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Showing posts with the label technology

BEAM Prototype Habitat, Bigelow's Plans

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The BEAM Bigelow Aerospace habitat module, will be launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) today: if all goes well. BEAM is packed in the Dragon spacecraft's pressurized section. This cargo run also carries supplies for the ISS crew, and for several dozen of the roughly 250 experiments planned for Expeditions 47 and 48. ( SpaceX press kit ) After getting attached to the ISS and inflated, BEAM will mostly just sit there for at least two years: empty except when someone in the ISS takes samples and swaps out radiation sensors. I think that's a good idea, since BEAM is testing technology for Bigelow Aerospace rental properties in low Earth orbit. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Reaching for the Stars

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Scientists and engineers in BAE Systems' Project Greenglow are trying to control, or sidestep, gravity. Back on my side of the Atlantic, scientists at NASA's Eagleworks say they've successfully tested prototype RF resonant cavity thrusters and a warp field generator. Other scientists are skeptical. Very skeptical.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Click To Pray: the Prayer App for REAL LIFE!

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Feel like praying? We have an app for that! At long last, the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network has a totally unique app that connects people around the world to the Pope's prayer intentions--and to one another. Read all about it at Praying with Grace !

Luxembourg and Asteroid Mining

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Stories like " Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet " and " Red Dwarf 's" Dave Lister singing "...Lived an old plutonium miner / And his daughter Clementine..." probably didn't help make asteroid mining seem like a serious idea. Then there's the 1966 Outer Space Treaty treaty: a tribute to the high ideals, and international politics, of the '60s. The idea was that anything we find outside Earth's atmosphere would belong to everyone. Nifty idea, not entirely wrong, and I'll get back to that. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Barsoom Development Ltd.

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The Curiosity Mars Rover sent a 'postcard' from Mars, a 360-degree view of dunes and a mountain in Gale Crater.... ...As usual, I'll ramble on about science, technology, and being human before getting to the interesting stuff: assuming that you think a robotic selfie from Mars is interesting. Not-entirely-as-usual, I wasn't finished rambling when I started the 'postcard' stuff, so this post has an afterword. I've done that before.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

SpaceX, Mars, and Someday the Stars

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First of all: Merry Christmas! I'll have something more seasonally-appropriate ready by Sunday. That's the plan, at least. Today I'll be talking about spaceships, practical and otherwise: and why NASA cancelled InSight's March 2016 launch.... ...Instead of trying to analyze the reasons, I'll just get started with the December 1938 issue of Amazing Stories, Columbus, Robert Goddard, the Hanseatic League, and why airlines don't use disposable airplanes — not necessarily in that order.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mutant Medflies, GMO Mosquitoes

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First, the good news: releasing genetically-modified medflies and mosquitoes may mean fewer crop failures; and fewer deaths from malaria. Now, the not-so-good news: I'm pretty sure some folks won't think it's good news.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Halloween Asteroid: 2015 TB145

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(From Alex Alishevskikh, cyberborean.org; via Flikr and Space.com, used w/o permission.) (" Trail of the object that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. " (Space.com)) Asteroid 2015 TB 145 won't hit Earth, but it will be only slightly farther from us than the Moon at 1:05 p.m. EDT, 5:05 p.m. UTC, October 31. I've talked about asteroids, Earth Time, and why thinking ahead makes sense, before.... ...Fifty years ago, we probably wouldn't have noticed an incoming asteroid until very shortly before it hit. Even if we did, there wouldn't have been much we could do, apart from praying — and that's another topic.... More at More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Pig Organs, Ancient Immigrants

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We're years away from safe pig-to-human organ transplants: but scientists using CRISPR gene editing tech are working toward that goal. Other scientists are discovering a chapter of humanity's family history: Eurasian immigrants returning to Africa, when the Shang dynasty and Egyptian Empire collapsed. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Thomas Aquinas and the DARPA Robot Competition

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Korea's Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot walked through DARPA's 2015 robot competition: one of three to complete every task on the course without falling over. Meanwhile, Toshiba's (somewhat) lifelike ChihiraAico robot demonstrated 'her' voice in a Las Vegas trade show. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Dogs, Stone Tools, and Newly-Discovered Ancestors

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Australopithecus deyiremeda, a newly-discovered member of humanity's family, was in this week's news. We're also learning more about when some wolves started becoming dogs, and have discovered really old stone tools.... ...Humanity's family history is nowhere near as simple as folks figured when Carl Linnaeus published " Systema Naturae " in 1735.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A Robotic Tentacle, and Disney’s Baymax

