Screenshot from 'The Martian' official trailer

20th Century Fox

Some people here on Earth (Elon Musk — looking at you) can't wait to visit Mars. But in its current form, the Red Planet is a harsh mistress, as the new trailer for The Martian shows. The hotly-anticipated new film from director Ridley Scott, adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by Andy Weir, follows NASA astronaut Mark Watney's quest to survive on Mars after a mishap leaves him stranded on the planet's surface. The first trailer memorably channelled some of the grit and profanities found throughout the novel, with Watney/Damon vowing to "science the sh*t out of this," presumably in reference to his precarious situation.

The new, longer trailer features beautiful shots of space and the red Martian landscape, as well as even more determined Watney voiceover, including the formidable line "I guarantee you that at some point, everything's going to go South on you, and you're going to say, 'This is it, this is how I end.' Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work"--which is exactly what Watney does.

As Watney explains in the trailer, he has to figure out how to make four years'-worth of food and water in a habitat designed to last just 30 days. The movie, like the novel, ostensibly tries to take a more "realistic" depiction of a Mars mission than what we've seen in previous films, and it was made with heavy participation by NASA itself.

And lest you think the entire movie is Matt Damon's show, the cast is pretty stacked with stars, including Kate Mara, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Kristen Wiig among others. We'll see how they all play into the story when The Martian hits theaters October 2.

Rapid Deployment Air And Water Vehicle

United States Patent Trademark Office

For the Navy, flying robots just aren’t enough anymore. To truly fulfill the maritime combat branch's mission, designers are making unmanned flying machines that can land on the sea and swim beneath it. The imposingly named “Flimmer”, created by the Naval Research Laboratory, is one such robot, with flippers on the ends of its wings that fold up for flight. It turns out Flimmer isn’t the only transforming drone in the works. Boeing was granted a patent for a “Rapid Deployment Air And Water Vehicle,” or, a drone that flies and then swims.

From the patent, it appears that Boeing’s transforming drone makes the metamorphosis just one way: think more like a caterpillar to butterfly, not reconfigurable Optimus Prime. It flies through the air with a pusher propeller and a winged body. Then, when it enters the body of water, it sheds the wings like an insect molting into a new form. New control surfaces, like fins or rudders, can now steer the robot, and in place of the propeller it may use instead a water-specific rotor (though still using the same engine as the aerial propeller). The vehicle may then travel underwater for some time, before returning the surface to transmit information, presumably recorded by sensors added later in the design process, back to the user that launched it.

Why go through all the trouble of a transforming drone? One good reason is that it’s much faster to fly through the air than travel entirely under the sea. Another use would be avoiding harbor defenses, by first flying over underwater nets and then swimming under areas guarded by anti-aircraft weapons. Depending on the sensors a vehicle like this could carry, it might use sonar to find underwater mines, protecting manned vessels, or just cameras, documenting activity in an area that’s otherwise hard to access.

While it doesn’t appear to have a way to resume flight once it’s landed in water, if built cheaply enough it may not need to, instead functioning as a one-use disposable scout and underwater spy.

[Business Insider]

President Jimmy Carter

Photograph by Platon

This morning President Jimmy Carter announced that he will undergo treatment for brain cancer, as the Associated Press reports. This news is hot on the heels of a surgery Carter had earlier this month to remove a cancerous mass from his liver. His doctors removed all of it, and Carter says he was “quite relieved,” but an MRI later that afternoon revealed that the cancer had metastasized to his brain.

In the years since his presidency, Carter has fought hard to combat some of the worst diseases on the planet. He’s been particularly instrumental in eradicating a nasty parasite called the guinea worm, which can be found in drinking water and can take weeks to make its way out of the body through a painful sore. In the 1980s, there were 3.5 million cases of guinea worm, mostly in Africa and Asia; last year, that number was 126, largely due to efforts from the Carter Center, the nonprofit with the former president at the helm.

At today’s press conference about his health, Carter didn't miss the opportunity to wage war on the guinea worm:

Regarding Carter’s own health, there was no word on his prognosis, but Carter says he “will be prepared for anything that comes.” He receives radiation treatment this afternoon.

Bambi?

Emmanuel Huybrechts/FlickrCC by 2.0

While humans are extraordinarily good at killing other animals (such as wolves), we aren't very responsible about it, according to a study published today in Science.

Leaving aside the issue of raising livestock for food, when it comes to hunting or catching animals in the wild, we are incredibly destructive predators. Our use of tools, from fishing nets to guns to bows and arrows, to thrown rocks, means that we can afford to easily go after the biggest, baddest prey we can find. That's different from other predators who tend to target the young, the old, or the weak as easier marks to take down.

