Monthly Archives: June 2017

Meet The Biohacking Pioneers Who Are Redesigning Their Own Bodies – Co.Design (blog)

Posted: June 23, 2017 at 5:44 am

By Meg Miller 3 minute Read

In 2012, 25-year-oldJames Young was in a rail accident in which he lost both his left arm and left leg. An avid video gamer, Young taught himself how to use a controller using only one hand and, occasionally, his teeth. At the 2016BodyHacking Con in Austin, Young debuted a $76,000 carbon-fiber arminspired by the video gameMetal Gear Solid. The high-tech limbhe designed not only gives Young the dexterity todo most of the things he could before his accident, it also charges his phone, displays his social media feeds, and features a mount for a miniature dronecontrolled froma panel onhis forearm.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Young, who designed the limb along withprosthetic sculptor Sophie de Oliveira Barata, is 1of 30-odd subjects shot for an ongoing photo series by photographer David Vintiner and creative director Gem Fletcher. The series, Transhuman, documents a rapidly growing international movement of the same name. Spanning the fields ofmedicine, technology, philosophy, art,and academia, transhumanism looks at the ways technology canenhance the physical and psychological capabilities of humans beyond the natural limits of biology. Like Young, some within the movement are developing bionic limbs for differently abled bodies. Others experiment with machines to enhance their sense of sight or touch.

Fletcher and Vintiner discovered the transhumanism community through a meet-up that takes place in the basement of a University College London building. In 2015, the pair released partof the ongoing series, called Futurists, which captured many of the main figures in Londons transhumanism scene.

The latest series of images,Transhuman, expands the scope to subjects throughout Europe and the United States.The movement itself is in intense flux, Fletcher tell Co.Design. Its going through a period of rapid growth, so there are new people in the movement all the time. Its truly a shape-shifting subject matter.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Fletcher andVintiners subjects frequently introduce them to others in the movement; Fletcher says that the community, though international, is relatively tight-knit and inclusive. Meet-ups like the one at UCL, or the BodyHacking conference Young attended in Texas, have made it easy for members to meeteach other. Some, like Aisen Caro, who invented a set of headphones that allows humans to experience echo-location, are scholars. (Caro is aPhD candidate in human informatics at Tsukuba University). Others, like the London-based F_T_R design studio, are inventing ways to blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds. F_T_Rs Skinterfaceproject is a full-body suit equipped with actuators that convey a sense of touch to the wearer while she is experiencing a virtual worldwhile wearing a VR headset, for example.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Another technology featured in theTranshuman seriesis a fantastical-looking wearable called the Eyesect, designed by the interdisciplinary lab The Constitute. The Eyesect is an otherworldlyheadset that covers the users head completely, and comes equipped with two handheld cameras. The camera feeds what they are seeing onto a screen inside the headset, giving viewers a sense of 360-degree vision. You can move around the camera eyes, so that you have complete freedom to look up, down, forward, and backward all at the same time, says Fletcher. It gives humans the experience that lots of different animals have with this expansive spatial perception.

[Photo: courtesy David Vintiner and Gem Fletcher]Fletcher and Vintiner will continue the series, traveling next to Russia to shoot subjects there, and adding insome film and sound elements to the project as well. The movement is evolving at an exciting rate, says Fletcher, andmore people are gettinginvolved,particularly when it comes to biohacking. The most popular forms of small bodyhacks theyve seen are peopleexperimenting with DIY RFID (radio-frequency identification) implantsthat allow themtounlock doors or turn on lights with the swipe of a hand, for instance. Also popular in this community areimplantable biomagnets,whichallow people to interact with the world in new wayslike by picking up magnetic objects with the touch of a finger.

Its becoming more accessible, Fletcher says of the transhumanism movement. We keep seeing more and more people with chips or small implants. Its almost like the popularity ofpiercings in the 90s.

Meg Miller is an associate editor at Co.Design covering art, technology, and design.

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Our Outdated Debates – First Things

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Could the intensity of Americas abortion debate be like the last burst of light from a dying star? Thanks to social trends, especially those arising from technology and transhumanism, our familiar forms of argument are becoming obsolete.

The New York Times recently ran a series of opinion pieces for and against abortion, framing the debate in familiar terms. The pro-life movement is increasingly young, female, and spunkyso it does not appear to be on its way out. Statistics indicate that Americans, especially younger Americans, favor some restrictions on abortion, and a record number of millennials think abortion should be illegal altogether. Meanwhile, abortion-rights advocates have turned up their rhetoric, seeking to celebrate or normalize abortion. Presenting abortion stories as a badge of honor is increasingly popular. Teen Vogue has spent the better part of a year aggressively marketing abortion to pre-pubescent girls.

