Photo credit: Consequence of Sound
To The Stars Academy, an organization co-founded by former Blink 182 band member Tom DeLonge, claims to have acquired exotic materials from “unidentified vehicles”. Apparently, they’ve examined the material and concluded that its structure as well as composition “are not from any known existing military or commercial application,” according to Steve Justice, current Head of Technology and Aerospace at To The Stars Academy and former head of Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin’s ‘Skunk Works’. Read more for the pictures and additional information.
Photo credit: Ken Kiefer via IEEE Spectrum
Think of Aquanaut as a real-life underwater Transformers robot, as it can turn from autonomous electric submarine to a humanoid-like machine. It’s designed for deep-sea repairs and other tasks that traditional robots may struggle with that are too dangerous for human divers. Currently, it’s limited to swimming pool tests, but the ultimate goal is ocean expeditions and active deployment, where it will be used to service deep-sea components of oil and gas-mining rigs. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Stanford physicists have developed a quantum microphone that can detect individual sound particles at an atomic level, or in other words, the smallest known unit of sound, called phonons, which refers to packets of vibrational energy. This may lead to the development of even more efficient quantum computers. Previously, measuring phonons had been nearly impossible due to the inability of traditional microphones ability to pick up the sounds. So, rather than relying on the measurement of sound waves, this device measures the energy of phonons directly using minuscule resonators that act as mirrors for sound caused by vibrations. Read more for a video and additional information.
University of Utah researchers in partnership with other organizations, including Blackrock Microsystems and DEKA, have developed a Star Wars-inspired prosthetic system that will allow patients to regain their sense of touch. Officially called the “LUKE” arm, this bionic arm was given sensory feedback by using output from arm sensors to control the stimulation of sensory nerve fibers which transmit information to the brain and create the sensation of touch. To recreate that sensation, the team used electrodes connected to the inside of nerves. Read more for a video and additional information.
A bright meteor streaked through the night sky Wednesday, and was seen by more than 350 people across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and other parts of the East Coast. Many homeowners who captured video footage of the phenomenon first thought it was something else entirely. The American Meteor Society compiled all the reports it received, and based on preliminary results, it appears that the meteor first entered view over the open ocean, approximately 45 miles offshore southeast of Long Island. Read more for a few of the videos that homeowners captured and additional information.
The International Space Station is about to get slimy, or at least with Nickelodeon’s iconic green slime, featured on such shows as “Slime Time Live” in the early 2000s and Double Dare from back in the 1980s. Some of this slime will launch into space today (July 24) aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft in food-grade pouches. However, this isn’t meant for ISS crew members to slime each other, but rather experiments. Read more for a video and additional information.
Photo credit: Rainee Colacurcio
NASA has just released a breathtaking image of the International Space Station transitioning in front of the sun, as captured by Rainee Colacurcio. The ISS crossing the Sun isn’t a rare phenomenon, since it orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but capturing the perfect image with sublime timing and equipment most certainly is. Read more for a video and additional information.
Elon Musk’s start-up Neuralink, founded in 2016, wants to connect your brain directly to computers. How does it work? It involves drilling holes into the brain with a custom machine to embed thin threads that connect to a tiny processor, which communicates with a smartphone over Bluetooth, and as more people sign up, the installation process will be as quick and painless as Lasik eye surgery. Musk wants to have its first human patient equipped with the technology before the end of 2020 after FDA approval. Read more for another video, additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: The Sun
People around the world will be able to witness a partial lunar eclipse on Tuesday or early Wednesday that coincides with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 launch. Unfortunately, the phenomenon is not visible in the U.S., but will be visible across Africa, much of Asia, the eastern part of South America and western Australia. The last total lunar eclipse happened in January and the next partial lunar eclipse won’t occur again until November 2021. The Saturn V rocket carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969. Read more for another video and additional information.
Photo credit: NASA
Let’s face it, Mars as we know it is an inhospitable place, or at least on the surface. Raising crops on Mars is far easier in movies than it will be in real life, mainly because the mean water can persist on the surface only as ice due to its subzero temperatures and the planet’s atmosphere offers little protection to plants (or people) from the Sun’s radiation. NASA does have plans however to put humans on Mars using data collected from its Artemis lunar explorations. Researchers propose that an ultralight material called aerogel might one day help humans build greenhouses and other habitats at Mars’ mid-latitudes, where near-surface water ice has been identified. Aerogel is essentially a Styrofoam-like solid that is 99% air, making it extremely light and adept at preventing the transfer of heat as well, making it an excellent insulator. Read more for another video and additional information.