That‘s Cool News | A weekly breakdown of positive Science & Tech news.

Show Notes:

A bionic pancreas could solve one of the biggest challenges of diabetes | MIT Technology Review (01:02)

In a recent trial, a bionic pancreas that automatically delivers insulin proved more effective than pumps or injections at lowering blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a serious condition that causes a person’s level of glucose, or sugar, to become too high because the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin

Needs to be monitored and requires insulin intake every day.

But maybe this bionic pancreas, which is a credit card-sized device called an iLet, could alleviate that constant monitoring

It monitors a person’s levels around the clock and automatically delivers insulin when needed through a tiny cannula, a thin tube inserted into the body. 

Worn constantly, generally on the abdomen.

Determines all insulin doses based on the user’s weight, and the user can’t adjust the doses. 

A Harvard Medical School team has submitted its findings from the study to the FDA in the hopes of eventually bringing the product to market in the US. 

Provided 219 people with type 1 diabetes who had used insulin for at least a year with a bionic pancreas device for 13 weeks. 

Compared their blood sugar levels with those of 107 diabetic people who used other insulin delivery methods

The blood sugar levels of the bionic pancreas group fell from 7.9% to 7.3%, while the standard care group’s levels remained steady at 7.7%. 

Goal according to the American Diabetes Association recommends a goal of less than 7.0%

Duane Mellor, the lead for nutrition and evidence-based medicine at Aston Medical School, in Birmingham, UK, who was not involved in the study, provided a pro and con for this device:

“Being able to take carbohydrate counting out of the equation is a really big advantage, because it’s a burden … On the flip side, they have to relinquish control [of determining the insulin dose], which could be difficult for people who’ve had diabetes for a long time.”

The aim of the project is to democratize good glucose control, says Steven Russell, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who led the study:

“There are plenty of people who are struggling right now because they don’t have the right tools, and I think the iLet could help a lot of them have much better glucose control.”

Positive Childhood Experiences of Blue Spaces Linked to Better Adult Well-Being |  Neuroscience News (09:37)

A new study on blue spaces from data pulled from the BlueHealth International Survey (BIS) including 18 countries, showcases the benefits

15,000 people across 14 European Countries and 4 other non-European countries/regions

Adults with better mental health are more likely to report having spent time playing in and around coastal and inland waters, such as rivers and lakes.

Mounting evidence shows that spending time in and around green spaces such as parks and woodlands in adulthood is associated with stress reduction and better mental health.

But not much info about blue spaces

Respondents between the ages of 0-16 were asked to recall their blue space experiences

how local they were, 

how often they visited them, 

how comfortable their parents/guardians were with them playing in these settings, 

They found that individuals who recalled more childhood blue space experiences tended to place greater intrinsic value on natural settings in general, and to visit them more often as adults.

Associated to better mental wellbeing in adulthood

Valeria Vitale, Lead author and PhD Candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, talks on the findings: 

“In the context of an increasingly technological and industrialized world, it’s important to understand how childhood nature experiences relate to wellbeing in later life… Our findings suggest that building familiarity and confidence in and around blue spaces during childhood may stimulate an inherent joy of nature

Show Notes:

Scientists Have Discovered a New Set of Blood Groups | Wired (00:52)

After performing an emergency C-section for a pregnant woman, researchers were curious why there were these strange antibodies in the blood.

They made a startling discovery: 

The woman’s blood was of an ultra rare type, which may have made her baby’s blood incompatible with her own. 

Prompting her immune system to produce antibodies against her baby’s blood

Scientists were able to unpick exactly what made her blood different, and in the process confirmed a new set of blood grouping—the “Er” system, the 44th to be described.

A, B, O, and AB isn’t the only classification system

There are many ways of grouping red blood cells based on differences in the sugars or proteins that coat their surface, known as antigens. 

Differences in antigens results in the following situation:

Someone receives incompatible blood from a donor, for example, the recipient’s immune system may detect those antigens as foreign and react against them. 

