20 Megawatt Upgrade

China is installing massive, 20 megawatt generators to its warships to power high-energy weapons, including lasers and rail guns, the South China Morning Post reports.

The turbo generators increase power-generating capacity fourfold on the warships, which would technically allow them to rely fully on electric propulsion alone, according to SCMP. That means faster response times, significant fuel savings, and better maneuverability.

The generators will also be used to power rail guns and energy weapons, according to the newspaper. According to state-owned news outlet Global Media, China is currently developing an electromagnetic railgun which could take advantage of the new generator units.

Going Electric

The new warships wouldn’t be the first to fully rely on electric propulsion. The US Navy and the UK’s Royal Navy also have destroyers that are partially and fully powered by electricity.

The energy weapons are also not novel. Last year, the US Navy announced it will outfit a Destroyer class ship with laser system made by military contractor Lockheed Martin.

And the Royal Navy is currently developing a powerful 50 kW laser called Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon. Last year, it tested out a new energy storage system that will ensure firing such a weapon wouldn’t disrupt operations on the rest of the ship.

Firing Lasers

The news comes after the US Navy claimed that a Chinese warship fired a laser weapon at one of its surveillance aircraft in mid-February.

“Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems,” read the Navy’s statement, according to CNN, at the time.

READ MORE: China adds turbo generators to warships to power high-energy weapons, state media says [South China Morning Post]

More on warship lasers:US Claims China Fired Laser Weapon at Navy Spy Plane

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Chinese Navy Installs Generators to Power Rail Guns, Energy Weapons

Holy Hack

State-backed Chinese hackers allegedly targeted both the Vatican and the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong in a months-long attack.

The attacks, first spotted by the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, occurred as the Vatican and Chinese government prepare for a round of diplomatic negotiations, according to The Associated Press. China called the accusation “groundless speculation,” but Recorded Future suggests that state-backed hacker group RedDelta attempted to give China a leg up in the upcoming talks.

Aggressive Negotiations

In September, the Vatican and Chinese government are slated to begin renegotiations of a 2018 diplomatic agreement about bishop appointments within the country, according to AP News. The deal is a key part of the two parties’ relationship.

“The suspected intrusion into the Vatican would offer RedDelta insight into the negotiating position of the Holy See ahead of the deal’s September 2020 renewal,” reads Recorded Futures’ report.

Underground Catholicism

Catholicism has been a problem for the Chinese government: AP News reports that the country’s 12 million Catholics are split in half between a Chinese-backed sect and an underground church that remains loyal to the Pope.

The 2018 deal — and the upcoming renewal — was an attempt to unite the two factions. The original agreement recognized the status of seven state-appointed bishops who hadn’t been approved by the Vatican, smoothing over relations between the two.

READ MORE: Vatican allegedly hacked by China ahead of key talks [The Associated Press]

More on the Vatican: Trolls Immediately Attack Vatican Minecraft Server

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China Allegedly Hacked the Vatican, Other Catholic Computer Systems

Wakey Wakey

After scientists gave them a little snack, some 101.5-million-year-old bacteria sprang back to life after an extremely long nap.

Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dug up chunks of clay from 70 meters beneath the ocean floor. They injected it with sugar and ammonia and, to their surprise, Ars Technica reports that colonies of bacteria quickly chowed down on the meal. It’s a bizarre discovery, and one that suggests that organisms can survive more inhospitable environments than scientists thought.

Wake Me Up

Most shocking — even more shocking than ancient bacteria surviving this long — is that the bacteria found in the clay were mostly aerobic.

According to the study, which was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the bacteria needed oxygen to live. Without it, bacterial growth quickly stopped. But there’s almost no oxygen to be found at the seafloor, especially under 70 meters of clay.

It’s Alive!

It’s technically possible that younger, more modern bacteria could have seeped down into the clay, Ars Technica reports, but the scientists think it was too densely packed to allow that.

“What we found was that life extends all the way from the seafloor to the underlying rocky basement,” University of Rhode Island oceanographer and study co-author Steven D’Hondt said in an accompanying video. “And what [lead author Yuki Morono’s] paper now shows is that those organisms are not only alive in the deepest form of sediment, but they’re capable of growing and dividing.”

READ MORE: Bacteria live despite burial in seafloor mud for 100 million years [Ars Technica]

More on ancient history: Scientists Say Ancient Earth Was Completely Covered in Water

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Scientists Revive 100-Million-Year-Old Lifeforms

The White House’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told ABC News that “if you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it.”

Wearing face shields was “not universally recommended,” he said, “but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can.”

“You have mucosa in the nose, mucosa in the mouth, but you also have mucosa in the eye,” Fauci explained. “Theoretically, you should protect all the mucosal surfaces.”

The science on face shields and their effectiveness against the coronavirus is still unclear.

As per the US Centers for Disease Protection website, “it is not known if face shields provide any benefit as source control to protect others from the spray of respiratory particles,” but “some people may choose to use a face shield when sustained close contact with other people is expected.”

