In Brief SpaceX is launching yet another Falcon 9 rocket later this evening, its third launch in just nine days. The company is burning through the backlog caused by the Falcon 9 disaster last September. Hefty Launch

SpaceX is gearing up for yet another launch into space this weekend weather-permitting. Sundays launch will be the third for SpaceX in just nine days, and the 39th Falcon 9 rocket launch. The mission is to put a massive communications satellite into orbit for the company Intelsat. Takeoff is scheduled for tonight at 7:36 PM EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You can watch the launch liveat Space.com.

What sets this launch apart from the other recent missions is that the client is not interested in utilizing reusable rocket tech. Ken Lee, senior vice president for space systems for Intelsat said, I would have no qualms about using the pre-flown hardware in the future once they have fully demonstrated their reusability, which he defines as [t]ypicallya minimum of three. As of now, SpaceX has managed to launch and land a reusable rocket twice. Also, given the heft of the satellite, the booster will not have enough fuel to make the journey back to the surface.

SpaceX did have a sizable backlog of planned launches due to the unfortunate catastrophe where a Falcon 9 rocket exploded at launch. However, in the first half of 2017, SpaceX has already broken its previous record for launches in a single year. They are planning for a total of 20 launches before the end of 2017. This is important to Intelsat, and likely other entities looking to use SpaceXs tech to get into space. Whats important for us is not whether you launch every other week, but [that] once you plan, you execute to that plan, Lee said.

SpaceX is well on its way to definitively proving the reliability of their rockets. While the price difference of using the reusable boosters may not be enough at this time for Intelsat, the price difference will continue to drop as the rocketscontinue to be reused. SpaceX is pioneering in this field and is revolutionizing what it takes to get into space.

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SpaceX is Launching Its Third Mission in Just Nine Days - Futurism

In Brief Lightyear is a company that is promising a solar powered electric car. The car could be charged both by regular home outlets as well as the sun. Lightyears Ahead

Even before electric cars officially take over as the new normal, clean driving just isnt enough for some. One company is looking to take green personal transportation to unprecedented heights. Lightyear is a next-generation car company from the Netherlands that is making some truly lofty promises. The company is working on bringing the world a vehicle powered not just by electricity, but by energy generated from the sun.

According to the companyswebsite, all cars of the world combined drive one light year, every year. Their mission is to switch from a fossil fuel powered light year of travel to one powered by the sun by 2030.

Lightyear is hoping to sidestep one of the major limitations and anxieties of electric vehicles: range. Mass adoption of electric vehicles could be hindered by a lack of investment in charging infrastructure. The website claims that [o]nly 3% of the world population lives within 100 km of a publicly accessible charging station.

The vehicle promised will be powered by energy stored in a battery that can be charged both by a standard (3.7 kW) outlet, as well as solar panels in the vehicles body. In a sunny environment like Hawaii, the car could theoretically run for months between charges. Even without the sun, the car could run for a significant range. Depending on your battery configuration you have between 400 800 km of range buffered in the battery, Lightyear says on their websitesFAQ section.

This technology has yet to be proven, although the company is planning to haveten vehicles produced in 2019. Cost is also a considerable barrier to obtaining one of these future cars. You can reserve one for 19,000 (around $21,700) a small chunk of the overall 119,000 ($135,800) price tag. Its an interesting addition to the EV lineup, so well be sure tokeep an eye on the development of this technology asthe first prototype gets closer to hitting the road.

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This Next Generation Car Company is Developing Solar-Powered EVs - Futurism

In BriefOver its 1,000 day orbit, MAVEN has revealed the weird andwonderful history of Mars, which NASA has now codified into a listof top ten discoveries. As well as being scientificallyfascinating, what does this knowledge allow us to prepare for? The MAVEN Mission

On June 17th, NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) celebrated 1,000 days in orbit around our solar system neighbor it entered into this orbit in September 2014. To commemorate the 1,000 day anniversary, NASA released a list of its 10 most exciting findings.

MAVENs goalis to explore the Red Planets upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the sun and solar wind in order to gain insight into the history of Marss atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. The changes that caused its transition from a habitable world to the rocky tundra we see today are mainly caused by the dissipation of Marss volatiles (the low-boiling point compounds that make up the atmosphere) into space.

The mission is remarkable because it is the first to explore Marss atmosphere rather than its surface. In order to do this, MAVEN is using eight separate instruments and fluctuates between 3,728 miles (6,000 km) and 77 miles(124 km) from Marss surface this allows it to study the entire spectrum of Marss atmosphere. It contains no tools to search for life on the planet, because adding a detector for methane (a gas indicative of extant life) would have exceeded the projects budget.

MAVEN has made a number of interesting discoveries during the last 1,000 days. Gas is exchanged between the upper and lower halves of the Mars atmosphere in a way that will require further study; the ionosphere of the planet has a layer of metal ions; and there are two new types of aurora that have been discovered,calleddiffuse and proton and, informally, Christmas Lights.