One new blood classification system has been described by researchers each year during the past decade. 

tend to involve blood types that are extremely rare

“Discovering a new blood group system is like discovering a new planet. It enlarges the landscape of our reality,” says Daniela Hermelin at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

Due to those genetic differences, a small number of people have alternative amino acids, or building blocks, in their Piezo1 protein.

Causing the different ER blood type

There are five Er antigens in total—five possible variations of Piezo1 on the surface of red blood cells that can lead to incompatibility. 

Benefit of this finding: 

It adds to our knowledge of how blood incompatibility can affect pregnant mothers and their babies

Boston Dynamics, Agility and others pen letter condemning weaponized ‘general purpose’ robots | TechCrunch (05:38)

A group of prominent robotics firms (Boston Dynamics, Agility, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics and Open Robotics) issued an open letter condemning the weaponization of “general purpose” robots.

The piece comes amid mounting concern around the proliferation of advanced robotics systems.

With fictional depictions and real-world efforts like the Ghost Robotics dog that has been outfitted with a sniper rifle, raising significant red flags for many.

Part of the letter states:

“We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, and capable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues. Weaponized applications of these newly-capable robots will also harm public trust in the technology in ways that damage the tremendous benefits they will bring to society.”

Ghost Robotics, which has its own take on the topic, told TechCrunch at the time:

“We don’t make the payloads. Are we going to promote and advertise any of these weapon systems? Probably not. That’s a tough one to answer. Because we’re selling to the military, we don’t know what they do with them. We’re not going to dictate to our government customers how they use the robots.”

Today’s open letter finds the signees pledging not to weaponize their systems, while calling on lawmakers to do more to prohibit this use for robotics.

They end off their letter saying:

“We also call on every organization, developer, researcher, and user in the robotics community to make similar pledges not to build, authorize, support, or enable the attachment of weaponry to such robots. We are convinced that the benefits for humanity of these technologies strongly outweigh the risk of misuse, and we are excited about a bright future in which humans and robots work side by side to tackle some of the world’s challenges.”

World-first stem cell therapy trial treats spina bifida before birth

Show Notes:

Google Fiber Revs Up Its Multi-Gig Speeds to 20Gbps in Newest Field Test |  CNET (01:29)

 Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain announced Tuesday via blog post that 20 gigs is coming,

The company achieved a 20.2Gbps download speed in a field test in Kansas City

Google Fiber currently offers two plan options: 1-gigabit download speeds for $70 per month and a 2-gig plan for $100 monthly. 

cheapest 2Gbps plan among major internet providers

CNET reached out to a Google Fiber spokesperson, and was told that more information will be on the way in the coming weeks.

No word yet on pricing or when to expect the plan to be available to customers.

A 25Gbps speed tier from EPB costs around $1,500 per month

According to Google Fiber's CEO this is just the beginning:

“In the coming months, we'll have announcements to dramatically expand our multi-gigabit tiers. These will be critical milestones on our journey to 100 Gig symmetrical internet."

NASA crashes DART spacecraft into asteroid in world's 1st planetary defense test | Space.com (06:45)

For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has crashed into an asteroid to test a way to save our planet from extinction. 

Spacecraft: NASA's Double Asteroid Rendezvous Test (DART) probe

Asteroid: Dimorphos, 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth

The goal of the mission was to change the orbit of the space rock around its larger asteroid parent Didymos .

Trying to test if humanity could deflect a dangerous asteroid if one was headed for Earth.

Elena Adams, DART's mission systems engineer, said that “our first planetary defense test was a success”  

The golf cart-sized DART (1,320 pounds) spacecraft slammed into the asteroid at 14,000 mph.

Would be enough to move the 534-foot-wide (163 meters) Dimorphos a bit faster (10 minutes faster) in its orbit around its parent. 

Poses no risk of changing the binary system's orbit to come anywhere near Earth. 

The DART mission is the first demonstration of what NASA calls a "kinetic impactor" for planetary defense: crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its orbit.

Basic method to protect the Earth if a potentially dangerous asteroid were spotted five or 10 years before a prospective impact. 