Think about Bambi. Imagine a different (less Disney) tale. A wolf takes down Bambi and the pack eats well. Bambi's mom just lost a fawn, but she's able to easily reproduce, and next time mating season rolls around, she has Bambi 2.0.

Now picture the Disney version, which is weirdly more true to life (ignoring the anthropomorphized animals). The human hunter (SPOILER) kills Bambi's mom. Bambi is just a baby and has to wait a long time to reproduce, growing up and avoiding other predators until he (SPOILER) meets a cute doe named Faline and has twins.

That Disney/real life scenario is a problem. By killing adults we're decimating wildlife populations. "Whereas predators primarily target the juveniles or 'reproductive interest' of populations, humans draw down the 'reproductive capital' by exploiting adult prey," co-author Tom Reimchen says in a press release.

And we aren't just hunting cute cartoon herbivores. On land, we kill vastly more carnivores than other predators, and in the oceans, the situation is even more dire.

Predator vs Predator

P. Huey/Science

A chart showing the rate at which we exploit herbivores (H), carnivores (C), and top predators (TP).

The problem is that as a culture, we favor eating and killing the largest, strongest animals. And we do it so much that, often, the animals that are left are smaller and less robust.

So what do we do about it? In a paper accompanying the study, Boris Worm with Dalhousie University notes:

[W]e have the unusual ability to analyze and consciously adjust our behavior to minimize deleterious consequences. This final point, I believe, will prove critical for our continued coexistence with viable wildlife population on land and in the sea.

That conscious adjustment doesn't have to include eating Bambi. What the authors do suggest is bringing our level of wild catches more in line with the rates of other top predators, and tolerating the presence of other carnivores. (That can be a whole other challenge--no one wants dangerous predators in their backyard.) And other methods, like developing more sustainable fishing practices, could help.

Once again, it all comes down to us.

HyperLoop Diagram

Tesla Motors

Remember that Hyperloop Pod Racing competition we mentioned in June? Yeah, that's still happening.

Today, Texas A&M University announced the dates for the design portion of the competition, which will be hosted at TAMU's campus in January of next year.

At the competition, sponsored by SpaceX, specially selected teams will be entering designs (so more blueprints, less miniature hyperloop pods) for the judges consideration. A detailed set of rules was announced by SpaceX today. Among them, it lists some of the broad requirements for the pods. In terms of dimensions, they have to be under 11,000 pounds and less than 14 feet long. Among the other requirements, they also have to have brakes, communications, telemetry, and it is recommended that the pods levitate. From the rules, "The mechanism(s) for levitation is up to the entrant and is not actually required. Wheeled vehicles (e.g. an “electric car in a vacuum”) can compete, but are unlikely to win prizes."

We'll find out more about the exact dimensions and specifications of SpaceX's Hyperloop test track next month. The exact amounts of cash prizes for the winners are also TBD.

At the design weekend, entrants can display their best ideas for making either an entire pod, or some component of a pod. Then, the actual competition will take place sometime in June 2016, when the teams will test life-sized prototypes of the pods on that yet-to-be-built test track.

The IceCube Lab with its observations

IceCube Collaboration via University of Wisconsin News

Back in 2013, the scientists running the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica were pretty sure they had found what they were looking for: cosmic neutrinos, neutrally charged subatomic particles that can give researchers insights into some of the universe’s most mysterious machinations. After sifting through all the data, the researchers are now even more certain of their findings, according to a paper published today in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Neutrinos are made from radioactive decay in some of the highest-energy spots in the universe, like black holes and exploding stars, and yet they pass through molecules constantly without affecting them. They can act as “astronomical messengers,” as IceCube lab’s web site notes, carrying unadulterated information about their sources across the universe.

But every once in a while neutrinos collide with other particles, emitting a tiny spark. And the IceCube lab has been uniquely positioned to detect them, with thousands of optical sensors deep in the Antarctic ice. IceCube recorded over 35,000 reactions in two years. Though the researchers initially thought they had only detected two high-energy events, this recent study confirms that they had in fact detected about 20. They had found the cosmic neutrinos they were looking for.

In theory, IceCube’s observations could trace the neutrinos all the way back to their source. That could tell astronomers a lot about how the neutrinos were made, about the early universe, and about the inner-workings of black holes and star clusters at the center of galaxies. In short, the discovery “heralds a new form of astronomy,” in which researchers trace neutrinos’ trajectories, as the press release states.

