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takyon writes:

You can now reserve a stay in an upcoming "luxury space hotel" for a "fully refundable" $80,000 deposit:

Well-heeled will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition. That startup, called Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022. "We are launching the first-ever affordable luxury space hotel," said Orion Span founder and CEO Frank Bunger, who unveiled the Aurora Station idea today (April 5) at the Space 2.0 Summit in San Jose, California.

"Affordable" is a relative term: A 12-day stay aboard Aurora Station will start at $9.5 million. Still, that's quite a bit less than orbital tourists have paid in the past. From 2001 through 2009, seven private citizens took a total of eight trips to the (ISS), paying an estimated $20 million to $40 million each time. (These private missions were brokered by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures and employed Russian Soyuz spacecraft and rockets.)

[...] Orion Span is building Aurora Station itself, Bunger added. The company — some of whose key engineering players have helped design and operate the ISS — is manufacturing the hotel in Houston and developing the software required to run it in the Bay Area, he said.

Aurora Station will orbit at an altitude of 200 miles (~322 km). The pressurized volume of the entire station is planned to be 160 cubic meters initially, compared to 916 m³ for the International Space Station, 330 m³ for a Bigelow B330 inflatable module, and 2,250 m³ for Bigelow's BA 2100 concept module. However, the company plans to expand Aurora Station with additional modules in the future, and may lease them out for long-term residents.

Also at the Orlando Sentinel and Space News.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Elon Musk's Tesla, Inc. has been having some problems recently. But one easy-to-overlook problem is the debt incurred by its SolarCity subsidiary:

But 16 months after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk kicked up controversy by acquiring the solar-panel installer founded by two of his cousins, its obligations are a strain on Tesla's finances. The $2 billion purchase came with a $2.9 billion debt load, and a chunk of that is soon coming due. That's bad timing for a company churning through about $6,500 a minute and trying to stave off the need for another capital raise. "SolarCity debt may not be the immediate cause of Tesla's problems, but it certainly isn't helping right now," said Alexander Diaz-Matos, an analyst at credit research firm Covenant Review LLC.

[...] Tesla's debt runs the gamut -- convertible bonds, promissory notes, term loans, cash-equity debt, asset-backed securities. Most of the total is tied to Tesla the automaker. But the energy unit, which includes the solar business, accounts for 27 of the 29 maturities set to come due through 2019.

[...] In recent months, Tesla's solar business lost the residential-solar throne to rival Sunrun Inc., a San Francisco-based installer with a market capitalization about half the SolarCity purchase price. Tesla ceded market share as it attempted to boost energy-unit profitability and scrapped SolarCity's costly door-to-door retail sales strategy. That was a smart move, according to Ross Gerber, co-founder of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, which oversees more than $10 million in Tesla shares and options. He criticized the SolarCity deal but is still bullish on the company and Musk. "SolarCity was probably going to go bankrupt," Gerber said.

[...] For his part, Musk hasn't wavered from his commitment to turn Tesla into a one-stop shop selling solar panels to capture power, devices to store the energy and cars that can be charged in the garage. The company started producing photovoltaic glass tiles in December at a factory in Buffalo, New York, and has begun selling solar at some of its own stores and through retailer Home Depot Inc.

At least Tesla production is higher than ever.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

For children with severe cerebral palsy (CP), surgery for scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) significantly improves the quality of life (QoL) for them and their caregivers, reports a study in the April 4, 2018, issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

"Scoliosis surgery in patients with CP leads to a significant improvement in health-related QoL, which is maintained five years following surgery," write Firoz Miyanji, MD, of British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, and colleagues from seven other North American medical centers. Their study provides evidence that surgery for scoliosis improves outcomes important to severely disabled children with CP and their parents/caregivers -- outweighing the substantial rate of complications during the first year after surgery.

[...] Surgery may be performed to stop scoliosis progression. However, the true benefits of surgery in improving QoL are difficult to quantify in these complex cases. Dr. Miyanji and colleagues used a validated questionnaire specifically designed for evaluation of children with severe CP -- the Caregiver Priorities and Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities, or "CPCHILD" -- to assess the impact of scoliosis surgery at one, two, and five years postoperatively.

Scoliosis surgery significantly reduced the spinal curvature. On a standard x-ray measurement (Cobb angle), the curve was reduced from the severe to the mild-to-moderate range, on average. The improvement remained stable through two and five years after surgery.

