Virgin Galactic Reaches Space

On December 13th 2018, Virgin Galactic announced that it had successfully flown its spacecraft to the edge of space, marking a milestone for the would be consumer space flight company. The spacecraft VSS Unity lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, attached to the belly of a larger craft called the WhiteKightTwo, aka VMS Eve. At 43,000 feet, Unity was released from Eve as it fired its rocket motor, eventually achieving a velocity of Mach 2.9.

Pilots, Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturchow continued their rocket burn for 60 seconds, propelling the VSS Unity to an altitude of 54.1 miles, which is 1.4 miles above what NASA considers to the boundaries of space. At that height, it is possible to witness the stars against the background of the darkness of space. Then, with its tail folded it reentered the atmosphere, at supersonic speed, and glided back to the Space Port runway in the Mojave desert.

The OSIRIS-REx Space Craft Discovers Water On Asteroid Bennu

On December 10th 2018, NASA announced that its spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx has discovered water on the asteroid, Bennu. OSIRIS-REx, which was launched two years ago, arrived at its destination, on December 3rd, after a 1.2 billion mile journey. The spacecraft is within twelve miles of the asteroid's surface. The presence of water was detected by OSIRIS-REx's two on board spectrometers, OVIRS and OTES.

OSIRIS-REx which stands for, Origins, Spectral Interpretations, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, is expected to slip into orbit around Bennu on December 31st 2018. The spacecraft's mission is to to grab a sizable sample of the asteroid and return it to Earth. After achieving an orbit of about one mile above the asteroid's surface, OSIRIS-REx is expected, at some point, to swoop down and tap Bennu.

At that point, the spacecraft will use its Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), to suck up a two once sample of material. That maneuver, which will not be an actual landing, is expected to last only about 5 seconds. OSIRIS-REx is then expected to stay in orbit around Bennu until 2021, before beginning its journey home. The spacecraft will bring its payload back to Earth, landing in a Utah desert in September 2023.

NASA's InSight Space Craft Lands On Mars

On Monday November 26th, NASA announced that it had successfully landed its InSight robot lander on the surface of Mars. InSight which stands for, Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, reached the Martian surface at 11:52:29 Pacific Time after plunging through a thin Martian atmosphere. From its Elysium Planitia landing site, InSight will carry out its two year mission to probe beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

InSight is a three legged, stationary lander instead of a rover. Its stationary position will allow InSight to study the planet for the existence of seismic anomalies called, Mars quakes. To do this, InSight will deploy a seismometer from its robotic arm. The arm will also be used to deploy a self hammering nail that will drill down into Martian surface to a depth of 16 feet in order to determine the planet's temperature.

Legendary Comic Book Creator, Stan Lee, Dies At 95

On November 12th 2018, legendary comic book creator, Stan Lee died. He as 95. While the cause of his death was not immediately known, it has been said that his passing was due to pneumonia. Mr Lee is best known for the characters, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, and many others, which he created or co created while working for Marvel Comics. Mr. Lee was a writer and editor in chief of Marvel Comics during the 60s.

Mr Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28th 1922 in Manhattan, New York, NY. He began his career in comics in 1939, at the age of 17, working for Timely Comics, which would go on to become, Marvel Comics.  When he began scripting comics, he started using the name, Stan Lee, as his pen name. Mr Lee became the publisher of Marvel in 1972, a year after a story that he wrote threaten to create a controversy.

Some of Mr Lee's earliest collaborators included, Jack Kirby, with whom he created, the Fantastic Four in 1961 and artist, Steve Ditko, with whom he created Spider-Man, in 1962. Mr Lee moved to Hollywood in 1980 where he helped to develop Marvel Properties. Their first TV series, The Hulk, although airing for four years, was not viewed as a success. However, the success of an animated X-Men TV series which aired on FOX from 1992 to 1997, led to the live action X-Men franchise.

Through out the many films that Marvel has released, Mr lee has had a both a producer's credit and a cameo appearance. In the 1990s, he was named chairman emeritus of Marvel. Mr Lee's wife Joan B. Lee, died  July 6, 2017. He is survived by his daughters, Joan Celia Lee and Jan Lee.



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Was Oumuamua An Alien Spacecraft?

On November 1st 2018, two Harvard astronomers posted a paper that endeavors to make the case that the asteroid Oumuamua was actually an alien spacecraft. Oumuamua is a cigar shaped object that was spotted passing through our solar system by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii in 2017. In their paper, the two scientist mark as fact, that Oumamua was 400 meters long, but only a tenth as wide.

The object also flew by on a trajectory that places its origin somewhere outside our solar system, and it appeared to accelerate as it made its way through. The two researchers, Shmuel Bialy and Avi Leob believe that Oumuamua's acceleration is the most notable clue. While some have considered Oumuamua to be a comet, they point out that comets tend to develop a tail as they round the sun, but Oumuamua did not have one.

If this doesn't make the case for aliens, Bialy and Leob postulate that because of Oumuamua shape size and dimensions, it's possible that it could be a piece of advanced technology called a solar sail. A solar sail uses the power of whats known as the solar wind as a means of propelling a spacecraft. They suggest that Oumuamua may be a piece of debris that may have broken off from some alien craft. The two also posit that Oumuamua could have been a probe designed to gather information about possible life in our solar system.

The Kepler Sapce Telescope Goes End Of Mission

On October 30th 2018, NASA announced that its Kepler Space Telescope is out of fuel and will be officially decommissioned in a matter of weeks. The space craft which was launched on March 6th 2009 had already exceeded its planned 4 year mission. The Kepler Space Telescope was NASA's first attempt at detecting exo planets, or planets that orbit other stars in our galaxy. During its 9 year tenure, the Kepler Space Telescope discovered and confirmed 2,681 planets.

Sears Files For Bankruptcy

On October 14th 2018, Sears filed for Chapter 11 protection and officially declared bankruptcy. Sears opened for business in the 1880s as Sears, Roebuck, and Company. The once mail order giant had been struggling in recent years, trying to keep pace with online competitors such as Amazon and Walmart. Sears merged with Kmart in 2005 in an effort to keep the chain viable. Company execs. say that they expect to close 142 of its unprofitable stores by the end of 2018.

New Release!

Just released a new single in my given name, John Hughley, entitled, "Movin' On." It's now available at iTunes and Spotify!

Scientist Create A Brain To Brain Network

On September 23rd a team of scientists from the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University announced that they have successfully connected three living human brains, to form the worlds first neural social network. The teams leader, Dr. Rajesh P.D. Rao says that the new system is called BrainNet. In their research, the team was able to use the BrainNet interface to allow the three brains to play a game of Tetris.

In the study, the team used two senders and one receiver. The senders used electroencephalograms or EEGs, while the receiver used a transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS helmet. The two senders could see the game but the receiver could not. The senders sent messages to the receiver that were registered as flashes of light. This helped the receiver to orient the game pieces. The team was able to get an 81% success rate from five groups of three subjects each.

Windows 10 October 2018 Update Is Now Availale

On October 2nd 2018, Microsoft announced that its Windows October 2018 update is now available. The new update offers features such as the, Your Phone app, Cloud Clipboard, Dark Theme for file explorer, Search Previews, a new Screenshot Tool, improvements to Microsoft Edge, and better HDR/Ray-Tracing support. You can get the new update now by checking for new updates, or you can wait and the file will be pushed to you on Patch Tuesday.

Japanese Successfully Land Rovers On An Asteroid

On September 21st 2018, JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, announced that they have successfully landed two rovers on an asteroid. The two rovers which are named MINERVA-II1, were deployed by the Hyabusa2 spacecraft, which is in orbit around the asteroid, Ryugu. The Haybusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with the Ryugu asteroid in June of 2018.

MINERVA stands for Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid. The two rovers will not roll across the asteroid for they have no wheels. Instead, the two robots will hop around during their exploration of the asteroid's surface. A third lander and an impactor, as well as several other experiments will also be deployed during the mission. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft's mission is to probe the asteroid for 18 months before returning to Earth in 2020.
 

Astronomers May Have Found Vulcan

On spetember 18th 2018, scientist announced in the Journal Nature that they have discovered an exoplanet that coould be the real life home of the fictional character Spock, from the TV show, Star Trek. The planet has been discovered orbiting the star, 40 Eridani, which as noted by Gene Roddenberry, is where the planet Vulcan orbits. The star is also know as HD 26965 and it was discovered by a team working on the Dharma Planet Survey

HD 26965 or 40 Eridani is about the same age of the Earth or around 4 billion years. It's 16 light years from Earth. The exoplanet in question is twice the size of the Earth and is considered to be a, "super earth." The planet has a 42 day orbit aournd its star and lies just inside the habitable zone. HD 26965 is cooler and less masive than Earth's sun, and it is just one star of a trinary star sytem. The discovery of 40 Eridani or HD26956 was made using the DEFT telecscope in Arizona.

Australian Scientists Discover New Species Of Fish

On September 10th 2018, a team of scientists from the University of Newcastle, announced that they have discovered three new species of snailfish. The discovery was made after a 7,500 foot dive into the Atacama Trench in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile and Peru. The new find is being tentatively being called the pink, the blue, and the purple snailfish. A member of the team, Dr. Thomas Linley said that it is rare to discover three new species at one time.

According to Dr Linley, the new species can be described as, "surprisingly active." The snailfish have long, translucent, gelatinous bodies that have no scales. Their eyes are beady, and unlike most deep sea predators, they don't have menacing teeth. It is believed that the new species would melt if brought to the ocean's surface, but the team was able to retrieve a specimen, in good condition, which they took back to their lab to be analyzed.

Scientists Want To Nudge Asteroids Toward Earth

On August 4th 2018, a team of scientists announced in the journal Acta Astronautica, that they have devised a method by which asteroids could be brought into Earth orbit for the purpose of mining them. The leader of the team, and PhD student at the University of Glasgow, Minghu Tan, believes that asteroids that are under 30 meters in diameter could be maneuvered into orbit through the process of aerobarking.

Minghu and his colleagues, Colin McInnes and Matteo Ceriotti have theorized that asteroids millions of miles away could be nudged toward the Earth by using an automated spacecraft. The spacecraft would keep the asteroids on accurate trajectories by making course corrections as needed. When an asteroid is close enough the spacecraft would begin the aerobraking process. The asteroid would graze the atmosphere, there by slowing it down to orbital speed.

Once the asteroid has been safely maneuvered into Earth orbit, it could be mined for water and precious metals such as gold and platinum

Scientist Discover The Rosehip Neuron

On August 27th 2018, A team of scientists from the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the University of Szeged, announced in the Journal Nature, that they had discovered a a previously unidentified cell in the human brain. The cell is being called the "rosehip neuron," and it is not found in any other animal. The team believes that this may be the reason way brain treatments developed by experimenting on mice, don't work in people.

"Rosehip neurons," are called such because they resemble a rose with all of its petals removed. They are found in the top of the human cortex, which is responsible for consciousness. This is also the area of the brain that makes humans unique. The team is not certain as to the exact functioning of the newly found cells, but they believe that "rosehip neurons," may be responsible for controlling the flow of information within the brain.

Soul And R&B Legend Aretha Franklin Dies At 76

Aretha Franklin, soul and R&B legend, died on August 16th at 9:50 am, she was 76 years old. The, "Queen of Soul," passed on surrounded by her family in her home in Detroit. The official cause of her death was pancreatic cancer. Ms Franklin had announced her retirement from touring in 2017. Her voice was distinctive and her unique style propelled her to stardom with hits such as "Respect," which was released in 1968.

Ms Franklin was born March 25th 1942 in Memphis Tennessee, to the Rev. C.L. Franklin who was a well known Baptist minister and gospel singer. Two years after her birth, Rev. Franklin moved the family to Detroit. Four years later, Ms Franklin's mother Barbara passed away. By the time that Ms. Franklin had reached her teenage years, she had become a very accomplished piano player and singer. She sang in her father's church and because of him, she got to tour on the gospel circuit.

In 1966, Ms. Franklin signed with Atlantic Records. In 1968, after the successful release of her albums, "Lady Soul," and, "Aretha Now," she was given the name, "Queen of Soul." Those albums gave the world such hits as, "Think," "Chain of Fools," Baby, I Love you," and "Since You've Been Gone. She had huge success with the releases of the Carol King song, "(You Make Me Feel Like)A Natural Woman," and her signature song, "Respect," which was written by Otis Redding.

While she had done very well with remaking the songs of others, such as Simon and Garfunkel's, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," she was also an accomplished songwriter, writing such songs as, "Daydreaming," "Ain't No Way," and "Rock steady. She worked hard to become adept as a producer as well. Over the course of her 60 year career, she amassed a total of 18 Grammy Awards. Ms. Franklin  has the honor of being the first female recording artist to be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

Ms Franklin is survived by her four sons and many grand children. Her funeral is will be held on August 31st 2018, at the Greater Grace Temple in downtown Detroit, and will be limited to her family and friends. There will, however, be a public viewing on on August 28th and 28th at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History from 9 am to 9 pm. 

Alexa And Cortana Integration

On August 15th 2018, Microsoft and Amazon began offering a software preview of that will allow the digital assistant of each platform to be access that of the other. Users in the U S will now be able to call for Alexa on a Windows 10 PC or Harmon Kardon Invoke, or ask for Cortana on Amazon Echo. Microsoft believes the new integration will allow users the flexibility of doing different tasks at home or at work from a wider range of devices.

Strange Rouge Planet Found

On August 2nd 2018, a team of scientists working at the Carl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, announced that they have discovered what they believe to be a large rogue planet. What makes the planet a rouge is that it appears to be traveling through space without a parent star. The scientists say that the object is 12 times the size of Jupiter and is right at the boundary between being a planet and a brown dwarf. 

Brown dwarfs are what scientists call  "failed stars," or stars that were never able to ignite their hydrogen, yet are too big to be a planet. The object in question, which is being called SIMP J01365663+0933473  has a very powerful magnet field that is 200 times that of Jupiter. According to the team, the object is twenty million light years from Earth, with an estimated age of 200 million years old. 

Machine Learning Helps Robotic Hands

On July 30th 2018, a group of researchers from OpenAI, announced that they have successfully used artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning to teach robotic hands to more like human hands. OpenAI is the brainchild of Tesla founder Elon Musk and Silicon Valley's Sam Altman. The idea for OpenAI, according to Mr. Musk, is to find ways to safely integrate artificial intelligence into everyday human life.

 

An Underground Martian Lake May Exist

On July 25th 2018, a team of researchers from Italy announced in the Journal Science, that they have found what they believe to an underground reservoir of water on Mars. Using the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter, which is orbit around Mars, the researchers say that the possible underground lake is near Mars' south pole, in the Planum Australe region. The Mars Express's radar revealed that the underground lake is about 12 miles wide and at least one mile deep.

While water has been detected on Mars before, this marks the first time that a sizable body of it has been detected. Water is essential for life, but the researchers are confident that this new find does not present such a possibility. One reason is because the lake is in the polar region, and the water temperature is believed to be minus 92 to minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, which is far below the freezing point of water. Another is that the water stays in liquid form due to a very high salt content. 

New Moons Of Jupiter

On July 16th 2018, a team of astronomers at Carnegie Institute for Science, announced that they have discovered twelve more moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. The discovery of the new moons brings Jupiter's total of moons to a whopping 79. Dr. Scott S. Shepard who led the team said that the new moons were first discovered in the spring of 2017. At that time the search was on for the much theorized planet nine, believed to exist somewhere in the Kuiper belt.

Nine of the newly discovered moons orbit Jupiter in an outer group that move in retrograde motion, which is in the opposite direction in which the planet rotates.These moons are believed to what remains of some larger objects that broke up over time. Two of the new moons are located in an inner group that orbit in prograde motion, or with Jupiter's rotation. They too are believed to be pieces of larger objects, or possible moons that use to orbit the planet.

The twelfth moon is considered an, "odd ball," because it orbits out where the retrograde moons orbit, but in prograde motion. This means that it will at time cross the orbit of the other new moons. Dr Shepard said, "This is an unstable situation." He also said, "Head on collisions would quickly break apart and grind the objects down to dust." The team has decided to name this moon, Valetudo after the Roman god Jupiter's granddaughter, goddess of health and hygiene.

Parker Solar Probe Is Ready To Face The Sun

On July 6th 2018, NASA announced that its Parker Solar Probe has just been fitted with a new heat shield in preparation for its rendezvous with the sun. The Parker Solar Probe's mission is to study the sun's outer layer, or corona. To do so, the space craft will fly within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, making it the first man made object to fly that close. The Parker Solar Probe's mission will last a total of seven years.

Over the course of the Parker Solar Probe's mission, the space craft will make seven gravity assisted flybys of Venus in order to get it into its closest approach of the sun. The space craft will make a total of 24 orbits. While in orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will examine the sun's plasma and magnetic fields, trace the flow of energy that heats the corona, and explore the mechanisms that transport energetic particles.

While in the sun's orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will experience temperatures approaching 1,400 degrees Celsius. For this reason a heat shield that can handle the extreme exposure is needed. The space craft's heat shield consists of two layers that weigh 160 lbs. These layers are made of carbon composite with a layer of 4.5 inch thick carbon foam tucked in between them. The side of the heat shield facing the sun has a special white coating that will reflect the sun's energy.

The expected launch date for the Parker Solar probe is August 4th, 2018.

Temperature Sensors Are Coming To Your Smartphone

On July 3rd 2018, a team of researchers announced in the Journal Nature, that they have created a new addition to the smartphone fingerprint scanner. They are calling it a, "transparent and flexible sensor array with multiplexed detection of tactile pressure and skin temperature." The new technology comes from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology's Samsung Display - UNIST Center , in south Korea.

The new sensors are transparent, so they can easily be be place underneath a smartphone's screen. Unlike other finger print scanners, this new technology is capable of detecting the skin temperature of a user. This added feature allows the device to determine if the user is an actual human or some one using some type of tool that uses artificial finger prints to gain access. This will give mobile device users another layer of security.

Google Introduces Duplex AI

On June 27th 2019, Google announced that is testing its new artificial intelligence system called Duplex. The Duplex artificial intelligence system or (AI), is designed to to make phone calls for its users. The new software has a realistic human voice. In its testing phase, Duplex is being used to make restaurant reservations. It identifies it's self as the Google Assistant calling for a client, which lets respondents know that they are talking to an automated system.

The real and natural, human sounding voice, is very smooth and is replete with the use of umms and aahs. Duplex also discloses that the phone call that it is making is being recorded, which gives respondents the opportunity to decide whether to continue with the call or not. Google is expected to start public trials of Duplex in the summer of 2018, with a small group of "trusted testers," and businesses. The system will only be checking for holiday hours for the 4th of July.

5G Is Coming

On June 14th 2018, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) announced that they had completed work on their 5G New Radio standard for its standalone specifications. In December of 2018, 3GPP completed the specifications for that frequency range or spectrum that 5G would operate within, which is 600 and 700 MHz up to 50GHz. This new portion of the standard is about new deployments of 5G that will not be built on the existing LTE infrastructure.

The goal is to deploy 5G in a wide variety of places for uses that go beyond the hand held phone. 5G is a candidate for use by the IoT or internet of things, making connected devices more readily accessible. Both ATT and T-Mobile expect to begin rolling out their new 5G services by the end of 2018

Curiosity Rover Makes Martian Discovery

On June 7th 2018, NASA announced, in the Journal Science, that its Curiosity Rover has discovered the building blocks for organic life on Mars. According to the first of two new studies, Gale Crater, Curiosity's landing site, is the home of carbon-based molecules that are persevered in the sediment of what was once a great ancient lake. The other study revealed that the methane in Mar's atmosphere changes with the change of the Martian season.

Curiosity first landed on Mars in 2012. Since then it has been exploring Gale crater. It has drilled into the Martian rock and soil and taken many samples. It is these sample that have revealed what appears to be complex molecules that resemble fossilized building blocks of what would be oil and gas, here on Earth. The other discovery made by Curiosity, was that There are trace amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere.

On Earth, 95% of the methane found in the atmosphere is produced by biological means, or life. On Mars, the amount of methane is not near that of the Earth. However, researchers have discovered the amount to be in a range in concentrations of 0.24 to 0.65 parts per billion. What researchers have found after studying the data from Curiosity, is that the methane level appears to rise in the summer and diminish in the winter.

Clearly, these findings do not yet prove the existence of life on Mars, but they do give reason for continued exploration. The discovery of complex carbon molecules and rising and falling methane levels do suggest that if Mars is no longer inhabitable, it once had life.

Microsoft Buys GitHub

On June 4th 2018, Microsoft announced that it is buying GitHub for $7.5 billion dollars. GitHub is a code repository and an open source software platform for developers. GitHub's use of open source licensing allows developers to access the code submitted by others. They can then tweak and use that code as they see fit, with the goal being to improve it. Microsoft intends to let GitHub run independently. Nat Friedman will be come GitHub's new CEO, while its current CEO Chris Wanstrath will become a technical fellow at Microsoft.

YouTube Red Becomes YouTube Music Premium

On May 22nd 2018, YouTube officially relaunched its music streaming service, which will be called YouTube Music.  In addition to music videos, YouTube Music will offer thousands of playlists, official versions of songs, albums, artists, radio, and more. The ad supported version will be free for those who use it. Those who subscribe to the new YouTube Music premium, which is ad free, will pay $9.99 a month and will offer background listening and the ability to download.

YouTube Red will become an $11.99 version of YouTube Music Premium, which will also include ad free viewing and YouTube original shows. The new service will offer a desktop music player as well as a mobile app. YouTube Music will be offered in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea first, with Canada and most European countries, including the UK and France being added at a later date.

Sony To Get 90% Of EMI

On May 21st 2018, Sony announced that it has made a deal to buy EMI Music Publishing from Mubadala Investment Company for $2.3 billion. The deal will give Sony controlling interest in EMI, with a 90% ownership of the company. Sony will add EMI's catalog of 2.1 million songs to it's own catalog 2.3 million, making it the largest music publishing company in the world. Sony's new CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida said, "We are thrilled to bring EMI Music Publishing into the Sony family and maintain our number one position in the music publishing industry." 

Nintendo To Bring Back NES Classsic

On May 13th 2018, Nintendo announced that it will be reintroducing the NES Classic on June 29th 2018.  The NES Classic first appeared in November of 2016. Though it was extremely popular it was discontinued in 2017 and was replaced by the SNES Classic. The gaming system will once again sell for $59.99 and offer 30 classic games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Bros. Nintendo also plans to again offer the SNES Classic which will sell of $80.

NASA Launches Insight On Mission To Mars

On May 5th 2018, NASA announced the successful launch of it newest robotic lander named Insight. The lift off, took place at Vandenberg Air Force base in southern California, at 4:05 am PDT. The lander will take six months to arrive at the Red Planet after a 301 million mile trek across the solar system. Once there, it is expected to land on Mars on November 26th 2018 at 3 pm EST. The lava plains of Elysium Planitia has been chosen as its lading site.

Insight's mission is to explore the interior of Mars. For that reason, the lander is not a rover, but will remain in a fixed stationary position, after it touches down. The plan is for Insight to probe to a depth of 16 ft, where it will measure the planets temperature and seismic activity. Scientists hope that the data that they receive will help them determine what type of rock Mars is made of. On board radio antennas will also be used to estimate the size of the planets core.

T-Mobile And Spirit To Merge

On April 29th 2018, Sprint and T-Mobile announced that they have agreed to a merger totaling $26.5 billion. If the deal is approved the third and fourth carrier would combine to become the nation's second largest wireless carrier, behind Verizon. The new company will be based in Bellevue, Washington, it will be called T-Mobile, and John Legere will remain its CEO. The two companies believe that by combining, they can become a force in the formative years of 5G.

Amazon Announces To Your Trunk Delivery

On April 23rd 2018, Amazon announced that it will now deliver packages to the trunk of your vehicle.The company is launching the new service in 37 cities with the cooperation of General Motors and Volvo. Amazon Prime members will be the first to sample the new service, and in order to use the new service you must own a car that is connected to the internet. The in car delivery service only works with GM's On Star and Volvo's On Call services.

Amazon's delivery drivers will use On Star or On Call to locate the prospective customer's car. Once the driver has found the car, they then use an app on their smart phone to gain entry, insert the package, and the lock the customer's car. The app only allows the delivery drive to unlock the doors and trunk, and can no be used to start the ignition. For those interested, there's no installation fee or need for a smart lock or camera.

Researchers Create Self Cleaning Coating

On April 11th 2018, researchers at the University of Michigan announced in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, that they have created a self cleaning coating that can also repel liquids. Anish Tuteja, an associate professor of material science and engineering and head of the research team are calling the new coating, "omniphobic." He says that the new coating is the first of its kind that's durable, clear, and can be applied to almost any surface.

Professor Tuteja went on to explain that in past experiments, researchers would try combining a durable substance with a repellent substance, but that would not necessarily yield a durable, repellent substance. His team, however, discovered the property or ability of two substance to mix together in just the right way, which they call, "partial miscibility." The researchers found that a combination of fluorinated polyurethane and a fluid repellent called F-Poss was the right mix.

The team believes that their new coating could eventually grime proof phone screens, counter tops, camera lenes, and many other everyday items. They have shown that their new coating can resist water, oils, alcohol, and even peanut butter. The research team is conducting further studies in order to make sure that their new coating is non toxic and is safe for use around children.

IBM Introduces World's Smallest Computer

On March 19th 2019, at the annual IBM Think Conference, researchers from IBM announced that they have created the world's smallest computer. The computer is smaller than a grain of salt and costs less than .10 cents to manufacture. It's designed to work with blockchain technology to track goods and is also able to analyze and store data. And, it has the processing power of a 1990s x86, which will be enough power to communicate with various tracking systems.

Spotify Goes Public

On April 3rd 2018, Spotify began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), and individual stocks selling for an opening price of $169 a share. Spotify is the world's largest music streaming service with 71 million paying subscribers which puts it ahead of Apple Music which has 36 million paid subscribers. Its opening per share stock price gave the company a value of $29 billion.

Spotify was launched in Sweden in 2008 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. The idea was to provide those who engaged in illegal downloading, an affordable alternative. Its free ad based streaming service was first, but was quickly followed by its paid subscription version. The company received a $100 million infusion of cash in 2011, and with that money it was able to launch its platform in the United States.

Launch Of James Webb Telescope Delayed

On march 27th 2018, NASA announced that the scheduled launch of the James Webb Space Telescope moved from its previous expected launch window of spring 2019 to May of 2020. The spacecraft has been in development for over two decades. NASA says that it needs more time to tests the telescope's intricate systems and to make repairs to its sun shield. The James Webb Space Telescope is slated to become the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Unlike Hubble, the Webb telescope will not be serviceable once it is launched. The Hubble Space Telescope orbited the Earth. The Webb telescope will go into orbit around the sun at a point that's a million miles away from Earth. Because of the very real need to get everything right before launch, it's possible that the Webb telescope may exceed its 8 billion development budget. NASA's partner on the project, the European Space Agency, says the spacecraft will be launched from French Guiana.

A New Form Of Light Has Been Created

On February 15th 2018, scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard, announced in the Journal Science, that they have created a new form of light. According to Vladan Vuletic, the Lester Wolf Professor of physics at MIT and Mikhail Lukin of Harvard, who led the research team, groups of three photons were observed interacting with each other. They say that the photons were sticking together in a way that formed a new photonic matter.

Normal beams of light are composed of photons or tiny packets of energy, but those photons don't interact, they just pass each other. A way to picture this is to imagine shining two flashlights so as to make the beams touch each other. What you will see is the two beams passing each other by. However, when the research team shined a weak laser beam through a cloud of rubidium atoms, the photons interacted by binding together in pairs and triplets.

Photons, by nature, travel at 186,000 miles per second, but the researchers observed them traveling through the cloud at 100,000 times slower than normal. As the photons interacted, the resulting pairs and triplets gave off a phase shifted energy signature. The team worried as to whether these photon groupings would be stable. However, they discovered that a three photon grouping was more stable than two.

The team also found that the bond grows stronger as more photons are added. While the idea or possible use for this discovery may lead some to envision Star Wars like light sabers, the team wants to use the attractive and repulsive interactions of the photons to one day make light crystals. They believe that such crystals could be used to in quantum communication and quantum computing.

Physicist Stephen Hawking Dies

Noted physicist and author, Stephen Hawking died Wednesday March 13th 2018, he was 76.  According to his family he died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as the result of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Hawking was best known for his work in cosmology, specifically black holes and relativity and for authoring the hugely successful science book, "A Brief History of Time." 

Dr. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, when he was 22. Progression of the motor neurone disease eventually left Dr. Hawking confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He did not however let that stop him from making significant contributions to science. When he was a graduate student at Cambridge University he and Roger Penrose of Berkbeck College of London were able to prove mathematically that black holes actually exist.

He later theorized the existence of mini proton sized black holes that he believed eventually evaporated. He then concluded that this meant that these black holes were essentially radiating away through what has become known as Hawking Radiation. A few years later, with the help of Dr, James Hartle form the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Hawking arrived at the assessment that our universe was a closed system and therefore is boundless like the Earth. 

In the late 1980's, Dr. Hawking achieved real stardom when he wrote the science book, "A Brief History of Time." His book stayed on the Sunday Times best seller list for 237 weeks which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Dr, Hawking won the Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2014 His life was made into a movie named, "The Theory of Everything," which won an Academy Award for Eddie Redmayne, the actor who portrayed him.   

