It’s been a wild weekend for Russian startup 3D Bioprinting Solutions.

First, the company announced a partnership with fast food chain KFC as part of an effort to create the “world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets.”

Now, the same company is ready to announce that it’s been hard at work bringing similar tech into orbit as well.

In an experiment on board the International Space Station that took place in 2018 but has only now been published, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononoenko was tasked to 3D print human cartilage cells in near-zero gravity using a machine called “Bioprinter Organ.Aut,” as Space.com reports — a machine assembled by, you guessed it, 3D Bioprinting Solutions.

The goal was to investigate ways to reverse some of the negative effects of spending prolonged periods of time in space, in particular evidence that parts of the human body can atrophy over time — something we’ve known about for quite some time.

The eventual hope is to give astronauts the ability to print entire body parts in space, according to the researchers — just in case something goes catastrophically wrong during a mission.

A paper about the research was published in the journal Science Advances last week.

Rather than using a bioassembly “scaffold,” a structure that acts as a support for tissue, the machine uses magnets to allow cells to float in place, a process the researchers called “magnetic levitational bioassembly.”

“Magnetic waves or fields are controlled so we can move the cells where we want them to go [to assemble] them into more complex structures of tissue constructs,” Utkan Demirci, co-director of the Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection at Stanford, who invented the process and co-authored the paper, told Space.com.

The Russian startup isn’t only looking at printing cartilage in space.

During following ISS expeditions, “we also conducted experiments in space on fabricating the mouse thyroid gland, fabricating meat, fabricating bones, fabricating three-dimensional bacterial biofilms, as well as crystallizing and growing crystals of protein compounds in a new method,” Vladislav Parfenov, 3D Bioprinting Solutions chief designer, told Space.com in an email.

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The Same Company 3D Printing KFC’s Meat Nuggets Is Printing Human Tissue in Space As Well

No-Scope

Over the weekend, NASA’s Curiosity rover spent its time blasting a bizarre rock on Mars with a laser.

To clarify, Curiosity wasn’t just killing time. This particular rock, Digital Trends reports, was adorned with unusual colors for the area, and vaporizing it with a laser is one of the best tricks Curiosity that has for figuring out what it’s made of.

Target Practice

The laser is just one of Curiosity’s tools for analyzing an object’s chemical composition. In the past, the rover has used them to make discoveries suggesting that Mars once harbored life. The findings for this particular rock aren’t available yet, but Digital Trends reports that the colors could suggest the presence of organic compounds.

But it won’t be until the next rover, Perseverance, shows up with more sophisticated tools that NASA can kick up the hunt for signs of ancient microbes to the next level.

Scouting Ahead

While NASA prepares for its Perseverance launch, Curiosity is continuing on what NASA is calling a “summer road trip” to scout ahead and study more regions of the planet that may have once harbored life.

“Curiosity was designed to go beyond Opportunity’s search for the history of water,” NASA researcher Abigail Fraeman said in a press release. “We’re uncovering an ancient world that offered life a foothold for longer than we realized.”

READ MORE: Curiosity is investigating a strangely colored rock it found on Mars [Digital Trends]

More on Curiosity: Next NASA Mars Rover Will Sport a Rock-Vaporizing Laser

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NASA’s Mars Rover Spent the Weekend Shooting a Weird-Looking Rock With a Laser

Black Box

Uber drivers in the UK are suing the company in a desperate bid to learn more about the ride-hailing app’s algorithm, which governs their lives and income.

The core argument of the lawsuit, Business Insider reports, is that the company’s decision to withhold personal data about drivers prevents them from understanding how the algorithm assigns them jobs and therefore impacts their livelihood. If it works, it could be a major win for gig-economy contractors trying to assert control over their work.

Enter GDPR

The App Drivers and Couriers Union, which is suing Uber on behalf of the drivers, argued that Uber violates GDPR when it tracks and monitors drivers by gathering data like late arrivals, cancellation records, and passenger complaints, according to BI.

Because the drivers can’t access that data and aren’t told how it’s fed into the algorithm that decides their future ride assignments, the union claims that Uber is violating their digital privacy.

BossBot

If the lawsuit succeeds and Uber drivers gain access to their records, it could set a lasting precedent for other gig workers who essentially report to and are managed by algorithms, BI reports.

With more power and authority granted to drivers, who Uber has repeatedly argued in court should not be considered employees, gig workers around the world could get a more important seat at the table.

READ MORE: Uber drivers are suing the company to better understand how they are managed by algorithms [Business Insider]

More on Uber: Uber Says Rides During “Party Hours” Are Keeping it Afloat

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Uber Drivers Are Suing to Learn How the Company’s Algorithm Works

Nuka-Nepta

New research suggests that astronomers may have been entirely wrong about a class of exoplanets that they call “mini-Neptunes.”

