There’s something exhilarating about getting a COVID-19 vaccine injected into your arm.

The past year and change has been a disaster, especially in the United States: Over 500,000 of our friends, family members, loved ones, and neighbors have died, and the government’s response illuminated and exacerbated the structural inequalities that are deeply entrenched in American society.

But for many — soon to be many more as more states plan to open vaccination appointments to the general public — getting that jab gives a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a sign that, after months and months of lockdown blurring together, you’re a lot more likely to make it out.

And also, after the horror stories we endured regarding missing, faulty, or insufficient tests, the act of getting a vaccine might leave you walking away in awe over a public health initiative that actually runs smoothly.

“After I got the shot, I left Javits Center in such a good mood,” NBC News reporter Ben Collins tweeted Thursday. “I realize now I had some sort of contact high from experiencing something communal and in public that worked, and did exactly what they said it was going to do. Haven’t seen anything like that in years, literally.”

“Literally I volunteer at a vaccine pod every Saturday with [the] Chicago dept of public health [because] of this feeling !!!!” tweeted Sruti Ramadugu, a Strategic Initiatives Advisor at the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation.

When I got my first shot, I walked into a clinic, filled out a form, and got a free injection. There’s no doubt in my mind that my experience was easier than many others — especially given some areas’ horrible vaccine rollouts and the lack of national coordination early on — and there’s an undeniable privilege in being able to hide indoors until it was time to get jabbed.

But still, the experience was remarkably straightforward and felt like it took less time than planning out which masks and face shield I’d wear. The simplicity felt unreal, and I get what Collins is talking about: I jumped in the air and clicked my heels like a cartoon character (holding the champagne I’d impulse bought) when I got outside.

“I realized how relentlessly let down I am by basic stuff here,” Collins tweeted. “Nothing ever works, everything is always a pain in the ass, but I make do. It is shocking when you walk into a place then leave and there was no trap or trick. Borderline euphoric.”

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People Are Experiencing a “Contact High” at Vaccination Centers

Well-Armed Confrontation

Most vacation souvenirs come in the form of cheap, plastic tchotchkes bought at gift shops — but sometimes they come in the form of scars from giant octopus attacks.

That was the case with an Australian man who was attacked by a giant octopus while on vacation with his family in March. 

Lance Karlson, a 34-year-old geologist from Perth, was vacationing with his wife and daughter on a beach in Dunsborough, Australia on March 18 when he spotted a giant octopus in shallow waters, according to The New York Times. He decided to approach the creature with his 2-year-old daughter in one hand and a phone to record the encounter in the other. 

Here’s what happened:

The Angriest Octopus

Karlson and his daughter made it away unscathed from that particular interaction. However, when the geologist decided to do some snorkeling later, he was attacked by what he described as “the angriest octopus” to the NYT. 

As he swam out into the ocean, he spotted a pile of crab shells stacked on the ocean floor — a common way for octopi to conceal their hiding spots. He told the NYT that an octopus then lashed out at him twice, striking him on his neck, back, and arms. 

His injuries consisted of visible red marks on his neck, back, and arms. He also felt a stinging sensation where he was struck, and his wife later poured soda down his back to alleviate the pain.

“The stinging sensation went away almost instantly,” Karlson said to the NYT. 

Judit Pungor, an octopus researcher at the University of Oregon, told the NYT that octopus don’t have venom in their tentacles that would be “alleviated by pouring something acidic over it.” She believes that Karlson might have been coincidentally attacked by a jellyfish.

But it wouldn’t be too surprising if he was attacked by an octopus. After all, they’ve been known to punch fish out of spite.

Octopuses punch fishes. YES. OCTOPUSES. PUNCH. FISHES!!

Our new paper is out on @ESAEcology, showing that octos express this behavior during collaborative hunting with other fishes. This was probably the most fun I had writing a paper. Ever! (small )https://t.co/Vwg9BoaSUo pic.twitter.com/PIYuVXpM9t

— Eduardo Sampaio (@OctoEduardo) December 18, 2020

Beautiful Creatures

After posting the video to his Instagram, it quickly went viral. Now, Karlson fears that people will get the wrong idea about octopuses saying that folks should “give some love to these beautiful creatures and not treat them with disdain.”

Peter Ulric Tse, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College who has studied octopus behavior, believes that the creature in the viral video wasn’t trying to harm Karlson.

“My guess is that the octopus here is sending a warning meaning ‘back off,’” he told the NYT. “Octopuses will lunge or shoot an arm out when they feel a fish, another octopus or a human is in their space. I think this is often pre-emptive aggression, meant to signal ‘don’t mess with me,’ rather than aggression seriously meant to harm the ‘invader.’”