The "Blue Dream"

Bugatti 100p Project

In June 1940, as the Nazis advanced across Europe, legendary Parisian automobile maker Ettore Buggati hid the body of a unique airplane at his estate outside the city. Untouched by the war, Bugatti’s forward-swept-wing single-seat racer never flew, a strange and beautiful aircraft design all but abandoned by history. In 2013, a Kickstarter project to make a working reproduction raised over $60,000 to make an actual flying version, and today the project released the good news: it flew!

Here’s another angle, from a camera on the wing:

Unfortunately, one of the brake pedals wasn’t working, so the plane had to make a crash landing.

The pilot is okay. A statement posted to the Bugatti 100P project facebook page yesterday by the pilot reads:

We intended this flight to be limited to a short hop down the runway to check power required/power available and to check control responsiveness in all three axes. Preflight preparation and before-takeoff checks were normal. Takeoff was normal and at a predetermined reduced power (80%) setting; takeoff roll was 3000 feet and I became airborne at 90 knots. I climbed to 100 AGL to check power and control responsiveness. The plane responded as expected to all power changes and control inputs. Maximum airspeed was 110 knots.

I reduced power for landing but the airplane floated much more than we anticipated. I landed further down the runway than planned but with sufficient distance to stop the plane. Unfortunately, I lost the right brake and the airplane departed the left side of the runway at slow speed. Due to heavy rains the night before, the ground was soft and the airplane tipped upward on its nose, damaging the spinner and both props.

Such is the nature of flight testing a new design. The relevant news is we successfully flew the Bugatti 100P for the first time. The plane flew beautifully.

Despite the setback, there is still elation in the aircraft. Watch the video of the flight below, and listen for the screams of joy at about the one-minute mark:

Glass

Mediated Matter Group/Vimeo

Molten glass is added to the extrusion device.

The process of making glass was already amazing. Take tiny grains of sand, melt them at staggering temperatures with other chemicals, then carefully cool it into a brand new solid, ready to be a vase, window, bottle, or bead. It's possible to make glass on your grill in the backyard but generally it's a skill reserved for craftsmen or factories. Then, there's MIT.

MIT's Mediated Matter Group has figured out a way to put molten glass through a 3D printer, creating beautiful sculptures. They call their system G3DP, and it is incredibly beautiful to watch.

From a reservoir heated to 1900 degrees Fahrenheit, the printer can lay down individual layers of melted glass, building it up into a finished sculpture. And the printer doesn't have to make straight lines or simple cylinders. The machine drizzles glass like honey into fascinatingly beautiful shapes.

Though the fabrication process leaves the glass red-hot, when the sculptures cool, they are transparent. Some of the final sculptures will be on display at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum next year.

Watch an incredible video of the process here:

The sight of a rocket standing tall on its launchpad ready to carry men to the Moon is an iconic and powerful image of the Apollo era. The sight of a rocket sitting on a stool on the same launchpad is maybe a little less powerful and almost awkward for the Apollo era, but no less iconic. The milkstool was unconventional, perhaps, but nevertheless an vital piece of technology that helped NASA close out its last vestiges of the Apollo program.

The C-1, C-5, and Nova rockets.

NASA

A Refresher on Saturn Rockets

The story of the milkstool goes hand in hand with the story of the Saturn family of rockets. These launch vehicles migrated to NASA from the US Army when Wernher von Braun and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency were transferred to the space agency in the spring of 1960. At the time, the would-be Saturns existed as a series of concept rockets whose exact configuration was somewhat in flux. NASA was still hashing out the details of what its followup program to Mercury would be, a conversation that only got more complicated a year later when President John F. Kennedy promised America the Moon. NASA had a goal but didn’t exactly know how to get there.

As the details of what became the Apollo program slowly fell into place, one thing that was immediately clear was that landing on the Moon would require a massive rocket. And so, in late 1961, NASA committed to developing von Braun’s C-5.

The C-5 was a three-stage rocket with five F-1 engines powering its first stage, five J-2 engines powering the second stage, and one J-2 in the S-IVB third stage. It was a rocket that could handle a number of different missions, delivering either 249,000 pounds into low Earth orbit or more than 90,000 pounds to the Moon, enough mass for a circumlunar flight or a manned landing mission.

But there were a lot of elements in this rocket that would need to be tested before it could launch these audacious missions. So NASA decided to use smaller versions of the C-5 as test beds.