China's Tiangong-1 Space Station Is Falling

China's first space station, the Tiangong-1, is expected to fall back to Earth between March 24th and April 19th 2018. The Aerospace Corporation, a non profit R and D company has been tracking the Tiangong-1. They say the 8.5 ton space craft will likely re enter somewhere, over either the northern United States, parts of South America, northern China, the Middle East, central Italy, northern Spain, New Zealand, the south of Africa, or Tasmania in Australia. 

The Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011. Its name means "Heavenly Palace," in English. It is a single module craft that is operated by the China National Space Administration. The Tiangong-1 was used for both maned and unmanned missions. It has been host to two crews of "taikonauts," which is Chinese for astronaut. The final crew of "taikonauts," left the Tiangong-1 in 2013. In 2016, China launched the Tiangong-2 spacecraft.                         

That same year, China admitted that it had lost control of the Tiangong-1. Jonathan McDowell an astrophysicist from Harvard said, that the Tiangong-1's has been speeding up and that it is now falling at a rate of 6 km a week. He believes that no one will know where it will actually fall until it reaches its final week. The Aerospace Corporation says, "When considering the worst case location... the probability that a specific person (ie, you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about a million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot."

Scientists Discover Evidence Of The Earliest Stars

On February 28th 2018, scientists announced in the Journal Nature that a faint radio signal from deep in the universe has revealed evidence that the first stars were born 180 million years after the big bang. The discovery was made by researchers at the University of Arizona, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Science Foundation, using a radio telescope in the Australian outback.

The first stars were formed from primordial hydrogen and helium. The researchers formulated a theory that this early star formation might have caused a slight dip in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. According to their theory this dip in the light left over from the big bang should be detectable. The team designed and built a kitchen table sized antennae which they called Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signatures or EDGES,


They took their antennae to the Murchison Radio-astronomy (MRO) in western Australia. The radio quiet facility allowed the team to use EDGES to scan frequencies that overlapped the FM band. EDGES was eventually able to spot the dip in the CMB at about 78 megahertz, which turned out to be twice the intensity that the researchers had expected. They further theorized that this could be due to the early hydrogen being cooled down by the presence of dark matter.

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Mayan City

On February 1st 2018, archaeologists in Guatemala announced that they have discovered the ruins of a previously undetected Mayan city. Their findings have yielded evidence of at least 60,000 unknown structures. Their discovery is being hailed as a, "major breakthrough," in Mayan archaeology, that reveals the pre-Colombian civilization as a more connected and complex society than most Mayan scholars had believed.   

The discovery was made possible through the use of Light Detection and Ranging or LiDAR. The archaeologists made aerial surveys of over 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. The LiDAR system fires as many as 150,000 pulses of light a second when it scans a surface. Repeated scans gave the researchers the ability to create a topographical map of the region.

From the data that was retrieved, the archaeologists were able to determine that the region supported a civilization that was equal to that of the ancient Greeks or the Chinese. Francisco Estrada-Belli, an archaeologist from Tulane University said, the area was more densely populated than previously believed. He said, "It's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there." 

Successful Launch Of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy

On February 6th 2018, SpaceX successfully launched it Falcon Heavy rocket into space. The rocket lifted off at 3:49 pm eastern time from launch complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Florida. With its launch, the Falcon Heavy became the most powerful rocket since the Saturn 5, which was used to lift the Apollo missions to the moon. It also made SpaceX the first private company to launch a vehicle of the Falcon Heavy's size and payload capacity.

The Falcon Heavy stands 23 stories tall. It uses three boosters that are based on Falcon 9 rockets that have 27 Merlin engines. These boosters can produce a combined 5 million pounds of thrust at lift off. The Falcon Heavy has a low Earth payload capacity of 140,700 pounds. It is also capable of  carrying 58,900 pounds to geostationary orbit, or it can carry 37,000 to Mars. The latter is the stated objective of Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX.

On Its maiden flight, Mr Musk decided to send a red Telsa Roadster as its demonstration payload. The car was eventually placed into an orbit that will eventually take it into the asteroid belt. Meanwhile, the two main rocket boosters both returned to Earth for a synchronized landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Dennis Edwards Dies

Former lead singer of the Temptations, Dennis Edwards died on February 1st 2018. He was 74. He died in Chicago from complications from meningitis. Mr Edwards joined the Temptations in 1968, replacing David Ruffin who had left the group for a solo career. He will be best remembered for his performances on the Temptations' hits, "I Can't Get Next To You," "Ball Of Confusion," and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

Mr Edwards was born in Fairfield Alabama 1943, but grew up in Detroit, where he sang in various gospel groups. He turned professional after attending the Detroit Conservatory of Music. In the early sixties he became a member of the Contours, who were best known for the hit, "Do You Love Me?" After joining the Temptations, he remained a member from 1968 to 1977, when he left the group to embark on a solo career.

