Monthly Archives: April 2021

It's like playing a high-stakes game of Missile Command.Top Sniper

The Australian startup EOS Space Systems says it has finally finished building a powerful laser capable of blasting dangerous space junk out of orbit all the way from the surface of the Earth.

After seven years of development, the company says it can accurately track and snipe debris orbiting the planet from Australias Mt. Stromio Observatory, 9News reports. Thats an impressive feat, given the junk can travel at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. But if it works, the laser could make space safer for satellites and especially human astronauts without needing to launch risky cleanup missions.

The system is actually made up of two lasers. The first, a bright orange beam, targets specific pieces of space junk and helps the other one line up its shot, according to 9News. Then a second laser, far more powerful than the first, blasts it out of orbit and into deeper space.

Its a unique type of laser which weve just grown to [the] right scale and power so we can map the atmosphere then use the maps which are made hundreds of times a second to correct laser beams on the ground so they propagate into space perfectly, EOS Systems CEO Ben Greene told 9News. That will allow us to apply very high-power laser beams to move space debris in space and make space navigation much safer.

The laser, once its fully online, stands to make the process of clearing orbital debris a whole lot easier than other plans currently in development or being tested.

Just about every other plan to clear the skies, whether it be spearing garbage with a big harpoon, clearing it with a magnetic grabbling hook, or even equipping spacecraft with junk-melting lasers, involves launching something else into orbit too. By comparison, blasting dangerous space debris out of orbit from the safety of Earth sounds much more appealing.

READ MORE: World-first laser to shunt deadly space junk out of orbit [9News]

More on space junk: China Crashed Spacecraft Into the Moon so it Wouldnt Become Space Junk

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Startup Says Its Super Powerful Laser Can Blast Space Junk From Down on the Earth's Surface - Futurism

"When the same thing happened 252 million years ago, 90 percent of all marine species died."Moving Out

The most biodiverse ecosystems in the ocean are typically found in the tropical waters around the equator. But as temperatures rise, aquatic organisms will likely continue to flee their homes in greater and greater numbers.

Climate change and rising temperatures are already causing a mass exodus away from the equator, according to a team of Australian researchers from the Universities of Auckland, Queensland, and the Sunshine Coast. The scientists wrote in The Conversation that we could be on the cusp of a mass extinction event caused not only by the inhospitably-hot water around the equator, but also by the ecosystem disruption that organisms fleeing the area will cause wherever they happen to settle.

When the same thing happened 252 million years ago, 90 percent of all marine species died, the scientists wrote.

The scientists tracked the distribution of nearly 49,000 different species throughout the ocean to see where they were heading. Typically, the distribution of oceanic life looks a bit like a bell curve, with just a few species near the North and South pole but loads more at the equator.

Now, that tidy curve is actively changing, according to research they published recently in the journal PNAS, as two separate peaks emerge on either side that represent the huge number of species that fled the equator in either direction.

As historic equator-dwellers find new homes, theyll essentially become invasive species competing with locals for food, space, and other resources, the scientists warn. With only so much to go around, many species are likely to die off and vanish altogether.

This threatens not only the biodiversity and ecological health of the planet in general, but also local human communities that depend on native species for food or income making immediate climate action all the more urgent.

READ MORE: Marine life is fleeing the equator to cooler waters. History tells us this could trigger a mass extinction event [The Conversation]

More on climate change: Climate Change Threatens 60 Percent of the Worlds Fish Species

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Scientists: Mass Extinction Is Coming as Organisms Flee the Equator - Futurism

Hello, Percy.Selfie Stick

NASAs Perseverance Mars rover has sent back a selfie.

The stunningly crisp self-image of the six-wheeled rovers head was taken by Perseverances WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering), a high resolution camera meant to take close-up pictures of rock textures. Honestly, our guys not looking too bad.

NASAs Curiosity rover has a similar camera, called Mars Hand Lens Imager, that can take similar selfies (and also study rocks up close.)

In the tweet, NASA titled the image Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bot, a nod to Irish author James Joyces first novel titled A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, published in 1916.

The large lens element in the top right of Perseverances head, more commonly referred to as the mast, is the SuperCam, a laser-equipped spectrometer designed to analyze rock samples.

Around its neck is the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, an instrument designed to sense and monitor the weather conditions on Mars.

