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Innovation.


The U.S. Air Force plans to have an operational combat drone by 2023. The service plans to build out a family of unmanned aircraft, known as Skyborg, capable of carrying weapons and actively participating in combat. The Air Force’s goal is to build up a large fleet of armed, sort-of disposable jets that don’t need conventional runways to take off and land.

The Air Force, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, expects to have the first operational Skyborg aircraft ready by 2023. Skyborg will be available with both subsonic and supersonic engines, indicating both attack and fighter jet versions. The basic design (or designs) will likely be stealthy, carrying guided bombs, air defense suppression missiles, and air-to-air missiles inside internal weapons bays. Interesting, according to AvWeek, the Air Force is considering Skyborg as a replacement not only for the MQ-9 Reaper attack drone but early versions of the F-16 manned fighter.

This my sleep was about the same as the previous week. I had great energy throughout the week when going through my exercise routines.

Sunday-6/28- Biked 48 km. 1 hour Yin Yoga. Stem Cell Neurotherapy 1 hour. 7 hours of sleep.

Monday-6/29- Biked 9 km. 1 hour Power Vinyasa Yoga. Swam 12 laps. 4/8 breathing*10. Stem Cell Neurotherapy 1 hour. 8.5 hours of sleep. Felt great today!

Tuesday-6/30- Biked 11 km. 15 Minutes Yoga for the side body, 15 minutes Yoga Standing forward folds, 5 Minute Handstand practice. 4/8 breathing*10. Stem Cell Neurotherapy 1 hour. 6 Hours of sleep. Tired for the first part of the day until I went biking.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been traced as far back as a century ago, but it wasn’t identified until the 1980s, when it captured public attention for causing a sweeping wave of deaths.

About 32 million people have died from HIV and AIDS, which is the term for the range of conditions caused by the virus. A cure for HIV has so far been elusive, but hope has flickered anew because two people who received a stem cell transplant are now clear of the disease. Hope, though, can be held with only great reservation because of beliefs in previous efforts for a cure that failed. Not to mention, stem cell transplants are risky for those who don’t have cancer.

Still, any bit of hope for an end to HIV means that work for a cure continues apace, giving the nearly 38 million people living with the disease something to hold onto.

Our Parker Solar Probe was at the right place at the right time to capture a unique view of comet #NEOWISE on July 5. Parker Solar Probe’s position in space gave the spacecraft an unmatched view of the comet’s twin tails when it was particularly active just after its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion. https://go.nasa.gov/3fkqTdm

The first image is unprocessed data from Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, which takes images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind in visible light.

The twin tails of comet NEOWISE are seen more clearly in the second image. This version of the image has been processed to increase contrast and remove excess brightness from scattered sunlight, revealing more detail in the comet tails.

“I have seen my fair share of spacecraft being lifted onto rockets,” said John McNamee, project manager for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “But this one is special because there are so many people who contributed to this moment. To each one of them I want to say, we got here together, and we’ll make it to Mars the same way.”

With the mating of spacecraft and booster complete, the final testing of the two (separately and as one unit) will be underway. Then two days before the July 30 launch, the Atlas V will leave the Vertical Integration Facility for good. Traveling by rail, it will cover the 1,800 feet (550 meters) to the launch pad in about 40 minutes. From there, Perseverance has about seven months and 290 million miles (467 million kilometers) to go before arriving at Mars.

Neurons, specialized cells that transmit nerve impulses, have long been known to be a vital element for the functioning of the human brain. Over the past century, however, neuroscience research has given rise to the false belief that neurons are the only cells that can process and learn information. This misconception or ‘neurocomputing dogma’ is far from true.

An is a different type of cell that has recently been found to do a lot more than merely fill up spaces between neurons, as researchers believed for over a century. Studies are finding that these cells also play key roles in brain functions, including learning and central pattern generation (CPG), which is the basis for critical rhythmic behaviors such as breathing and walking.

Although astrocytes are now known to underlie numerous brain functions, most existing inspired by the only target the structure and function of neurons. Aware of this gap in existing literature, researchers at Rutgers University are developing brain-inspired algorithms that also account for and replicate the functions of astrocytes. In a paper pre-published on arXiv and set to be presented at the ICONS 2020 Conference in July, they introduce a neuromorphic central pattern generator (CPG) modulated by artificial astrocytes that successfully entrained several rhythmic walking behaviors in their in-house robots.