Market Now: SmallCap index touched fresh high; Aban Offshore top gainer – Economic Times

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NEW DELHI: While the benchmark indices remained cautious, the S&P BSE SmallCap index soared to touch its all-time high of 15760.25 with shares of Aban Offshore (up 12.22 per cent) as its top gainer in Friday's trade.

It was followed by B L Kashyap & Sons (up 9.38 per cent), Prozone Intu Properties (up 8.64 per cent), Usha Martin (up 8.38 per cent), Aptech (up 8.33 per cent), Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals (up 8.22 per cent), MPS (up 8.05 per cent), Jindal Saw (up 7.02 per cent), Indian Hume Pipe Company (up 6.45 per cent), Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (up 6.39 per cent), BASF India (up 6.24 per cent), Nutraplus India (up 5.86 per cent), Reliance Industrial InfraStructure (up 5.80 per cent), McNally Bharat Engineering Company (up 5.78 per cent) and Va Tech Wabag (up 5.53 per cent).

However, stocks such as Stampede Capital (down 19.85 per cent ), Ipca Laboratories (down 11.15 per cent ), Amtek Auto (down 10.18 per cent ), Metalyst Forgings (down 7.38 per cent ), Lanco Infratech (down 6.25 per cent ), Monnet Ispat & Energy (down 5.80 per cent ), Himachal Fibres (down 5.55 per cent ), Ricoh India (down 4.99 per cent ), Castex Technologies (down 4.97 per cent ), Videocon Industries (down 4.93 per cent ), Alok Industries (down 4.66 per cent ), Fineotex Chemical (down 3.50 per cent ), Bhushan Steel (down 3.47 per cent ), JM Financial (down 3.31 per cent ) and Dhunseri Petrochem (down 3.28 per cent ) were trading in red around the same time.

The BSE SmallCap index was trading 0.41 per cent up at 15710.14 around 12:38 pm (IST).

Among the 51 stocks in Nifty index, 26 were trading in green, while 24 were in red.

For trending stocks and buzzing news, track this LIVE BLOG from Dalal Street

Shares of JP Associates, GMR Infra, Indiabulls RE, HDFC, Idea Cellular, Reliance Comm, Suzlon Energy, HDIL, Aban Offshore, Amtek Auto, ICICI Bank, Adani Power, GVK Power Infra, Unitech and SBI were among most traded securities on the National Stock Exchange.

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Market Now: SmallCap index touched fresh high; Aban Offshore top gainer - Economic Times

ExxonMobil sanctions $4.4bn Liza development, offshore Guyana – Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly

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VANOUVER (miningweekly.com) American multinational oil and gas corporation has made a construction decision for the first phase of development for the Liza field, one of the largest oil discoveries of the past decade, located offshore Guyana.

The Irving, Texas-based company said on Friday that the Liza Phase 1 development includes a subsea production system and a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel designed to produce up to 120 000 bbl/d of oil.

Production is expected to start by 2020, less than five years after discovery of the field. Phase 1 is expected to cost just more than $4.4-billion, which includes a lease capitalisation cost of about $1.2-billion for the FPSO facility, and will develop about 450-million barrels of oil.

Were excited about the tremendous potential of the Liza field and accelerating first production through a phased development in this lower-cost environment. We will work closely with the government, our co-venturers and the Guyanese people in developing this world-class resource that will have long-term and meaningful benefits for the country and its citizens, ExxonMobil Development Company president Liam Mallon said in a statement.

The short time it took ExxonMobil to go from Liza's discovery to declaring final investment decision (FID) signals the competitiveness of the project, both within the company's portfolio and globally, industry analyst Wood Mackenzie's senior analyst for upstream Latin America, Pablo Medina said in a note sent to Creamer Medias Mining Weekly Online.

Medina said that the Liza-Payara wells has a breakeven of $46/bbl (Brent; using a 15% discount rate), which puts it in a very attractive position compared to other leading investment opportunities such as tight oil or deepwater Brazil.

Very few deepwater projects have been pushed through FID during the oil price downturn. Only the very best projects have been sanctioned and this speaks volumes of Liza's potential, the analyst said.

We currently forecast the full development of Liza-Payara will produce over 330 000 bbl/d of oil at peak, with reserves of over 1.5-billion barrels of oil equivalent. The successful exploration campaign has also led to the discovery of almost three-trillion cubic feet of associated gas. The full development solution will need to address the challenge of gas monetisation, given the field's remoteness from the coast and the lack of a gas market in Guyana, he explained.

Going forward, Guyana will have the task of managing the complexities of developing its first oil and gas field. Within ten years, we expect the Liza-Payara development to produce 330 000 bbl/d allowing Guyana to join the ranks of other Latin American producers, where legacy production has been in steady decline, Medina pointed out.

The Liza Phase 1 development can provide significant benefits to Guyana, including jobs during installation and operations, workforce training, local supplier development and government revenues to fund infrastructure, social programs and services.

The development has received regulatory approval from the government of Guyana.

The Liza field is about 190 km offshore in water depths of 1 500 m to 1 900 m. Four drill centres are envisioned with a total of 17 wells, including eight production wells, six water injection wells and three gas injection wells.

The Liza field is part of the Stabroek Block, which measures 26 800 km2. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana is operator and holds a 45% interest in the block.

Hess Guyana Exploration holds a 30% interest and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana holds 25%.

Esso Exploration and Production Guyana is continuing exploration activities and operates three blocks offshore Guyana Stabroek, Canje and Kaieteur. Drilling of the Payara-2 well on the Stabroek block is expected to start in late June and will also test a deeper prospect underlying the Payara oil discovery.

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ExxonMobil sanctions $4.4bn Liza development, offshore Guyana - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly

Hornbeck Offshore secures new credit facility – WorkBoat (blog)

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Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. announced today that ithas refinanced its existing $200 millionrevolving credit facility with a new credit facility providing up to $300 million of term loans. The six-year term of the new credit facility extends the maturity of the old credit facility from February 2020 to June 2023.

Covington, La.-based Hornbeck said the new credit facility enhances its financial flexibility by increasing liquidity from the currently applicable borrowing base of $75 million under the old credit facility, extends the maturity date that existed under the old facility by over three years, and eliminates all of the existing financial ratio maintenance covenants and the anti-cash hoarding provision of the old facility.

The new facility may be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of distressed assets and/or the refinancing of existing debt, subject to, among other things, compliance with certain minimum liquidity (cash and credit availability) requirements.

As of 2 p.m. EDT, shares in Hornbeck were up over 30% on the news.

Hornbeck Offshore is a leading provider of technologically advanced, new generation offshore service vessels primarily in the Gulf of Mexico and Latin America.