“If you maintain physical distancing of at least 6 feet between you and other people when in public places, you will not need a face shield,” reads a John Hopkins Medicine FAQ. “If you must be in close contact with someone who is not wearing a mask, a face shield may provide some additional protection.”

In the interview, Fauci also noted that there’s “no real recommendation” for when somebody should get tested. “I would think that five days is good. I might even go a day or so early because the incubation period of when you get symptoms is about five days.”

In advance of this year’s upcoming flu season, Fauci stressed the importance of wearing masks to “not only protect us against COVID-19, but also help protect us against influenza.”

“Go out there and get your flu shot when the flu vaccine becomes available,” he added.

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Fauci Says Coronavirus Can Infect You Through Your Eyeballs

Summer Blockbuster

Ever since the first-ever image of a black hole was published last year, physicists have been scrambling to learn as much about it as they can.

One of their astonishing new claims is that the swirling rings of light trapped in the orbit of the black hole P?wehi can serve as a sort of historical record, New Scientist reports. The rings of photons could be like the rings of a tree — or even, tantalizingly, like frames of a movie that show the history of the universe.

Frame By Frame

The scientists studying P?wehi, who hail from a long list of universities, published work on those swirling rings back in March. In it, they argue that that the sequence of photon rings can tell them how the black hole formed, help them study its properties now, and even serve as a testing ground for theories like Einstein’s general relativity.

“Together, the set of subrings are akin to the frames of a movie, capturing the history of the visible universe as seen from the black hole,” reads the paper.

Missing Prequel

While probing the rings could reveal many secrets about black holes, the researchers say there are limits to its value as a historical record of the universe. Each ring, New Scientist reports, is only six days older than the last, and eventually they pass the black hole’s event horizon and get gobbled up.

“We’re not going to see dinosaurs,” Harvard astronomer Michael Johnson, who worked on the research, told New Scientist.

READ MORE: Black holes are hiding movies of the universe in their glowing rings [New Scientist]

More on the black hole image: The M87 Black Hole Now Has an Epic Name

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We May Be Able to Extract “Movies” of the Universe From Black Holes

Beat music, the defiant all-inclusive electronic aesthetic that seizes and chops up odd bits of hip-hop, library music, jazz, bass music, IDM, and anything else that shouldnt fit but just does, gets it specificity from the region from which it emanates. Low End Theory, the epicenter of LAs instrumental beat scene for 12 years, was internationally known for their heavy bass, which depending on who was playing that particular night, left a footprint in your chest and at times destroyed speakers and rattled ceilings. That beautiful ruckus propelled oddball beat-frenzied artists into starting record labels and eventually earning Grammy nominations.

Case in point SMARTBOMB, the East Bay music, and art collective, started in 2013 as part of the popular party that spotlights mostly local producers and DJs, can get real heady. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, SMARTBOMB held monthly events, mostly at the Legionnaire Saloon where the showcases highlighted Oaklands IRT post-modern approach to sound. As co-founder Jason Garcawho speaks infusing the name of some authoritative Shuggy Otis albumexplains, the East Bay has always possessed this sense of radical introspection and manifestation.

Diversity of thought is innate in the Town, where we are blessed to have such rich and genuine community, stated Garcia, who is preparing for the collectives second worldwide broadcast this Saturday. Its not so much a scene, but true community that spans beyond age, gender, lifestyle, etc. So many beings here who fearlessly push the needle forward in their own respects, in their own mediums and genres alongside each other. Vastly differing sonic and visual styles and approaches, all thrown into this magic pot for us all to find inspiration information from. Its a feeling of futurism.

Light Beings #2, the second installment of a mixtape series in collaboration with the community platform Lower Grand Radio, is the audio extension of that sentiment. Following through with intention shining light on the beautiful frequencies created from our expansive universe, while also raising funds for vital organizations & programs in the Town highlights the motives of the project listed on their Bandcamp page.

Wylie Cable, founder of Los Angeles based Dome of Doom Records, always perceived the East Bay collective as a NorCal version of Low End Theory that understood what the music needed to be. Cable was an integral part of signal boosting that Low End Theory Culture still employs to prop up beat producers to this day.

I grew up in LA but lived in the Bay for five to six years in the early 2000s and I used to go to the monthlies they threw, stated Cable. Always a great show. It is not a small task, running an event that focuses on underground beat music, but Smartbomb has been at it for close to a decade now.

That manifestation of Bay Area headiness runs the table with great facility. Peep the glitched-out scatter bang of Normalcy from DKM, or the cooldown tingly hip-hop strain Sometimes I Listen by heru. You understand real quick that these are daring architects.

