Although Hawking has expressed concern about the consequences of alien contact, he nevertheless has thrown his support behind Starshot. The near-future project wouldn’t take us to Alpha Centauri, but would use laser tech and light-sails to send iPhone-sized ships to our stellar neighbor.
With investments from Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, among others, we just might send the ships and receive the results within our lifetime.
By now, most of you have heard that Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has confirmed gravity waves, the existence of which was predicted by the General Theory of Relativity. Varying levels of explanations for what this means may be found here, here, here, and in the videos, below:
The Philae lander, from the Rosetta Spacecraft, has made its historic landing on a comet’s (67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko) nucleus, though the lander’s status, as of this post, remains uncertain.
Lockheed-Martin claims they’re within as few as ten years of a viable fusion reactor. It would be great news, but skepticism is warranted.
It’s not like we haven’t heard similar claims before.
A couple of solar flares have made the Aurora Borealis visible quite far south for the last couple of days– and we may get another look tonight. (The flares may also affect the power grid). If you don’t live in the north and you want to see the Northern Lights, enjoy this rare opportunity.
Intel announced in May that their 3-D printable robot will be available later this year, and then in June Inria Flowers Lab made one available online, with hopes for open-source involvement and modifications. This short video examines the downloadable ‘bot.
They may have an awkward name, but the Camelopardalids, meteor shower not viewed before, will make an appearance in a few hours after this post goes live— depending on visibility and your location on earth. Happy viewing!
From the “truth is stranger than fiction” department: According to this article from the science journal “Nature” scientists have created a semi-synthetic living organism with DNA containing six base pair nucleotides rather than the (until now) universal four.
The implications are beyond my ability to imagine, but should have far-reaching implications.
Astrophysicists announced, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the detection of graviational waves from the big bang, the last prediction of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to be verified.