NextBigFuture.com

The researchers behind the AlphaFold artificial-intelligence (AI) system have won one of this year’s US$3-million Breakthrough prizes — the most lucrative awards in science. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, both at DeepMind in London, were recognized for creating the tool that has predicted the 3D structures of almost every known protein on the planet. “Few ... Read more

There are reports that Ukraine is pushing into Lyman and several areas near the major breakthrough near the city of Izium. Russia has called up 300,000 reservists. This will likely take a few weeks to get those reservists into Ukraine. Russia will get those who are unable to avoid the draft. However, they will have ... Read more

The leader of the Antiaging movement, Aubrey de Grey, has started a new antiaging foundation. The new foundation will be advancing combination antiaging damage repair therapies. The new foundation will work with Ichor Life Sciences. Ichor spun out of Aubrey’s prior foundation. Ichor has macular regeneration work and has expanded to senenscent cells and acts ... Read more

NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting many organic material rich rock-core samples. They are sampling a top prospect for finding signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The rover has collected four samples from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater since July 7, bringing the total count of scientifically compelling rock samples ... Read more

The Tesla Full Self Driving beat program is expanding from 100,000 owners to 160,000 owners over the next two days. This will cover everyone with a safety score over 80. This roughly means all people who do not have more than about two unsafe events per drive. This should be about 90% of all people ... Read more

Lynk Global secured regulatory approval Sept. 16 to operate its initial cellphone-compatible constellation globally, although the startup needs to deploy more satellites and get landing rights before it can start services. There are many companies working on satellite direct to cellphone communication. For years, the world has satellite phones. The regular satellite phone business is ... Read more

Star Scientific has raised over $100 million over two decades. Early on they were working on muon catalyzed fusion but they seem to have transitioned to non-combustion heat generation from hydrogen. The are using some thin-film catalyst that generates heat when exposed to hydrogen and oxygen. The Hydrogen Energy Release Optimiser (HERO) converts hydrogen into ... Read more

Excess deaths (less than 4% of the 16% EU average excess death are Covid related) have doubled in July, 2022 and reached 37% in Spain and over 16% on average in the European Union. The world needs to research and determine and stop these excess deaths. Excess mortality in the EU climbed to +16% in ... Read more

The Blue Origin BE-4 might get certified for flight tests by December of this year. It is about 5-6 years late for an original 2017 planned operational date. The BE-4 engine project started in 2014. It would be the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled rocket engine ever developed. Using an oxygen-rich staged combustion ... Read more

Lockheed Martin has delivered a tactically-relevant electric 300 kW-class laser to the US Army. This laser will be put onto a heavy military truck. It is the most powerful laser that Lockheed Martin has produced to date. This 300 kW-class laser is ready to integrate with the DOD demonstration efforts including the U.S. Army’s Indirect ... Read more

Lex Fridman talked with Ray Kurzweil about the Technological Singularity. Ray still asserts that computer artificial intelligence will pass the Turing Test in 2029 and the Singularity will happen around 2045. In the past, Ray has clarified that his predictions date are usually with an implied plus or minus one decade. A Ray Kurzweil prediction ... Read more

Rejuvant AKG had an average 7 month study on people and it reversed 8 years of biological age according to methylization biomarker clocks. This work needs to be validated with more studies. The time released combination of Calcium and Alpha-Ketoglutarate in Rejuvant’s LifeAKG™ seems to reset methylation patterns in your DNA. However, there needs to ... Read more

Rocket Lab launched its 30th Electron rocket into space. It is carrying a radar satellite.

Japanese researchers have made progress on an exercise pill. The exercise pill is a drug that mimics the effect of exercise on muscle and bone. They want to provide this for people who are bedridden or otherwise unable to exercise. LAMZ augments muscle and bone by mimicking calcium signaling to induce PGC-1α. Schematic of LAMZ ... Read more

Russia is acknowldging the defeat in Ukraine and Putin is blaming the loss on underinformed military advisors within Putin’s circle. The Kremlin’s admission of defeat in Kharkiv shows that Putin is willing and able to recognize and even accept a Russian defeat at least in some circumstances and focus on deflecting blame from himself. This ... Read more

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced “Community Chats” are coming to Messenger and Facebook Groups. Community Chat is similar to Discord. It allows large Messenger groups to organize chats into categories, including audio and video channels for real-time discussion, admin-only chats for announcements and event chats. Most people use feeds to discover content and use messaging ... Read more

In the late 1960s, Oak Ridge National Labs in the USA built and operated a 7.5 MW thermal molten salt reactor. During 1968, it operated 75% of the time and generated 41,000 megawatt hours of heat. The film below was produced in 1969 by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the United States Atomic Energy Commission ... Read more