In combination with sample analyses carried out by Perseverances SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organicand Chemicals), a smartphone-sized scientific instrument that uses spectroscopy to study the chemical makeup of nearby rocks, the images taken by WATSON allow scientists at NASA to study minute mineral layers of Martian rocks to see how they were formed and changed over time.

Life is clumpy, Luther Beegle, SHERLOCs principal investigator at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a May 2020 blog post. If we see organics clumping together on one part of a rock, it might be a sign that microbes thrived there in the past.

Now that weve seen Perseverances face up-close, chances are we will soon get the rovers first full-body selfie, just like the ones weve seen taken by Curiosity.

READ MORE: NASAs New Mars Rover Just Took One of The Sweetest Extraterrestrial Selfies Ever [Science Alert]

More on Perseverance: NASAs Mars Helicopter Is Online and Just Sent Back a Photo

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NASA's Mars Rover Just Took a Selfie and It's Actually Beautiful - Futurism

"The demand for more sustainable technologies in inland waterway transport is on the rise."Hydrogen Vessel

A French company is developing the worlds first hydrogen-powered cargo transport vessel,which is scheduled to make its debut some time later this year, Renewable Energy Magazine reports.

The boat, built by Compagnie Fluvial de Transport (CFT), is set to be deployed on the river Seine in Paris and will use compressed hydrogen produced from electrolysis as its sole power source. The vessel is designed for inland water routes only and is not designed to sail the oceans.

The demand for more sustainable technologies in inland waterway transport is on the rise, Matthieu Blanc, director of CFT, told the magazine. As part of the Flagships project, we are happy to be leading the way on reducing emissions from transport and demonstrating the superior features of hydrogen fuel cells in waterborne applications.

Ocean-navigating cargo ships have revolutionized world trade over the last 50 years in many ways but they have also become a huge contributor to harmful greenhouse emissions.

Most ships run on bunker fuel, which emits even more carbon dioxide and fine carbon particulates than burning refined fuel. Overall, theyre the second-largest contributor to climate change.

The Flagship project was awarded just shy of $6 millionin funding in 2018 from the European Unions Research and Innovation program, called Horizon 2020,intended to further research into hydrogen-fuel cargo transport.

One hydrogen powered concept vesselis already sailing in Paris, while two additional vessels are currently under construction.

To convert much larger seafaring cargo ships to hydrogen power could pose a substantial logistical challenge. Fossil fuels are far more energy dense, taking up less space on ships. Making refueling stops could also bring up the cost of operating a cargo ship significantly but still, the vessel is an intriguing concept.

READ MORE: Worlds first hydrogen cargo vessel set for Paris debut [Renewable Energy Magazine]

More on hydrogen power: This is the Worlds First Home Hydrogen Battery

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The World's First Hydrogen-Powered Cargo Vessel Is About to Set Sail - Futurism

Japanese officials say they've put off the "unavoidable" release long enough.Moving Ahead

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says that the government has put off figuring out what to do with all of the contaminated water building up at the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for long enough and its time to start dumping it into the ocean.

Sugas hand is forced given that the plant will soon run out of space to store the contaminated groundwater seeping into the facility, The Japan Times reports, and hes framing the controversial plan to release the water into the Pacific Ocean as unavoidable.

Japanese officials have been debating how to best contain the radioactive water at the Fukushima plant for years, but the plan that seems to have stuck is to purify the water as best as possible, dilute the radioactive tritium that persists even after the cleaning process, and to dump it over the course of 30 years.

What to do with the [treated] water is a task that the government can no longer put off without setting a policy, Japanese trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama told reporters on Wednesday.

But outside of government halls, the plan is still considerably unpopular, especially among fishers who are concerned no one will want to buy fish caught in radioactive waters. Reasonably so, too, since 15 countries and regions still restrict imports from the Fukushima prefecture, according to the Japan Times.

Suga is expected to make a formal decision on the release by next Tuesday, according to the newspaper. If the government proceeds, the plan will be to dilute tritium down to just 2.5 percent of the maximum concentration allowed by national standards before dumping it out.

That means, Japanese officials say, the water wont be dangerous to people though only time will tell how much people trust it.

