Eclipse allows everyone to be an astronomer for the day – Inside NoVA

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The Aug. 21 solar eclipse brought out astronomers highly professional and decidedly amateur, and those who gathered at McLean High Schools observatory had their pick of ways to enjoy the spectacle.

The schools outdoor courtyard bustled with activity far in advance of the peak eclipse time in mid-afternoon. Astronomy teacher Dean Howarth was tickled by the high turnout.

Its great. Theres been a swarm of people here for two hours, he said. The goal is to get people this interested in science all the time.

Scores of children and adults donned special protective eyewear to look safely at the eclipse and some put one of those dark lenses over their smartphones cameras to take pictures of the phenomenon.

Gazing through the glasses was a bit eerie. It seemed as if the whole universe consisted of an orange crescent and impenetrable blackness.

The courtyards prime viewing location was its refurbished observatory. Visitors entered the lower level of the structure and watched news coverage from around the country of the eclipse on a large, flat-screen television.

The line for the observatory upstairs was long and the crowded conditions were stifling, but those who were waiting put things in perspective.

I shouldnt complain, said math teacher Emily Jaffa. Most schools dont have an observatory.

After ascending a steep staircase, visitors got to view the eclipse through a 14-inch-diameter reflector telescope that was covered with a deep crimson hydrogen-alpha filter. The view filled the field of vision and offered extraordinary detail of the sun.

Weve seen every planet in the solar system with this scope, so its pretty capable, Howarth said.

The only thing missing was a camera mount for the viewing lens. Some tried to take photos through the lens with their smartphones and digital cameras, with mixed results.

Such eclipses usually happen about twice in a given lifetime, and people often have to travel to see one, Howarth said. By good fortune, another eclipse in 2024 will cast a shadow from the countrys middle area up toward New England, he said.

Howarth may travel to be within the line of totality for that eclipse.

It was easier to sacrifice knowing there was another one coming up, he said.

Eclipses usually happen twice a year, but most often in places where there are no people, such as over the Pacific Ocean, Howarth said.

The Earth is pretty big, and the shadow the moon casts is pretty small, under 20 miles, he said. The line of totality for this eclipse ran from Salem, Ore., to Charleston, S.C.

Back outside, McLean Highs faculty had arranged multiple ways to experience the eclipse. Some visitors peered into cereal boxes that had been turned into pinhole cameras by cutting out one section for viewing and covering another hole with tinfoil that had a pinprick to let in light.

Solar projectors showed the crescent getting thinner and thinner as the big moment approached. These devices regularly had to be repositioned slightly owing to the Earths revolution.

Elsewhere, pegboard suspended above the ground projected hundreds of tiny white crescents in evenly spaced rows and columns. Pedestrians headed out to their cars afterward could see the same effect, albeit less orderly, from sunlight that had penetrated small gaps in the leaves of overhead trees.

The eclipse only was blocked a few times by clouds. The weathers timing was fortunate, as heavy rainstorms rolled through about half an hour after the eclipses peak.

Observers young and old stared up at the sky and cheered when the eclipse peaked at 2:42 p.m.

Andrew Diller, who teaches astronomy and oceanography at McLean High, said the eclipse was a rare opportunity to bring people together to witness an astronomic spectacle.

This is a cool thing that doesnt come around very often, said McLean High student Devin English.

Classmate Cate Pearce, who took astronomy during her last school year, valued the phenomenon for scientific reasons.

The last total eclipse like this in 1918 was when they proved Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity, Pearce said.

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Eclipse allows everyone to be an astronomer for the day - Inside NoVA

Eclipse brings out astronomy buffs, curious observers – News … – GoErie.com

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Monday's solar eclipse began in Erie around 1:10 p.m. and concluded shortly before 4 p.m. The highlight or literal low light came at 2:30 p.m., when the moon covered 75.9 percent of the sun.

The blue sky turned dim.

Mother Nature flipped a switch to illuminate the ornamental lights outside Penn State Behrend's School of Science. People young and old climbed a step ladder to gaze through a telescope. Others, donning flimsy cardboard glasses, tilted their heads upward. Even the large pores of leaves cast crescent-shaped cutouts into the shadows below.

"It's amazing, Mother Nature, and everyone gathering together to celebrate this wonderful thing that's happening today," 48-year-old Anne Regener, of Erie, said. "It's pretty special, this natural phenomenon."

Monday's solar eclipse began in Erie around 1:10 p.m. and concluded shortly before 4 p.m. The highlight or literal low light came at 2:30 p.m., when the moon covered 75.9 percent of the sun. In other sections of the country, from Oregon to South Carolina, onlookers witnessed the first total solar eclipse since February 1978. The last visible partial solar eclipse for the region was in 1994.

Regener was among the hundreds of people who gathered for a free public viewing event at Penn State Behrend, which set up three telescopes outside the School of Science, offered tours of the Yahn Planetarium and handed out free eclipse glasses to the first 100 people in line.

"Beautiful," marveled Lydia Chimenti, of Erie, as she stepped back from an Orion telescope to see the early stages of the eclipse. "It took a big chunk out of (the sun). It looks like somebody took a bite out of a cookie."

Chimenti, an astronomy enthusiast, took astronomy classes at Behrend 15 years ago and returns periodically for special events at the planetarium. She's planning to travel to Iceland in October to view the northern lights. She took a half-day off work for the eclipse.

Johnny Carr, 13, of Franklin, drove an hour with his mom, Johnna Carr, and sister, Ava Carr, for the event.

"It kind of looked like a big piece of cheese with a cut in it," he said after looking through a telescope. "It was pretty cool."

Sophie Bleil, 10, a fourth-grader at Clark Elementary in Harborcreek, couldn't see much through the telescope, but her face lit up when she tried eclipse glasses.

"You can see a crescent," she said.

A few dozen people arrived at Behrend two hours before the event began to line up for free eclipse glasses, which most area stores were sold out of late last week.

Others arrived with their own creations. Kellan Loranger, 4, of North East, carried a makeshift eclipse viewer designed from an empty box of Shredded Wheat. Jay Amicangelo, a chemistry professor at Behrend, couldn't get his hands on the specialty glasses, so he transformed a shoe box into a pinhole viewer.

School of Science employees helped small children and students make their own pinhole viewers out of black construction paper and tinfoil. Holes were poked using tooth picks. Freshman Brandon Banas, 18, used his to capture the sun's crescent shape on a blank white sheet of paper he set on the sidewalk.

Priscilla Hamilton, 60, of Harborcreek, came armed with a paper towel tube that was covered by a pin-poked piece of paper at one end. But she didn't need it.

"I didn't think I was going to be one of the 100 people lucky enough to get my own glasses," the retired U.S. Army dentist said.

Then there was Bill Augur, 69, also of Harborcreek. He tried a contraption in 1994 without much luck, but gave it another try Monday after going online for help. Augur arranged a pair of binoculars on a tripod, covering all but the lenses with a large cardboard box. It also projected the sun's orange-peel shape onto a piece of paper.

Some people tried to photograph the eclipse using their glasses as filters. Behrend sophomore accounting majors Khushi Kantawala and Katerina Ellis were among them. Kantawala, 18, propped up her glasses until Ellis was able to snap the perfect shot.

"It's actually really cool, I've never seen one," Ellis said.

"My mom called and said, 'Don't look at the sun. Go to your classes. Don't look up there,'" a laughing Kantawala said. "I said, 'Mom, it's college, you know I'm not going to (listen).'"

Darren Williams, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Behrend, used a yellow-painted Styrofoam ball about the size of basketball and a softball to demonstrate what would occur once the eclipse began. Williams said Monday's eclipse wasn't as dramatic as the one in 1994.

"In the '94 (eclipse) for Erie, the moon passed directly in front of the sun, but it was too far away," he said. "It looked too small to cover up the whole face of the sun, so you saw the edge of the sun peeking out from the moon."

That eclipse covered about 95 percent of the sun, compared to 76 percent coverage Monday.

For the next eclipse in 2024 the sun will be 100 percent covered for the Erie area, he said.

"That's very rare for one location on Earth to experience eclipses of this magnitude separated by only seven years," he said. "Usually it's 20, 30 or 40 years between major eclipses."

Matthew Rink can be reached at 870-1884 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNrink.

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Why so Sirius? – SYFY WIRE (blog)

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In the winter months, when Orion rises high in the sky, a brilliant star shines just to the southeast of him. Even if the three stars in Orions belt didnt coincidentally point almost right at it, youd notice it. After all, Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky.

The apparently brightest star, I should pedantically add. Some of that is due to its intrinsic luminosity (it emits about 25 times as much energy as the sun does), but even more important, its close: At a distance of 8.6 light years its the seventh closest star system to the sun.

And yes, it is a system. A binary, to be clear; a pair of stars orbiting each other. The star we see with our eyes is called Sirius A. The companion, Sirius B, is a white dwarf, the small and dense core of what used to be a normal star, but ran out of nuclear fuel and blew off its outer layers. Its very faint in visible light, roughly one ten-thousandth the brightness of A. That makes it relatively difficult to see, and it was only discovered in 1862. Its existence was suspected before that; careful measurements even back then showed Sirius appeared to wobble a teeny tiny amount in the sky. It turns out that was due to the gravity of Sirius B tugging on A as they orbit each other.