Structured in this way, this debate will have no winner and no loser. Abortion and the arguments surrounding it will slowly become antiquated. I believe this for three reasons.

Abortion rates are decliningas are rates of conception. In 2016, birth rates in the United States hit an all-time low: 59.6 births per 1,000 women. Both these trends are due in part to the effectiveness of long-term contraception. Abortion providers have hitched their wagons to universal access to low-cost contraception; ironically, this choice is hurting their business. It turns out pregnancy is a pre-condition for abortion, and Western Europe and North America are no longer fertile markets. This likely accounts for Planned Parenthoods aggressive efforts to relax abortion restrictions abroad, in Africa and South America.

The fewer abortions and fewer pregnancies we have, the less salient the abortion issue will become. The pro-life movement has done little to combat the poverty of imagination that makes children into commodities to be discarded or fetishized. This singularity of vision means that we have failed to make a positive case for children as a social good, a sign of a society that is vibrant and alive, a source of joy, and a sign of hope. Addressing this poverty is a complex intellectual task, one that requires articulating the humanness of the human, and presenting children and childrearing as fundamental to the common good. It requires making a case for having children. This task is more difficult, and for a long time it seemed less urgent, than arguing against violent death and Roe v. Wade. But today we see the consequences of not adequately attending to it.

Finally, technological advances are enabling transhumanist ideologies and eroding our understanding the humanness of the human.

Transhumanism holds that, with the aid of technology, human beings can and should evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations. Transhumanists point to the history of human manipulation of the environment, of medicine, and of bodily ornamentation to argue that transhumanism is merely one step on the road of progress. Absent a persuasive and compelling vision of human nature and human dignity (in other words, of the humanness of the human), transhumanism exerts enormous pressure on the social imagination. In less than a decade, scientists have perfected human cloning and gene editing. They have created the first inter-species entitya human-pig chimeraand developed a functional artificial womb. Such technologies hold tremendous possibilities, but it would be nave to imagine that they dont pose fundamental challenges to our ideas of what it means to be human.

These scientific and technological innovations should spark lively debate and fresh articulations of what it means to be human and what role technology should have in shaping culture. Yet the sacred neutrality of science shields technology from serious critique. In a study released earlier this year, scientists from the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia detailed artificial womb technology, which has the possibility of revolutionizing care for pre-maturely born infants. This study seems to have been met with general indifference.

What public conversation did take place occurred within a legal-moralistic framework, a framework that fails to persuade when we lack a vision of what it means to be human. Pro-choice and pro-life advocates both focused on the same reality: the visibility of developing life. Pro-choice advocates were predictably concerned that the advent of artificial womb technology will have the adverse effect of humanizing the unborn. Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, expressed cautious enthusiasm that artificial wombs might humanize the unborn.

Scientists and researchers tell everyone not to worry. The lead researcher on artificial womb technology insists that scientists will never push the limits of viability to the point where womens bodies are functionally replaced by technology, and human gestation becomes mechanized. When you do that, he says, you open a whole new can of worms. But thisassurancerings hollow in an age governed by an ethos of what we can do, we may do. Thus, when legitimate ethical concerns are met with dismissals like Thats a pipe dream at this point, one ought to beware the qualifier, at this point. The scientific community has shown very little ability to regulate itself.

Technological possibility will increasingly eclipse the very terms of our debate over abortion, and I suspect that abortion politics as we know it is on its way to being a relic of the pasta particularly brutal way we eliminated human life back when humans used to have children.

Jessica Keating is director of the Office of Human Dignity and Life Initiatives in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.

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Lorick leaving Terre Haute human relations post – Terre Haute Tribune Star

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A disabled woman facing possible eviction and needing a housing accommodation met with Jeff Lorick Thursday.

In a few minutes, Lorick helped her understand how to request what she needs and ensure that she is protected under federal housing laws.

Its that part of Loricks job he has found most satisfying during his more than 10 years as executive director of the Terre Haute Human Relations Commission.

In a few weeks, though, Lorick, 57, will leave his position and Terre Haute for a new job in Clearwater, Florida.

Ive been extremely satisfied with the work that Ive done over these 10 years, the people that weve helped and being part of really meaningful programming in our community, he said.