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Disney Studio's film version of Baymax is fiction. Robots designed to work with people are real: although they're nowhere near as smart as their fictional counterparts. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Climate Change, Science, and the Vatican

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The 'Vatican science academy' is in the news again: this time because they've said we should use our brains. The topic was climate change, which tends to stir up sound and fury more than rational discourse. Meanwhile, one scientist implied a link between our "carbon dioxide crisis" and a lot of dead critters, some 201,000,000 years back. More to the point, I think, the team he was on has added a few more pieces to the puzzle of what caused the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Thumb-Brain Connection, and DIY Robots

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Scientists learned how using our thumbs changes our brains by collecting data from 26 smartphone users, 11 users of "old-fashioned cellphones," and electroencephalography. Building your own robot is getting a whole lot easier, now that RoboCORE is around. It's a robotic central nervous system you can program with C++ or Python.... When I was in high school, I learned that adult brains were static, unchanging. Neuroscientists thought, or assumed, that once we get past youth — that our brains don't change: no new neurons, no new connections between neurons. They were wrong.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Dawn's Arrival at Ceres; Sims and "Chaos"

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Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit two asteroids or planets other than Earth last week. More to the point, we're learning more about these survivors from the early Solar System. Meanwhile, from the world of infotainment , "chaos" and the early Solar System.... ...Either way, Vesta and Ceres are — most likely — the last remaining large protoplanets : which makes them valuable samples of the early Solar System. Apart from size and distance from our sun, they're very different: which also makes them intriguing places to study. Scientists have working ideas about how Vesta and Ceres ended up where they are, but those hypotheses may change when we learn more from the Dawn mission. There's quite a bit of data to work with already, from Dawn's stopover at Vesta.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mutant Cows, Mass Migrations, and a Brain Gene

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Bovine tuberculosis may not be a big problem, if Ministry of Agriculture in Northwest A&F University, Yangling, research pays off. Meanwhile, we may be learning who made Europe look and sound the way it does today: and scientists at the Max Plank Institute discovered how a uniquely-human gene helps our brains grow.... I've seen attitudes toward science and technology shift, quite a bit. I grew up when quite a few folks still thought human ingenuity would solve all our problems: or at least make "the future" a magical place to live.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Precision-Grip Thumbs and an A 'New' Archosaur

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Humans have hands . So do apes, monkeys, lemurs, and koalas. For that matter, a chameleon's feet look and act a lot like hands. But they don't have precision-grip thumbs that can line up with any finger. We do: and apparently have had a firm grip on tools for over two million years. Scientists had a pretty good idea about how the common ancestor of dinosaurs, crocodiles and alligators, and birds, developed. A quarter-billion-year-old fossil shows that the situation is more complicated than scientists thought.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Asteroid Readiness, and a SpaceX Test Landing

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European officials seem to think that planning about what to do when an asteroid heads their way is a good idea. I think they're right. A SpaceX cargo run to the International Space Station arrived on time, but the flight's experimental reusable booster didn't land properly. Actually, it crashed.... I started writing about asteroid impacts, which reminded me of ice ages, dodos, and responsibility. This isn't the most tightly-organized post I've ever done. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Harpooning the 'Rubber Duck' Comet; Public Safety — and Space Aliens

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If all goes well, a robot spaceship will harpoon a comet next week. Meanwhile, science and daily routine go on in the International Space Station, nobody was hurt when an Antares cargo carrier exploded, and someone's done a survey about faith and space aliens...." ...Some comets and asteroids are shaped like potatoes. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko looks like two potatoes and a bit of corn stalk: or a rubber duck.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Neighbors, Love, and Upping the Ante

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When a scholar of the law asked Jesus for the greatest Commandment, my Lord gave two.... ...The Samaritan: An Unexpected 'Good Guy' After two millennia, the shock of a Samaritan being the 'good guy' in this sort of story has worn off. Jews and Samaritans did not get along: at all. These days, it'd be like telling a story in a redneck bar: where a coal miner, poor farmer, and truck driver wouldn't help the accident victim: but an east Asian immigrant did.... ...Okay: I've had a cup of coffee, walked around a bit, and calmed down. Let's see, where was I? The greatest Commandment, the good Samaritan. Right. The rules are simple, but not easy.... ...I'd like to end world hunger, establish a lasting peace, and cure the common cold. That's not gonna happen. For starters, I don't have the connections or power to get any of that done. Besides, things take time.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .