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Nearly 3,500 exoplanets have been confirmed so far. In a new Caltech-led study, researchers have classified these planets in much the same way that biologists identify new animal species and have learned that the majority of exoplanets found to date fall into two distinct size groups: rocky Earth-like planets and larger mini-Neptunes. The team used data from NASA’s Kepler mission and the W. M. Keck Observatory. “This is a major new division in the family tree of planets, analogous to discovering that mammals and lizards are distinct branches on the tree of life,” says Andrew Howard, professor of astronomy at

China’s economy is not falling into a black hole. Wheels are in motion for economic reforms. China’s mainland equities — known as the A-shares — will be included in the massive MSCI Emerging Markets Index starting in June 2018. Some 222 Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies made the cut. For now, the weighting is under 1%. In the not so distant future, it will rise to 5%. Brendan Ahern, CIO of KraneShares in New York predicts China A-shares allocation will hit 17% at full inclusion in several years. That additional 17% allocated to China will raise its weight to over

New program aims to develop advanced battle management/command and control tools and a comprehensive interactive virtual environment to test novel concepts for future expeditionary combat operations. As nation-state and non-state adversaries adapt and apply commercially available state-of-the-art technology in urban conflict, expeditionary U.S. forces face a shrinking operational advantage. To address this challenge, a new DARPA program is aiming to create powerful, digital tools for exploring novel expeditionary urban operations concepts—with a special emphasis on coastal cities, where future such battles are deemed most likely to occur. The program will test the new tools and concepts in an integrated virtual

Russian will start operational evaluation of the most advanced Armata tank starting in 2019 and they will have laser guided missiles with 3 times the range of the newest American tank. The T-14 Armata is equipped with an unmanned turret and all the crew is located at the front of the hull. The new unmanned remote turret of Aramata T-14 would be equipped with a new generation of 125mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun with an automatic loader and 32 rounds ready to use. The main gun can fire also new laser-guided missile with a range from 7 to 12 km. The

Another week and another F35 grounding. This time it was a bad software upgrade to the ALIS ground support system has grounded the Marine Corps F-35B squadron based in Yuma, Arizona, the F-35 Joint Program Office announced. The Air Force’s F-35As did not have the faulty upgrade, but the F35s have problems with the pilot’s air supply at high altitude. This problem temporarily grounded the F-35As at Luke Air Force Base, before they returned to flight under a restriction to low altitudes only. Air supply — drawn from the engine intakes the On-Board Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS) — has proven

IBM and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced they are collaborating on a first-of-a-kind brain-inspired supercomputing system powered by a 64-chip array of the IBM TrueNorth Neurosynaptic System. The scalable platform IBM is building for AFRL will feature an end-to-end software ecosystem designed to enable deep neural-network learning and information discovery. The system’s advanced pattern recognition and sensory processing power will be the equivalent of 64 million neurons and 16 billion synapses, while the processor component will consume the energy equivalent of a dim light bulb – a mere 10 watts to power. IBM researchers believe the brain-inspired,

Researchers at the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a novel design approach for exoskeletons and prosthetic limbs that incorporates direct feedback from the human body. The findings were published this week in Science. This technique, called human-in-the-loop optimization, customizes walking assistance for individuals and significantly improves energy economy during walking. The algorithm that enables this optimization represents a landmark achievement in the field of biomechatronics. “Existing exoskeleton devices, despite their potential, have not improved walking performance as much as we think they should,” said Steven Collins, an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We’ve seen improvements related

In May, 2016, Elon Musk’s net worth according to Forbes had climbed to $15 billion, but Tesla stock has risen about 20% and is at $18.6 billion. Elon has 33.6 million shares of Tesla (about 19% of the company) worth $12.86 billion at todays $383 per share. Spacex had filings with a valuation of $10 billion and Elon owns 54% of Spacex. However, Fidelity had claimed that Spacex was worth $15 billion in 2016. This would put Elon’s Spacex stake at $8.1 billion. The combined amounts should actually put Elon Musks net worth at about $21 billion. Spacex value could

Thyssenkrupp has built the first rope (cable) free elevator. This will enable system like the Star Trek Turbolift which can move up down and side to side. This is elevator industry’s holy grail. It ends the 160-year reign of the rope-dependent elevator. MULTI harnesses the power of linear motor technology to move multiple cars in a single shaft both vertically and horizontally! * magnetic system enables faster elevators to be built * horizontal movement allows more than one cabin per shaft * horizontal movement allows more efficient routing where there was no routing flexibility before * magnetic and ropeless system

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully made its second trip to space June 23. It launched to Bularia’s first communications satellite. The BulgariaSat-1 launch marks the Falcon 9’s second flight this year, and may kick off a double-header with a Sunday SpaceX launch as well. SpaceX has successfully landed one of these rocket stages 12 times out of 17 tries. It is the seventh time Spacex has landed at sea on the droneship. Rocket is extra toasty and hit the deck hard (used almost all of the emergency crush core), but otherwise good — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 23, 2017

China’s aircraft carrier technology is still far behind the USA. China only has one refurbished Soviet aircraft carrier and a domestic submarine based on the Soviet carrier will be operational in 2020. China’s next aircraft carriers could start getting up to the level of 1980 era US carriers in size and some technology in the late 2020s. China’s submarine technology is more rapidly closing the technology gap and also could have numeric superiority by 2025. China’s operational undersea force has 63 vessels – five nuclear-powered attack submarines, four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, and 54 diesel-powered attack submarines. However, in fewer

John Martinis, one of Google’s quantum computing gurus, laid out Google’s “stretch goal”: to build and test a 49-qubit (“quantum bit”) quantum computer by the end of 2017. This computer will use qubits made of superconducting circuits. Each qubit is prepared in a precise quantum state based on a two-state system. The test will be a milestone in quantum computer technology. In a subsequent presentation, Sergio Boixo, Martinis’ colleague at Google, said that a quantum computer with approximately 50 qubits will be capable of certain tasks beyond anything the fastest classical computers can do. Researchers say that quantum computers promise

ORA sound uses the amazing properties of graphene in our proprietary nano-composite formulation to build unique, high performance loudspeaker membranes. Prototypes already exist and reviewers indicate that they can hear the sound quality improvement. GrapheneQ provides audiophile sound quality from smaller, more efficient loudspeakers. Graphene provides significant benefits for loudspeaker performance: * Instant improvements in sound quality * Immediate extension of battery life, up to 70% * More volume from small speakers * Unrivaled high frequency response for improved localization cues GrapheneQ reacts more accurately than other materials which allows it to truthfully recreate the original recording without additional artifacts.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma says China is shifting from exporting to importing and China is going to to be the world’s largest consumption place and that engine is going to drive the world economy. Ma said this during Gateway ’17, the e-commerce giant’s biggest public event in the US, where he addressed 3,000 small business owners and urged them not only to import from China, but also to sell to China. Back in January, Ma even told President Donald Trump that within five years Alibaba could create 1 million US jobs for small businesses that sell goods to Chinese consumers.

An unknown, unseen “planetary mass object” may lurk in the outer reaches of our solar system, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets to be published in the Astronomical Journal. This object would be different from — and much closer than — the so-called Planet Nine, a planet whose existence yet awaits confirmation. According to the calculations, an object with the mass of Mars orbiting roughly 60 AU from the sun on an orbit tilted by about eight degrees (to the average plane of the known planets) has sufficient gravitational influence to warp the orbital plane of

Terrestrial Energy has begun a feasibility study for the siting of the first commercial Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) Chalk River site, with a further vision of creating a technology hub at CNL to support the commercialization of small modular reactors (SMR). Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish said the company, which aims to deploy the IMSR in the 2020s, was pleased to begin the process to identify a suitable location to build the plant. CNL and Terrestrial Energy last year signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct testing and validation activities in support of Terrestrial’s

A sniper with Canada’s elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,540 meters (2 miles). The 3.54 kilometer confirmed kill is 1065 meters past old record and was about 40% further. The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed Thursday that a member of Joint Task Force 2 made the record-breaking shot, killing an Islamic State insurgent during an operation in Iraq within the last month. The elite sniper was using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took

A few thousand microsatellites with deployable telescopes could provide constant image monitoring of the earth at 0.25 meter to 0.5 resolution. This would scale up persistent drone monitoring to a global scale. There would be issues of data transmission and storage. There is a company with 149 microsatellites that each weight about 5 kilograms and can provide resolution of 3 to 5 meters now. The current larger commercial earth observation (EO) satellites provide images with approximately 0.5 meter GSD and fly at altitudes of approximately 600 km above the earth’s surface. These parameters drive the size of the primary mirror