In the 150-plus years since then, weve learned a lot about the pair, but what I find interesting is that precise measurements have been maddeningly elusive. Sirius A is so much brighter than B that even measuring their separation from each other has proven difficult. Any photograph where B is exposed well overexposes A to the point of uselessness.

Difficult, but not impossible. A team of astronomers led by my old friend and colleague Howard Bond has been studying Sirius for quite some time. Theyve been observing Sirius using Hubble Space Telescope for nearly 20 years to get precise measurements of the positions of the two stars as they orbit each other. They coupled that with measurements from the U.S. Naval Observatory going back to 1956 and not only that, they actually used observations from as far back as 1862!

With all this information, they have finally been able to piece together a coherent picture of the two stars, how they orbit each other, what their physical characteristics are, and perhaps most interestingly what their history is.

Physically, they find that Sirius A has 2.06 times the mass of the sun, and the white dwarf Sirius B has a mass of 1.018 solar masses. All fine and good, but its the stars sizes that are amazing. They find Sirius A has a diameter that's 1.7144 times the sun more massive stars are bigger, so that makes sense but Sirius B has a diameter of just 0.008098 of the suns! That makes it about 11,270 kilometers wide: Smaller than the Earth!

Thats a dense star. A cubic centimeter of it (the size of six-sided die) would have a mass of 2.7 metric tons. Imagine taking a fully loaded pickup truck and crushing it down to the size of a sugar cube and youll get the picture. Now, to be fair, weve known this for decades, but these new measurements are the most accurate ever made. Theyll help us understand the physics of stars better than we ever have.

In fact, these accurate measurements of the masses, sizes, colors, and chemical content of the stars allowed the astronomers to use physical models to calculate the ages of the stars. Sirius A comes out to be about 237 247 million years old, while Sirius B is 228 million years old. The uncertainties in both measurements are large enough (10 million years or so) that these estimates are consistent with each other, as expected. We can assume they were born together.

The orbit of the two stars is interesting, too. They revolve around each other every 50.1284 years, ranging from 1.2 billion to 4.7 billion kilometers apart on whats obviously a highly elliptical orbit. The last time they were closest together (whats called periastron) was in mid-1994. Theyre now about as far apart as they ever get.

And that part leads to something very interesting indeed! Sirius B is the burned-out core of a star that was once much like the sun, though more massive. It likely started out life as a 5.6 solar mass star, putting it in the top tiers of normal stars. Something like 130 million years ago it ran out of useable hydrogen in its core to fuse into helium. It swelled up into a red giant, blew off its outer layers, and eventually all that was left was its dense inert core the white dwarf we see today.

But that red giant stage leads us to a mystery. At that mass, Sirius B wouldve swollen up a lot. It could have been 450 - 500 million kilometers across three times wider than the Earths distance to the sun! But thats weird: Back then, the periastron distance between Sirius A and B wouldve been less than Sirius Bs radius. In other words, when Sirius B got all swollen, Sirius A wouldve been inside it!

These kinds of stars have been seen before; we call them contact binaries. Usually its two stars that share a single, peanut-shaped atmosphere, but in this case A really wouldve been inside of B*. This is technically called the common envelope phase of a close binary system. But it has ramifications. For example, if the two stars start off with an elliptical orbit, this phase will circularize it fast. Yet now, the orbit of the two stars is highly elongated. Thats odd. In fact other binary systems have been seen like this, and its not at all clear why or how the orbits remain elliptical after the common envelope phase.

I love this, to be honest. How many times have I seen Sirius, with my own eyes, through binoculars, through a telescope? Hundreds? Thousands, surely. Yet, despite being the brightest star in the night sky, despite being so close, despite tens of thousands of hours of observations of Sirius across the world and throughout history, mysteries still remain about it. About them.

Oh, science. I can never tire of you, because there is always more to know. Always.

* Come to think of it, we name the brighter star of a binary A and the dimmer one B. Back then. B wouldve been A, and A wouldve been B. But this was long before humans strode the Earth and built telescopes. Also, those stars wouldve been on the other side of the galaxy from us back then. Time changes things.

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Why so Sirius? - SYFY WIRE (blog)

Solar eclipse gives Buellton elementary students crash course in … – Santa Maria Times (subscription)

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Students at Oak Valley Elementary School in Buellton started school just three days before the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun gave them their first look at a solar eclipse.

Yet in that short time, they had absorbed a lot of information about not only the mechanics of the phenomenon, but things like the dangers of improperly viewing the event and what ancient people believed about eclipses.

Syzygy, a partial eclipse where it kind of looks like a crescent the zone of totality in the U.S., which is from Oregon on down to South Carolina, said 10-year-old Elijah Navarro, as he ticked off some of the subjects he and fellow fifth-graders had been studying less than half an hour before the eclipse was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

I cant wait to see it, since we have glasses, Elijah added. But we wont see a total eclipse. Well mostly see a partial, like 60 percent. It will look like a crescent moon.

* * *

Getting those eclipse glasses for the entire school was not an easy task for Principal Hans Rheinschild. In fact, it proved impossible. Rheinschild said he could only get enough for half the school.

We have partners, and we each get to use them for 30 seconds, explained Katelyn Melby, also 10, and a fifth-grader. Only 400 (pairs) were up to date.

Elijah added, We got a list, and it named some glasses that it said do not work.

Ive seen them and theyre very dark, said 10-year-old Tanner Rhodes, one of Katelyns classmates. You cant use 3-D glasses. Even though they look the same, theyre not.

Rheinschild, who is also principal of Jonata Middle School in Buellton, said he was impressed by how much knowledge the teachers had imparted and the students had been able to absorb.

Its only the fourth day of school, he said, as he waited for the students to begin assembling in the quad. But Ive been going into the classrooms a lot, and every classroom I go into, theyre doing a lesson about the eclipse. I think every school in America is.

* * *

The trio of fifth-graders had moved on to talking about what ancient people thought about eclipses.

The first people that ever viewed an eclipse drew what it looked like where they were on rock, Katelyn said.

It looked like an octopus, Elijah interjected. But with more than eight legs.

They thought the world was ending, added Tanner.

They put up sacrifices because they thought that would save the world, Elijah said.

Some people thought it was bad luck and some thought it was good luck, Katelyn continued. Some thought that the gods were taking the sun.

By now Monday's eclipse has begun.

Look at the difference in the shadows, Katelyn said, pointing at the gray images of the three projected on the concrete corridor outside their classrooms. Usually theyre darker than that.

Then they showed off something else theyd learned. If you dont have viewing glasses you can improvise a viewer by crossing your spread fingers into a waffle pattern and looking at the shadow that projects.

The shadows make little circles, Katelyn said, looking down at the crescent shapes that appeared in the edges of each square between their fingers.

* * *

Lined up across the quad facing the multipurpose room and away from the sun, the students were greeted by Rheinschild.

Welcome to the eclipse of 2017, he said. This is a very special thing. You may not get to see another eclipse until youre as old as I am, maybe in your 50s or 60s.

Whispered wows rose from the rows of students.

The main thing about today is safety, safety, safety, he continued, once again going through the viewing procedure.

All of the students would remain facing away from the sun, then half the students would put on the glasses, turn around and look at the eclipse for 30 seconds. Then, they would turn back around and hand the glasses to their partners, who would do the same thing.

Then it was time for the viewing to begin, and as the glasses were passed back and forth and the students turned, the same ooohs and aaahs arose from small faces repeatedly awed by what they were seeing.

* * *

Although the impression of the celestial event on the students was undeniably satisfying, the almost once-in-a-lifetime aspect of the eclipse might not be a bad thing for Rheinschild, who spent a lot of time preparing for it.

As a principal, Ive never had to deal with an eclipse before, he said. Its been a learning experience, definitely. Ill be retired by the time the next one comes along.

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Artificial intelligence now composing and producing pop music: WATCH – DJ Mag

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used for years to correct and assist music creation; the time has now arrived that AI is composing and producing pop music nearly independently.

The single Break Free is the brainchild of YouTube-personality/singer/"neuroscience junkie" Taryn Southern and startup Amper Music. In addition, Southern has enlisted the support of other AI services to complete her forthcoming I Am AI full-length release.

Only capable of basic piano skills, Southern entrusted the Amper technology to develop harmonies, chords, and sequences. After giving the program some guidelines like tempo, key signature and preferred musicians, the program produced a track for Southern to consider.

In a funny way, I have a new song-writing partner who doesnt get tires and has this endless knowledge of music making, stated Southern to CNN Tech.

Southern did bring in the support of human producers when her vocals needed fine-tuned, supporting Amper CEO Drew Silversteins promise that human creators wont be going away any time soon.

Human creators and human musicians are not going away, reinforced Silverstein. Were making it so that you dont have to spend 10,000 hours and thousands of dollars buying equipment to share and express your ideas.

Watch the video to 'Break Free" below. 'I Am AI' is expected out later this year.

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Artificial intelligence now composing and producing pop music: WATCH - DJ Mag

Artificial Intelligence Might Overtake Medical and Finance Industries – HuffPost

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For the last half-decade, the most exciting, contentious, and downright awe-inspiring topic in technology has been artificial intelligence. Titans and geniuses have lauded AIs potential for change, glorifying its application in nearly every industry imaginable. Such praise, however, is also met with tantamount disapproval from similar influencers and self-made billionaires, not to mention a good part of Hollywoods recent sci-fi flicks. AI is a phenomenon that will never go down easy intelligence and consciousness are prerogatives of the living, and the inevitability of their existence in machines is hard to fathom, even with all those doomsday-scenario movies and books.