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Hornbeck Offshore secures new credit facility - WorkBoat (blog)

BP, Reliance Natural Gas Project Offshore India to Reduce LNG Dependence – Natural Gas Intelligence

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BP plc and Reliance Industries Ltd. on Thursday said they plan to bring 1 Bcf/d of natural gas capacity onstream between 2020 and 2022 from three deepwater gas fields offshore India that hold an estimated 3 Tcf of discoverable resource.

London-based BP and India's largest private sector employer are budgeting $6 billion total to develop the three fields and plan to work jointly across a wide range of areas throughout India's energy sector.

BP in 2011 took a 30% stake in multiple blocks in India operated and majority controlled by Reliance, including Block KGD6, where the three gas fields are located. Niko Resources Ltd. owns a 10% stake.

"This is an important step forward for BP in India," BP Group CEO Bob Dudley said. "Working closely together, Reliance and BP are now able to develop these major deepwater gas resources offshore India efficiently and economically. It is testament to our commitment to working in partnership with Reliance and with the government to produce more energy in India, for India."

Moving ahead with the offshore gas project continues the trend of BP being the most active company recently to sanction projects, said Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH) analysts. BP last year sanctioned a $9 billion expansion ofMad Dog Phase 2 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and earlier this monthsanctioned Angelin, an offshore natural gas project in Trinidad and Tobago. The projects also continue BPs turn toward natural gas, said the TPH team.

India today consumes more than 5 Bcf/d and expects to double gas consumption by 2022. Gas production from the integrated development could reduce India's dependence on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and total more than 10% of the countrys projected gas demand in 2022.

Gas produced over the life of the three new projects could generate up to $20 billion in import substitution -- at current imported LNG prices -- and employ to 20,000 people during the construction period over the next five years, according to BP.

Contracts would be awarded to develop the R-Series deepwater gas fields in Block KGD6 off the east coast of India. The R-series (D34) project, a dry gas development, is in water depths of more than 2,000 meters, about 70 kilometers offshore.

As conceived, the fields would be developed as a subsea tieback to an existing control and riser platform in the block. The first of the three projects, slated to come onstream in 2020, is expected to produce up to 425 MMcf/d. Development plans for the next two projects should be ready for government approval by the end of this year.

"We are delighted to progress these developments, which will provide India with much needed indigenous energy and support the Prime Minister's call for import substitution and the development of a gas-based economy," Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani said. "The solid relationship between our two companies is a great example of what can be achieved while working together at scale."

The producers also are expanding their partnership to explore differentiated fuels, mobility and advanced low-carbon energy businesses in India as it reduces its reliance on fossil fuels. They expect to collaborate in conventional transportation and aviation fuels retailing as well as unconventional mobility solutions to address electrification, digitization and disruptive mobility trends.

Together, the collaborations are designed to address the mobility needs of India's urban, rural/farm, industrial/commercial, and highway consumers.

"This strategic partnership not only strengthens the relationship between two global energy leaders, but is also in line with and supports the forward-looking policies and vision of the Government of India," Ambani said.

Said Dudley, "India's demand for both energy and mobility is growing and evolving rapidly. This presents many opportunities for BP and Reliance to build on our existing strong relationship in upstream and expand our partnership further downstream."

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, consumes around 4 million b/d of oil products, with demand for fuels expected to grow every year over the next decade by 5-7%.

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BP, Reliance Natural Gas Project Offshore India to Reduce LNG Dependence - Natural Gas Intelligence

Offshore wind threatening nuclear’s future in the UK – BVG – ICIS

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Offshore wind threatening nuclear's future in the UK - BVG
ICIS
The declining costs of building offshore wind could force the UK government to revisit its strategy on new nuclear, according to renewable consultancy BVG. The new minority conservative government committed to maintaining the UK's position as a global ...

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Offshore wind threatening nuclear's future in the UK - BVG - ICIS

High seas inspire collection – Royal Gazette

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Published Jun 16, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated Jun 15, 2017 at 10:52 pm)

Lindsay Amerault jumped from coast to coast following her fathers naval career.

More than 15 years later shes doing the same, this time to promote The Admirals Daughters, a line of graphic T-shirts.

The former Bermuda residents designs are now on sale at Tabs; models wore them at the Ladies Day fashion show in the Americas Cup Village last month.

Ms Ameraults father, retired vice-admiral Jim Amerault, encouraged her to start the company after flipping through her sketchbook.

[He] was doing a lot of speaking gigs with military spouses because it can be difficult to have your spouse away for six [to] nine months at a time, she said. [He was] talking about how important the support role is for families.

I had a sketch that said, My heart is out at sea. The heart was made of waves.

He held it up and said, This would be cool on a shirt.

The 32-year-old assumed her father wanted to use the design to inspire the women hed been speaking with. Instead, he suggested a different way to put her artistry to use.

We started discussing the idea of being able to use my skills to create something that would provide for me and my family in the future and a way to support those coastal communities that raised [us] when we were moving around so often, said Ms Amerault, who moved nine times before she graduated from high school.

It was a really nice coming together of ideas. We seemed to be, for the first time in my adult life, on the same page at the same time.

They decided $1 from every shirt sold would be split between Navy Safe Harbour Foundation, a charity her father founded which gives back to military veterans and their families, and Plastic Tides, an ocean conservation group Ms Amerault met during her time in Bermuda.

The designs are ocean-centric, but not specifically navy. All carry positive messages.

We made sure that the material we sourced was the softest, most comfortable you could find, so the second you touch the shirts you want to put them on your body, said Ms Amerault, who now lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

The bigger and more well known we are, the bigger the reach to raise awareness and financial contributions for those charities. The hope is that people buy into the story of, not so much who we are but what we are doing and what we are trying to provide and promote.

The graphic designer moved here in 2010 and stayed for six years, initially working at Aardvark.

Prior to that, shed been in New York.

I was working at Madison Square Garden and had burnt out with the 12-hour days. One of my bucket list items was to live on an island not Manhattan, a real island, she laughed,

Her honest and impassioned cover letter landed her the job here.

She left last year to focus on the T-shirts and be close to her family.

I stayed for much longer than I anticipated, said Ms Amerault, the youngest of five children. The response to her designs so far has been fantastic.

The tees have taken off in the Florida area. Ms Amerault created two designs specifically for the Bermuda market: a triangle with local motifs including longtails, moongates and a roof-like line pattern; another that reads Ace Girl depicts a gombey mask [with] fierce eyelashes.

In Bermuda, specifically, we sold two thirds of the inventory we brought over in a week, she said.

The Admirals Daughters tees cost $30-$60 at Tabs on Reid Street.

