiring hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. But for bacteria, which reproduce once every 30 minutes or so, evolution can occur remarkably quickly. Their propensity for fast evolution means bacteria are capable of rapidly evolving antibiotic resistance — a “significant and growing medical problem across the globe,” according to Gerard Wright, a scientist at the Michael G DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research in Canada. Now, scientists at Harvard Medical School have created a large device — the microbial evolution and growth arena (MEGA) plate — that allows them to visualize the evolution of antibiotic resistance through time and space. The rectangular petri dish, more than a meter long, is coated with a gradient of antibiotic doses. The outer edges are antibiotic-free, but moving inward, antibiotic strength increases 10-fold each step of the way. The very center of the dish is a highly toxic zone, seemingly unsuitable for bacterial growth. <iframe width="860" height="484" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yybsSqcB7mE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Michael Baym, lead scientist on the project, filmed E. coli growing on the MEGA plate over 11 days. The first colonists flourish in the antibiotic-free zones on either edge of the plate, where they quickly multiply until food and space run low. Soon enough, a mutant that can withstand exposure to low levels of the antibiotic invariably arises on the frontline of the culture, and ventures into the unoccupied zone next door to reproduce. Once again, space and food soon become limiting factors for these antibiotic-resistant mutants, and when an even more resistant mutant arises, the next zone over opens up for colonization. By the end of the experiment, the E. coli had evolved to be 10,000 times more resistant to trimethoprim and 100,000 times more resistant to ciprofloxacin — both of which are antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections in humans. The video demonstrates visually how, through successive mutations, “bacteria which are normally sensitive to an antibiotic can evolve resistance to extremely high concentrations in a short period of time,” Baym states. The MEGA plate and experiments are described in detail in a paper published in Science. |
I hope they nuked that Petri dish.
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