On that note, however, it is nonetheless a certainty we must come to accept, and most importantly, understand. Im here to discuss the implications of AI in two major areas: medicine and finance. Often regarded as the two pillars of any nations stable infrastructure, the industries are indispensable. The people that work in them, however, are far from irreplaceable, and its only a matter of time before automation makes its presence known.

Lets begin with perhaps the most revolutionary change the automated diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. A doctor is one of humanitys greatest professions. You heal others and are well compensated for your work. That being said, modern medicine and the healthcare infrastructure within which it is lies, has much room for improvement. IBMs artificial intelligence machine, Watson, is now as good as a professional radiologist when it comes to diagnosis, and its also been compiling billions of medical images (30 billion to be exact) to aid in specialized treatment for image heavy fields like pathology and dermatology.

Fields like cardiology are also being overhauled with the advent of artificial intelligence. It used to take doctors nearly an hour to quantify the amount of blood transported with each heart contraction, and it now takes only 15 seconds using the tools weve discussed. With these computers in major hospitals and clinics, doctors can process almost 260 million images a day in their respective fields this means finding skin cancers, blood clots, and infections all with unprecedented speed and accuracy, not to mention billions of dollars saved in research and maintenance.

Next up, the hustling and overtly traditional offices of Wall Street (until now). If you dont listen to me, at least recognize that almost 15,000 startups already exist that are working to actively disrupt finance. They are creating computer-generated trading and investment models that blow those crafted by the error-prone hubris of their human counterparts out of the water. Bridgewater Associated, one of the worlds largest hedge funds, is already cutting some of their staff in favor of AI-driven models, and enterprises like Sentient, Wealthfront, Two Sigma, and so many more have already made this transition. They shed the silk suits and comb-overs for scrappy engineers and piles of graphics cards and server racks. The result? Billions of dollars made with fewer people, greater certainty, and much more comfortable work attire.

So the real question to ask is where do we go from here? Stopping the development of these machines is pointless. They will come to exist, and they will undoubtedly do many of our jobs better than we can; the solution, however, is through regulation and a hard-nosed dose of checks and balances. 40% of U.S. jobs can be swallowed by artificial intelligence machines by the early 2030s, and if we arent careful about how we assign such professions, and the degree to which we automate them, we are looking at an incredibly serious domestic threat. Get very excited about what AI can do for us, and start thinking very deeply about how it can integrate with humans, lest utter anarchy.

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Versive raises $12.7M to solve security problems using artificial intelligence – GeekWire

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Versive thinks its AI platform can help solve security problems. (Versive Photo)

If youre working on a security startup in 2017, youre more than likely applying artificial intelligence or machine learning techniques to automate threat detection and other time-consuming security tasks. After a few years as a financial services company, five-year-old Versive has joined that parade, and has raised $12.7 million in new funding to tackle corporate security.

Seattle-based Versive started life as Context Relevant, and has now raised $54.7 million in total funding, which is a lot for a company reorganizing itself around a new mission. Versive adopted its new name and new identity as a security-focused company in May, and its existing investors are giving it some more runway to make its AI-driven security approach work at scale.

The company enlisted legendary white-hat hacker and security expert Mudge Zatko, who is currently working for Stripe, to help it architect its approach toward using AI to solve security problems, said Justin Baker, senior director of marketing for Versive, based in downtown Seattle. What weve looking for are patterns of malicious behavior that can be used to help security professionals understand the true nature of threats on their networks, he said.

Chief information security officers (CISOs) are drowning in security alerts, and a lot of those alerts are bogus yet still take time to evaluate and dismiss, Baker said. Versives technology learns how potential customers are handling current and future threats and helps them figure out which alerts are worthy of a response, which saves time, money, and aggravation if working correctly.

The internet might be a dangerous neighborhood, but those CISOs are having trouble putting more cops on the beat: there is a staggering number of unfilled security jobs because companies are finding it very hard to recruit properly trained talent and retain stars once they figure it all out. Security technologies that make it easier to do the job with fewer people are extremely hot right now, and dozens of startups are working on products and services for this market.

Versive has around 60 employees at the moment, and plans to expand sales and marketing as it ramps up product development, Baker said. Investors include Goldman Sachs, Madrona Venture Group, Formation 8, Vulcan Capital, and Mark Leslie.

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Versive raises $12.7M to solve security problems using artificial intelligence - GeekWire

Mechanical Conferences |Aeronautics |Aerospace Conferences …

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Sessions/Tracks

Track 1:Fluid Mechanics:

Fluid Mechanics is the logical investigation of themechanical propertiesof gasses and fluids. Fluid Mechanics can be partitioned into liquid statics, the investigation of liquids very still; and liquid motion, the investigation of the impact of powers on smooth movement. It incorporates these sub tracks Fluid-strong mechanics, Knots and connects inliquid mechanics, Stress and strain in liquid mechanics, Thermo liquid mechanics, Computational liquid progress and Fluid elements.

Related Societies and Associations:

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,American Helicopter Society,The Royal Aeronautical SocietyandSociety of Flight Test Engineers.

Track 2Aerodynamics:

Related Societies and Associations:

Aerospace Industries Association,AHS International - The Vertical Flight SocietyandAmerican Astronautical Society,

Aerodynamicsis the method air travels around things. A streamlined feature is a sub-field of liquid elements and gas flow, and numerous parts of optimal design hypothesis are normal to these fields. It contains Projectile streamlined features,Aero warming, Aero-motor combustors and Aero-versatile displaying.

Track 3Airship Design and Development:

Related Societies and Associations:

Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International,Experimental Aircraft AssociationandSociety of Flight Test Engineers.

An airship or aircraft is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft which can circumnavigate through the air under its own power. It includes remotely organizedairship design, Bio inspired and bio-mimetic micro flyers,Electric aircraftconcept for unmanned air vehicles and armed flight, Remotely organized airship design and Design and modeling of solar-powered aircrafts.

Track 4Flight Vehicle Navigation:

It is a arena of study that prominences on the method of observing and governing the program of a craft or motor vehicle from one place to another. It includesunified aircraftand underwater steering, Steering of land vehicles in battle field, Satellite broadcasting based and ground based air navigation, GPS-based relative navigation of satellites and Controller, steering and smash avoidance forunmanned inflight vehicle.

Related Societies and Associations:

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,American Helicopter Society,The Royal Aeronautical SocietyandSociety of Flight Test Engineers

Track 5Vehicle Systems and Technologies:

Engine vehiclefollowing framework consolidates the utilization of programmed vehicle area in individual vehicles with programming that gathers these taskforce evidence for a far reaching picture of vehicle areas. It involves Mechanics in cars,Air vehicle frameworks and advancements, Flight/Ground frameworks, mission arranging and operations and Dynamical investigation of vehicle frameworks.

Related Societies and Associations:

Aerospace Industries Association,AHS International - The Vertical Flight SocietyandAmerican Astronautical Society

Track 6Design and Modelling of Aircraft:

It includes Engine amalgamation of light sport aircraft, new aero engine ideas, Strategy and displaying ofmilitary helicopters, Helicopter auto-pilot design Propeller speed control for unifiedairplane engineand Non-natural intelligence in aircraft design.

Related Societies and Associations:

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,American Helicopter Society,The Royal Aeronautical SocietyandSociety of Flight Test Engineers.

Track 7Robotics and Mechatronics:

Roboticsis the branch of innovation that arrangements with the configuration, development, operation, and utilization of robots. Mechatronics is the branch of science that consolidating hardware and mechanical designing. These incorporate Bio-enlivened movement for wheeled portable robots, Potential utilization of robots on additional physical bodies, Pneumatic counterfeit muscles formechanical handand Aero-space apply autonomy and challenges.

Related Societies and Associations:

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society,Danish Industrial Robot Association,Automated Imaging AssociationandThe Robotics Society of America

Track 8Design and Development of Rockets:

It is the main branch of engineering concerned with the analysis,design process, development, creation, testing, science and technology of aircraft and spaceship. It includesplanetary mission designand Space propulsion.

Related Societies and Associations:

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,American Helicopter Society,The Royal Aeronautical SocietyandSociety of Flight Test Engineers

Track 9Space Engineering:

It includesPlanetary missiondesign, Interstellar propulsion andBio-regenerativelife livelihood systems.

Related Societies and Associations:

Aerospace Industries Association,AHS International - The Vertical Flight SocietyandAmerican Astronautical Society,

Track 10Bioengineering and Biomechanics:

It is the utilization of thelife sciences, physical sciences, arithmetic and building standards to characterize and tackle issues in science, solution, medicinal services and different fields. It incorporates Biomaterial and nano innovation, Bio-medicinal miniaturized scale gadgets, Micro building,Biomedical designingand Development of biomechanics for human life structures.

Related Societies and Associations:

American Society of Biomechanics,Canadian Society for BiomechanicsandEuropean Society of Biomechanics

Track 11Materials processing:

It is the arrangement of operations that changesmechanical materialsfrom a crude material state into completed parts or items. It incorporates Advanced material handling and properties,Nano mechanicsand multi-physical science, Synthesis and material portrayal, Multiscale material configuration, Nano-material preparing and Material stream and ignition.

Related Societies and Associations:

Brazilian Association for Materials and Metallurgy,American Chemical Society,American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum EngineersandAssociation For Manufacturing Technology.

