The science behind a freediver’s 29-minute breath hold world record

Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić. Facebook.com @molchanovs, Instagram.com @maverick2go, Facebook.com @Vitomir Maričić, CC BY 

Most of us can hold our breath for between 30 and 90 seconds.

A few minutes without oxygen can be fatal, so we have an involuntary reflex to breathe.

But freediver Vitomir Maričić recently held his breath for a new world record of 29 minutes and three seconds, lying on the bottom of a 3-metre-deep pool in Croatia.

Vitomir Maričić set a new Guinness World Record for “the longest breath held voluntarily under water using oxygen”.

This is about five minutes longer than the previous world record set in 2021 by another Croatian freediver, Budimir Šobat.

Interestingly, all world records for breath holds are by freedivers, who are essentially professional breath-holders.
They do extensive physical and mental training to hold their breath under water for long periods of time.

So how do freedivers delay a basic human survival response and how was Maričić able to hold his breath about 60 times longer than most people?

Increased lung volumes and oxygen storage

Freedivers do cardiovascular training – physical activity that increases your heart rate, breathing and overall blood flow for a sustained period – and breathwork to increase how much air (and therefore oxygen) they can store in their lungs.

This includes exercise such as swimming, jogging or cycling, and training their diaphragm, the main muscle of breathing.

Diaphragmatic breathing and cardiovascular exercise train the lungs to expand to a larger volume and hold more air.

This means the lungs can store more oxygen and sustain a longer breath hold.

Freedivers can also control their diaphragm and throat muscles to move the stored oxygen from their lungs to their airways. This maximises oxygen uptake into the blood to travel to other parts of the body.

To increase the oxygen in his lungs even more before his world record breath-hold, Maričić inhaled pure (100%) oxygen for ten minutes.

This gave Maričić a larger store of oxygen than if he breathed normal air, which is only about 21% oxygen.

This is classified as an oxygen-assisted breath-hold in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Even without extra pure oxygen, Maričić can hold his breath for 10 minutes and 8 seconds.

Resisting the reflex to take another breath

Oxygen is essential for all our cells to function and survive. But it is high carbon dioxide, not low oxygen that causes the involuntary reflex to breathe.

When cells use oxygen, they produce carbon dioxide, a damaging waste product.

Carbon dioxide can only be removed from our body by breathing it out.

When we hold our breath, the brain senses the build-up in carbon dioxide and triggers us to breathe again.

Freedivers practice holding their breath to desensitise their brains to high carbon dioxide and eventually low oxygen. This delays the involuntary reflex to breathe again.

When someone holds their breath beyond this, they reach a “physiological break-point”. This is when their diaphragm involuntarily contracts to force a breath.

This is physically challenging and only elite freedivers who have learnt to control their diaphragm can continue to hold their breath past this point.

Indeed, Maričić said that holding his breath longer:

got worse and worse physically, especially for my diaphragm, because of the contractions. But mentally I knew I wasn’t going to give up.

Mental focus and control is essential

Those who freedive believe it is not only physical but also a mental discipline.

Freedivers train to manage fear and anxiety and maintain a calm mental state. They practice relaxation techniques such as meditation, breath awareness and mindfulness.

Interestingly, Maričić said:

after the 20-minute mark, everything became easier, at least mentally.

Reduced mental and physical activity, reflected in a very low heart rate, reduces how much oxygen is needed. This makes the stored oxygen last longer.

That is why Maričić achieved this record lying still on the bottom of a pool.

Don’t try this at home

Beyond competitive breath-hold sports, many other people train to hold their breath for recreational hunting and gathering.

For example, ama divers who collect pearls in Japan, and Haenyeo divers from South Korea who harvest seafood.

But there are risks of breath holding.

Maričić described his world record as:

a very advanced stunt done after years of professional training and should not be attempted without proper guidance and safety.

Indeed, both high carbon dioxide and a lack of oxygen can quickly lead to loss of consciousness.

Breathing in pure oxygen can cause acute oxygen toxicity due to free radicals, which are highly reactive chemicals that can damage cells.

Unless you’re trained in breath holding, it’s best to leave this to the professionals.The Conversation

Theresa Larkin, Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong and Gregory Peoples, Senior Lecturer - Physiology, University of Wollongong

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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World’s Smallest Pacemaker is Made for Newborns, Activated by Light, and Requires No Surgery

World’s smallest pacemaker next to a grain of rice – Credit: John Rogers / Northwestern University press release

Northwestern University engineers have developed a pacemaker so small that it can fit inside the tip of a syringe and be non-invasively injected into the body, according to a new study published in Nature.

Although it can work with hearts of all sizes, the pacemaker is particularly well-suited to the tiny, fragile hearts of newborn babies with congenital heart defects.

A pacemaker is an implantable device that helps maintain an even heart rate, either because the heart’s natural cardiac pacemaker provides an inadequate or irregular heartbeat, or because there is a block in the heart’s electrical conduction system.

Smaller than a single grain of rice, the pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device that mounts onto a patient’s chest to control pacing. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light to activate the pacemaker.

These short light pulses, which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone, and muscles, control the pacing.

Designed for patients who only need temporary pacing, the pacemaker simply dissolves after it’s no longer needed. All the pacemaker’s components are biocompatible, so they naturally dissolve into the body’s biofluids, bypassing the need for surgical extraction.

The paper demonstrates the device’s efficacy across a series of large and small animal models as well as human hearts from deceased organ donors.

“We have developed what is, to our knowledge, the world’s smallest pacemaker,” said John A. Rogers, PhD, professor of Neurological Surgery, Dermatology, and in the McCormick School of Engineering, who led the device development.

“There’s a crucial need for temporary pacemakers in the context of pediatric heart surgeries, and that’s a use case where size miniaturization is incredibly important. In terms of the device load on the body—the smaller, the better.”

“Our major motivation was children,” said Igor Efimov, PhD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and in the McCormick School of Engineering, who co-led the study.

“About 1% of children are born with congenital heart defects, regardless of whether they live in a low-resource or high-resource country. The good news is that these children only need temporary pacing after a surgery. In about seven days or so, most patients’ hearts will self-repair. But those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device. And no additional surgery is necessary to remove it.”

This work builds on a previous collaboration between Rogers and Efimov, in which they developed the first dissolvable device for temporary pacing. Many patients require temporary pacemakers after heart surgery — either while waiting for a permanent pacemaker or to help restore a normal heart rate during recovery.

For the current standard of care, surgeons sew the electrodes onto the heart muscle during surgery. Wires from the electrodes exit the front of a patient’s chest, where they connect to an external pacing box that delivers a current to control the heart’s rhythm.

When the temporary pacemaker is no longer needed, physicians remove the pacemaker electrodes. Potential complications include infection, dislodgement, torn or damaged tissues, bleeding, and blood clots.

“That’s actually how Neil Armstrong died,” Efimov said. He had a temporary pacemaker after a bypass surgery. When the wires were removed, he experienced internal bleeding.”