These worlds, which were thought to be smaller versions — just 2.4 Earth radii across — of gas giants like Neptune, may actually be rocky exoplanets covered by thick, deeply-irradiated oceans, according to research by scientists at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille. The study, published last month in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, threatens to break down the barriers between two classes of exoplanets that astronomers previously thought were totally separate.

Totally Rad

Studying exoplanets tends to involve a little bit of trickery. Researchers use various imaging techniques to figure out things like a world’s density, chemical composition, and whether it has an atmosphere. In the case of mini-Neptunes, most had assumed that their low density and mass meant they were coated in a thick, gassy atmosphere.

Instead, according to the study, some may have oceans of highly pressurized and heated supercritical liquid that’s been irradiated by a powerful greenhouse effect. The ocean, just like a gas giant’s atmosphere, could account for the low density and mass of the exoplanets.

Building Bridges

A separate study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics found that the same irradiated oceans could also exist on slightly-smaller, rocky “super-Earth” exoplanets, as their environments are capable of the same powerful greenhouse effect as the mini-Neptunes.

Much of their calculations still need to be tested and verified through more observations of exoplanets. But if it holds up, the findings suggest that the various worlds out there could be a lot more similar than we thought.

READ MORE: Could mini-Neptunes be irradiated ocean planets? [CNRS]

More on exoplanets: Astronomers Discover “Intriguing,” Extremely Earth-Like Exoplanet

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“Mini-Neptune” Exoplanets May Actually Be Covered in Radioactive Oceans

Transplant lungscan only survive for a short period of time outside the human body. In fact, only around a quarter meet criteria for transplantation, according to the American Lung Association.

Thats why a team of researchers at Columbia University in New York have decided to find an alternative, extending the shelf life of human lungs intended to be transplanted by hooking them up to live pigs, as detailed in a new paper published in Nature Medicine today.

The procedure could allow deteriorated or damaged lungs destined for transplantation to recover within just 24 hours, New Scientist reports.

The research could even one day allow human patientsto act as their own surrogates, healing transplant lungs destined for their own bodies via a catheter in their neck, according to The New York Times.

Currently, health practitioners attempt to recover deteriorated lungs using complicated machinery called EVLP (ex vivo lung perfusion) that pumps air and fluids through the lungs but only with limited success.

To improve on this idea, a team of researchers from Columbia University in New York wondered if hooking up damaged lungs to living pigs could help remove toxins and add nutrients.

In an experiment, the team connected half a dozen human lungs from brain dead patients to the circulatory systems of anesthetized pigs for 24 hour periods.

By pumping air into the lungs inside plastic boxes and adding immunosuppressant drugs that ensured the immune systems wouldnt reject the alien lung, the team found that the lungs capacity to deliver oxygen improved considerably. Even a lung that spent 48 hours outside the body had recovered.

The technique could revolutionize the medicine of transplants.

If there were a way to maintain organs in a healthy state outside the body for a day or several days, then many things would change in transplantation, Robert Bartlett, a surgeon who developed a machine similar to the EVLP, who was not involved in the study, told STAT News. You could have perfect matching. You could treat organs injured outside the body until theyre working well.

Thats remarkable, James Fildes, regenerative medicine lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK, who wasnt involved in the research, told New Scientist. My expectation would be that that lung would be destroyed, but actually it doesnt look like it is at all.

Before implanting the resulting lungs into humans, the team wants to repeat the experiment with more lungs, as the procedure comes with plenty of risks. White cells that made it from the pig into the lungs could trigger a dangerous immune reactions in human recipients, for instance.

Some lungs may be beyond repair despite the surrogate pigs, co-author Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic admitted to New Scientist, but if you can salvage two out of every four that are rejected, you can increase the number of lungs available to patients by three times.

If we could expand the donor pool, we could avoid a lot of waiting-list deaths and could be more open-minded about who could have a transplant, Matthew Bacchetta, lung transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University and lead author of the study, told NYT.

The team is hoping the technique could serve as a complementary approach to clinical EVLP to recover injured donor lungs that could not otherwise be utilized for transplantation, as they note in their paper.

Luckily, no pig was hurt during the experiments. According to the researchers, the pigs were left with no long-lasting effects. Some were even able to play around with toys while hooked up during a previous experiment.

Its a transformative idea that would allow a jump forward in the field, Zachary Kon, surgical director of the lung transplant center at New York University Langone Medical Center, told the Times.

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Shooting Star

The Department of Defense has quietly awarded a contract for the Sierra Nevada Corporation to turn its Shooting Star cargo spacecraft into a small experimental space station, The Drive reports.

The defense contractor has been developing the spacecraft since 2016 as a way to resupply the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program.

The craft is 16 feet long and is designed to carry 10,000 pounds of cargo into orbit. Six thrusters allow it to adjust its orbit independently. SNC’s Dream Chaser, a Space Shuttle lookalike, is designed to carry the capsule into orbit and even as far as Moon’s orbit.

Space Barracks

The company is hoping to turn the Shooting Star into a small space station meant for “space assembly, microgravity, experimentation, logistics, manufacturing, training, test and evaluation,” according to a press release.