What NASA thinks is most important is the explanationbehind how it lost such a significant proportion of its atmosphere. It was stripped layer by layer from the top by the the sun and the solar wind, which were more violent millions of years ago. Bruce Jakosky, Mavens principal investigator, said that it was like the theft of a few coins from a cash register every day, the loss becomes significant over time.

These arent all of the discoveries made by MAVEN; you can read the full list on the NASA website.

MAVEN has given us an incisive look into the nature of Mars, which is pivotal if we want to colonize the planet in the future, as both Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have proposed. This is because a knowledge of the past allows us to make more accurate predictions about the future: it will inform us of the nature of the challenges we may face when we reach the Red Planet, and allow us to prepare for them in advance.

An example of this early preparation is the recent concept of what a human driven Mars rover could look like, which is informed by the information gathered by MAVEN and other, land-based Mars exploration missions like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

These missions also show us what we dont know, which allows us to send tailored spacecraft to Mars to fill in gaps in our knowledge. Our next mission to Mars will be NASAs InSight Mars Lander, which is due to launch in 2018 and aims to study the planets deep interior. InSight will complete our study of the layers of Mars, giving us a schematic of the planet from the subterranean to atmospheric level.

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After 1000 Days in Orbit, Here Are the 10 Most Remarkable Things MAVEN Taught Us - Futurism

Enhanced Regional Inequalities

A new study from the Climate Impact Lab, a consortium of 25 economists and policy experts from across the country, shows that the American South will be more affected byclimate change than any other region in the United States. The analysis also shows that the effects of climate change will transfer wealth from poor counties in the Midwest and Southeast to wealthier counties on the coasts and in the Northeast. This will aggravate the trend of economic inequality in the U.S.that already exists.

States that are alreadywarm or hot such as Florida, Arizona, Texas, and the states of the Deep South will therefore lose income potentialwhen jobs and other benefits migrate to cooler areas. Counties in states that border the Gulf of Mexico in particular are likely to experience the equivalent of a 20percent, county-level income tax solely attributable to climate change. This tax will come in the form of skyrocketing summer energy costs, struggling harvests, rising seas that engulf real estate, and heatwaves that trigger public health crises and inflate mortality rates.

TheU.S. GDP will decrease by around 1.2 percent for every additional degree Celsius of warming. Although the Paris Agreement terms would allow a rise of four degrees Celsius by the end of this century, but even if we didnt surpass that limit,the GDP of our country will still contract by 1.6 to 5.6 percent. If the Paris terms are not met, the damage will be more severe. (To put this into perspective, the biggest drop in GDP during the Great Recession was 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. It took years to recover from the drop, and the ramifications were felt all over the world.)

The study is an exhaustive, detailed effort, which models every single day of weather in each county in the U.S. during the 21st century in order to simulate the economic costs of climate change. It is by far the most in-depth economic assessment of human-caused climate change to date. It is also highly significant because it takes a bottom-up approach, building on multiple microeconomic studies with regional economic data to provide a more detailed picture of the future of the U.S.

As detailed as the study is, the team omitted many serious risks of climate change because they lacked sufficiently detailed data to include them. For example, although the researchers could agree that biodiversity and other non-market goods are important, without a concrete way to assess the costs of those losses they didnt feel they could include them in the study. They also omitted increased chance of tail risks, which areunlikely yet catastrophic events likemass migration,violent civil or military conflicts, massive droughts, or major polar ice collapses.

The studys economic projections also end in 2099. While certain regions in the Northern regions of the U.S. might initially benefit from the pain the Southern statesare feeling thanks to climate change, that wont last. The authors of the study point out that the North will also experience more severe economic damages should climate change continue unchecked into the next century.

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New Study Says This Region of the US Will Be Hit Hardest by Climate Change - Futurism

In BriefScientists have developed a tool that can test an entiregenome against a CRISPR molecule to predict potential errors andinteractions. This will allow doctors to ensure treatments aresafer and more effective. Editing The Editor

The CRISPR gene-editing tool is already in use by scientists all over the world who are racing to cure deadly diseases by editing the genomes of patients. However, as human trials for various treatments are slated to begin, we still face the hurdle of ensuring that any errors in CRISPR edits wont causing problems. Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin may have come up with a possible solution. Theyve developedsomething that works like a predictive editor for CRISPR: a method for anticipating and catching the tools mistakes as it works, thereby allowing for the editing ofdisease-causing errors out of genomes.Click to View Full Infographic

Scientists have already learned how to use CRISPR to edit errors in almost any genome and its these errors that can cause a wide range of diseases. Many forms of cancer, Huntingtons disease, and even HIV can be targeted usingCRISPR. That being said, itsnot a perfect solution. Just as the autocorrect on your smartphone can cause you to send an unintentional and embarrassing text message, CRISPR can correct something that was actually right the consequences of which can make it adangerous mistake. One that actually causes a disease as opposed to an embarrassing social gaffe.

The researchers developed a method for quickly testing a CRISPR molecule against a persons entire genome, rather than onlythe target area,in order topredict other segments of DNA the tool might accidentally interact with. This new technique functions like an early warning system, giving doctors a chance to more closely tailor gene therapies to specific patients, while ensuring they are effective andsafe.