The Great Age Reboot is the concept developed by leading longevity practitioner, Michael Roizen, M.D. (Dr. Mike), Emeritus Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic and best-selling author. Roizen believes that sometime in the next 10 years, you are going to be able to—because of the exponential advances in 14 areas of aging mechanism research—reboot ... Read more

Google has spun out a new laser communication company called Aalyria. It will manage a hyper-fast, ultra-secure, and highly complicated communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space. Aalyria will “radically” enhance satellite communications, airplane Wi-Fi, and other forms of cellular connectivity. It is also stated that the spinout has already ... Read more

David Axe, respected and experienced military journalist, says Russia is losing a Battalion every day. Losses have tripled during the Ukraine offensive. Russia has 100 understrength battalions. Increased equipment loss is confirmed. There are about 1000 soldiers per battalion. The Russian army is losing at least a battalion’s worth of vehicles and men a day ... Read more

Russia has not yet stabilized its defensive lines against Ukraine. Ukraine is still advancing after routing Russian Forces from the Kharkiv region. Russia had retreated past the Oskil river. Ukraine seems to have pushed beyond the Oskil river in several points. There are reports of some towns and locations being taken in the Donetsk and ... Read more

the National University of Singapore (NUHS) opens Singapore’s first Centre for Healthy Longevity to increase healthy lifespan of Singapore population by five more disease-free years. The Centre will develop an integrative pre-clinical laboratory model and clinical human research pipeline that focuses on identifying, and treating biological hallmarks of disease. Lien Foundation gifts S$5 million to ... Read more

Nextbigfuture makes public predictions at Metaculus. I am now ranked 58th (tied for 58th). There are several thousand participants making forecasts at Metaculus. Metaculus is an American reputation-based, massive online prediction solicitation and aggregation engine. Metaculus focuses on predicting the timing, nature and impact of scientific and technological advances and breakthroughs. They also have geopolitical ... Read more

New Shepard’s 23rd mission, a dedicated payloads flight, was to fly 36 payloads from academia, research institutions, and students across the globe. The booster rocket failed about 1 minute into the flight as it reached MaxQ. The unmanned crew capsule did seperate and land safely. There were no passengers but if there were passengers they ... Read more

SpaceX has one super heavy booster and Starship prepared for an orbital test flight. The next booster and Starship are also nearly completed and a third set is nearing completion. Starbase Production Diagram – 7th September 2022 pic.twitter.com/moxg3CZ81q — Brendan (@_brendan_lewis) September 7, 2022 Here's an animated gif of your awesome #SpacexStarship Build Diagrams from ... Read more

Russia does not seem like they will be able to quickly fix the problems that resulted in Ukraine breaking through Russian lines and take over 8000 square kilometers of land. US satellites and intelligence have been able to precisely identify ammo depots and command centers. Russia has no response to precision long-range HIMARS artillery. Why ... Read more

Ukrainian arm forces appears to have forced Russia’s military to retreat to the south side of the Oskil River. This means all of the area around Kupyansk and Izium have been retaken. The collapse of Russian lines seems to show the effectiveness of new Ukrainian tactics and US intelligence. Ukraine used Himars precision long-range artillery ... Read more

Ukrainian forces have forced Russian soldiers to withdraw from Izium, the city’s mayor has announced. Russia’s forces sieged Izium nearly six months ago, and now the country has confirmed that all forces have now been pulled from the northeastern Ukrainian city. The new Ukrainian stronghold marks more rapid expansion into the northeast, a foray into ... Read more

Apple’s SOS feature would work better wiyh SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. Just last month, SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a plan called Coverage Above & Beyond that would provide text coverage to users in dead zones. Coverage Above & Beyond will take a slice of T-Mobile’s mid-band PCS Spectrum and integrate it into Starlink satellites set to ... Read more

Ukrainian forces advanced 50km (30 miles) deep into Russian defensive positions north of Izyum on September 8 and took control of Balakliya city. In the Kharkiv Oblast counteroffensives advanced to within 20 kilometers of Russia’s key logistical node in Kupyansk on September 8. Ukraine has already recaptured 1000 square kilometers of territory. Ukrainian forces will ... Read more

DARPA’s AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY X-Plane program, nicknamed ANCILLARY, aims to develop and flight demonstrate critical technologies required for a leap ahead in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), low-weight, high-payload, and long-endurance capabilities. The goal is to build a plane that can launch from ship flight decks and small austere land locations in ... Read more

DARPA engaged cybersecurity research and consulting firm Trail of Bits to examine the fundamental properties of blockchains and the cybersecurity risks associated with them. Trail of bits investigated the extent to which blockchains are truly decentralized. They focused primarily on the two most popular blockchains: Bitcoin and Ethereum. They also investigated proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains and ... Read more