In response to this clinical need, Rogers, Efimov, and their teams developed their first dissolvable pacemaker, which was introduced in Nature Biotechnology in 2021. The thin, flexible, lightweight device eliminated the need for bulky batteries and rigid hardware, including wires.

To help further reduce the device’s size, the researchers also reimagined its power source. Instead of using near-field communication to supply power, the new, tiny pacemaker operates through the action of a galvanic cell, a type of simple battery that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy. Specifically, the pacemaker uses two different metals as electrodes to deliver electrical pulses to the heart. When in contact with surrounding biofluids, the electrodes form a battery. The resulting chemical reactions cause the electrical current to flow to stimulate the heart.

“When the pacemaker is implanted into the body, the surrounding biofluids act as the conducting electrolyte that electrically joins those two metal pads to form the battery,” Rogers said. “A very tiny light-activated switch on the opposite side from the battery allows us to turn the device from its ‘off’ state to an ‘on’ state upon delivery of light that passes through the patient’s body from the skin-mounted patch.”

The team used an infrared wavelength of light that penetrates deeply and safely into the body. If the patient’s heart rate drops below a certain rate, the wearable device detects the event and automatically activates a light-emitting diode. The light then flashes on and off at a rate that corresponds to the normal heart rate.

“Infrared light penetrates very well through the body,” Efimov said. “If you put a flashlight against your palm, you will see the light glow through the other side of your hand. It turns out that our bodies are great conductors of light.”

Even though the pacemaker is so tiny—measuring just 1.8 millimeters in width, 3.5 millimeters in length and 1 millimeter in thickness—it still delivers as much stimulation as a full-sized pacemaker.“The heart requires a tiny amount of electrical stimulation,” Rogers said. “By minimizing the size, we dramatically simplify the implantation procedures, we reduce trauma and risk to the patient, and, with the dissolvable nature of the device, we eliminate any need for secondary surgical extraction procedures.” World’s Smallest Pacemaker is Made for Newborns, Activated by Light, and Requires No Surgery
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First major chunk breaks off world's biggest iceberg


PARIS - An enormous chunk has broken off the world's largest iceberg, in a possible first sign the behemoth from Antarctica could be crumbling.

The colossal iceberg -- which is more than twice the size of Greater London and weighs nearly one trillion tonnes -- had largely stayed intact since it started slowly moving north in 2020.

It has been drifting toward the remote island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, raising the prospect it could run aground in shallower water and disrupt feeding for baby penguins and seals.


But a chunk about 19 kilometres (12 miles) long has cleaved off, said Andrew Meijers from the British Antarctic Survey, who encountered the iceberg in late 2023 and has tracked its fate via satellite ever since.

"This is definitely the first significant clear slice of the iceberg that's appeared," the physical oceanographer told AFP.

Soledad Tiranti, a glaciologist currently on an Argentinian exploration voyage in the Antarctic, also told AFP that a section had "broken" away.

The jagged piece has an area of roughly 80 square kilometres (31 square miles) -- huge in its own right, but just a fraction of the approximately 3360 square kilometres that remained.

Meijers said icebergs were full of deep fractures, and although this monumental specimen had shrunk over time and lost a much smaller piece, it had "held together pretty nicely".

"This is a sign that those rifts in it are starting to break up," he said.

In the past, other mega-icebergs had fallen apart "relatively quickly over the course of several weeks" once they started losing big pieces, he said.


It was hard to say if this was "a loose tooth just waiting to come out" or evidence of a much bigger change underway.

"I'm sorry to say but it's not really an exact science how these things fall apart... it's really hard to say if this is going to blow apart now, or it's going to hang together for longer," Meijers said.

Known as A23a, the world's biggest and oldest iceberg calved from the Antarctic shelf in 1986.

It remained stuck for over 30 years before finally breaking free in 2020, its lumbering journey north sometimes delayed by ocean forces that kept it spinning in place.

This monster block of freshwater was being whisked along by the world's most powerful ocean "jet stream" -- the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Meijers said its trajectory toward South Georgia, a crucial feeding ground for seals and penguins, would unlikely change because it had lost this chunk.

But should it collapse further it would pose "much less of a threat for wildlife" because foraging animals could manoeuvre unimpeded between the smaller chunks to find food, he added.

Icebergs had grounded there in the past and caused significant mortality to penguin chicks and seal pups.Tiranti said the iceberg was expected to keep plodding its way north but its exact course depended greatly on how local currents influenced its movements. First major chunk breaks off world's biggest iceberg
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World’s Largest Genome Discovered in a Tiny Fern: ‘Breaks all records’

A group of small fork ferns – credit Pol Fernandez, released via iScience

On the island of New Caledonia, a simple, unassuming species of fern has been identified as having the longest genome of any living organism known.

It is 50 times longer than a human’s, 7% longer than the previous world record-holding species for longest genome, and 20% longer than the record-holding animal.

Compared to 23 pairs of chromosomes in every human cell, the tiny fern contains 416—and if unraveled, would climb higher than Big Ben in London’s Westminster.

Questions abound, as does admiration for the majesty and mysteries of biological life.

“Compared to other organisms, plants are incredibly diverse when viewed at the DNA level, and that should make us pause to think about their intrinsic value in the wider picture of global biodiversity,” said Dr. Ilia Leitch, Senior Research Leader at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

“This discovery also raises many new and exciting questions about the upper limits of what is biologically possible, and we hope to solve these mysteries one day.”

Tmesipteris oblanceolata is a species of New Caledonian fork fern that grows on the ground or out of rotting tree trunks. A team from Kew and the Institut Botànic de Barcelona traveled to New Caledoina’s largest island of Grand Terre to collect this species for study.

20,000 species from the Tree of Life have had their genomes completely sequenced, and this literature has shown that having a complex genetic code isn’t always an advantage.

Larger genomes require more resources for DNA replication, repair, and transcription, while a larger DNA sequence needs a larger nucleus, and therefore a larger cell, to house it.

Dr. Leitch told Reuters that “perhaps unsurprisingly, species with larger genomes are at greater risk of extinction,” for a similar reason, one might imagine, that simpler machines with fewer moving parts tend to last longer than complicated and sophisticated machines with many; a Honda Civic will run longer than a Lamborghini Aventador.

The previous record holder for the longest genome was the Japanese flowering plant species Paris japonica while the longest genome known from the animal kingdom is the African marbled lungfish, (Protopterus aethiopicus).

The smallest genome is the fungus species Encephalitozoon intestinalis, with 2.6 megabase pairs. For context, the New Caledonian fork fern contains 168 gigabase pairs. An appropriate comparison would be to compare the file size of the original Tetris game to that of a modern open-world role-playing game like The Witcher or World of Warcraft.