Apollo 7's launch on a Saturn IB

NASA

The first iteration was the C-I, which was a rocket designed for vehicle development missions. This two stage rocket with a S-I first stage and an S-IV upper stage would be able to test certain lunar spacecraft elements in orbit and the Earth reentry phase by default as they fell back to Earth. A second interim vehicle was the larger C-1B. This two stage rocket was almost the same as the C-I but it used the more powerful S-IVB upper stage in place of the S-IV. Not only would the C-IB test lunar-bound spacecraft hardware, it would also test the S-IVB’s orbital relight capability. This was hugely important. By design, the lunar landing missions would stop in Earth orbit before going to the Moon, which meant it needed a rocket stage that could reignite in orbit to send the spacecraft towards the Moon. Without this relight capability, Apollo wouldn’t leave orbit.

On July 11, 1962, NASA announced that the Apollo lunar landing program would go to the Moon using Lunar Orbit Rendezvous using one C-5 per flight. The same day it also formally endorsed the C-1B rocket as the Earth orbital test bed for C-5 hardware.

In early in 1963 against the backdrop of Apollo taking shape, NASA Headquarters announced a new nomenclature for this C-family of large rockets. Coming on the heels of the von Braun-designed Jupiter rocket, the numeric designations stuck but the series on the whole was renamed Saturn for the next planet out in the Solar System. The C-1 was renamed the Saturn I, the C-1B was renamed Saturn IB, and the C-5 renamed Saturn V. Nova, an even larger rocket with eight F-1 engines powering its first stage then under development, was never mentioned.

The Saturn I lived up to its originally set task of testing Saturn V and Apollo hardware in orbit. The Saturn IB did as well, though this rocket bore the added responsibility of launching the first manned Apollo mission.

On October 11, 1968, the Apollo 7 crew left the Earth atop a Saturn IB. They launched from launch complex 34, the pad on which the Apollo 1 crew had perished in a pre-launch fire the previous January, also atop a Saturn IB. The mission was an Earth orbital shakedown cruise of the Apollo Block II command and service modules, the one designed to support the lunar landing missions. The lunar module, still unfinished by that point, was absent. The Saturn IB couldn’t have launched the full stack into orbit anyways.

The lunar module was so far behind schedule that the next mission, Apollo 8, was also scheduled to fly with just a command and service module. But Apollo 8 would take both spacecraft to the Moon meaning the mission would be the first to launch on a Saturn V, and the larger rocket meant launching from complex 39 rather than 34, the complex built to handle the much larger rocket.

A Saturn IB launching from a milkstool

NASA

What To Do After the Moon?

With a slew of Saturn V-launched lunar missions on the horizon, NASA remained committed to the Saturn IB as a launch vehicle, not for Apollo but for the Apollo Applications Program, a program designed to push Apollo hardware beyond lunar missions. But AAP missions were on the docket for the early 1970s. Maintaining launch complex 34 and the pad crews during a multiyear hiatus was a costly venture, especially considering NASA’s funding was steadily decreasing.

As another option, the Advanced Programs Office at the Kennedy Spaceflight Centre wanted to used complex 39 to launch AAP missions. It would be a challenge, however. Everything at this newer launch complex was oversized and mismatched for the Saturn IB owing to the Saturn V’s titanic size. It was also a launch complex designed around the mobile launch complex. While the Saturn IB was assembled on the launch pad, the Saturn V was stacked in the controlled environment of the Vehicle Assembly Building on the mobile launch platform that then crawled its way to the launch pad.

Modifying complex 39 to launch a Saturn IB would be difficult, but not impossible. A February 1969 study into launching the Saturn IB from complex 39 came up with the novel solution of putting the smaller rocket 128-foot tall pedestal so the S-IVB stage and Apollo spacecraft would line up with the service arms and umbilicals designed for the Saturn V. The pedestal solution was estimated to cost about $5 million, which was about one-third the cost of developing a new complex.

Saturn V and Saturn IB double exposure

NASA

The bigger question was how the dynamics of the rocket would affect this launch pedestal, but it ultimately proved not to be an issue. A design evaluation into the pedestal’s tentative layout, structure, and stress analysis determined that not only could it be built, it wouldn’t delay any Apollo Application Program launches. Namely, the mission that would launch the first crew to the Skylab space station. On May 15, 1970, NASA got formal congressional approval to modify launch complex 39 for the Saturn IB.