If were going to use CRISPR to improve peoples health, we need to make sure we minimize collateral damage, and this work shows a way to do that,Stephen Jones, UT Austin postdoctoral researcher and co-lead author of the study, told the UT News.

This research will also allow scientists to improve their own predictive skills when it comes to CRISPR molecule behaviors even without genome testing. This is because the work is actually revealing the rule book CRISPR molecules follow when they choose targets.

One CRISPR molecule the team tested, Cascade, targets DNA sequences but pays less attention to every third letterin the sequence. So if it were looking for the word shirt and instead found the word short, it might be fine with that, Jones said, explaining the significance of the quirk to the UT News.

As researchers master these rules, they will be able to develop better predictive models for CRISPR therapies. This will make the technique faster and cheaper, which will in turn render personalized gene therapies more accessible to more patients. Most important of all, it will also help make theentire process far safer.

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This New Gene-Editing Technique Can Spot CRISPR's Mistakes - Futurism

In Brief A federal grant has enabled researchers to investigate what makes the Brangus cow so effective at body temperature regulation. Due to climate change, high temperatures have made trouble for cows, leading to decreased efficiency and quality in agriculture. Can Cows Take the Heat?

The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has proposed a plan to make cowsmore resistant to the temperature increase caused by global warming. The proposal has received a three-year, $733,000 federal grant.

The scientists plan aimsto retain the quality meat cows provide whileincreasing the efficiency of the process in spite of a changing climate. The first step is conducting research on cows that already handle the heat pretty well. By studying theBrangus cow, researchers hope to identify how it regulates its body temperature, which allows it thrive in hotter climates. Once identified, researchers could usea gene editing tooltogive thatability to other breeds.

Dr Rachel Mateescu, associate professor in the UF/IFAS department of animal sciences, told Digital Trends:

Heat stress is a principal factor limiting production of animal protein and negatively affecting health and welfare of cattle in subtropical and tropical regions, and its impact is expected to increase dramatically due to climate change [] the ability to cope with heat stress is imperative to enhance productivity of the U.S. livestock industry and secure global food supplies.

That a venture like this received funding is a sign of two things that many in the scientific community have been well aware of, but that they may not have yet connected:the rate at which the climate is changing, and the potential of gene editing software.

Climate change isfundamentally changing our world.Its even changingthe genetics of several species including humans as well as altering the function of entire ecosystems.

As funding for this research is contingent on viability, its also a chance to demonstratethe rapid progress made in gene editing software, which has been catalyzed by CRISPR. Since its first demonstration in 2013,an enormous amount of research has been conducted using it. The future of gene editing with CRISPRs help looks bright, too: manytrials have or are set to beginthis year, including attempts to modify viruses to killantibiotic resistant bacteria andrevive extinct species.

While it seems more logical to reduce global warming rather than try to deal with its consequences, should the preventative method fail, the only solutions that we could turn to are those previously reserved for the realms of science fiction, like changing ourgenetic makeup or migrating to another planet.

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Scientists Want to Genetically Engineer Heat-Resistant Cows to Survive Climate Change - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk tweeted an update regarding the construction of The Boring Company's first tunnel under Los Angeles. The electric sled component of the elevator system is expected to be operational by next week. A Not So Boring Announcement

On Friday, Elon Musk posted a series of tweets that at first seemed a bit odd (I love floors), but that quicklyproved to be a lead-up for an exciting update about The Boring Company. Musks thread of tweets ended with a video that showcased one of the most intriguing parts ofThe Boring Companys forthcoming tunnel system: the elevator for the electric sled.

Musks concept for tunnels running under the streets of Los Angeles wont featureregular roads, so thats where the need forthiselectric sled comes in.According toThe Boring Companys websiteandthe concept video they released, the components of the elevator (shafts, sleds, and skates) will facilitatecarrying cars down into the tunnel, as well as ferrying people. The sled itself is capable of traveling at speeds of 200 k/h (125 mph).

According to Musk, the first elevator for the electric sled could be operational by as soon as next week. This would indicate thatconstruction of the first part of the L.A. tunnel the Culver City route which would connect to the LAX is well underway. With support from L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti, the progress isnt too surprising. That being said, just because some steady progress has been made and theres government support for Musks project, until the Hyperloop is fully realizedits unlikely that there will be an immediate use for the electric sleds elevator. Other than for the purpose of testing, of course.

Still, seeing the inner workings of the projects progress is pretty neat, as was emphasized by a short video Musk posted that shows the area around the tunnel site.

Indeed, this is exciting work, and Musk is again demonstrating that hes capable of turning his ideas no matter how far-fetched or relatively boring they may seem into a reality.

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Musk Says the Boring Company's First Car Elevator Will Be Operating Next Week - Futurism

In Brief Facebook's Aquila drone completed its second successful test flight. The solar drone stayed aloft for almost two hours, providing more data that will eventually help the Aquila team bring internet access to billions around the world. Second Successful Test Flight

Facebookssolar-powered Aquila drone completedits second successful flight Thursday near Yuma, Arizona. It stayed aloft for 1 hour and 46 minutes, cruising over the desert and gathering data the team will use to optimize its efficiency moving forward. After the flight was over, the drone landed smoothly without incident, Mark Zuckerberg reported in a Facebook post.