For those with greater interest in DNA, Dr. Leitch and her colleagues from Kew and IBB published a paper on the fork fern, writing that genome size variation and its disconnect from species complexity, “is known as the ‘C-value paradox’ or ‘C-value enigma,'” and has intrigued biologists for over half a century.

“Rapid advances in DNA sequencing are now providing compelling evidence showing that variation in DNA amount arises predominantly from differences in the frequency of polyploidy, abundance of non-coding repetitive DNA, and the dynamics of the processes that amplify, erode, and delete DNA,” they write in their introduction.However with only 20,000 species that have had their genomes sequenced, the authors doubt that science has uncovered the full extent of genome size diversity. World’s Largest Genome Discovered in a Tiny Fern: ‘Breaks all records’
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Bobi, known as the oldest dog in the world, dies aged 31

Bobi, who was this year ordained the oldest dog in the world by Guinness World Records, has died at the ripe old age of 31, Portuguese media reported Monday.

"We have better memories of a long life where he was happy and, above all, where he made a lot of people happy, especially his family," Bobi's owner Leonel Costa told local media from the little village in central Portugal where he lives.

A purebreed Rafeiro, a Portuguese livestock guard dog whose normal life expectancy is between 12 and 14, Bobi was not supposed to make it beyond puppyhood.

He was born on May 11, 1992, along with three other pups in a wood storage shed owned by the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros.

Because the family owned so many animals, the father decided they could not keep the newborn puppies and the parents took them from the shed the next day, while the mother dog Gira was out, said Leonel Costa, who was eight years old at the time.

But they didn't realise they had left one puppy behind, and that puppy became Bobi.

"He died at the age of 31 years and 165 days," according to the Guinness World Records.After he was declared the world's oldest dog in February, media and curious onlookers from around the world paid Bobi a visit. Bobi, known as the oldest dog in the world, dies aged 31
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Telomere lengthening via gene therapy achieved for the first time

U.S. biotech company BioViva has announced the first successful use of gene therapy to extend telomeres, believed to be vitally important in the fight against human aging.
In September 2015, then 44 year-old CEO of BioViva, Elizabeth Parrish, received two of her own company's experimental gene therapies: one to protect against loss of muscle mass with age; another to battle stem cell depletion responsible for diverse age-related diseases and infirmities.

The treatment was originally intended to demonstrate the safety of the latest generation of the therapies. But if early data is accurate, it is already the world's first successful example of telomere lengthening via gene therapy in a human individual. Gene therapy has been used to lengthen telomeres before in mice and in cultured cells – but never in a human patient, until now.

Telomeres are short segments of DNA which cap the ends of every chromosome. Like the plastic tips on shoelaces that stop them from fraying, they act as 'buffers' against wear and tear. With every cell division they become shorter, eventually getting too short to protect the chromosome, causing the cell to malfunction and the body to age.

In September 2015, telomere data from Parrish's white blood cells (immediately before therapies were administered), revealed that her telomeres were unusually short for her age, leaving her vulnerable to age-related diseases earlier in life.

In March 2016, following BioViva's treatment, the same tests taken again revealed that her telomeres had lengthened by the equivalent of 20 years, from 6.71kb to 7.33kb – implying that Parrish's white blood cells (leukocytes) had become biologically younger. These findings were independently verified by the non-profit, Brussels-based HEALES (HEalthy Life Extension Company), and the Biogerontology Research Foundation, a UK-based charity committed to aging research.

"Current therapeutics offer only marginal benefits for people suffering from diseases of aging," Parrish commented. "Additionally, lifestyle modification has limited impact for treating these diseases. Advances in biotechnology are the best solution, and if these results are anywhere near accurate, then we've made history."

BioViva will continue to monitor Parrish's blood for months and years to come. Meanwhile, the company will be testing new gene therapies and combination gene therapies to restore age-related damage. It remains to be seen whether the success in leukocytes can be expanded to other tissues and organs, and repeated in future patients with larger sample sizes. For now, all the answers lie in the cells of Elizabeth Parrish, "patient zero" of restorative gene therapy.

Since her first gene therapy injections, BioViva has received global interest from both the scientific and investment communities. Earlier this month, BioViva became a portfolio company of Deep Knowledge Life Sciences (DKLS), a London-based investment fund which aims to accelerate the development of biotechnologies for healthy longevity.

Dmitry Kaminskiy, founding partner of DKLS, said: "Many innovative companies have come to us looking for funding and support. BioViva is one among several other breakthrough companies that are going to leapfrog the current generation of biotech and will be included in our portfolio. This is the start of a big trend, and it ought to give investors food for thought. 2017 will be the year in which we will see an investment boom in the longevity industry."Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/
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The world's first nation state in space

Credit: Asgardia
At a press conference in Paris this week, plans were announced for the creation of 'Asgardia' – the first nation state in outer space.

Named after the city of the skies in Norse mythology, Asgardia is a space-based nation proposed by Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, founder of the Aerospace International Research Centre (Vienna), and Chairman of UNESCO's Science of Space committee. The concept is aimed at creating a new framework for how space activities are regulated and owned, ensuring that "the future of space is peaceful and done for the benefit of humankind."

Dr Ashurbeyli, one of the Russian Federation's most distinguished scientists, has consulted globally renowned scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and legal experts on the development of the concept. The project's official website is currently requesting people to register for "citizenship" with the aim of applying to the United Nations for official recognition as a nation state. Already, hundreds of thousands have signed up.

As a first step, the organisation plans to crowd-source a satellite for launch in 2017, sixty years after Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite. This will mark a new era in the space age, the organisation claims, as the satellite will be independent of any current nation state on Earth: the satellite will comprise the nation itself – creating its own legal system, flag and other symbols of nationhood.

"The project's concept comprises three parts – philosophical, legal and scientific/technological," Dr Ashburbeyli explained. "Asgardia is a fully-fledged and independent nation, and a future member of the United Nations – with all the attributes this status entails. The essence of Asgardia is 'Peace in Space', and the prevention of Earth's conflicts being transferred into space.

"Asgardia is also unique from a philosophical aspect: to serve entire humanity and each and everyone, regardless of his or her personal welfare and the prosperity of the country where they happened to be born. The scientific and technological component of the project can be explained in just three words – peace, access and protection. The scientific and technological envelope of Asgardia is a space arena for the scientific creativity of its citizens and companies in developing a broad range of future space technologies, products and services for humanity on Earth and humanity in space."


In recent years, access to space has been opening up, but the process remains slow and is tightly controlled by states on Earth, restricting commerce and scientific developments by private enterprise. Of the 196 nation states, just thirteen (China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia/former USSR, South Korea, UK, Ukraine, USA) and one regional organisation (the European Space Agency, ESA) have independently launched satellites on their own indigenously developed launch vehicles.

Professor David Alexander, Director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University in Texas: "As low-Earth orbit becomes more accessible, what's often called the 'democratisation' of space, a pathway is opening up to new ideas and approaches from a rich diversity of participants. The mission of Asgardia to create opportunities for broader access to space, enabling non-traditional space nations to realise their scientific aspirations is exciting."

