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Jan 27, 2022

This disappearing space object is emitting giant, highly-polarized radio bursts every 20 minutes

Posted by in category: space

“Somehow it’s converting magnetic energy to radio waves much more effectively than anything we’ve seen before,” team leader Dr. Hurley-Walker said.

Jan 26, 2022

Solar panel technology breakthrough to increase efficiency

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

How can solar panels be more efficient? Breakthrough research out of Cambridge could see solar panel technology reach 35% efficiency by 2025.

Jan 26, 2022

SpaceX’s Starship Will Be Capable Of Capturing Satellites To Be Repaired In Orbit Or Returned To Earth

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, robotics/AI, satellites, sustainability

SpaceX’s Starship will be a multipurpose launch vehicle, capable of returning astronauts to the Moon to build a permanent base and enabling humanity to build a sustainable colony on Mars. It is expected to become the world’s most powerful rocket-ship. “Starship was designed from the onset to be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo to Mars and the Moon. The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport. Various payload bay configurations are available and allow for fully autonomous deployment of cargo to Earth, Lunar, or Martian surfaces,” the company said.

SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle has many potential uses and capabilities that will enable access to space like never before. The cargo version of Starship will be able to launch entire satellite constellations in a single launch inside its payload bay. For perspective, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can carry up to 60 Starlink in a tight configuration inside its 5.2-meter diameter fairing, Starship will be able to carry 400 Starlink to deploy in a single launch inside its fairing. Starship will be capable of deploying giant spacecraft to space inside its clamshell-like fairing, which has an outer diameter of 9-meters –“the largest usable payload volume of any current or in development launcher,” the company says. SpaceX also plans to design an extended Starship volume capability for payloads requiring up to 22-meters of height.

Starship will also be able to capture already in orbit to be repaired or brought back to be disposed of on Earth, according to SpaceX’s Starship User Guide. “Fully-reusable Starship and Super Heavy systems are expected to allow for space-based activities that have not been possible since the retirement of the Space Shuttle and Space Transportation System, or have never been possible before. With a fully reusable Starship, can be captured and repaired in Orbit, returned to Earth, or transferred to a new operational orbit,” SpaceX’s vehicle guide says. This will be possible with Starship’s large clamshell-like cargo door mechanism that opens and closes, as shown in the image below. The clamshell door can be modified to “chomp up” old and space junk orbiting Earth. “We can fly Starship around space and chomp up debris with the moving fairing door,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in July 2021.

Jan 26, 2022

‘X particle’ from the dawn of time detected inside the Large Hadron Collider

Posted by in category: particle physics

The particle was found by smashing billions of lead atoms into each other at extreme speeds.

Jan 26, 2022

New private messaging app claims to be decentralized and quantum-resistant

Posted by in category: quantum physics

David Chaum, the developer of Ecash, has launched XX Messenger, which claims to be a private messaging service that is quantum-resistant, keeping user data perfectly secure.

Jan 26, 2022

Pfizer pushes to intervene in lawsuit seeking COVID vaccine information from FDA

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, law

Pfizer Inc wants to intervene in a Texas federal lawsuit seeking information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used in licensing the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, a litigation move that plaintiffs who are suing for the data say is premature.

Pfizer’s lawyers at DLA Piper told U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman on Jan. 21 it wanted a role in the proceedings to help the FDA avoid “inappropriately” disclosing trade secret and confidential commercial information.


Visit the COVID-19 Information Center for vaccine resources.

Continue reading “Pfizer pushes to intervene in lawsuit seeking COVID vaccine information from FDA” »

Jan 26, 2022

Harley-Davidson’s latest LiveWire electric motorcycle is more affordable

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Circa 2021


When Harley-Davidson debuted its first electric motorcycle back in 2019, it was held back by an expensive price tag and early production issues. After spinning out LiveWire as a separate brand earlier this year, the company is back with its second electric bike, and it looks to address those issues.

The most eye-catching feature of Harley-Davidson’s new LiveWire One is its price tag. The electric motorcycle will cost $21,999. That’s almost $8,000 less than the $29,799 the original LiveWire sold for when it came out in 2019. With federal subsidies, Harley-Davidson told The Verge it expects most people will be able to buy the LiveWire One for less than $20,000.

Continue reading “Harley-Davidson’s latest LiveWire electric motorcycle is more affordable” »

Jan 26, 2022

‘Spooky’ object that unleashes periodic bursts of energy detected in Milky Way

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Astronomers observed a mysterious object in the Milky Way that periodically releases a giant burst of energy. The object could be a magnetar, a type of neutron star.

Jan 26, 2022

Gaming will lead us to the metaverse

Posted by in category: entertainment

When CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s name to Meta and committed to the metaverse, he said that gaming would lead the way.

That’s an interesting comment, considering that Facebook has billions of social media users, while game companies like Roblox and Microsoft (Minecraft) have amassed hundreds of millions of gamers. In fact, the entire game industry’s reach is about as big as Facebook’s alone, at around three billion people.

Though, the numbers of users isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to building a metaverse that people actually want to go to. It’s challenging to predict who will win, as the incumbents in the space — game companies — may not have an advantage if another party enters the space and creates an ambitious next-generation metaverse. But it is important to note that, Zuckerberg isn’t alone in believing in gaming.

Jan 26, 2022

Benchmarks Confirm Intel’s Latest Core i9 Chip Outperforms Apple’s M1 Max With Several Caveats

Posted by in category: computing

Benchmark results have started to surface for MSI’s new GE76 Raider, one of the first laptops to be powered by Intel’s new 12th-generation Core i9 processor.

Intel previously said that its new high-end Core i9 processor is faster than Apple’s M1 Max chip in the 16-inch MacBook Pro and, as noted by Macworld, early Geekbench 5 results do appear to confirm this claim, but there are several caveats as usual.