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We're on the Verge of a Gravitational Wave Astronomy Boom
A prototype space-based gravitational wave detector performed far better than expected during its trial run, raising prospects that a follow-on observatory to listen for echoes from the biggest crashes in the cosmos will be launched ahead of schedule.
LISA Pathfinder, which has been in orbit for a little more than a year, was intended to test if two small cubes could be kept in an extremely steady and measurable state of free fall. If successful, scientists could use the technique to detect ripples in space, a phenomenon first envisioned by Albert Einstein 100 years ago.
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To advance science we need to think about the impossible
HOW does science advance? The number of papers published annually doubled every 9 years in the second half of the 20th century; the number of working scientists now doubles roughly every 18 years. So we might expect science today to be advancing at a breakneck pace. And so it is, but in a great many small steps, rather than giant leaps of understanding.
That’s fine: science has always advanced in small steps, paving the way for occasional leaps. But sometimes fact-collecting yields nothing more than a collection of facts; no revelation follows. At such times, we need to step back from the facts we know and imagine alternatives: in other words, to ask “what if?”
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This is a clear image of the Nervous System without the body.
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Cells adapt ultra-rapidly to zero gravity
Mammalian cells fully adapt to zero gravity in less than a minute. Real-time readings on the International Space Station (ISS) reveal that cells compensate ultra-rapidly for changes in gravitational conditions, an international team of scientists has found.
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First hint of how DNA calculators could supercharge computing
By making DNA endlessly change, researchers have shown how a biological computer might one day solve problems much faster than conventional computers or even quantum computers. It’s still a long way from being functional though.
The DNA-based system is an experiment in how it may be possible to make a theoretical type of computer known as a non-deterministic universal Turing machine.
Such a machine could solve tricky problems much faster than existing computers. Imagine that a computer is trying to find the centre of a maze and has a choice between left and right. A conventional computer would turn in one direction and follow that path to the end, then try a different route if that one leads nowhere.
But a non-deterministic universal Turing machine would explore both paths simultaneously, and do so again every time the path splits until it has found the right route to the maze’s heart.
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Scientists Have Found a Way to Rapidly Thaw Cryopreserved Tissue Without Damage
Researchers have developed a technique that allows them to rapidly thaw cryopreserved human and pig samples without damaging the tissue - a development that could help get rid of organ transplant waiting lists.
Cryopreservation is the ability to preserve tissues at liquid nitrogen temperatures for long periods of time and bring them back without damage, and it's something scientists have been dreaming about achieving with large tissue samples and organs for decades.
Not only for the life-extending applications we've read about in sci-fi novels, but, more feasibly, because the technology could allow hospitals to safely store organs for long periods of time.
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Is the five second rule real?
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A Giant Neuron Has Been Found Wrapped Around the Entire Circumference of the Brain
For the first time, scientists have detected a giant neuron wrapped around the entire circumference of a mouse's brain, and it's so densely connected across both hemispheres, it could finally explain the origins of consciousness.
Using a new imaging technique, the team detected the giant neuron emanating from one of the best-connected regions in the brain, and say it could be coordinating signals from different areas to create conscious thought.
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Physicists Have Detected a Friction-Like Force in a Perfect Vacuum
One of the most fundamental tenets of modern physics is that in a perfect vacuum - a place entirely devoid of matter - no friction can possibly exist, because empty space cannot exert a force on objects travelling through it.
But despite the conventional wisdom, physicists in the UK discovered that a decaying atom travelling through a complete vacuum would experience a friction-like force, and now they've figured out how this reinforces - rather than breaks - Einstein's theory of general relativity.
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New episode of Mind Field is now available on @ESHUB!
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The Blood of Komodo Dragons Could Help Us to Slay Antibiotic Resistance
Protein fragments in the blood of Komodo dragons have antimicrobial properties that help them resist toxic bacteria, and they could be used to develop new drugs to counter antibiotic resistance, researchers have found.
The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard, growing up to 3 metres (9.8 feet) in length and weighing up to 70 kilograms (154 lbs). It lives on five small islands in Indonesia, where its massive size and sharp teeth enable it to feast on prey as large as water buffalo – but there's another, less obvious reason why you definitely don't want to get bitten by one.
Aricle
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Do Robots Deserve Rights? What if Machines Become Conscious?
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Searching for Life on 7 Nearby Alien Worlds: How Scientists Will Do It
The hunt for signs of life on seven nearby exoplanets will likely begin just a few years from now.
An international research team announced that seven roughly Earth-size alien worlds orbit the small, dim star TRAPPIST-1, which lies just 39 light-years from Earth. (For perspective: Our Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light-years wide. The closest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.2 light-years away.)
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Or instead you can watch the livestream here
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Scientists Just Found Evidence That Neurons Can Communicate in a Way We Never Anticipated
Researchers have discovered a brand new mechanism that controls the way nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other to regulate learning and long-term memory.
The fact that a new brain mechanism has been hiding in plain sight is a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about how the human brain works, and what goes wrong in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and epilepsy.