So instead of having a Jaws-esque backlash against our favorite eight-tentacled vertebrate, we should appreciate them from afar — and maybe avoid bothering them for the ‘gram.

READ MORE: ‘The Angriest Octopus’ Lashes at a Tourist on an Australian Beach [NYT]

More on octopi: Scientists Say That “Spiteful” Octopuses Punch Fish When They’re Angry  

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Giant Octopus Attacks Australian Geologist

I Spy

NASA has been hinting that it hid two more Easter eggs on the Perseverance rover it’s currently steering around the surface of Mars — and that nobody has spotted them yet.

The space agency posted a few clues on Twitter, urging followers to investigate and uncover them before a big, on-theme Easter reveal this upcoming Sunday. NASA says that both hidden surprises can be seen in Perseverance’s collection of raw images. But because there are over 16,500 of those online, you may also need the hints that NASA has been dropping on Twitter throughout the week.

Past Reveals

NASA has a long history of hiding messages on its rovers as a sort of inside joke. Some of the secret messages on Perseverance have already come to light. For instance, the rover’s landing parachute had “DARE MIGHTY THINGS,” a phrase borrowed from a famous Theodore Roosevelt speech, encoded in binary on it.

Perseverance also has a “family photo” of previous Mars rovers on its exterior.

Tick Tock

For those who want to uncover the last two Easter eggs in time, NASA posted a couple extra hints.

“Hint on Easter egg #1: every vehicle has one. Hint on Easter egg #2: it’s in our nature,” NASA tweeted on Wednesday. On Friday, NASA followed up to mention that the second one is “‘wheely’ tricky to spot,” so, you know, do with that what you will.

Happy hunting!

More on Perseverance: All The Easter Eggs NASA Engineers Left on the Mars Rover

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NASA Says There Are Still Easter Eggs on Its Mars Rover That Nobody Has Discovered

Sorry Not Sorry

Amazon has issued a rare public apology related to its whole creating-a-harmful-and-oppressive-work-environment-that-forces-employees-to-urinate-in-bottles problem — but it wasn’t aimed at its workers.

After the tech company was caught lying to Rep. Mark Pocan and denying that Amazon workers don’t pee in bottles because of how oppressive working conditions are, they admitted that they weren’t “accurate” about their claims, according to The Verge. 

“This was an own-goal, we’re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan,” the statement posted on the Amazon blog read. It then went on to explain that they did not take into account their drivers who have been known to urinate in water bottles, while also continuing to lie about how employees at their fulfillment centers haven’t had that experience. 

You can check out the full apology on the Amazon blog. 

Piss-Poor PR 

The statement was released on Friday April 2 — more than a week after it posted this tweet in reply to a tweet from Pocan criticizing the company’s abusive management tactics. 

1/2 You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one.

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021

The tweet was quickly ratio’d to hell and inundated with replies asserting that Amazon’s employees were, in fact, peeing in water bottles due to bad work conditions.

I was the person who found the pee in the bottle. Trust me, it happened. https://t.co/U76UlDRWSO

— James Bloodworth (@J_Bloodworth) March 25, 2021

Peeing at Amazon – or not being able to – is an actual thing. Here's what workers told me. https://t.co/D0lp4pdQ5D https://t.co/eqFiS8WZbG pic.twitter.com/RVLOYezGvE

— Will Evans (@willCIR) March 25, 2021

Delete Your Account

Amazon is actually having a bit of a moment when it comes to Twitter spats defending their onerous management practices as well as decrying union organizing efforts. They’ve even taken to social media to pick fights with the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren who have been largely critical of the company.

There’s a big difference between talk and action. @SenSanders has been a powerful politician in Vermont for 30 years and their min wage is still $11.75. Amazon’s is $15, plus great health care from day one. Sanders would rather talk in Alabama than act in Vermont.

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021

In a few instances, sock puppet Twitter accounts have appeared posting anti-union tweets under the guise of being Amazon employees. Among them included an account whose profile picture was actually one of the guys from Dude Perfect. 

Amazon didn’t even really try with this one lol pic.twitter.com/Q9dyTzKqns

— Tim Sullivan (@timjsully) March 29, 2021

This is a part of a trend that’s been occurring for a few years now of bizarrely-obvious fake Twitter accounts championing Amazon. For a multi-billion dollar company, they sure do have some of the crappiest social media strategies (and also workplace practices). 

READ MORE: Amazon apologizes for lying about pee — and attempts to shift the blame [The Verge]

More on Amazon: Those Obviously-Fake Amazon Warehouse Workers are Still Tweeting

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Amazon Admits It Was Fibbing About the Pee Thing

Insightful Observation

NASA has recently observed two strong quakes on Mars — but still aren’t clear on their origins.