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High seas inspire collection - Royal Gazette

5 Hotels With Private Islands – Successful Meetings

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by Matt Alderton | June 16, 2017

Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino (Oranjestad, Aruba) The Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casinooffers 556 accommodations across two hotels: the family-friendly Renaissance Ocean Suites and the adults-only Renaissance Marina Hotel. Both settings offer access to the resort's eight restaurants, bars, and cafes; its 24/7, 3,500-square-foot fitness center; its spa; and its 15,000-square-foot casino. Although the resort has 22,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space, groups looking for something a little more special can take an eight-minute water-taxi ride to Renaissance Island (pictured above). Along with Aruba's only private beaches -- including one that's family-friendly and one that's adults-only -- the 40-acre island has a "spa cove" where guests can receive seaside spa treatments, a renovated beach bar and restaurant, and a water sports program offering snorkeling, scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, sailing cruises, ocean kayaks, and paddleboats. Groups can reserve part of the island or rent it out in its entirety.

El Conquistador Resort, A Waldorf Astoria Resort (Fajardo, Puerto Rico) Spread across 500 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea where it meets the Atlantic Ocean, El Conquistador Resort is a Waldorf Astoria property that counts among its many amenities an 18-hole golf course; seven swimming pools; more than 23 restaurants, bars, and cafes; a 26,000-square-foot spa; and an onsite water park. Unquestionably, however, the highlight of the 918-room resort is Palomino Island, a 100-acre private island where guests can enjoy activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, and horseback riding. The island also can be transformed into an outdoor event venue for groups up to 1,400, who also will have their run of the resort's 100,000-square-foot conference center.

Sandals Royal Caribbean (Montego Bay, Jamaica) At Sandals Royal Caribbean, British traditions loom large in honor of Jamaica's history as a British colony. There's the resort's Georgian-style "Great House," for instance, which is surrounded by manicured gardens and roaming peacocks, as well as its English amenities, including afternoon tea and croquet. Groups will trade Britain for Thailand, however, when they board a dragon boat to the resort's private offshore island. Inspired by the East, the island features a private beach, a circular pool, a Jacuzzi, a swim-up pool bar, private cabanas in which to receive spa treatments, and an on-island Thai restaurant, not to mention diverse entertainment options such as tropical cocktail parties, Reggae concerts, and bonfires.

Shangri-La's Le Touessrok Resort & Spa, Mauritius (Trou d'Eau Douce, Mauritius) Thanks to its remote location in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, the island nation of Mauritius already feels pretty private. Just in case it doesn't feel secluded enough, however, Shangri-La's Le Touessrok Resort & Spaon the country's east coast offers its own, even more private island. Two of them, in fact: Ilot Mangnie and Ile aux Cerfs. The former is open exclusively to hotel guests and features a beach club with private cabanas and on-island butlers. The latter is home to an 18-hole championship golf course that was designed by pro-golfer Bernhard Langer, as well as water sports such as kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, and windsurfing, just to name a few. Both make spectacular event venues.

Canoe Island Lodge (Diamond Point, NY)You don't have to drop big bucks and travel thousands of miles to partake in private-island life. Closer to home, in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, isCanoe Island Lodge, a historic resort that's been welcoming individual and group guests to the shores of Lake George since 1948. The family-run property can accommodate groups of up to 175 guests in accommodations ranging from lakeside chalets to traditional log cabins. Although the vibe is more "summer camp" than "beach vacation," there's just as much fun to be had on Lake George as there is in the Caribbean. Activities include hiking, sailing, fishing, and waterskiing, just to name a few. Plus, groups can utilize the natural-sand beach on Canoe Island -- the resort's private island, located three-quarters of a mile across Lake George -- for barbecues, clam bakes, and beach volleyball.

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Resistance and Pride in 2017: How activists are commemorating Pride month – ThinkProgress

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On June 10, The Capital Pride Alliance hosted its annual pride parade in Washington, D.C., but, for some in the LGBTQ community, the parade is a far cry from the origins its meant to be celebrating.

Annual pride parades were born out of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, when the police raided the gay club Stonewall Inn and patrons refused to leave. Marches and protests began across the country, commemorating the riots and demanding equal rights and protection under the law.

But many feel Capital Pride Alliance is ignoring its roots. Those frustrated with the annual parade found different ways to commemorate the event. Meet No Justice No Pride, Queer and Trans Night of Healing, and The Equality March.

PROTESTORS: Down down with deportation, up up with liberation!

EMMELIA TALARICO: Theres not a lot of celebrating going on these days. Theres not a lot of things to celebrate about, our rights are being stripped away from us, like as a trans woman, I never really had rights.

DAVID BRUINOOGE: As a cis gay white male of privilege, I feel a lot of people in that same category maybe thought the fight for gay rights and LGBTQ rights was over after gay marriage. And it couldnt be farther from the truth.

LOURDES ASHLEY HUNTER: Pride has never appealed to me, it was never a place for me; as a trans person, as a disabled person, as a black person. It didnt celebrate images that reflected what I look like.

TALARICO: Were building all of the art here. We have some banners, some signage.

DREW AMBROGI: No Justice No Prides belief is that the backbone of the LGBT community is marginalized LGBT folks, is trans women of color. For too long the movement, the LGBT movement has kind of this trickle down approach to rights that once the most wealthy LGBT folks get equality, then theyll help the rest of us. And they got their gay marriage rights and they kind of said all along, once we get gay marriage well fight for everyone. And its been a couple years now, we dont really see that happening and so were going to demand that it happens.

PROTESTORS: We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!

TALARICO: We have three different blockades. Well be doing a hard lockdown, and a hard lockdown is where you and other people who youre taking action with physically lock down using equipment. Theyll be using chains as well as using lockboxes.

PROTESTORS: Its our history, dont deny it! Stonewall was a trans riot!

TALARICO: People are frustrated.

PROTESTORS: Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go!

TALARICO: Us going after capital pride is us going after institutional power in this city and trying to transfer that, from those who have always had it, to those that actually need it.

AMBROGI: It really is catching on and resonating with I think what we see is a longstanding resentment of these organizations that put on these festivals with the primary goal of bringing in corporate money, selling things to the LGBT community. In this political climate we really feel like we can actually make our voices heard and get folks fired up about demanding something thats better.

PROTESTORS: Capital Pride is a sham!

SHAREESE CARMELLA MONE: Im a trans woman of color first. Im a trans woman first. I am human, first.

HUNTER: The queer and trans night of healing came together after a response from the community to have a space where folks could remember that pride was born out of resistance.

HUNTER: They wasnt marching because bitch, they couldnt wear what they wanted to wear. They was tired of getting beat up!

HUNTER: Its an opportunity for us to honor our ancestors, and honor those who have given their lives so that we can be here today. Its a fun event, its not just some white gay skinny cis heteronormative recreation of debauchery and mayhem. I mean you can have some of that too, but lets not forget that trans women of color have lost their lives, have fought in the streets, have fought the police with their heels, with bricks, with bottles so that we can march today, so lets just not forget that.

EQUALITY MARCH: Love, not hate, makes America great!

BRUINOOGE: I didnt want to celebrate this year with sponsorship. You know, banners everywhere. It didnt feel right to me at this time of year.

EQUALITY MARCH: No Justice, No peace!

BRUINOOGE: I felt it was necessary for our community to march. This is the most diverse national co-chairs of any march on Washington from the LGBT community. And that was intentional. We wanted those voices in leadership positions.

EQUALITY MARCH: Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like.

BRUINOOGE: With the political landscape that we live in right now and the issues that need to be addressed within our community, it felt like it needed to be stripped-down, bare-bones, grassroots, harking back to the original Pride.

SARA RAMIREZ: As we march today, I want to take a moment to remember the transgender, bisexual, gay, lesbian, and queer lives that cannot be with us here today.

BRUINOOGE: There are issues that affect our trans community, racial injustice, immigration injustice, these are all issues that affect our community. And they dont get highlighted.

DR IMANI WOODY: We are not invisible! We are not invisible!

BRUINOOGE: Hopefully, on Sunday, we inspire people to go home and use this mass mobilization and educate them to take action themselves in their own local communities.

TALARICO: I truly believe that pride should be a protest. Even to this day, theres a lot to protest in our community. Even if Obama was still in power, there would still be a lot to protest in our community.

BRUINOOGE: This is a way to activate us, to mobilize us, personally, for me, to participate in democracy and help these issues get out.

HUNTER: Pride is not supposed to be a celebration, its supposed to be a remembrance of the things that we have overcome and the fight that we still have for all of us to live unapologetically in our truths.

AMBROGI: If we really wanted to talk about what it means to support LGBTQ people, that would mean starting with the folks whose needs are the greatest. It would mean really supporting the folks who need support, not just doing the easy thing so that you can be celebrated as an ally.

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Resistance and Pride in 2017: How activists are commemorating Pride month - ThinkProgress

Deep-space travel, colonization may rely on genetically engineered … – Genetic Literacy Project

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Genetic biotechnology is usually discussed in the context of current and emerging applications here on Earth, and rightly so, since we still live exclusively in our planetary cradle. But as humanity looks outward, we ponder what kind of life we ought to take with us to support outposts and eventually colonies off the Earth.

While the International Space Station (ISS) and the various spacecraft that ferry astronauts on short bouts through space depend on consumables brought up from Earth to maintain life support, this approach will not be practical for extensive lunar missions, much less long term occupation of more distant sites. If were to build permanent bases, and eventually colonies, on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, moons of outer planets or in free space, well need recycling life support systems. This means air, water, and food replenished through microorganisms and plants, and its not a new idea.

Space exploration enthusiasts have been talking about it for decades, and its the most obvious application of microorganisms and plants transplanted from Earth. What is new, however, is the prospect of a comprehensive use ofsynthetic biology for a wide range of off-Earth outpost and colonization applications.

To this end, considering human outposts on the Moon and Mars, astudyfrom scientists basedat NASA Ames Research Center and the University of California at Berkeley examined the potential of genetic technology, not only to achieve biologically based life support systems, but also to facilitate other activities that must be sustained on colony worlds. Not discussed as often with biotechnology and space exploration in the same conversation, these other activities include creation of rocket propellant, synthesis of polymers, and production of pharmaceuticals. Together with the life support system, they paint a picture of the beckoning era of space activity that puts synthetic biology at center stage.

Although written specifically in the context of lunar and Martian outposts, the proposed biologically based technical infrastructure is just as applicable to a colony on less frequently discussed worlds, such as the dwarf planet Ceres or an outer planet moon, or to a colony that orbits in the Earth moon system.

Rocket fuel and life support

As well discuss a little later in connection with rocket fuel, the chemical elements needed oxygen and nitrogen are available in and in the vicinity of the places we might put outposts. Its just that the atoms of these elements are not in a breathable form. Rather theyre combined with atoms of other chemical elements. On Mars, for instance, theres plenty of oxygen, but not a drop is useful either to mix with propellant in rocket engines, or for humans to breath. Thats because Martian oxygen atoms are bound with carbon atoms in molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2). For humans, CO2 is a waste product; instead, we need to breathe molecular oxygen (O2) to support life functions. But, in the presence of light, photosynthetic organisms, such as plants, algae, and certain bacteria take in CO2 and water (H2O) in and release O2. In the process, they make food.

The moon also has oxygen, but in the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) in rocks, and both the moon and Mars have sources of water. While there are chemical and electrical methods that can split up and rearrange atoms of some of these compounds without the help of living things, the gist of the NASA/Berkeley conclusion was that using life forms, especially certain microorganisms, the amount of energy and effort needed to produce a given amount of oxygen can be reduced substantially. The same is true for the production of rocket propellant and for nitrogen, which is needed both for human breathing (as N2 gas to dilute O2), to support plants (with the help of bacteria), and for certain types of rocket fuel.

Emphasizing the utility of microorganisms, the study also noted that genetic methods can increase the yields of the needed chemicals. One important example involves a type of microorganism known as cyanobacteria. Descendants of ancient bacteria that are thought to have been the first major suppliers of oxygen gas to Earths oceans and atmosphere, cyanobacteria are photosynthetic. Like plants, they consume CO2 and water, releasing O2. The genomes the collection of genes of various strains of cyanobacteria are small and their sequences are well known, making the capabilities of these organisms easy to manipulate with genetic engineering. In addition to already being able to use nitrogen directly, they can be enhanced with genes from other microbes with novel energy systems, including those with the capability of generating methane and hydrogen (both useful as rocket fuel).

Food and drug production

The NASA/Berkeley study included an economic analysis showing the power of synthetic biology to produce food mass. Natures most famous method for this, photosynthesis, is extremely efficient; thus, colonies on the Moon, Mars, other bodies, or free space colonies will emphasis plant farming, and probably algae-based nutrition as well. Youre unlikely to see big farm animals, such as cows or pigs. They take up far too much land. But, due to their high protein to mass ration, its been suggested that space colonists might learn to farm and enjoy insects such as grasshoppers. Furthermore, possibly timed appropriately for space colonization, the technology for synthetic meat beckons. Since, colonists will largely on their own, the NASA/Berkeley report also discussed using synthetic biology for pharmaceutical production.

Adapting life to its new home

Certain regions of Earth feature environments similar to those on planets and moons that humans might colonize. Especially with a division of Earth life known as the Archaea domain, there are various microorganisms that can survive in extreme cold, high salinity (thought to characterized sources of underground Martian water, or ancient water on Mars), and certain Archaea are also methane produces. Thus, while not mentioned specifically in the recent report, researchers looking at applying biological methods to space exploration are also looking into the prospect of modifying certain bacteria, such as cyanobacteria with Archaea genes.

All that mentioned above is but the tip of the iceberg. On Earth, there are organisms that resist radiation, heat, cold, and drying, even to the point of being able to live in the space vacuum. Considering potential space colonization environments compared with our homeworld in terms of gravity, radiation, and various other parameters, there are a lot of traits we might eventually genetically engineer into life forms that we bring to help them survive while they perform their task, whether circulating life support gasses, producing rocket fuel, eating up rock, or even terraforming changing the colonys entire environment to make it like Earth.

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician, and science writer. Follow @CosmicEvolution to read what hes saying on Twitter.

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How Utah Is Contributing To Safer Space Travel – Utah Public Radio

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The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle will be the first spacecraft capable of taking a human crew to multiple deep space destinations. On Thursday at Promontory Point, Utah, the crafts launch abort motor was put to the test.

Orbital ATK is the company that designed and manufactured the launch abort motor for NASA and executed the test. According to Charles Precourt, vice president and generalmanager of Propulsion Systems at Orbital ATK, the test that took place on Thursday at Promontory Point is an important step in proving that the launch abort system will work.

This is a key milestone on the way to validating our capability to field those systems, Precourt said.

According to Orbital ATK, the launch abort system will help to save astronauts in the event of a malfunction during launch. If something goes wrong, the launch abort system is activated within milliseconds igniting the boosters in the abort module and pulling the crew capsule off and away from the rocket. Capable of producing about 400,000 pounds of thrust, the abort motor will carry astronauts far away, and fast, positioning them for a safe landing.

Once complete, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle will be the first spacecraft of its kind, capable of bringing its crew to more than one destination in deep space. It will carry up to six occupants, twice as many as the Apollo capsule did. The launch abort system will sit atop the craft, a safety feature that will, under the best circumstances, never see use.

Utah facilities continue to play a role in creating components of the spacecrafts launch abort system. Orbital ATK is producing the abort motor at its facility in Magna, and the composite case for the motor at its Clearfield facility.

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How Utah Is Contributing To Safer Space Travel - Utah Public Radio

These 7 Disruptive Technologies Could Be Worth Trillions of Dollars – Singularity Hub

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Scientists, technologists, engineers, and visionaries are building the future. Amazing things are in the pipeline. Its a big deal. But you already knew all that. Such speculation is common. Whats less common? Scale.

How big is big?

Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Dock, all of the Silicons around the world, they are dreaming the dream. They are innovating, Catherine Wood said at Singularity Universitys Exponential Finance in New York. We are sizing the opportunity. That's what we do.

Wood is founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management, a research and investment company focused on the growth potential of todays disruptive technologies. Prior to ARK, she served as CIO of Global ThematicStrategies at AllianceBernstein for 12 years.

We believe innovation is key to growth, Wood said. We are not focused on the past. We are focused on the future. We think there are tremendous opportunities in the public marketplace because this shift towards passive [investing] has created a lot of risk aversion and tremendous inefficiencies.

In a new research report, released this week, ARK took a look at seven disruptive technologies, and put a number on just how tremendous they are. Heres what they found.

(Check out ARKs website and free report, Big Ideas of 2017, for more numbers, charts, and detail.)

Deep learning is a subcategory of machine learning which is itself a subcategory of artificial intelligence. Deep learning is the source of much of the hype surrounding AI today. (You know you may be in a hype bubble when ads tout AI on Sunday golf commercial breaks.)

Behind the hype, however, big tech companies are pursuing deep learningto do very practical things. And whereas the internet, which unleashed trillions in market value, transformedseveralindustriesnews, entertainment, advertising, etc.deep learning will work its way intoeven more, Wood said.

As deep learning advances, it shouldautomate and improve technology, transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and more. And as is often the case with emerging technologies, it may form entirely new businesses we have yet to imagine.

Bill Gates has said a breakthrough in machine learning would be worth 10 Microsofts. Microsoft is $550 to $600 billion, Wood said. We think deep learning is going to be twice that. We think [it] could approach $17 trillion in market capwhich would be 35 Amazons.

Wood didnt mince words about a future when cars drive themselves.

This is the biggest change that the automotive industry has ever faced, she said.

Todays automakers have a global market capitalization of a trillion dollars. Meanwhile, mobility-as-a-service companies as a whole (think ridesharing) are valued around $115 billion. If this number took into account expectations of a driverless future, itd be higher.

The mobility-as-a-service market, which will slash the cost of "point-to-point" travel, couldbe worth more than todays automakers combined, Wood said. Twice as much, in fact. As gross sales grow to something like $10 trillion in the early 2030s, her firm thinks some 20% of that will go to platform providers. It could be a $2 trillion opportunity.

Wood said a handful of companies will dominate the market, and Tesla is well positioned to be one of those companies. They are developing both the hardware, electric cars, and the software, self-driving algorithms. And although analysts tend to look at them as a just an automaker right now, thats not all theyll be down the road.

We think if [Tesla] got even 5% of this global market for autonomous taxi networks, it should be worth another $100 billion today, Wood said.

3D printing has become part of mainstream consciousness thanks, mostly, to the prospect of desktop printers for consumer prices. But these are imperfect, and the dream of an at-home replicator still eludes us. The manufacturing industry, however, is much closer to using 3D printers at scale.

Not long ago, we wrote about Carbons partnership with Adidas to mass-produce shoe midsoles. This is significant because, whereas industrial 3D printing has focused on prototyping to date, improvingcost, quality, and speed are makingitviable for finished products.

According to ARK, 3D printing may grow into a $41 billion market by 2020, and Wood noteda McKinsey forecast of as much as $490 billion by 2025. McKinsey will be right if 3D printing actually becomes a part of the industrial production process, so end-use parts, Wood said.

According to ARK, the cost of genome editing has fallen 28x to 52x (depending on reagents) in the last four years. CRISPR is the technique leading the genome editing revolution, dramatically cutting time and cost while maintaining editing efficiency. Despite its potential, Wood said she isnt hearing enough about it from investors yet.

There are roughly 10,000 monogenic or single-gene diseases. Only 5% are treatable today, she said. ARK believes treating these diseases is worth an annual $70 billion globally. Other areas of interest include stem cell therapy research, personalized medicine, drug development, agriculture, biofuels, and more.

Still,the big names in this areaIntellia, Editas, and CRISPRarent on the radar.

You can see if a company in this space has a strong IP position, as Genentech did in 1980, then the growth rates can be enormous, Wood said. Again, you don't hear these names, and that's quite interesting to me. We think there are very low expectations in that space.