Under current international space law, including the widely adopted Outer Space Treaty, states are required to authorise and supervise national space activities, including the activities of commercial and not-for-profit organisations. Objects launched into space are subject to their nation of belonging and if a nation launches an object into space, that nation is responsible for any damage that occurs internationally and in outer space.

Asgardia aims to create a new framework for ownership and nationhood in space, adapting current laws governing responsibility, private ownership and enterprise so they are fit for purpose in the new era of space exploration. By creating a new "space nation", private enterprise, innovation and the further development of space technology to support humanity could flourish, free from the tight restrictions of state control that currently exist.

Professor Ram Jakhu, Director, Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University, Montreal, Canada: "An appropriate and unique global space legal regime is indispensable for governing outer space in order to ensure it is explored on a sustainable basis, for exclusively peaceful purposes and to the benefit of all humanity – including future generations living on planet Earth and in outer space. The development of foundational principles of such a legal regime ought to take place at the same time as technological progress is being made."


One of the early developments planned by Asgardia's team will be the creation of a state-of-the-art protective shield for all humankind from cosmic manmade and natural threats to life on Earth such as space debris, coronal mass ejections and asteroid collisions.

There are estimated to be more than 20,000 traceable objects of man-made space debris (MSD) including non-active spacecraft, upper-stage rockets and final stage vehicles, as well as fragments of craft that potentially pose a danger in near-Earth orbits. The impact of the Chelyabinsk meteorite which crashed over a Russian town as recently as 2013, injuring 1,100 people and damaging 4,000 buildings, is a reminder of the threat that natural objects pose to life on our planet.

Whilst steps have already been taken by the UN and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) to identify potentially hazardous scenarios, Asgardia will build on these developments to offer a more comprehensive mechanism.

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton, former Dean of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France: "The Asgardia project, among other things, may help prepare better answers to the future governance of outer space – a topic of major concern to the United Nations. The exciting aspect of this initiative is its three phase approach to providing broader access to space; promoting peace in outer space; and addressing cosmic hazards and planetary defence."

The Asgardia Project Team will comprise a collaborative, multi-disciplinary effort from leading experts around the globe which it is envisaged will grow over time as the project evolves. But as well as expert involvement in the project, Asgardia is looking to capture the wider public imagination by crowd-sourcing key aspects of the missions and involving members of the public in competitions – for example, to help design the nation's flag, insignia and other symbols of nationhood.

To coincide with the press conference, a website with further details was launched at www.asgardia.space. The project can also be followed on Twitter where updates will be provided, along with interaction between the Asgardia team and members of the public. ---Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/
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China launches spacecraft in longest-ever manned mission

The Shenzhou 11 astronauts are Jing Haipeng, who is flying his third mission, and 37-year-old Chen Dong.
The Shenzhou 11 mission took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China. China launched a pair of astronauts into space Monday on a mission to dock with an experimental space station and remain aboard for 30 days in preparation for the start of operations by a full-bore facility six years from now. The Shenzhou 11 mission took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China at 7:30 a.m. (2330 GMT) aboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket. It will dock with the Tiangong 2 space station precursor facility within two days, conduct experiments in medicine and various space-related technologies, and test systems and processes in preparation for the launching of the station's core module in 2018. Space program commander-in-chief Gen. Zhang Youxia declared the launch a success at 7:46 a.m. (2346 GMT). Defense Minister Fan Changlong then read a congratulatory message from President Xi Jinping calling for China's astronauts to explore space "more deeply and more broadly." Premier Li Keqiang and propaganda chief Liu Yunshan visited the Beijing control center to congratulate staff. It is the sixth time
China has launched astronauts into space and the duration will be the longest by far. Following the attachment of two experiment modules, the completed station is set to begin full operations in 2022 and will run for at least a decade. An earlier Tiangong 1 experimental space station launched in 2011 went out of service in March after docking with three visiting spacecraft and extending its mission for two years. The Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace," stations are considered stepping stones to a mission to Mars by the end of the decade. The Shenzhou 11 astronauts are Jing Haipeng, who is flying his third mission, and 37-year-old Chen Dong. "It is any astronaut's dream and pursuit to be able to perform many space missions," Jing, who turns 50 during his time in space, told a briefing Sunday. China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming only the third country after Russia and the U.S. to do so, and has since staged a spacewalk and landed its Yutu rover on the moon. Administrators suggest a crewed landing on the moon may also be in the program's future. China was prevented from participating in the International Space Station, mainly due to US concerns over the Chinese space program's strongly military character. Chinese officials are now looking to internationalize their own program by offering to help finance other countries' missions to Tiangong 2. China's space program also opened its massive fourth spacecraft launch site at Wenchang on China's southernmost island province of Hainan in June. It was inaugurated with the launch of the newly developed Long March 7 rocket that was hailed as a breakthrough in the use of safer, more environmentally friendly fuels. China is currently developing the Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket needed to launch the Tiangong 2's additional components and other massive payloads. China also plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020, attempting to recreate the success of the US Viking 1 mission that landed a rover on the planet four decades ago. A source of enormous national pride, China's space program plans a total of 20 missions. (This story first appeared in Deccan Chronicle) Source: The Asian Age
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First detection of super-Earth atmosphere

Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected hydrogen and helium, but no water vapour, in the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e – the first time the atmosphere of a "super-Earth" has been analysed successfully. For the first time, astronomers were able to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the class known as super-Earths. Using data gathered with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analysis techniques, the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is revealed to have a dry atmosphere without any indications of water vapour. The results, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, indicate that the atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium. The international team, led by scientists from University College London (UCL), took measurements of the nearby exoplanet 55 Cancri e, a super-Earth with a mass of eight Earths. It is located in the planetary system of 55 Cancri, a star about 40 light-years from Earth. Using observations made by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists were able to analyse the atmosphere in detail. The results were only made possible by exploiting a newly-developed processing technique. "This is a very exciting result,
because it's the first time that we have been able to find the spectral fingerprints that show the gases present in the atmosphere of a super-Earth," explains Angelos Tsiaras, a PhD student at UCL, who developed the analysing technique, along with his colleagues Ingo Waldmann and Marco Rocchetto. "The observations of 55 Cancri e's atmosphere suggest that the planet has managed to cling on to a significant amount of hydrogen and helium from the nebula from which it originally formed." Super-Earths like 55 Cancri e are thought to be the most common type of planet in our galaxy. They acquired the name 'super-Earth' because they have a mass larger than that of the Earth, but are still much smaller than the gas giants in the Solar System. The WFC3 instrument on Hubble has already been used to probe the atmospheres of two other super-Earths, but no spectral features were found in those previous studies. 55 Cancri e, however, is an unusual super-Earth, as it orbits very close to its parent star. A year on the exoplanet lasts for only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius. Because the planet orbits its bright parent star at such a small distance, the team was able to use their new technique to extract key information about the planet, during its transits in front of the host star. Observations were made by scanning the WFC3 very quickly across the star to create a number of spectra. By combining these observations and processing them through analytic software, the researchers were able to retrieve the spectrum of 55 Cancri e embedded in the light of its parent star. "This result gives a first insight into the atmosphere of a super-Earth. We now have clues as to what the planet is currently like and how it might have formed and evolved, and this has important implications for 55 Cancri e and other super-Earths," said Giovanna Tinetti, also from UCL. Intriguingly, the data also contain hints of the presence of hydrogen cyanide, a marker for carbon-rich atmospheres. "Such an amount of hydrogen cyanide would indicate an atmosphere with a very high ratio of carbon to oxygen," said Olivia Venot, KU Leuven, who developed an atmospheric chemical model of 55 Cancri e that supported the analysis of the observations. "If the presence of hydrogen cyanide and other molecules is confirmed in a few years time by the next generation of infrared telescopes, it would support the theory that this planet is indeed carbon rich and a very exotic place," concludes Jonathan Tennyson, UCL. "Although hydrogen cyanide, or prussic acid, is highly poisonous, so it is perhaps not a planet I would like to live on!"Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/
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Astronaut runs marathon in space — but slower than on earth

British astronaut Tim Peake in action running the London marathon while strapped to a treadmill at the International Space Station on Sunday April 24, 2016. AFP/ PTI photo
Washington, April 24: British astronaut Tim Peake became the first man to complete a marathon in space on Sunday, running the classic 26.2-mile distance while strapped to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station. As part of the London Marathon, Britain's biggest mass participation race, the 44-year-old spaceman saw London's roads under his feet in real time on an iPad as, 250 miles below him, more than 37,000 runners simultaneously pounded the streets. Peake covered the distance in three hours 35 minutes 21 seconds, which was a world away from the time recorded by the real race winner, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, whose 2:03:05 was the second fastest ever recorded. Peake's zero gravity effort, while out of this world, was still more than a quarter of an hour slower than the 3:18:50 he had clocked on earth as a keen, ultra-fit fun runner back in 1999. On a six-month stint on the ISS, the astronaut had been the official starter too, sending the runners a good luck video message from the station in the 10-second countdown to the race that concluded: "I hope to see you all at the finish line". He also tweeted a photograph of England's capital from space accompanied by the message: "Hello #London! Fancy a run? :)". Then, it was down to business, using elastic straps over his shoulders and around his waist to keep him in contact with the running belt in weightless conditions as he ran. — Reuters Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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World's first virtual reality rollercoaster

In a groundbreaking move that could revolutionise the world of theme parks, the UK's Alton Towers Resort announces today it is launching a rollercoaster entirely dedicated to virtual reality.
Set to open in April, Galactica is the world's first rollercoaster entirely customised for the full virtual reality experience, transforming riders into astronauts and plunging them into outer space with a G force of 3.5, which is more powerful than the 3G of a real rocket launch. The exhilarating new ride will combine the physical exertion and adrenaline rush of Alton Towers' iconic flying rollercoaster, with the breathtaking sensation of travelling through space. Cutting edge technology launches riders into a different world, complete with virtual space suits, stunning visuals and an exciting adventure. The visuals have been
perfectly  synchronised to the thrilling twists, turns and loops of the roller coaster to recreate the sensation of hurtling through space. Visitors will ride in a prone position along the 840-meter long (2,760 ft) track, to recreate the feeling of flying. Galactica's epic space theme is set to be hugely popular following Tim Peake's maiden voyage into space in December 2015. Stunning, high-quality visuals deliver an immersive experience that its designers claim is breathtakingly realistic. Each rider wears a modified Samsung Gear VR headset. Through this, an on-board artificial intelligence guides them from the launch pad up into space – flying and looping beyond the stars, banking through wormholes and speeding across distant galaxies, revealing the wonders of the cosmos in stunning clarity.Commenting on the new attraction, Marketing Director Gill Riley says: "Galactica uses groundbreaking technology to
give riders a breathtaking and completely unique rollercoaster experience. Tim Peake captured the imagination of millions of Brits last year when he set off on his mission to the International Space Station – and now our visitors can become astronauts too. "There is nowhere else in the world that people can experience the feeling of a flying rollercoaster combined with soaring through the universe. For two minutes, our guests will be transported into space and we believe Galactica showcases the future for theme parks around the world – it's a complete game changer!"Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net/
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Cheaper, More Reliable Solar Power with New World Record for Polymer Solar Cells

Credit: Stefan Jerrevång/Linkoping university
Polymer solar cells can be even cheaper and more reliable thanks to a breakthrough by scientists at Linköping University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This work is about avoiding costly and unstable fullerenes. Polymer solar cells have in recent years emerged as a low cost alternative to silicon solar cells. In order to obtain high efficiency, fullerenes are usually required in polymer solar cells to separate charge carriers. However, fullerenes are unstable under illumination, and form large crystals at high temperatures. Polymer solar cells manufactured using low-cost roll-to-roll printing technology, demonstrated here by professors Olle Inganäs (right) and Shimelis Admassie. Now, a team of chemists led by Professor Jianhui Hou at the CAS set a new world record for fullerene-free polymer solar cells by developing a unique combination of a polymer called PBDB-T and a small molecule called ITIC. With this combination, the sun's energy is converted with an efficiency of 11%, a value that strikes most solar cells with fullerenes, and all without fullerenes. Feng Gao, together with his colleagues Olle Inganäs and Deping Qian at Linköping University, have characterized the loss spectroscopy of photovoltage (Voc), a key figure for solar cells, and proposed approaches to further improving the device performance. The two research groups are now presenting their results in the high-profile journal Advanced Materials. -We have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve a high efficiency without using fullerene, and that such solar cells are also highly stable to heat. Because solar cells are working under constant solar radiation, good thermal stability is very important, said Feng Gao, a physicist at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University. -The combination of high efficiency and good thermal stability suggest that polymer solar cells, which can be easily manufactured using low-cost roll-to-roll printing technology, now come a step closer to commercialization, said Feng Gao. 
  • Contacts and sources: Feng Gao, Linköping University
  • Citation: Fullerene-free polymer solar cells with over 11% efficiency and excellent thermal stability, by Wenchao Zhao, Deping Qian, Shaoqing Zhang, Sunsun Li, Olle Inganäs, Feng Gao and Jianhui Hou. Advanced Materials 2016. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201600281. Source:http://www.ineffableisland.com/
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The first high-res 3D images of DNA segments

Credit: Berkeley Lab
First-of-their-kind images by researchers at Berkeley Lab could aid in the use of DNA to build nanoscale devices.
An international team working at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has captured the first high-resolution 3-D images from individual double-helix DNA segments, attached at either end of gold nanoparticles. The images detail the flexible structure of the DNA segments, which appear as nanoscale "jump ropes". This unique imaging capability, pioneered by Berkeley Lab scientists, could aid in the use of DNA segments as building blocks for molecular devices that function as nanoscale drug-delivery systems, markers for biological research, and components for computer memory and electronic devices. It could also lead to images of disease-relevant proteins that have proven elusive for other imaging techniques, and of the assembly process that forms DNA from separate, individual strands. The shapes of the coiled DNA strands, which were sandwiched between polygon-shaped gold nanoparticles, were reconstructed in 3-D using a cutting-edge electron microscope
technique called individual-particle electron tomography (IPET).  This was combined with a protein-staining process and sophisticated software that provided structural details down to a scale of just 2 nanometres (nm), or about two billionths of a metre. "We had no idea about what the double-strand DNA would look like between the nanogold particles," said Gang Ren, a Berkeley Lab scientist who led the research. "This is the first time for directly visualising an individual double-strand DNA segment in 3-D." While the 3-D reconstructions show the basic nanoscale structure of the samples, Ren said the next step will be to improve the resolution to the sub-nanometre scale: "Even in this current state, we begin to see 3-D structures at 1- to 2-nanometre resolution," he said. "Through better instrumentation and improved computational algorithms, it would be promising to push the resolution to that visualising a single DNA
Berkeley Lab researchers Gang Ren (standing) and Lei Zhang. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt/Berkeley Lab.
helix within an individual protein." The technique, he said, has already excited interest among some prominent pharmaceutical companies and nanotechnology researchers, and his science team already has dozens of related research projects being planned. In future studies, they could attempt to improve the imaging resolution for complex structures that incorporate more DNA segments as a sort of "DNA origami," Ren said. Researchers hope to build and better characterise nanoscale molecular devices using DNA segments that can, for example, store and deliver drugs to targeted areas in the body. "DNA is easy to program, synthesise and replicate, so it can be used as a special material to quickly self-assemble into nanostructures and to guide the operation of molecular-scale devices," he said. "Our current study is just a proof of concept for imaging these kinds of molecular devices' structures." His team's work is published in the journal Nature Communications. Source: futuretimeline.net
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Superluminous Supernova 20 Times Brighter Than 100 Billion Stars Wows Astronomers

Records are made to be broken, as the expression goes, but rarely are records left so thoroughly in the dust. Stunned astronomers have witnessed a cosmic explosion about 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova--events which already rank amongst the mightiest outbursts in the universe--and more than twice as luminous as the previous record-holding supernova. At its peak intensity, the explosion--called ASASSN-15lh--shone with 570 billion times the brightness of the Sun. If that statistic does not impress, consider that this luminosity level is approximately 20 times the entire output of the 100 billion stars comprising our Milky Way galaxy. The record-breaking blast is thought to be an outstanding example of a "superluminous supernova," a recently discovered, supremely rare variety of explosion unleashed by certain stars when they die. Scientists are frankly at a loss, though, regarding what sorts of stars and stellar scenarios might be responsible for these extreme supernovae. These are pseudo-color images showing the host galaxy before the explosion of ASASSN-15lh taken by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) [Left], and the supernova by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) 1-meter telescope network [Right]. As described in a new study published today in Science, ASASSN-15lh
Credit: The Dark Energy Survey, B. Shappee and the ASAS-SN team
is amongst the closest superluminous supernovae ever beheld, at around 3.8 billion light years away. Given its uncanny brightness and closeness, ASASSN-15lh might offer key clues in unlocking the secrets of this baffling class of celestial detonations. "ASASSN-15lh is the most powerful supernova discovered in human history," said study lead author Subo Dong, an astronomer and a Youth Qianren Research Professor at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University. "The explosion's mechanism and power source remain shrouded in mystery because all known theories meet serious challenges in explaining the immense amount of energy ASASSN-15lh has radiated." ASASSN-15lh was first glimpsed in June 2015 by twin telescopes with 14-centimeter diameter lenses in Cerro Tololo, Chile conducting the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN), an international collaboration headquartered at The Ohio State University. (Hence ASASSN-15lh's somewhat menacing moniker.) These two tiny telescopes sweep the skies to detect suddenly appearing objects like ASASSN-15lh that are intrinsically very bright, but are too far away for human observers to notice. "ASAS-SN is the first astronomical project in history to frequently scan the entire optical sky for optical transients," said Krzysztof Stanek, professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University and the co-Principal Investigator of ASAS-SN. "Every time in science we open up a new discovery space, exciting findings should follow. The trick is not to miss them." Dong and colleagues immediately put out word about the sighting of ASASSN-15lh in order for as much data as possible to be gathered. Multiple, far larger ground-based telescopes across the globe, as well as NASA's Swift satellite, have since taken part in an intense observing campaign that continues to this day. In just the first four months after it went kablooie, so much energy beamed out of ASASSN-15lh that it would take our Sun in its current state more than 90 billion years to equal its emissions. By examining this bright, slowly fading afterglow, astronomers have gleaned a few basic clues about the origin of ASASSN-15lh. Using the 2.5-meter du Pont telescope in Chile, Dong's colleagues Ben Shappee and Nidia Morrell at the Carnegie Observatories in the United States took the first spectrum of ASASSN-15lh to identify the signatures of chemical elements scattered by the explosion. This spectrum puzzled the ASAS-SN team members, for it did not resemble any of spectra from the 200 or so supernovae the project had discovered to date. These are two of the 14-centimeter diameter lens telescopes in use for the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) that discovered ASASSN-15lh. Since this photo was taken, two more
Credit: Wayne Rosing
telescopes have been added to the ASAS-SN station in Cerro Tololo, Chile. Inspired by suggestions from Jose Prieto at Universidad Diego Portales and Millennium Institute of Astrophysics in Chile and Stanek, Dong realized that ASASSN-15lh might in fact be a superluminous supernova. Dong found a close spectral match for ASASSN-15lh in a 2010 superluminous supernova, and if they were indeed of a kind, then ASASSN-15lh's distance would be confirmable with additional observations. Nearly 10 days passed as three other telescopes, stymied by bad weather and instrument mishaps, attempted to gather these necessary spectra. Finally, the 10-meter South African Large Telescope (SALT) secured the observations of elemental signatures verifying ASASSN-15lh's distance and extreme potency. "Upon seeing the spectral signatures from SALT and realizing that we had discovered the most powerful supernova yet, I was too excited to sleep the rest of the night," said Dong, who had received word of the SALT results at 2 AM in Beijing on July 1, 2015. The ongoing observations have further revealed that ASASSN-15lh bears certain features consistent with "hydrogen-poor" (Type I) superluminous supernovae, which are one of the two main types of these epic explosions so named for lacking signatures of the chemical element hydrogen in their spectra. ASASSN-15lh has likewise shown a rate of temperature decrease and radius expansion similar to some previously discovered Type I superluminous supernova. Yet in other ways, besides its brute power, ASASSN-15lh stands apart. It is way hotter, and not just brighter, than its apparently nearest of supernova kin. The galaxy it calls home is also without precedent. Type I superluminous supernova seen to date have all burst forth in dim galaxies both smaller in size and that churn out stars much faster than the Milky Way. Noticing the pattern, astronomers hoped this specific sort of galactic environment had something to do with superluminous supernovae, either in the creation of the exotic stars that spawn them or in setting these stars off. Exceptionally, however, ASASSN-15lh's galaxy appears even bigger and brighter than the Milky Way. On the other hand, ASASSN-15lh might in fact reside in an as-yet-unseen, small, faint neighboring galaxy of its presumed, large galactic home. To clear up where exactly ASASSN-15lh is located, as well as numerous other mysteries regarding it and its hyper-kinetic ilk, the research team has been granted valuable time this year on the Hubble Space Telescope. With Hubble, Dong and colleagues will obtain the most detailed views yet of the aftermath of ASASSN-15lh's stunning explosion. Important insights into the true wellspring of its power should then come to light. One of the best hypotheses is that superluminous supernovae's stupendous energy comes from highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars called magnetars, which are the leftover, hyper-compressed cores of massive, exploded stars. But ASASSN-15lh is so potent that this compelling magnetar scenario just falls short of the required energies. Instead, ASASSN-15lh-esque supernovae might be triggered by the demise of incredibly massive stars that go beyond the top tier of masses most astronomers would speculate are even attainable. "The honest answer is at this point that we do not know what could be the power source for ASASSN-15lh," said Dong. "ASASSN-15lh may lead to new thinking and new observations of the whole class of superluminous supernova, and we look forward to plenty more of both in the years ahead." 
Contacts and sources:  Jim Cohen: The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) 