This was the latest step in the Aquila project which will eventually see an entire fleet of the drones staying in flight for months at a time. The unmanned drones will need to be completely optimized to make this kind of longer term performance possible, so these test flights are critically important.Zuckerberg said that Facebook intends to use the drone to increase the worlds access to the internet.

When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. Today, more than half the worlds population 4 billion people still cant access the internet. One day, Aquila will help change that.

Aquilas wingspan is wider than a Boeing 737, but it weighs less than 455 kg (1,000 pounds). To stay aloft, Aquilas solar panels collect power during the day and stores enough in a battery for the dark hours. It uses about 5,000 W of power at its cruising altitude, which will be about 18,300 meters (60,000 feet). Aquila cruises at a deliberately slow speed of about 129 km/h (80 m/h) to maximize efficiency.

Right now the Aquila team is working to make the craft lighter and trim down its power consumption. They also aim to more accurately assess how much power it will take to operate during the different altitudes and temperatures of take off, flight, and landing, and how those power demands will affect battery size, latitude range, solar panel performance, and seasonal performance. Additional test flights will also allow the team to assess actual in-flight dynamics and see how the massive drone batteries stress the large, flexible wings.

The Aquila fleet is just one way Facebook is working to connect people with technology. Zuckerberg has also revealed that the company is working on a brain-computer interface that will let uscommunicate using just ourminds.

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Facebook's Drone Is One Step Closer to Beaming Internet to the World - Futurism

In Brief Henrik Fisker has given us a sneak peak of his luxury EV with an official reveal of the prototype scheduled for later today, and pre-orders of the car are available to the public. His company's statements about the car's potential are staggering, and establish it as fierce competition for Tesla. Fiskers Coming Soon

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker has unveiled a prototype of his luxury electric vehicle (EV) the EMotion on Twitter, ahead of the official unveiling event that will occur later today. Pre-orders for the $129,000 vehicle have also opened, which require a $2000 deposit. Production of the car is set to begin in 2019.

The company also took to Vimeo to release a video of the hotly anticipated vehicle.

The car will, reportedly, have a range of over 643 km (400 miles), a top speed of 260 km/h (161 m/h), a charge time of nine minutes for 100 km (62 miles), and utilizesthe wonder material graphene in its battery, which wasdeveloped in collaboration with Nanotech Energy Inc. Fisker has previously announced that the cars other salient feature isfully autonomous driving capabilities. A press release stated:

The EMotion will be equipped with hardware that will allow fully autonomous driving when approved and released by a soon-to-be-announced partnered supplier. The interior will emphasize ultimate comfort and user interface from both front and rear seats, and all seats will have access to screens and infotainment features.

The development of EVs at all ends of the spectrum is pivotal to the success of the technology. Fiskers price indicates he is aiming for the luxury car price range, and if the figures stand up to scrutiny, the vehicle will be able to compete with its petrol or diesel powered counterparts.

If Fiskers bold claims are true, the car will exceed almost any other EV on the market including the Tesla model S, the car Fisker claims to have helped design and now seems to be taking aim at. Teslas vehiclehas a rangeof up to 300 km (186 miles) if you use the $10,000 85-kwh battery, and takes an hour to charge if you use a Tesla Supercharger station.

There is also promising competition from Porschein the form of the Mission E. The company aims to be producing the EV by 2020, which they estimate will have a range of 450 km (250 miles), and a charge time of 15 minutes.

This competition is good news for the EV market, as it will encourage innovation that will drive the more environmentally friendly type of car forward. Whoever wins the EV supercar race, the planet wins too.

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Here's a First-Ever Look at the New Electric Vehicle That Charges in ... - Futurism

In Brief Elon Musk told a Twitter follower asking about the final release date of the new Model 3 that he will release news this Sunday July 2. The first deliveries are expected by the end of July with scaled production to ramp up by the end of September.

If youve been waiting for more details about the Tesla Model 3 launch,youll want to stay tuned this Sunday, July 2. Late last night, Elon Musk responded to a Twitter users query about the exact release date of the latest Tesla model:

In the past, both Tesla as a company and Musk personally have stated that deliveries of the Model 3 will begin in July. Obviously, once the new models are in circulation, the final details will no longer be rumor, but verified fact. For instance, fans are waiting to see whether there will be a solar roof or windshield, and how much the cars final look will resemble leaked photos of prototypes.

Only the most hardcore Tesla loyalists and employees will be driving Model 3s from the first production run, but the plan has been for production toscale up by September. Sunday may also be when we find out what the configuration process looks like although Musk has already said it will be limited. In order to limit complexity and achieve an economy of scale, Model 3 buyers will probably choose their cars color and the size of its wheels.

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Elon Musk Says Details on Tesla 3 Will Be Released This Weekend - Futurism

In Brief During an appearance on an online radio show, SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell revealed the company's upcoming plans for its Falcon Heavy rockets and more. As reusable rockets become the standard, space is becoming cheaper and more accessible.