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Good for Life? Megatelescope Will Probe Newfound Worlds' Atmospheres
Telescopes around the world (and orbiting it) have turned their gazes to the seven Earth-size planets of the TRAPPIST-1 star system — but it's an upcoming megatelescope that could reveal whether any of them have life-friendly atmospheres.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch in 2018, is sensitive enough to identify the chemical components of the planets' atmospheres as the worlds pass in front of their star, NASA officials said.
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NASA Considers Magnetic Shield to Help Mars Grow Its Atmosphere
The Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop is happening right now at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. The workshop is meant to discuss ambitious space projects that could be realized, or at least started, by 2050.
One of the most enticing ideas came this morning from Jim Green, NASA's Planetary Science Division Director. In a talk titled, "A Future Mars Environment for Science and Exploration," Green discussed launching a "magnetic shield" to a stable orbit between Mars and the sun, called Mars L1, to shield the planet from high-energy solar particles. The shield structure would consist of a large dipole—a closed electric circuit powerful enough to generate an artificial magnetic field.
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What did dinosaurs taste like?
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First Solid Sign that Matter Doesn't Behave Like Antimatter
One of the biggest mysteries in physics is why there's matter in the universe at all. This week, a group of physicists at the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, might be closer to an answer: They found that particles in the same family as the protons and neutrons that make up familiar objects behave in a slightly different way from their antimatter counterparts.
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DNA could be the future of data storage
The world is churning out so much data that hard-drives may not be able to keep up, leading researchers to look at DNA as a possible storage medium. DNA is ultra compact, and doesn’t degrade over time like cassettes and CDs. In a new study, Yaniv Erlich and Dina Zielinski demonstrate DNA’s full potential and reliability for storing data. The researchers wrote six files—a full computer operating system, a 1895 French film, an Amazon gift card, a computer virus, a Pioneer plaque, and a study by information theorist Claude Shannon—into 72,000 DNA strands, each 200 bases long. They then used sequencing technology to retrieve the data, and software to translate the genetic code back into binary. The files were recovered with no errors. We spoke with Erlich about the results, and what they mean for the future of data storage.
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Atlas V rocket launch a classified reconnaissance satellite.
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SpaceX plans to send two civilians around the moon next year
SpaceX announced a plan for beginning the era of space tourism: in late 2018, the space travel company plans to send two private citizens around the moon and back again.
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"Religion is an outdated form of rationalization and control. We have science and government for that now."
- Stephen 23.02.2017
Tiny 'MoonWatcher' Satellite Will Beam Home Live Lunar Views
Soon, a tiny satellite will start beaming home live, high-resolution views of the moon for all the world to see, 24 hours a day, if all goes according to plan.
The startup Lunar Station aims to launch a cubesat called MoonWatcher to Earth orbit early next year and then air webcasts based on the spacecraft's sharp imagery. The company has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the effort and hopes to raise $150,000 by March 12.
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This Is What Earth's Magnetic Field Sounds Like
The ancients believed that Earth was surrounded by celestial spheres, which produced divine music when they moved. We lived, so to speak, in a huge musical instrument.
This may sound silly but modern science has proved them right to a certain extent. Satellites recording sound waves resonating with Earth's magnetosphere – the magnetic bubble that protects us from space radiation – show that we are indeed living inside a massive, magnetic musical instrument.
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A Physicist Just Explained Why the Large Hadron Collider Disproves the Existence of Ghosts
Recent polls have found that 42 percent of Americans and 52 percent of people in the UK believe in ghosts - a huge percentage when you consider that no one has ever come up with irrefutable proof that they even exist.
But we might have had proof that they don't exist all along, because as British theoretical physicist Brian Cox recently pointed out, there's no room in the Standard Model of Physics for a substance or medium that can carry on our information after death, and yet go undetected in the Large Hadron Collider.
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NASA Just Released Travel Posters for Our New Sister Solar System, and They're Cool as Hell
NASA went all-out to mark the occasion, launching an entire website dedicated to our Sister Solar System, complete with travel posters, infographics, videos, and glimpses into the future of our investigations of TRAPPIST-1.
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BREAKING NEWS: NASA Has Discovered a Potentially Habitable 'Sister Solar System'
In one of the most significant exoplanet discoveries to date, NASA just announced that not one, but seven Earth-sized planets have been found orbiting the habitable or 'temperate zone' of a star just 39 light-years away.
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The conference is starting. Follow the conference with the link below.
http://goo.gl/thwMZe
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Rogue Cosmic Rays From Outer Space Are Causing Havoc With Our Smartphones
Under Earth's protective magnetic field, we don't usually need to worry too much about the health effects of cosmic radiation – although it's something that's known to impact astronauts in space, and even passengers travelling in airplanes.
But the same can't be said for our technological systems – fierce solar storms can wreak havoc on Earth's communication networks, and new research shows that even ordinary levels of cosmic radiation can have a disruptive effect on our personal devices.
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