The 'Biospherians' in Biosphere 2 tried to recreate in miniature everything needed to survive on Earth

Just 1,000 light years from Earth, its two companion stars are visible to the naked eye.

Two Seattle-area space ventures — Tethers Unlimited and Rocket Propulsion Systems — are among 124 businesses receiving $750,000 Phase II grants from NASA's Small Business Innovation Research program. The two-year grants, announced today, support the further development of technologies that can benefit future space missions as well as life on Earth. All of the recipients, hailing from 31 states in all, received $125,000 Phase I grants during earlier rounds of funding. "We are encouraged by the ingenuity and creativity we’ve seen from these companies in their Phase I work," Jenn Gustetic, NASA's SBIR program executive said in a news release.… Read More

'This is the first time we've ever looked inside a comet from outside our solar system, and it is dramatically different from most other comets we've seen before'

A set of asteroids that came from outside our solar system have been hiding in plain sight, according to scientists.

Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, answers questions about access to testing for COVID-19, false-negative results and the challenges of mass testing.

Both companies said privacy and preventing governments from using the system to compile data on citizens was a primary goal.

1. China admits coronavirus exposed ‘shortcomings’ in healthcare system  Hindustan Times
2. "Outbreak Big Test That Revealed China's Shortcomings": Top Officer  NDTV
3. China's Socialist Political System Has Shown It Can Overcome Any Challenge: President Xi Jinping On Covid...  News18
4. China to reform disease prevention & control system amid Covid-19 pandemic  Hindustan Times
5. China says it will update disease control measures in wake of coronavirus  The Guardian
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Victor Pickard

The post Instead of Killing the US Postal System, Let’s Expand It appeared first on The Nation.

From coding to engineering challenges, these apps and platforms will keep kids busy

Pokemon GO (Free) from Niantic has been improving with letting people play the game in one place or at home. …

Continue reading "PokeCoin System Changes Are Coming to ‘Pokemon GO’ as Niantic Begins Testing in Australia"

A health economist who has taught on both sides of the border examines the difference between Canada and the United States.

A leading international transportation strategist says Sydney can never have a world-class public transport system, despite the NSW Government's record investment in major projects.

The first report from the 10-month royal commission into aged-care standards offers blunt condemnation of the system, describing it as "unkind and uncaring" and fails to deliver safe care.

Four years ago, Jonda Stephen found herself in a life or death situation. Her partner had hit her in the head multiple times with an iron, so she picked up a knife and stabbed him, in self-defence.

Jamira Burley has found her calling.

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in creating strong coupling between quantum systems over a greater distance. They accomplished this with a novel method in which a laser loop connects the systems, enabling nearly lossless exchange of information and strong interaction between them. In the scientific journal Science, the physicists from the University of Basel and University of Hanover reported that the new method opens up new possibilities in quantum networks and quantum sensor technology.

A new study shows how stem cells -- which can contribute to creating many parts of the body, not just one organ or body part -- are able to postpone their own death in order to respond to an injury that needs their attention. The study was done in planarians, which are tiny worms used as model organisms to study regeneration because of their ability to recover from any injury using stem cells.

Some plants, like soybean, are known to possess an innate defense machinery that helps them develop resistance against insects trying to feed on them. However, exactly how these plants recognize signals from insects has been unknown until now. In a new study, scientists in Japan have uncovered the cellular pathway that helps these plants to sense danger signals and elicit a response, opening doors to a myriad of agricultural applications.

Hematopoietic stem cells from a healthy donor can help patients suffering from acute leukemia. However, the side effects of therapies are often severe. A group of researchers led by the University of Zurich have now shown how human healthy and cancerous hematopoietic stem cells can be more selectively eliminated using immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy in mice. The aim is to test the new immunotherapy in humans as soon as possible.

The most extensive system of haze layers ever observed in the solar system have been discovered and characterised on the planet Saturn.

In many fish species body size plays an important role in sexual selection. Large individuals are preferred mating partners because they can enhance offspring survival by providing better quality resources than small individuals. While large females and males are often favored by sexual selection, fishing targets and removes these reproductively superior individuals. Academy Research Fellow Silva Uusi-Heikkilä discusses in her recent literature review the implications fisheries selection might have on sexual selection, individual reproductive success and population viability.

