Lifeboat Foundation

The future of mass depends on a conference vote next week.

A long-discussed resolution for next week’s General Conference on Weights and Measures would toss out the international prototype of the kilogram—a hunk of platinum and iridium in Paris that everyone agrees weighs 1 kilogram. Instead, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) would redefine the International System of Units to ensure that kilograms are based on things that can’t change over time. It would require an entire rethinking of how kilograms work.

The Solar Decathlon deadline is today! (And actually, you have until 5 p.m. Eastern. smile ) Teams, we want to see you at the National Showcase Build Challenge culminating at the 2020 @SmithsonianFolk Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. https://www.solardecathlon.gov/about-apply.html

The Wellcome Trust, which gave out £1.1 billion (US$1.4 billion) in grants in 2016–17, is also the first funder to detail how it intends to implement Plan S. Its approach suggests that journals may not need to switch wholesale to open-access (OA) models by 2020 to be compliant with Plan S — if the initiative’s other backers decide on a similar line.

The Wellcome Trust has also announced how it will implement the plan, which could provide a blueprint for others.

Two different spacecraft are currently preparing to swipe a hunk of two different asteroids that they’ve been journeying toward for the past few years. The asteroids could also be among the most profitable to mine for resources at some point in the future.

The finding could help answer a longstanding question of how massive stone blocks were hauled into place.

• By Owen Jarus, LiveScience on November 5, 2018

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Huge facilities, typically the size of several football stadiums, usually generate synchrotron radiation. The new device is smaller than a match.

Are we ready for this?