“We’re excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star,” SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen said in the press release. “The possible applications for Shooting Star are really endless.”

Free-Flying Destination

The company is already looking at sending such a space station to orbits far beyond the ISS, including geosynchronous Earth orbits, and even cislunar orbits.

“We are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions,” said senior vice president of strategy for SNC’s Space Systems Steve Lindsey.

While initial Shooting Star capsules will be unmanned, The Drive suggests the Pentagon may be interested in moving on using it as a manned outpost as well.

READ MORE: The Pentagon Moves To Launch Its Own Experimental Mini Space Station [The Drive]

More on Shooting Star: NASA Will Test Beautiful Spaceship That Looks Like the Space Shuttle

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At the end of the year, a fleet of pirate-hunting satellites will take to the sky.

A satellite intelligence company called HawkEye 360 says it’s booked a ticket on a SpaceX rideshare mission to launch a cluster of three satellites that will sail around the globe, tracking down pirates, poachers, and smugglers.

HawkEye 360, unlike the superhero of the same name, doesn’t actually dole out justice. But it does work with terrestrial authorities including the Pentagon and the National Reconnaissance Office to pinpoint potential issues by tracing radio signals coming from the surface.

The company has had satellites in orbit since 2018, but CEO John Serafini told Futurism that each new launch will further improve its capabilities to track down crimes from orbit.

“We’ve seen dark ship activity all over the globe,” Serafini told Futurism, “and even analyzed Iran smuggling oil to Syria.”

“We were able to identify a build-up of Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley, contributing deeper understanding about the heightened tensions occurring along the India/China border,” he added. “We’ve helped rangers in Garamba National Park monitor their vast landscape for wildlife poaching.”

That last project, he said, illustrates one of the main ways this new launch will help HawkEye 360 improve: It’s not that there are parts of the world that it can’t monitor with its current fleet, Serafini says, but that each cluster will improve its response time as well as its ability to pinpoint a signal’s exact location.

“Similar to how visible imaging satellites were once only the domain of governments, but now there are many commercial providers of satellite imagery, HawkEye 360 is augmenting government capabilities by providing a useful source of commercial [radio frequency] data,” Serafini said.

With each new launch — Serafini wants to bring the total satellite count to 21 in the coming years — the amount of time it takes to revisit each location will drop. The ultimate goal is to get it down to 45 minutes, Serafini says. That would make it harder for, say, poachers to sneak into the Garamba National Park or any other preserve, kill a protected animal, and make off with the trophy.

“With our current cluster, we can already collect data anywhere in the world multiple times per day,” Serafini said. “But we need faster revisits in order to enable dark ship tracking or increase data density to conduct richer analysis.”

More on satellite surveillance: The Pentagon Wants Sentinel Satellites To Deter Space Warfare

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SpaceX Is Launching a Fleet of Pirate-Hunting Satellites

It’s a Date

On May 30, SpaceX made history by launching the first astronauts to the International Space Station from U.S. ground since the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle program in 2011.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley may have piloted the the futuristic Crew Dragon space capsule with ease — but the mission, dubbed Demo-2, is far from over.

Both astronauts will still have to make their return journey inside the capsule — and NASA has finally picked a tentative date for exactly that: disengaging from the ISS on August 1, as CNBC reports, with splashdown in the Atlantic ocean scheduled for 3pm on August 2.

NEWS: We're targeting an Aug. 1 departure of @SpaceX's Dragon Endeavour spacecraft from the @Space_Station to bring @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug home after their historic #LaunchAmerica mission. Splashdown is targeted for Aug. 2. Weather will drive the actual date. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/VOCV51gzLi

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) July 17, 2020

Completing the Mission

The plan is to undock from the ISS, blaze through the Earth’s atmosphere during descent, and splash into the Atlantic to be picked up by a nearby ship — a journey already completed by a preceding, uncrewed Crew Dragon capsule last year.

Exact departure time from the space station is still “a bit of a moving target” thanks to changing weather conditions as NASA’s Johnson Space Center, public affairs officer Kyle Herring told CNBC. As of right now, the plan is to undock at around 8 pm Eastern on August 1.

Behnken and Hurely have kept busy since arriving at the ISS on May 31, by replacing the space station’s aging old solar array batteries with lithium ion ones during a trio of spacewalks.

READ MORE: NASA plans to return its astronauts in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on Aug. 2 [CNBC]

More on Crew Dragon: NASA Astronaut Says SpaceX Crew Dragon Looked “Awesome” During Spacewalk

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NASA Just Picked a Date for SpaceX to Bring Back Its Astronauts

Breaking Up

In somewhere between five and ten million years, the tectonic plates that form Africa are likely to rip apart so much that it’ll eventually split the continent in two.

Within Ethiopia’s Afar region, the Arabian, Nubian, and Somali tectonic plates are slowly pulling away from each other, NBC News reports, gradually creating a vast rift — slowly forming a new ocean.