Going to Pinellas County is the next evolution for me in terms of my professional development. To continue the work that I believe in so passionately and enjoy doing, and to have an opportunity to affect a larger population appeals to me.

Floridas Gulf Coast is also a part of the country where Lorick said hed like to retire.

Lorick served for about a year as a Human Relations Commission member before being tapped as executive director during the administration of former Mayor Kevin Burke.

The Indianapolis native came to Terre Haute on a football scholarship to Indiana State University in 1978. Toward the end of his college days he launched a barbershop and family hair care business, but Lorick said hes also retiring from that business.

The kind of guy who is liked by nearly everyone he meets, Lorick recalled that he jumped at the chance to be a part of the Human Relations Commission, which is tasked with investigating all complaints of discrimination within the city.

I was all about that, he said. Protecting peoples rights and being on the front lines of injustice and inequity really spoke to me. Ever since then I have been working on behalf of under-represented communities, advocating for the folks who often dont have a voice or presence in the city.

Lorick said he believes the commission has improved its effectiveness during his tenture.

We have done really really good work in being an advocate for communities that dont have a voice, whether theyre disabled, minority or poor,he said.

Loricks planned departure is sad news, said Diann McKee, senior vice president of finance and administration at Indiana State University and a Human Relations Commission member. Jeff has been a thoughtful, persistent and capable leader of the commission but also has been a great leader in our community.

Citing Loricks many hats that also include minister, coach and mentor, Sylvester Edwards, president of the Greater Terre Haute chapter of the NAACP, said he has helped make us who we are. It will take a number of people to fill his many roles.

Lorick launched a Martin Luther King Summit that provides motivation and encouragement to 200 minority youths on the holiday in honor of the civil rights leader; began a diversity writing program for second graders in Vigo County Schools; and developed a minority internship program that provides paid summer internships to more than 20 minority students.

Also during his tenure, the citys discrimination ordinance was broadened to cover gender identity and sexual orientation. He is active with the Indiana Consortium of Civil Rights Agencies, International Human Rights Workers and has served as Midwest regional chair for the National Association of Human Rights Workers.

Lorick has pursued another passion outside his official capacities by developing and launching Theater Seven, an inclusive theater company with a charitable component.

Lorick called Terre Haute a wonderful town that I have grown to love. I have a tremendous respect for folks who are in leadership positions in our city who can affect the lives of under-served and under-represented communities. I have engaged them in conversation and they have been willing to listen and help in any way they can. I have enjoyed those relationships and will miss them.

In Pinnelas County, which has more than 900,000 residents, he will serve as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission outreach officer.

Mayor Duke Bennett is on vacation and did not respond to a request for comment.

Lorick said he hopes Terre Haute continues to work toward inclusion and believes its Human Relations Commission will continue in an upward trajectory.

Dave Taylor can be reached at 812-231-4299 or dave.taylor@tribstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @TribStarDave.

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Honduras Pledges New Era in Human Rights, Creates Cabinet Post – Voice of America

Posted: at 5:44 am

LONDON

Honduras promised on Thursday to turn a new page in human rights protecting everyone from indigenous activists to gay rights campaigners in a declaration of intent backed with the creation of the country's first dedicated rights minister.

Rights watchdogs consider Honduras one of the most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders, saying violence and impunity for abuses are the norm.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced the new office during a speech in May for Honduran journalists.

When asked by the Thomson Reuters Foundation for follow-up, senior government official Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro said: Our work in the area is entering a new phase.

Human rights minister

The new Honduran human rights minister will take a seat in the cabinet and will be responsible for new funding aimed at strengthening government protection of rights activists, said Alcerro, secretary general of government coordination.

Honduras has been the subject of international scrutiny since the murder of activist Berta Caceres, a winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, in March 2016 over her opposition to a $50 million hydroelectric dam project.

The Central American nation is the deadliest in the world for communities fighting to protect lands against development, with about 120 activists killed since 2010, according to British-based watchdog Global Witness.

Crackdown on gangs

Rights organizations this week criticized the government's support for the U.S.-led Alliance for Prosperity, an initiative to stem U.S. immigration by funding infrastructure megaprojects and crackdowns on gangs in Central America.

Civil society organizations fear the program will result in an erosion of land and workers rights to encourage investment. But Acerro countered their concerns, saying it will create new opportunities to bolster human rights.

"One of our principal priorities under the Alliance for Prosperity has in fact been the strengthening of human rights protections and of the institutional frameworks that support these," Alcerro said.

Working with EU

The government has been working with the European Union, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and rights charity Freedom House to develop policies that protect human rights and their advocates, he said.

This encompasses not only indigenous rights defenders, but also LGBT, political activists, journalists, and all Hondurans that work to promote and protect human rights," he added.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said U.S. funding across Central America for the alliance, including $750 million pledged by the previous administration, will contribute to human rights training for the army and police, and to upholding the rule of law.

US support questioned

Alcerro said that Honduras cannot directly control how U.S. agencies spend aid and investment but pledged that the regime would urge the U.S. government to align its spending with Honduran policy priorities, including rights.

U.S. and Honduran rights organizations, including the religious charities Sisters of Mercy and the Jesuit Migrant Service for Central America (JSMCA), have criticized continued U.S. support for the regime of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Hernandez came to power after a military coup in 2009 overthrew the government of President Manuel Zelaya.

Concessions to private industry

His government plans to improve the country's infrastructure and communications, mostly through concessions to private industry, which have resulted in displacement of indigenous communities and small scale farmers, Sisters of Mercy said.

"With regards to indigenous land rights, the Hernandez administration has already made unprecedented actions to ensure many indigenous groups hold communal land titles in accordance to their own customs," said Alcerro.

"Last year, the government granted indigenous groups communal land titles covering 1.1 million hectares 8 percent of the national territory," he added.

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Health care must be a human right for all – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Health care must be a human right for all
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Last Friday, my co-worker and I attended the Health Care for All Rally in Beaver County. The Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden hosted the event in front of the Beaver County Courthouse. Sister Barbara Czyrnik of the leadership team urged those attending ...

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Shock as sheep delivers human-like baby [PHOTO] – Daily Post Nigeria

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Daily Post Nigeria
Shock as sheep delivers human-like baby [PHOTO]
Daily Post Nigeria
Residents were stunned on Thursday after a sheep has delivered a human lamb in South Africa on Thursday. The incident was said to have shook the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform,(ECDRDAR), in South Africa.
Horror as 'half human half-beast' is born to a sheep in South AfricaNEWS.com.au
Half-sheep, half-human looking creature frightens villagersYahoo7 News

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Beatings, shocks and ‘the grill’: Reports allege torture in secret prisons run by United Arab Emirates in Yemen – Washington Post

Posted: at 5:44 am

ISTANBUL The United Arab Emirates and allied security forces maintain a secret network of prisons in Yemen where dozens and perhaps hundreds of people are detained, routinely abused and in some cases severely tortured, according to separate reports released Thursday byHuman Rights Watch and the Associated Press.

Theinvestigation by the AP also found that forces from the United States, a close counterterrorism ally to the UAE, had participated in interrogations of prisoners in Yemen. American forces had beenyards away from a facility where torture took place, one Yemeni security officer told the news agency.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemenagainst Houthi rebels and their allies, with the goal of restoring the government of ousted Yemeni PresidentAbed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The conflict has devastated Yemen, the Arab worlds most impoverished country, and killed more than 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

[Trump administration weighs deeper involvement in Yemen war]

The government of the UAE denied the existence of a clandestine prison network, telling the AP that there are no secret detention centers, and no torture of prisoners is done during interrogations.

Asked about allegations raised in the AP article, Marine Corps Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an email that as a matter of policy we do not discuss the details of bilateral intelligence arrangements with partner nations.

Under no circumstances do DoD personnel participate in violations of human rights, he added, referring to the Department of Defense. Additionally, as a matter of policy, they are required to report any observation of human rights violations through standard reporting procedures.

The UAE has taken a leading role in the war, landing troops in southern Yemen and participating in the air campaign against the rebels while also pursuing relief and reconstruction projects. Emirati officials have portrayed the countrys foray into Yemen as part of its increasingly assertive counterterrorism efforts in the region.

The reports released Thursday added new, troubling details to that effort and to the shadowy conflictthat pits coalition forces and their Yemeni alliesagainst extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in southern Yemen.

[U.S. forces kill suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen raid]

In its report, Human Rights Watch said it documented the cases of at least 38 people detained or arrested by Yemeni forces that are financed, armed or trained by the UAE. Some of the detaineeswere abused or tortured inside detention facilities, most often through heavy beatings with officers using their fists, their guns or metal objects, the group said.Others mentioned electric shocks, forced nudity, threats to the detainees or their family members, and caning on the feet.

Witnesses told the AP of a torture method known as the grill. Victims were tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire. That method and others were used at a detention complex at an airport in the southern city of Mukalla one of at least 18 secret prisons in southern Yemen documented by the AP and run by the UAE or its allied forces at military bases, ports, an airport, private villas and even a nightclub.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Washington contributed to this report.

