Page 189«..1020..188189190191..200210..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

Australia and India join hands to enable female tech talent to take flight – People Matters

Posted: September 11, 2022 at 1:36 pm

In a ground-breaking move, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and the Government of Telangana, India have joined hands for an exchange, considered to be rewarding for women entrepreneurs of both nations.

The business exchange, known as CyberTech Women Entrepreneurs program, is an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to provide access and business pathways for women-led technology businesses in Australia and India.

The accelerator program is part of the Australia-India Bilateral Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP), supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades Cyber Affairs team.

Deepthi Ravula, chief executive officer of WE Hub, said, For over a decade, start-ups, especially women entrepreneurs in tech, have expressed a lack of opportunities and financial support to optimally scale up their businesses globally.

The program will host six women-led Indian start-ups and six women-led Australian start-ups primarily in the areas of cybersecurity and critical technologies.

The program aims to support the launch of above mentioned shortlisted start-ups in the other nation with further soft-landing support in the respective markets for three months beyond the program.

Entries so far have included women entrepreneurs working in artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, next-generation telecommunications, the internet of things, synthetic biology, genomics and genetic engineering, low-emission alternative fuels, autonomous vehicles, drones, swarming and collaborative robotics, and big data.

This exchange program will be integral to building an ongoing bilateral start-up-scale-up exchange initiative to support and enrich the start-up ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in cyberspace and critical technology across the two nations, said Irfan Malik, CEO, inQ Innovation Global.

He added that his team has been working with DFAT since March to devise a program that offers an all-inclusive scale-up ecosystem crucial for women-led tech start-ups and thanks the Telangana Government, and ecosystem partners for the chance to curate this outcome-driven program.

Read full story

Go here to see the original:
Australia and India join hands to enable female tech talent to take flight - People Matters

Posted in Genetic Engineering | Comments Off on Australia and India join hands to enable female tech talent to take flight – People Matters

How seahorse fathers use their unique body and behavior to give birth – Interesting Engineering

Posted: at 1:36 pm

What we found

First, we exposed pieces of seahorse pouch to isotocin. While isotocin caused our control tissues (intestine) to contract, surprisingly this hormone produced no contractions in the brood pouch.

The result led us to wonder about the anatomy of the pouch. When we examined the pouch under a microscope, we found it contains only scattered small bundles of smooth muscle, far less than the uterus of female mammals. This explained why the pouch did not contract in our experiments.

Using 3D imaging techniques combined with microscopy, we then compared the body structure of male and female pot-bellied seahorses.

In males, we found three bones positioned near the pouch opening, associated with large skeletal muscles. These types of bones and muscles control the anal fin in other fish species. In seahorses, the anal fin is minuscule and has little or no function in swimming.

So, the large muscles associated with the tiny seahorse fin are surprising. The anal fin muscles and bones are much larger in male seahorses than in female seahorses, and their orientation suggests they could control the opening of the pouch.

Seahorse courtship is an elaborate process. Males open and fill their pouch with water by bending forward and contracting their bodies to force water into the pouch, before dancing with the female.

Similarly, during labor, male seahorses bend their body towards the tail, pressing and then relaxing. This pressing behavior is accompanied by brief gaping of the pouch opening, with a series of whole-body jerks. This movement combined with pouch opening allows seawater to flush through the pouch.

Jerking and pressing continue, the pouch opening gets gradually bigger, and groups of seahorse babies are ejected with each movement. Many hundreds of babies are ejected in a short time.

See the original post here:
How seahorse fathers use their unique body and behavior to give birth - Interesting Engineering

Posted in Genetic Engineering | Comments Off on How seahorse fathers use their unique body and behavior to give birth – Interesting Engineering

Potential threats to the country – Meduza

Posted: at 1:36 pm

Story by Alexey Slavin. Abridged translation by Sam Breazeale.

After Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Czech Education Ministry announced that Russians and Belarusians who study in certain departments at Czech universities would be required to either leave the institutions or change their majors to ones considered safe by the Czech authorities. The agency cited EU sanctions against Russia and laws banning the provision of technical assistance to Russia, including by teaching students certain skills. Meduza looked at how this has affected Russian students and what options are left for Russians who want to study in the Czech Republic.

The European Commission's first measures aimed at lowering the amount of "technological support" supplied by EU member states to Russia came in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea. The recommendations were just that; each country had the option to impose restrictions or not. Meanwhile, most of the binding sanctions passed then were against officials, defense companies, and government banks; the education sector was hardly affected at all.

But this year, things have begun to change. Soon after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Czech Republic imposed a ban on issuing non-humanitarian visas and residency permits to Russian and Belarusian citizens. In April, Czech Education Minister Petr Gazdk announced that the Czech authorities believe Russian students studying in technical fields pose a threat to the countrys security.

In mid-May, the Czech Education Ministry published a list of recommendations for how to deal with students from EU-sanctioned countries. One of the proposals was for Czech universities to impose a limit on the number of students they accepted from Russia and Belarus. Another suggestion was to limit the number of spots for those students in unsafe departments.

Exactly which fields of study qualify as unsafe was determined by the countrys Financial Analytical Office (the agency responsible for ensuring Prague observes international sanctions). A task force was created within the agency to issue recommendations for how each government ministry should respond to sanctions.

According to the European Commission, teaching students skills in these fields falls under the ban on providing technological support to the Russian Federation. The Czech Education Ministry sent universities a guide that suggests transferring Russian and Belarusian students to safer courses of study ones that arent likely to give them access to information that could be used against the Czech Republic in the future.

The ministry gave each university the freedom to decide which subjects to ban for the students and what to replace them with. Some schools, however, categorized almost all of their majors as unsafe. According to Ksenia Lazarov, who works with foreign students at a support center in Prague, students who had passed the entrance exams for the Czech Technical University in Prague with perfect scores started receiving notifications that they had not been accepted, though they weren't told why.

We found this ban extremely strange. The guides expressly say that the restrictions are intended for students in masters and doctorate programs and that theres no need for them to be applied to bachelors programs, which dont contain any secret information that couldnt be found on the Internet or other open sources, she said.

According to Lazarov, the university suggested that students write statements of purpose explaining why it's important for them to stay in the Czech Republic and how they feel about Russias war against Ukraine. Having a document like that would allow [the university] to defend the students to the Education Ministry and the Interior Ministry," she said.

Some institutions offered to let students switch majors. One such school was the Brno University of Technology, which allowed all students who passed the entrance exams regardless of citizenship to enroll. University rector Ladislav Janek explained the decision this way: I understand that its vital to observe EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus. But it would be illogical to automatically transfer [the sanctions] to students who have already chosen the Czech Republic for their studies, and possibly for their future lives as well."

Radana Koudelova, the press secretary for the Brno University of Technology, told Meduza that in the universitys view, allowing Russian and Belarusian students to study critical topics such as cybersecurity, aviation, telecommunications, and microelectronics is tantamount to the intangible transfer of technology at wartime.

Current students with the exception of students in their final year were given the option to transfer to 'non-critical' courses of study. The majority of them took advantage of the opportunity. Students who refused were forced to end their studies [at this school], said Koudelova.

Meduza reached out to the Czech Technical Universitys press service, but had not heard back at the time of this articles publication.

Earlier this year, a Russian citizen named Alexander applied to Czech Technical University and was rejected. The schools transportation department, where he wanted to study, categorically refused to accept students from Russia. Alexander told Meduza that a number of Russian and Belarusian students currently studying at the university signed a document in which they promised not to use the knowledge they gain there outside of the EU. Alexander himself decided to write a letter explaining that he doesnt support the war in Ukraine.

In the rejection letter, [university representatives] listed all of Russias sins, including the annexation of Crimea. I was 15 years old when that happened. I wrote in my letter that I started attending protests in 2017, and that I was even arrested a few times; I had to await my trials in a special detention facility. I also described in detail why I want to study at VUT specifically and told the story of how I prepared to apply. I also mentioned that I worked as a volunteer at a humanitarian aid center for Ukrainian refugees in Prague.

In order to stay in Russia, I applied to the construction department at the Brno University of Technology, which hasnt imposed sanctions against students, said Alexander.

Later, though, his first choice school responded to his letter. On August 23, I received a letter from the Czech Technical University that on the basis of a decision made by the rector, they would allow me to enroll, he said.

Ksenia Lazarov told Meduza that the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague is another university thats cracked down on Russian and Belarusian students. This year, she said, they rejected about 200 applicants from Russia and Belarus.

One of those applicants was Anna Smirnova, a 19-year-old from the town of Ukhta in Russias Komi Republic. Immediately after high school, unable to imagine a future for herself in Russia, she moved to Prague, where she took language classes and prepared to apply to universities. In June, Anna earned 86 points (16 more than necessary) on the entrance exam for the Czech University of Life Sciences Pragues genetic engineering department.

According to Anna, when she took the test, nobody mentioned anything about the university refusing to accept Russian or Belarusian students. The new rule was announced on June 30. Several days after Annas exam results were posted on the universitys site, she learned that she wouldnt be admitted for other reasons.

Anna received her official rejection letter several weeks later (Meduza has obtained a copy of the letter). The universitys administration cited three government decrees: one from 2006, one from 2014, and one from 2022. The documents mention Russias annexation of Crimea, Russias attack on Ukraine, and Belaruss disregard for democratic principles, as well as demanding a restriction on trade relations and an end to technological assistance. One of Annas classmates, a girl from Kazakhstan, however, was accepted with no issues. The Czech University of Life Sciences Prague did not respond to Meduzas request for comment.

Im currently located in the Czech Republic, where Im applying to other universities so that I can stay here. Im still waiting for an answer. We werent told that we wouldnt be admitted [to the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague] until really late, and its already too late to get into a normal university. I applied to the natural science department at UJEP [Jan Evangelista Purkyn University], but I wont hear back until early September at the earliest. Im currently stuck in limbo; I dont know whether Ill be able to stay here or not, said Smirnova.

Stanislav Keek, the Czech Republics human rights ombudsman, has been a strong advocate for Russian and Belarusian students, claiming the new rules contradict existing European legislation: according to a regulation from the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, foreigners have the right to receive residency permits or student visas if the characteristics and purpose of their stay in the EU meet the documents' requirements. The ombudsman has suggested adding students to a list of exceptions for repressed citizens and resuming the issuance of student visas. The Czech Interior Minister, however, has said he believes Prague needs to continue imposing severe restrictions against Russia.

Belarusians and Russians who are trying to apply to Czech universities remotely are perhaps in the most difficult situation of all. Even when Czech universities accept their applicants documents, Czech consulates are not issuing the prospective students visas. The Czech Republic imposed limits of Russians and Belarusians immediately after the start of the war on February 28.

The Education Ministry believes that theres no guarantee that people who enter under these visas wont carry a potential threat to the country. This rhetoric appeared in the Czech Republic at the very start of the war, said Anton Vaykhel, who heads a support center for foreigners in the Czech Republic.

Applicants who passed the entrance exams between April and June and were supposed to be able to come to the Czech Republic by the start of the academic year will now be unable to. They spent time and money on their preparations. So the ones who are located in Russia are suffering most of all, said Vaykhel.

In his opinion, these kinds of restrictions are ineffective and, in some cases, even harmful: young people who have successfully gone through the procedures necessary to enroll in Czech universities but are not allowed to enter the country because of visa restrictions will automatically lose their army deferment.

Were trying to fight this; weve been writing to the [Czech] Interior Ministry and trying to get in touch with ministers and journalists on social media. But so far, the authorities are still saying that their top priority is to help Ukraine and protect their own citizens, said Vaykhel. To be honest, at the moment, it feels like tilting at windmills. Its very difficult to influence the views that have taken root [about Russians in the Czech Republic].

Story by Alexey Slavin.

Abridged translation by Sam Breazeale.

Here is the original post:
Potential threats to the country - Meduza

Posted in Genetic Engineering | Comments Off on Potential threats to the country – Meduza

Trump pushed for nuclear testing on the moon during final months of presidency – Salon

Posted: at 1:32 pm

In the final months of his presidency, Donald Trump ordered nuclear energy to be tested on the moon by 2027, as well as the development of nuclear-powered spacecraft that would orbit the Earth, the moon and outer space.

He also ordered the development of micro nuclear reactors small enough that they could fit inside a typical shipping truck that zips cargo along the highway.

During this period, the media was busy reporting on the Jan. 6 riots, insurrection and false accusations of voter fraud and few paid attention.

However, these orders may offer clues about what was included in some of the 'Top Secret' folders squirreled away in Mar-a-Lago.

On Dec. 16, 2020,Trump signed the"Space Policy Directive-6," which set the goal of testing nuclear energy on the moon by 2027.

Then on Jan. 5, 2021, the day beforethe Jan. 6 insurrection Trump signed Executive Order 13972, which directed NASA, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to study the cost and technical feasibility of using nuclear-powered spacecraft and satellites.

Some of these spacecraft would orbit the Earth, but most of the nuclear-powered craft would be meant for deep space missions to Mars and further places that are light years away.

There are Trump supporters,including Tesla founder Elon Musk, who support the goal of using nuclear power to help humans set up mining operations on the moon and colonize Mars.

The Jan. 5 Executive Order also includes Trump's direction to NASA and the Department of Defense to design and build micro nuclear reactors that could be transported on trains, planes or the typical trailer truck.

The Biden Administration has embraced a similar ideaand is developing small reactors that could supply electricity for 1,000 to 10,000 soldiers in remote desert, jungle and mountain terrains. The microreactors could also be used to plug holes in America's grid in transformers that fail due to terrorist attacks, wildfires or other natural disasters.

The new effort is called "Project Pele," named after the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.The DOD recently announcedthat it would review proposed designs for "Project Pele" and choose a winner before building and testing it in Idaho.

In folktales, Pele could destroy a city or a beach by hurling lava and ash. Micro-nuclear reactors pose potential dangers, too.It could be catastrophicif terrorists got ahold of them, for example.

Although saving the coal industry was a focal point for Trump's Department of Energy, whistleblowers were alarmed by his nuclear negotiations in 2018.

They claimedTrump secretly authorized the sale of nuclear technology, made by a company called IP3, to Saudi Arabia. The deal was intensely negotiated by Trump's fired and disgraced advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who had close ties to IP3.

The deal Flynn negotiated didn't require the Saudis to agree they wouldn't use the technology to make nuclear weapons.

These whistleblowers went to Congress and the reaction there was a rare bipartisan alarm.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)teamed up withSen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) of New Jersey to request the GAO investigate. The GAO noted that Congress and the State Department were left out of the loop in the negotiations. State diplomats would have been savvier about how Saudi Arabia's shifting, complicated and secret alliances might put America at risk.

Interestingly,conservative think tanksrecently issued reports detailing how entrenched anti-American Wahhabi extremists were inside the enormous Saudi royal family.

Investigatorsdiscovered that IP3simply wrote one executive order that Trump could sign so his aides could simply cut and paste it onto White House stationery.

Trump's Jan. 5, 2021 order and his December 16, 2020 order bothstress the importance of letting private industry,rather than the government, take a leadership role in achieving America's nuclear goals.

For years, NASA has debated nuclear-powered craft to carry explorers to Mars. Nuclear craft could achieve faster speeds, cutting down the time astronauts spent traveling through high levels of radiationthat would bombard them in outer space.

There are potential wealthy investors who see mining on the moon as a cosmic jackpot. PayPal founder Rod Martin, former special counsel to conservative tech billionaire Peter Thiel, appeared on a 2021 Right Response Ministries podcast to explain how God is directing Martin's hedge fund to invest in colonizing the moon and Mars.

One incentive is what Martin described as the vast wealth of "Helium 3" a rare substance needed in nuclear energy production waiting to be harvested from the moon's surface.

In the podcast, Martin announced he had created a certification process for financial advisors, taught at evangelical Liberty University. He also expressed admiration for Tesla billionaire Elon Musk's efforts at space exploration.

But Martin promised listeners that his aerospace ventures would be guided by "Christian principles of liberty, security, values."

He then urged listeners to tell their financial advisers to enroll in his certification courses and claimed his board of directors included retired Air Force and Space Force generals.

Trump's 2020 nuclear goals went uncriticized by most world leaders, although one unnamed Chinese official remarked to Xinhua News Agency that testing nuclear energy on the moon could violate a 1979 United Nations treaty that bans weaponizing the moon.

As for Russia,just days after the FBIsearch at Mar-a-Lago, the state-owned TV network Russia One aired and tweeted news anchor Eugeny Popov gloating that Russian officials already had the top secret nuclear documents that Trump had taken out of the White House. And he said that Russia's military and intel agents were busy reviewing them.

Watch below:

Continued here:
Trump pushed for nuclear testing on the moon during final months of presidency - Salon

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on Trump pushed for nuclear testing on the moon during final months of presidency – Salon

Whitest Kids U Know Wrapping Production on Animated Movie Mars, Final WKUK Project After Trevor Moores Death – Variety

Posted: at 1:32 pm

Cult sketch group Whitest Kids U Know has had countless collaborations, most notably a five-season run of their eponymous IFC series. Their most recently announced project is an animated film named Mars, which was in development before the 2021 death of member Trevor Moore.

During the press cycle of his latest directorial effort, Barbarian, WKUK member Zach Cregger gave an update on the project.

We had written a movie called Mars and the plan was always for it to be an animated feature, Cregger said. Before Trevor died, we recorded all of his dialogue, and weve crowdfunded the budget for this movie. Its like $300,000, a little more. And were currently making it, I think were going to wrap it up in about a month or so and I think its great.

Without Trevor, theres no Whitest Kids, he continued. So this will be our final thing and Im really proud of it and Im really happy to put it out there.

Prior to his death, Moore teased the plot of the film in an interview.

Its about a couple of billionaires race to put a city on Mars, he said. Thats the kind of line that we like to hit, where its like, alright, were not talking about Elon Musk, were not talking about [Richard] Branson or [Jeff] Bezos or any of these guys, but were going to talk about this. Whats happening in society right now is like all these rich guys are about to start colonizing the moon because we think thats still going to be an issue 20 years from now. Its not going to age itself out quickly.

Read more:
Whitest Kids U Know Wrapping Production on Animated Movie Mars, Final WKUK Project After Trevor Moores Death - Variety

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on Whitest Kids U Know Wrapping Production on Animated Movie Mars, Final WKUK Project After Trevor Moores Death – Variety

NASA has created oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, will the dream of colonizing now come true? – News84Media – News84Media.com

Posted: at 1:32 pm

Strong pointsThe MOXIE instrument sent to Mars succeeded in producing oxygenThis machine produces oxygen at approximately 10.5 grams per hour NASA regards the feat of producing oxygen on Mars as a medal

Washington, On Mars, we will no longer need to transport oxygen from Earth. The American space agency NASA has managed to manufacture oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars itself. According to NASA, with the help of Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), scientists have started producing oxygen on Mars itself. With this oxygen, the availability of oxygen for astronauts on future Mars missions will come from the atmosphere of the house itself.

how to succeed In fact, winter is at its peak on Mars. According to NASA, due to the formation of relatively high atmospheric pressure on cold nights, the MOXIE sent to Mars managed to produce oxygen. MOXIE managed to produce more oxygen by producing more carbon dioxide than by producing at the highest air density due to cold. Currently, this machine produces oxygen at approximately 10.5 grams per hour.

Can humans survive with so much oxygen?According to scientists, a human needs oxygen at the rate of 21 grams per hour to survive. This means that twice as much oxygen as this machine produces is enough to keep a human being alive. NASA plans to produce oxygen on Mars as a tag.

still a long way To sustain a human crew of four to six astronauts from the surface of Mars and in orbit, NASA will need to produce 2 to 3 kilograms of oxygen per hour. Although the machine is currently working in the initial stage, but according to NASA, the advanced version of this machine can achieve this. To produce that much oxygen, 25 kW of power would be needed, and MOXIE only produces 100 watts of power, so NASA believes the advanced version can achieve this. Currently, only about 10% of the energy generated is used to generate oxygen. The remaining air is consumed to operate the collector compressor.

Be the first to read the latest news in America News84Media America | Todays Breaking News, Live Updates, Read Most Trusted America News Website News84Media America |

Tags: nasa, UNITED STATES

FIRST POST: September 06, 2022, 2:25 PM IST

,

Here is the original post:
NASA has created oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, will the dream of colonizing now come true? - News84Media - News84Media.com

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on NASA has created oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, will the dream of colonizing now come true? – News84Media – News84Media.com

Here Are The Top 7 Space Organizations Of The World! – Jagran Josh

Posted: at 1:32 pm

There are many space organizations in the world, but the top 7 are listed here. Read on to know about these top 7 space organizations of the world.

In ancient times, even the wisest of homo sapiens assumed that the Earth was flat. It was then that some curious people explored the real truth. Then, moons were only meant for night-gazing, and nobody could ever imagine stepping on them, but Neil Armstrong, proved everyone wrong. Today, humans are once again hoping to make the impossible possible.

That is when it becomes crucial to know about the top 7 space organizations of the world that are extensively contributing to our understanding of the world beyond the blue planet. Read on

Annual Budget: $20.7 Billion (2018)

Formed By: The USA

Founded In: 1957

At the top of the list stands the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and for all the right reasons. NASA is a United States government agency responsible for science and technology in relation to air and space. The agency took birth in 1957, with the arrival of the Soviet Satellite Sputnik.

While the whole world knows about some of the most spectacular contributions by NASA, not many are aware of its actual roles and achievements. NASA is an umbrella for astronauts who conduct scientific research in orbit, a satellite that aids scientists in gaining more knowledge about our planet, and space probes that study and examine the solar system and the space beyond it. NASA is also looking forward to a novel program that aims to send humans to explore Mars and the moon. In addition, the agency doesnt keep all the information to itself. It disseminates the earnings so that the information can be put to making human life better all across the globe. For instance, firms that design and create spinoff products make use of discoveries by NASA for their projects.

Additionally, NASA also plays a powerful role in the education sector. It aids students aspiring to be future scientists, engineers, and astronauts with extensive knowledge and factual information. People at NASA are adventurers and enthusiasts; they are driven by their curiosity to know more about the unknown.

Annual Budget: $11 Billion (2017)

Formed By:China

Founded In: 1993

The China National Space Administration is the Peoples Republic of Chinas government agency responsible for civil space administration as well as international space cooperation. It also organizes and leads cooperation in the aerospace field and foreign exchanges.

The organization was founded to manage national space activities. It comprises four departments: General Planning; Science, Technology, and Quality Control; System Engineering; and Foreign Affairs. Additionally, the China National Space Administration operates three launch facilities, namely Taiyuan, in Shanxi, Jiuquan, in Gansu province, and Xichang, in Sichuan province.

Evolved in secret, China's space program is formed under the joint control of the Commission on Science, Technology, and Industry for the National Defense and the Chinese military. However, in 1964, this space program came under the umbrella of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building, which became the Ministry of Aerospace Industry in 1983. The Ministry of Aerospace Industry got split into the Chinese Aerospace Corporation, and the CNSA.

The country has designed its own family of Chang Zheng boosters. These Chang Zheng (Long March) boosters are domestically used. They play the role of competitors in the international commercial space launch market. Applications like communications satellites and Earth-observation satellites for military and civilian use have been a part of its space development.

The country also initiated its very own human spaceflight program in the year 1992.

Annual Budget: $7 Billion (2018)

Formed By: Europe

Founded in: 1975

The European Space Agency (ESA) is defined as Europes gateway to space. It holds the mission to shape Europes space capability development and make sure that the investments in space continue, so as to deliver advantages to Europes citizens and the world.

The organization comprises 18 Member States. Coordination of intellectual and financial resources of these Member states makes it possible for the organization to undertake activities and programs way beyond the scope of any single European nation.

The core job of the organization involves drawing up the European space program and carrying it through. ESAs programs are constructed to figure out more about our planet, its real-time space environment, the solar system, and the universe.

Its job is to also develop satellite-based technologies and services. Moreover, the European Space Agency (ESA) also promotes European countries. However, it would be wrong to say that the organization works in alienation. On the contrary, the organization works closely with many other space organizations outside Europe.

Annual Budget: $3.27 Billion (2015)

Founded In: 2015

Popularly known as the ROSCOSMOS, the organization is a State Corporation established to oversee a comprehensive reform of the Russian space industry. It ensures the right implementation of the government of Russias space program and its legal regulation.

The Russian Federal Space Agency operates a myriad of scientific programs. The programs revolve around communication, Earth science, and scientific research.

Annual Budget: US$2 Billion (2018)

Formed By: Elon Musk

Founded In: 2002

One of Elon Musks most determined projects, SpaceX designs, constructs, and launches advanced spacecraft and rockets. The American aerospace company situated in Hawthorne, California holds the goal to make visiting space affordable so humans can easily colonize Mars.

The organization is a private spaceflight company. It sends people, like some NASA crews, and satellites to the International Space Station.

The well-framed Mission statement for SpaceX by Elon Musk says it all, You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great and thats what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. Its about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I cant think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.

Annual Budget: $1.5 Billion (2018)

Formed By: India

Founded In: 1969

The Indian Space Research Organization is the pioneer space exploration agency of India. ISRO is famous all around the globe because it successfully showcases its cost-effective and unique technologies every now and then. This smart approach makes the organization of the elite ones in the world.

ISROs predecessor organization was called the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). The Indian Space Research Organization was established by Vikram Sarabhai.

The organization designs, constructs and delivers application-specific satellite products and tools to India. Some of these products include communications, broadcast, disaster management tools, weather forecasts, Geographic Information Systems, navigation, and more.

Annual Budget: $2.03 Billion (2013)

Formed By: Japan

Founded In: 2003

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is a space organization that came into being via a merger of three institutions, viz, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL).

It is a core performance agency to support the government of Japan in the overall aerospace development and utilization.

On its 10th anniversary, the organization framed a corporate slogan, Explore to Realize.

JAXA is involved in research, technology development, and the launch of satellites into orbit. The organization is also responsible for a myriad of advanced missions like asteroid exploration, and possible human exploration of the planets only natural satellite, the M

Here is the original post:
Here Are The Top 7 Space Organizations Of The World! - Jagran Josh

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on Here Are The Top 7 Space Organizations Of The World! – Jagran Josh

Frank Drake’s Legacy, Or: Are We All Alone In The Universe? – Hackaday

Posted: at 1:32 pm

When Frank Drake began his astronomy career in the late 1950s, this was an incredibly exciting time for the field. Humanity was beginning to unlock the secrets of the Universe using ever more powerful radio frequency and optical telescopes, including the tantalizing prospect of space-based telescopes. Amidst the ramping up Space Race between the US and USSR, there was an ever-growing excitement about humankinds future among the stars.

As concrete plans for landings and colonies on the Moon, Venus and Mars were proposed and put into action, it also brought to the forefront many existing and new questions about humanitys place in the Universe. During Frank Drakes 92 years on planet Earth until his passing on September 2nd of this year he was one of the driving forces behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), along with other legends like Carl Sagan.

Although to the average person the acronym SETI is most likely to bring to mind popcorn movies about little grey or green men, Drakes Project Ozma, as well as the SETI Institution and the ongoing Breakthrough Listen project are just some of the attempts made by Drake and his colleagues over the decades to answer that one question that may affect the very course of humankinds future: are we alone in the Universe?

In a Universe that contains billions upon billions of stars and planets, what is the chance that life will form on any of these planets? Of this life, what percentage will possess a level of intelligence that enables complex societies in which scientific inquiry and technological development can be sustained? Out of these societies, how many will acquire the means to reach out beyond the limits of their planet?

Although the speculation about extraterrestrial life has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years, it hasnt been until the development of more advanced means of observation that humanity has gained the ability to put these speculations to the test. As commonplace as we consider lifeforms whether intelligent or not to exist within the Earths biosphere, we know at this point in time that of all planets and moons in our Solar System, only the Earth is capable of supporting life, never mind an advanced society.

In the 1930s, rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky mentioned his doubts about alien intelligent life in an unpublished work, with physicist Enrico Fermi becoming associated in the 1950s with a formal definition of these doubts, commonly referred to as Fermis Paradox. Essentially this paradox entails the conflict between the likelihood of a significant number of alien civilizations, and the clear absence of these civilizations.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence thus seeks to resolve this paradox. Are we wrong about the likelihood of intelligent life forming, or are there other factors that we may be missing? In 1961 Drake would formalize these factors in what is called the Drake Equation, which is:

N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L

Here N is the number of civilizations within our galaxy with whom communication may be possible.

Unsurprisingly, the values one can assign these factors will range wildly, makingN to be of questionable use, but it is a useful aid in showing the many underlying questions to be answered before the larger question of whether Earth life in general and human civilization in particular is a cosmic fluke, somewhat rare or actually commonplace.

In Carl Sagans Cosmos PBS television series as well as the book with the same title these same questions are also asked and considered from many angles. In science fiction works such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc. the uncomfortable questions are avoided as these feature a Galaxy brimming with thousands upon thousands of civilizations. Based on the available scientific evidence one might ask the question of whether we are perhaps afraid of being all alone in the Galaxy.

What if we do travel out there in faster-than-light spaceships, but find a Galaxy utterly devoid of life and habitable planets?

Would we recognize another civilization if we came across it? This is one of the questions posed in Carl Sagans Cosmos,as he describes a hypothetical scenario in which a probe like the Voyager 1 & 2 approaches Earth, and its operators try to determine whether Earth has an active biosphere, and maybe a civilization. Based on the atmospheric levels of organic molecules like methane and photosynthesis indications the former seems likely, while the Earths surface shows signs of structures, but would they be signs of an intelligence?

A significant amount of attention with SETI has been directed towards radio frequency (RF) communication, as RF signals can travel significant distances through space, and are at least for human civilization a common communication method that also liberally gets broadcast into space. If Earth has been lit up like a proverbial RF beacon for about a hundred years, surely this would be the case for other inhabited planets too.

This assumption was one of the reasons why in 1977 a narrowband RF signal received by the Ohio State Universitys Big Ear radio telescope got a surge of attention, as it seemed to be the surest sign of extraterrestrial intelligence. This so-called Wow! signal came from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation and lasted beyond the 72 second observation window by Big Ear. Unfortunately no modulation was detected in the 1420 MHz signal, and so far the signal has not been repeated, making it likely that it was an astronomical phenomenon.

On the 35th anniversary of the Wow! signal, the National Geographic Channel sponsored a promotion for one of its shows by transmitting a digital stream encoding thousands of Twitter messages to the presumed origin of the 1977 signal via the Arecibo Observatorys radio telescope dish. To this day we have either received no response, missed the response, or our message ended up in someones spam folder.

What is perhaps one of the most humbling aspects of astronomy is the sheer, mind-boggling scale of the Cosmos. Not just in terms of space and distances, but also in terms of time. Much of the electromagnetic radiation that is now being captured by the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope was sent out by their sources millions to billions of years ago. Our own Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 87,000 light years in diameter, with an estimated 100 400 billion stars. The light from the furthest stars in the Milky Way relative to Earths position originate from a time when humanity was still living as hunter-gatherers on a wild Earth.

This notion is perhaps the most difficult one that Frank Drake and his colleagues had to contest with when it comes to SETI projects. It feels that all we can do is keep listening, even if the likelihood is vanishingly small that there is anything to receive. This did however not prevent the SETI@home project from attracting over a million users who dedicated part of their computer resources to running a distributed super computer that processed data from the Arecibo and Green Bank radio telescopes.

Even though the SETI@home project is currently dormant after no conclusive findings, the Berkeley SETI Research Center behind the project still has other ongoing projects, of which the most notable one is the Breakthrough Listen project. With $100 million in funding, the project began in 2016 and is expected to run for 10 years, providing the most comprehensive search to date using both radio and visible light telescopes.

The most vexing aspect of SETI projects is that although there are plenty of signals coming in that bear a closer look, who is to say what signal definitely comes from an advanced civilization, and which ones are from natural phenomena? The Cosmos is after all a rather noisy place in the electromagnetic spectrum, which significantly increases the burden of proof.

Over the past decades, humankind has sent out messages directed at potential alien civilizations. These have ranged from RF transmissions to physical items, such as the Pioneer plaque attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft that was designed by Drake and Sagan. A few years later the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft would be launched, each with a Voyager Golden Record attached to it.

At this point in time, Pioneer 10 and 11, as well as Voyager 1 and 2 have left the reach of Earths star system and are travelling through interstellar space. Even though only Voyager 1 and 2 are still actively gathering sensor data and communicating with Earth, the messages these spacecraft carry should last long enough for another civilization to find them and perhaps manage to decode them.

Barring faster-than-light travel or another means of transport which humanity has not yet conceived of, such an event would take place many thousands to millions of years into the future of Earth. Even the radio and television broadcasts we have sent out for decades now will take thousands of years to reach the more distant parts of the Milky Way, and possibly vice versa, making SETI one of the longest endurance games imaginable.

Regardless of what humankinds future will look like, Frank Drakes legacy along with that of Carl Sagan and other great minds of the recent past, should endure for many more decades and centuries to come. Perhaps the most impactful aspect of their teachings is that how they taught us to take the time now and then to find ourselves outside at night. To find a spot without any artificial light and to look up, so that we can take in the enormity and beauty of the Milky Way and the countless stars which we can perceive even with the naked eye.

By allowing us to see even just a bit more of this one small Galaxy and to allow our minds to wander on the question what and who we may find among all those stars, humanity is better prepared to deal with the challenges and possible discoveries than before, regardless of what the final Drake Equation ends up looking like. May you find peace among the stars, Mr. Drake.

Continue reading here:
Frank Drake's Legacy, Or: Are We All Alone In The Universe? - Hackaday

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on Frank Drake’s Legacy, Or: Are We All Alone In The Universe? – Hackaday

In N.H., its live Free State or leave thats libertarianism? – The Boston Globe

Posted: at 1:06 pm

I have always felt a libertarian streak in my view of society, but Im not sure that the term hasnt taken a turn for the worse (Free Staters test limits of N.H. libertarianism, Page A1, Sept. 4). As I recall how William Weld had to promise the Libertarian party that he would remain a Libertarian for the rest of his life in order to be nominated as the vice presidential candidate of that party in 2016, and as I read about Free Staters in Brian MacQuarries article, I wonder where the liberty is.

If democracy is soft communism, then Free Staters seem to be soft fascists, dictating to others what they may think and forcing them to leave their lifelong homes if they dont fall in line. They dont want to be told what to do but are ready to tell others, and with a totalitarian attitude.

Read the rest here:
In N.H., its live Free State or leave thats libertarianism? - The Boston Globe

Posted in Libertarianism | Comments Off on In N.H., its live Free State or leave thats libertarianism? – The Boston Globe

Cryptos Libertarianism Is Running Headfirst Into Reality – The Atlantic

Posted: at 1:06 pm

Crypto was taking off, and governments were finally starting to act like it. In 2013, when a young writer and software developer named Vitalik Buterin wrote an impassioned screed defending the blockchain gospel for his publication, Bitcoin Magazine, cryptocurrencies were still a niche curiosity. But a series of regulations was spooking the nascent industry, threatening the sort of anti-government ethos that has always been core to the project. For Buterin the panic felt a little overblown. Crypto, he argued, couldnt truly be regulated. After all, this was the whole point of the new system: an internet with no masters, no mediators, and no guardrails. The future of crypto-libertarianism is fine, he wrote. Stop worrying.

This is the promise crypto advocates have sold consumers and politicians over the past decade, as crypto has blown up into a trillion-dollar behemothin the process making Buterin, now best known as the founder of the Ethereum network, very, very rich. (Buterins Ethereum Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.) Even as crypto has wormed its way into the mainstream, the argument goes, the tech was constructed in such a way as to prevent meddling on the part of banks and governments. For example, Jesse Powell, CEO of the Kraken exchange, has referred to crypto networks as censorship-resistant rails of last resort. And the venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, now the foremost backer of crypto start-ups, has invoked that same idea in promoting its multibillion-dollar funds.

But what might have rung true in 2013 doesnt hit quite as hard in 2022. Thanks in part to its attempts to garner mainstream recognition, crypto is now rubbing up against renewed governmental scrutiny. In recent weeks, a subtle yet significant move from the Treasury Department has exposed some of the rhetorical misconceptions at the heart of the industry, suggesting that the tech can be meddled with after all.

Read: Have the crypto bosses learned anything at all?

For all the talk of crypto as a slick new alternative to a corrupt and outmoded banking system, companies have now found themselves backed into a corner: Either they can comply with regulations that could essentially defang the promise of the technology, or they can stay the course, at great cost to their bottom lines. And for the most part, companies look to be choosing the easy way out, principles be damned. Its a sign that crypto is growing up from its youth oriented around building a new financial system, instead evolving into something like a new wing of Big Tech. The more crypto matures, and the more it integrates into the existing scaffolds of American capitalism, the more it strays from its core ideals.

The panic began in early August, when the Treasury Department decided to sanction a program called Tornado Cash, essentially forbidding any person or business in the U.S. from interacting with it in any capacity. Tornado Cash is a tool that makes Ethereum transactions more or less untraceable, scrambling the paper trail on a famously transparent blockchain. Its great for well-meaning privacy enthusiasts worried about prying eyes, but its also great for cleaning up dirty money: State-backed North Korean hackers reportedly used the program to launder more than half a billion dollars worth of Ethereum in April.