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New microscope is 2,000 times faster

A new atomic force microscope developed by MIT can scan images 2,000 times faster than existing commercial models. This allows it to capture near-real-time video of nanoscale processes.
State-of-the-art atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are designed to capture images of structures as small as a fraction of a nanometre – a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. In recent years, AFMs have produced desktop-worthy close-ups of atom-sized structures, from DNA strands to individual bonds changing between molecules. But scanning these images is a meticulous, time-consuming process. AFMs have therefore been used mostly for static samples as they are too slow to capture active, changing environments. Now engineers at MIT have designed an atomic force microscope that scans images 2,000 times faster than existing commercial models. With this new high-speed instrument, the team produced images of chemical processes taking place at the nanoscale, at a rate that is close to real-time video. In one demonstration of the instrument’s capabilities, the researchers scanned a 70- by-70-micron sample of calcite as it was first immersed in deionised water and later exposed to sulphuric acid. Zooming into an area of interest, they observed the acid eating away at the calcite, expanding existing nanometre-sized pits in the material that quickly merged and led to a layer-by-layer removal of calcite along the material’s crystal pattern, over a period of several seconds.
Calcite immersed in deionised water.
 
Sulphuric acid creating pits in the calcite.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Kamal Youcef-Toumi, says the instrument’s sensitivity and speed will enable scientists to watch atomic-sized processes play out as high-resolution “movies.” “People can see, for example, condensation, nucleation, dissolution, or deposition of material, and how these happen in real-time – things that people have never seen before,” he says. “This is fantastic to see these details emerging. And it will open great opportunities to explore all of this world that is at the nanoscale.” The MIT researchers' achievement was made possible through an innovative new technique. This involved controlling the movement of the needle over the sample surface with two actuators (a small, fast scanner and a larger, slower one) in combination with a set of algorithms to ensure they never interfered with each other. At present, this method provides scans at eight to 10 frames per second, but further research is underway to increase this. “We want to go to real video, which is at least 30 frames per second,” Youcef-Toumi says. “Hopefully we can work on improving the instrument and controls so that we can do video-rate imaging while maintaining its large range and keeping it user-friendly. That would be something great to see.” The team's design and images, which are based on the PhD work of Iman Bozchalooi – now a postdoc in the Department of Mechanical Engineering – appear in the journal Source: Article
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LG debuts 'world’s largest' OLED display

LG has shown off two of the largest OLED displays in the world at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport. In creating the installation, LG worked closely with French design firm Wilmotte & Associés to develop the structures which hang above the main terminal of the airport. Each sign is composed of 140 55-in curved OLED panels, resulting in displays that stand 13 metres high and 8 metres across, equivalent to three large-sized shipping containers.
The two curved displays will feature a variety of content to demonstrate the capabilities of OLED technology, such as fireworks set against a night sky. And because every pixel in an OLED display emits its own light, there is no need for heavy LED backlighting, making both of the airport displays light and flexible which allows them to hang from the ceiling with minimal support. “These OLED displays perfectly complement the advanced technology that our airport has become known for,” said Park Wan-su, president and CEO at Incheon International Airport. “We are always eager to showcase to the millions of travellers every year the cutting-edge technology that originates from Korea. OLED is a prime example of that.” “While the world’s largest OLED sign is certainly something to be proud of, we are more excited about the opportunity to introduce travellers from across the world to the magic of OLED,” said Ro Se-yong, senior vice president and head of business-to-business solutions at LG Electronics. “The benefits of OLED technology can only be viewed, they cannot be described with mere words.” Contact Details and Archive...LG Electronics Inc, Source: InAVate
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Fastest ever brain-computer interface for spelling

Researchers in China have achieved high-speed spelling with a noninvasive brain-computer interface.
Brain–computer interfaces (BCI) are a relatively new and emerging technology allowing direct communication between the brain and an external device. They are used for assisting, augmenting, or repairing cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s and the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s. The past 20 years have seen major progress in BCIs. However, they are still limited by low communication rates, caused by interference from spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Now, a team of researchers from Tsinghua University in China, State Key Laboratory Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors (IOS), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a greatly improved system. Their EEG-based BCI speller can achieve information transfer rates (ITRs) of 60 characters (∼12 words) per minute, by far the highest ever reported in BCI spellers for either noninvasive or invasive methods. In some of the tests, they reached up to 5.32 bits per second. For comparison, most other
systems in recent years have been at 1 or 2 ITRs. According to the researchers, they achieved this via an extremely high consistency of frequency and phase between the visual flickering signals and the elicited single-trial steady-state visual evoked potentials. Specifically, they developed a new joint frequency-phase modulation (JFPM) method to tag 40 characters with 0.5-seconds-long flickering signals, and created a user-specific target identification algorithm using individual calibration data. A paper describing this breakthrough appears in the 3rd November edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In the not-too-distant future, this kind of technology could be applied to other uses, besides medicine. For example, it could be incorporated into smartphones and other consumer electronics to allow texting, typing or other on-screen actions by thought power alone. A partnership between the Japanese government and private sector aims to achieve this by 2020. With continued progress in the speed of BCIs, a new form of "virtual telepathy" could emerge Source: Article
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New memory technology is 1,000 times faster