The agency’s InSight lander detected the magnitude 3.3 and 3.1 rumblings on March 7 and 18 (respectively) in a region on Mars called Cerberus Fossae, according to a NASA press release.  The lander has previously detected two other powerful “Marsquakes”  in the same region measuring at magnitude 3.6 and 3.5.

Though InSight has recorded more than 500 quakes, the four detected in Cerberus Fossae offer the clearest signals to observe the interior of the planet. 

Earth-Like Quakes

Researchers believe these four quakes indicate that the region is active with seismic activity.

“Over the course of the mission, we’ve seen two different types of marsquakes: one that is more ‘Moon-like’ and the other, more ‘Earth-like,’” said Taichi Kawamura of France’s Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in the press release. According to NASA, Earth-like quakes have waves that travel through a planet. Moon-like quakes, on the other hand, are scattered. 

“Interestingly,” Kawamura said, “all four of these larger quakes, which come from Cerberus Fossae, are ‘Earth-like.’”

Marsquake Weather

Scientists say that the InSight lander benefitted from the right weather conditions on the Martian surface when it detected the quakes. That’s because the seismometer they’re using is sensitive enough that wind and cold weather can affect its detection. 

“It’s wonderful to once again observe marsquakes after a long period of recording wind noise,” said John Clinton, the leader for InSight’s Marsquake Service at ETH Zurich said in the press release. “One Martian year on, we are now much faster at characterizing seismic activity on the Red Planet.”

Researchers still don’t know the exact origins of the rumblings since the planet doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth. Some theories include frozen groundwater creating pressure on the Martian surface much in the same way fracking does. 

READ MORE: NASA’s InSight Detects Two Sizable Quakes on Mars [NASA]

More on Marsquakes: NASA’s Insight Mars Lander Just Recorded Its First Ever Marsquake

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Power and Propulsion

NASA has recently tested a propulsion system for its future lunar space station.

The agency conducted the ground test of a subsystem for their Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), according to a NASA press release. The PPE will allow NASA’s Gateway, an outpost to orbit the Moon, to maneuver above the lunar surface. 

Check out a video of the ground test below (complete with cheesy 90s house music):

Exciting First Steps

The test was for a six-kilowatt solar electric propulsion subsystem. NASA plans to combine several of these thrusters to create the PPE’s 50-kilowatt electric propulsion system. When completed, it’ll be the most “powerful electric propulsion spacecraft ever flown,” according to the press release.

“This is an exciting first step toward proving the PPE’s propulsion system will meet Gateway’s requirements,” said Power and Propulsion Element manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center Mike Barret in the press release. “These thrusters will be critical in delivering the first elements of Gateway to lunar orbit and will help us create a dynamic exploration platform over Gateway’s 15-year lifespan.”

Gateway to the Moon

Gateway is a part of NASA’s Artemis program to land the first woman (along with yet another man) on the Moon by 2024. The agency hopes that the orbiting lunar outpost will provide support for “sustainable, long-term human and robotic exploration,” according to the press release. 

To create Gateway, NASA is partnering with SpaceX to launch the portion of the outpost where astronauts will live. Once that happens, the first crewed mission for the Artemis program will launch in 2023 — with a touchdown on the lunar surface slated the next year. 

READ MORE: We’re Fired Up! Gateway’s Propulsion System Passes First Test [NASA]

More on Artemis: NASA Releases Beautiful New Renders of Lunar Gateway Space Station

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NASA Tests Propulsion System for Lunar Space Station

The Final Drop

The Ingenuity helicopter has been dropped off on the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover. 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab announced on Twitter that Ingenuity has successfully touched down on the Martian surface on Saturday, according to CNET. It was the culmination of nearly a week of deployment procedures — not to mention 293 million miles and about seven months of travel from Earth to Mars on the belly of the Perseverance rover.

#MarsHelicopter touchdown confirmed! Its 293 million mile (471 million km) journey aboard @NASAPersevere ended with the final drop of 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars today. Next milestone? Survive the night. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/XaBiSNebua

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 4, 2021

The tweet included a great shot of Ingenuity standing on its four legs on the rocky landscape where it will take off later this month:

Survive the Night

Now Ingenuity has to brave through its first night “alone” on Mars. 

Until it was dropped off, the helicopter relied on the Perseverance rover to keep its battery charged, and also used the rover’s thermostat-controlled heater to keep warm, according to NASA. Now that it’s disconnected, it’ll have to contend with Martian nights that can get as cold as -130 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Luckily, Ingenuity has its own heater to keep warm along with a solar panel to charge its battery — but it’ll still be a nerve-wracking waiting game for NASA engineers. “The Ingenuity team will be anxiously waiting to hear from the helicopter the next day,” said Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Mars Helicopter Project at JPL, in a status update.