SpaceX has no plans to relax following their recent successful weekend doubleheader. Serial entrepreneur Elon Musks space venture company is already looking ahead, beginning with a final upgrade to their Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for later this year.

We are flying Block 3s right now, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell saidduring a June 22 appearance on the online radio program The Space Show. Block 4s start flying shortly, and then Block 5 at the end of this year. We definitely have gotten better [at] more smooth introducing of change. You dont see the big impacts to production weve had before when weve changed vehicle designs.

Block 5 is going to be the definitive version for the Falcon 9, Shotwell explained, and it is capable of being relaunched a dozen or so times. It would also not require refurbishing the reusable rocket would simply undergo inspections prior to launch.

Shotwell said during her radio show appearance that SpaceXs much larger Falcon Heavysfirst mission in 2018 will be carrying a payload for Arabsat. Well be flying Arabsat to [geostationary transfer orbit] on the second Falcon Heavy flight, and then well be flying STP-2, an Air Force mission, she said. In total, the Falcon Heavy has three missions scheduled in the next 18 months, the first being a demonstrationlater in 2017.

SpaceX has much more planned for the months to come, including that commercial Moon roundtrip. Three years ago or so we were producing six rockets a year, Shotwell said. This year we are going to produce more than 20. When you consider that reusability is a key element of SpaceXs design, you can imagine just how many missions those rockets will be capable of handling in the coming years.

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SpaceX COO Claims the Company Will Produce 20 Rockets in 2017 - Futurism

In Brief Dubai is set to shake up the taxi and travel sector at the end of the year by introducing an autonomous airborne taxi service that will transport passengers along set routes. Given the growing population, innovative transportation solutions like Dubai's will be an integral part of future society.

As part of Dubais bid to be a city of the future, they plan to have 25 percent of their public transport autonomously controlled by 2030. An exciting aspect of this is the autonomous aerial taxi (AAT) service they announced in February.

Now, theyve provided an updated timeline for the services implementation, announcing that testing will begin toward the end of this year. It will continue for approximately five years until legislation is in place to facilitate a larger expansion.

The goal of the AAT is to eliminate the growing problem of traffic within the city. The service was due to launch at the end of Julywith the single-seater EHang 184, but theplan now it to use the two-seater Volocopter. Implementation has been delayedto ensure the technology is as safe as it possibly can be.

Dubai will be the first city to use air taxis, and its experiment will have a profound effect on the future of transport, as other cities and companies will be judging the applicability of the idea based on Dubais successes or failures. A particularly interested party will be Uber, which is planning to develop an autonomous airborne taxi service of its own.

A key question the transportation industry currently faces is how to deal with the congestion caused by an ever-increasing demand on infrastructure. Although air taxis are one solution, Elon Musk has been boring tunnels under cities, Dubai is developing a hyperloop, and autonomous cars are being programmed specifically to prevent traffic jams.

Whether one of these approaches proves better than the others or we end up using some combination of two or more, well need to be innovative when planning the transportation of the future.

Disclosure: The Dubai Future Foundation works in collaboration with Futurism as a sponsor and does not hold a seat on our editorial board.

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Dubai's Autonomous Flying Taxi Service Will Be Ready for Takeoff This Year - Futurism

In Brief Industry leaders have estimated that the cost of producing energy using wind farms has dropped to around $100 per megawatt hour, making the energy source as cost effective as coal and nuclear energy. The Plummeting Price of Wind Energy

Bent Christensen, who is responsible for cost projection for Siemenss wind power division, has estimated that Europes offshore wind industry has reached a milestone three to four years ahead of schedule: achieving wind energy at 100 ($113) per megawatt hour (MWh). This means that offshore wind farms could be built without government subsidy because they are economically viable without additional support.

In wind energy, there has been a fast reduction in price over the last three years, falling 27 percent since 2014. According to a Lazard survey in 2016, this means that the energy source has become either cheaper or equal to coal-fired generators, nuclear reactors, and rooftop solar arrays.

Some even predict a further reduction in price estimating that in the future it will be possible to deliver wind energy at 75 ($84) and 62 ($70) MWh. But this hopeful advancement depends on turbine, cable, and converter technology developing much further. Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind plan to have such technology in place in time for the 2024-2025 North Sea projects completion.

Wind powers fall in price marks a major victory for renewable energy because it makes the power source attractive economically as well as environmentally, which is crucial for its widespread adoption. Other promising news that could advance the trend for adopting wind-power is Denmark providing all their power for a day using the source, and the development of record-breaking turbines capable of producing 216,000 kWh of energy in a 24 hour period.

The decreasing price of renewable energy, however, is not just reserved for wind-power: similar victories are also taking place in the solar energy sector. A recent report by Bloomberg has estimated that in four years solar will be cheaper than coal worldwide, having dropped in price by 58 percent within the last five years.

It is unlikely that our world will use less power as populations increase and industry hasto keep up. Therefore, in order to save our planet from pollution and the progression of climate change,we must tinker with the other side of the formula making the energy we use cleaner and greener. Advances in wind and solar power, in particular, are especiallypromising, as they lay the path for renewables creating both individual and collective gain.