Track 12Energy Processing:

Energy processing is a property of objects which can be transferred or converted into different forms, but cannot be formed or destroyed. It comprisesIndustrial plasma processing, Radiation processing, Bio-energy production, Acoustic energy and Energy savings inthermal processing.

Related Societies and Associations:

International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer,The Japan Society of Mechanical EngineersandThe Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan

Track 13Mechanics, Dynamics and Controls:

Mechanics is a subdivision of physics (specifically classical mechanics) concerned with the study of forces and torques and their outcome on motion, as divergent tokinematics, which studies the motion of objects without reference to its causes. It includes Solid mechanics, Dynamism and wave transmission in solids, Advanced acoustics,Astrodynamicsand Air traffic controller systems.

Related Societies and Associations:

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society,Danish Industrial Robot Association,Automated Imaging AssociationandThe Robotics Society of America

Track 14Heat transfer system:

It defines the interchange ofthermal energy, between material systems depending on the heat and mass by disintegrating heat. The essential modes of heat transfer are transference or diffusion,convectionand radiation. It includes Nuclear energy, Heat transfer in fire and ignition and Heat transfer in automated equipment.

Related Societies and Associations:

International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer,The Japan Society of Mechanical EngineersandThe Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan

Track 15Applications of Aerospace technology:

It is a field that explains about the specialized side ofaviation missionsinstead of flight preparing or support administration. It Includes Communications satellite applications, Remote detecting satellite applications,Navigation satellite applications, Satellite and launcher innovation, Ultra wideband advances for space applications, Science and stargazing and Astrobiology.

Related Societies and Associations:

Aerospace Industries Association,AHS International - The Vertical Flight SocietyandAmerican Astronautical Society,

Track 16Mechanical Engineering and Management:

Mechanical Engineeringand Management covers mechanical and producing designing, while the administration angles spread modern association and money related reporting and administration of individuals and frameworks .It contains Operations administration, Logistics and store network administration,Reliabilityand support designing, Total quality administration and quality designing and Industrial administration in mechanical building. Connected mechanics: It is a branch of the physical sciences and the down to earth use of mechanics. It incorporates Recent advances in Mechanical Engineering, Tools and programming in Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Companies and Market investigation and Mechanical Engineering Design.

Related Societies and Associations:

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers,American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,American Helicopter Society,The Royal Aeronautical SocietyandSociety of Flight Test Engineers

ConferenceSeries Ltd invites all the participants across the globe to attend the 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering during October 02-04, 2017, Las Vegas, USA, with the theme of New Advancements and Innovation in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering .

Mech Aero-2017 is an international podium for presenting research about mechanical and aerospace engineering and exchanging thoughts about it and thus, contributes to the propagation of information in both the academia and business.

Mech Aero 2017 unites applications from various scientific disciplines, pushing the frontiers of Mechanical, Aerospace, Aerodynamics and Aeronautics. Mechanical Conference represents the huge area where the focus lies on developing product-related technologies with rapid advancement in research in recent years. It is true that fundamental work on materials has turned up with unexpected momentous discoveries, but more frequently, Mechanical Engineering Conferences, importance and significance can be gauged by the fact that it has made huge advancements over the course of time and is continuing to influence various sectors.

Aerospace conference is an emerging and challenging field in today's world. The mission of the aerospace expo is to educate the nation's future leaders in the science and art of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Further, seeks to expand the frontiers of engineering science and to persuade technological innovation while nurturing both academic and Industry excellence.

Target Audience

Engineers who are specialized on the particular topics like, Mechanical, Aerospace and Aeronautics

Mechanical Societies and Associations

Aerospace Societies and Associations

Business Entrepreneurs

The key data show that Mechanical Engineering is one of the major branches of industry in the EU-27 with a share of around 9.1% of all manufacturing industries, as measured by production. The U.S. aerospace industry contributed $118.5 billion in export sales to the U.S. economy. The global commercial aerospace seating market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% over 2015-2020.

In 2012, the U.S. aerospace industry contributed $118.5 billion in export sales to the U.S. economy. The industrys positive trade balance of $70.5 billion is the largest trade surplus of any manufacturing industry and came from exporting 64.3 percent of all aerospace production. Industry estimates indicate that the annual increase in the number of large commercial airplanes during the next 20 years will be 3.5 percent per year for a total of 34,000 valued at $4.5 trillion (list prices).

U.S. machinery industries had total domestic and foreign sales of $413.7 billion in 2011. The United States is the worlds largest market for machinery, as well as the third largest supplier. American manufacturers held a 58.5 percent share of the U.S. domestic market. More than 1.3 million Americans were employed directly in manufacturing machinery and equipment in August 2013. These jobs are almost entirely in high-skill, well-compensated professions and trades. Machinery manufacturing also supports the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Americans in a variety of other manufacturing and service industries.

Why to attend???

With members from around the globe focused on wisdom about mechanical and aerospace, this is the most outstanding opportunity to reach the largest collection of participants from mechanical and aerospace community. They can organize workshop, exhibit , platform for networking and enhance their brand at the conference.

Mech Aero 2016

We gratefully thank all our wonderful Speakers, Conference Attendees, Students, Media Partners, Associations and Sponsors for making Mech Aero 2016 Conference the best ever!

The 4th International Conference and Exhibition on Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, organized by Conference Series LLC was successfully held in Orlando at USA during October 03 -October 04, 2016. The conference was organized with the theme New Exploration in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering.

The conference was marked with the presence of renowned scientists, engineers, talented young researchers, students and business delegates from US and around the world driving the event into the path of success. Incredible response was received from the Editorial Board and Organizing Committee Members of MechAero-2016.

The primary focus of the conference was on subjects like Fluid Mechanics, Aerodynamics, Robotics and Mechatronics, Flight Vehicle Navigation, Space Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Management, Applications of Aerospace Technology, Mechanics, Dynamics and Controls, Design and Modelling of Aircraft and Helicopter Engines and several other prominent areas of mechanical and aerospace industry. The two days event implanted a firm relation of upcoming strategies in the field of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering between the scientific and the industrial community. The conceptual and applicable knowledge shared, will also foster organizational collaborations to nurture scientific accelerations.

We are thankful to all our speakers for encouraging and supporting us to conduct the conference and catapulting the same to pinnacle of success. The Organizing Committee would like to thank the moderator Dr. Hansen A Mansy, University of Central Florida, USA for his contribution and support which resulted in smooth functioning of the conference.

The highlights of the conference were its educative and effectual keynote lectures by:

Richard W Longman, Columbia University, USA; Timothy Sands, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA; Daniel P Schrage, Georgia Tech, USA; Robert Skelton, University of California, USA; Ramesh K. Agarwal, Washington University, USA and Mark J Balas, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA.

The conference proceedings were carried out with fabulous plenary lectures from the speakers of various universities and organizations such as: Middle Tennessee State University, USA; American Public University, USA; University of Central Florida, USA; University of South Florida, USA; University of Nebraska, USA; Technical University of Munich, Germany; Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil and Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

After the immense response received for Mech Aero 2016, we are delighted to announce 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering which is scheduled on Oct 02- 04, 2017 at Las Vegas, USA. Mark your calendars; we are hoping to see you soon!

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Mechanical Conferences |Aeronautics |Aerospace Conferences ...

About Us | Monogram Aerospace

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With over 120 years of service to the fastener industry, Monogram Aerospace Fasteners has established itself as the recognized leader in blind bolt technology. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Monogram serves the worlds markets through a network of dedicated sales professionals and authorized distributors. Monogram Aerospace is a company dedicated to producing industry leading products: specialty fasteners, temporary fasteners for fixturing and alignment, fastener installation tools, finishing and removal tools and the design of innovative fastener solutions for the aerospace industry.

Bringing problem solving products to market is nothing new at Monogram. Our Visu-Lok fastener pioneered blind bolt technology and for well over a quarter century has remained an integral part of aircraft assembly. With the advent of composite aircraft structures came new fastener challenges. Again, Monogram led the way with a blind fastener design that achieved consistent high preload without the risk of composite delamination. Today Composi-Lok is approved on virtually all composite airframe programs throughout the world and the new Composi-Lok3, in keeping with Monograms commitment to a lower installed cost design philosophy, is shave free, providing the performance and reliability of our Composi-Lok with the added benefits of a flush break. Unique in the industry is Monograms Radial-Lok blind bolt. Offering 360 radial expansion throughout the fastener grip, its design properties are unmatched by any other blind bolt. The revolutionary OSI-Bolt is a direct replacement for solid shank pin and collar systems. The innovative design of this high strength fastener for primary structure delivers strength with the added advantages of simple one-sided installation and a flush break-off for installed cost savings in both metal and composite structure. And now the new Ti-OSI delivers all these advantages in a weight saving configuration. Our latest innovation is another industry first. The Mechani-Lok teams a mechanical lock, large blind upset, absolutely flush break and 95 KSI shear strength and joins the OSI in our growing suite of high strength fasteners for primary structure. Our Visu-Lok, Composi-Lok, Radial-Lok and OSI fastening systems are all easily adapted for robotic installation by incorporating Monograms ingenious Double Cylindrical Drive Nut Concept. This design significantly reduces tooling requirements while achieving additional cost savings through trouble-free installation. Monogram remains committed to its leadership role as the premier manufacturer of innovative fasteners, delivering lower installed cost solutions to the aerospace industry and is currently developing other problem solving solutions to meet tomorrows aerospace challenges.