The milkstool, as the pedestal became known, was a 250-ton steel structure with four legs and a series of horizontal and diagonal pipes supporting the main platform. This platform featured a nearly 28-foot diameter exhaust hole and all the support arms, fuel pipes, and electrical lines needed to prepare the Saturn IB for launch. And it was tricky to build. Not only did the milkstool have to be rigid enough to not buckle under the stress of a rocket launching on top of it, it could only weigh as much as the Saturn V’s S-I stage it was taking the pace of. Any heavier and the mobile launch platform wouldn’t be able to support its weight. Other modifications included switching out the five swing arms that had serviced the Saturn V’s lower stages for a single extended arm, bringing over umbilicals and a withdrawal mechanism from launch complex 34, and the use of the Saturn V's liquid oxygen replenishment system over the main system that pumped more LOX per minute than the Saturn IB could handle.

The modifications worked. The Skylab space station was launched on May 14, 1973 on the last Saturn V ever to leave the Earth. The first Skylab crew followed right on its heels on May 25, 1973. The first Saturn IB to launch from a milkstool -- there were no unmanned tests -- did so without a problem. The two subsequent manned missions and the Apollo half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project also used the milkstool on their paths to a successful Earth orbital mission.

Sources: Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab, Skylab Saturn IB Flight Manual

U-2 Reconnaissance Aircraft

U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Rose Reynolds, via Wikimedia Commons

The U-2 is a venerable workhorse spyplane of the Cold War. But the Global Hawk drone can fly for three times as long.

Lockheed Martin’s U-2 spy plane is perhaps the most successful surveillance aircraft ever built. First flown on August 4th, 1955, the covert high-flyer has remained in service for 60 years. It starred in a couple of major Cold War crises. In 1960, a U-2 pilot was shot down over the Soviet Union, and its pilot captured. In 1962, U-2 surveillance photography recorded Soviet missiles in Cuba, and another American U-2 pilot was shot down, this time fatally. Despite a tumultuous first decade, the plane has endured in the reconnaissance arsenal of the United States, even recently competing with the unmanned Global Hawk for missions. Now, it appears, Lockheed Martin is looking for a successor to the venerable spy plane. A new U-2, if you will.

The Air Force is set to retire the U-2 fleet in 2019, but a new version of the plane may still fit military needs. To make the next generation of the plane competitive, Lockheed wants to give it a stealthier body and a longer flight time. As much as anything is standard in next-generation surveillance, it’s those features. While previous speculation around the U-2 upgrades focused on making it unmanned or optionally manned, having a person inside the plane might lend it importance and significance lacking in an unmanned plane. Flight Global reports:

According to [Scott Winstead, head of U-2 strategic development for Lockheed] Winstead, having a pilot on board is deterrent, because to shoot an unarmed aircraft down would be an act of war – whereas North Korea, for instance, would not hesitate attacking an unmanned aerial vehicle. Plus, the U-2 is often used for political signalling.

Here, not just the merits of the plane itself but the long-standing history of the aircraft may make having a human pilot onboard a meaningful consideration for the future. In an era where airplanes are often sold on their technical merits, it’s a weird line between sentimental and callous when a pilot is seen as a payload choice, selected for mission impact.

Vuhl 05

Vuhl

Building cars in Mexico is nothing new; Volkswagen, Nissan, and Toyota all have plants south of the border. But building sports cars in Mexico is less common, and right now the Vuhl 05 has that stage pretty much all to itself. (To put a fine point on it, the car was designed and assembled in Mexico, with the body being manufactured in Canada and about 40% of its parts coming from the United Kingdom.)

It’s got the sports car cred: full carbon fiber bodywork available, aluminum chassis, a 285-hp turbocharged Ford EcoBoost engine, and a weight of just over 1500 pounds (695 kg). Vuhl reports the 05’s light weight and turbo engine make for a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, which seems sports-car worthy. It has an aggressive, open-cockpit design, much like the Ariel Atom. It’s even got a sporty acronym for a name: Vuhl stands for “Vehicles of Ultra-lightweight and High Performance.” The 05 will be put to its first sporting test in the public eye on September 5, when it takes part in the Brighton Speed Trials.

That’s the good news. Now for the bad: the Vuhl 05 isn’t quite ready for sale in the States yet. The first 05 was delivered to “an arch Mexican enthusiast,” according to a company press release, with sales in the United Kingdom to follow this month. Orders have been placed in the Middle East, and Vuhl expects to ship those cars over later this year.

Early birds get a special price of £59,995 ($94,125), putting both its 0-60 time and its price in the same league as the 2015 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.

LM-5 Takeoff

Peoples Daily

A CGI of the LM-5's maiden flight, printed in the official People's Daily newspaper.

On August 17th, China successfully test-fired the second stage of the Long March 5 space launch rocket. This was the last of pre- systems integration testing and thus a key milestone to ensure the LM-5's timely maiden flight in 2016.