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Wind Energy Has Officially Become Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels - Futurism

In Brief Researchers from Stockholm University have confirmed the existence of water's two liquid forms, one with a low density while the other has a high density. Their insight could help develop better purification and desalination processes. Not One, But Two

Similar to how weve begun to uncover new properties in Hydrogen, the worlds most basic element, scientists are now discovering how complex water really is. Considered to be one of the most fundamental molecules on Earth, water (H2O) may actually have not one, but two distinct liquid phases. The discovery was made by researchers fromStockholm University in Sweden, and the team published their findings in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The new remarkable property is that we find that water can exist as two different liquids at low temperatures where ice crystallization is slow, Stockholm University professor and researcher Anders Nilson said in a press release.

Concretely, they saw that liquid water fluctuates between high andlow density forms. X-rays at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago found the difference in structures, while the large X-ray laboratory at DESY, a national research center in Hamburg, confirmed that both forms were indeed liquid phases. We have in particular been able to follow the transformation of the sample at low temperatures between the two phases and demonstrated that there is diffusion as is typical for liquids, Fivos Perakis, apostdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University with a background in ultrafast optical spectroscopy, explained.

Its not surprising, really, for water to have such bizarre properties. For one, it already has many other uniquely strange properties that set it apart from other liquids. The new results give very strong support to a picture where water at room temperature cant decide in which of the two forms it should be, high or low density, which results in local fluctuations between the two, researcher Lars G.M. Pettersson said. In a nutshell: Water is not a complicated liquid, but two simple liquids with a complicated relationship.

On a practical level, this understanding of how water behaves at different temperatures and pressures can help researchers to develop better purification and desalination processes. On an even grander scale, however, it could help us to see how water is affected by the salts and biomolecules necessary for life. The strange properties of water become stranger still as these actually make water a prerequisite for life as we know it.

Assuming the same conditions apply in exoplanets, this could help us spot water and potentially life beyond Earth.

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Breaking Discovery: Water Has Two Liquid Phases - Futurism

In BriefIn 2016 researchers said that there is a limit to the humanlifespan, of about 115 years. Meanwhile, 5 teams of scientists havepublished rebuttals to the 2016 study, and other researcherscontinue to push the aging envelope with new technologies. The Claim And Criticisms

In October 2016, molecular geneticist Jan Vijg published a paper claiming that the human lifespan was limited to 115 years. This kindled a vigorous controversy among scientists, and on June 28 of this year, five groups of scientists published formal rebuttals to the claim.

Vijgs work analyzed demographic data from the 20th century, taken all over the world, and demonstrated that peak age plateaued at about 115 years starting in the mid-1990s. Based on their results, the authors concluded that the natural human age limit is 115 years old and that there is the probability of less than 1 in 10,000 of living to be more than 125 years old.

You could probably guess, not everyone in the scientific community agrees. Most criticisms arise from the way the Vijg team handled their data, and their process for drawing conclusions. First, the Vijg team tested their data to prove whether or not the plateau they felt they observed after 1995 was in fact present. In other words, they generated a hypothesis and then tested it using the same dataset, which is typically unacceptable, as it causes inaccurate results due to severe overfitting, a fit based on error or noise, not a real relationship.

Second, the teams actual data set was very small because in each year they counted only the oldest person who died. They then subjected this inordinately small sample to standard linear regression techniques, which was not appropriate based both on the small sample size, and the additional fact that the individuals being counted were outliers who should have been subject to extreme event analysis. In fact, the decline suggested in the 2016 conclusions appears to be suggested by a single death in the data set.

Moreover, other scientists reanalyzed the data and found it consistent with multiple lifespan trajectories, not just the one reported in 2016. Finally, several scientists in their rebuttals point to the overall body of work on the biology of aging over the past few decades which suggests that the human lifespan has been far more flexible than previously believed; which alone indicates that the proposed limit should be viewed with extreme caution.

The authors of the original study stand by their work and disagree with the criticisms of the statistical methods used. Vijg also believes that the real cause of the outcry is not the data, which is convincing, but the fact that aging cant be stopped and there is a limit to human life: I guess the main message is that a lot of people have difficulty accepting that everything now points toward an end in the increase of maximum lifespan, Vijg told The Scientist.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor of public health Jay Olshansky, who was involved in neither the original study nor the rebuttals, thinks the criticizing scientists are missing the real point of the 2016 study, which he clarified for The Scientist: The most important message to get across, in my view, is that we should not be trying to make ourselves live longer, we should only be trying to extend the period of healthy life.

However, there are many others pushing the limits of human longevity right now who disagree strongly enough to put their money where their philosophy is. Since research has demonstrated that transfusions of younger blood, or parabiosis, was able to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, a startup called Ambrosia has started to offer a human clinical trial of parabiosis for paying clients. Peter Diamandis of the genotype research facility, Human Longevity, Inc., is searching for the key to using nanomachines or stem cells to regenerate our bodies. And Metformin, which has been shown to prevent cancer and extend life in animals, began clinical testing as an anti-aging drug in February.