Next Up: Taking Flight (Kind Of)

If all goes well (knock on wood), the Ingenuity team will continue to check on the helicopter’s temperature and battery performance over the next few days. After that, it’ll begin preliminary flight procedures.

“If it all looks good, then it’s onto the next steps: unlocking the rotor blades, and testing out all the motors and sensors,” Balaram said in the status update.  

The flight is scheduled for April 11, according to a tweet from JPL. As with all things space exploration related, though, that’s subject to change at any moment. Once it does happen, it’ll mark the first ever controlled flight through another planet’s air space. 

READ MORE: NASA Perseverance rover drops Ingenuity helicopter off on Mars surface [CNET] 

More on Ingenuity: NASA Hid a Small Piece of the Wright Brothers’ Airplane in Its Mars Helicopter

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Perseverance Drops Off Ingenuity Helicopter On Martian Surface

“Alexa, what is gender bias?”

Researchers have discovered evidence that users are biased towards female AI, believing them to be “more human” than male AI. 

In a study published in Psychology & Marketing, researchers found that consumers tend to perceive female robots as having more positive human traits such as warmth and emotion than male robots, according to The Academic Times. 

The researchers behind the study tested characteristics such as warmth, experience, and competence in five separate studies with more than 3,000 participants. At the end they discovered evidence that “people prefer female bots because they are perceived as more human than male bots,” according to the study abstract.

Objectifying AI

The study found that users prefer female AI in products such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home — but the products might be inadvertently promoting “the idea that women are simple tools designed to fulfill their owners’ needs,” said the study’s authors to The Academic Times. 

That makes sense. After all, if you’re used to using a variety of female AI for all your smart tech needs, you might end up getting used to the idea that women are subservient to you and your wants (which is, of course, utter BS).

The Rise of Gender-Neutral Robots

The team behind the study believes there are a few ways to tackle this thorny issue. For one, tech developers could create gender-neutral AI. 

“AI engineers will have to work very hard to make gender-neutral robots sound human,” the study’s authors said to The Academic Times.

Another solution is to increase gender parity in AI. That would mean tech developers create an equal number of female and male AI.

As smart tech becomes more prevalent, developers will rely more-and-more on AI voices to communicate with us. Luckily, the research conducted here will go a long way in creating equitable, unprejudiced products in the future. 

READ MORE: Women are perceived differently from men — even when they’re robots [The Academic Times]

More on AI: An AI Built to Tell Apart Pastries Was Great at Spotting Cancers

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Study: Turns Out People Are Sexist To Female Robots Too

The One Who Causes Fear

Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur species in Patagonia that likely had superior hearing abilities over its fellow dinosaurs.  

Researchers in Argentina dubbed the new species “Llukalkan aliocranianus,” according to a press release from the paleontologists. Llukalkan comes from the Mapuche word for “the one who causes fear,” while aliocranianus is Latin for “unusual skull.”

Aside from its very metal name, the dinosaur is also notable for its uniquely-shaped head, which researchers say gave it more sharpened hearing abilities.

“A peculiarity of this dinosaur is that it has cavities in the ear area that other abelisaurids did not have, which could have given this species different auditory capacities, possibly a greater hearing range,” said Federico Gianechini, a paleontologist at the National University of San Luis, Argentina, in paper published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. “This, together with its keen sense of smell, would have given great capabilities as a predator to this species.”

Here’s a closer look at that unusually-shaped skull:

A Top Predator

The dinosaur looked a lot like a T-Rex, with a large head and short stubby arms. It was also just as fierce — if not fiercer. 

According to the press release, the Llukalkan was “likely among the top predators” in the region during the Late Cretaceous period. It measured up to five meters long, and had sharp teeth, big claws, and a strong bite — not to mention straight up super hearing abilities. 

So yeah. If they ever end up mixing frog genes with dinosaur DNA a la Jurassic Park, let’s all hope they take a pass on “the one who causes fear.”

READ MORE: New Dinosaur Discovered in Patagonia, Dubbed ‘One Who Causes Fear’ [IGN]

More on dinosaurs: Scientists Find Smoking Gun Evidence in Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Case

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Paleontologists Discover Dinosaur With Super Hearing

Making Contact

String theorist and science populariser Michio Kaku believes that the James Webb Space Telescope will find life on other planets — but he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to reach out to any potential aliens. 

The professor of theoretical physics at City College, New York spoke to The Guardian about his trepidations in an interview about his upcoming book “The God Equation.” He says he believes that we are on track to discover alien life within a century.

“Soon we’ll have the [Webb] telescope up in orbit and we’ll have thousands of planets to look at,” Kaku said to The Guardian, “and that’s why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilization.”

When Montezuma Met Cortés

However, the string theorist and best-selling author doesn’t believe that we should be so quick to reach out to other lifeforms even if we did find them.

“There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them. I think that’s a terrible idea,” he said to The Guardian. “We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago. Now, personally, I think that aliens out there would be friendly but we can’t gamble on it. So I think we will make contact but we should do it very carefully.”

He doesn’t make it clear who is Montezuma and who is Cortés between the aliens and humanity — and, frankly, we’re not sure what’s scarier. 

READ MORE: String theorist Michio Kaku: ‘Reaching out to aliens is a terrible idea [The Guardian]

More on aliens: Elon Musk Has an Interesting Argument Against UFOs

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Famed Physicist: Soon-To-Launch Telescope Likely to Discover Alien Life

Four Miles Under The Sea 

An American exploration team has completed the world’s deepest shipwreck dive to a nearly 80-year-old US navy destroyer sunk in WWII. 

Caladan Oceanic, an undersea tech company based in Texas, has completed two eight-hour dives almost 6,500 meters into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Philippines to reach the wreckage of the 115-meter-long battleship the USS Johnson, according to The Guardian.   

For some perspective, that’s twice the depth in which the Titanic rests in the Atlantic Ocean. 

“Just completed the deepest wreck dive in history, to find the main wreckage of the destroyer USS Johnston,” said Victor Vescovo, the founder of Caladan Oceanic, in a tweet. He also piloted a submersible to the wreckage.

Just completed the deepest wreck dive in history, to find the main wreckage of the destroyer USS Johnston. We located the front 2/3 of the ship, upright and intact, at a depth of 6456 meters. Three of us across two dives surveyed the vessel and gave respects to her brave crew. pic.twitter.com/N1AuzHIi0b

— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) April 1, 2021

Along with photos, Vescovo also posted a video of the wreckage — which you can check out below:

It's been so wonderful to share the story of the USS Johnston with so many people. Her crew and Captain, Ernest Evans – the first Native American in the Navy to be awarded the Medal of Honor, were extraordinarily heroic. Here's video from the dive and the bridge they fought from. pic.twitter.com/rAfEh78VJv

— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) April 4, 2021

Sunk In Battle

The USS Johnston was sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944. Of the ship’s 327 crewmembers, only 141 survived the battle. 

“It took fire from the largest warship ever constructed — the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, and ferociously fought back,” said Parks Stephenson, team navigator and historian for Caladan Oceanic, to The Guardian.  

It wasn’t until 2019, though, that the wreckage was finally discovered by a separate expedition group. Only parts of the destroyer were able to be observed using a remote submersible as a larger part of the ship laid in a deeper, harder-to-reach region of the ocean. 

Luckily, Caladan Oceanic was able to utilize a submersible called a DSM Limiting Factor for the exploration. It has a hull made of 3.5-inch thick titanium and has been used to explore the Mariana Trench as well as the Titanic. 

Now that the ship has been discovered, it represents a small form of closure for the crew members who lost their lives in battle and their families who grieved their deaths long ago. Before and after Vescovo’s team conducted the dives, they two laid wreaths to honor the brave crew of the USS Johnston. 

READ MORE: US Navy ship sunk nearly 80 years ago reached in world’s deepest shipwreck dive [The Guardian]

More on submersibles: A Humanoid Robot Just Recovered Treasures From a 17th Century Shipwreck

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Keep Out

Bad news for any future Mars settlers: New research used data from NASA spacecraft to show that gravity waves emanating from the planet are making it even more inhospitable to life as time goes on.

Mars is home to some pretty gnarly dust storms. It turns out that these storms can actually trigger the planet into giving off gravity waves, The Academic Times reports. That, in turn, makes Mars’ atmosphere leak gas out into space, according to the research published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. That’s an unfortunate development, and one that any plans to settle or otherwise travel to Mars will need to take into account.

Forbidden Planet

These storms are unpredictable, cover vast portions of Mars at a time, and can last for months.

Aside from the bigger challenge of mitigating atmospheric escape, that would mean that any human settlers or explorers would need to hunker down for months at a time, having to wait the storms out with very little advance warning. Given that settling on Mars is already a perilous idea, that doesn’t bode well for human exploration.

Mega Maid

The storms themselves would be a problem for any short-term human expeditions, but the gravity waves releasing the planet’s already-scarce atmosphere out into space are problematic for any long-term settlements or especially geoengineering attempts on the Red Planet.

To clarify, gravity waves have a similar name to gravitational waves, but are actually a totally separate phenomenon in which waves travel upward through a planet’s atmosphere.

Settling on Mars, study lead author and George Mason University physicist Erdal Yi?it told The Academic Times, “is going to be very difficult.”

While some scientists suspect Mars was once a wet and hospitable world in the ancient past, its leaking atmosphere suggests a dry and hostile future.

Editor’s note 2/19/2021: This story originally conflated gravity waves and gravitational waves, which are two distinct phenomena in physics. It has been updated.

READ MORE: Humans colonizing Mars? Not so fast, NASA research says. [The Academic Times]

More on Mars settlements: Scientists Say They’ve Found the Perfect Spot for a Mars Colony

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Mars Is Radiating Gravity Waves, Which Is Bad News For Human Settlers

Satellite Melt

As we speak, thousands of small pieces of debris are cluttering Earth’s orbit. Even entire derelict satellites are drifting through space, having long fulfilled their purpose. In fact, an astonishing 60 percent of our planet’s roughly 6,000 satellites are no longer in operation.

That’s a problem, as any collision could end in disaster — or the dreaded knock-on effect known as Kessler syndrome, a cascade of collisions generating new pieces of dangerous space debris that could render Earth’s orbit uninhabitable.

That’s why Russian physicist Egor Loktionov is suggesting a highly unusual intervention: using space-based lasers to melt non-operational satellites into plasma, the Academic Times reports.

Zap! Zap!

As detailed in a paper soon to be published in the journal Acta Astronautica, Loktionov has been testing several different spacecraft materials and how they react to pulses of laser emissions.

“Many ways to capture debris have been suggested to date, few are tested and none really practiced,” Loktionov told The Academic Times. “Laser space debris removal, to my mind, should provide a cheaper, more reliable and flexible way to do the job.”

Space Clean Up

“If shot from space, lasers would pose close to zero hazards,” Loktionov told the Academic Times. “We suggest considering more precise impacts with space-borne lasers or our recycling concept.”

The concept, as Loktionov suggested in research published 2019, would reuse space debris in the form of melted plasma as fuel for laser thruster-powered spacecraft.

The proposal is as relevant as ever because our space debris problem is about to get a lot worse with the likes of SpaceX and Amazon planning to launch extensive constellations of broadband internet-beaming satellites. That means no stone should be left unturned in the quest to find a way to make a dent in our growing space junk problem — no matter how far out the concept.

READ MORE: Orbital lasers could melt defunct satellites without polluting space [The Academic Times]

More on space debris: Europe Is Launching a Giant Claw to Grab Space Junk

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Russian Scientist Proposes Using Lasers to Melt Space Junk

Mars Time

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is currently approaching the surface of Mars, where it’s expected to touch down in the next few hours.

Assuming it lands successfully, the Perseverance mission team at NASA is going to need to make some major lifestyle changes, Space.com reports. Most notably? They’re going to have to start living and working on what’s called “Mars time,” meaning they’ll shift their schedule to match what’s happening on the Red Planet instead of back home on Earth.

Sunrise, Sunset

A day on Mars lasts about 24 hours and 37 minutes, meaning that the NASA teams’ shifts will actually start and end at different Earth times each day, since the two planets aren’t in perfect sync with one another.

“2PM will be our start time and then that will adjust by 40 minutes every day,” deputy project manager Jennifer Trosper said during a Tuesday news conference. “While it works, we only ask people to do this for three months.”

Remote Sleepover

During past rover landings, NASA engineers would often set up cots and sleep at work as they adjusted to their constantly-shifting schedules, Space.com reports. But because of the pandemic, many of the team members will be working from home and have to sort out their calendars on their own.

But thankfully, the engineers will only go through three cycles of Mars time — each just over a month on Earth — before they can return to a normal working schedule, Space.com reports. Then, they’ll finally be able to live on their own planet’s local time and recover from what Trosper said will feel a whole lot like constant jet-lag.

READ MORE: NASA’s Perseverance rover team will have to live on ‘Mars time’ after landing on the Red Planet [Space.com]

Watch the Perseverance landing: How to Watch NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has successfully landed in the Jezero crater, a region believed to be an ancient dried up river delta. Touchdown was confirmed at 3:56 pm Eastern time.

The news was met with loud cheering and whooping at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab mission control.

It was a daring landing as the crater is lined with cliffs, sand dunes, and boulders. Thanks to Perseverance’s sophisticated landing instruments, the rover was able to take pictures of the surface below, deciding where to land on its own while out of radio communication with Mission Control.

It’s the agency’s fifth robotically operated Mars rover to have successfully landed on the Martian surface following Sojourner in 1997, Opportunity and Spirit in 2004, and Curiosity in 2012.

Perseverance weathered the daunting Seven Minutes of Terror as it slowed its descent from a screaming 12,100 mph to just 2 mph first using a massive 70.5-foot supersonic parachute and then a rocket-powered “sky crane” as it approached its landing spot.

Now, Perseverance’s journey truly begins. The rover will use seven suites of scientific instruments to search for signs of ancient microbial life in the Jezero crater, an ancient delta that scientists believe contains clay deposits full of potential biosignatures.

NASA is also hoping to lay the groundwork for a future sample return mission. Perseverance will scoop up and stow samples of Martian rock, each about the size of a piece of chalk, inside special tubes for recovery during future missions to the Martian surface.

Perseverance can also cover three times the distance, an average of 650 feet a day, compared its predecessor Curiosity thanks to a sophisticated autopilot system.

The rover will even release a Mars Helicopter, called Ingenuity, that was strapped to its belly during its journey to Mars. Once it’s powered up for the first time later this year, Ingenuity could end up making history by becoming the first time a human-made aircraft to fly on another planet.

So far, only two countries have completed successful landings on Mars — the United States and the Soviet Union — but a third country may soon have a shot of joining that very exclusive list. China’s Tianwen-1 Mars lander will attempt to plunge through the Martian atmosphere in May — meaning that the Red Planet has never, at least in human history, been this crowded.

More on Perseverance: How to Watch NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars

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Wanted Poster

The United States Department of Justice just indicted three state-backed North Korean hackers who, it says, conspired to steal more than $1.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency.

The three hackers are part of North Korea’s military intelligence group known as the Reconnaissance General Bureau, according to The New York Times. The trio reportedly made off with a serious haul of crypto, which is part of a larger operation to quietly funnel money to the North Korean government, which has been struggling financially due to sanctions.

“Cryptocurrencies are completely changing the way that sanctions are done and their effectiveness,” Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt, a fellow at a think tank called the Henry L. Stimson Center, told the NYT.

Laundry List

The NYT reports that the trio successfully stole at least $112 million, according to the government, about $11.8 million of which came from an unnamed financial company in New York. They also targeted the entertainment industry as payback for the 2014 Seth Rogan film “The Interview,” hacked ATMs, and launched spear-phishing campaigns and their own cryptocurrency scams, according to a Department of Justice press release.

“North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers,” John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in the press release.

Cat And Mouse

The nature of the hacks — all digital, with intangible digital currencies as the bounty — reflects a changing landscape of crime that can be difficult to adapt to, especially as they blur the line between cybercrime and acts of cyber warfare.

“This case is a particularly striking example of the growing alliance between officials within some national governments and highly sophisticated cyber-criminals,” US Secret Service Assistant Director Michael R. D’Ambrosio said in the release. “The individuals indicted today committed a truly unprecedented range of financial and cyber-crimes: from ransomware attacks and phishing campaigns, to digital bank heists and sophisticated money laundering operations.”

READ MORE: U.S. Charges 3 North Koreans With Hacking and Stealing Millions of Dollars [The New York Times]

More on crypto thieves: North Korea Is Using Hackers to Steal Money for Nuclear Bombs

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What a View

It’s a historic day for the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The agency pulled off the nerve-wracking descent, landing its fifth robotically operated rover, Perseverance, on the surface of Mars.

Mission control confirmed touchdown of the car-sized rover around 3:56pm EST. Minutes later, the world got its first glimpse of what Perseverance saw when its six wheels touched the rocky surface for the first time.

Courtesy of the rover’s hazard cameras, the system the rover uses to safely navigate the Red Planet, we got not just one but two low-resolution images in black and white. One was taken of the rocky surface in front of the rover and another showed the view from behind.

And another look behind me. Welcome to Jezero Crater. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dbU3dhm6VZ

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

Forever Home

The images were taken close to the ground. The haze seen in both was caused by the dust, which still hasn’t settled after the rover touched down seconds before snapping the photos.

The rear image shows one of the rover’s wheels safely making contact with the ground. The front image shows off the rover’s shadow as it basks in the sunlight following its seven month journey.

NASA will soon follow these up with higher resolution color images of Perseverance’s stunning surroundings. The rover landed in the Jezero Crater, region believed to be an ancient dried up river delta.

The mission will be one to watch. NASA believes the site will give us the best shot to date to find evidence for ancient life on Mars.

More on the landing: BREAKING: NASA Successfully Lands Perseverance Rover On Mars

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Portable Factory

The United States Department of Defense just awarded a contract to additive manufacturing company ExOne to develop 3D printing mini-factories that could be deployed into the field during a military operation.

The factories are essentially complete 3D printing labs that can be housed entirely within a shipping container, according to Interesting Engineering. It’s an intriguing — though not unprecedented — idea that the Defense Department says will help improve military logistics and allow for parts and tools to be replaced as needed on the spot.

Full Loadout

The 40-foot containers will contain all of the necessary equipment to scan, model, and manufacture parts out of metals, ceramics and other composite materials, according to Interesting Engineering. The idea is to make the process as straightforward as possible so that soldiers or technicians in the field can replace parts and tools with a powder-based 3D printing process called binder jetting — without needing a great deal of technical knowledge.

“Binder jet 3D printing is a critical manufacturing technology for military use because of its speed, flexibility of materials, and ease of use,” ExOne CEO John Hartner said in a press release.

Arms Race

The new Defense Department project won’t be the first portable military 3D printer, according to Interesting Engineering. Though the Army has been talking about the concept for years, the Marines used a similar but smaller printer in 2018. The Dutch Navy also has a collapsible printer for spare parts.

But the new contract seems to be for a more comprehensive facility than any before it, making it an interesting project to watch as we see how portable printing technology develops in the field.

READ MORE: US Military to Have 3D-Printing Factories in Shipping Containers [Interesting Engineering]

More on 3D printing: First 3D Printed House Goes on Sale in United States

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Hello There

For the first time, scientists managed to open a line of two-way, real-time communication with sleeping volunteers who were in the midst of a lucid dream.

Scientists from Northwestern University and various European institutions were able to chat with lucid dreamers and ask them questions, receiving answers in real-time in the form of specific eye movements, Motherboard reports. It’s an unusual development, but it’s one that could help scientists gain a new level of insight into the content and structure of sleep — not to mention opening up new frontiers for the technology, entertainment and even commercialization of dreams.

Blink Twice

Lucid dreaming, or the ability to become self-aware while asleep akin to the characters in “Inception” or “The Matrix,” is a psychological oddity that’s long piqued scientists’ interests.

“There are studies of lucid dreamers communicating out of dreams, and also remembering to do tasks,” lead author and Northwestern researcher Karen Konkoly told Motherboard. “But there’s a fairly limited amount of research on the stimuli going into lucid dreams.”

Experienced lucid dreamers communicated with scientists by moving their real-world eyes left and right, responding to questions and even math problems in real-time, according to research published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

Holy Mountain

The dreamers reported hearing the researchers’ voices as a sort of intangible narrator, clearly identifying it as something coming from outside their dream, according to Motherboard. Scientists were able to accurately communicate with the dreamers about 18 percent of the time — but another 20 percent yielded incorrect or incoherent responses, suggesting that there was at least some form of communication going on.

For now, the researchers are thrilled just to have established some sort of communication.

“It’s amazing to sit in the lab and ask a bunch of questions, and then somebody might actually answer one,” Konkoly told Motherboard. “It’s such an immediately rewarding type of experiment to do. You don’t have to wait to analyze your data or anything like that. You can see it right there while they’re still sleeping.”

READ MORE: Scientists Achieve Real-Time Communication With Lucid Dreamers In Breakthrough [Motherboard]

More on lucid dreaming: MIT Scientists Are Building Devices to Hack Your Dreams

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Heat Seeker

Texas was gripped by a deep freeze this week, bringing the second largest state in the United States to its knees. Millions are still without power, while many more continue to lack access to clean water or even water at all.

Amid rolling blackouts, Texans are having to get creative to stay warm, as homes predominantly use electricity as a heat source in the state.

But Tesla owners had an ace up their sleeve. Thanks to their vehicles’ hefty batteries, some opted to sleep in their cars with the heater running — without running the risk of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, as The New York Post reports.

Catching Zs

“So my wife my dog and my newborn daughter slept in the garage in our Model 3 all nice and cozy,” one user on the subreddit TeslaMotors wrote, as quoted by the Post. “If I didn’t have this car, it would have been a very rough night.”

Thanks to a two-way vehicle-to-grid feature included in Tesla’s PowerWall, the company’s home battery solution, some users were able to power their homes using the batteries in their Tesla vehicles, VICE reports.

$TSLA power walls saving the day in Houston.@WholeMarsBlog pic.twitter.com/YCL6rzu93s

— dayyanl (@dayyanl) February 16, 2021

Power Backup

Others were able to weather the storm by drawing backup power from their PowerWalls. Some who opted to install solar panels on their roofs were also able to store enough energy in their PowerWall systems to use during blackouts.

Using electric vehicles as a form of survival isn’t exactly a long term solution to Texas’ power grid woes — but at least it can offer a hand while political leaders face off with electric grid operators to get the state back on its feet.

READ MORE: Elon Musk slams Texas power grid operator for being unreliable [New York Post]

More on Texas: Elon Musk, Who Moved to TX For Less Regulation, Is Furious That the Power Went Down

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