Angela Stickle, the leader of DART's impact working group, said the team's simulations and models suggest the spacecraft would likely create a crater up to 65 feet (20 m) wide. 

Images Show Huge Plume of Debris as NASA Probe Smashes Asteroid 

A vast network of ground-based telescopes were trained on the event and will be following the binary Didymos-Dimorphos system over time to see how much faster Dimorphos is now moving in its orbit. 

The Era of Fast, Cheap Genome Sequencing Is Here | WIRED (13:35)

At an industry event in San Diego today, genomics behemoth Illumina unveiled what it calls its fastest, most cost-efficient sequencing machines yet, the NovaSeq X series.

Illumina controls around 80 percent of the DNA sequencing market globally

The company believes its new technology will slash the cost to just $200 per human genome while providing a readout at twice the speed.

Currently costs $600 for scientists to perform sequencing

Sequence 20,000 genomes per year; its current machines can do about 7,500

Francis deSouza, Illumina’s CEO, states: 

“As we look to the next decade, we believe we’re entering the era of genomic medicine going mainstream. To do that requires the next generation of sequencers … We need price points to keep coming down to make genomic medicine and genomic tests available much more broadly.”

Stacey Gabriel, chief genomics officer at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, states they have been “waiting for this for a long time.” She continues to talk about the benefits of the new tech:

“With greatly reduced costs and greatly increased speed of sequencing, we can sequence way more samples.”

A major benefit of cheaper and more efficiency sequencing

Show Notes:

InSight hears meteoroid impacts on Mars | EarthSky (01:15)

Since 2018, NASA’s InSight lander has been busy studying the interior of Mars detecting  over 1,300 marsquakes

NASA announced on September 19, 2022, that, for the first time, InSight has heard the impacts of four meteoroids as they crashed into the Martian surface.

Detected the vibrations from the impacts in 2020 and 2021.

The impacts produced small marsquakes, up to a magnitude of 2.0. 

This is the first time that InSight – or any Mars lander or rover – has ever detected the seismic waves from a meteoroid impact.

The four impacts occurred between 53 and 180 miles from InSight’s location in Elysium Planitia. 

Elysium Planitia, a flat-smooth plain just north of the equator making it a great location to study the Martian interior. 

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took images of the impact sites from orbit. 

Appeared as dark spots in the orbiter’s black-and-white Context Camera. 

The seismic waves generated by the impacts can give scientists clues about both the impacting rocks and the Martian subsurface.

Additionally, scientists can use impact craters to determine the age of the surface.

More craters = Older the surface is

By using both InSight’s data and orbital images of the impact craters, researchers can determine the meteoroid’s trajectory and size of its shock wave (seismic wave). 

7,000-year-old structure near Prague is older than Stonehenge, Egyptian pyramids | Live Science (05:27)

Archaeologists digging near Prague have discovered the remains of a Stone Age structure that's older than Stonehenge and even the Egyptian pyramids: an enigmatic complex known as a roundel. 

7,000 years ago during the late Neolithic, or New Stone Age

Viewed from above, roundels consist of one or more wide, circular ditches with several gaps that functioned as entrances. 

"Roundels are the oldest evidence of architecture in the whole of Europe," according to Jaroslav Řídký, a spokesperson for the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IAP).

Radio Prague International reported, the excavated roundel is large — about 180 feet (55 meters) in diameter, or about as long as the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tall

Clear that this was part of the Stroked Pottery culture, which flourished between 4900 B.C. and 4400 B.C.

 Located in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic

Many farming villages found near the intersection of contemporary Poland, eastern Germany and the northern Czech Republic 

Carbon-dating organic remains from this roundel excavation could help the team pinpoint the date of the structure's construction and possibly link it with a Neolithic settlement discovered nearby.

Watch this team of drones 3D-print a tower | MIT Technology Review (09:03)

A mini-swarm’s worth of drones have been trained to work together to 3D-print some simple towers.

Could, one day, help with challenging projects such as post-disaster construction or even repairs on buildings that are too high to access safely.

The process has multiple drones work together to build from a single blueprint, with one essentially checking the others’ work as it goes.