“We can see that oceanic crust is starting to form, because it’s distinctly different from continental crust in its composition and density,” University of Leeds Ph.D. student Christopher Moore told NBC.

Unique Opportunity

Scientists have suspected that the plates are pulling apart for a while, but new improvements to GPS are helping them figure out exactly what’s happening beneath the surface.

The new ocean will give geologists an unprecedented opportunity to figure out how such a tectonic break happens, according to NBC. While the Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly moving around, scientists still don’t know what, specifically, is driving these three away from each other.

Slow And Steady

The leading theory right now is that massive, superheated rocks are bubbling up from the mantle right at the point where the three plates meet, but ideas like these are difficult to prove.

“With GPS measurements, you can measure rates of movement down to a few millimeters per year,” University of California, Santa Barbara marine geophysicist Ken Macdonald told NBC. “As we get more and more measurements from GPS, we can get a much greater sense of what’s going on.”

READ MORE: The African continent is very slowly peeling apart. Scientists say a new ocean is being born. [NBC News]

More on geology: Experts Predict What Earth’s Next Supercontinent Will Look Like

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A team of marine biologists have discovered 16 new species of terrifying deep-sea fish that reflect almost no light at all, Wired reports — much like the ultra-black material Vantablack.

Marine biologist Karen Osborn was astonished when she attempted to take pictures of a fangtooth, a terrifying fanged monster of the deep sea, for cataloguing reasons. The fish appeared to absorb almost all of the light her underwater studio shone at it, leaving only eerie silhouettes.

“I had tried to take pictures of deep-sea fish before and got nothing but these really horrible pictures, where you can’t see any detail,” Osborn, who co-authored a paper about the fish published in Current Biology, told Wired. “How is it that I can shine two strobe lights at them and all that light just disappears?”

“It’s like looking at a black hole,” lead author Alexander Davis, a Duke University biologist, told The New York Times.

Some of the newly discovered species are so dark that they absorb 99.956 percent of light that hits it. For context, last year MIT engineers claimed they accidentally created the darkest material that absorbs 99.995 percent of incoming light — 10 times darker than Vantablack, an extremely dark and difficult to produce carbon nanotube material designed by British nanotech company Surrey Nanosystems.

“We had no idea that there were any fishes at all that were ultra-black,” Davis told Wired. “As far as we knew, the only vertebrates that were ultra-black at all were these birds-of-paradise and a couple other bird species.”

“It was the first case we have of something this black really being used as camouflage as well,” he added.

Deep sea oceans are actually much brighter than you might think. There may be little or no natural light penetrating hundreds of meters of ocean water, but bioluminescent creatures and bacteria produce plenty of light all by themselves.

At the same time, light produced by these organisms tends to draw the attention of prey, suggesting the ultra-black fish may be camouflaging themselves to stop them from being detected as they stalk their prey — or hide from other predators.

So how do these fish get so dark? Special layers of melanosomes, tiny cellular structures stuffed with melanin — the same natural pigment that colors human skin — scatter incoming photons and stop them from finding their way back out.

One species, the threadfin dragonfish, was even found to only be ultra-black when its young — likely a defense mechanism to protect it when it needs to hide from predators.

Other species had melanosomes lining their guts to make sure any bioluminescent fish they ate won’t give away their position. “You don’t want to be swimming around with a glowing belly, right?” Osborne told Wired. “That’s just asking for trouble.”

So will we be able to make our own deep sea fish-inspired Vantablack coating? According to Davis, you’d need to be able to make the nanoparticles just the right size and shape, “then you should be able to just coat anything with it,” as he explained to Wired.

READ MORE: Vantablack? Meh. Meet the Ultra-Black Vantafish [Wired]

More on Vantablack: This Vantablack Watch Costs $75,000 

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Scientists Discover “Vantablack” Deep-Sea Creatures

The UK National Cyber Security Centre, (NCSC) in conjunction with their US and Canadian intelligence counterparts, warned on Thursday that Russian hackers with ties to the Kremlin have been targeting coronavirus vaccine development since the early days of the pandemic.

The warnings were accompanied by a detailed 16-page document, outlining how Russian hackers might be attempting to steal information from researchers through custom malware and other exploits.

“We would urge organizations to familiarize themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks,” NCSC Director of Operations Paul Chichester said in a statement.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” Dominic Raab, the UK’s foreign secretary, added in a separate statement to the press.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took a far more nuanced approach.

“We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so,” she said, as quoted by AP.

Russia shot back, saying it had no idea what they were talking about.

“We don’t know who tried to carry out the hacking attacks in the United Kingdom, but Russia certainly has nothing to do with it,” Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters today, as reported by state-run Russian news network Tass.

“We continuously confront attempted cyber attacks against our computer databases, and those of our departments,” Peskov added. “Our agencies regularly repel such attacks, since it is a common problem. We strongly reject these groundless accusations against us.”

Western intelligence claims the group behind the hacks is APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, the same group that was found to be involved in hacking Democratic email accounts during the 2016 US presidential election.

Peskov claimed that “we know absolutely nothing about the group and who it is affiliated with,” when asked about Cozy Bear’s affiliations with the Kremlin, Tass reports.

The news comes after a Wall Street Journal report published in May claimed that Chinese and Iranian hackers were targeting US efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. At the time, no specific hacking groups were named.

READ MORE: Russia is hacking virus vaccine trials, US, UK, Canada say [Associated Press]

More on hacks: US Officials: Chinese Hackers Are Targeting Vaccine Research

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State-Backed Russian Hackers Are Targeting Coronavirus Vaccine Research

For centuries, doctors and scientists viewed inflammation as a necessary and unavoidable systemic response to illness or injury. However, over the last few decades, we have seen a major shift in thinking on the subject. Today we understand that inflammation is as much a cause of major medical issues as it is a symptom. In fact, a lot of doctors now argue that being able to control and reduce inflammation is the future of preventative medicine. That’s why the scientists at Mellowment developed Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation, which combines the world’s most advanced CBD with curcumin extract for maximum inflammation relief, recovery, and comfort.

Why Reduce Inflammation?

Inflammation is an essential survival mechanism of the human immune system. When cells are in distress, they release chemicals that alert the immune system. The immune system responds by sending inflammatory cells to capture the pathogens or heal damaged tissue, and blood vessels in the area expand to accommodate the additional immune system traffic and bring fluid to the site of the injury or infection. This is called acute inflammation. And while it is painful and uncomfortable, it is also a sign that our body is healing itself.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, sometimes this natural immune system response does not get switched off. Sometimes it’s because the cause of the initial immune system response cannot be eliminated. Sometimes the immune system simply malfunctions. Either way, the immune system tells white blood cells to attack healthy tissues and organs, which results in chronic inflammation.

We now know that chronic inflammation is a major contributing factor to many degenerative diseases, including things like coronary artery disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. For years doctors tried to treat the symptoms of these diseases with surgeries and medications. However, now they are starting to realize it may be more beneficial to treat, control, and reduce inflammation.

Luckily, when it comes to fighting inflammation, we have a couple of very effective all-natural tools at our disposal.

CBD and Curcumin

One of the natural tools we have to combat inflammation is CBD. Short for cannabidiol, CBD is one of 113 different cannabinoid compounds found in cannabis plants. Unlike THC, the cannabinoid that gets you high when you ingest marijuana, CBD has zero psychoactive effects. However, people say it is very effective in relieving discomfort caused by pain, inflammation, insomnia, stress, and anxiety. When it comes to inflammation, in particular, the most recent studies suggest it works by modulating the endocannabinoid system and disrupting the production of cytokines, which are proteins secreted by immune cells that trigger inflammation.

The other natural tool we have to reduce inflammation is curcumin, a compound found in the spice turmeric that has been used as an herbal medicine in India for thousands of years. Modern science has shown that curcumin has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and numerous studies have shown it to be effective in treating inflammation and pain associated with arthritis.

Unfortunately, treating inflammation effectively with CBD and curcumin is not easy. In their natural states, both CBD and curcumin have poor bioavailability, which means they don’t actually get into your system due to poor absorption, first-pass metabolism, and rapid elimination.

Luckily, Mellowment has solved the bioavailability problem.

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation Softgels

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation Softgels contain 25mg of CBD and 10mg of curcumin. They are made using an advanced nano-emulsification process that shrinks the active ingredients and suspends them in microscopic droplets of oil which can easily pass through cell walls. This process more than doubles the natural bioavailability of CBD and curcumin, which means more CBD and curcumin reach systemic circulation, ensuring maximum effectiveness.

However, it’s not just the nano emulsification process that sets Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation apart from other products. Mellowment’s CBD extracts are meticulously engineered from Colorado-grown hemp using an advanced chromatography process that removes all THC, eliminating the risk of failed drug tests and undesired psychoactive effects.

Each bottle of Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation contains 30 softgels. They are formulated to be taken as needed, and most customers take between one and four softgels per day.

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation is not a miracle cure. However, there are a lot of people who swear that it alleviates discomfort caused by inflammation and speeds up their recovery from workouts. So you are looking for a natural way to reduce inflammation, this one is definitely worth a try.

This supplement has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to cure or treat any ailments. Do not take CBD products if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in the product you are consuming. Tell your doctor about all medicines you may be on before consuming CBD to avoid negative reactions. Tell your doctor about all medical conditions. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins and herbal products. Other side effects of CBD include dry mouth, cloudy thoughts, and wakefulness. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of any drugs to the FDA. Visit http://www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

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Looking to Reduce Inflammation? This Specially-Designed CBD Could Be The Answer.

Foiled Again!

It turns out that the masks that keep us safe from COVID-19 are a real pain for the police.