But its the stillness that takes the most courage. After journeying through the first 11 tracks, big ambient energy is the best way to describe the final arrangement of Selim Xs Sunset 6. It a gargantuan four minutes and change of evergreen wave slowly rolling ova and thru you, like the best salted caramel ice cream. Lets toss out qualifiers and just make room for the serenity. Heartbeat soft, warped nanoseconds folding over. Eat your heart out, Brian Eno. This is beat music framed in the way George Clinton himself liked to categorize funk: Anything it needs to be in order to save my life.

SMARTBOMBs second virtual VHS broadcast streams Sat/25. RSVP for link.

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New Music: Oakland collective SMARTBOMB has that feeling of futurism - 48 Hills

A team of National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists is walking a delicate line: publishing researchabout how the human brain differs across sex, while trying to guard against their work being misrepresented by misogynists.

Armin Raznahan, chief of developmental neurogenomics at the NIH, published research in the journal PNAS on Monday about how sex chromosomes are tied linked to differences in the size of various brain regions. The research, Wired reports, could give doctors a better understanding of how neurodevelopmental disorders may manifest in different groups.

If we can understand the biology of sex better, Raznahan told Wired, maybe those pathways are going to help us understand what is happening to put a person at risk of manifesting symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, for example.

But the sensitive nature of Raznahans research has him trying to fight misinterpretations of it something he told Wired hes run into since early in his career.

I got my fingers burned when I first started, Raznahan told Wired.

At the time, he was researching the differences between how mens and womens brains change over time. And while his paper only touched on structural changes and not any functional differences, that didnt stop The Wall Street Journal from citing his work in a 2011 article that suggested schoolchildren might learn better in single-sex classrooms.

Because its such a dodgy topic and the practical conclusions one could draw from such research remain unclear, scientists told Wired that maybe scientists shouldnt investigate sex differences in the brain so thoroughly at all. But others argue that its essential.

We cant not make discoveries, University of Maryland School of Medicine pharmacology professor Margaret McCarthy told Wired, because they might be misused.

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Scientists Studying Sex Differences in the Brain Fear Their Work Will Be Misrepresented - Futurism

NASA is asking university students to come up with a solution to a very real problem: sticky lunar dust that can get pretty much anywhere, meaning it poses a very real threat to anybody planning to spend much time on the surface of the Moon.

The goalis a solution that can remove lunar dust or make surfaces impermeable to the stuff.

This competition gives students an unparalleled opportunity as members of the Artemis generation to help overcome the historically challenging technical obstacles of mitigating lunar dust, Niki Werkheiser, NASAs Game Changing Development program executive, said in a statement.

Since the Apollo missions, weve known that lunar dust is extremely clingy. Early NASA astronauts ended their spacewalks on the Moon covered in the stuff, likely caused by electrical charges built up by the moving around the lunar surface.

The more time you spend there, the more you get covered from helmet to boots with lunar dust, Buzz Aldrin was quoted in early NASA reports after completing the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Aldrin also called lunar dust one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the Moon.

Some Apollo astronauts carried special brushes with them to brush off spacesuits before getting back into the lander, as Discover reported in 2018. Other solutions included a vacuum, but it proved to be only minimally effective.

Making matters worse, recent studies have shown that lunar dust could react with human cells to create hydroxyl radicals, which have been linked to lung cancer.

With its upcoming Artemis missions, an effort to return astronauts to the Moon more than 50 years after Aldrin took his first steps there, NASA wants to get ahead of its dusty problem.

So its asking students for help. The agency is offering up to $180,000 to between five and ten teams chosen by a jury of competition judges. Participants will have to demonstrate that what theyve come up with can actually mitigate lunar dust.

Dealing with lunar dust will require incredibly creative and innovative approaches and collaborating with the Artemis generation through the BIG Idea Challenge is a strategic effort to fuel that type of innovation, Drew Hope, Game Changing Development program manager at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, said in the statement.

Researchers at the agency have already tried a several new solutions in recent years. Last year, for instance, NASA scientists showed off a special coating technology that could dissipate electrical charges on spacecraft components, perhaps giving them the ability to shrug off lunar dust.

READ MORE: NASA Seeks BIG Ideas from Universities to Solve a Messy Problem [NASA]

More on lunar dust: Scientists Say Theyve Found a Way to Make Oxygen from Moon Dust

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NASA is Asking Students to Come up With a Lunar Dust Buster - Futurism

HOPE VALLEY, R.I. (AP) News articles dont carry Hollywood-style viewer ratings or trigger warnings. Maybe this one should.

But consider this: What if THESE are the good old days?

Depressing as that might seem after the coronavirus pandemic has claimed well over 630,000 lives worldwide, cost tens of millions their jobs and inflicted untold misery across the planet, its entirely possible increasingly likely, some say that things will get worse before they get better.

Americans in particular have been optimists by nature for the better part of four centuries. But even here, a bleak dystopian vision is emerging in some corners. Its not pretty.

It imagines a not-too-distant future where well all look back with nostalgia at 2020 as a time when most of us had plenty of food and wine, could get many of the goods and services we needed, and could work from home at jobs that still paid us.

This could be as good as it gets, so lets take pleasure in what we have now, Katherine Tallman, the CEO of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, an indie cinema in Brookline, Massachusetts, told a recent Zoom roundtable.

The pandemic continues to buffet the planet economically, dashing hopes that the worst of the joblessness might be behind us.

For 18 consecutive weeks now, more than a million Americans have sought unemployment benefits. New infections have been surging in states like Florida and California that power the economy, threatening peoples health and livelihoods for the foreseeable future.

Thats bad. But in online forums and on social media, futurists see the potential for worse. Much worse. Their musings arent for the faint of heart.

Its likely that few, if any, of their forecasts will come to pass. This time next year, we may well marvel at how swiftly this existential threat was vanquished. But with the numbers going in the wrong direction, and collective confidence badly shaken, those given to ruinous thoughts can be forgiven for thinking the worst:

What if humanitys frantic efforts to produce a viable vaccine take longer than envisioned, allowing the virus to kill indiscriminately in the interim?

What if that coincides with a climate calamity that ruins crops and shatters supply chains, stripping supermarket shelves bare of much more than hand sanitizer and toilet paper?

For all our kvetching about masks, could we one day find ourselves having to don hazmat suits just to leave the house?

Is it such a stretch to imagine the economic fallout moving beyond jobs and 401(k)s and wiping out entire industries setting off a global Great Depression, Part Two?

The pandemic is going to get worse and worse and worse, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters last week. There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.

Even President Donald Trump, in a notable departure from his generally insistent stance that the U.S. has the outbreak under control, said the nasty horrible virus will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better.

Margaret Hetherman, a New York City-based writer and futurist, thinks some of our darker pandemic experiences things like fighting over canned goods and hoarding toilet paper could foreshadow more dire years ahead if global warming continues unabated.

Were getting a taste of what could be ahead if we dont get control of ourselves here. The empty shelves could be just the beginning, she said. Its hard to imagine, but the climate crisis upon us is probably going to render this a piece of cake by comparison.

The Rhode Island village of Hope Valley mirrors the new COVID-19 landscape. More is closed than is open, including the local Grange community center, usually a beehive of activity and human connection.

NO YOGA, reads a plastic sign out front. BE HEALTHY BE HAPPY BE SAFE, it adds, though the hamlet like thousands of other small towns nationwide is powerless to help its people accomplish any of those things.

For businesses and consumers alike, a new order appears to be dawning one in which the risk of viral outbreaks increasingly is seen as perpetual, not a one-off.

These times were in right now perilous as they are will soon be looked back on fondly as the good old days. Prepare accordingly, tweeted Columbia University philosopher Rory Varrato.

The website Quartz.com asked experts in business, technology, food, the arts and other sectors how the world will be different in five years because of the coronavirus. Their responses? Largely grim.

My bet is that movie theaters wont exist, said one, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Adam Grant.

The pandemic has pummeled airlines and the hospitality industry. The American Hotel and Lodging Association warns that more than 8,000 U.S. hotels could close for good as early as September. Restaurants also are imperiled: Without government intervention, Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts cautioned this month, there could be an extinction experience.

Politics, too, cloud the horizon and moods. For some, a dystopian future includes four more years of Trumps chaotic presidency; for others, the election of Joe Biden and a sudden lurch back to the left.

As if all that isnt enough to bring down the room, people love to share word of random supposed signs of the apocalypse things that certainly arent, like the North American invasion of murder hornets and that squirrel in Colorado that was found to have been infected with bubonic plague.

That stuff we mostly shrug off. But the future, writ large, is serious business. It is, after all, where we pin our hopes and dreams.

If these do turn out to be the good old days, at least there are things for which we legitimately can be thankful: more time and meals together with loved ones; an extended reprieve from soul-sapping commutes; and for some of us a greater emotional investment in our children, if only because were seeing a lot more of each other.

Even now, we can find joy in a day, said Hetherman, the futurist. Even if were in a hazmat suit, God help us, well have to find what joy we can.

___

APs coverage of the virus outbreak can be found at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. William J. Kole is APs New England editor; follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/billkole.

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A troubling pandemic thought: Are THESE the good old days? - The Associated Press

Big Chonker

Scientists found a new way to improve the fragile and error-prone qubits that make up a quantum computing circuit — and it’s strange.

Qubits tend to make errors and can rapidly decay as they transmit information. So a team of MIT engineers built artificial, superconducting “giant atoms” by coupling together multiple cubits-worth of regular atoms. These giant atoms are easier to control and far harder to destroy during normal operations. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests that these giant atoms could help bring about quantum computers that are actually practical.

Long-Distance Call

The problem with traditional qubits, which are the quantum version of the 1s and 0s in a classical computing system, is that they can communicate well with adjacent qubits, but information sent across a lengthier quantum circuit tends to decay.

