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His World Wireless System had the potential to advance technology by nearly a century, while also providing free energy to the globe. Unlike so many of his era, Tesla did not work for financial gain, instead working to advance humanity. Perhaps it is not surprising that a man so far ahead of his time has only found his place in the 21st century, an age shaped by his technological brilliance.

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By: CARLY CASSELLA MARCH 5, 2021 

An important new study suggests octopuses are likely to feel and respond to pain in a similar way to mammals – the first strong evidence for this capacity in any invertebrate. 

The experience of pain is far more than a simple reflex to harmful stimuli or injury; it’s a complex emotional state, leading to distress or suffering.

While vertebrates are generally thought to experience both the physical and emotional aspects of pain, it remains unresolved whether or not invertebrates, which generally have much simpler nervous systems, are capable of something similar.

Octopuses are the most neurologically complex invertebrates on Earth, and yet surprisingly few experiments have focused on their potential for experiencing pain.

Neurobiologist Robyn Crook from San Francisco State University has been investigating this issue for years, and the latest work from her lab has now used the same protocols for testing pain in laboratory rodents on cephalopods – specifically, the octopus.

Using detailed measurements of spontaneous pain-associated behaviors and neural activity, Crook has identified three lines of evidence that all indicate octopuses are capable of feeling negative emotional states when confronted with pain. 

These are the same characteristics that mammals show, despite the fact that the octopus nervous system is organized in a fundamentally different way to vertebrates.

Of course, it’s really difficult for scientists to interpret a subjective feeling or emotional state in an animal – especially one so different from us – but Crook argues the behavior shown by octopuses in these experiments suggests they are probably experiencing the physical and emotional components of pain in a way not so different to rodents, including lasting changes in their affective state (what we would call, in humans, our mood, feelings and attitudes).

“Even in the absence of proof on conscious awareness or sentience in cephalopods, it remains clear that the responses demonstrated by octopuses in this study are so similar to those that would be expressed by mammals experiencing pain, that a reasonable, cautionary argument can be made that internal state of these disparate species is likely also similar,” Crook concludes.

Previous studies by Crook and others have shown octopuses can reflexively respond to noxious stimuli, learning to avoid those harmful contexts. The new research goes several steps further. After a single training session in a three-chambered box, octopuses that received an injection of acetic acid into one arm showed clear avoidance of the chamber in which they received that shot.

Those injected with non-harmful saline, on the other hand, showed no such avoidance.

Furthermore, when the octopuses that had been given a painful injection were then administered lidocaine (an analgesic), they tended to prefer the chamber in which they experienced immediate pain relief. Those that received saline only couldn’t care less about the chamber where they had analgesic applied.

This preference for place, free from harm, is considered strong evidence of an affective pain experience in vertebrates. Nor is that the only parallel.

Crook also found evidence that octopuses could discriminate between different qualities and intensities of pain in different locations on their bodies. 

All of the octopuses injected with the acid showed grooming behaviors at that injection site for the full 20-minute training trial, removing a small area of their skin with their beak. 

This differs to other studies on peripheral pain responses, where octopuses had their arms crushed or cut off, and suggests the acid injection is producing some sort of centralized response. In mammals, ongoing pain is caused by sustained activity in the periphery, which then drives long-term changes in the brain or spinal cord.

Cephalopods, on the other hand, rely heavily on their peripheral nervous system and it’s unclear how much of that information makes its way to their central circuits.

Using electrophysiological recordings, Crook has indirectly shown a prolonged peripheral response in the pathway to the octopus’ brain, which appears to represent the intensity of pain experienced from the acid injections. What’s more, these messages are rapidly silenced and reversed with an analgesic – a strong sign of pain experience. 

“Together, these data provide strong support for the existence of a lasting, negative affective state in octopuses,” the paper concludes.

To date, ongoing pain, as opposed to transient pain, has only been demonstrated in mammals, so it’s pretty incredible that scientists have noticed something similar in an invertebrate. 

Earlier this week, scientists also showed that cuttlefish are capable of passing the marshmallow test – a cognitive test designed to measure children’s self regulation.

Such knowledge raises ethical questions about how we care for and study cephalopods, while also providing a novel evolutionary origin for the experience of pain in the animal kingdom.

“Our goal with this study was to move the question of invertebrate pain beyond reasonable doubt,” reads a press release from Crook’s lab, “so that efforts to better regulate their humane use can proceed with a strong evidentiary foundation that until now, has been lacking.”

The study was published in iScience. 

By Bijan Stephen  Feb 19, 2021, 12:45pm EST

Yesterday, NASA landed a rover named Perseverance on Mars. I, along with 2 million other people, watched the landing happen live on YouTube. It was beautiful. I mean, here’s this little robot dude that’s traveled millions and millions of miles through the barrenness of space, and now it’s just hanging out on Mars taking pics and scientific samples! (Perseverance joins older sibling Curiosity on the surface of the Red Planet. Hope they have a nice time together!) 

In any case, Perseverance didn’t traverse the vastness of space alone. Ingenuity, a tiny helicopter, tagged along for the ride. As it’s primarily a technology demonstration, Ingenuity’s destiny is to attempt the first powered flight on any planet other than Earth and to hopefully be the blueprint for future Mars missions. It’s also running on Linux. 

“This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars,” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) senior engineer Tim Canham said in an interview with the the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). “The software framework that we’re using is one that we developed at JPL for cubesats and instruments, and we open-sourced it a few years ago.” It’s called F’ (pronounced “F prime”). The fact that it’s open source means if you want to fly with Linux here on Earth using the same software JPL does, you absolutely can. 

“It’s kind of an open-source victory, because we’re flying an open-source operating system and an open-source flight software framework and flying commercial parts that you can buy off the shelf if you wanted to do this yourself someday,” Canham said.

Great stuff. It’s cool that Perseverance, Curiosity, and Ingenuity have all found a new home on the surface Mars. Though I still think it’s cooler that space is pretty obviously inhospitable to human life, and yet we still put people up there anyway.

By Chaim Gartenberg@cgartenberg  Mar 2, 2021, 2:57pm EST

NASA’s brand-new Perseverance rover is the most advanced machine that’s ever landed on Mars. But when it comes to rovers, “state of the art” is a subjective term. Perseverance is running on none other than a PowerPC 750, a single-core, 233MHz processor with just 6 million transistors that’s most famous for powering the original “Bondi blue” iMac from 1998. It’s the same type of processor that NASA already uses in its Curiosity rover. 

That may seem like a waste to some. After all, even with the difficulty of buying computer parts these days, surely NASA could have found the budget for something like Intel’s $500 Core i9-10900K CPU (with 10 cores and a max clock speed of 5.3GHz) somewhere in the $2.7 billion cost of Perseverance. But as New Scientist explains, such an advanced chip is actually a detriment to the unique operating conditions of Mars.

That’s largely because Mars’ atmosphere offers far less protection from harmful radiation and charged particles than Earth’s atmosphere. A bad burst of radiation can badly wreck the sensitive electronics of a modern processor — and the more complex the chip, the more can go wrong. Plus, at 138 million miles away, it’s not like NASA can just swap out the processor if things go sideways. Because of those conditions, Perseverance actually features two computing modules: one is a backup just in case something goes wrong. (A third copy of the module is also on board for image analysis.)

To make the system even more durable, the PowerPC 750 chip in Perseverance is a little different than the one in the old iMacs. It’s technically a RAD750 chip, a special variant that’s hardened against radiation and costs upwards of $200,000. The chip is popular for spacecraft, too: in addition to Perseverance and Curiosity, it also powers the Fermi Space Telescope, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Deep Impact comet-hunting spacecraft, and the Kepler telescope, among others. 

While the processor may be weak compared to a modern smartphone or gaming PC, NASA’s spec sheet for Perseverance notes that it’s far more powerful than earlier rovers like Spirit or Opportunity: its 200MHz clock speed is 10 times faster than those older rovers, and with 2GB of flash memory, it offers eight times the storage. (Rounding things out, Perseverance also has 256MB of RAM in case you were looking to build your own rover.)

But while the chip itself has been to Mars before, Perseverance features some new computer technology that’s debuting on the planet for the first time: Linux, which powers the Ingenuity helicopter that will attempt to fly autonomously on Mars as part of Perseverance’s mission.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Shinrin-Yoku or forest bathing is the practice of spending time in the forest for better health, happiness and a sense of calm. A pillar of Japanese culture for decades, Shinrin-Yoku is a way to reconnect with nature, from walking mindfully in the woods, to a break in your local park, to walking barefoot on your lawn. Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li’s research has proven that spending time around trees (even filling your home with house plants and vaporising essential tree oils) can reduce blood pressure, lower stress, boost energy, boost immune system and even help you to lose weight. In this video, filmed in Blackwood Forest, Dr Li introduces forest bathing, why it originated in Japan, and explains why you need to get out into the forest today. Along with his years of ground-breaking research, anecdotes on the life-changing power of trees, Dr Li provides the practical ways for you to try forest bathing for yourself in his book Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing.

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Cloud seeding can be done by ground generators, plane, or rocket.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v28/d274

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding#:~:text=Cloud%20seeding%20is%20a%20type,microphysical%20processes%20within%20the%20cloud.

SpaceX will launch its next batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit tonight (June 3) after two weeks of weather delays and the company’s historic first astronaut flight. 

A Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX has already flown four past missions, will launch 60 new Starlink satellites into orbit from the company’s pad at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. Liftoff is set for 9:25 p.m. EDT (0125 June 4 GMT). 

You can watch the launch live here and on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 10 minutes before launch. You can also watch the launch directly from SpaceX’s launch website here and via SpaceX’s YouTube page.

Tonight’s Starlink launch, the eighth mission for SpaceX’s satellite constellation project, was originally scheduled to launch in mid-May. It was delayed by a series of weather and schedule conflicts. If weather prevents a launch tonight, a backup date is available on Thursday (June 4), the tenth anniversary of SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 launch in 2010.

SpaceX has launched 422 Starlink satellites into orbit since 2019 as it builds a 12,000-satellite megaconstellation in orbit. The project aims to provide high-speed internet service to customers around the world, particularly in remote or under-served areas. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that SpaceX would need at least 400 Starlink satellites for basic service, with 800 needed for moderate coverage. 

With so many Starlink satellites in orbit (SpaceX is operating the largest satellite fleet ever), the company has come under fire from astronomers and scientists worried about impacts to astronomical research. Last week, SpaceNews reported that SpaceX will soon add “sunshades” to all of its Starlink satellites using a VisorSat design that limits reflectivity. Patricia Cooper, SpaceX’s vice president of satellite government relations, said the company the sunshade project will begin after the last 80 satellites of the current design are launched, according to SpaceNews.

The Falcon 9 booster launching the upcoming Starlink satellites will make its fifth trip to space with the mission. It’s the second time SpaceX will launch a booster five times. This mission’s booster launched two Starlink missions earlier this year, the Iridium-8 mission in 2019 and the Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite in 2018.

A plan to launch tonight’s Starlink mission on May 17 was postponed 24 hours after weather delayed the flight of an Atlas V rocket carrying an X-37B space plane for the U.S. Space Force at a nearby pad. A May 18 launch attempt was called off due to weather in the Falcon 9’s offshore landing zone, and SpaceX stood down from a May 19 launch due to the weather impacts of Tropical Storm Arthur. 

After that last delay, SpaceX representatives said the company would stand down until after the launch of its Demo-2 mission for NASA. Demo-2 was SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon launch with astronauts. It launched astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30 and arrived at the International Space Station a day later.