Leaked documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been particularly concerned about how masks block the facial recognition used to surveil Americans, The Intercept reports. Apparently, federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been circulating these concerns since late May, when the mass Black Lives Matter protests began to sweep the country.

Dangerous Conjecture

The DHS memo is specifically concerned that “violent adversaries” might exploit current mask-wearing guidelines to hide in plain sight while waging war against the state, The Intercept reports.

The evidence? One member of an online white supremacist forum who suggested attacking infrastructure in a mask and other pre-pandemic online chatter.

“…while we have no specific information that violent extremists or other criminals in the United States are using protective face coverings to conduct attacks,” the memo reads, “some of these entities have previously expressed interest in avoiding face recognition and promulgated simple instructions to conceal one’s identity, both prior to and during the current Covid-19 pandemic.”

Troubling Disconnect

Without getting too heavy-handed, the memo is an unfortunate insight into how law enforcement’s priorities conflict with public health. During an unprecedented global crisis, the DHS is scared that mask-wearing will become too commonplace.

The challenge for law enforcement will be finding a way around it: Police banned masks during previous social movements, The Intercept reports, but it will be hard to do so during the pandemic.

READ MORE: HOMELAND SECURITY WORRIES COVID-19 MASKS ARE BREAKING FACIAL RECOGNITION, LEAKED DOCUMENT SHOWS [The Intercept]

More on surveillance: Oh No, Spying on Protestors Might Make the Public Distrust Surveillance

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Government Leak: Cops Terrified Masks Will Block Facial Recognition

Organ Failure

In the coming years, climate change will heat some parts of the world so much that merely working outdoors could become life-threatening.

New models suggest that unless greenhouse gases are reined in, millions of people — especially in developing nations — will be exposed to dangerous levels of heat that could cause heat stress, a dangerous condition that can cause your organs to shut down, BBC News reports. And with workplace fans shut off and heavier protective garments due to the pandemic, even more people are likely to be affected.

Space Heater

Unfortunately, switching on your air conditioner to get some relief — already not an option in many developing nations — is only going to make things worse, according to an unrelated U.N. report published Friday.

“If we deal with cooling wrong, we essentially cook ourselves,” Gabrielle Dreyfus, manager of the cool efficiency program at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said on a press call attended by Earther.

Warning Signs

Warning signs for this dire future can already be seen in medics who have to treat patients in tropical climates wearing heavy protective gear, Dr. Jimmy Lee, an emergency medic treating COVID-19 patients in Singapore, told BBC. Soon, the dangerous heats those medics face could become an everyday experience for everyone else, too.

“This climate change will be a bigger monster and we really need a coordinated effort across nations to prepare for what is to come,” Lee told BBC. “If not, there’ll be a price to be paid.”

READ MORE: Climate change: Summers could become ‘too hot for humans’ [BBC News]

More on climate change: Doomsday Report Author: Earth’s Leaders Have Failed

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Scientists: Climate Change Will Get So Hot Your Organs Shut Down

Big Printer

Europe’s largest 3D printer just spat out an entire two-story tall home, an effort by Belgian sustainable construction company Kamp C. According to the company, it’s the biggest house printed in one piece, with a fixed printer, in history.

The 32-by-32 foot printer works in much the same way as its much smaller plastic-printing additive cousins — except that it uses a specially mixed concrete to build layer by layer.

Faster, Cheaper, Stronger

Such a process has key advantages over conventional builds: It’s significantly faster, it’s far more judicious with material usage, and could even cut construction costs as a result.

“The material’s compressive strength is three times greater than that of the conventional quick build brick,” Marijke Aerts, the project manager, told New Atlas. “Besides the fibers in the concrete, the amount of wire-mesh reinforcement used is extremely limited. As a result of the printing technology used, formwork was redundant, saving an estimated sixty percent on material, time, and budget.”

The 980 square feet two-story home is still more of a demo than a livable structure, but it’s technically large enough and even features sustainable amenities, like solar panels and underfloor heating.

“Printing this building is mainly a statement,” Emiel Ascione, project manager at Kamp C, told Digital Trends. “It shows the construction industry the accessibility and potential of this technique.”

READ MORE: Europe’s biggest 3D printer helps create an entire two-story house [Digital Trends]

More on printing houses: These Adorable 3D-Printed Houses Could Solve Homelessness

The post Watch a 3D Printer Spit Out an Entire Two-Story House appeared first on Futurism.

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Watch a 3D Printer Spit Out an Entire Two-Story House

One of the hardest parts of treating addiction is keeping patients from relapsing.

Now, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that they’ve “interrupted the brain pathway responsible for morphine-associated memories in mice, that is, ‘erasing’ the drug-associated memory from the brain.”

The work could point to a possible way to stop relapses from happening after treating an opioid addiction. And while the human brain is far more complex than that of a mouse — as well as humans’ reasons for relapsing — the finding is promising.