Providing our customers with a total commitment to operational excellence in product quality and services is not just our Quality Policy Statement; it is a philosophy embraced by the whole Monogram team. Our focus on Six Sigma, Kaizen, Design of Experiment, Lean Practices and a relentless company-wide pursuit of continuous improvement combine to yield aerospace products of unrivaled quality and value.

A hallmark of Monograms success, technical support continues to be a key element of our customer focus. No matter what the requirement, from a simple part number cross reference to around the clock on-site product support, Monogram Aerospace has the resources and dedication to resolve your problem.

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About Us | Monogram Aerospace

The Advantages of Embedded FPGA for Aerospace and Defense – DesignNews

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Market research reports show that 10% or more of all FPGAs are used by military and aerospace systems. Clearly FPGA provides major advantages in the flexibility to adapt to changing standards and mission-critical requirements, which is essential for systems that may be in design for years and deployed for a decade or more. However, FPGA chips suffer some significant shortcomings, particularly for aerospace/defense applications. For example:

Fortunately, a technology has emerged to solve these problems: embedded FPGA. A handful of companies have successfully developed embedded FPGA IP that allows RTL to be updated at any time during the chip design process, even in system. This innovative new technology integrates FPGA into an SoC, which allows power to be reduced (by eliminating SERDES/PHYs that draw most of the power) and eliminates the packaging to enable smaller and lighter solutions.

Traditional FPGAs have been widely used in systems since the 1980s and, at the system level, provided flexibility and programmability different from what processors could do. The time has now come for this technology to be integrated -- similar to what ARM did with processor chips in the 80s. Back then, ARM took the idea of a processor chip and offered a processor architecture, which could be embedded in chips. Although it took time, embedded processors soon became nearly ubiquitous.

The same market transition is now taking place with embedded FPGA technology, providing chip designers with an option to improve the reliability, power, and size of their systems. While this technology is expected to become mainstream in many markets, the first customer to announce that it would use it was DARPA. When DARPA announced a license for all government performers earlier this year, that put embedded FPGA technology on the fast track to becoming a widely used building block in government ICs.

What is Embedded FPGA?

Traditional FPGAs combines an array of programmable/reconfigurable logic blocks in a programmable interconnect fabric. In an FPGA chip, the outer rim of the chip consists of a combination of GPIO, SERDES, and specialized PHYs such as DDR3/4. In advanced FPGAs, the I/O ring is roughly 1/4 of the chip and the fabric is roughly 3/4 of the chip. The fabric itself is mostly interconnect in todays FPGA chips where 20-25 percent of the fabric area is programmable logic and 75-80 percent is programmable interconnect.

In contrast, an embedded FPGA IP block is just the fabric now integrated into any IC. Furthermore, an embedded FPGA connects to the rest of the chip using standard digital signaling, enabling very wide, very fast on-chip interconnects.

How Can Embedded FPGA Be Used?

Because of its advantages, embedded FPGA is gaining significant traction in the military and defense markets. But there are a wide range of applications ideal for embedded FPGA, from very large networking chips down to small MCU/IoT chips. If you look at 40

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The Advantages of Embedded FPGA for Aerospace and Defense - DesignNews

As profits soar industrywide, Ohio is a top state for aerospace manufacturing – Dayton Business Journal

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Dayton Business Journal
As profits soar industrywide, Ohio is a top state for aerospace manufacturing
Dayton Business Journal
A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers names Ohio as the No. 6 most attractive state for aerospace manufacturing, with the Dayton area leading the way. Aerospace manufacturing is big business in the Dayton region, with a study commissioned by the ...

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As profits soar industrywide, Ohio is a top state for aerospace manufacturing - Dayton Business Journal

Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 22, 2017

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As forecast in our Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 21, 2017, the market could not remain oblivious to Ripple news forever. XRP prices surged 25% yesterday, returning the beleaguered cryptocurrency to levels not seen since late July.

Ripple was firmly lodged at $0.191714 at the time of writing.

Moreover, the XRP/BTC exchange rate continued to outperform the XRP/USD. Ripple gained 29% against Bitcoin, suggesting that even if investors are willing to walk away from BTC, they want to remain in the crypto market.

This is also evident in BTC dominance,.

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 22, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 22, 2017

Nikki Haley’s path to the presidency runs right past Trump – Vox

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Attacks on Russia. Soccer games with refugees. Lively chats about human rights with Bono.

Browse through Nikki Haleys Twitter feed long enough and youd be forgiven for forgetting shes a powerful and high-ranking official in the Trump administration, where the president pointedly refuses to do the first one of those and would consider the last two to be political suicide.

President Trump selected Haley early on in the formation of his Cabinet, settling on her as his ambassador to the United Nations before picking Rex Tillerson for secretary of state or James Mattis for secretary of defense. But she was a surprising pick then, and remains so today.

A popular twice-elected governor of South Carolina, shes an experienced GOP politician in an administration packed with outsiders. As the daughter of Indian immigrants, she stands out in an administration run chiefly by white men. Telegenic and poised, she has a knack for the limelight that stands in sharp contrast to the administrations tendencies toward the rumpled (former press secretary Sean Spicer) or reclusive (Tillerson).

But in her first seven months at the helm of the US mission to the UN, Haleys differences have gone far beyond optics. Trump campaigned on a foreign policy platform of America first the idea that the US should avoid getting involved in unnecessary conflicts overseas and focus narrowly on national security interests over promotion of democracy and human rights abroad.

But Haley has pursued the opposite course. From her stern criticism of Moscow to her championing of human rights to her calls for Syrian regime change, shes routinely diverged from, or outright contradicted, Trumps stance on the biggest foreign policy issues of the day.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the most hawkish Republican senators in Washington, told the New York Times recently, She sounds more like me than Trump.

Haleys stances may reflect more than just policy differences. Many in the GOP worry that Trump may not survive four years and that those whove served in his administration may be tainted by association if he resigns or is impeached. Haley appears to be one of the few administration officials with the potential to survive the Trump years and could be positioning herself for a presidential campaign of her own.

When Trump first nominated Haley as his pick for UN ambassador, it appeared that she could be doomed to irrelevance. Trump had spent his entire campaign railing against the idea of international cooperation and contributing to the advancement of human rights or democratic ideals the very issues that an ambassador to the UN is tasked with handling. It seemed he was giving Haley a fluffy throwaway job and perhaps even using it as an opportunity to add some diversity to his heavily white and heavily male team.

But Haley has been far from a marginal voice in the administrations foreign policy team.

The most striking feature of Haleys appointment was that Trump decided to keep the UN ambassador post as a Cabinet-level position, as it was under President Obama. Thats unusual for recent Republican presidents under both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, the ambassador to the UN was stripped of Cabinet rank. Democrats, more inclined toward robust diplomacy and cooperation with the international community, have preferred to keep the position at the Cabinet level.

Given all of Trumps isolationist language on the campaign trail, UN watchers were surprised by Trumps decision to have Haley in the Cabinet.

The Trump administrations rhetoric around America first and general disdain for multilateral diplomacy was contradicted by the very fact of breaking with [recent Republican] precedent and establishing ambassador Haley as a full-fledged member of the Cabinet, Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First and a former senior adviser to UN Ambassador Samantha Power, told me.

This wasnt simply Trump being magnanimous; Haley successfully negotiated for the Cabinet-level rank for her position. Being a member of the presidents Cabinet gives her more authority at the UN and more sway over the president during Cabinet-level deliberations.

Haley is also a member of the National Security Councils top decision-making body, the Principals Committee. That means shes a regular contributor to the presidents most important forum for considering and making decisions about the countrys pressing national security and foreign policy matters, along with the rest of his senior national security advisers and Cabinet officials on the committee.

Haleys entry into the Principals Committee in April elevated her position in the administration and marked a victory for establishment GOP thinking. She was added to the group at the same time former White House strategist Steve Bannon was ejected from it, at the request of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Bannon was a key advocate of the America First worldview and argued against intervening in Syria after its president, Bashar al-Assad, used chemical weapons against civilians. But just days after the reshuffling of the committee, Trump went ahead and struck Syria with cruise missiles, and Haley was the administrations foremost public defender of the surprising attack.

Haley has left her unique mark on many of the Trump administrations most prominent foreign policy challenges the most conspicuous one being Russia.

Right away, Haley seemed prepared to embrace traditional hardline GOP rhetoric and policy stances about the threat posed by the Kremlin. During her confirmation hearing, she accused Russia of carrying out war crimes in Syria.

I dont think we can trust [the Russians], she said. They have certainly done some terrible atrocities.

It was in stark contrast to Tillersons much gentler language on Russia during his own confirmation hearing he declined to say whether he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal, for example and it clearly suggested she could be at odds with Trumps well-established agenda to warm ties with Russia. And indeed, that is exactly whats played out.

During her first appearance at the UN Security Council in February, Haley strongly condemned Russia for its meddling in eastern Ukraine and for its annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

Until she spoke, there was no clarity on where the Trump administration was going on Russia and Crimea, Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told me. She set the direction for the administration by saying, No, the occupation of Crimea remains illegal.

Haleys comments came just days after a chummy phone call between Trump and Putin in which Ukraine was only mentioned in passing. According to CNN, one unnamed source said Haley did not receive sign-off from the White House on her remarks, and according to Gowan, "There were very credible rumors at the UN that Haley's strong line over Crimea was not cleared with senior officials at the White House.