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Why the Ethereum Flash Crash Isn’t Surprising, and What It Means for Crypto – Futurism

Posted: at 5:44 am

On Wednesday, the price of Ether flash-crashed by over 99.9% in less than a second on GDAX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. This was due to a multi-million dollar sell order being placed on the exchange. Because the exchange did not have enough buy orders on its books to accommodate a sell this large, the price crashed immediately from $317.81 to $224.48; this movement was enough to then trigger a wave of about 800 automatic position liquidations due to margin calls and stop-loss orders, driving the price briefly as low as $0.10, and causing GDAX to suspend trading.

This is only the most recent of a series of similar events across crypto exchanges, and rather than being a reflection on GDAX in particular, its a symptom of the underlying problems created by the stress of capital flow increasing faster than market infrastructure development.

Although the price quickly returned back above $300, the millions of dollars that investors lost due to forced selling of their positions will not be recovered. This incident highlights the relative immaturity of the cryptocurrency trading ecosystem, which has been stressed by a 20x increase in daily trading volume since the start of 2017 without any fundamental change in market structures.

From the trader-in-questions side (assuming they were simply trying to get out of this position in a crude way and not a malicious actor or market manipulator) dumping the whole position at once will have likely incurred millions in liquidity costs. A single huge move like this is both bad for them and for the margin traders who were forced out of positions at even worse prices, all due to price actions that would be easily avoidable through more intelligent trading logic.

On the other side, the exchange doesnt have adequate safeguards to prevent such a flash-crash. When a participant has a margin position less than their margin requirements in traditional markets, they are typically given 2448 hours to post collateral. GDAX, on the other hand, seems to instantly liquidate you (with market orders) into their very thin order book. Some version of this problem exists on most crypto exchanges, although a few (like Poloniex) try to mitigate it with simple trading logic to soften the price impact of underwater margin position liquidations.

GDAX stop losses operate similarly. For major foreign exchange trading pairs in traditional markets, the largest differential between a persons stop loss and actual execution price is ~0.10%. On GDAX, people who had stop losses at $316 actually sold their ether at $0.10. Furthermore, GDAX does not specify if stop orders are time-priority based or price based. For example, if someone has a stop loss order at $50, and someone puts a stop loss order later at $100, when a flash crash occurs, who gets to sell their ether first?

While this creates a short term windfall in margin calls for the exchanges owners, they pay that price in reputation and deterring players from trading crypto on margin. The uncertainty a trader has to live with in this environment is one of the major barriers to entry for the large institutional pools of capital that can bring the crypto markets into maturity and raise the overall market cap to the size of traditional asset classes.

While these events are frustrating due to the negative impact they have on the space as a whole, they are also exciting because they illustrate the massive opportunity present for those willing to do the work to build out sophisticated financial infrastructure.

The Omega One platform, which will be launched later in 2017, will provide a structural solution to problems like this, protecting both traders and exchanges.

If the trader who put the $30m order on GDAX had put the order in on Omega One, the market would barely have moved at all. Instead, the Omega trading engine would have taken this traders order and broken it into thousands of tiny sell orders, and placed those orders intelligently over time across all the worlds liquid crypto exchanges.

The order books on GDAX, Poloniex, Bitfinex, Kraken, and other exchanges would each have seen a tiny increment of additional selling pressure in the first seconds after the order enough to absorb the available demand to buy on those exchanges, but not enough to force a price move.

As those initial sell orders were traded, the Omega One trading engine would have monitored the outcomes and adjusted behavior accordingly within milliseconds, releasing sell orders to the market at exactly the pace that the market could absorb. Instead of pushing the entire order into one place within one second and thus crashing the market, Omega One would have spread the order out over all the worlds crypto exchanges over the space of perhaps an hour, and nobody would be any the wiser for it.

In addition to not losing millions of dollars and crashing the market, the unknown trader from Wednesday would have also have avoided the risk of putting their millions of dollars worth of crypto in the hands of an exchange. In order to sell the Ether on GDAX, they first needed to send that Ether to GDAX, giving up custody of their funds and trusting GDAX not to be hacked or otherwise compromise their funds.

If the unknown trader had been using Omega One, they could have kept their funds on the Ethereum blockchain in a wallet under their control, right up until the point of settlement. The combination of security and cost benefits provided by Omega One will transform the crypto markets, facilitating the next level of maturity of the crypto trading ecosystem.