Tornado Cash isnt all that popular of a program, but the implications of the sanctions are far-reaching. It threatens to affect how the entire Ethereum blockchainnow the second-largest crypto network after bitcoinfunctions in practice. Permit me a moment of crypto-splaining: When you ask your computer to send some Ethereum to a friend, you need to wait for another computer in the network to verify the transaction, ensuring that you have enough money to send and that its going to the right address. Without that go-ahead, the money is stuck in limbo.

Right now, that happens through a process called mining, though Ethereum plans to replace its miners with a new, more energy-efficient system of validators later this month. Technically anyone can be a validator, but because validation requires having lots of crypto on hand, its mostly companies that do this work, pooling together customer funds and taking a cut of the profits. According to Decrypt, more than 60 percent of the validation will go through four companies. And if the computer doing the validating belongs to an American company (even if you yourself are not based in the U.S.), it will need to abide by the sanctions, making it harder for anyone anywhere in the network to use Tornado Cash.

Read: The petty pleasures of watching crypto profiteers flounder

The end result risks what crypto has always wanted to avoid: censorship. Because the companies behind these validators are subject to punishments for violating the sanctions, the reality is that your money can be effectively frozen by a watchful government. Its a small dent in the armor that is Ethereums resistance to censorship, and one that may not necessarily affect more casual usersbut the fact that the armor can be dented at all is telling. Who knows what the Treasury might decide to sanction next? It reveals what was true all along, Angela Walch, a law professor at St. Marys University who studies crypto, told me. The cats out of the bag for both regulators and the crypto sector that [censorship resistance] is kind of a myth.

American validators have no good options here. If they choose to comply with the sanctions, theyre conceding that governments can meddle in transactions after all, and potentially allowing innocent bystanders to get caught in the crossfire. If they dont, they risk violating Treasury Department guidelinesa move thats not particularly sustainable for a growing industry.

In practice, companies will need to either comply with the sanctions and renege on their Dont Tread on Me roots, or simply halt their validation businesses altogether, skipping out on gobs of money in the process. For crypto companies, this is where the rubber is meeting the road, Walch said. Their talk about this being a democratizing force, and neutrality is important, and everyone should have the ability to freely transactokay, are you going to follow the law, or are you going to follow the purported ethos of the space? Were hitting the point where youre not going to have it both ways anymore.

No one should be surprised that the denizens of crypto Twitterthat twisted artery through which all blockchain-related discourse seems to floware lobbying for the latter option. To the faithful, the choice of how to respond to these sanctions is almost a moral issue. If youre willing to comply with the Tornado Cash sanction, the thinking goes, maybe you never really cared about what made the blockchain special to begin with. A crypto YouTuber suggested that if Ethereum validators capitulate to the sanctions, the whole system would be for beta males.

A few crypto leaders are not backing down. Buterin, more a technologist than a company man, is on record as saying he would opt to punish validators who comply with the sanctions. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, arguably the most influential executive in the American crypto sphere, has said the same of his companys validators; yesterday, the exchange announced that its bankrolling a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury over the sanctions. When Ethereum upgrades later this month, Coinbase will control an estimated 15 percent of the market for the networks validation process, making it one of the most powerful individual actors in the system. Shutting down a portion of a business thats poised to create major gains for Coinbase, especially on the heels of a particularly bad quarter, would be borderline disastrous. (A spokesperson for Coinbase pointed me to a webinar it hosted to discuss the fallout of the sanctions, but declined to comment further.)

But by and large, most companies have so far stayed mum on this question. For some, the silence could represent genuine confusion as to how exactly theyre meant to conform to the sanctions. For others, though, it may be just a way of passing the buck: The industry seems to be more concerned with enshrining its place in the American financial system than with taking an ideological stand at the expense of profit, and its possible an official statement to that effect would only inflame the community. Last week, a spokesperson for Kraken, which runs an Ethereum validation business alongside its exchange, said in an email that the company is carefully monitoring the discussion on the potential implications of Tornado Cash sanctions for validators, but refrained from expanding on how it plans to comply with the new sanctions. A 2018 mission statement from Jesse Powell might give you a hint as to where the company is headed, however: He wrote that his ideological motivation to build a world-class exchange was entirely dependent on working with regulators. Lido Finance, another prominent source of validators, didnt respond to multiple requests for comment.

That companies are finally confronting these issues is a sign the industry is maturing, for better or for worse. Crypto was originally conceived as an alternative to traditional finance, a way of sidestepping the big banks. But what happens when the new system grows into the old one? When Buterin wrote his blog post a decade ago, a single bitcoin cost $120. At the heart of last years surge, that price hit $69,000. In 2022, venture-capital firms and investment banks are putting billions into the idea that crypto will have some role in the future of global finance. Blackrock has a private Bitcoin trust for its clients, and JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs all have dedicated crypto divisions.

In this new era, companies will have to decide: accept the reality of regulation and continue to grow their businesses, or find some way of skirting the new rules entirely. At least, theyll finally have to pick a side.

Read more from the original source:
Cryptos Libertarianism Is Running Headfirst Into Reality - The Atlantic

Posted in Libertarianism | Comments Off on Cryptos Libertarianism Is Running Headfirst Into Reality – The Atlantic

Page 189«..1020..188189190191..200210..»