Haleys ferocity toward Russia has continued, both at the Security Council and beyond. When Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in the spring, she accused Russia of leading the cover-up and taunted the Russians as nervous about international reaction.

Haley has also said that Russia certainly meddled in the 2016 election, in contrast to Trumps agnosticism on Russian interference (nobody knows is his signature phrase on the matter). And she enthusiastically endorsed special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into potential collusion between Trumps associates and Russia during the election a probe that Trump considers a witch hunt.

But Haleys departures from Trumps positions go well beyond Russia.

In February, Haley proclaimed that the US would stand by a two-state solution on Israel-Palestine just 24 hours after Trump waffled on the issue.

On the issue of refugee policy, Haley has projected a very different set of values than her boss. Trump used his opening months in office to try to ban refugees from entering the US and proposed a budget that would slash foreign aid dramatically and cut diplomatic and overseas programs by a third.

But when Haley met with Syrian refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in May, she promised that the US was not going to stop funding aid programs for Syria, telling them, We want you to feel like the US is behind you.

At the UN, Haley hasnt just emphasized human rights; shes actually broken precedent in the way shes called attention to them. While presiding over the UN Security Council in April, she directed the first-ever thematic debate over human rights.

This was the first time there has ever been a Security Council meeting solely dedicated to the concept that human rights and peace and security are inextricable from one another, Berschinski says. It reflected Ambassador Haleys genuine interest and belief that there is a direct link between how a government treats its own people and international peace and security.

Haley also became the first US ambassador to the UN to address the UNs Human Rights Council. Though she criticized the group for its constant criticism of Israel, she also said to the surprise of many that the US would remain a member of it for now. George W. Bush boycotted the council, which was formed in 2006, and the US joined it under Obama.

Haleys reaction to Syrias use of chemical weapons against civilians in the spring sounded considerably more neoconservative than America first, with its sharp focus on human suffering and advocacy for military intervention in order to mitigate it.

After Trump fired cruise missiles at Syria for its use of chemical weapons, Haley said that the administration considered ousting Assad to be a priority of the administration.

We dont see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there, Haley told CNNs Jake Tapper just days after the Syria strike. She described regime change as inevitable because all of the parties are going to see Assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria. That stance was the most aggressive one coming out of the administration, and at odds with Trumps stated disinterest in taking actions to topple the Syrian leader.

Haleys office denies that shes not in sync with the president. Whether its winning expanded sanctions on North Korea, denouncing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assads chemical weapons use, fighting for the most efficient use of US tax dollars on UN programs, or in multiple other areas, Ambassador Haley is always reflecting administration policies at the UN, a spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations told me.

Its true that there are plenty of policy areas where Trump and Haley appear to be in lockstep. But the frequency with which theyre not is highly unusual.

What Nikki Haley says doesnt seem to be linked to administration policy shes freelancing much more [than her predecessors], a former senior official at the US mission to the UN told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing relationships with the current administration.

In some instances, this is because the administration is understaffed and disorganized when it comes to policy decision-making and messaging, and Haley simply has more autonomy to operate amid the chaos. But Haleys breaks on issues like Russia and Syria are of enormous consequence. Ultimately, all of her divergences make the most sense if theyre understood to be by design.

Haleys departures from the Trump line arent the product of a lack of discipline or an inability to cooperate with others she was well-liked and successful as her states first woman and first minority governor in the rough-and-tumble world of South Carolina politics.

Nor is it due to some especially deep set of convictions on international affairs unlike most recent UN ambassadors, Haley is a novice on the foreign policy scene and learning as she goes along. Rather, her maverick stances seem to be about paving a path for the future.

The fact that shes been so much more critical of Russia than the rest of the administration allows her to get some distance from the administration and that feels like something thats quite calculated, the former official said. It seems like shes positioning herself for a future run.

Should the Trump administration actually unravel over ties to Russia, Haley will have bought herself insurance against it she can always credibly claim that she never appeared beholden to Moscow. Shes also building a reputation among establishment Republicans whether potential donors or pundits or lawmakers like Sen. Graham as willing to be gutsy and principled in an administration that often values loyalty above all else.

Shes doing wonders for her own profile, and staking out a pretty strong claim to be a serious voice of mainstream Republican foreign policy thinking, Gowan told me. She has her eyes on a bigger political horizon.

Haley has denied any presidential ambitions, saying in April that she cant imagine running for the White House. But her conspicuous maneuvering has fueled suspicions that shes interested in the possibility.

Her quieter actions have raised questions as well. Haley selected Jon Lerner as her deputy ambassador not an experienced foreign policy wonk to help her learn the ropes, but her longtime pollster and a strategist who played a key role in coordinating the NeverTrump campaign in 2016. Haley is also developing relationships with financiers in New York.

If Haley does want to pursue the White House or at least keep the prospect alive she has an awkward task.

She must act independently without coming across as defiant to a president who fixates on loyalty. She needs to insulate herself from accusations of deference to Russia, yet not undermine the presidents commitment to improving ties to Moscow. She has to execute Trumps America first agenda, yet signal a more conventional internationalist outlook to Republican Party elites and pundits who would play a key role in her future odds as a contender for the White House.

There are risks involved in the process. In April, Trump made a joke about firing Haley that didnt quite come across as a joke, and seemed to hint at his discontent with her rising profile.

Now, does everybody like Nikki? the president said at a White House event with UN Security Council ambassadors. Otherwise she could be easily replaced, right? No, we wont do that. I promise you we wont do that. Shes doing a fantastic job.

And in the spring, the State Department requested that she clear her positions on major issues with them in advance, in response to her freelancing. There is at least some unease in the administration over her boldness when she has the podium.

But Haley seems to have made the calculation that getting on Trumps wrong side is worth the risk, or at least less of a risk than appearing to be a yes woman as he goes about leading one of the most controversial presidencies in modern history.

Time will tell, but this job will either present opportunity or end a career, says Chip Felkel, a South Carolina-based GOP strategist.

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Nikki Haley's path to the presidency runs right past Trump - Vox

‘I do not have words’: Southern Illinois pagans experience eclipse – Daily Egyptian

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By Francois GatimuAugust 21, 2017Filed under City, News

Away from the hordes of eclipse-watchers in Carbondale, the Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance gathered to celebrate nature at the remote Dancing Willow Farms in Makanda.

I do not have words to know what to say about what that felt like and what that looked like, said the groups founder, Tara Nelsen, following the eclipse.

Nelsen said being surrounded by like-minded people, even ones who dont necessarily identify as pagan, was a profoundly spiritual experience.

During a ritual performed as the eclipse reached totality at 1:21 p.m., participants received a slip of paper that served as a visual reminder of leaving the darkness behind, Nelsen said.

Those partaking in the ceremony wrote down aspects of their lives that they wanted to get rid of, embracing the light of a new day, Nelsen said. Those pieces of paper were then placed in a black cauldron to later be discarded.

This is a really good way to show that there is all kinds of diversity in southern Illinois, Nelsen said of the ritual. Thirty years ago, it would be scary to have a group of pagans publicly be doing anything you would be afraid for your life.

Some southern Illinoisans had their first experience with a pagan ritual during the eclipse event.

One of these was Kayla Voegtle, a transgender woman and a senior studying music from Spring Grove.

Voegtle born to a Roman Catholic family. After a decade of agnosticism, Voegtle said she wanted to try paganism.

Trish Pfeiffer, of Carbondale, smiles while holding her eclipse glasses to the sun Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, before the solar eclipse at Dancing Willow Farm in Makanda.

I just wanted something spiritual, but without a ton of rules, said Voegtle [Roman Catholicism] is very oppressive and its very pushy paganism is very open and accepting.

Mondays ritual was meant to symbolize new beginnings, Nelsen said.

Voegtle said the ritual marked for her a pivotal point in her continued struggle for empowerment, something she said she particularly wrestles with as a transgender woman.

Some, like Trish Pfeifer, added their own personal rituals into the pagan one.

Pfeifer placed quartz and fluorite crystals to charge out in the sun, which she said are token stones of magic.

She had mason jars of water out in the sunlight as well, making eclipse water that she said would symbolize the years until the next eclipse for herself and her children.

I like to mark time by whats going on in the sky and in my personal life, Pfeifer said. Its a way of reminding me of what I want.

Many came to the event hoping to reconnect with nature and the universe.

As the solar eclipse reached full totality, shouts resounded around the farm. Many ritual participants cried, and all kept their bespectacled eyes unwaveringly fixed on the sun.

I feel like there is a revival of nature religions, Nelsen said, attributing this revival to people being able to find something real in paganism.

Staff writer Francois Gatimu can be reached at[emailprotected]or on Twitter@frankDE28.

To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian onFacebookandTwitter.

Tags: carbondale, daily egyptian, dancing willow farms, ded, eclipse, eclipse 2017, Francois Gatimu, Kayla Voegtle, makanda, nature, paganism, pagans, roman catholic, SIPA, siu, southern illinois pagan alliance, southern illinois university, tara nelsen, Trish Pfeifer

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'I do not have words': Southern Illinois pagans experience eclipse - Daily Egyptian

Genetic Medicine

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Dwayne Klucheskys symptoms developed suddenly. First, unquenchable thirst.

I couldnt get enough water, he said.

