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Aug 19, 2024

Cutting-Edge Roman Telescope Instrument Arrives at NASA’s Goddard Ready to Unravel Cosmic Mysteries

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a next-generation observatory that will survey the infrared universe from beyond the orbit of the Moon. The spacecraft’s giant camera, the Wide Field Instrument, will be fundamental to this exploration. Data it gathers will enable scientists to discover new and uniquely detailed information about planetary systems around other stars. The instrument will also map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos, which could ultimately allow scientists to discover the fate of the universe. Watch this video to see a simplified version of how the Wide Field Instrument works. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Unprecedented Observational Capability

Continue reading “Cutting-Edge Roman Telescope Instrument Arrives at NASA’s Goddard Ready to Unravel Cosmic Mysteries” »

Aug 19, 2024

Inside The Engine Accelerator, the anti-Y Combinator for ‘tough tech’ startups

Posted by in categories: innovation, space

“That is a highlight of this building that it’s very close to talent — people who are still in this area because they just graduated,” said Knight, The Engine Accelerator’s president and chief executive.

The Engine Accelerator is where companies solving hard problems get off the ground. It’s part coworking space, with open desks, office suites, and conference rooms for rent. It’s part startup accelerator, hosting a high-octane circle of young scientists and engineers who need help turning their ideas into full-fledged operations.

If WeWork and Y Combinator had a baby, and that baby wanted to bring breakthrough research out of the lab and into the real world, it’d look something like The Engine.

Aug 19, 2024

Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane to use new Kennedy Space Center prep facility

Posted by in category: space travel

“Once it leaves our facility, it hits the launch pad and launches into space,” he said.

Final testing and launch preparations for Dream Chaser’s maiden flight remain ongoing at KSC. The 30-foot-long cargo space plane — named Tenacity — arrived at the Cape in mid-May from NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

Aug 19, 2024

Engineers develop Magnetic Tunnel Junction–based Device to make AI more Energy Efficient

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Engineering researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have demonstrated a state-of-the-art hardware device that could reduce energy consumption for artificial intelligent (AI) computing applications by a factor of at least 1,000.

The research is published in npj Unconventional Computing titled “Experimental demonstration of magnetic tunnel junction-based computational random-access memory.” The researchers have multiple patents on the technology used in the device.

With the growing demand for AI applications, researchers have been looking at ways to create a more energy efficient process, while keeping performance high and costs low. Commonly, machine or artificial intelligence processes transfer data between both logic (where information is processed within a system) and memory (where the data is stored), consuming a large amount of power and energy.

Aug 19, 2024

Why do we count the Universe’s age from 13.8 billion years ago?

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Whenever and wherever stars are born, which occurs whenever clouds of gas sufficiently collapse under their own gravity, they come in a wide variety of sizes, colors, temperatures, and masses. The largest, bluest, most massive stars contain the greatest amounts of nuclear fuel, but perhaps paradoxically, those stars are actually the shortest lived. The reason is straightforward: in any star’s core, where nuclear fusion occurs, it only occurs wherever temperatures exceed 4 million K, and the higher the temperature, the greater the rate of fusion.

So the most massive stars might have the most fuel available at the start, but that means they shine brightly as they burn through their fuel quickly. In particular, the hottest regions in the core will exhaust their fuel the fastest, leading the most massive stars to die the most quickly. The best method we have for measuring “How old is a collection of stars?” is to examine globular clusters, which form stars in isolation, often all at once, and then never again. By looking at the cooler, fainter stars that remain (and the lack of hotter, bluer, brighter, more massive stars), we can state with confidence that the Universe must be at least ~12.5–13.0 billion years old.

Aug 19, 2024

Alzheimer’s May Not Actually Be a Brain Disease, Expert Reveals

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

The pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease is becoming an increasingly competitive and contentious quest with recent years witnessing several important controversies.

In July 2022, Science magazine reported that a key 2006 research paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer’s, may have been based on fabricated data.

One year earlier, in June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration had approved aducanumab, an antibody-targeting beta-amyloid, as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, even though the data supporting its use were incomplete and contradictory.

Aug 19, 2024

A Cave Discovered on the Moon Opens up New Opportunities for Settlement by Humans

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

These could be incredibly valuable to future astronauts hoping to settle on the moon, acting as a convenient shelter for a lunar base.

The cave is accessible through a pit in the well-studied Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility). This is a large basin made mostly of basalt. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down in this region on July 20 1969.

While Mare Tranquillitatis isn’t likely to be the first place humans try to settle on the moon, the existence of one cave makes the existence of others very likely, so scientists now expect there to be others in locations more suitable for human settlement.

Aug 19, 2024

The surprising wall pattern that could keep buildings cooler

Posted by in category: space

A zigzag design can maximise how much heat walls radiate into space, while minimising heat absorption from the ground.

By Michael Le Page

Aug 19, 2024

AI boosts the power of EEGs, enabling neurologists to quickly, precisely pinpoint signs of dementia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze electroencephalogram (EEG) tests more quickly and precisely, enabling neurologists to find early signs of dementia among data that typically go unexamined.

The century-old EEG, during which a dozen or more electrodes are stuck to the scalp to monitor brain activity, is often used to detect epilepsy. Its results are interpreted by neurologists and other experts trained to spot patterns among the test’s squiggly waves.

Continue reading “AI boosts the power of EEGs, enabling neurologists to quickly, precisely pinpoint signs of dementia” »

Aug 19, 2024

Computer simulations suggest more than half of people on Earth have limited access to safe drinking water

Posted by in categories: computing, sustainability

A multi-institutional team of environmental scientists has built a computer simulation showing that more than half of all people globally have limited access to safe drinking water. The findings are published in the journal Science.

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