There are so many possibilities in motion that it does seem hard to agree with a firm limit to the human lifespan. In the end, time will resolve the controversy once and for all. Ironically, well only be here to see it if the critics are right.

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There May Be No Limits to How Long Humans Can Live - Futurism

In Brief These positive results from a small clinical trial may mean you will have a new way to get your next flu vaccine. Instead of an actual injection, researchers from Georgia Teach and Emory University have developed a sticker patch that comes with microneedles that you can just stick on your skin. No Fear of Injections

We all have that friend who avoids getting flu shots out of fear of injections, right? Well, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Emory University had you we mean, your friendin mind while designing this new way todeliver vaccinations. Instead of the usual injection, the researchers came up with a sticker patchthat you can applyon yourself.

The patch comes with a hundred tiny hair-like microneedles located on its adhesive side. If you zoom in under the microscope what youll see are microscopically small needles, lead researcher Mark Prausnitz told the BBC. They puncture painlessly into the skin. Unlike regular injections that go all the way through the muscle, the microneedles puncture and dissolve into the upper layer of the skin, delivering the vaccine in about 20 minutes.

A small preliminary clinical trial was recently published in The Lancetthatinvolving 100 volunteers and showed that applying the patch was relatively painless compared to a regular flu shot. A few people got some mild side-effects, like redness and irritation on the skin where the patch was applied. These disappeared after a couple of days. Initial findings also revealed that the patch vaccines successfully immunized the users against the flu.

The FDA will require larger human studies before it definitively determines that the vaccine patch is safe and effective, but such a technology is truly revolutionary. As soon as this patch system gets approval for widespread use in the next couple of years, getting flu shots or other vaccines would be as easy as putting a Band-Aid. We could envisage vaccination at home, in the workplace or even via mail distribution, said Emorys Nadine Rouphael,speaking to the BBC.

Plus, you can do it yourself. With the microneedle patch, you could pick it up at the store and take it home, put it on your skin for a few minutes, peel it off and dispose of it safely, because the microneedles have dissolved away,Prausnitz said in a press release.

This also opens up a better transport and delivery system for vaccines to reach remote areas. The patches can also be stored outside the refrigerator, so you could even mail them to people, Prausnitz added in the press release. Hes already working witha company that wants to license this technology.

As John Edmunds from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who wasnt involved in the study, told the BBC, This study is undoubtedly an important step towards a better way to deliver future vaccines.

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Your Next Flu Shot Could Be Delivered Using an Injectionless Patch - Futurism

In Brief In a video shared by Bill Gates, Broad Institute director Eric Lander warns that the decline of support for private and public research sectors could lead to the U.S. falling behind as a global leader in research and innovation. The Miracle Machine

They say theres no alternative to hard work, butmost researchers probably wouldnt turn down the opportunity for more collaborative research thatswell-funded.Thats the philosophy behindwhat theBroad Instituteat MIT calls the Miracle Machine. The Miracle Machineproduces amazing advances in science and technology as a result of federal support an funding forthe public and private sectorsof the research community. However, as a video narrated by Broad Institute director Eric Lander explains, one of Americas greatest assets is falling into disrepair.

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates retweeted Landers post that linked to the video, echoing some of its major points. One of which is that research can do wonders for the economy, health, energy, and defense of the United States or any nation for that matter.

Unfortunately, federal support for research has been dwindling. Over the past decade, funding for a number of research institutions has been on the decline, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which has lost 25 percent of its budget over the past 13 years. The most recent budget proposed by the U.S. Congresswouldnt do much to improve those number, either.

In the same way that this private and public sector partnership pushed basic scientific research forward, much to the benefit of many sectors in the U.S., the decline in federal support will have a ripple effect across several industries. We may wake up to find the next generation of technologies, and industries [] are being produced elsewhere, Lander points out in the video. With Europe, China, Dubai, and other nations investing more in scientific research rather than less, it isnt a stretch to think that the U.S. could fall behind.

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MIT Professor Gives A Dire Warning to the US About Funding Science - Futurism

In Brief Hampton Creek has surprised the world by announcing they have been working on lab-grown meat and plan to launch commercially in 2018. This meat alternative is one of many possible solutions to the environmental problems caused by the food industry. Meaty Ambitions

Hampton Creek, a startup that develops plant-based alternatives to foods that are usually produced by animals, has announced that the lab-grown meatthey have been developing clandestinely over the last year will go commercial in 2018. If the timeline is accurate, the launch would come three years earlier than their closest competitor, Memphis Meats, which predicts their product will reach stores in 2021.

One of the biggest issues Hampton Creek will face in achieving this aim is the cost of clean meat. Although the price of lab-grown meat has fallen 99 percent in the last three years with the first lab-grown burger costing $230,000 it is still more expensive than farmed meat. Hampton Creek has not released any information concerning how much their product will cost.

Central to the companys product istheir research into replacing the scarce fetal bovine serum that most lab-grown meats use with plant-based nutrients. Simply getting that right wont be enough to produce a solid final product, though. As Josh Tetrick, CEO of Hampton Creek, conceded to Quartz, Just because youve nailed the battery doesnt mean youve nailed the electric car.