Inspired by the way bees or wasps construct large nests

To demonstrate the drones’ capabilities, the researchers got them to use foam and a special lightweight form of cement to build structures with heights ranging from 0.18 meters to 2.05 meters. 

The technique is limited for now because drones struggle to carry heavy loads, need regular charging, and still require human supervision.

The researchers are hoping to alleviate some of these issues by automating the charging of drones during projects

World's largest geothermal lagoon planned for Canada | New Atlas (14:12)

A project, called geoLagon, is underway in Canada for a magnificent new open air lagoon in Canada that will be kept at balmy temperatures year round through a “huge Thermos” heating system underneath

Show Notes:

SpaceX’s Starlink internet reaches Antarctica, touching all 7 continents  | New Atlas (01:16)

Scientists with the United States Antarctic Program at the McMurdo Station are tapping into the space-based internet service, Starlink.

Boosting the bandwidth for scientific research at the end of the Earth.

Location of the Antarctic Program? You guess it Antartica

The researchers have received a Starlink terminal of their own where it is said to be improving connectivity as they carry out their research.

All of this was ,adding possible through laser links between the satellites in orbit that eliminate the need for ground stations at the poles

Ultimately this makes Antarctica the seventh and final continent to receive Starlink internet coverage. 

Google spins out secret hi-speed telecom project called Aalyria | CNBC (04:52)

Codenamed “Minkowski” within Google, the secret project is being unveiled to the public on Monday, Sept. 12th, as a new spinout called Aalyria.

No clue how long it’s been working on the technology or how many employees are joining the startup

Not too many details about the project.

Aalyria said in a news release that its mission is to manage “hyper fast, ultra-secure, and highly complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space.”

The company continues by claiming they have laser communications technology “ on an exponentially greater scale and speed than anything that exists today.”

It will be led by CEO Chris Taylor, a national security expert who has led other companies that have worked with the government. 

Have an $8.7 million commercial contract with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit.

The Light laser tech is named, “Tightbeam”

The claim is that it keeps data “intact through the atmosphere and weather and offers connectivity where no supporting infrastructure exists.”

“Radically [improving] satellite communications, Wi-Fi on planes and ships, and cellular connectivity everywhere.”

A blood test that could detect cancers early will undergo trials in the U.S. | Interesting Engineering (11:04)

According to a report by MIT Tech Review, The U.S. is preparing to launch trials of blood tests that can improve the detection of multiple kinds of cancer.

The test will be conducted by the National Cancer Institute

Testing efficacy of various blood tests in detecting cancer in 24,000 healthy participants over four years.

The only test that is currently used in the U.S. is the Galleri, which claims to detect more than 50 cancer types. 

Not approved by the FDA

Therefore, it's not covered by most insurance and costs $949.

To give a brief explanation on how the majority of these multi-cancer early detection tests (MCEDs) work:

Searching for tumor cell remnants that explode after being attacked by the immune system in the bloodstream.

A cancer warning before symptoms appear.

Only some blood tests can identify the organ where the cancer is in. 

To confirm a diagnosis a biopsy has to be performed but if you can’t tell the location that is an issue

The whole body of a person cannot be biopsied.

The NCI trial should provide a standard approach to launching cancer screening research.

Timothy Rebbeck, a professor of cancer prevention at Harvard thinks these tests will be critically helpful in cases of pancreatic, liver, and ovarian cancer, which are fatal and do not have any other screening options.

Concluding, “It seems very realistic to me to think that we could reduce death by half."

This modular off-grid solar EV charger can be installed in just four hours | Electrek (18:34)

Paired Power, a California company, has debuted a modular, off-grid electric vehicle charger that is powered by a solar canopy.

The new modular charger called PairTree

There is Level 1 (household charging, very slow), Level 2 (adds around twenty or so miles of range to the batteries of your car for every hour), and Fast Charging (Tesla Su

Shows Notes:

Neck-worn "bandage" sensors could better warn of concussions | New Atlas (01:09)

One of the dangerous things about sports-related concussions is the fact that athletes may not realize they have one.A new sensor could let them (or their coaches) know.