The House Armed Services Committee released its draft of the 2018 defense policy bill, which asks the US Army to accelerate its air-deployable Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) vehicle. The committee believes the Army is developing strategies to potentially accelerate the MPF schedule given that the current projected schedule has MPF fielding beginning in 2024. The committee directs the Secretary of the Army to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services by October 5, 2017, that outlines potential opportunities for MPF program acceleration. The briefing should include a review of testing requirements and potential areas for consolidation; funding

Planet Labs uses 149 microsatellites to monitor the pulse of our planet with daily news and imagery, stories, and tech updates. Current satellite imaging only allows us to look at various disconnected locations. Planet’s always-on, daily imagery provides a global monitoring capability never before possible. Frequent satellite imagery is often a critical component to understanding our increasingly complex, interconnected world. Use Planet’s timely imagery to monitor and understand global activity and patterns of life. They already have on average over 150 images for each location on the Earth’s land surface. This can be accessed with there Planet Explorer. Disney Parking

The discovery of a superconducting phase in sulfur hydride under high pressure with a critical temperature above 200 K has provided fresh impetus to the search for superconductors at ever higher temperatures. Although this system displays all of the hallmarks of superconductivity, the mechanism through which it arises remains to be determined. Here researchers provide a first optical spectroscopy study of this superconductor. Experimental results for the optical reflectivity of H3S, under hydrostatic pressure of 150 GPa, for several temperatures and over the range 60 to 600 meV of photon energies, are compared with theoretical calculations based on Eliashberg theory. Two significant features

Fusion power has the potential to provide clean and safe energy that is free from carbon dioxide emissions. However, imitating the solar energy process is a difficult task to achieve. Two young plasma physicists at Chalmers University of Technology have now taken us one step closer to a functional fusion reactor. Their model could lead to better methods for decelerating the runaway electrons, which could destroy a future reactor without warning. ​It takes high pressure and temperatures of about 150 million degrees to get atoms to combine. As if that was not enough, runaway electrons are wreaking havoc in the

The IMF now projects China’s GDP growth at 6.7 percent in 2017 and an average annual growth of 6.4 percent between 2018-20 period. The First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund David Lipton said the IMF was confident that China will once again find its way through the challenges ahead. China has the potential to safely sustain strong growth over the medium term. While some near-term risks have receded, reform progress needs to accelerate. specific recommendations build on the progress achieved and the government’s existing reform agenda. In particular: China needs to further boost consumption . Continued increases

The US Navy would be able to buy aircraft carriers more quickly and increase its carrier fleet from 11 to 12 under 2018 budget plans being written by the House Armed Services Committee. The legislation unveiled by the committee Tuesday calls for a new carrier every three years rather than the current pace of one every five years, and would order the service to maintain a dozen of the ships after 2023. The plans will be rolled into the committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which will set defense policy and priorities for 2018, but any sped-up acquisition

There’s an explosive NEW real estate in town. It doesn’t have any walls, and it’s driven by our voracious appetite for technology and connectivity. But the biggest opportunity is a highly profitable $75.6-billion niche segment few investors know about. When the wireless revolution first swept across the U.S., most investors were skeptics, thinking cell phones were for the already-rich, or for drug dealers. But those that saw this opportunity for what it was—and what we see now—made billions. And they are still making billions today. This is a sponsored article Ronald Reagan dished out public domains to private

Boeing has pledged to make hypersonic passengers planes a reality – and says they could be operating within a decade. ‘I think in the next decade or two you’re going to see them become a reality,’ Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg told CNBC at the Paris Air Show. However, he admitted the firm still has to prove there are enough people who could afford tickets to make it worthwhile. Boeing believes hypersonic jets – flying at up to 3,800 mph – could serve a small but important market of travelers willing to pay a premium to reach far-flung destinations

The russian Zircon mach 6 to mach 8 hypersonic missile has been claimed to be able to overwhelm existing missile defenses. Russia has claimed the missile could be ready by 2018. However, existing anti-missile systems are getting some success countering mach 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Patriot anti-missile systems have mach 4 interceptors. How the Zircon flies will ultimately reveal much more about the missile’s power than simply understand its speed. If the missile can work with a low trajectory, and then hurl itself into a ship with a sudden and unpredictable maneuver at the end of its flight, it’s

Jordin Kare described his fusion pellet proposal in the 1990s. Pellets (with deuterium and tritium or other fusion gases) are laid down in an outbound track for the spacecraft that will eventually use them, deployed in advance by small spacecraft seeding the runway along the route of flight. Kare thinks in terms of a runway about half a light-day in length. The accelerating spacecraft would gobble up the fusion pellets one at a time, taking about ten days to exit the Solar System, moving along a runway track that stretched from near Earth to beyond the orbit of Pluto. The

Researchers have detailed the implausible assumptions and many flaws in the Jacobson proposal to provide 100% of the USA’s power with wind, water and solar. Jacobson et al. (2015) consider whether the future primary energy sources for the United States could be narrowed to almost exclusively wind, solar, and hydroelectric power and suggest that this can be done at “low-cost” in a way that supplies all power with a probability of loss of load “that exceeds electric-utility-industry standards for reliability”. The analysis involves errors, inappropriate methods, and implausible assumptions. Their study does not provide credible evidence for rejecting the conclusions

A tech savvy taxi driver in Japan also had an iPad pro mounted in his car. There are several 4.5 star rated options for large tablet mounting at Amazon.

I was traveling in Japan and a taxi used 20+ USB outlets, mobile wifi and multiple device charging. He upgraded the wire from the battery so it could handle all the devices. He had two wires from the battery. The regular wire to the charger was not good enough. Each gadget draws perhaps 2 amps he was using almost 30 outlets. 40-60 Amps of toal fuses would be enough to handle them (and their spiking current demands when you first plug them in or turn them on). Here is a discussion at O’Reilly books about upgrading the wire in the

Elbit Systems offers a comprehensive range of UAS – from the man-portable Skylark™ LEX mini UAS, through the versatile tactical UAS and up to the next-generation Hermes™ 900 medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAS. Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Reveals at Paris Airshow SkEye WAPS™ – a Revolutionary Airborne Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance Solution for HLS and Defense Needs. The SkEye system provides a unique, “Eye in the Sky”, overall situational awareness of “on-the- ground” intelligence data, and enables a large number of users to receive real-time, high-resolution imagery and even go “back-in- time” Elbit Systems will reveal at the 2017 Paris

The US Army used cyber weapons and electronic warfare (EW) technology to thwart a simulated tank assault at a training exercise conducted at the Army National Training Center at California.A The exercise reinforced the need for the EW and cyber protection technology that is under development by entities such as the Army Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) and U.S. Cyber Command. The cyber weapon used in the exercise specifically targeted the radio and wireless communication systems of the tankers. Cyber warfare can include both jamming of communication signals and hacker infiltration into networks, which they can then either disable or manipulate

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are making virtual and robotic assistants increasingly capable in performing complex tasks. For these “smart” machines to be considered safe and trustworthy collaborators with human partners, however, robots must be able to quickly assess a given situation and apply human social norms. Such norms are intuitively obvious to most people—for example, the result of growing up in a society where subtle or not-so-subtle cues are provided from childhood about how to appropriately behave in a group setting or respond to interpersonal situations. But teaching those rules to robots is a novel challenge. To address that

The Department of Physics of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers have explored superelasticity properties on a nanometric scale based on shearing an alloy’s pillars down to nanometric size. The researchers have found that below one micron in diameter the material behaves differently and requires much higher stress for it to be deformed. This superelastic behavior is opening up new channels in the application of microsystems involving flexible electronics and microsystems that can be implanted into the human body. By using a piece of equipment known as a Focused Ion Beam, “an ion cannon that acts as a kind

Alphabet’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt cited a study by McKinsey released at the Viva Tech conference in Paris on Thursday, which suggested 90 percent of jobs are not fully automatable. The Alphabet chairman said that while some of the routine of a job could be replaced, much of what a human does cannot. The future of work is you with a computer, not you replaced by a computer. “People keep saying, what happens to jobs in the era of automation? I think there will be more jobs, not fewer.” At Viva Tech, Jeff Immelt, the outgoing chief executive of General