Mr Edwards had a solo R&B hit with the song, "Don't Look Any Further," in 1984. He rejoined the Temptations several times through out the eighties. Mr. Edwards and the Temptations were inducted into the Rock Hall Of fame in 1989. Mr. Edwards is survived by his wife Barbara, five daughters, a son, and several grandchildren

The Earth Is Due For A Geomagnetic Pole Reversal

On January 26th 2018, Undark.org posted an excerpt from a book written by science journalist Alanna Mitchell, that make the case for a shift of the Earth's magnetic poles. She says that the magnetic poles shift or flip once every 200,000 to 300,000 years, and that we are over due as one hasn't happen for nearly 780,000 years. The Earth's magnetic field protects our planet from harmful solar and cosmic radiation by deflecting high energy particle off into space.

According to Ms. Mitchell readings from the European Space Agency's SWARM satellite system, which were launched in 2013, coupled with data from Germany's CHAMP satellite were used by researchers to take measurements of the Earth's crustal magnetization. Their findings help them to discover that the Earth's magnet field is in a permanent state of flux. They also learned that the earth's magnetic field tried to shift but failed about 40,000 years ago.

If a pole shift were to occur in the not to distant future, it could be very bad for life on Earth. Scientists haven't been able to determine when a pole reversal would take place. They do however, believe that pole shifts happen slowly and could possibly take anywhere from a couple of months to thousands of years. During a pole shift, our planet would be left unprotected and the ozone layer depleted. High energy particles and ultra violet rays would not only damage our electrical systems but could also cause man to go the way of the Dinosaurs.

The Chinese Produce First Cloned Monkeys

On January 24th 2018, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, China, announced in the journal, Cell, that they have successfully cloned two Macaque monkeys. The monkeys represent the first time that a primate has been successfully cloned. They were born eight weeks and six weeks ago through the use of the same process that was used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. The monkeys names are Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.

The scientists involved in the cloning used the DNA from a single fetal tissue cell which was then inserted into an egg that had its DNA removed. The DNA and Egg were then fused together using chemicals. Then, a small amount of electricity was used to get the dividing process to begin, which was continued until an embryo was formed. A surrogate mother of the same species was then chosen to carry the embryo to term.

A total of 181 embryos were created, with 79 of the embryos yielding pregnancies. Only Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were born. The researchers are aware of the concerns over the application being used for human cloning, and say that they only intent to clone monkeys to use in biomedical research. 

NASA Develops Space Navigation System

On January 11th 2018, NASA announced that it has successfully tested an autonomous x-ray navigation system. The system is called Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer or NICER, and it is an orbital observatory that is currently attached to the exterior of the International Space Station. NICER monitors the clock work like pulses that are emitted by rapidly rotating neutron stars know as pulsars.

NICER works on a principle similar to the Global Positioning System, or (GPS) that uses atomic clocks mounted on satellites that orbit the Earth. It, however, as an x-ray telescope, uses x-rays to probe the nature of ultra dense matter. In November of 2017, a research team used pulsars that rotate thousands of times a second (millisecond pulsars), to determine the location of an object that was traveling at thousands of miles an hour through space.

NASA believes that the development of the NICER technology will make the navigation of automated deep space missions much more accurate. Current deep space missions rely on what's know as the Deep Space Network or DNS, which is a global system of radio antennas.

Fast Radio Burst Mystery

On January 10th 2018, researchers from the American Astronomical Society published a paper in the journal Nature describing what they believe is the cause of a fast radio burst transmission emanating from extra galactic space. Fast radio bursts are short duration surges of radio waves that have intrigued scientists since 2007. The signal in question has been named FBR 121102 and was first discovered in 2012. 

Scientists have observed that FBR's happen as a fraction of a millisecond, single play, one time occurrence. What makes the discovery of FBR 121102 unique is that it is the first FBR that is known to repeat. They have also observed that FBR 121202's wave pattern is twisted. This could mean that this FBR may be passing through some highly magnetically charged source before it arrives here on Earth.

In August 2017, the researchers noticed that the repeating signal had become hyperactive. At that point in time they began using the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and Green Bank telescope in West Virginia to take a better look at FBR 121102. At first they thought the FBR's signal pattern might be twisted because  the radio waves are passing though a neutron star. But after receiving 16 bursts in a 10 hour period, that were so extremely distorted by a powerful magnetic field, they concluded that they had to have passed through a black hole.

While the researchers search for an answer that will solve the mystery, the possibility of alien contact has been ruled out.

Scientist Discover A New Group Of Native Americans

On January 3rd 2018, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Copenhagen announced that their DNA analysis of the 11,500 year old remains of a Native American child, has revealed evidence of a previously unknown early population of humans believed to be the first to settle in the Americas. The child was a baby girl whose genome is the oldest and now the most complete genetic profile of a human in the new world.

The cremated remains of a six week old was discovered in an archeological site in central Alaska called Upward Sun River in 2010. Two other infants were actually found, one the body of a still born and the other a 3 year old. DNA was extracted from one of the bones in 2013. The genes were then compared to the DNA of other ancient and modern people and a family tree was created. The researchers discovered that this group of Native Americans diverged from their Asian ancestors 25,000 years ago.

This new group of Native Americans is being called the Ancient Beringians. They predate other native groups that appeared in the region around 17,000 and 14,000 year ago. Most Native Americans are believed to have originated in Siberia. The researchers are as yet unable to determine if the Ancient Beringians genome split in Siberia or after they arrived on this continent.