It would go on their neck, not their head.

Helmet-integrated sensors, which have been developed, detect the type of impacts associated with concussions; such devices aren't necessarily 100-percent reliable. 

Because a lot of concussions are associated with their head rapidly moving whiplash-style to one side, researchers at Michigan State University developed a thin-film adhesive-patch sensor that could detect the telltale neck movements. Size of a small bandage

prototype device is only about 0.1 mm thick

Piezoelectric material that produces an electrical charge when stretched or compressed.

Once the material is charged due to the movement of the material, the data is sent to a computer, which will analyze it to determine if a concussion-grade impact occurred.

While executing tests with this prototype, they found it performed as well as the helmet-integrated accelerometers at detecting concussion causing impacts, BUT they found the neck-bandage wouldn't produce false readings.

The researchers are looking into ways of streamlining the design of the patch, such as equipping it with a transmitter that would wirelessly relay data to a nearby computer or mobile device.

 

Cancer trial amazingly results in 100% remission in every patient | Brighter Side News (07:41)

Immunotherapy harnesses the body’s own immune system as an ally against cancer. The  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was investigating — for the first time ever — if immunotherapy alone could beat rectal cancer that had not spread to other tissues

Sascha Roth, a 6-month participant in the clinical trial, found out, “a team of doctors examined my tests … And since they couldn’t find any signs of cancer, Dr. Cercek said there was no reason to make me endure radiation therapy.”

These same remarkable results would be repeated for all 14 people — and counting — in the MSK clinical trial for rectal cancer with a particular mutation. The rectal cancer disappeared after immunotherapy — without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy 

the cancer has not returned in any of the patients

Dr. Cercek talks on this rewarding experience:“It’s incredibly rewarding … to get these happy tears and happy emails from the patients in this study who finish treatment and realize, ‘Oh my God, I get to keep all my normal body functions that I feared I might lose to radiation or surgery.’ ”

The research team went out to figure out precisely which patients benefit most from immunotherapy, so they can receive it right away. Patients who have tumors with a specific genetic makeup known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd) or microsatellite instability (MSI).

Between 5% and 10% of all rectal cancer patients are thought to have MMRd tumors.

45,000 Americans are diagnosed a year with rectal cancer.

Dr. Diaz talks on the mutation and treatment:“An MMRd tumor develops a defect in its ability to repair certain types of mutations that occur in cells. When those mutations accumulate in the tumor, they stimulate the immune system, which attacks the mutation-ridden cancer cells.”

An immunotherapy agent called a checkpoint inhibitor releases the brakes on an immune cell, freeing it to recognize and attack cancer cells. The patients were given the checkpoint inhibitor dostarlimab (Jemperli) intravenously every three weeks, for six months.

Another amazing thing is removing the toxicity of chemotherapy, which Dr. Cercek mentions:“The most exciting part of this is that every single one of our patients has only needed immunotherapy. We haven’t radiated anybody, and we haven’t put anybody through surgery … They have preserved normal bowel function, bladder function, sexual function, fertility. Women

Show Notes:

Researchers discover new way fat cells talk directly with the brain | New Atlas (01:36)

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have discovered a novel communication pathway between fat cells and the brain.

Brain doesn’t regulate fat burning by just slowly responding to hormonal signals in the blood. (traditional view)

But can directly send messages to fat tissue and influence metabolic processes.

The researchers use 2 new ways of looking at the fat tissue:

1.  HYBRiD - This method renders fat tissue transparent, allowing researchers a unique window into the paths of neurons. 

2. ROOT, and it lets the researchers study exactly how certain neurons localized in fat tissue communicate with other parts of the body.

The big finding from the study was the discovery of sensory neurons that branch out from the spine into fat tissue. 

Directly communicate with a part of the brain called the dorsal root ganglia.

Co-senior author Li Ye, stated on this finding:

“The discovery of these neurons suggests for the first time that your brain is actively surveying your fat, rather than just passively receiving messages about it … The implications of this finding are profound.”

