[ad_1] A team at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal published their findings yesterday. Led by Björn Benneke, their work (which has yet to be peer reviewed) points to the possibility that K2-18 b is habitable thanks to the presence of water and hydrogen, as well as the exoplanet’s location […]
Category: Science
The first ever black hole image lands scientists $3 million prize
[ad_1] The prize will be split between the 347 scientists that worked on the ground-breaking project, which produced the very first image of a black hole. The data behind the image — which could confirm or at least pose significant questions about our understanding of the universe — was equivalent to the number of selfies […]
NASA and ESA will team up to deflect Earth-bound asteroids
[ad_1] NASA will provide the collider, the Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART). It should launch in summer 2021 and will smack into the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids at about 14,764MPH. An Italian cubesat, LICIACube, will study the moment of impact. After that, the ESA will launch a Hera probe in October 2024 to […]
DARPA is seeking giant abandoned tunnels for… reasons
[ad_1] The kicker is that DARPA needs an answer quickly — it only posted the notice on August 20th, and any evil geniuses tunnel owners have until August 30th at 5PM Eastern to offer their spaces. And of course, DARPA hasn’t said just why it needs this area to begin with. A lair for a […]
Gene editing tool could treat many diseases created by mutations
[ad_1] In lab testing, this had dramatic effects on progeria, a premature aging disease. Mice treated with SATI lived about 45 percent longer while seeing reduced aging effects. That would translate to over a decade for a human affected by the same condition. As is often the case with gene editing treatments, there’s still work […]
Papercraft-inspired math turns any sheet into any shape
[ad_1] The team started by establishing the constraints on lengths and angles that need to be met for producing any given cut pattern, and then use a numerical optimization approach to determine the generic patterns themselves (such as their orientation, number and size). From there, it’s a matter of using mechanical analysis to manage the […]
Scientists bioprint living tissue in a matter of seconds
[ad_1] The approach, volumetric bioprinting, forms tissue by projecting a laser down a spinning tube containing hydrogel full of stem cells. You can shape the resulting tissue simply by focusing the laser’s energy on specific locations to solidify them, creating a useful 3D shape within seconds. After that, it’s a matter of introducing endothelial cells […]
Waymo shares some of its self-driving car data to help researchers
[ad_1] The Waymo team explained this as an opportunity to improve the industry as a whole. It hoped he data would improve not just other self-driving vehicles, but also general concepts like perception, behavior prediction and scene understanding. Those could help with computer vision tasks, particularly robotics and other areas where recognizing objects could prove […]
NASA confirms mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa
[ad_1] Researchers first presented their proposal to NASA in 2017, revealing a boxy lander that would study both the surface and what’s below. The team didn’t need confirmation of the mission to get started — there have already been tests for its data antenna. The moon is potentially the best candidate for life in the […]
NASA selects proposals for smallsats built to study deep space
[ad_1] The two proposals are being funded in $400,000, nine-month concept studies. Whichever proposal wins the day will launch as one of the payloads aboard the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) in October 2024. That might not sound like a lot of money even at such an early stage, but that’s part of the […]