Disclosure: Futurism is exploring a financial relationship with Omega One and has a personal affiliation with ConsenSys. This is a piece of editorial content. Omega One and ConsenSys do not have any review privileges on editorial decisions.

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New Evidence Suggests That Our Solar System Has 10 Planets – Futurism

Posted: at 5:44 am

Ten Strong

The Solar System hasnt been the same since Pluto was downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet, and all bets have been off since this monumental decision. Case in point, last year, scientists at the California Institute of Technology proposed that there might be a true Planet Ninein our solar system. The team asserted that it appears to be 10 times the mass of Earth and that it is hiding out in the remote recesses of our solar systemwell beyond the orbit of Pluto.

At the time of the discovery, Mike Brown, who was behind the work, noted that the existence of a 9th planet is extremely likely: Hey Planet Nine fans, a new eccentric KBO was discovered. And it is exactly where Planet Nine says it should be, Brown tweeted. Furthermore, he says, the new object takes the probability of this being a statistical fluke down to ~.001% or so.

Similar discoveries have been made in relation to new dwarf planets. Located about 13.7 billion km (8.5 billion miles) from the Sun, 2014 UZ224 measures about 530 km (330 miles) in diameter and takes around 1,100 Earth years to complete its orbit. And so, our littler corner of the cosmos has been in quite the state of flux.

Kathryn Volk and Renu Malhotra at the University of Arizona have noticed some strange movement out in the Kuiper beltmovement that they believe could suggest the existence of a tenth planet. To break this down a bit: Objects in the Kuiper belt are far enough away from the other major bodies in our solar system that the gravitational influence of the large planets doesnt impact them (at least, not to a measurable degree); however, their movements can still be predicted, thanks to sky surveys and a host of advanced technologies.

Notably, if these predictions dont match up, it may mean theres another objectanother large bodypast our vision whose gravity is impacting themovements of the Kuiper belt objects.

The search for Planet Ninehas lead scientists to believe that it is orbiting around700 AU from the Sun. However, Volk and Malhotra believe that this tenth planet could be much closer,as the orbit of Kuiper belt bodies shifted just beyond 50 AU. They also contend that the planet would be roughly comparable to Mars, in terms of size.

Other astronomers, however, are not so quick to hop on this train of thought. Alessandro Morbidelli at the Cte dAzur Observatory in Nice, France tellsNew Scientist I am dubious that a planet so close and so bright would have remained unnoticed.

Still, Volk is confident in these findings, which are set to be published in The Astronomical Journal. It would have to be quite a fluke for this to not be a real effect, she says. We think there is a real signal there and this implies an additional planet.

The discovery of more bodies in the Kuiper beltwill help to support or debunk these findings. Either way, our little solar family is going to continue to grow with these long-lost distant relations.

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Europe’s Space Program Will Launch a Gravitational Wave Hunting Spacecraft in 2034 – Futurism

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In Brief At a recent ESA Science Program Committee meeting the LISA mission was set for a 2034 launch. The trio of satellites will search for gravitational waves from collisions of supermassive black holes millions of times larger than those detected by LIGO. LISA Launch Set

The ESAs Science Program Committee met on June 20, and at the top of their agenda was addressing planning for theagencys missions to come over thenext 20 years one ofwhich will be athree satellite Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission (LISA). The space antennawas designed to detect gravitational waves. The LISA mission has been selected to move forward and is set to launch in 2034.

The project uses the satellite trio to create a huge triangle in space. The satellites form the corners and lasers bouncing across the 2.5 million kilometers (1.55 million miles) between them form itssides. The triangle itself will follow Earth as it orbits the Sun. Meanwhile, the satellites will be sorting through an impressive array of cosmic noise to determine which signals are the most promising signs of supermassive black holes, and which are just false leads.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) first detected gravitational waves in September 2015, confirming its initial findings when the waves weredetected again in June of 2016. By February of 2017, scientists learned that LIGO also produces the waves. Earlier this year, LIGOdetected the waves for the third time.They appearto be from a supermassive black hole thats 49 times larger than our sun.

LISA is taking the detection of gravitational waves to the next level by searching for supermassive black holes millions of times larger than those found by LIGO. LISA should also be able to give scientists enough lead time to observe the black holes with telescopes, enabling us to discover more about how these collisions work.

Well be able to see signals for months, so well have time to point all these other telescopes at that point in the sky to see if theres any other signals coming from that area when the merger happens, ESAs senior advisor for science & exploration Mark McCaughrean told New Scientist.

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