To treat the mice, the team gave them brain implants: a fiber optic that shined light onto a region called the paraventricular thalamus and blocked withdrawal symptoms. A day later, the mice no longer sought out morphine and relapse — or at least do the lab mouse version of relapsing — even after two weeks.

According to the new research, published Thursday in the journal Neuron, people relapse partially because they miss the high, but more so because the symptoms of withdrawal can often be overwhelming. By tamping down those symptoms, the mice appear to be able to kick the habit more easily.

“Our success in preventing relapse in rodents may one day translate to an enduring treatment of opioid addiction in people,” CAS researcher Zhu Yingjie said in a press release.

The post Scientists Hack Mouse Brains to “Erase” Opioid Addiction appeared first on Futurism.

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Scientists Hack Mouse Brains to “Erase” Opioid Addiction

Is there a ninth planet lurking beyond the orbit of Neptune?

Astronomers have been observing strange gravitational patterns of a cluster of bodies known as trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, that could be explained by the presence of massive ninth planet in our solar system.The hypothetical planet, dubbed Planet Nine, would orbit our star at hundreds of times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Its been a contentious topic, with some writing off the odd behavior of TNOs as being caused by a cluster of much smaller space rocks. Others predict that such a planet would be five times the mass of the Earth, orbiting our star at about 400 times the Earths distance from the Sun.

Finally, theres the possibility that Planet Nine is actually a teeny-tiny black hole left over from the Big Bang. So tiny,in fact, that itd only measure about five centimeters across basically impossible to see with any kind of telescope.

There has been a great deal of speculation concerning alternative explanations for the anomalous orbits observed in the outer solar system, explained Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student, in a statement. One of the ideas put forth was the possibility that Planet Nine could be a grapefruit-sized black hole with a mass of five to 10 times that of the Earth.

So which is it then? In a new paper accepted into the The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Siraj, alongside a team of astronomers from Harvard University and the Black Hole Initiative outlined a newly developed methodthat could hopefully answer that question once and or all.

Their plan is to look for accretion flares given off as the tiny black hole gobbles up matter surrounding it. If they find some, itd mean that Planet Nine is actually a black hole. In the vicinity of a black hole, small bodies that approach it will melt as a result of heating from the background accretion of gas from the interstellar medium onto the black hole, Siraj said.

Because black holes are intrinsically dark, the radiation that matter emits on its way to the mouth of the black hole is our only way to illuminate this dark environment, added Avi Loeb, professor of science at Harvard who was also involved in the research.

The team is placing their bets on the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) mission taking place at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Astronomers involved in the mission are hoping to answer questions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter as well as the formation and properties of planets in our solar system.

LSST has a wide field of view, covering the entire sky again and again, and searching for transient flares, Loeb said. Other telescopes are good at pointing at a known target, but we do not know exactly where to look for Planet Nine. We only know the broad region in which it may reside.

According to Loeb, the LSSTs unprecedented depth will be able to spot even the smallest of flares.

Its not the only attempt to uncover the mysteries behind Planet Nine. Most recently, a different team of astronomers announced its hoping to launch a fleet of thousands of nanospacecraft to search for the mysterious object.

Unfortunately, that vision is still a moonshot, with cost estimates breaking the $1 billion mark that is, if its even feasible from a technological standpoint in the first place.

READ MORE: Scientists propose plan to determine if Planet Nine is a primordial black hole [Harvard]

More on Planet Nine: A Black Hole May Be Orbiting Our Sun. This Guy Wants to Find It.

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Astronomers Want to Figure Out What the Hell Planet Nine Is Once and For All - Futurism

While you were sleeping, we compiled the biggest stories of the day in one place. Each story has a quick and easy summary, so you're prepared for whatever the day brings. Just click on the links if you want to know more! You can watch the latest LIVE on WPTV here from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.

1. Florida led the nation in coronavirus deaths on ThursdayFlorida led the nation with a state-record 156 additional deaths and 13,965 cases, the second most ever in the state.

Florida represented 19.0 percent of the nation's cases and 16.2 percent of the deaths.

Palm Beach County is second in the state for deaths, increasing by 60 in one week.

2. Supreme Court ruling limits felons voting in FloridaThe Supreme Court is allowing Florida to enforce a law that bars ex-felons from voting who still owe court fees or fines.

Amendment 4, passed by Florida voters in 2018, allowed most ex-felons to register to vote, with exceptions for those convicted of certain crimes.

In 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law additions to Amendment 4 that required fines, fees and restitution be paid first before ex-felons could register to vote.

Erika Dimmler

Cherry blossom trees bloom on the grounds of the U.S. Supreme Court.

3. Will there be football in the fall? The NCAA released a set of guidelines member schools should follow as athletic teams prepare for fall sports but in releasing the guidelines, President Mark Emmert seemed less than optimistic about the return of college athletics in the coming weeks.

"Today, sadly, the data point in the wrong direction," Emmert said. "If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic."