Full Burn

CCTV

State broadcaster CCTV runs footage of the successful test of the LM-5's engine, a major milestone for the Chinese space program. Chinese media especially notes that the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel produces water as exhaust.

The second stage of the LM-5 is vital for Chinese high orbit satellites and extraterrestial missions, such as lunar exploration. While the basic LM-5 doesn't have a second stage, the LM-5B will be able to use its second stage to place up to 14 tons into geosynchronous orbit (including military payloads like electronics and intelligence satellites), or to deliver a payload to the moon, like the Chang'e 5 lunar rover. The LM-5's heavy low orbit and geosynchronous payload will firmly place China among the world's leading space powers in terms of technology, as well as serving as a stepping stone to even more powerful rockets, like the 130-ton payload Long March 9.

Tiangong 3

bisbos.net

This CGI of the Tiangong 3 space station shows three Tiangong space station modules, a Shenzhou manned module underneath and a Tianzhou automated resupply vehicle all docked together. All the components of the Tiangong 3 will be launched by the LM-5 heavy rocket.

And if its ability to sling cargo into outer space wasn't enough, it's also good for the planet it leaves behind. Chinese media was quick to point out that its liquid oxygen and hydrogen, 1,100 ton thrust engines are much more environmentally friendly than the current engines of in-service Long March rockets, such as the dinitrogen tetraoxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine powered YF-20 engine.

You may also be interested in:

China's Space Station gets a 'Super Eye'

China's Largest-Ever Space Rocket Takes Another Big Step Forward

China Showcases Plan to Become the Leading Space Power

Next Generation of Chinese Space Launch Vehicle Begins Its Long March (by standing up)

Sergey Brin/ Google

Alphabet's new Life Sciences group, responsible for nanoscale technology that fits onto a contact lens, will be the supercompany's first new standalone venture.

Since Google’s announcement to restructure into Alphabet by the end of the year, we haven't heard a lot from the inside. Presumably, there were a lot of moving pieces to be sorted internally, and press weren’t invited to those conversations.

But today we’ve gotten the first peek at what an Alphabet company will look like from Alphabet president Sergey Brin: a standalone version of Google’s life sciences team, the group initially tasked with packing body monitoring hardware into a contact lens.

This group was expressly mentioned in CEO Larry Page's initial announcement of the creation of Alphabet. With a little speculation, we can now look to other explicitly-mentioned groups to become their own companies under Alphabet, namely Calico, which was Google’s fight against aging.

Another Google X project mentioned was Project Wing, a competitor to Amazon’s drone delivery service.

The new company will be led by CEO Andy Conrad, who has been leading the team since 2013. He comes from a history of leading projects in the private sector, working in 2005 with Dole Food Company chair David Murdock to establish the North Carolina Research Campus, a health research superpower. He also co-founded the National Genetics Institute in 1991, and built a new HIV test.

The lab will take projects from early research to clinical testing according to Brin, and looks to “transform the way we detect, prevent, and manage disease.” So far, Brin says, the group has created a nanodiagnostics platform and a cardiac and activity monitor. Let’s see what they do now.

Carbon Nanofibers

Stuart Licht/Nanoletters

Rumpelstiltskin may have been able to spin straw into gold, but even he couldn't pull carbon fibers from thin air. Yet that's exactly what researchers at George Washington University have managed to do.

Led by Stuart Licht, researchers have created a solar-powered process that can turn carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to climate change, into solid carbon nanofibers.

The process works like this: Solar power goes to two electrodes immersed in a mixture of a molten salt (in this case, lithium carbonate) and lithium oxide. Carbon dioxide from the air interacts with the lithium oxide and produces carbon nanofibers, along with more lithium carbonate and oxygen.

Licht hopes that the carbon nanofibers, which are incredibly strong and durable, could one day be used in a variety of applications from construction to creating better lithium-ion batteries. If it catches on, the process might eventually take enough CO₂ out of the atmosphere to help slow down climate change.

Right now the process is very small scale. It's been done in the lab, but making it large enough to make a difference could prove to be a challenge. Paul Fennell, a chemical engineer not involved in the project, told the BBC: "If they can make carbon nanofibres, that is a laudable aim and they're a worthwhile product to have. But if your idea is to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and produce so many carbon nanofibres that you make a difference to climate change--I'd be extremely surprised if you could do that."

Licht has no plans to commercialize the process, but estimates that if it works, an area 10 percent of the size of the Sahara desert dedicated to this chemical reaction would be enough to mitigate climate change. It would take incredible amounts of time, money, and political capital, but if all goes well, the sky's the limit.

Home Sensor

Photograph by Jarren Vink

Wearable technology does a fine job of keeping tabs on your personal fitness. But to measure the health of the place where you live, you need a different tool. This device monitors the temperature, humidity, noise, and light level for any room. It can even track the number of people who enter. Within the casing, a collection of sensors sends information to an Arduino, which interprets the input and displays the data on a small screen. Based on the device’s readings, you can turn on a dehumidifier, lower the thermostat, or crack open a window—whatever it takes to keep your home environment comfortable.

Stats

• Time: 2 hours
• Cost: $95
• Difficulty: Medium

Tools

• Soldering iron
• Pliers
• Wire cutter

Materials

All materials can be ordered from SparkFun Electronics.

• Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 3.3V/8 MHz (DEV-11114)
• PIR motion sensor (SEN-08630)
• Hookup wire (PRT-08022)
• Two 1K resistors (COM-08980)
• Humidity and temperature sensor - RHT03 (SEN-10167)
• 5V Step-Up Breakout - NCP1402 (PRT-10968)
• LiPo Charger Basic - Micro-USB (PRT-10217)
• Ambient Light Sensor Breakout - TEMT6000 (BOB-08688)
• MEMS Microphone Breakout - INMP401 (BOB-09868)
• Micro OLED Breakout (LCD-13003)
• Polymer Lithium-Ion Battery - 1,000 mAh (PRT-00339)
• Pi Tin for the Raspberry Pi - White (PRT-11979)

Home Sensor Hookup Guide

Dave Prochnow

This hookup guide illustrates the wired connections between each component of the sensor.

Instructions

1. Program the Arduino using this sketch. Instructions for programming an Arduino can be found here.
2. Prepare the PIR motion sensor’s circuit board by locating and removing the black rectangular three-pad chip (also known as an integrated circuit, or IC) labeled 78L05. On the part of the board where the chip used to sit, identify the now-empty pads 1 and 3. Solder a piece of hookup wire between the pads.
3. Solder a 1K resistor between pin 2 of the humidity and temperature sensor and the 5V pin of the 5V step-up breakout.
4. Solder the humidity and temperature sensor’s power pin to the 5V pin of the 5V step-up breakout.
5. Solder the 3.7V pin of the 5V step-up breakout to the output of the LiPo charger.
6. Solder the Ardu­ino Raw pin and the ambient light sensor VCC pin to the LiPo charger.
7. Solder the second 1K resistor between the AL pin of the PIR motion sensor and the 3.3V pin of the Arduino.
8. Solder all power pins of the PIR motion sensor, micro OLED, and MEMS microphone to the 3.3V pin of the Arduino.
9. The key elements of the circuit are complete. Follow the hookup guide to connect the remaining sensor pins to the Arduino.
10. Plug the LiPo battery into the LiPo charger, and put all of the electronics into the Pi Tin.
11. Finally, place the home-health sensor in the room of your choosing. The micro OLED screen will let you keep a finger on your home’s pulse.

Home Sensor - Open View

Dave Prochnow

This article originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title "If Your Walls Could Talk..."

The regenerative braking system in the BMW i3 electric car is quite extreme. If you plan ahead and allow enough stopping distance, by lifting off the accelerator, this little electric car will come to a complete stop, without ever requiring a touch of the brake pedal.

That behavior recently led Britain’s Auto Express to put that to the test—with a jovial right-pedal challenge between a couple of editors that took them out onto some of London’s busiest streets with the aim to find out how much they could drive without ever touching the brake pedal.

You’ll just have to check out the video below. It’s actually quite fun to watch—and a bit nervous-making at times.

As we’ve experienced in our own drives of the i3, there is a catch to all of this: You do have to be on nearly level roadway in order to not need your foot on the brake pedal after you stop. If there’s even a slight incline, we’ve noticed the i3 will tend to roll.

While it’s not behavior we’d encourage, it does demonstrate the merits of one-pedal driving. With some smoothness and planning, you may find that you’re rarely, if at all, relying on friction brake pads.

And that lesson could improve your efficiency in virtually any car, really—electric, hybrid, or not.

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Courtesy of Varial

One of Varial Surf Technology's surfboards.

Edison Conner, a former SpaceX rocket scientist and co-founder of Varial Surf Technology, tried for years to create a durable surfboard from aerospace material. In his eyes, the surfboard industry was ripe for disruption. Makers had clung to one manufacturing method for more than 50 years. For strength and flexibility, they created a spine from a strand of wood (known as a stringer) and glued it into a polyurethane foam cast. The cast was sanded and wrapped in fiberglass and resin.