Researchers found by blocking communication from these sensory neurons the sympathetic nervous system kicked into gear and began converting the white fat cells into brown fat. 

Stepping up the body’s fat-burning processes.

 All this finding can clearly establish at this stage is that the newly discovered sensory neuron communication pathway is crucial for keeping fat tissue healthy.

Two-Seater eVTOL Will Be Used to Train Pilots for Flying Taxis | Singularity Hub (07:38)

London-based SkyFly has recently started taking pre-orders on a personal eVTOL called the Axe.

It seats two, different the others trying to hit the market (seat one)

Unlike its peers, the Axe has a fixed-wing design, so it’s able to take off and land both vertically and in the conventional way.

Vertical takeoff: Four propellers (4 ft diameter) lifts it off the ground, and once airborne, the body tilts forward to gain speed. 

Eight 35-kilowatt electric engines power the plane

Mounted at a 45-degree angle and don’t rotate.

Wingspan is 16.4 feet

 Larger than any of the other personal aircraft

Weighs 944 pounds (lithium battery pack accounts for a good portion of that total)

Lift a maximum weight of 379 pounds. 

Its top speed is 100 miles per hour, and its range is 100 miles (200 if you add an optional range extender).

Skyfly is aiming for its customer base to be made up of people who are already licensed pilots and/or own their own aircraft, and those who want to become pilots.

Right now there’s not only a shortage of pilots for commercial aircraft, there’s not a cost-effective way to train new pilots either. 

And Skyfly CEO Michael Thompson wants the Axe to serve as a general aviation platform for pilots in training.

SkyFly is taking pre-orders at a base price of US$175k.

The company is planning to start production in 2024.

A  Simple Way to Produce Hydrogen From Water at Room Temperature | ScienceAlert (15:52)

A new study out of University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), provides us with another promising step in Hydrogen clean fuel, provided you can make use of existing supplies of post-consumer aluminum and gallium.

Discovered a simple method involving aluminum nanoparticles that are able to strip the oxygen from water molecules and leave hydrogen gas.

yields large amounts of hydrogen, and it all works at room temperature.

This discovery removes one of the big barriers to hydrogen fuel production: the large amounts of power required to produce it using existing methods.

Works with any kind of water, too, including wastewater and ocean water.

Materials scientist Scott Oliver from UCSC seemed surprised by this process:

"We don't need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy … I've never seen anyth

Show Notes:

Eye tests can screen children for autism | Brighter Side News (01:11)

According to a study from Washington State University researchers, measuring how the eyes’ pupils change in response to light could potentially be used to screen for autism in young children.

Known as the pupillary light reflex 

Adjustments via the muscles connected to the lens, ciliary bodies, and muscles that make up the iris are stimulated by several nerves.

The study builds on earlier work to support the continued development of a portable technology that could provide a quick and easy way to screen children for autism.

Hope to catch children earlier in their development when interventions are more likely to benefit them.

First author on the study, Georgina Lynch, stated:

“We know that when we intervene as early as ages 18 to 24 months it has a long-term impact on their outcomes … Intervening during that critical window could be the difference between a child acquiring verbal speech and staying nonverbal. Yet, after 20 years of trying we still have not changed the average age of diagnosis here in the U.S., which is four years old.”

Process of the study:

Tested 36 children aged 6 to 17 who had been previously diagnosed with autism

Tested a group of 24 typically developing children who served as controls.

Pupillary light reflexes were tested using a handheld monocular pupillometer device, which measures one eye at a time.

Children with autism showed significant differences in the time it took for their pupils to constrict in response to light. 

Pupils also took longer to return to their original size after light was removed.

Supported by funding from the Washington Research Foundation, Georgina Lynch is now working to expand testing to a group of 300 or more 2- to 4-year-olds across a larger number of clinical sites.

Preparing to file for FDA premarket approval for the screening device 

 

SpaceX's 'Mechazilla' lifts 33-engine Super Heavy onto the launch pad for the first time | Interesting Engineering (05:51)

SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy booster prototype, Booster 7, is back on the launch pad.