READ MORE: Suga says time ripe to decide fate of treated Fukushima No.1 water [The Japan Times]

More on Fukushima: Fukushima Plans to Power Region With 100% Renewable Energy

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Japan Says Sorry, But It Has to Dump This Radioactive Water Into the Ocean - Futurism

The 23-year-old Ghanaian-born designer and technologist has worked alongside Nipsey Hussle and Kanye West here we go deep on the new realities he wants to create

Welcome to A Future World Dazed's network, community, and platform focusing on the intersection of science, technology and pop culture. Throughout April, we're featuring conversations and mission statements from the people paving new pathways for our planet: activists, inventors, fashion pioneers, technologists, AI scientists, and global youth movements, alongside in-depth editorial exploring the new realities for our future world

This article was created in partnership with adidas Originals

23-year-old Iddris Sandu was born in Accra, Ghana, before moving to Harbor City, Los Angeles when he was three years old. Relentlessly curious about technology from an early age, hed drive his mum crazy by taking apart TV remotes and rewiring them to make new things he could play with. At 13, he taught himself to code at the Torrance Public Library in Compton library, and a decade later has his sights firmly on shaping the world not just through his work with spatial reality and the development of his virtual interface Canvas, but also by laying the foundations for a next generation of kids to succeed, through mentoring schemes and building schools in Ghana.

A digital architect and futurist, Sandu has also collaborated with titans in the hip hop world, namely the late Nipsey Hussle and Kanye West. In 2017, Sandu and Nipsey Hussle opened the Marathon store in Crenshaw, LA, the worlds first smart store in which visitors could unlock augmented reality experiences and access exclusives by interacting with objects in the store. Tragically, Nipsey Hussle was shot dead outside the Marathon store in 2019, leaving behind him an immense legacy, a vision of what the world could be for Crenshaw kids through education and collaboration.

Sandu worked on a top-secret project called Yeezy Sense after introducing Kanye to quantum computing, spatial mapping, and how these technologies can inform his art. Currently, hes a design and tech consultant for Wests brand, and recently joined adidas mission to help #EndPlasticWaste. Hes... busy.

Here, we talk about his visions of a future world, diversity in technology, and as he seeks to create new versions of reality what the word means to him.

Youve been mentoring kids in Compton, you set up a new school in Ghana to technological literacy. Youve also worked with politicians to launch STEM programmes. Why is this community work so important to you?

Iddris Sandu: People have this notion of specific technologies and where they come from. Silicon Valley is called Silicon Valley because of the silicon chips. I wanted to see what could happen if the next generation of self-driving cars or computer vision technology, or the next Instagram, the next Uber, the next utility, could come from a kid from Compton, or a kid from Chicago, or a kid from Atlanta. What if it didn't have to be the default? What if we didn't have to be subject to the realities of how a lot of these industries were birthed? The people that sat down and created the Constitution, you know they more than likely all look the same, therefore, the supreme law of the land was inherited by it, right? And the same thing happens with technology.

Having worked with Nipsey Hussle and Kanye West, you know the importance of mentors. How vital have those two people been to your perspective and to your work?

Iddris Sandu: Nipsey is a huge reason why I feel like my work in the cultural space has been amplified. I was able to take my technical skills, my concrete understanding of design, hardware and software, vertical integration, and his relentless curiosity to want to bring those worlds to hip hop. Kanye is an artist thats known for being able to take different palettes from so many different places, especially in dragging from spaces that you would normally not see in hip hop, or are coming from someone that is Black, and be able to colour outside of the lines and deliver a masterpiece. Nipsey worked the same way, but from a business standpoint Nipsey was able to take the high-level business thinking and design thinking associated with business and finance, and apply it to his brand. The crux of what they both represent was very crucial to how I think, and being able to collaborate with large artists like them definitely just opened my mind up to the possibilities.

What inspiration do you draw from art when youre creating new technology?

Iddris Sandu: At the heart of what I do is architecture. I'm a designer. Im known for tech, but Im really a visualist. I grew up on a very strong pillar of design as a form of expression. So my technical abilities come from the level of inherently wanting to create a better world, which is what architects do architects are doctors of the design world, right? If youre a designer, or youre an architect, youre always just playing an efficiency game. Youre always just taking the number 99.99 and youre adding another nine to it. Thats all we do. All designers do is just add nines. Its a nine game Im telling you, its like 99.9999% more efficient. Im a designer who genuinely wants to shift the world in a better way, understanding that we are drowned in a world of excess over accessibility.