Opinion is split as to whether the 2018 goal is achievable. Some cite Hampton Creeks previous actionswhen they were developing and marketing their Just Mayo product as a reason to be skeptical. Others are more optimistic regarding Hampton Creeks timeline the Good Food Institutes executive director Bruce Friedlichtold Business Insider that with the right resources, it should be achievable.

A cost-effective, price-competitive clean meat could have paradigm-shifting consequencesfor both the world food market and the environment. Not only would it radically reduce animal suffering, it would also decrease global emissions. The meat industry is estimated by the World Resources Institute to produce 13.5 percent of greenhouse gases worldwide, and if nothing changes, this percentage is likely to increase given that the worlds population could reach around 9.7 billion by 2050.

To combat these issues, the world has seen a surge in the production of alternative meat products, which can be split into three categories: plant-based meat, such as the pea protein-based pea burger produced by Beyond Meat; more sustainable meat sources, such as the insect meat produced by Cornish Edible Insects; and lab-grown meat, such as that proposed by Hampton Creek and Memphis Meats.

If we are to survive as a species, we must radically change how much pollution we create, and changing the way we eat is a key aspect of this. Any alternative to the environmentally damaging meat industry represents a step toward preserving humanitys future, so let us all hope Hampton Creeks announcement is as promising as it seems.

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A New Company Will Have Fake Meat on the Shelves Next Year - Futurism

Futurism only supports companiesthat we trust. Aura Premiumis one of those companies. We may collect a share of the sales from the items featured on this page. Sign up for Aura Premium here. A New Way to Think

Mindful meditation is becoming an increasingly popular tool, one that people use to manage both their emotional and mental health. The practice is,in essence, the art of not reactingthe art of finding inner stillness through the use of external stillness. Its taking the time to close your eyes, turn your focus inward, and put all of your energy into just breathing.

Its an incredibly simple practice that doesnt take much time at all, and it is incredibly helpful. Ina study published in Clinical Psychology Review,researchers at Boston University and Harvard Medical School found that the technique helps alleviateanxiety and allows individuals to better cope with stressfulsituations. Similarly, in a study fromFrontiers in Psychology, researchers found that individuals who meditate have more gray matter volume in their brains than those that do not.

Yet, only 18 million Americans report their participation. Unfortunately, the reality for many overworked Americans is that relaxation is a luxury. Indeed, 92 % of the country still hasnt caught onto the trend. Its a surprising statistic considering the fact that meditation has been proven to increase concentration, decrease anxiety, and even help to preserve the aging brain.

Over the last few years, there have been a variety of apps that have aimed to close the gap between people who make time for meditation and the people who dont know how to fit it into their lives. And while many of the apps that have hit the market have effective qualities, few are as impressive and progressive asAura Premiumthe app created by meditation teachers and therapists that actually gets to know you, so it can help you better.

The AI-infused app is programmed to take post-session feedback information and use it to become a dynamic tool that assists with your mental health. Each time you use the app, it creates more pathways for you to get better at finding your zen.

And while anyone whos into mindful meditation will appreciate the app for its relaxation enhancers, its most appealing for people who are new to meditation and need guidance. All users need is three minutes a day to practice, though you can also choose 7 and 10-minute meditation durations as well.

The app is mostly geared towards helping its users get into a better headspace through exercises, breathing routines, and key spoken wordsthough it also has the ability to track users moods to help them see patterns and form connections.

Aura is essentially like having a portable guide in your pocket. And its been so successful in helping its users find inner peace, it was rated the best new app for February 2017 with thousands of nearly perfect ratings. For $59.99 on StackSocial, you can get a lifetime subscription to the app and start your journeyto better mental health.

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There's A New Way to Use Meditation to Reshape Your Brain - Futurism

In Brief The world's first "Forest City," designed to fight pollution and climate change, is under construction in China. Covered in greenery and trees, it will absorb nearly 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants yearly, and produce 900 tons of oxygen.

The worlds first Forest City, created to fight pollution, is now under construction in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province, China. Designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, a team that develops green projects all around the world, the futuristic Forest City will be home to a community of about 30,000 people. It will be covered in greenery, including nearly 1 million plants of more than 100 species and 40,000 trees that together absorb almost 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants, and produce approximately 900 tons of oxygen annually. As a result, Forest City will help to decrease the average air temperature, improve local air quality, create noise barriers, generate habitats, and improve local biodiversity in the region.

Liuzhou Forest City will be self-sufficient, running on renewable energy sources such as geothermal and solar energy. The city will also be entirely wired, and will include commercial zones, residential areas, recreational spaces, a hospital, and two schools. Forest City will be connected to Liuzhou by a fast rail line for electric cars.

Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning commissioned the design for the 175-hectare Liuzhou Forest City which will be situated along the Liujiang River in the northern part of Liuzhou. The project has a high profile in China and, if it succeeds, it will set an example for green city design elsewhere in the country and around the world. The project is planned to be complete sometime in 2020.

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China Has Officially Started Construction on the World's First Forest City - Futurism