Analysis of the CPCHILD scores showed improvements QoL for the patients with CP and their caregivers. In addition to improvement in the total CPCHILD score, there were improvements in the areas of personal care, positioning, and comfort. Overall, 92 percent of caregivers reported that their child's QoL was better one year after scoliosis surgery. Like the x-ray improvements, the gains in QoL persisted throughout follow-up.

As in previous studies of scoliosis surgery in children with CP, complications were common. This was especially so during the first year after surgery, when 46 percent of patients experienced a complication, most commonly pneumonia and surgical site infections. However, the first-year complications had little or no impact on QoL outcomes.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

During a recent SpaceX launch for Iridium, the live coverage of the mission was cut off early, with the host pointing to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) restrictions on launches that don't obtain a license. While SpaceX may have been breaking the law on previous missions that it had broadcasted without obtaining a license, it appears that nobody at NOAA realized until the high-profile maiden launch of Falcon Heavy. However, there is also a dispute over whether NOAA approached SpaceX about the issue or SpaceX voluntarily asked for a license:

NOAA had recently told the company to get a license for the cameras on the rocket, SpaceX said after the launch. The reason? The cameras take video of the Earth from orbit, and NOAA regulates imagery of Earth taken from space, thanks to a 26-year-old law. However, this was the first time SpaceX needed to get a license for its cameras. SpaceX filed a license application just four days before the launch, but NOAA couldn't approve the use of the cameras in time. (Reviews can take up to 120 days, NOAA says.) And so there was a blackout when the Falcon 9 reached orbit.

[Updated (2018-04-06 22:18 UTC): According to a report at c|net, the breach also affected: Sears, Kmart, and now Best Buy, too. --martyb]

takyon writes:

Delta Says Data Exposed for 'Several Hundred Thousand' Customers

Delta Air Lines Inc. said a cyber attack on a contractor potentially exposed the payment information of "several hundred thousand customers."

A data breach from Sept. 26 to Oct. 12 at a company called [24]7.ai allowed unauthorized access to customers' names, address, payment-card information, CVV numbers and expiration dates, Delta said in a statement Thursday. The vendor, which provides online chat services to Delta, notified the carrier and other clients last week.

[...] Delta said it wasn't yet able to say how many customers actually had their data stolen. The information was at risk if a customer entered data manually online to complete a payment transaction, Delta said. Data from customers who used a program called Delta Wallet weren't compromised.

Delta statement and response website.

Also at The Verge.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Virgin Galactic spacecraft performs the first powered flight since fatal 2014 crash

Richard Branson's fledgling space tourism company Virgin Galactic performed a powered flight of its spacecraft today, the first since a fatal crash in 2014.

Virgin's spacecraft is unlike others because it is launched mid-flight by a larger plane called White Knight Two. This particular version of the spacecraft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, has performed seven glide tests since it was built in 2016. Like those previous tests, it was carried high above the Mojave Desert by White Knight Two and released at 46,000 feet. But today, pilots Mark Stucky and Dave Mackay fired Unity's engine and continued skyward.

The spaceplane's engine burned for 30 seconds, pushing the Unity supersonic to Mach 1.87 before the engines cut off. It coasted to 84,000 feet before gliding down again for a safe landing at the company's spaceport back in Mojave. White Knight Two safely touched down roughly 30 minutes later.

Also at CNN and Bloomberg.

Original Submission

JoeMerchant writes:

The brain cell debate rages on with this just in from Research Gate:

Our brains keep making new neurons throughout our lifespan, a quality unique to humans.

A newly released study⁰ is the first to show that healthy older people continue to produce new brain cells. Researchers autopsied 28 healthy brains donated by people who had no neuropsychiatric disease or treatment affecting the brain.

Here we assessed whole autopsy hippocampi from healthy human individuals ranging from 14 to 79 years of age. We found similar numbers of intermediate neural progenitors and thousands of immature neurons in the DG, comparable numbers of glia and mature granule neurons, and equivalent DG volume across ages.

But, does it really matter if you still can't teach the old dogs new tricks?

Also at CUMC Newsroom

⁰Full access requires a cell.com account.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Metallic conductivity and hydrophilicity of MXenes have established them as electrodes in rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, as well as other applications, including photothermal cancer therapy, electromagnetic shielding, water purification and gas sensing. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers have now introduced a new production method. Instead of using conventional, yet more expensive, titanium aluminum carbide, they selectively etch silicon out of titanium silicon carbide, a cheaper and more common precursor, to synthesize titanium carbide.