He lost weight dramatically, which was odd. He had weighed more than 250 pounds, didnt exercise and wasnt dieting.

Kluchesky had seen those symptoms before, in his mother. And he was pretty certain they spelled diabetes. But he went to see his doctor anyway.

That visit six years ago confirmed his suspicions with a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. His blood sugar level was in the 300s far above the 80-130 that the American Diabetes Association advises before meals, and the 180 recommended for an hour or two after.

Mine was super, super high, said Kluchesky, a Twin Falls chaplain. Since then things have changed quite a bit, but I still have a hard time keeping my blood sugar down to 150 on a regular basis.

Hes not alone. The number of American adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than tripled in the past 20 years as the population has aged and gained weight. In Idaho, an estimated 100,000 adults lived with diabetes in 2015 and an estimated 84,000 with prediabetes.

The cost is extraordinary.

People with diabetes have health care costs 2.3 times greater than those without diabetes. In Idaho, diabetes and prediabetes cost an estimated $1.3 billion each year and were the sixth leading cause of death in 2014. The American Diabetes Association estimates the total cost of diabetes and prediabetes in the U.S. at $322 billion.

But unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by eliminating risk factors such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and tobacco use.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. People with Type 2 diabetes make insulin, but the body doesnt use it the way it should. Prediabetes is when blood sugar is higher than normal. If left untreated, it often progresses to Type 2 diabetes.

Despite that dark specter, Idaho is seeing a steady increase in overweight and obese populations, according to 2015 data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The majority of Idahoans are too heavy 35.8 percent are overweight and 26.8 percent obese.

Yet even a diabetes diagnosis might not inspire dramatic lifestyle change.

Kluchesky watches what he eats, but not always. Its just the human condition, he said. Sometimes I want ice cream, so I eat some. In the old days, I ate a half-gallon of ice cream.

Now, hell have just one scoop. Usually.

He has lost 30 pounds and now weighs 223.

Im still considered obese, but Im not morbidly obese like I was, he said. Ideally, I should be 170 or 175.

Now, at 67, Kluchesky often thinks of his mother, who had Type 2 diabetes and died at 69.

At her death, his mothers feet were black from diabetic neuropathy, a Type of nerve damage caused by diabetes. She was blind due to diabetic retinopathy, a complication caused by damage to blood vessels in the eyes.

Kluchesky often wonders how long he has left to live. He has started to lose feeling in his toes, and he cant tell how heavy his feet are signs of diabetic neuropathy.

Ive noticed in the last two years I will suddenly become out of balance, he said, that I have to take an extra step. My feet are in a state of numbness.

Klucheskys father died at 88. He wasnt diabetic, but he loved candy.

I didnt have good examples growing up, Kluchesky said. Theyd say, Eat what you want and when you want as long as you finish it all.

Hes paying the price now.

Jody Bruffett, 55, and Helen Rector, 65, held purple weights as they walked quickly around the track at the Jerome Recreation Center.

Five days a week, to help control their diabetes, the two walk for a mile, bike for 15 minutes, then row for 10 minutes. Sometimes Bruffett takes Zumba or water aerobics classes.

But there was a time Bruffett wouldnt even walk down a store aisle, let alone a track. She used a motorized cart, because her knees hurt so badly.

I was dying, she said. I was killing myself.

Bruffett has Type 2 diabetes. She was diagnosed at 32. Attending a health fair at the rec center, she decided to have basic blood work done; the tests revealed high blood sugar.

She wasnt completely shocked. Her mother is diabetic. Her grandfather was also diabetic, but they didnt figure that out until he died. And with her last pregnancy, Bruffetts blood sugar was elevated.

It was borderline at that point, Bruffett said. I had been losing weight without trying, and sometimes thats a sign also that you are becoming diabetic. I was just run-down, not having any energy.

Rector, diagnosed at age 12, has Type 1. The two have been friends for more than 20 years.

I do things with Jody, Rector said. She looks out for me.

Bruffett used to take insulin to control her diabetes, but now she can do it with exercise and pills. Rector still requires insulin, despite exercise and weight loss.

Bruffett finally started seeing her diabetes improve after she had gastric bypass surgery. Rector saw similar results after the same surgery. Rector lost 60 pounds after surgery. Bruffett lost 150.

Bruffett was overjoyed the first time she flew in a plane and didnt have to use a seat belt extender.

I had to do a lot of soul searching and investigating before, she said. I knew thats what I wanted to do.

Dr. Bob Korn, medical director of bariatrics at St. Lukes Boise Medical Center, said gastric bypass surgery has been found to cure Type 2 diabetes for at least a decade the length of time cases have been tracked.

Korn, a member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, specializes in laparoscopic gastric bypass, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic gastric banding. All three reduce stomach size and help the body become more sensitive to insulin, which means patients dont feel hungry all the time.

We are curing approximately 60 percent of patients that come to us with Type 2 diabetes, he said.

The bariatrics program in Boise is the largest in Idaho. Seven years ago, Korn was performing fewer than 300 of these surgeries a year. Now, he and his colleagues do 600 a year, generally for patients 80 to 100 pounds overweight.

Nationally, 200,000 gastric bypass surgeries are performed a year, Korn said. They have become the most common abdominal surgery. In terms of invasiveness, he said, its comparable to having a gallbladder removed.

Why does it work?

Obesity is the pinnacle cause of Type 2 diabetes, Korn said. Obesity is contributing to the death of 300,000 people this year. These people have a rapid improvement of their diabetes over a few days.

Surgery patients can go home in two days and back to work in two weeks.

Bruffett still has 15 pounds shed like to lose, but thats where exercise and healthy eating help.

Do I feel good? she said. I feel good, and I feel healthy.

Bruffett said her biggest pitfall is carbohydrates. People dont often look at the carbs in food, and they can raise your blood sugar higher than simple sugar.

For years, Bruffett worried that her son and daughter-in-law had Type 2 diabetes. Her son once weighed about 400 pounds, and her daughter-in-law was around 360 pounds.

His father and me are diabetic, Bruffett said. Hes 28, and there is no doubt in my mind you better do something about it. You dont know how much damage has been done.

The son and daughter-in-law were tested, but the results were negative. Since then, Bruffett said, they have lost more than 50 pounds each.

Thats a relief. But she still fears they might one day experience what shes suffering.

Diabetes had already damaged nerves in Bruffetts feet when she was diagnosed. Now her feet burn. And theres no way to repair that.

For Pauline Patheal, 80, the motivation to lose weight came from a support group she found 35 years ago.

Patheal is a member of Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, a noncommercial weight loss, education and support organization; it costs $34 a year to enroll. A group of 15 TOPS members meets weekly at Jerome Public Library.

We always have a lesson, said Patheal, who said she has wasted her time on plenty of yo-yo diets. How to eat right and take it off sensibly. They stress exercise. We are not a diet group. We dont go on crazy fad diets.

Patheal attended the international TOPS convention in Little Rock, Ark., in late July with 1,700 other people. She currently weighs 140 pounds and can go 7 pounds below or 3 pounds above her current weight and still stay on target.

At her peak weight of 199, she had hardening of the arteries and pain in her legs. Her Type 2 diabetes was also worse. She was so sick her husband of 61 years, Leroy, thought she was going to kick the bucket, he said.

Patheal slept a lot. She had diarrhea and stomachaches.

I knew something was wrong, she said.

Patheals mother and grandmother also had diabetes. They didnt know about this stuff back then, she said.

Even after losing the weight, Patheal still needs to control her diabetes with pills, portion control and exercise.

Patheal was one of eight women exercising July 26 at Jerome Senior Center. Sitting in chairs, the women balanced their feet on red, green and orange balls. Each placed one foot on top of the ball, raising her heels, then her toes. She put the ball between her heels and lifted both legs.

Classes at the senior center last 45 minutes, with the majority spent seated. Patheal has attended for 25 years.

It helps, but you have to be careful, Patheal said. You just do what you can do. Everyone does it at their own level.

On July 28, Kluchesky met a friend for breakfast. He didnt eat the whole grain his diabetes mentor would recommend. Instead, he opted for chicken-fried steak with gravy.

Instead of using sugar in his coffee, he used a substitute sweetener called Stevia. He poured in six packets.

I like sweet stuff, he said. I dont like coffee, I just like the stuff I put in it.

He usually eats a big breakfast, a smaller lunch and next to nothing for dinner.

Kluchesky takes metformin twice a day to help regulate his Type 2 diabetes.

This is like a godsend to diabetics, he said, pulling out a blue pillbox.

Kluchesky keeps track of his blood sugar in a log book. Sometimes his blood sugar reaches 80 too low and he begins sweating profusely and has tremors or shakes. He keeps a little piece of mint candy in his pocket just in case. When his sugar is high, his heart rate is fast and he feels thirsty.

Though gastric bypass surgery is an option, Kluchesky doesnt see the point. If he doesnt eat right and exercise now, not much would change after the surgery. He doesnt even do the small things his doctor tells him to do, like walking after eating.

They just keep telling me, Well, if you limit your portions, or after you eat go and walk around the block I dont do that, he said. I got a paunch on me.

I just dont have the willpower to do the right thing.