A new discovery in mice shows the innate immune system has 'memory,' previously thought to be a unique feature of the adaptive immune system. Blocking this memory prevented transplanted organs from being rejected, providing a way to more specific drugs that could lengthen organ transplant survival.

The Aspire MAX 7–11F mechanical thrombectomy system includes large-lumen, flexible, kink-resistant catheters with dilators powered by the Aspire aspirator and/or an electromechanical pump.
News Alerts

Falling demand for electricity caused by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could leave WA's main electricity system at risk of a solar power overload within months, experts have warned.

Super funds and prominent professional investors warn that the mass withdrawal of funds from superannuation during the COVID-19 crisis risks undermining the whole retirement income system.

Australia's electricity grid operator wants the authority to remotely switch off new rooftop solar systems in SA in order to manage their "invisible and uncontrolled" growth.

Certain vitamins, minerals and other supplements can support your immune system as a whole, even though they haven’t been researched for their impact on COVID-19 specifically.

But critics fear his third-party White House bid will only serve to reelect the president.

The coronavirus pandemic is threatening Mexico's fragile public health infrastructure.

Catchpoint delivers world-class Web Performance Monitoring for all Internet services: Website, Mobile, App, Ads, API, DNS, CDN, Streaming, Cloud, & more

BlackLine (NASDAQ: BL) is the worlds most trusted solution for Finance Controls & Automation for delivering powerful real-time automation to accounting & finance teams.

The move will establish Menarini's presence in the US biopharma market

Stemline Therapeutics, whose drug for a rare, aggressive type of acute leukemia was approved by the FDA about 18 months ago, has signed an acquisition deal with Italian biopharma Menarini Group. Stemline (NASDAQ: STML), a New York-based company, developed the first FDA-approved drug for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, or BPDCN. The drug, tagraxofusp (Elzonris) […]

The innate immune system has become a hot area for drug development, and for good reason. As the body’s first line of defense, its function (or dysfunction) plays a role in many diseases. The problem, says Ventus Therapeutics CEO Marcelo Bigal, is that drug developers have been working in the dark. Scientists don’t know the […]

The launch of the renamed, newly independent company follows its acquisition by Altaris Capital Partners.

Privately-held pharma and diagnostics firm Menarini Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire…

COVID-19 is having varying effects on different markets within healthcare, with drug delivery systems…

China will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior health official said on Saturday.

The United States has intervened in a whistleblower suit filed in the District of New Mexico against Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS) and three of its hospitals in New Mexico: Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell, Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming, and Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas. The suit alleges that CHS and its three hospitals violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly causing to be presented to the United States false claims for federal matching Medicaid funds.

The city of Independence, Mo., has agreed to make major improvements to its sanitary sewer system, at an estimated cost of more than $35 million, to eliminate unauthorized overflows of untreated sewage into the Missouri River each year. Under the terms of the consent decree, lodged in Kansas City, Mo., Independence will also pay a civil penalty of $255,000 and will spend an additional $450,000 on supplemental environmental projects designed to enhance Missouri River watershed by improving storm water detention basins and stabilizing stream banks.

The former director of information technology for a non-profit organ and tissue donation center has entered a guilty plea to intruding into her former employer’s computer network.

Three former jailers at the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center (FCDC) pleaded guilty today to civil rights charges in federal court in Lexington, Ky.

Since the 1990s, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has investigated and successfully prosecuted a wide range of international and domestic terrorism cases — including the bombings of the World Trade Center and U.S. Embassies in East Africa in the 1990s.

The city of Jeffersonville, Ind., has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems that will significantly reduce the city’s longstanding sewage overflows into the Ohio River in a comprehensive Clean Water Act settlement with federal and state government.

“The federal Clean Water Act requires that cities act to eliminate or reduce their sewage overflows into the nation’s rivers, lakes and oceans,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The Sewerage & stalled for several years in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – to make extensive improvements to reduce or eliminate sewage overflows into the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and its storm drainage canal system.

"Today, BAE Systems pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully making false statements to U.S. government agencies. The actions of BAE Systems impeded U.S. efforts to ensure international trade is free of corruption and to maintain control over sensitive U.S. technology," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler.