More bad news for the once-famed surgeon who made a name for himself transplanting tracheas grown with stem cells into terminally ill people.
https://apnews.com/article/international-news-sweden-bjork-stockholm-paolo-macchiarini-1baeaacd9ad2d19a07acd423d68be3bd
The first person ever cured of HIV just died of cancer. In the end, something will get you…unless maybe you’re an AI with a highly distributed and redundant consciousness.
https://apnews.com/article/berlin-california-archive-palm-springs-67706de65ced0f5bcb7859c34cd51f5a
In heavily inbred families, just “one generation of outbreeding can mask the deleterious alleles immediately.”
https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2007/10/17/the-samaritans-it-s-endogamy-not-cousin-marriage-per-se/
Bird brains are radically different from mammalian brains, but produce similar levels of intelligent thought. Bird brains might actually be superior since they are made of smaller, more densely-packed neurons, meaning a bird would be smarter than a mammal whose brain had the same volume. Hundreds of years from now, “humans” might have denser brains and smarter minds thanks to radical genetic engineering that takes inspiration from other organisms.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6511/1567
In 1991, Joe Biden predicted that “[By the year 2020] I’ll be dead and gone in all probability.”
Three months remain in this year so…
https://youtu.be/i4TuxvhoMs4
Using genetic engineering, scientists were able to transplant sperm from one male farm animal to a sterile male of the same species so that the recipient male produced the same sperm as the donor male. This could make it cheaper and easier to breed prized farm animals by using genetically inferior males as “surrogate fathers” for their offspring, and it could let us resurrect extinct species for which we have frozen sperm samples.
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/39/24195
World-renowned scientist Stephen Wolfram gave a wide-ranging, four-hour interview. I set this up to play at what seemed like a particularly interesting moment, but you should watch it from the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t1_ffaFXao&t=2862s
BP released a report containing predictions about the future global energy landscape. Even in their most conservative scenario, global oil consumption for transportation peaks by 2030.
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bp-energy-outlook-2020.html
Progress is being made building the first, useful nuclear fusion reactor.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/blog/2020/09/29/scientists-present-a-comprehensive-physics-basis-for-a-new-fusion-reactor-design/
There is no known scientific barrier to creating a room-temperature superconductor. The superconductors that we already know of, which only operate at very low ambient temperatures, could work fine in deep space.
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/294313/are-room-temperature-superconductors-theoretically-possible-and-through-what-me
A recent experiment with an underwater server farm went well. Cooling costs were much lower because the capsule was immersed in cold seawater, and few of the servers failed because the atmospheric content in the capsule could be controlled better (a pure nitrogen atmosphere helped because oxygen corrodes computer circuits and cables). For this and other reasons, I think intelligent machines might live in the oceans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54146718
Many common, manmade objects could be made more durable and longer-lasting, for relatively small up-front cost. However, this is rarely done since it goes against the interests of manufacturers, who want consumers to buy replacement goods often. Planned obsolescence is real and pervasive. It’s disturbing to think about how big a share of global economic activity is people buying replacements things that shouldn’t have needed to be thrown out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdh7_PA8GZU
The human backup driver was found criminally responsible for the infamous 2018 crash of a self-driving car that killed a homeless woman.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54175359
‘“Inertial navigation was perhaps the pinnacle of mechanical engineering and among the most complicated objects ever manufactured”…But in the 1990s these were superseded by micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)—chips with vibrating mechanical structures that detect angular motion. MEMS technology is cheap and ubiquitous (it is used in car airbags and toy drones). That makes it hard to restrict by way of military-export controls.’
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/01/16/irans-attack-on-iraq-shows-how-precise-missiles-have-become
Here’s one of those old inertial navigation units, used to guide U.S. nuclear missiles.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30254/this-isnt-a-sci-fi-prop-its-a-doomsday-navigator-for-americas-biggest-cold-war-icbm
“Center Barrel Replacement Plus” is a maintenance practice in which an F/A-18 fighter plane has the middle section of its fuselage cut out and replaced with a new section. The aircraft’s wings and landing gear are attached to the “center barrel,” so the joints there wear out faster than any other part of the plane. One of the improvements incorporated in the more advanced F/A-18 Super Hornet is a modular fuselage. This allows maintenance crews to replace center barrels with greater speed and ease.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36435/the-plan-for-making-aging-marine-corps-hornets-deadlier-than-ever-for-a-final-decade-of-service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hax06xClQ
A electromagnetic aircraft launch catapult lets an aircraft carrier launch 12.5% more planes during combat than a carrier with an older steam-powered catapult.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/emals-how-us-navy-aircraft-carriers-will-sail-future-and-dominate-169046
China’s third aircraft carrier will be larger and more advanced than its previous two, and might have an electromagnetic catapult.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-chinas-third-aircraft-carrier-might-be-supercarrier-after-all-168986
And the worst “aircraft carriers” ever were the CAM Ships of WWII. The planes were violently catapulted/rocketed into the air, did their thing, and were then expected to crash land in the water next to a friendly ship, whereupon the pilot would be rescued.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=CAM_ship&oldid=961354276
The U.S. Army has finally applied camouflage patterning to all the straps and belts on its infantry kits. Looks like all that’s left to do is to camouflage the Velcro patches. It’s not the biggest deal to have a big, solid green rectangle in the middle of your camouflaged shirt, but how hard would it be to fix it?
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/03/05/this-unit-will-be-the-first-to-get-the-armys-newest-helmet-body-armor-kit/
The Congressional Budget Office predicts the pandemic’s human and economic impact will be felt for decades. Declining birthrates and higher mortality will lead to the U.S. population being 11 million people smaller in 2050 than it otherwise would have been.
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56598
Bad news: The U.S. just had its 200,000th COVID-19 death.
Worse news: That means the University of Washington disease model has proved itself highly accurate once again: On June 16, the Model predicted the U.S. would hit the 200,000 milestone by October 1. It now says we’ll hit the 300,000 mark by December 10, and if we’re unlucky/incompetent, we could surpass 400,000 by January 1.
https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=total-deaths&tab=trend
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-huntsville-alabama-us-news-public-health-a05360a9df7e19f9bee83f520deada1c
On June 11, Dr. Ashish Jha correctly predicted the U.S. would have its 200,000th death “sometime in September.” He now predicts a COVID-19 vaccine won’t be widely available to Americans until next spring (second link).
https://www.today.com/video/-we-will-cross-the-200-000-mark-in-coronavirus-deaths-by-september-doctor-says-84871749877
https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/09/17/ashish-jha-trump-disputes-cdc-director-vaccine-timeline