Two-dimensional materials, consisting of extremely thin layers that are a few atoms thick, have unique properties that are completely different than the normal three-dimensional versions. A prominent example of this is graphene, which is made of single layers of carbon atoms. In 2011, a new class of two-dimensional materials was synthesized at Drexel University in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA). Known as MXenes, the materials are made of transition metal carbides and nitrides, where the M stands for a transition metal, such as titanium, vanadium, or molybdenum, X can be carbon and/or nitrogen, and many compositions are available (about 30 have already been experimentally demonstrated and dozens more are expected). One such MXene is titanium carbide, Ti(3)C(2).

takyon writes:

Although the Google Lunar X Prize ended without any teams landing rovers on the Moon, some teams still intended to complete the mission. Now the X Prize Foundation has announced that the competition will continue without prize money, although a new sponsor could change that:

Just a few days after the Google Lunar X Prize ended without a winner, the X Prize Foundation announced today that it's relaunching its competition to send a private spacecraft to the Moon. The competition will be "non-cash," meaning it won't have prize money for whichever team first completes its mission to the lunar surface — at least for now. The foundation is looking for a new sponsor that can replace Google and provide funding.

"We are extraordinarily grateful to Google for funding the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE between September 2007 and March 31st, 2018. While that competition is now over, there are at least five teams with launch contracts that hope to land on the Lunar surface in the next two years," Peter H. Diamandis, X Prize founder and executive chairman, said in a statement. "Because of this tremendous progress, and near-term potential, XPRIZE is now looking for our next visionary Title Sponsor who wants to put their logo on these teams and on the lunar surface."

One of the teams, Moon Express, had contracted with Rocket Lab to launch a payload to the Moon using an Electron rocket, but Rocket Lab only reached Earth orbit for the first time in January 2018.

Previously: Moon Express and Rocket Lab Team Up for 2017 Lunar Mission
Google Lunar XPrize Deadline Revised; New Prizes Available

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

We've been following Zipline very closely for the last few years. The delivery drone startup has been operating in Rwanda since October of 2016, using small autonomous fixed-wing aircraft to paradrop critical blood products to rural medical clinics. The system is able to get blood from a centralized distribution center to where it's needed in minutes, independent of time of day, traffic, or weather. Zipline now manages 20 percent of rural Rwanda's blood supply, and has flown more than 300,000 kilometers (km) worth of commercial deliveries, carrying some 7,000 units of blood.

Today, Zipline is announcing major upgrades to its entire delivery system, introducing a bigger drone that can deliver blood faster and more efficiently than ever. The new hardware is already flying in Rwanda, and Zipline plans to bring their drones to the U.S. to demonstrate medical product delivery in suburban and rural areas later this year.

While we won't go into an exhaustive analysis of what makes the new drone special [...], CEO Keller Rinaudo [*] did give us a few details about how much work Zipline put into the redesign. "Everything has changed," Rinaudo says. "We've spent the last year taking everything we learned from operating the system at national scale, and integrating that into a totally new platform. All of these iterations and improvements have come directly from serving patients, saving lives, and figuring out what those people need from a better system."

[*] As link appeared in original as a Google link to Linkedin url: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keller-rinaudo-0198b018&usg=AOvVaw1wbxPkJ9k-Sb_JAfYyhILQ. --martyb

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The British government has declared it is waiting for industry and international regulators to start creating standards for autonomous vehicles.

In a letter to the House of Lords, which had raised a number of questions about the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill currently before Parliament, junior transport minister Baroness Sugg said the government is holding back until the various technologies have matured enough to be regulated without harming innovation.

"Whilst we do know that there will be different types of automated vehicles, with varying levels of sophistication, it is not possible at this stage to state what those changes will be. With this in mind it would not be appropriate to set definitive regulations in legislation at this time," wrote the baroness.

Her letter (PDF, 4 pages) explained that future autonomous vehicles intended for road use in the UK will probably go through the standard UK type certification process, as for every other type of road vehicle. Type approval is a blanket process.

"It is worth noting," added Baroness Sugg in her letter, "that necessary powers already exist to create new Motor Vehicle Construction and Use Regulations for automated vehicles through the Road Traffic Act 1988. It is for this reason that new regulation making powers are not necessary in the Bill."

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

Despite seeing it millions of times in pretty much every picture book, every novel, every newspaper and every email message, people are essentially unaware of the more common version of the lowercase print letter "g," Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

Most people don't even know that two forms of the letter -- one usually handwritten, the other typeset -- exist. And if they do, they can't write the typeset one we usually see. They can't even pick the correct version of it out of a lineup.