In contrast, the giant atoms can be tuned to not only improve the fidelity of the information, but they can also be blocked from transmitting until they’re supposed to, which is another problem with existing qubits.

Users Guide

Ultimately, the MIT engineers hope that their giant atoms lead to a simpler, enhanced form of quantum computers.

“This allows us to experimentally probe a novel regime of physics that is difficult to access with natural atoms,” MIT engineer Bharath Kannan said in a press release. “The effects of the giant atom are extremely clean and easy to observe and understand.”

“The tricks we employed are relatively simple,” he added, “and, as such, one can imagine using this for further applications without a great deal of additional overhead.”

READ MORE: ‘Giant atoms’ enable quantum processing and communication in one [MIT]

More on improving quantum computers: Scientists Are Building a Quantum Teleporter Based on Black Holes

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Engineers Built “Giant Atoms” That Enhance Quantum Computers

NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance, is scheduled to finally blast off into space tomorrow morning.

Besides a whole host of fascinating scientific instruments, the rover will also be carrying small bits of space suit to the Martian surface. The goal is to find out how different materials react to the unique Martian environment, in an effort to design a spacesuit meant for the first astronauts to survive on the hostile planet.

“The materials we’re poking at the most are meant to be on the outer layer of a suit, since these will be exposed to the most radiation,” explained Johnson Space Center spacesuit designer Amy Ross in a NASA Q&A. “We want to figure out how long these materials will last. Do we need to develop new materials, or will these hang in there?””

Five different spacesuit materials — alongside several pieces of Martian meteorite — will be studied by Perseverance’s SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument. These materials include vectran, a high strength and cut resistant fiber used in the palms of spacesuit gloves, and two types of teflon for dust resistance.

Then there’s ortho-fabric, a special material made to withstand extreme temperatures. It’s made out of a flame resistant material, Gore-Tex — the same stuff used in waterproof jackets and Kevlar, the synthetic fabric that makes bulletproof vests bulletproof.

A suit for Mars will need to ensure that astronauts are protected from heavy doses of UV radiation.

According to Ross, Mars may be quite different from the Moon, but challenges such as dust are similar. That’s why NASA has been hard at work keeping dust out of the bearings used in any articulating joints, including the shoulders, wrists, and ankles.

“Mars spacesuits will be more like ones we use for the Moon and less like those for the ISS,” Ross said. “I’m trying to make the Moon suit as much like the Mars suit as possible.”

Considering that NASA astronauts are far more likely to make it to the Moon first, the agency will likely have a major leg up in its preparations for ensuring the safety of astronauts on Mars.

READ MORE: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Will Carry First Spacesuit Materials to Mars [NASA]

More on SHERLOC: Here’s Why NASA’s Next Rover is Bringing a Mars Rock Back to Mars

The post On Tomorrow’s Launch, NASA Is Sending Spacesuit Chunks to Mars appeared first on Futurism.

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On Tomorrow’s Launch, NASA Is Sending Spacesuit Chunks to Mars

Crypto Ban

According to a Tuesday U.S. Marine Corps memo, service members are now banned from mining cryptocurrency on any government-issued phones or devices.

It’s an unusual announcement, and like mattress warning labels or “do not shake the vending machine” signs, probably something that no one thought to ban until it actually became a problem. But, as CoinDesk reports, the military seems worried that crypto mining apps — along with dating and gambling — could compromise its cybersecurity.

Classified User Data

The crypto ban isn’t the first time that the military had to step in and restrict what soldiers could do with their phones.

In 2018, the Pentagon had to tell soldiers to stop sharing their location with fitness tracker apps after they inadvertently revealed both the locations and layouts of military bases around the world — as well as off-limits areas like Area 51.

Personal Calls

Presumably, marines are still allowed to mine crypto on their own time and using their own hardware. The memo didn’t list any specific issues with mining beyond general security concerns regarding the mining apps themselves.

And if there are any marines out there mining Bitcoin that prompted the ban, they’d better hurry up: The memo clarifies that any prohibited apps will be automatically deleted.

READ MORE: Marine Corps Bans Crypto Mining Apps From Government-Issued Mobile Devices [CoinDesk]

More on military restrictions: The Pentagon Tells Soldiers To Stop Sharing Their Locations With Apps

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Marine Corps Bans Service Members From Mining Bitcoin on Military Devices

An impressive scoop by the MIT Technology Review: Using simple lab tools, a ragtag group of scientists cobbled together its own grey-market COVID-19 vaccine — and instead of jumping through the usual hoops for a clinical trail, they’re testing it on themselves.

The group calls itself the Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative (Radvac.) Led by celebrity Harvard geneticist George Church, the team set out to find “a simple formula that you could make with readily available materials,” as Preston Estep, Church’s former graduate student at Harvard and leader of the project, told MIT Tech.

