NextBigFuture.com

Five finalist teams in the Google Lunar XPRIZE have been set, and they all have rocket launch contracts to go to the Moon in 2017.

John Hurt, who died on Friday, was a brilliant and versatile actor who made memorable film appearances over five decades.

Organovo designs and create functional human tissues using our proprietary three-dimensional bioprinting technology. Their goal is to build living human tissues that are proven to function like native tissues. With reproducible 3D tissues that accurately represent human biology, they are enabling ground-breaking therapies by:

Every year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.

Devastating tsunamis could be halted before hitting the Earth’s shoreline by firing deep-ocean sound waves at the oncoming mass of water, new research has proposed.

Doctors in London say they have cured two babies of leukemia in the world’s first attempt to treat cancer with genetically engineered immune cells from a donor.

A simple chemistry method could vastly enhance how scientists search for signs of life on other planets.

An initiative launched two years ago by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco to use CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to develop new disease therapies is expanding into research on the planet’s major crops and poorly understood microbiomes, with plans to invest $125 million in these areas over the next five years.

most people, crystals mean diamond bling, semiprecious gems or perhaps the jagged amethyst or quartz crystals beloved by collectors.

The future development of Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, the northeast Alabama facility sold at auction in November, will generate an economic impact of $1 billion and provide more than 12,000 jobs.

Astronauts heading into orbit aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will wear lighter and more comfortable spacesuits than earlier versions. The suit capitalizes on historical designs, meets NASA requirements for safety and functionality, while introducing cutting-edge innovations. Boeing unveiled its spacesuit design Wednesday as the company continues to move toward flight tests of its Starliner spacecraft and launch systems that will fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

The U.S. Navy is moving at warp speed to develop lasers with more lethality, precision and power sources as a way to destroy attacking missiles, drones aircraft and other threats.

D-Wave is also working on a fifth model, which will provide even greater capacity and connectivity and a closer fit to scientists’ needs. It will likely to launch within two years, the machine will again double the number of qubits, to around 4,000. Crucially, it will also provide more-complex connections between qubits, allowing it to tackle more-complicated problems.

Ukraine has test fired for the first time newly designed engine AI-136T. It is intended for China's super heavy helicopter program. The helicopter itself is planned to be based on Soviet MI-26 airframe design, although scaled down somewhat to a smaller size. In combination with more powerful engine than previously used, new helicopter is expected to be a much more energetic machine, with higher combat ceiling, higher speed and better maneuverability. Expected payload capacity is 30 tons.

A construction robot has to be powerful enough to handle heavy material, small enough to enter standard buildings, and flexible enough to navigate the terrain.

Computer scientists at Stanford set out to create an artificially intelligent diagnosis algorithm for skin cancer. They made a database of nearly 130,000 skin disease images and trained their algorithm to visually diagnose potential cancer. From the very first test, it performed with inspiring accuracy.

The Navy is electing to use the controversial Advanced Arresting Gear on its next Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), USNI News has learned.

Elon Musk thinks being stuck in traffic is “soul-destroying” — but, he has a solution: tunnels. Musk has been tweeting about tunnels for a month now, and even said he’s going to build a tunnel boring machine and start digging. In developed cities, we can’t widen roadways, and elevated highways are ugly. So, we dig.

The Tesla Gigafactory will significantly add to the world supple of lithium batteries.

A Kansas State University team of physicists has discovered a way to mass-produce graphene with three ingredients: hydrocarbon gas, oxygen and a spark plug.

There are adiabatic factoring algorithms and methods.

Terrestrial Energy USA announced today it had informed the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of its plans to license a small modular reactor (SMR) in the USA. Terrestrial said it intends to start "pre-application interactions" with the regulator this year and to make its licensing application in late 2019.

In high frequency trading, the latency gold standard is 200 nanoseconds. If you’re an equity trader using a Bloomberg Terminal or Thomson Reuters Eikon, latency of more than 200 nanoseconds is considered to be shockingly pedestrian, putting you at risk of buying or selling a stock at a higher or lower price than the one you saw quoted. Now, with its announcement of TCPDirect, Solarflare said it has cut latency by 10X, to 20-30 nanoseconds.

The Carnival of Space 492 is up at Urban Astronomer

Survivalism, the practice of preparing for the collapse of civilization, tends to evoke a certain picture: the woodsman in the tinfoil hat, the hysteric with the hoard of beans, the religious doomsayer. But in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort.

The robot on an oil drillship in the Gulf of Mexico made it easier for Mark Rodgers to do his job stringing together heavy, dirty pipes. It could also be a reason he’s not working there today.

