Last week, the Associated Press released a lengthy report on the recent activities of He Jiankui, a scientist at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, who claimed in a YouTube video to have used CRISPR to genetically modify human embryos to make them immune to HIV. He says he then implanted at least two of these embryos into a real, live woman, who gave birth to twin girls....
A lot of the rocks we have on Earth are pretty old, but none of them were around when our planet was first formed. The Earth itself is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest rocks we’ve ever found are a little over half that age. That seems to have changed, however, because a group of scientists recently announced they’ve found a rock that formed only half a billion years after the Earth itself....
Keep holding your breath on the future of flying cars. An AeroMobil—one of the most recent iterations of the vehicle we’ve been dreaming of since The Jetsons—suffered a nasty crash during a test flight last Friday, but one that fortunately caused no injuries. The AeroMobil 3.0 is just the latest of a seemingly endless fleet of flying cars that’s perpetually promised as being just a few years off. Earlier this year at SXSW, AeroMobil’s CEO announced an exceedingly optimistic 2017 release date for this here “Ferrari with wings....
Entropy conquers all analog media, forcing records and video to slowly crumble, warp and fade—threatening memories and music with oblivion. Digitizing these treasures can ensure that, no matter what mischief takes place in the attic, the good stuff will endure in an easy-to-copy format.But before you go about the tedious task of digitizing a massive record or VHS collection, ask yourself whether it’s worth it. In many cases, it’s impossible to digitize media in faster-than-real time....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe sun hides behind the rugged, snow-topped Adirondack Mountains long before it is supposed to set. And so winter comes early to the North Country of New York, where the lakes crystallize with long before the snowbirds take wing to Florida. There’s not much to do at this time of year. Unless you go ice fishing.iceWinter fishing is a religious and solitary pursuit, as those living in the cold environs of northern New York, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and New England can attest....
Media Platforms Design TeamShowing off a Tesla Roadster to display a technology makes a big statement. The tech is sexy, it says, but like the Roadster—a $100,000 electric sports car that —it’s not for everyone. That’s one takeaway from the Fulton Innovations CES booth, which showed off its wireless-charging muscles with a modified Roadster, powering up in the middle of the booth.has been available since long before other all-electric vehiclesOn paper, Fulton Innovations’ wireless car charging is impressive....
Name: Robert and Tiffany ChenPatent Number: 10,022,002Patent: “Extensible Z Accessorized Travel Headrest,” an adjustable platform that sits on an airplane seat’s tray table and extends in a Z shape to an ideal pillow height. Also incorporates a charging port and speakers. THE ORIGIN OF THE PATENT ROBERT: Tiffany is my daughter. She is a senior at Monta Vista High School here in Cupertino, California. Steven Jobs went to high school in Cupertino....
NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot is retiring from the space agency effective April 30, according to a letter from Lightfoot posted on NASA Watch. Popular Mechanics has confirmed with NASA Headquarters that Lightfoot has announced his retirement and will be leaving NASA at the end of April. “It is with bittersweet feelings that I am announcing I will be retiring from the agency on April, 30, 2018,” Lightfoot wrote in his retirement letter....
Mosquitoes are arguably the most annoying creatures on the planet, and on top of that they spread horrible diseases like malaria, zika, and lyme. Could we simply eliminate mosquitoes from the world? Should we?Those are the questions that a group of Italian scientists are hoping to answer. These scientists have build a tightly-controlled lab to test whether a new genetic technique for eliminating mosquitoes will work, and whether such a technique would even be a good idea....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe plan to fly a solar-powered aircraft around the world finally has a starting location and a date. The New York Times reports that the Solar Impulse will begin the journey from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in March 2015.Solar Impulse won’t quite go around the world in 80 days—the team plans to take four months because their ultra-light aircraft flies pretty slowly. But if the plane succeeds in circumventing the globe, it’ll be the first solar-powered aircraft to do so....
Stratolaunch Systems is planning to conduct the first flight of the largest airplane in the world by wingspan sometime this summer, as reported by Space News. At the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs today, the company confirmed that it is targeting a maiden flight of the aircraft after three more taxi tests.The six-engine, twin-fuselage aircraft, built by Scaled Composites for Paul Allen’s company Stratolaunch Systems, is designed to carry rockets up to altitude and launch them to space from there....
Update 11/14: The researchers behind the study announced some serious errors with their analysis. While the conclusion reached by the study—that the ocean has been absorbing more of the planet’s heat than we thought—remains valid, the research has a larger uncertainty than reported in the published paper. This means that climate change could be less severe than the researchers predicted. Or it could be much worse. The only way to tell is to perform follow-up studies....
The Navy is fixing a bug with the F-35’s helmet that prevents less experienced pilots from landing the plane on a carrier at night. The helmet emits a green glow at night that pilots find distracting. The solution involves swapping out the current helmet mounted displays and replacing them with organic, light emitting diodes (OLEDs).The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s pilot helmet is unlike any other. Made of kevlar and carbon fiber, the helmets are an extension of the aircraft sensors and control system and one of the first to employ augmented reality in military equipment....
Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic and John F. Kennedy’s WWII patrol boat, is on a new mission: finding Amelia Earhart’s plane.Ballard will be aided by Fredrik Hiebert, an archeologist from National Geographic, and the search process will be filmed for a NatGeo special set to premiere this October. Robert Ballard, the deep-sea explorer responsible for finding the Titanic in 1985, has announced that his next mission will be searching for Amelia Earhart’s downed Lockheed Electra....
The U.S. Army has chosen two of the nation’s largest defense contractors to compete for the service’s new light tank program. BAE and General Dynamics will each receive up to $376 million to develop and build 12 light tanks in fourteen months. After field testing, the Army will choose one design in 2022, building up to 504 Mobile Protected Firepower vehicles, otherwise known as light tanks. The U.S. Army has more than a dozen infantry brigades: light infantry, airborne, and air assault brigades of 2,000 to 4,000 soldiers that lack heavy equipment like the M1A2 Abrams tank and M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicle....
The United Arab Emirates Is boldly going where no Middle Eastern country has gone before: Mars. The UAE wants to launch a four-year mission to Mars with the Hope probe (Al Amal in Arabic), which will spend up to four years in orbit studying the atmosphere, including how Mars lost its ancient oceans. Launch is set for 2020.If it sounds pretty similar to the current MAVEN mission in orbit around Mars, don’t worry....
U.S. troops tasked to advise and equip armies in smaller developing countries are learning how to operate an older, Soviet-era artillery piece. The Texas-based 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade is learning to operate the D-30 howitzer, a light artillery piece widely distributed during the Cold War so it can in turn train foreign militarizes on how to use it. U.S. troops loading a D-30 howitzer at Fort Hood, Texas.US Army photo taken by Spc....
Last Friday, a pair of F-35Cs made arrested landings on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Sure, the weather was crap thanks to a hurricane called Joaquin, but both jets touched down just fine in an impressive show of piloting. Initial at-sea arrested landing tests of the F-35C (the carrier variant) happened about a year ago off the coat of San Diego as part of the F-35C’s first round of sea tests, DT-1....
Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeCheck off another box for the U.S. Navy’s jet fighter-sized UAV. Two months after the semi-autonomous X-47B executed its first catapult carrier takeoff, the Navy has now released the footage of the plane completing its first arrested landing. The plane touched down on the USS George H.W. Bush off the coast of Virginia today. It’s the first unmanned carrier landing for the Navy.The Pentagon is taking it slow with its prized fighter....
Media Platforms Design TeamWhen most people get a packet of silica gel in a shoe box or beef jerky packet, their instinct is to toss it. But savvy DIYers have long known that the omnipresent desiccants are good for a lot more than keeping jerky dry. Here are a few uses, including some great tips sent in by readers.Use in underwater camera casingsUnderwater camera casings are great fun, but even if stray moisture and condensation don’t ruin your camera, they can fog or streak across your lens....