By 2020, 75% of the world will own a smartphone, according to ARK. Amid smartphones' many uses, mobile payments will be one of the most impactful. Coupled with better security (biometrics) and wider acceptance (NFC and point-of-sale), ARK thinks mobile transactions couldgrow 15x, from $1 trillion today to upwards of $15 trillion by2020.

In addition, to making sharing economy transactions more frictionless, they are generally keyto financial inclusion in emergingand developed markets, ARK says. And big emerging markets, such as India and China, are at the forefront, thanks to favorable regulations.

Asia is leading the charge here, Wood said. You look at companies like Tencent and Alipay. They are really moving very quickly towards mobile and actually showing us the way.

Robots arent just for auto manufacturers anymore. Driven by continued cost declines and easier programming, more businessesare adopting robots.Amazons robot workforce in warehouses has grown from 1,000 to nearly 50,000 since 2014. And they have never laid off anyone, other than for performance reasons, in their distribution centers, Wood said.

But she understands fears over lost jobs.

This is only the beginning of a big round of automation driven by cheaper, smarter, safer, and more flexible robots. She agrees there will be a lot of displacement. Still, some commentatorsoverlook associated productivity gains. By 2035, Wood said US GDP couldbe $12 trillion more than it would have been without robotics and automationthats a $40 trillion economy instead of a $28 trillion economy.

This is the history of technology. Productivity. New products and services. It is our job as investors to figure out where that $12 trillion is, Wood said. We can't even imagine it right now. We couldn't imagine what the internet was going to do with us in the early '90s.

Blockchain-enabled cryptoassets, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Steem, have caused more than a stir in recent years. In addition to Bitcoin, there are now some 700 cryptoassets of various shapes and hues. Bitcoin still rules the roostwitha market value of nearly $40 billion, up from just $3 billion two years ago, according to ARK. But its only half the total.

This market is nascent. There are a lot of growing pains taking place right now in the crypto world, but the promise is there, Wood said. Its a very hot space.

Like all young markets, ARK says, cryptoasset markets are characterized by enthusiasm, uncertainty, and speculation. The firms blockchain products lead, Chris Burniske, uses Twitterwhich is where he says the communitycongregatesto take the temperature. In a recent Twitter poll, 62% of respondents said they believed the markets total value would exceed a trillion dollars in 10 years. In a followup, more focused on thetrillion-plus crowd, 35% favored$1$5 trillion, 17% guessed $5$10 trillion, and 34% chose $10+ trillion.

Looking pastthe speculation, Wood believes theres at least one bigarea blockchain and cryptoassets are poised to break into: the $500-billion, fee-based business of sending money across borders known as remittances.

If you look at the Philippines-to-South Korean corridor, what you're seeing already is that Bitcoin is 20% of the remittances market, Wood said. The migrant workers who are transmitting currency, they don't know that Bitcoin is what's enabling such a low-fee transaction. It's the rails, effectively. They just see the fiat transfer. We think that that's going to be a very exciting market.

Stock media provided by NomadSoul1/Pond5.com

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New jobs headed to Ascension Parish with opening of industrial packaging facility – KLFY

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GEISMAR, La. (WAFB) New jobs area headed to Ascension Parish ata 40,000-square-foot packaging and logisticsfacility.

The strong business climate, strategic supply chain and powerful workforce programs Louisiana offers made this decision a logical one for our company,said Mauser USA President and CEO Glenn Frommer.

During the projects initial phase, 28 direct jobs will be created. They will average an annual salary of more than $58,000, plus benefits. Officials say the project has the potential to expand with a second phase that would yield 19 additional jobs.

Ascension Parish is pleased to welcome Mauser USA as our newest industrial citizen, Parish President KennyMatassasaid. We appreciate Mausers commitment to Ascension Parish and look forward to working with the company in the months and years ahead.

The Louisiana Economic Development began working on this project in December 2015. The state offered an incentive package to further attract the company to make a $10 million capital investment.

Mausers selection of Louisiana and Geismar signals their recognition of our growth in this sector and the importance of ramping up customer service to support the most important manufacturing markets in America, said Gov. John Bel Edwards. We welcome one of the worlds industrial packaging leaders to our state and are grateful for their creation of new career opportunities in Louisiana.

The facility will be located on La. 30, between Interstate 10 and River Road.

CLICK HERE if you are interested in jobs at the facility.

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New jobs headed to Ascension Parish with opening of industrial packaging facility - KLFY

Ascension president praises Scalise for public service, calls for mending fences in politics – The Advocate

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Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa praised the public service of wounded New Orleans-area Congressman Steve Scalise Thursday night and called for greater awareness of the public service component of politics.

Matassa recalled that over the past two years, Scalise has met with parish delegations visiting Washington, D.C., even though Scalise doesn't represent Ascension.

The fact that he would meet with us is a testament to public service done right. He cares about Ascension Parish and he cares about . the state of Louisiana, Matassa told the Parish Council in Gonzales.

Matassa, who also called for a moment of silence before speaking about Scalise, said the shooting that occurred during practice for a planned baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia, is a reminder that the solemnity of politics is needed more now than ever.

He called on his colleagues to raise awareness of the public service component in politics.

The best partnerships are among people who know how to respect others and people who seek ways to mend fences and invite others to join, Matassa said.

Council members also offered a prayer for Scalise, who arrived at a Washington hospital Wednesday in imminent risk of death, his doctors said.

Scalise, who was shot in the hip by a gunman upset with Republican policies and President Donald Trumps election, remained in critical condition Friday. However, his long-term prognosis has improved, his doctors said. The gunman was killed by return fire from law enforcement.

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

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Ascension president praises Scalise for public service, calls for mending fences in politics - The Advocate

BRPD shooting: Update says gun stolen from Ascension Parish – Donaldsonville Chief

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Greg Fischer Editor-in-chief @AscensionEditor

Here is the latest report from La. State Police on Baton Rouge officer-involved shooting June 13:

Update: June 16, 2017

The Louisiana State Police continues to investigate the BRPD officer-involved shooting on Acadian Thruway in Baton Rouge. BRPD Officers stated that the traffic stop was initiated due to a vehicle equipment violation.

Officer statements indicate that the suspect immediately exited the passenger side with the gun, began to flee and turned pointing the gun towards the officer who was giving verbal commands. The suspect was armed with a stolen Ruger .22 caliber semi-automatic long barrel pistol. The gun was confirmed stolen out of Ascension Parish.

Additionally, the suspect was in possession of suspected ecstasy. State Police was notified yesterday by the coroner that 2 rounds traversed from rear to front of the suspect's torso and 1 struck his leg. Investigative elements of the case continue including ballistics, trajectory, toxicology, DNA analysis and additional interviews if warranted.