The group came up with a vaccine, which consists of bits of protein that match the coronavirus, but aren’t able to cause disease. They even posted a white paper detailing how to cook it up yourself. Similar approaches have been used to make other vaccines, as MIT Tech points out, including for hepatitis B and HPV.

The group quickly found several volunteers who were willing to squirt the makeshift vaccine up their noses using a pump, which they believe could create a local immunity in the tissues of the airway.

Despite not making any claims about the effectiveness of their vaccine, Radvac has now given materials to dozens of friends and colleagues. In fact, Estep told MIT Tech that he’s lost track of how many people have taken it  so far.

In sum, it’s an extremely deviant approach compared to the staid world of conventional pharmaceutical research. Unsurprisingly, that’s alramed some skeptics.

“It’s not the best idea — especially in this case, you could make things worse,” George Siber, the former head of vaccines at Wyeth, a Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical company, told MIT Tech.  “You really need to know what you are doing here.”

The project could run into trouble with the Food and Drug Administration, according to MIT Tech. Money may not be changing hands and each user has to sign extensive disclaimers, but regulators could still crack down on the group.

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These Scientists Are Testing an Experimental COVID Vaccine on Themselves

Hellscape

NASA just unveiled the winner of its Venus rover design contest, dubbed the “Exploring Hell” challenge.

The submissions were surprisingly on-brand: Some had hellish names like “DEMoN Fire Sensor” and “SPIDER,” Popular Mechanics reports. But jokes aside, the name of the contest is a fair description of what these rovers would need to survive. No spacecraft has survived longer than 50 minutes on the Venus, which is the hottest planet in the solar system and is blanketed by sulfuric acid storm clouds.

First Place

As such, the first-place design looks more like a “BattleBots” contestant than a typical NASA rover. “Venus Feelers,” as it’s called, was designed by an Egyptian architect named Youssef Ghali. The robot is powered by a small, back-mounted windmill and has four “feeler” arms of tiny wheels that detect obstacles so the rover doesn’t get stuck as it trudges along.

An accompanying video shows how those tiny wheels can spot large rocks, deep pits, or cliff edges, which alerts the rover that it should find a different path.

Acid Rain

The rovers sport contraptions like giant mesh-covered wheels, bumpers, or long and spindly legs that could help them avoid obstacles on the surface of Venus. Surviving the planet’s acid rains may be a challenge for another day, but for now NASA is happy with the designs it received.

“The response from the community was incredible and better than I ever dreamed,” project manager Jonathan Sauder said in a press release.

READ MORE: This Machine Could Explore Hell for NASA [Popular Mechanics]

More on Venus: NASA Scientists Imagine Studying Venus From A Floating Research Colony

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NASA Venus Rover Designed For “Exploring Hell”

An international team of astronomers say they observed a magnetar — the remains of a dead star with an extremely powerful magnetic field — unleash a burst of high-energy radiation made up of X-rays and radio waves that have never previously been observed.

It was likely a type of mysterious cosmic outburst referred to as fast radio burst (FRB), which have long puzzled astronomers. But thanks to a new study about the strange magnetar, published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, that could be starting to change.

In late April, the international team spotted something entirely unprecedented: an FRB originating within the Milky Way, emanating from a magnetar called SGR 1935+2154, some 30,000 light-years away from Earth.

These outbursts tend to be so bright that they’re billions of times more luminous than the Sun — but only last for a split second.

The discovery was made possible by the “Burst Alert System” built into the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) space telescope, which “automatically alerted observatories worldwide about the discovery in just seconds,” as Sandro Mereghetti, astrophysicist at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Milan, Italy, and lead author, explained in a statement.

FRB hunters at the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) in the US were able to confirm the dazzling sight just hours later.

The observation could settle the major mystery surrounding FRBs: whether they do indeed originate from magnetars.

“We’ve never seen a burst of radio waves, resembling a Fast Radio Burst, from a magnetar before,” Mereghetiti sated. “This is the first ever observational connection between magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts.”

“It truly is a major discovery, and helps to bring the origin of these mysterious phenomena into focus,” he added.

READ MORE: Dead star emits never-before seen mix of radiation [European Space Agency]

More on the burst: Scientists Detect Powerful Radio Burst Coming From Our Own Galaxy

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A Dead Star Gave Off Something Scientists Have Never Seen Before

Enhance!

A tiny military satellite may be able to take the sharpest pictures yet of extremely distant and difficult to spot objects out in space.

DARPA, the Pentagon’s research division, recently deployed what they call the Deformable Mirror (DeMi) CubeSat from the International Space Station, according to a press release. Over the next year, the toaster-sized satellite will use its camera to focus on the dim, distant objects in space that usually get washed out by nearby stars or other larger objects.

Spy Cam

DeMi is drastically smaller than famous space cameras like the Hubble Space Telescope, but DARPA is counting on its ability to focus on overlooked celestial bodies to vastly improve the images scientists can capture.