[...] Unlike most letters, "g" has two lowercase print versions. There's the opentail one that most everyone uses when writing by hand; it looks like a loop with a fishhook hanging from it. Then there's the looptail g, which is by far the more common, seen in everyday fonts like Times New Roman and Calibri and, hence, in most printed and typed material.

Source: http://releases.jhu.edu/2018/04/03/jhu-finds-letter-weve-seen-millions-of-times-yet-cant-write/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

South Korean university boycotted over 'killer robots'

Leading AI experts have boycotted a South Korean university over a partnership with weapons manufacturer Hanwha Systems. More than 50 AI researchers from 30 countries signed a letter expressing concern about its plans to develop artificial intelligence for weapons. In response, the university said it would not be developing "autonomous lethal weapons". The boycott comes ahead of a UN meeting to discuss killer robots.

Shin Sung-chul, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist), said: "I reaffirm once again that Kaist will not conduct any research activities counter to human dignity including autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control. Kaist is significantly aware of ethical concerns in the application of all technologies including artificial intelligence." He went on to explain that the university's project was centred on developing algorithms for "efficient logistical systems, unmanned navigation and aviation training systems".

Also at The Guardian and CNN.

Related: U.N. Starts Discussion on Lethal Autonomous Robots
UK Opposes "Killer Robot" Ban

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Scientists have harvested the first vegetables grown in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse at Germany's Neumeyer-Station III in Antarctica. 3.6 kg of salad greens, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes were grown inside the greenhouse, which uses a closed water cycle with no soil.

An air management system controls the temperature and humidity, removes contaminants (such as ethylene, microbes, and viruses) and regulates the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide to optimize growth. Water-cooled LEDs deliver lighting with a spectrum that is 15% blue (400-500 nm), 10% green (500-600 nm), ~75% red (600-700 nm), and ~2% far-red (700-750 nm). A nutrient delivery system stores stock solutions, acids/bases, deionized water, and nutrient solution, and pumps them into the cultivation system as needed.

The final crop yield for the shipping container sized facility is estimated to be 4.25 kg per week (250g each of lettuce, chard, rugula, and spinach, 1 kg of tomatoes, 600g of sweet peppers, 1 kg of cucumbers, 250g of radishes, 100g of strawberries, and 300g of herbs). The purpose of the project is to test food production technologies that could be used on the International Space System, Moon, Mars missions, etc. It will also provide fresh food supplementation year-round for the crew of Neumeyer-Station III (estimated population of 9 in the winter, 50 in the summer).

EDEN-ISS has some advantages (open, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.60431) (DX) over the ISS's current Veggie system, including a higher available growth surface, longer possible production cycle using complete nutrient solution circulation, better reliability and safety, and the ability to grow taller crops (up to 60 cm). The system is designed to be flown to the ISS as a payload of EDR II experimental inserts.

Related: Tomorrow, NASA Astronauts Will Finally Eat Fresh, Microgravity-Grown Veggies
SpaceX Launches CRS-14 Resupply Mission to the ISS (carried the competing Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Research published today in Nature has found that many of the viruses infecting us today have ancient evolutionary histories that date back to the first vertebrates and perhaps the first animals in existence.

[...] The researchers discovered 214 novel RNA viruses (where the genomic material is RNA rather than DNA) in apparently healthy reptiles, amphibians, lungfish, ray-finned fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish.

"This study reveals some groups of virus have been in existence for the entire evolutionary history of the vertebrates -- it transforms our understanding of virus evolution," said Professor Eddie Holmes, of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases & Biosecurity at the University of Sydney.

"For the first time we can definitely show that RNA viruses are many millions of years old, and have been in existence since the first vertebrates existed.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Broadcom has moved back to the U.S. from Singapore, which could allow it to circumvent the mighty power of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which blocked its takeover attempt of Qualcomm last month. The company's co-headquarters in San Jose, California will become the sole headquarters of the redomiciled company:

Broadcom said on Wednesday it had completed its move back to the United States from Singapore, weeks after President Donald Trump blocked its $117 billion offer to buy Qualcomm on national security grounds.

Broadcom, which was a U.S. company until it was bought in 2016 by Singapore's Avago, had announced its plan to redomicile on Nov. 2, days before making its first offer for Qualcomm.

[...] The move to the United States could allow Broadcom to buy U.S. companies without coming under the scrutiny of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which has the power to stop deals that could harm national security.