Original Release: June 14, 2017

On June 13, 2017 shortly before 11:30 pm, officers with the Baton Rouge Police Department were involved in a shooting in the 1200 block of Acadian Thruway. In accordance with the MOU between the Baton Rouge Police Department and the Louisiana State Police, Troopers were called to investigate the incident.

Troopers from the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigation responded to the scene of the officer involved shooting where preliminary investigation revealed that BRPD officers were conducting a traffic stop. During the course of the traffic stop, a passenger exited the vehicle holding a gun and was shot by a BRPD officer. No officers were injured and the suspect died at the scene.

Troopers from Louisiana State Police Troop A and the LSP Crime Lab were called to the scene to assist with the investigation and will work to gather all of the facts surrounding the incident.

This is still an active investigation.

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BRPD shooting: Update says gun stolen from Ascension Parish - Donaldsonville Chief

Ascension Council splits the difference on property tax rates for 2017 – The Advocate

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GONZALES The Ascension Parish Council took another stab Thursday at "rolling forward" property millage rates for parish government after the state Legislative Auditor's Office refused to certify those rates last year.

However parish officials only took a partial step toward recouping the dollars they missed out on last year due to the state's action.

The state auditor's finding last year, which stemmed from a procedural error still being fought about in court, meant that for the first time since at least 2010, millage rates for parish government were not at the levels that they had been in the prior year.

That meant parish homeowners and businesses got a small, unexpected tax break last year if their property tax assessments also didn't increase during the 2016 reassessment year.

Depending where one lived or owned a business and what special taxing districts applied to them, property tax rates for parish government in 2016 were between 1 mill to a little more than 2.3 mills below what they had been in 2015.

That equated to a savings of $12.50 to $28.75 on the tax bill for a $200,000 home with homestead exemption.

But, with a few members airing concerns this week about appearing to raise taxes after last year's unanticipated break, the council agreed to roll some millage rates forward but held others back to the lower adjusted rates in place in 2016.

Still, even with all the maneuvering, residents will pay a slightly higher combined rate in 2017 than they did in 2016, though still lower than what parish officials had consistently kept the combined millage rates in 2015 and several years prior.

Depending where homeowners live, the parish government collected between 19 mills and a bit more than 39 mills overall in 2016 but will collect between 19.29 and 40.68 mills in 2017. Overall, residents in Ascension Parish pay an average of 115 mills to all local governments, levee districts and other entities.

In reassessment years, local government must reset millage rates to a new adjusted maximum millage rate that accounts for changing values on the tax rolls. When values are on the rise, as they typically are each year in growing parishes like Ascension, the adjusted rates are generally lower than the year before but are also set so they generate the same revenue as the year before.

Once local governments adopt the adjusted millage rates in a reassessment year, often known as "rolling back," they can then vote to "roll forward" tax rates back to the prior year's maximum, netting a windfall of additional revenue.

That windfall didn't happen in 2016 due to problems the Legislative Auditor's Office found in the way the parish provided public notice for two meetings the council held last year on the millage rates.

Parish Council Chairman Bill Dawson said before the meeting Wednesday that if they voted to roll forward all of the millages, the council could be seen as raising taxes at a time when the residents are still recovering from the flood.

That circumstance cast the roll forward procedure, which usually happens with not much debate, in "a different light," Dawson said.

Councilman Randy Clouatre, whose St. Amant district was hit hard in the August flood, made that point again Thursday when he said he was in favor of "any help we can give to the taxpayer."

So it went Thursday as council members agreed in a series of votes to keep millage rates for parish operations, the parish library system, East Ascension drainage, and road lighting districts in parts of Gonzales and Donaldsonville at the lower rate residents and homeowners unexpectedly paid in 2016.

But the council also agreed to raise millage rates to the old 2015 levels, or roll forward, for a variety of special parish taxing districts, including for firefighters in Prairieville, the Council on Aging, the parish's mental health and other parish health programs, and juvenile detention.

Millage rates for West Ascension drainage, a West Ascension utility district and road lighting districts in Sorrento and Modeste were unchanged between 2016 and 2017.

During public comment Thursday night in Gonzales before the votes, several residents and agency heads argued in favor of rolling forward millage rates for the parish's health, community and fire service operations but other residents spoke against rolling forward millage rates for East Ascension drainage and the library system.

Parish resident Chase Melancon said the parish has a $40 million surplus in its drainage fund but is two years behind on fulfilling drainage requests from the public. He also called into question the need for the library to gain additional revenue when it is building a $3.1 million expansion of its branch in Galvez that he considered unnecessary.

"I can't fathom why anybody would think we need to put more money in that fund when we can't utilize what we have," Melancon told the council about the drainage millage rate.

The drainage surplus is primarily made up of funds set aside for major, long-term projects. Parish officials recently acknowledged the two-year backlog on clearing minor drainage ditches, as they pitched the need for nearly two dozen more personnel to do the added work.

With some library officials in attendance, Melancon's comments to keep the library rates lower did not draw a response Thursday night.

The Ascension Parish Library board had already told the Parish Council recently not to roll forward its property tax rates "in light of the burden and impact of the floods on the citizens and parish of Ascension." The vote preserved a savings of 0.21 mills home and property owners received in 2016 and cost the libraries about $246,000 in 2017.

The lower millage rate amounted to a continued savings of $2.63 on the tax bill for a $200,000 house with homestead exemption.

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Toledo’s deep space exploration – Toledo Blade

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In 1946, Lyman Spitzer, Jr., a young astrophysicist from Toledo, proposed putting telescopes in space. Fifty-seven years later, I watched as the Spitzer Space Telescope took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and disappeared into the night sky.

I was part of the large team that built this great NASA observatory named in memory of the Toledo native. Designed to observe the universe in infrared light, Spitzer continues to make new discoveries, including the recent detection of a star with seven Earth-sized planets.

Today, University of Toledo researchers and students use Spitzer and NASAs other space telescopes by downloading the data and engaging in the exploration of the universe from the Ritter Planetarium and Observatory. My students and I study the birth of stars and planets cloaked in dark clouds of gas and dust.

Infrared light, which we cannot see with our own eyes, penetrates these clouds and allows us a view of star birth in action. The Earths atmosphere, however, glows with infrared light. By launching telescopes into space, we can observe the infrared sky unhindered by the atmospheres glow.

Working with an international team, we observe stars less than one million years old and in the process of growing considered infants in the lifespan of a star. Our goal is to understand how the clouds of gas collapse into stars and planets, as well as to better understand the birth of our own solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

To make sense of the universe, astronomers at UT use observations made with many different telescopes on Earth and in space. Each observation is a piece of a cosmic jigsaw puzzle.