Peek Inside

Courtesy Varial

This 70x magnification of the Varial Foam microstructure reveals a tight cell structure made up of defined angles and polygonal shapes. The rigid structure of the foam makes surfboards lighter, stronger, and easier to ride.

Conner and the other engineers at Varial tried something different. They replaced the wooden stringer with an ultra­rigid foam similar to the type used in helicopter rotor blades and in rocket-propulsion systems. The foam is 30 percent stronger, with seven times the stiffness (or modulus) of conventional foam. It’s also 25 percent lighter. That means surfers have a board that’s easier to control and more durable.

Varial’s chemists altered the poly­mers of the foam, producing high levels of crystallinity. The crystallized foam consists of structured, rigid latticelike polymer chains. Crystallization also makes cell walls thinner. That lets chemists pack more cells into a tighter, more-angular (or poly­gonal) cell structure. The structure is stronger and firmer than the looser, more-bubblelike cell structure of conventional polyurethane foam.

Aside from strength and durability, the new boards have more action (or buoyancy) in the water. “They are ultra light, which I love in smaller waves,” says top pro surfer Shane Dorian, who won the Billabong Ride of the Year Award in 2015.

“Ninety percent of the time, I’m surfing head-high waves or smaller, so the responsiveness of the light boards is amazing.”

This article was originally published in the August 2015 issue of Popular Science, under the title "A Surfboard Made By A Rocket Scientist.”

If video games just don’t get real enough for you in the zombie survival world, you may need to look to the internet chat site, Chatroulette for your fix. Some unsuspecting Chatroulette and Omegle users got a chance to command a character in a live-action survival game played out by actors.

UK-based production company, Realm Pictures created an elaborate cosplay zombie experience in a house, stuck a body cam on one of their actors, and invited anyone who randomly came across them to make decisions like they were in a first person zombie shooter.

This is a novel idea, as games are typically limited to the rules of the designers. But in this case, you can tell another person to do just about anything, including throw the empty gun at a bunch of zombies in frustration. Needless to say, some people survived a bit longer than others.

You can watch the behind-the-scenes video below.

It’s unclear whether anyone on the internet will get a chance to get in on a round in the future—this seems to have been a one-time viral sensation—but here’s hoping we’ll get the chance to tell other people what to do in a zombie survival attack some day.

A young girl who had radiation poisoning after the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima, Japan

Shunkichi Kikuchi via Wikimedia Commons

Even at low levels, radiation can make people sick over time. But brief periods of intense exposure, like after the destruction of the Fukushima reactor in 2011, can cause more immediate health threats, especially on the gastrointestinal tract, or even death. Now researchers have developed a drug that can stop damage to the intestines as long as it’s administered up to 24 hours after a patient is exposed, according to a study published recently in the journal Laboratory Investigation.

Physicians use gastrointestinal symptoms to judge the severity of a person’s radiation exposure. A high dose of radiation can destroy the intestinal barrier, a thin layer of cells that acts as the interface between our bodies and the millions of bacteria that live in our intestines. Normally these bacteria work with us, breaking down our food and regulating our mood, but with the intestinal barrier gone, the body has trouble absorbing water or nutrients in food. Plus, the bacteria can stray and infect other parts of the body. As a result, a person with radiation poisoning often shows severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting, and intestinal pain. Without treatment, a patient will die—usually of infection—within two weeks.

The existing treatment, a compound called Prussian blue, absorbs some of the radiation that causes damage in the body, but doesn’t protect the intestinal barrier specifically. This has inspired a search for drugs that can “mitigate the effects of radiation post exposure, accelerate tissue repair in radiation-exposed individuals, and prevent mortality,” the researchers write.

The new drug, called TP508, was originally designed to help patients regenerate cells by increasing blood flow and decreasing inflammation, according to the press release—it’s been used to ensure that diabetic patients don’t lose a foot, or to help patients with wrist fractures heal more quickly. In this study, the researchers exposed mice to acute levels of radiation, then gave them an injection of TP508 after 24 hours. Not only did the drug prevent the destruction of the intestinal barrier cells, it boosted biomarkers characteristic of cell repair.

Even if this treatment proves to be as effective in humans as it was in this experiment on mice, it would have limitations—it’s not a panacea for all the damage that acute radiation can cause. But if its efficacy holds up in future studies, TP508 would be an important new tool in radioactive emergencies by buying doctors more time to get patients more sophisticated treatments.