Long time readers of Nextbigfuture know that I have been optimistic about China’s economy for well over two decades. Those were correct and accurate tracking and forecasts. There would be complaints that tracking the situation every few months was boosterism for China. Well the change has happened. China’s economy has basically stalled out. China’s economy ... Read more

Assuming each EV travels 12,000 miles annually, consuming approximately 300 Wh/mi of AC energy and assuming 4.9 % system losses for transmission and distribution, then each EV will require 3.8 MWh/year of energy generation. If there were 10 million EVs in California then they would need 28 TWh/year. The US has added up to 100 ... Read more

Binary options trading and its leverage make the investment method tempting for many traders. If you are interested in the strategy, it can, however, be challenging to find a suitable broker. Many nations have banned binary trading thanks to high risks and many scam providers on the market. Still, the trading method is popular, and ... Read more

Euro NCAP has tested the Tesla Model Y as its safest car. They created the five-star safety rating system to help consumers, their families and businesses compare vehicles more easily and to help them identify the safest choice for their needs. The Euro NCAP tests matches other third party safety information and testing that Nextbigfuture ... Read more

The Artemis Space Launch System was built to be expendable. The rocket has had more fuel loading and unloading from tests and from scrubbed launches than planned. Fuel loading and unloading cycles the rocket between extreme cold and normal temperatures. This can increase cracks and leaks which are already a problem. Winter launch schedules in ... Read more

The last mile of a package delivery is the most difficult due to dynamic, uncertain environments both inside and outside of the vehicle. A delivery truck can start completely organized and packed with boxes. As packages are individually delivered, however, the neat stacks can slide or fall over as the vehicle moves. Outside of the ... Read more

This is a review of a 2020 academic paper about using learning systems to train robotics arms and hands to grasp objects. Learning-based approaches to grasp planning are preferred over analytical methods due to their ability to better generalize to new, partially observed objects. However, data collection remains one of the biggest bottlenecks for grasp ... Read more

Researchers with DARPA’s Machine Common Sense (MCS) program demonstrated a series of improvements to robotic system performance over multiple experiments. Just as infants must learn from experience, MCS seeks to construct computational models that mimic the core domains of child cognition for objects (intuitive physics), agents (intentional actors), and places (spatial navigation). Using only simulated ... Read more

Five skeletons have now been found in the receding waters of Lake Mead near Las Vegas. The water level at Lake Mead is lower than any time since the 1930s. The first body was found in a barrel in the spring. The person inside was dead of a gunshot wound decades ago, according to authorities. ... Read more

Energy Parks on Twitter was trying to push unsubstantiated fears of battery fires in response to my coverage of my positive experience with Tesla solar power and Powerwall batteries. My positive experience is that I have ample solar power to run my air conditioning in recent hot weather 95-117F (35-47C). I sell power back to ... Read more

The Defense Department and other federal agencies have sought advanced sources that generate gamma rays, X-rays, neutrons, protons, and electrons to enable a variety of scientific, commercial, and defense applications – from medical diagnostics, to scans of cargo containers for dangerous materials, to non-destructive testing of aircraft and their parts to see internal defects. But ... Read more

DARPA has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to explore the potential for machine learning and artificial intelligence tools and techniques to accelerate critical mineral assessments. The goal is to significantly speed up the assessment of the nation’s critical mineral resources by automating key steps in the process. Assessments can quantify potential mineral sources ... Read more

DARPA is moving into Phase 2 of the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program to develop a 210 ton robotic naval ship. In Phase 2, Serco will finalize ship design, build the ship, and work through a series of rigorous testing activities before taking it to sea for a three-month demonstration event. The first robotic ... Read more

Chuck Cook performs some of the most stringent testing of Tesla’s Full Self Driving software. He has performed many tests on unprotected left turns and roundabouts. Based upon his latest batch of tests for version FSD 10.69.1.1 he feels FSD feels ready for wide release. He says it is still early to jump up and ... Read more

In the MIT Technology Review Celine Halioua, CEO and founder of Loyal a company working on dog longevity said the antiagig field has “suffered from a branding issue” owing to outlandish claims made in the 1990s and 2000s. “Big names [Aubrey de Grey] in the field were yelling about 1,000-year life spans and immortality,” she ... Read more

NASA will roll the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) before the next launch attempt to reset the system’s batteries. The flight termination system is required on all rockets to protect public safety. Engineers could not overcome a hydrogen leak in a quick disconnect, an interface between the liquid ... Read more

A heat wave will last until the end of this week in the San Francisco Bay Area. Temperatures 100F (38C) or so all week. Today is the fourth day out of the last five days with a Virtual Power Plant event. Tesla has created the software so that the utility PGE (Pacific Gas Electric) can ... Read more