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere has developed a new approach to deep learning AI computing, using light instead of electricity, which they say could vastly improve the speed and efficiency of certain deep learning computations Soljačić says that many researchers over the years have made claims about optics-based computers, but that “people dramatically over-promised, and it backfired.” While many proposed uses of such photonic computers turned out not to be practical, a light-based neural-network system developed by this team “may be applicable for deep-learning for some applications,” he says. Traditional computer architectures are not very efficient when it comes to

six leading U.S. technology companies will receive funding from the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) as part of its new PathForward program, accelerating the research necessary to deploy the nation’s first exascale supercomputers. The awardees will receive funding for research and development to maximize the energy efficiency and overall performance of future large-scale supercomputers, which are critical for U.S. leadership in areas such as national security, manufacturing, industrial competitiveness, and energy and earth sciences. The $258 million in funding will be allocated over a three-year contract period, with companies providing additional funding amounting to at least 40 percent

Lyft announced new climate goals for the Lyft platform as we do our part to ensure the United States remains on track to meet the goals of the Paris accord. To guide them in these efforts, we are proud to welcome pioneering environmentalist and author Paul Hawken, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, as an advisor to Lyft. Paul will inform our climate action strategy and help us maximize the environmental benefits of our platform as we take this important step for sustainability. Lyft Climate Impact Goals * All electric autonomous vehicles operating on the Lyft platform will be powered by

IEEE Spectrum asked AI experts about when human level AI will be achieved and as usual there was a massive range of dates from a few years to hundreds of years. Gary Marcus talks about many decades before AI’s can process inputs and situations with the flexibility and adaptability of humans. As usual the questions are how can sufficient flexibility and extensibility be solved. Also can the AI’s be placed with usefully broad constrained environments. Can sensors and other solutions be used to solve the adaptability issues. We see this with the self driving cars in the wild problems and

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire Whole Foods Market for $42 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $13.7 billion, including Whole Foods Market’s net debt. “Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades – they’re doing an amazing job and we want

Michael Clauss is the German ambassador to China in the SCMP suggest two ways to deal with China’s Silk Road ambitions. 1. partner with China to close development gaps, while reinforcing the open, transparent and non-hierarchical world order, as seems to be working with the AIIB. 2. Europe could offer its own concept to act as another friendly pole with the power to attract. Local content – that is, maximum participation by local labour, local companies and local products – could be the signature of connectivity, European-style. Open tenders where the best offer wins, hopefully through a bid from the

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that Japan is ready to cooperate with China’s “One Belt, One Road” cross-continental infrastructure development scheme, under certain conditions. Speaking at a forum in Tokyo on Asia’s future, Abe said those conditions would include “harmony with a free and fair Trans-Pacific economic zone,” alluding to the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact, to which Japan is a signatory but China is not. The One Belt, One Road initiative, put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, would involve massive investment to connect up both a land-based economic belt based off the

Veritas Genetics is offering full genome sequencing of newborns in China,, ordered by a doctor. They will report back on 950 serious early- and later-life disease risks, 200 genes connected to drug reactions, and more than 100 physical traits a child is likely to have. Called myBabyGenome, the service costs $1,500 and could help identify serious hidden problems in newborns, the company says. But some doctors say the plan is a huge overstep. “I think it’s vastly premature to peddle a completely unproven set of data, especially to a vulnerable population like neonates,” says Jim Evans, a professor of genetics

Tesla model 3 reservation holders will be able to test drive the Model 3 in late 2017. The Model 3 will be able to accelerate from 0-60 MPH time of 5.6 seconds and the entry-level model will have a range of 215 miles. The base Model 3 will have a price of $35,000. Tesla plans to open the Model 3 online design studio to early reservation holders in July and should begin deliveries. The first vehicles will be delivered to employees so Tesla can manage test drives internally for those orders.

China launched a quantum satellite called Micius from the Gobi desert last August. It is all part of a push towards a new kind of internet that would be far more secure than the one we use now. The experimental Micius, with its delicate optical equipment, continues to circle the Earth, transmitting to two mountain-top Earth bases separated by 1,200km. The optics onboard are paramount. They’re needed to distribute to the ground stations the particles, or photons, of light that can encode the “keys” to secret messages. “I think we have started a worldwide quantum space race,” says lead researcher