33 next-gen Raptor engines attached at the launch pad

It's all part of SpaceX's pre-launch preparations as the private space firm gears up toward the orbital maiden flight of Starship.

eventually lift astronauts to the moon and Mars

Musk posted a photo of Booster 7 being held by Mechazilla's arms, with the caption "Mechazilla loads Starship on launchpad."

SpaceX is preparing for static fire tests, with one of them set to fire up all 33 Raptor engines on Booster 7 at the same time.

Last time only fired 20

SpaceX will be a step closer to performing its first-ever orbital flight of Starship — the massive milestone could take place as soon as next month.

Several customers have also penned agreements with SpaceX for Starship flights, including NASA and Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. 

Last year, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to send astronauts back to the surface of the moon.

 

NASA's launch countdown for Artemis 1 moon mission begins today | Space.com (11:14)

At 10:23 a.m. EDT (1423 GMT) Aug. 27th, the countdown clock began ticking down to the planned launch of NASA's Artemis 1 mission, an ambitious first flight to the moon by the agency's most powerful rocket ever

The Space Launch System (SLS) 

Orion spacecraft onboard

Artemis 1 is the vanguard mission of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2025.

The mission flight will send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a 42-day trip to orbit the moon and return to Earth to test if the spacecraft is ready to carry astronauts. 

If this mission succeeds, 

NASA will follow it up with Artemis 2, a crewed trip around the moon in 2024. 

Lead to the Artemis 3 crewed lunar landing a year later (2025).

The ultimate goal, NASA has said, is to fly yearly missions to the moon after Artemis 3, stage crewed

Show Notes:

Elon Musk's 'AI-Powered Tesla Bots' Will Replace 'Boring' Household Activities by 2022! | Tech Times (01:14)

Information was recently reported on the AI robots being developed by Tesla giving us a clearer picture of what life will be like on Earth in the following decades.

The Tesla Bot, about 172 cm tall (5’ 7”), seeks to gradually free up regular people brave enough to adopt a robot from "boring" duties. .

 This comes from what Musk stated in an essay published in China Cyberspace magazine : 

"Tesla Bots are initially positioned to replace people in repetitive, boring, and dangerous tasks. But the vision is for them to serve millions of households, such as cooking, mowing lawns, and caring for the elderly." 

Musk stated that the robot, code-named "Optimus," will utilize the same chips and sensors as Tesla's so-called Autopilot software in 2021. 

The robot will be able to lift 150 pounds (68 kg) and carry 45 pounds (20.4 kg), and it will be able to run 5 miles (8 km) per hour.

Additionally, he claimed that if his company can manage mass manufacturing, the Tesla Bot prototype should be available by the year's end. 

But you should take this with a grain of salt since he has not always been the best with time predictions.

Life Wire previously reported the EV manufacturer plans to introduce the new Tesla Optimus machine in September. 

According to “certain sources”, the prototype will arrive specifically on September 30.

Musk is optimistic about the power of robots:

“It is foreseeable that with the power of robots, we will create an era of extreme abundance of goods and services, where everyone can live a life of abundance. Perhaps the only scarcity that will exist in the future is for us to create ourselves as humans.”

 

World's first liquid-nitrogen outdoor cooling system set for trials | New Atlas (07:43)

Israeli company Green Kinoko is preparing for the first public tests of a remarkable clean outdoor cooling system.

The inverse of an outdoor cafe heater, cooling several tables per unit without using any electricity.

The secret: liquid nitrogen. 

Standard tanks hold liquid nitrogen at -196 °C (-321 °F), which are loaded into the coolers, and when they're switched on, the liquid is slowly released.

Expands rapidly to nearly 700 times its liquid volume as it becomes a gas

The coolers then harness the energy of the expansion through a mechanical engine, using it to blow nitrogen gas out at a much more palatable -10 °C (14 °F).

The device is more environmentally friendly than an air conditioner since it uses no mains power and doesn't blow hot air out somewhere else. 

Nitrogen makes up about 78% of the ambient air, it's completely safe to breathe.

The tanks will need replacing every 7-10 days, depending on how hot it is outside and how hard you're running them.