D-Wave Systems Inc., the leader in quantum computing systems and software, today announced general commercial availability of the D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer. D-Wave also announced the first customer for the new system, Temporal Defense Systems Inc. (TDS), a cutting-edge cyber security firm. With 2000 qubits and new control features, the D-Wave 2000Q system can solve larger problems than was previously possible, with faster performance, providing a big step toward production applications in optimization, cybersecurity, machine learning, and sampling.

Solar energy prices have been dropping for decades. There is a lag in the price per watt of off grid solar for solar home systems behind the cost for solar per watt for the most efficient utility solar projects.

Achieving the transformation to sustainable agriculture is a major challenge. Changes will need to be made in a way that does not jeopardize the capacity of the agriculture sectors crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry – to meet the world’s food needs. Global food demand in 2050 is projected to increase by at least 60 percent above 2006 levels, driven by population and income growth, as well as rapid urbanization. In the coming decades, population increases will be concentrated in regions with the highest prevalence of undernourishment and high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

Eradicating world hunger sustainably by 2030 will require an estimated additional $267 billion per year on average for investments in rural and urban areas and in social protection, so poor people have access to food and can improve their livelihoods, a new UN report says. This would average $160 annually for each person living in extreme poverty over the 15 year period.

Roam Robotics wants to create light and affordable exoskeletons that will be usable by a lot of people for everyday use.

Researchers have demonstrated the high-performance potential of an experimental transistor made of a semiconductor called beta gallium oxide, which could bring new ultra-efficient switches for applications such as the power grid, military ships and aircraft.

SF State astronomer Stephen Kane is searching for signs of life in one of the extrasolar systems closest to Earth.

F-35s, F-22s and other fighter jets will soon use improved “artificial intelligence” to control nearby drone “wingmen” able to carry weapons, test enemy air defenses or perform intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions in high risk areas, senior Air Force officials said.

CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery has been delayed again as the series continues casting. The series is set roughly a decade before the events (2258-2260) of the original Star Trek series, the series follows the crew of the USS Discovery as they discover new worlds and civilizations, while exploring the franchise's signature contemporary themes.

Based on actual first year driving data, Tesla vehicles with first generation Autopilot had a crash rate that was 40% less than regular cars without Autopilot.

By the 2030s — Russia may become less dangerous than Iran, which military strategist Andrew Krepinevich forthcoming study from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments ranks currently at No. 3.

The Whitehouse has issued an America First Energy Plan

President Trump has issued a series of official Whitehouse policy statements. "Making Our Military Strong Again" says they will end the defense sequester and submit a new budget to Congress outlining a plan to rebuild our military. We will provide our military leaders with the means to plan for our future defense needs.

Smartphones will continue to grow through Gartner’s forecast period, but their share of the semiconductor pie will peak in 2017 at 25.4% and their overall amount of chip revenue will max out at $97.7 billion in 2018 as growth shifts to mid- and low-end models.

Russia is making an improved T90M variant of the T90 tank which will feature many of the technologies developed for Russia’s revolutionary T-14 Armata. The T-90M will be remanufactured from Russia’s existing fleet of T-90As — will be far less costly than the fearsome, but expensive, Armata.

Morgan Stanley said it has increased its expectations for the Tesla Model 3, now saying the launch will take place later this year, and raised its sales forecast for Teslas overall to 183,000 in 2018 from its previous target of 114,000, although this is still 64% lower than the company’s 500,000 ambition for 2018. Morgan Stanley’s overall volume projection for 2020 is about two thirds less than Tesla’s 1 million. It doesn’t expect net profitability under U.S. GAAP rules before 2019 and free cash flow generation until very late 2018.

Axanar Productions is pleased to announce that we have reached a formal resolution to the lawsuit brought against Alec Peters, and the fan film production, AXANAR, by CBS Studios, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation.

DARPA has created the Multi-Azimuth Defense—Fast Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES) program to design and develop technologies associated with a medium-caliber guided projectile It will combine the guidance, precision and accuracy generally afforded by missiles with the speed, rapid-fire capability and large ammunition capacity afforded by bullets.

The biggest leap "in decades" in diagnosing prostate cancer has been made using new scanning equipment, say doctors and campaigners. Using advanced MRI nearly doubles the number of aggressive tumors that are caught. And the trial on 576 men, published in the Lancet, showed more than a quarter could be spared invasive biopsies, which can lead to severe side-effects.

The first Death Star had a diameter of between 140 and 160 kilometers. The second Death Star's diameter ranged from 160 to 900 kilometers.

The United States should copy and adapt an improved healthcare system based upon analysis of international systems. This article will review the last attempt at a universal healthcare policy (Medicare for All) and then some of the more successful healthcare systems in the world will be reviewed. Here is a 180 page document that reviews health systems around the world in 2015

Philippine President Duterte will visit China in May to attend the One Belt One Road conference. When Duterte made his first visit to China in October, the communist government in Beijing agreed to pump in $24 billion worth of funds.