But hip hop has also amplified technology on a whole other level. You had people like Grandmaster Flash that were able to take the turntable (and reshape culture).

You had the MPC

Iddris Sandu: Exactly. Some of the greatest producers are samplers, which makes them programmers. Just like a computer programmer will sit down and use a tool like Xcode, or Android Studio to build an app, they use the MPC, they compose, and they produce music by manipulating the data, to play the nine game.

I wanted to see what could happen if the next generation of self-driving cars or computer vision technology could come from a kid from Compton, or a kid from Chicago, or a kid from Atlanta Iddris Sandu

How important is sustainability and the climate crisis to you in the work that you do?

Iddris Sandu: Sometimes you can view things through people and not see the bigger picture. But when you open the door, you really see how important certain things can be. And one of those things has been spatial reality. My collaboration with Nipsey that was spatial reality.

People will look at it and say, Oh, thats not really necessary, right? Like, creating a spatial experience, or AR or VR is really, really cool. Its really awesome. But I dont know if its anything that could change the world.

For me, I have so many ideas so its like why are you using your skills to focus on a technology that cannot change the world, or cannot influence the world in the most positive way? And the reason why I triple down on spatial reality is because that is one of the greatest accelerators of sustainability. The reason why the world is so unsustainable is that were creating so much product. And if we were able to create digital products to replace those physical products, we can produce more, all while generating less amounts of energy. So, an example of that is VSTs virtual sound instruments those were pretty much spatial instruments.

In fashion, when people think of sustainability, they think of the materials that were using in a shoe, but it can also be you know instances where people can have access to doing things they would have normally loved to do without physically having to be there. What if I didnt do a whole shoe, which is what were working on with adidas right now. What if I could see a model of this thing without having to get in my car and burn gas. Were all familiar with what goes down in the Congo, right? Kids are mining kota and thats being put into phones and chips. But what if we didnt have to make physical phones anymore?

Youre described as a digital architect and I certainly see you as a futurist. Do you have any predictions for what the world will look like in 20 years?

Iddris Sandu: I think were moving to natural language being the basis of interaction again, and people having higher levels of empathy. Speaking about somebody on Twitter or on Instagram, theres a wall right? You're not capturing that persons expression or how they might be feeling in real time, hence why a lot of people say things online to each other that they would never say in person. The barrier is there so were naturally going to move into a new language thats going to be based on emotion more than anything. So I see that. I also see us living in a world thats highly decentralised as were starting to see right now with the blockchain and Bitcoin. A world thats decentralised will cause a ripple effect of accessibility for everyone theres going to be a high level of accountability for everyone but also the highest level of freedom.

Sustainability is going to be a huge arm. I guarantee you in the next 20 years people are going to be farmers, people are going to grow their own food. Beyond meat right were just playing a nine game who can get to the closest to artificial meat with it tasting exactly like meat. Its happening now, people are more conscious than ever, they want to know whats going into their minds, their food.

Youre someone who creates new realities. What does reality mean to you?

Iddris Sandu: Thats a very beautiful question. Earlier on in my life I was convinced that reality was a simulation and that the simulation was actually reality. When I create, dream, or come up with ideas Im more centred in that being a reality. Thats why movies, books and poems inspire and move us in more ways than our actual reality can. Documentation and storytelling is an essential part of being human. My definition of reality is being able to take your dreams and exist within them.

What is the best piece of design the world has ever seen and why?

Iddris Sandu: The human body. I had a discussion with someone about a month ago and I was talking about this aspect of design called biomimicry, its the study and interpretation of nature to enhance the world around us. Again, were playing a nine game we want to design things like the bullet train that were inspired by the kingfisher birds beak. We emulate nature to enhance our known reality. Neural networks, computer vision, or artificial intelligence, are all modelled on the human brain. All the technology that we create is based on our current limitation or understanding of self. Pretty much every single thing created is a result of the best thing that weve always aspired to design a human body.

Additional credits:

Grooming - Sonia Lee for Exclusive Artists using R+CoLocal Production - CARLYE BURKE

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Iddris Sandu is the digital architect designing the future - Dazed