See the original post here:Some Idahoans find lifestyle changes hard despite diabetes | Idaho Idaho Statesman

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Genetic Medicine

Designer babies the not most urgent concern of genetic medicine – Toronto Star

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In this photo provided by Oregon Health & Science University, taken through a microscope, human embryos grow in a laboratory for a few days after researchers used gene editing technology to successfully repair a heart disease-causing genetic mutation. The work, a scientific first led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, marks a step toward one day preventing babies from inheriting diseases that run in the family.(Oregon Health & Science University via AP)

By Johnny Kung

Mon., Aug. 21, 2017

Recently, an international team of scientists successfully corrected a disease-causing gene in human embryos, using a gene editing technique called CRISPR. This has led to much excitement about the prospects of curing debilitating diseases in entire family lineages.

At the same time, the possibility of changing embryos genes has renewed fear about designer babies. The hype in both directions should be tempered by the fact that both these scenarios are some ways off a lot more work will need to be done to improve the techniques safety and efficacy before it can be applied in the clinic.

And because a lot of diseases, as well as other physical and behavioural characteristics, are controlled by the complex interaction of many genes with each other and with the environment, in many cases simple genetic fixes may never be possible.

But while the technology is still in early stages, now is the time to have frank, open and societywide conversations about how gene editing should be moving forward and genetic medicine more broadly, including the use of advanced genetic testing and sequencing to diagnose disease, personalize medical treatments, screening babies, etc.

We must raise broad awareness of the health benefits as well as the personal, social and ethical implications of genetics. This is important for individuals both to understand their options when making decisions about their own health care, and to participate as informed citizens in democratic deliberations about whether and how genetic technologies should be developed and applied.

In the U.S., affordability and insurance coverage strongly influence access to genetic medicine. In Canada, the reality of strapped budgets means access is far from equal either. But our public health-care system means it is at least conceivable that these technologies will eventually be available to a higher proportion of people who need them.

For example, OHIP currently pays for genetic testing and counselling for a number of diseases, such as http://www.mountsinai.on.ca/care/mkbc/medical-services/genetic-testingBRCA testingEND for breast and ovarian cancer, for patients who satisfy certain eligibility criteria. It also covers a kind of genetic screening tests called non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for eligible pregnant women. Precisely because of this potential for widespread adoption, there is all the greater need for broad-based conversations about genetics.

Crucially, to ensure that the largest possible cross section of society will benefit from, and not be harmed by, advances in genetic technologies, these conversations must include the voices of all communities.

This is especially true for those who, for well-justified historical reasons, may harbour deep distrust of the biomedical establishment. In the U.S., for much of the 20th century, the eugenics movement had resulted in a range of sterilization programs, discriminatory policies and scientific abuses (such as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis trials) that disproportionately targeted the poor and, especially, racial minorities such as African Americans.

While the eugenics movement might have been less established in Canada, where it did occur (e.g., the sterilization program in Alberta or the Indian hospitals in B.C.) it had most heavily affected Indigenous communities. In both countries, this shameful history has led to lower trust and usage of the health-care system by the affected communities.

As genetic medicine advances, many scientists and health researchers are pointing out the importance of having the diversity of human populations represented in genetic studies in order to gain medical insights that can benefit everyone. If we fail to fully engage these under-represented communities and ensure that genetics is not just another way to exploit and discriminate against them, then we risk worsening this historical and ongoing injustice.

New genetic technologies, such as gene editing, also bring issues of disability rights into sharper focus. While designer babies may not be an immediate concern, even the possibility of selecting and changing our offsprings characteristics raises thorny questions.

For example, what conditions count as medically necessarily to treat how about deafness, dwarfism, autism, or intersex conditions? Ultimately, it is about what kinds of people get to live, and who gets to make those decisions. Many disability rights advocates (e.g., the Down syndrome community) are already voicing concerns about what these emerging technologies mean for how their communities are seen and valued today.

We must make sure that the conversations around genetics are not only about generalized notions of safety or effectiveness, or concerns of playing God. These conversations must also encompass questions of access and justice, and acknowledge that the benefits and harms of genetic technologies, like any new technologies, are not distributed equally.

And these conversations must involve all communities (be they of different racial or ethnic background, gender or sexuality, and physical or cognitive abilities) in a way that ensures their voices are respected and heard.

This is a task that will involve concerted efforts from scientists, funders and industry, to build trust with these communities and to genuinely listen and respond to their concerns. And it will need to be done in collaboration with many partners, including schools, community and faith groups, and the art/entertainment industry.

The ability to understand and, perhaps one day, change our genetics has huge potential to improve human well-being. Lets make sure that everyone will enjoy these benefits, and that no communities are left behind, or worse yet, harmed in the process.

Johnny Kung is the director of new initiatives for the Personal Genetics Education Project (www.pged.org ) at Harvard Medical Schools Department of Genetics.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

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Designer babies the not most urgent concern of genetic medicine - Toronto Star

Lungs in Space – Texas Medical Center (press release)

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Texas Medical Center (press release)
Lungs in Space
Texas Medical Center (press release)
This investigation represents the third of four collaborative projects currently active at the HMRI's Center for Space Nanomedicine. The center, directed by Alessandro Grattoni, chairman and associate professor of the Department of Nanomedicine at HMRI ...

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Lungs in Space - Texas Medical Center (press release)

Report: 16 of the World’s Richest People Investing in Space Exploration – Breitbart News

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The Associated Press

by Charlie Nash21 Aug 20170

The list includes obvious entries, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk (who is also the CEO of SpaceX), Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos (who invests in aerospace manufacturer and space service company Blue Origin), and Virgin Founder Richard Branson (who owns Virgin Galactic), but also features 13 others from among the wealthiest people in the world.

Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates invests in satellite communications company Kymeta, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg invests in the Search for Extraterrestrial Information (SETI) project, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invests in agriculture technology company Taranis.

Googles Eric Schmidt and Larry Page invest in asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, while Googles Sergey Brin has investments in Elon Musks SpaceX.

The list also includes Li Ka-Shing (Windward), Ma Huateng (Moon Express), Sheldon Adelson (SpaceIL), Ricardo Salinas (OneWeb), Lynn Schusterman (SpaceIL), and Yuri Milner (Planet).

All told, they have a net worth of $513 billion. Good thing, because space ventures such as rocket launches can involve stratospheric expenses, reported Bloomberg Technology. The last decade has seen a boom in space startups, and not only by billionaires. They were spurred in part by Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Its first commercial launch in 2009 encouraged an ecosystem of space companies that were previously hindered by the cost of getting to orbit.

Charlie Nash is a reporterforBreitbart Tech. You can follow himon Twitter@MrNashingtonand Gab@Nash, orlike his page at Facebook.

Breitbart California, Science, Tech, Billionaires, Blue Origin, Elon Musk, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Sergey Brin, Space, SpaceX, Tesla, Virgin Galactic

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Report: 16 of the World's Richest People Investing in Space Exploration - Breitbart News

Voyager probes fulfill 40 years of space exploration – CNN International

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NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 are still exploring the outer solar system and continue to communicate with us on Earth daily.

The identical spacecrafts launched a couple of weeks apart from one another. Voyager 2 left Earth on August 20, and even though it launched first, it got its name because it was expected to reach Jupiter and Saturn after Voyager 1.

According to NASA, few missions can match the many achievements of the Voyager spacecrafts during their 40-year journey. Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft and only human-made object to have entered interstellar space. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have flown by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Even though the Voyagers will not come near a star until 40,000 years from now, together, they have improved our understanding of the characteristics of the atmosphere of Jupiter. They also discovered the first active volcanoes beyond Earth at Jupiter's moon Io; hints of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa; encountered Saturn's largest moon Titan, where data showed a thick Earth-like atmosphere; found the icy moon Miranda at Uranus and spotted icy-cold geysers on Neptune's moon Triton.

Though they are incredibly far from Earth -- Voyager 1 is almost 13 billion miles away and Voyager 2 almost 11 billion miles -- they continue to communicate with NASA daily, sending back observations on our solar system. The significance of the Voyager is the vast amount of new knowledge of outer space it has provided and the interest in further exploration it's generated. That interest has resulted in the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn, as well as the discovery of three new moons around Saturn using Earth-based instruments.

Today, this mission's legacy has made an impact in our culture, and has reached the film, art and music industries. Each spacecraft contains a "Golden Record," a 12-inch phonographic gold-plated copper capsule containing Earth sounds, pictures, and messages designed to give any possible alien who encounters the spacecraft an idea of what life on Earth is like. They are expected to last billions of years and could one day be the only traces of human civilization.

As for the future, it is expected that in the year 40,272 AD, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) and in about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda.

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Voyager probes fulfill 40 years of space exploration - CNN International

Boeing leads gains in stocks linked to space exploration – CNBC

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Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the unveiling event of the Dragon V2 in Hawthorne, California, May 29, 2014

After a roughly 36-hour journey, a SpaceX Dragon capsule docked at the International Space Station this week, delivering over three tons of supplies.

Over the past year, an index of stocks linked to space exploration and the space industry compiled by the hedge fund analytics tool Kensho has also soared. Kensho's space index is up over 27 percent in a period where the S&P 500 gained 12.5 percent.

The companies in the Kensho space index design and build rockets, satellites, launch vehicles and their systems.

The top performing components: Boeing, which jumped 82 percent, II-VI, up 68 percent and Aerojet, which gained 53 percent.

For more information on the Kensho indexes, head to CNBC.com/Kensho-indices

Disclosure: NBCUniversal, parent of CNBC, is a minority investor in Kensho.

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Boeing leads gains in stocks linked to space exploration - CNBC