Green Kinoko's Moran Goldberg told New Atlas:

“Usually, the cost of the nitrogen is about €50-60 (US$50-60) per tank … Today, it's mostly produced as a byproduct when hospitals and medical services make pure oxygen. Of course, there's a logistics part of the equation we have to take into account in each country as well, but it's not going to cost more than the existing solutions. As far as a restaurant or venue is concerned, the cost of owning and running an outdoor heater is what we're benchmarking."

The company plans on running a pilot trial in the first weeks of September

With enquiries already pouring in from at least 40 different countries, Green Kinoko is preparing to gear up for serious volume production.

One thing of concern:

The safety and materials handling portion

Liquid nitrogen can cause extreme cold burns, explosions and even asphyxiation if improperly handled, so these units will need to be treated with care.

 

Rocket Lab will self-fund a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus | Ars Technica (13:24)

Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck has made no secret of his love for huma

Show Notes:

Startup's new stunning kite can pull energy from the sky | Interesting Engineering (01:07)

Several kite power companies are attempting to pull energy out of the sky, and they are succeeding.

Kitekraft, a Munich-based company developing a kite power system is one of those companies working on this technology

Their co-CEO and chief technology officer, Florian Bauer, commented on the tech:

“It’s cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to transport, and also has higher efficiency … If you have all those advantages, why would anyone build a conventional wind turbine?”

How does the technology called airborne wind actually work? Three-step approach:

Rigid enough to withstand high winds

Has the form of a sailplane, and 4 propellers are only needed for taking off and landing.

Designed to move quickly and effortlessly

Connects the kite to the ground

Transforms the pull force from the kite to the ground-station generator.

A kite flies across the wind it pulls against the tether and unwinds the winch, driving a generator that produces electricity. 

Durable and can be exposed to varying environmental conditions such as moisture and UV light.

Converts the tractive force from the tether to electricity.

A control system is found in the ground station and makes sure all flights are conducted safely and efficiently.

1. The kite is a specially designed aircraft composed of composite materials. 

2. The Tether

3. The ground station

So far, Kitemill, another kite power company, claims that their system can produce an average power of >1 hour of operation with continuous cycles at 5.5 kW.

The airborne wind is currently in its infancy.

The industry will have to overcome many hurdles, such as proving that it is safe and reliable and does not cause any noise pollution.

Right now, none of the kite companies have produced energy in the megawatt scales required to compete with other renewable energy sources. 

 

How balloons could one day detect quakes on Venus | Science News (07:32)

Back on December 14, 2021, a tiny device dangling beneath the large, transparent balloon recorded sudden, jerky fluctuations in air pressure: echoes of an earthquake more than 2,800 kilometers away.

 Became the first network of devices to monitor an earthquake from the air.

The finding could help scientists track earthquakes in remote areas on Earth.

Opens the door to one day sending specially equipped balloons to study the geology of other worlds, including our closest planetary neighbor, Venus.

When the ground shakes, it releases low-frequency sound waves that can travel long distances in the atmosphere.

The military, who first tried this back in the 1940s, planned on using the microphones to pick up on the sound of the ground shaking from a nuclear explosion. 

Project was eventually deemed too expensive and dropped 

Now back to Venus, the reason the idea of balloons to take measurements on the planet is due to the extreme heat and pressure on the surface. 

The dense atmosphere means that the planet’s surface has about the same pressure as Earth’s deep ocean.

No current lander/rover could withstand

For the project to even go forward, scientists have to show that they could design devices small enough to be carried by balloons but sensitive enough to pick up earthquakes far below.

In 2021, that is what they did

They attached micro-barometers to 16 balloons launched from the Seychelles Islands, off the coast of East Africa

The researchers were able to use the changes in air pressure to pinpoint the epicenter of the earthquake and calculate its 7.3 magnitude.

Although the surface of Venus is an extremely hostile environment, at about 50 kilometers above the surface the atmosphere of Venus is the most earth-like environment (other than Earth itself) in the solar system.

Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis believes, even if they can’t detect Venus quakes, t