Intel and Micron have unveiled "3D XPoint" – a new memory technology that is 1,000 times faster than NAND and 10 times denser than conventional DRAM.
Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. have unveiled 3D XPoint technology, a non-volatile memory that has the potential to revolutionise any device, application or service that benefits from fast access to large sets of data. Now in production, 3D XPoint technology is a major breakthrough in memory process technology and the first new memory category since the introduction of NAND flash in 1989. The explosion of connected devices and digital services is generating massive amounts of new data. To make this data useful, it must be stored and analysed very quickly, creating challenges for service providers and system builders who must balance cost, power and performance trade-offs when they design memory and storage solutions. 3D XPoint technology combines the performance, density, power, non-volatility and cost advantages of all available memory technologies on the market today. This technology is up to 1,000 times faster, with up to 1,000 times greater endurance than NAND, and is 10 times denser than conventional memory. "For decades, the industry has searched for ways to reduce the
lag time between the processor and data to allow much faster analysis," says Rob Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. "This new class of non-volatile memory achieves this goal and brings game-changing performance to memory and storage solutions." "One of the most significant hurdles in modern computing is the time it takes the processor to reach data on long-term storage," says Mark Adams, president of Micron. "This new class of non-volatile memory is a revolutionary technology that allows for quick access to enormous data sets and enables entirely new applications." As the digital world balloons exponentially – from 4.4 zettabytes of data created in 2013, to an expected 44 zettabytes by 2020 – 3D XPoint technology can turn this immense amount of data into valuable information in nanoseconds. For example, retailers may use 3D XPoint technology to more quickly identify fraud detection patterns in financial transactions; healthcare researchers could process and analyse much larger data sets in real time, accelerating complex tasks such as genetic analysis and disease tracking. The performance benefits of 3D XPoint technology could
also enhance the PC experience, allowing consumers to enjoy faster interactive social media and collaboration as well as more immersive gaming experiences. The non-volatile nature of this technology also makes it a great choice for a variety of low-latency storage applications, since data is not erased when the device is powered off. Following more than a decade of research and development, 3D XPoint technology was built from the ground up to address the need for non-volatile, high-performance, high-endurance and high-capacity storage and memory at an affordable cost. It ushers in a new class of non-volatile memory that significantly reduces latencies, allowing much more data to be stored close to the processor and accessed at speeds previously impossible for non-volatile storage. The innovative, transistor-less cross point architecture creates a three-dimensional checkerboard where memory cells sit at the intersection of word lines and bit lines, allowing the cells to be addressed individually. As a result, data can be written and read in small sizes, leading to faster and more efficient read/write processes. 3D XPoint technology will sample later this year with select customers, and Intel and Micron are developing individual products based on the technology.  Source: Article

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‘Glaciers worldwide melt to lowest levels on record’


Glaciers worldwide have shrunk to levels not seen in 120 years of record-keeping, with melt-off accelerating in the first decade of the 21st century, according to a study released on Monday. On average, glaciers currently lose between 50 to 150 centimetres of thickness every year, reported the study, published in the Journal of Glaciology. “This is two to three times more than the corresponding average of the 20th century,” said Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service and the study’s lead author. More than a billion people, especially in Asia and South America, get more than half of their drinking water from the seasonal melting of snow melt and glacier ice, previous research has shown. The current rate of global glacier melt is without precedent for the 120 years covered by scientific observation, and probably for much longer, Mr Zemp added. Moreover, accelerated ice loss has created a dynamic whereby glaciers in many regions will continue to diminish even if global warming did not continue to boost global temperatures. Preliminary data from the last five years, not covered in the study, suggest that rapid decline of ice mass is continuing apace. The 20th-century record ice loss observed in 1998 “has been exceeded in 2003, 2006, 2011, 2013, and probably again in 2014,” Mr Zemp said. The long-term trend of glacier retreat takes into account shorter periods where, in some locations, glaciers have regained some of their lost ice mass. Many so-called “ice tongues” formed by glacier runoff in Norway, for example, regained a couple hundred metres in length during the 1990s. Overall, though, they have retreated by several kilometres compared to the areas covered in the late 19th century. The World Glacier Monitoring Service compiles the results of worldwide glacier observations submitted annually from a global network of scientists and observers. Glaciers worldwide have shrunk to levels not seen in 120 years of record-keeping, with melt-off accelerating in the first decade of the 21st century, according to a study released on Monday. On average, glaciers currently lose between 50 to 150 centimetres of thickness every year, reported the study, published in the Journal of Glaciology.“This is two to three times more than the corresponding average of the 20th century,” said Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service and the study’s lead author. More than a billion people, especially in Asia and South America, get more than half of their drinking water from the seasonal melting of snow melt and glacier ice, previous research has shown. The current rate of global glacier melt is without precedent for the 120 years covered by scientific observation, and probably for much longer, Mr Zemp added. Moreover, accelerated ice loss has created a dynamic whereby glaciers in many regions will continue to diminish even if global warming did not continue to boost global temperatures. Preliminary data from the last five years, not covered in the study, suggest that rapid decline of ice mass is continuing apace. The 20th-century record ice loss observed in 1998 “has been exceeded in 2003, 2006, 2011, 2013, and probably again in 2014,” Mr Zemp said. The long-term trend of glacier retreat takes into account shorter periods where, in some locations, glaciers have regained some of their lost ice mass. Many so-called “ice tongues” formed by glacier runoff in Norway, for example, regained a couple hundred metres in length during the 1990s. Overall, though, they have retreated by several kilometres compared to the areas covered in the late 19th century. The World Glacier Monitoring Service compiles the results of worldwide glacier observations submitted annually from a global network of scientists and observers.‘Source: The Asian Age
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World's first e-ink traffic signs installed


The Australian city of Sydney is the first in the world to install e-ink traffic signs. Slovenian digital signage company Visionect has worked with the New South Wales' Road and Maritime Services (RMS) agency to install digital signage around the city to improve daily transit and simplify road sign deployment. The displays will also significantly help cut the costs of changing road signs to reflect upcoming events.
The e-ink displays look much the screen on an Amazon Kindle device, and have the advantage of being easy to read in bright sunlight. The devices are also powered via solar panels, so are self-contained and low-cost to run. Messages to the screen can be updated remotely via smartphone or PC, and opens up traffic management to the Internet of Things (IOT) world.  Rok Zalar, Visionect’s head of product development, explains how it works: "The hardware components are managed by server software programmed to 'wake up' the sign for certain pre-scheduled windows of time when the content on the sign will be changed using 3G technology. Outside of the ‘waking’ time, the traffic signs use no power." In addition to saving energy, the fully customisable e-traffic signs help cities save on temporary road sign placement as well. It has been reported, for example, that the city Los Angeles puts up 558,000 temporary parking restrictions signs every year at a cost of $9.5 million. Source: InAVate
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