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Directed energy weapon: China develops a powerful new laser assault rifle


RT
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 19:09 UTC
chinese and russian guards
© Reuters
Chinese armed police and Russian national guards take part in a joint counter-terrorism drill.
Chinese Armed Police units may soon have a new weapon, a portable laser beam that can reach targets from a kilometer away and is powerful enough to set flammable things on fire.

Although classified as "non-lethal," the infrared laser projector can "burn through clothes in a split second ... If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire," according to a South China Post report. The device is called ZKZM-500 and has been prototyped by the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi province.

It weighs about 3kg, has an effective range of 800 meters and is powered by a lithium battery pack. It fires in bursts of no more than two seconds and lasts for over 1,000 'shots' before requiring recharge.
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Rocket

Chinese media: China's super-powerful rocket under development outstrips Europe's, NASA's


Sputnik
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 18:42 UTC
Launching rocket
© AP Photo/ Cai Yang/Xinhua via AP
In this photo provided by China's official Xinhua News Agency, a Long March-4C rocket carrying a relay satellite, named Queqiao (Magpie Bridge), is launched from southwest China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Monday, MAY 21, 2018
China is currently developing an ultra-powerful rocket that could deliver heavier payloads into low-Earth orbit than NASA's devices can, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

By 2030, the Chinese Long March-9 rocket will be capable of carrying 140 tonnes into low-Earth orbit, which extend out to 1,200 miles above the Earth's surface, according to Long Lehao, a senior official at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In comparison, Europe's Ariane 5 rocket can deliver 20 tonnes into low-orbit while Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy can catapult 64 tonnes. The Long-March 9 would also outstrip the 130 tonnes that will be delivered by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently under development and expected to become operational in 2020.
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Nebula

Astronomers capture first-ever image of a newborn planet forming amid a disk of gas and dust


RT
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 15:45 UTC
Planet
© ESO/A. Müller et al
Astronomers have captured the first ever confirmed image of a newborn planet forming around a young dwarf star - an ambitious task that has previously proved elusive to scientists.

The planet was caught in the act of formation amid a disk of gas and dust surrounding a young dwarf star, known as PDS 70.

The stunning snapshot, considered the first robust detection of a young planet, was captured by the SPHERE instrument on the ESO's' Very Large Telescope and stands out clearly as a bright point to the right of the blackened center of the image.

The unique photo was made possible thanks to the use of a filter, known as a coronagraph, which blocks the light from the central star and allows the detection of the much fainter disc and planetary companion, the ESO explained.
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Rocket

US Department of Energy: US Air Force test-drops upgraded nuke from B-2 stealth bomber over Nevada


RT
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 18:31 UTC
Pentagon's stelth bomber
© Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images / AFP
The US Air Force has tested the B61-12 nuclear bomb by dropping a dud from a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber over Nevada, as part of an ambitious project to extend the service life of the bomb, introduced in 1968, by another 20 years.

"The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and the US Air Force completed two non-nuclear system qualification flight tests of the B61-12 gravity bomb on June 9 at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada," the Department of Energy announced last week. "These tests are the first such end-to-end qualification tests on a B-2A Spirit Bomber for the B61-12."

The experiments included running trials on "NNSA designed bomb assembly and US Air Force acquired tail-kit," as part of the effort to evaluate the "aircraft's capability to deliver the weapon and the weapon's non-nuclear function."

Comment: See also: US successfully tests new nuclear gravity bomb

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Bulb

Scientists say they've found a way to make invisibility cloaking

Kristin Houser
Science Alert
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 17:47 UTC
"Our work represents a breakthrough in the quest for invisibility cloaking."
Harry Potter
© J.K. Rowling/Warner Bros
Harry Potter
Researchers from Montreal's National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS) just published a study in Optica detailing a new approach to invisibility cloaking.

Their device, called a spectral invisibility cloak, is the first to manipulate the color (or frequency) of the light waves that interact with an object, rendering it invisible.
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Mars

Life on Kepler-186f? Scientists discover the planet appears even more like Earth than we thought


RT
Sun, 01 Jul 2018 15:55 UTC
Planet
© NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle / NASA
Scientists have discovered Kepler-186f is even more like Earth than previously understood, and could be habitable. The planet appears to have seasons and a climate, thanks to its stable axial tilt.

Kepler-186f is an exoplanet, meaning it's located outside our solar system, 500 light years away. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology used simulations to analyze and identify the exoplanet's spin-axis dynamics, which determine to what extent a planet tilts on its axis and how this changes over time.

The study shows Kepler-186f's axial tilt appears to be stable, like Earth's. A planet's axial tilt creates seasons and climates because of how it affects the sunlight hitting the surface, so the research suggests it may have regular seasons.
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Cassiopaea

An easy way to understand the theory of the multiverse

Daniel Cossins
New Scientist
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:00 UTC
bubbles
© Robert Daly/Getty
The idea of an infinite multitude of universes is forced on us by physics. But the multiverse takes many forms - and we're still finding our place within it
JUST don't say they made it up. "One of the most common misconceptions is that the multiverse is a hypothesis," says Sean Carroll at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In fact, it is forced upon us. "It is a prediction of theories we have good reason to think are correct."

The idea that the already vast universe we can see is just one of perhaps infinitely many we can't is certainly a lot to swallow. And it doesn't stop there. The multiverse itself comes in many guises.

Get your head around the most mind-bending concepts in science From black holes to blockchains, from consciousness to the multiverse, we explain it all in this 13-part special

Take the cosmological multiverses. This concept sprouts from eternal inflation, our best explanation for why the universe looks as it does. In the split second after the big bang, the idea goes, space-time expanded exponentially. Random quantum effects brought this inflation to an end in small regions, and these became more sedately expanding bubble universes - like ours - inside a continually ballooning container, budding off more and more bubbles.

Comment: See also:

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Brain

Fundamental rule of brain plasticity discovered by MIT scientists

David Orenstein
MIT News
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:01 UTC
Dendrite Arc
© Sur Lab
A dendrite with round processes or spines, expresses a red fluorescent protein together with a green tag for the protein Arc, obtained with two-photon microscopy.
Our brains are famously flexible, or "plastic," because neurons can do new things by forging new or stronger connections with other neurons. But if some connections strengthen, neuroscientists have reasoned, neurons must compensate lest they become overwhelmed with input. In a new study in Science, researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT demonstrate for the first time how this balance is struck: when one connection, called a synapse, strengthens, immediately neighboring synapses weaken based on the action of a crucial protein called Arc.

Senior author Mriganka Sur said he was excited but not surprised that his team discovered a simple, fundamental rule at the core of such a complex system as the brain, where 100 billion neurons each have thousands of ever-changing synapses. He likens it to how a massive school of fish can suddenly change direction, en masse, so long as the lead fish turns and every other fish obeys the simple rule of following the fish right in front of it.

Comment: For a fascinating discussion about the brain, see: The Health & Wellness Show: Interview With Dr. Valdeane Brown - Nonlinear Dynamic Thinking With NeurOptimal Neurofeedback

See also:

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Moon

Spectacular 'blood moon' on July 27 will be the longest lunar eclipse this century: Here's when and how to see it

Joe Pinkstone
Daily Mail
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 11:49 UTC
lunar eclipse
© AFP/Getty Images
Stargazers can enjoy the longest lunar eclipse this century next month. The event will be visible to most people in the Eastern hemisphere and will last for an incredible 103 minutes (file photo)
Skygazers can enjoy the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century next month.

The lunar event, which takes place on July 27, will be visible to most people living in the Eastern hemisphere and will last for 103 minutes - four minutes short of the longest possible duration an eclipse could last.
Blood moon in Australia: July 28th

According to EarthSky, here's when you'll be able to enjoy the show in Australia on July 28th (times in AEST):

3.14am: Eclipse begins

5.30am: The moon can be seen at is reddest

6.21am: Maximum eclipse

7.13am: Total eclipse ends
The rare celestial event is the result of several astronomical events aligning, which will prolong the phenomenon.

During the eclipse, the moon will pass through Earth's darkest shadow, known as umbra, causing it to take on a red sheen, giving rise to the 'blood moon' name.

No equipment is needed to view the event, with the naked eye more than enough to watch the century's most impressive eclipse.

Unlike a solar eclipse, where the moon crosses the path of the sun, it is perfectly safe to look directly at the lunar eclipse.

People hoping to enjoy the 'blood moon' need only to hope for clear skies.
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Document

Monsanto's ghostwriting & strong-arming threaten sound science

Sheldon Krimsky
Environmental Health News
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 18:13 UTC
ghostwriting
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Discovery documents uncover the corporate capture of science, which puts public health, and the very foundation of democracy, at risk.

While passing a placard of contemporary protest buttons in New York's Greenwich Village, my attention was drawn to one that read "Science is Peer Reviewed, Not Politician Approved."

This short aphorism brought into focus two unfortunate realities. First, there are growing segments of the population who have lost confidence in science and choose to act on un-scientific or pseudo-scientific truth claims. And second, other segments of the population view scientists as just another stakeholder group subject to the same market influences in the competition for producing credible knowledge.
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