“Space telescopes currently in orbit are limited in ability to detect and distinguish small, dim objects next to large, bright objects — for example, dim exoplanets next to bright stars,” DeMI project manager Stacie Williams said in the press release. “Our goal is to demonstrate the benefits of a [microelectromechanical systems] deformable mirror to actively correct the images of distant objects in space.”

Field Test

The CubeSat camera will also be treated as a test to see how the extreme temperatures, radiation, and other harsh conditions of space impact the camera, which relies on several small moving parts.

For instance, the mirror uses over 140 different actuators to adjust its shape and line up a shot — so DARPA will be tracking how well it can adjust as pieces warp or fall out of alignment.

READ MORE: Miniature telescope demonstration focuses on sharpening view of distant objects in space [DARPA]

More on space cameras: NASA Says Hubble Observed a “Flapping Shadow” in Distant Space

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DARPA Deploys Tiny Satellite That Could Take Best Pictures of Space Ever

Automated Spacewalks

NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) scientists were just able to automate one of the dangerous jobs on the International Space Station, sending a robot out on spacewalks so humans dont need to put themselves at risk.

Dextre, a CSA robot that looks like a multi-armed tower sticking to the side of the space station, recently checked the outside of the ISS for signs of leaks specifically looking for ammonia that the space station uses as a coolant, according to a NASA press release. And now, with a newly-installed robot hotel, its far easier for the robot to do its job and keep the dangerous work out of human hands.

On Tuesday, ISS astronauts installed the Robotic Tool Stowage (RiTS) unit that was first launched to space in December. NASA calls it a robot hotel, but its really more of a tool shed. In this case, it gives Dextre a place to store parts of RELL, its ammonia leak-detecting tools, on the exterior of the ISS where theyre easier to access.

RELL is a great example [of] how robots with the right tools can simplify life for astronauts, RiTS hardware manager Mark Neuman said in the release. Dextre can use RELL to detect ammonia leaks, eliminating the need for astronauts to perform the same task during a spacewalk.

For now, the new tools like RiTS and RELL can help astronauts stay safe by automating riskier tasks, but NASA suspects that the same technology could help establish orbital habitats.

NASA has big plans for its Deep Space Gateway habitat, and finding ways to give robots all the hard work could help make it a reality.

READ MORE: NASAs robot hotel gets its occupants [NASA]

More on the ISS: The Space Station Is Getting a New Toilet

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NASA Is Using a Robot to Search for Leaks Outside the Space Station - Futurism

First Flight

A full-scale SpaceX Starship prototype is about to finally make its first-ever attempt at getting off the ground.

When asked on an update on the companys SN5 Starship prototype, the fifth of its kind, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded yesterday that it will attempt to fly later this week.

The massive SN5 prototype is expected to hop to just 150 meters (492 feet) according to road closure filings released earlier this month.

The test flight would follow flight attempts by the space companys Starhopper, an early scaled-down but still massive prototype, which successfully flew to 150 meters in August 2019. SN5 is substantially larger, currently towering above the companys test facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.

SN5 will likely still have to go through a fueling test and a static fire test of its Raptor rocket engine, according to Teslarati, before it can attempt its first test flight.

Avideouploaded to YouTube byNASA Spaceflight earlier this month also showed SpaceX mounting a mass simulator on top of the SN5 prototype, likely an effort to simulate a payload during test flights.

READ MORE: SpaceX Starship kicks off busy week of tests to prepare for flight debut [Teslarati]

More on the test: SpaceX Is Planning Starships First Test Flight for Next Week

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SpaceX to Attempt First Full-Scale Starship Test Flight This Week - Futurism

"I think increasingly [it will be] about finding and framing problems. [And] how we tell stories and create compelling narratives around a vision."

The ability to collaborate to solve complex problems and innovate, as well as sharing knowledge and experience, are often cited as key benefits of working in the same physical environment.

Atlassian has employed various tools to encourage collaboration remotely. One method is to encourage staff to share information they have learnt.

Price said this week: "The best example is how we share openly. So when I finish [the panel] today and I've got to hear all your amazing comments, I could just go back to my home and think: that was a great event. But what I'm going to do is write a blog and share with the company what I learnt.

From left, BOSS editor Sally Patten, Atlassian's Dominic Price, Gilbert + Tobin partner Dianne Banks and behavioural scientist Juliette Tobias-Webb.Janie Barrett

"That gives no value to me. But it gives value to everyone else in the organisation. That's collaboration. Someone might make comments or ask me a question. We start the incidental conversation. When we work in a distributed way, we need to find other avenues to have these moments to connect. We don't have to bump into each other around the water cooler for that to happen.

"If you make this compulsory, people do it for all the wrong reasons. We try and make it because people genuinely see value in it."

Atlassian has also developed tools to help staff to learn and develop knowledge and skills remotely. The software company operates a program called Brainary, whereby anyone who considers themselves to have a good idea and be proficient in a particular skill is able to run a training course that can be attended by anyone.

"You do that to create social learning. You do it to create digital learning, because everyone has a unique learning style," Price said.

"If we pick one way of doing it, we'll probably fail. We pick a way where people can build their own adventure. You still need to be intrinsically motivated to do it. You can't force someone to learn something. But if you set up the system and make it easy to access, we believe the smart people will access that and they will continually grow and develop."

Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb, a behavioural scientist, also points to tools that can help staff learn effectively even if they are not physically at work. Digital platforms mean employees can observe how colleagues present, while the ability to share documents means staff can see how colleagues work and think.

Atlassian is also using a variety of tools to help build relationships and trust among colleagues. These can range from posting holiday snaps to conducting a "Pinot and Picasso" night.

"We got overly competitive for about two hours, drinking wine, painting terrible pictures, and what I learnt through that was there is no correlation between IQ and artistic ability," Price said.

Debbie Taylor, chief information officer, NBN Co

"We looked at a call centre and we compared February, before COVID-19 hit, and the month of June, when 100 per cent of our call centre agents were working from home, and we found some amazing information. The call centre agents were 6 per cent more productive, absenteeism was 50 per cent less and the average speed to answer a call was over 40 per cent quicker."

Alicia Purtell, people and culture director, Lion

"[If you want to get noticed by your leaders in this environment], I think the big thing is don't wait. You know you can't have politeness at a point when you want to discover and learn and be curious. You might not have normal channels so you have to utilise the ones that work best for you. Be really curious; share the learnings; put your hand up to be involved in new initiatives."

Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb, behavioural scientist

"There's a range of ways that we can watch and observe others now. We obviously have digital platforms where we can see people presenting. If you think about the gaming space, you can watch each other. Also there are digital tools that we use now, like a Google doc. When I was doing my PhD, I would sit over my supervisor's shoulder and watch him type away. I can actually now do that in a remote setting.

"The other thing that I'm quite curious about is the trade-off with innovation. Are you more innovative [when you are learning by yourself]? Do we come up with new ways of actually working or doing the task at hand, rather than just watching others?"

Dominic Price, resident futurist, Atlassian

"Ignore perfection because it will kill innovation. We've got to experiment with imperfection, and so many leaders struggle to do that. It's not fail fast. It's learn fast."

Dr Sean Gallagher, director of Centre for the New Workforce, Swinburne University

"[If you are going to put a number on the ideal split between working from home and the office], maybe 60 per cent at home and 40 per cent in the office. But I actually think this is a fantastic opportunity to completely reimagine what we mean by work and why we actually come together into a physical space. I think the workplace is no longer about coming in to process email or to do routine or predictable kind of work. That's just a waste of office space. I think increasingly [it will be] about finding and framing problems; how we tell stories and create compelling narratives around a vision.

Dianne Banks, partner, Gilbert + Tobin

"One of my clients which is Canadian headquartered has decided to move to hybrid remote working permanently. They're going to reduce their footprint and give people the option of working flexibly. I think we're a long way from that here. A number of employers I speak with still have this mentality of employees being "in the office". I think what it's going to take is the war for talent to drive change because the Fair Work Act doesn't help people in terms of flexible work practices in real terms."

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How much time do you really need to spend in the office? - The Australian Financial Review

Shop the Look

Last week, Tesla announced that the Elon Musk-run electric car company will be opening a US factory in Austin, Texas, to build the long-awaited Cybertruck.

Musk isn’t losing any time exploring some ways to make it look, well, just a little less like a giant stainless steel box on wheels.

In a series of tweet replies, very much in character for the CEO, Musk offered a hint of what the fortified, apocalypse-proof truck could end up looking like from the outside: pure white, or even a rainbow treatment, as Electrek reports.

Taste the Rainbow

Design student and Twitter user @flcnhvy suggested that “some types of steel change color when tempered,” and that a Cybertruck “could be torched using a not-a-flamethrower,” referring to The Boring Company’s controversial, propane-burning flamethrower. Being a man of a few words, Musk appeared to support the idea, replying with a cursory “yes.”

Stainless steel does change color depending on what temperature it’s subjected to, ranging from grey, sand, brown, and purple, to blue and light blue. Heated just the right way, an otherwise monotone, stainless steel-clad Cybertruck could be turned into something far more cheerful looking.

Not Impossible

In response to a video of a piece of stainless steel being laser-etched with a fun pattern, Musk replied with “cool.” A render of an off-roader Cybertruck with a “white oxide” coating also got a reply out of Musk — such an option would be “not impossible.”

Whether Tesla will produce these color treatments in-house is debatable. A rainbow treatment will likely be an option relegated to the aftermarket, Electrek suggested.

READ MORE: Tesla Cybertruck’s steel body can be heated to get different colors [Electrek]

More on the Cybertruck: Elon Musk: “We Want to Be a Leader in Apocalypse Technology”

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Cybertruck Metal Can Be Etched, Heated Into a Rainbow