In the professional football world, Miami Dolphins fans won't be allowed to attend training camp or preseason games this year.

AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

4. Palm Beach County schools' start will be delayed and virtualParents, the school year in Palm Beach County will be delayed, but by how long is still unclear.

The superintendent said many factors need to be considered in planning a school calendar including union contracts, employee and parent schedules, and the number of days students need to take part in learning.

Fennoy said he'll present options to the school board at next week's meeting on July 22, and board members will officially vote on a start date then.

5. You won't be sailing away: 'No Sail Order' for cruise ships through SeptemberThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its 'No Sail Order' for cruise ships through September due to ongoing coronavirus outbreaks.

The original order, placed on March 13, has since been extended twice. The latest order was due to expire on July 24.

According to CDC data, there was a total of 2,973 Covid-19 or COVID-like illness cases aboard cruise ships, in addition to 34 deaths, between March 1 and July 10.

Today's ForecastIsolated morning showers and a few t-storms moving in from the coast.

Latest Weather Forecast 11 p.m. Thursday

Get your complete hour-by-hour forecast here.

On This Day In HistoryDisneyland, Walt Disneys metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 18 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.

Remember, you can join Mike Trim and Ashleigh Walters every weekday on WPTV NewsChannel 5 beginning at 4:30 a.m.

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5 Things To Know On Friday, July 17, 2020 - WPTV.com

All Terrain Vehicle

As NASA works toward its literal moonshot goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon, one of the lingering challenges is figuring out where everyone would live.

Past ideas for lunar habitats have included inflatable tents, underground bases, and even giant fungi. Now, through a partnership with Japan’s space agency JAXA, NASA is exploring a new angle, Ars Technica reports: pressurized rovers that, according to a NASA spokesperson, would be the Moon equivalent of an RV.

“This thing is the coolest element I’ve ever seen for people,” said Mark Kirasich, the acting director of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems, during an appearance last week. “It’s like an RV for the Moon.”

Calling Shotgun

JAXA has already been working on the Moon version of a mobile home with Toyota for a little over two years, but the budget-conscious NASA is now joining in the effort. NASA, faced with both funding cuts and the current administration’s lofty goals for a Moon landing, sees Japan’s rover as a way to get there without having to develop its own vehicle from scratch.

“NASA’s budget is stretched pretty thin, and this helps them afford to do it,” Clive Neal, a lunar scientist from the University of Notre Dame, told Ars Technica.

Eagle 5

When JAXA announced the vehicle last year, it only seated two people. It remains unclear if further modifications have been made to turn the rover into a habitat, or if lunar settlers might just have to make do with pairing off.

While luxury is an unrealistic expectation for life on the Moon, it does seem that those living in these lunar RVs will have to make do with super close quarters — and packing a Druish princess’ giant hairdryer is out of the question.

READ MORE: NASA’s first lunar habitat may be an RV-like rover built by Toyota [Ars Technica]

More on lunar RVs: See the Moon Rover Toyota Is Building for Japan’s Space Program

The post NASA Spokesperson Says Agency Is Working on an “RV for the Moon” appeared first on Futurism.

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NASA Spokesperson Says Agency Is Working on an “RV for the Moon”

Berlin Y’all

Elon Musk-led electric car company Tesla is set to open the doors on its brand new Giga Factory in Berlin, Germany.

Earlier this morning, Musk shared a 3D render of what the space could look like, with expanses of trees surrounding the massive, solar panel-lined facility.

And the factory might even have a secret killer feature up its sleeve as well, likely meant to appease German techno enthusiasts working at the plant.

“Might be an indoor/outdoor rave space on the roof,” Musk hinted, responding to a Twitter user asking about seeing “the rave cave rendering.”

Giga Berlin pic.twitter.com/UXQMUVTWXf

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2020

Techno Time

The concept isn’t entirely new. In March, Musk posted a poll on Twitter asking his gigantic following if they were interested in a “mega rave cave” below Giga Berlin. 90.2 percent responded with the option “hell yes!”

Musk has plenty of reasons to celebrate. His car company’s valuation sky-rocketed to a high of $1,760 on Monday as tens of thousands of new investors were pouring in from online brokerage Robinhood. The rocketing valuation also sets Musk up for yet another massive $1.8 billion payday.

At the same time, the construction of the manufacturing plant has hit several setbacks, with environmental protests concerning deforestation and worries over drinking water supplies leading to a German court ordering Tesla to cease construction, but lifting the freeze several weeks later.

German munitions experts even had to defuse seven unexploded World War II bombs at the site in January.

READ MORE: Elon Musk teases a quirky extra for Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory [Digital Trends]

More on Tesla: German Court: Tesla’s “Autopilot” Is False Advertising

The post Elon Musk Teases “Indoor/Outdoor Rave Space” on Berlin Tesla Factory Roof appeared first on Futurism.

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Elon Musk Teases “Indoor/Outdoor Rave Space” on Berlin Tesla Factory Roof