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Mar 14, 2022

NASA announces Artemis lunar rocket is ready for critical test on Thursday

Posted by in category: space travel

The SLS rocket is set to launch this summer.


NASA will roll out its SLS rocket to prepare for a wet dress rehearsal ahead of the Artemis mission.

Mar 14, 2022

SpaceX drone ship leaves port for sixth back-to-back Starlink launch

Posted by in categories: drones, economics, internet, satellites

SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) has departed Port Canaveral in anticipation of the company’s sixth consecutive Starlink launch.

Known as Starlink 4–12, the mission will be SpaceX’s sixth uninterrupted Starlink launch – just shy of the company’s record of seven Starlink launches between commercial payloads. Though SpaceX would probably prefer to avoid month-long streaks without commercial launches, the company’s ability to use its own launch capabilities to deploy its Starlink constellation means that it can maintain valuable economies of scale while simultaneously launching satellites that generate some revenue.

With approximately 200,000 active subscribers, Starlink should already be generating around ~$250 million in annual revenue – perhaps enough to pay for anywhere from five to ten Starlink launches. Viewed another way, $250M would also pay the average annual salaries of more than 2,300 employees. Even if it doesn’t come close to the $1–2 billion SpaceX is likely spending annually on Starlink development, deployment, and operations, it’s still better than the alternative that all other launch providers are left with: nothing.

Mar 14, 2022

Researchers Use Flat Lenses for Realistic-Looking 3D Displays Without Glasses

Posted by in category: electronics

New approach lays groundwork for compact 3D displays that create more realistic virtual scenes.

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype glasses-free 3D light field display system with a significantly extended viewing distance thanks to a newly developed flat lens. The system is an important step toward compact, realistic-looking 3D displays that could be used for televisions, portable electronics, and table-top devices.

Light field displays use a dense field of light rays to produce full-color real-time 3D videos that can be viewed without glasses. This approach to creating a 3D display allows several people to view the virtual scene at once, much like a real 3D object.

Mar 14, 2022

Researchers figured out how the human brain makes memories

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Scientists identified and observed cells in the human brain that act as filing systems for everything we observe. Could we use this for AI? property= description.

Mar 14, 2022

Why Starship is the holy grail for SpaceX

Posted by in categories: internet, space travel

SpaceX is counting on Starship rockets to carry more than 100 metric tons of cargo and crew per launch and help build out the company’s prized Starlink unit.

Mar 14, 2022

Expedition to highest active volcano seeks to unearth clues about life on other worlds

Posted by in category: alien life

A harsh sun shines down through a cloudless sky, across a vast and unforgiving landscape. It’s covered in gray rock, giant ice sculptures and expansive fields of spiky, yellow and orange bushes. In the distance, intimidating mountain peaks dominate the desolate scene, many miles from the nearest town. Yet alpacas roam freely and flamingos seek out scarce water, both unexpected sights in this wild world.

The resembles something from a sci-fi film or another planet, but it’s right here on Earth, on the flanks of the world’s highest active volcano, 22,615-foot Ojos del Salado. Here, on the border of Argentina and Chile, a team of CU Boulder scientists seek to discover how tiny organisms persist at one of the driest and highest points on the planet.

This first-of-its-kind project may ultimately help inform the search for existing and extinct life on other planets.

Mar 14, 2022

Researchers find new destructive wiper malware in Ukraine

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

It’s at least the third strain of wiper since the conflict began.


Researchers from cybersecurity firm ESET have discovered a new destructive wiper malware, dubbed CaddyWiper, that is affecting computer networks in Ukraine.

Mar 14, 2022

Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes

Posted by in category: cosmology

“People keep finding more of them,” said Ryan Hickox, an astronomer at Dartmouth College who recently helped locate one himself. “There may be a lot more of these things in these galaxies than we could find using the traditional techniques.”

Off the Map

Dwarf galaxies are relatively uncharted astronomical territory. Ten to 100 times lighter than the Milky Way, they lack the gravitational moxie to pull themselves into the tidy round shapes amenable to theorizing. They’re also patchy, dim and generally hard to study in detail. “They’re a total mess,” Volonteri said.

Mar 14, 2022

Scientists Discover Promising New Electrolyte for Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

New battery material offers promise for the development of all-solid batteries.

In the quest for the perfect battery, scientists have two primary goals: create a device that can store a great deal of energy and do it safely. Many batteries contain liquid electrolytes, which are potentially flammable.

As a result, solid-state lithium-ion batteries, which consist of entirely solid components, have become increasingly attractive to scientists because they offer an enticing combination of higher safety and increased energy density — which is how much energy the battery can store for a given volume.

Mar 14, 2022

Creating sub-1-nm gate lengths for MoS2 transistors

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology, particle physics

A team of researchers working at Tsinghua University in China has created a sub-1-nm gate in a MoS2 transistor. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group outlines how they created the super tiny gate and explains why they believe it will be difficult for anyone to beat their record.

For most of the history of microcomputing, Moore’s Law has held up—researchers and engineers have managed to double the speed and capability of computers regularly by reducing the size of their components. But more recently, it has grown increasingly difficult to make components smaller as scientists now run into . In this new effort, the researchers believe they may have bumped up against the ultimate limit—they have built a gate that is just one atom in length.

At their most basic, transistors are a source and a drain, with a gate controlling the flow of electricity between them. It switches on and off depending on how much electricity is applied. The push to reduce the size of the components has led to the testing of materials such as carbon nanotubes, which are approximately 1nm, for use as gates. In this new effort, the researchers have unrolled the and used its graphene edge as the gate—reducing its length to just 0.34 nm.