My graduate students use the Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona to take the temperatures of infant stars. That opportunity is made possible by UTs 10-year partnership with Lowell Observatory. On our UT campus, a team of undergraduates observes stars orbited by disks of hot gas using Ritter Observatory in an effort to understand the origin of the disks. One student recently discovered a companion star orbiting one of those stars.

Sometimes, more than one telescope is used. A UT researcher worked with an international team to combine the light from four telescopes to create sharp pictures of the powerful wind from a star 100 times more massive than our sun.

An undergraduate on my team also compared data from two space telescopes made six years apart and discovered a burst of energy from a young star consuming a big gulp of gas.

In recognition of our robust efforts in research, UT was invited in 2016 to join the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, or AURA, as one of 47 institutions, including Ohio State University and Yale University, tasked in the oversight of many of our nations telescopes. The students and researchers at UT are privileged to have such high-tech telescopes at our disposal. But you dont need to look at the stars to see how space exploration benefits our daily lives.

Consider the GPS in your smart phone. It is the product of 400 years of discovery, from Newtons laws to Einsteins relativity and quantum physics.

Space exploration also places our world into a vast cosmic context. Back at Ritter, I am preparing for the next big space telescope the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched in 2018. I cant predict what we will find with this new telescope, but I can predict, confidently, that the universe will continue to astonish us.

Tom Megeath is a professor of physics and astronomy at UT and a member of the executive committee for NASAs Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group. He invites everyone to come to Ritter Planetarium on UTs Main Campus Friday nights to join in exploration.

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Toledo's deep space exploration - Toledo Blade

Neil deGrasse Tyson Making Space Exploration Game | The Mary Sue – The Mary Sue

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Neil deGrasse Tyson regularly critiques the scientific accuracy of movies on Twitter, but hes putting his money where his mouth is with a scientifically-minded space exploration video game called Space Odysseywell,your money, technically, since its on Kickstarter. Im sure Tyson would appreciate the clarification.

Of course, hes a busy guyand not exactly a game developerso a team has been assembled to assist him with the project, which will feature Tyson as a holographic guide in-game. The games Kickstarter page says, The Space Odyssey team is composed of creators of comic books such as Wolverine, conceptual illustrators for games such as God of War and Final Fantasy & of course, world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and his StarTalk All-Stars.

The gameplay sounds a lot likeNo Mans Sky, in that it will involve exploration, colonization, mining, and discovering alien species. Much of it will necessarily involve futurismbased on Concepts of Nanotechnology, Optogenetics, Singularity, Magnetic Transportation, Dark Matter, Compressed Time, Hydrogen Power, Solar Sails, Ramjet Fusion and more, since we dont exactly have the technology to be out exploring among the stars just yet.

However, the game mechanics will be driven by science, and the planetsyou explore willdemonstrate whatdifferent planets might really be likeincluding Proxima B, a real exoplanet recently discovered relatively close toour solar system. Theres tons more to the game, both in single-player and online, like creating your own planet complete with unique chemistry and guiding it through natural disasters and dangers from other objects in space.

It seems like a hugely ambitious project, which is probably why its relatively low $314,159 Kickstarter goal is aimed at funding a community input aspect rather than being the games main funding source. Were excited to see how it all turns out, and our only regret is that we probably wont live long enough to actually visit planets outside our solar system and report all the gamesinaccuracies back to Tyson on Twitter.

(via Business Insider, image: Kickstarter)

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Nanotech molds promise faster, cheaper cancer detection – Nikkei Asian Review

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TOKYO A simple, fast and inexpensive way to detect early-stage cancers could hit the market in as little as five years.

The technology, which works by testing for cancer-specific protein markers in the blood, was developed by a team led by Kobe University Professor Toshifumi Takeuchi. His team has partnered with Tokyo-based medical equipment company System Instruments to commercialize the system.

Rather than expensive antibodies, the new method uses an inexpensive polymer material that is packed around a sample of the target protein to create a nanometer-sized mold in a process akin to molecular imprinting.

This mold interacts in lock-and-key fashion with the target protein. If the protein is present in a sample of blood, it fits into the opening of the mold, activating a fluorescent material.

Testing for cancer in this way takes minutes instead of the hours required for antibody-based detection. Takeuchi said he expects the cost of the device can be kept down to just a few dollars, which is about a hundredth the cost of antibody-dependent devices.

Takeuchi collaborated with Kwansei Gakuin University Professor Keiko Tawa to enhance the fluorescence of the detection material and to develop a chip covered in an array of molds to detect the target protein. When light is shined on the chip, the fluorescent material will emit light that is five to 10 times brighter if the target cancer marker is present.

In tests to detect the presence of the AFP protein, a marker for liver cancer, in human blood, the method proved to be quick, easy and just as sensitive as the standard antibody-based test.

Moreover, the mold-making technique can be used to fashion tests for a wide variety of cancer markers, and even to design allergy tests.

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Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (PENC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results – The Cerbat Gem

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Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (PENC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results
The Cerbat Gem
Applied Nanotech Holdings logo Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:PENC) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 23rd. The technology company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, Bloomberg Earnings reports. The firm had revenue ...

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Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (PENC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results - The Cerbat Gem

[Listen] Com Truise New Trance Groove is Smooth – Mix 247 EDM

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Com Truise just released his fifth album on Friday the 16th. The album, titled Iteration, marks his first album since 2014s 7 song EP Wave 1. It has definitely been worth the wait. In an era where its more about what producer is putting out the biggest anthem, its nice to see an artist embrace trance and give us the smooth, grooving album we deserve.

Photo Credit: Tonje Thilesen

With Iteration, Com Truise is giving us electronic music we can sit to. But more than that. The warm beats and flowing music dont lack energy and are conducive to productivity. With a title derived from a word that means the repetition of a process of utterance, we can tell its going to be good getting-stuff-done music.

Thats looking at Iteration more practically, though. Theres more to the album than a process. Theres also feeling, emotion. Each song tells a story as the melody moves forward, constantly shifting. The music is intimate and sensual, something you could listen to with a special someone when the mood is right.

This album is a blend of many things, and Com Truise blends them well. Each song compliments the next, with none of them trying to stand above the others. That said, I have a particular fondness for Propogation and Iteration. Those tracks each have a story to tell and they swell from slower and quiet to having more of a driving beat and many layers of music.

Personally, Com Truise might be my new go-to artist when I want something chill to put on or want some music to help me through cleaning the house. With each iteration of Iteration, there always seems to be something new to hear. The way each song is a story, I can see some of his music used in movies. In fact, I would not be surprised to see him approached to compose a movie score sometime soon.

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[Listen] Com Truise New Trance Groove is Smooth - Mix 247 EDM